Yahoo Sports AM is our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it every weekday morning.
🚨 Headlines
🏀 Mavs fire Nico: The Mavericks pulled the plug on Nico Harrison’s tenure in Dallas, firing their general manager less than a year after his baffling decision to trade away Luka Dončić. It doesn’t help that they’ve begun this season an abysmal 3-8.
⚾️ MLB Awards: A’s first baseman Nick Kurtz was the unanimous AL ROY, while Braves catcher Drake Baldwin won NL ROY with 21 of 30 first-place votes. As for the Managers of the Year, Stephen Vogt (Guardians) and Pat Murphy (Brewers) both won for the second straight season.
🏀 New ASG format: This year’s NBA All-Star Game will feature three teams, two made up of players from the U.S. and a third with international players. They’ll play a round-robin tournament with 12-minute games, then the top two teams will advance to the championship game.
🏈 Kelly sues LSU: Brian Kelly is suing LSU in hopes of receiving his full $54 million buyout. He claims the school is now attempting to fire him “for cause” to avoid having to make the payment.
⚾️ Back in the Bay: Bruce Bochy, who led the Giants to three World Series as manager (2010, 2012, 2014), is returning to the organization as a special advisor. The future Hall of Famer spent the last three years managing the Rangers.
🏀 The best freshman class in years
Freshmen are off to a red-hot start this college basketball season, chipping away at the widely held notion that high school recruiting is no longer as important as it once was and that proven 22- and 23-year-old transfers are the key to winning.
The Big Five: Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, Duke forward Cameron Boozer and BYU wing AJ Dybantsa have lived up to their preseason hype, while UNC forward Caleb Wilson and Arizona forward Koa Peat have joined them at the top of most mock drafts after making instant impacts.
Other standouts include:
-
Mikel Brown Jr. spearheaded Louisville’s upset win over Kentucky on Tuesday, finishing with 29 points and five assists while committing just one turnover.
-
Stanford guard Ebuka Okorie is averaging the second-most points in the nation (27.5) and looks like one of the steals of the 2025 recruiting class.
-
Virginia Tech’s Neoklis Avdalas, a 6-foot-9 guard from Greece, went off for 33-6-5 in an overtime win over Providence. Watch these highlights!
-
Tennessee’s Nate Ament, a 6-foot-10 shot maker, is averaging 20.5 points and 8.5 rebounds.
-
Arkansas has a pair of freshman guards (Darius Acuff Jr. and Meleek Thomas) who have combined for 113 points in three games.
-
Washington forward Hannes Steinbach has been as dominant for the Huskies as he was for Germany’s U-19 World Cup team this past summer.
From Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Eisenberg:
The torrid start from this year’s freshman class comes at a time when the get-old, stay-old ethos has become popular across college basketball … the thinking being that transfers might not have the same long-term NBA potential as elite freshmen but they possess the physical maturity and guile to win right away.
Will the success of this year’s freshmen alter that thought process? Perhaps, but it’s important to remember this is an exceptional class. Coaches are always going to try to figure out where they can get the most value for their NIL money. This year, it might be the freshman class. Next year, it might not be.
🏈 CFP rankings
The top five teams stayed the same in the second set of College Football Playoff rankings as Ohio State, Indiana, Texas A&M, Alabama and Georgia kept their places.
Fun fact: Seven of the 12 projected playoff teams hail from just three states.
-
Texas (3): No. 3 Texas A&M remained in first-round bye position, Texas Tech moved up to No. 6 after a statement win over BYU and Texas jumped to No. 10.
-
Florida (2): No. 15 Miami reclaimed its spot as the top ACC team, while No. 24 South Florida became the first Group of 5 team to make the CFP Top 25 this year.
-
Indiana (2): No. 2 Indiana is on pace for a second consecutive playoff berth, as is No. 9 Notre Dame, which moved up a spot after demolishing Navy.
Games of the week: No. 5 Georgia hosts No. 10 Texas this weekend, and No. 4 Alabama hosts No. 11 Oklahoma.
🏀 NBA power rankings
Believe it or not, we have reached the eighth-way point (the one-eighth point?) of the NBA season. Where does your team fall in our power rankings?
📊 By the numbers
🏒 8 new members
The Hockey Hall of Fame welcomed eight new members on Monday night in Toronto, bringing the total membership to 445. The Class of 2025 featured six players (Jennifer Botterill, Zdeno Chára, Brianna Decker, Duncan Keith, Alexander Mogilny, Joe Thornton) and two “builders” (Jack Parker, Danièle Sauvageau).
Looking ahead: Candidates for the Class of 2026 include Patrice Bergeron, Phil Kessel, Rod Brind’Amour, Patrick Marleau and Meghan Duggan.
🏈 40+ TDs
Jahmyr Gibbs joined an elite group over the weekend, becoming just the fifth player in NFL history to score at least 40 scrimmage touchdowns before age 24. The other four? Hall of Famers Barry Sanders (47), Randy Moss (43), Emmitt Smith (43) and Jim Brown (42). Gibbs (41) could top that list by season’s end with eight games left.
⚽️ 143 goals
Cristiano Ronaldo says the upcoming 2026 World Cup will “definitely” be his last. The 41-year-old is the all-time leading scorer in men’s international soccer, having scored 143 goals for Portugal in his career.
⚾️ 1.000+ OPS
Newly-minted unanimous AL Rookie of the Year Nick Kurtz had a 1.002 OPS this past season, making him the eighth rookie since 1901 to post a 1.000+ OPS (min. 400 PA). The other seven: Aaron Judge (2017), Ryan Braun (2007), Albert Pujols (2001), Bernie Carbo (1970), Ted Williams (1939), Rudy York (1937) and George Watkins (1930).
🏀 42,000 shots
If practice makes perfect, then Celtics center Luka Garza must be getting close. Last year, when he was playing just 5.6 minutes per game for the Timberwolves, the big man took over 42,000 shots at practices and shootarounds, according to Noah Basketball, a data service that tracks such things. That’s about 12,000 more shots than anyone else in the league.
Good read: Luka Garza (and his father) have been working towards this moment forever (Noa Dalzell, Celtics Blog)
📺 Watchlist: Wednesday, Nov. 12
🏀 NBA on ESPN
The second-place Knicks host the Magic (7pm ET) as they seek their sixth straight win, then the first-place Thunder host the Lakers (9:30pm) in a battle of Western Conference powers.
Dynamic duo: Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves are the first teammates in NBA history to each have 200+ points and 50+ assists through their first seven games of a season.
🏒 NHL on TNT
The Lightning host the Rangers in the early game (7pm), then it’s Connor Bedard and the surging Blackhawks against Jack Hughes and the first-place Devils in the nightcap (9:30pm).
Bedard’s breakout: The 20-year-old, picked first overall in 2023, had 61 points as a rookie and 67 as a sophomore. This season? He already has 25 points through 16 games, which ranks fourth in the league and puts him on pace for 128.
More to watch:
-
🏈 NCAAF: Buffalo at Central Michigan (7pm, CBSSN); Northern Illinois at UMass (7pm, ESPNU); Toledo at Miami-Ohio (7pm, ESPN2) … With Sam Houston’s win over the weekend, UMass (0-9) is the only winless FBS team.
-
🎾 Tennis: ATP Finals (8am, Tennis) … The group stage continues in Turin with Ben Shelton vs. Félix Auger-Aliassime (8am) and Jannik Sinner vs. Alexander Zverev (2:30pm).
-
⚽️ Women’s Champions League: Bayern vs. Arsenal (12:45pm, CBSSN); Man United vs. PSG (3pm, Paramount+) … Two of five games to close out Matchday 3.
🏈 NFL trivia
The Patriots, who will look to improve to 9-2 tomorrow night against the Jets, are one of six NFL teams with only two losses.
Question: Can you name the other five?
Hint: Three NFC, two AFC.
Answer at the bottom.
📸 Photo finish
A blur of brilliance.
Trivia answer: Colts (8-2), Broncos (8-2), Eagles (7-2), Seahawks (7-2), Rams (7-2)
We hope you enjoyed this edition of Yahoo Sports AM, our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.
