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This is an article version of the CBS Sports HQ AM Newsletter, the ultimate guide to every day in sports. You can sign up to get it in your inbox every weekday morning here.
🏀 Good morning to all, but especially to …
STEPHEN CURRY
Stephen Curry still has some magic up his sleeve, unfortunately for the, uh, Magic. Curry carried the Golden State Warriors to a 121-115 win over the Orlando Magic with a 56-point performance.
The rest of the Warriors didn’t have their best game, and they were down by 14 points at halftime. That deficit would’ve been worse if Curry hadn’t drained a three-quarter court shot as the buzzer sounded at the end of the second quarter.
At halftime, Curry went into the phone booth and threw on his cape. Curry’s 21 first-half points were impressive, but he came out and single-handedly outscored the Magic in the third quarter, 22-21. Down the stretch, Curry knocked down some clutch 3-pointers, and he ended the night with 12.
This was the third time in Curry’s career that he knocked down 12 3-point shots, which ties him with former Warriors teammate Klay Thompson for the most all-time. It was also the 14th time that Curry has scored at least 50 points.
As Brad Botkin explains, the Warriors needed every ounce of Curry’s superhuman effort because he wasn’t getting much help from anyone else.
- Botkin: “And in this one, Golden State needed every one of Curry’s buckets. Jimmy Butler was a no-show with five points on seven shots. Quentin Post was sensational with 18 points and was a big part of Golden State’s run to start the third quarter, but other than that nobody scored more than Draymond Green’s 12 and Moses Moody’s 10.”
Think Curry’s night couldn’t get more unbelievable? This eruption came on the nine-year anniversary of one of Curry’s most memorable shots when he buried a 3-pointer from the next zip code to finish the Oklahoma City Thunder in overtime.
In laying out her home stretch goals for each Western Conference team, Jasmyn Wimbish noted the Warriors should try to keep flying under the radar. That might prove more difficult now.
👍 Honorable mentions
🍀 And not such a good morning for …
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THE NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH
The hits just keep coming for the third-ranked women’s basketball team in the country. Notre Dame dropped its second consecutive game after fumbling a double-digit lead in an 86-81 loss to No. 23 Florida State.
The Fighting Irish came out firing on all cylinders, and when they jumped out to a 15-point lead in the second quarter, it looked like a blowout might be on the way. Then the game started to slip away from Notre Dame as Florida State took control.
That 15-point lead had evaporated into a four-point deficit by halftime, and the Seminoles held a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter. To their credit, the Irish did go on a 9-0 run to make things interesting again, but their comeback fell short.
Perhaps the biggest reason for the wild shift in momentum was the play of Florida State star Ta’Niya Latson. As Jack Maloney points out, Notre Dame held Latson in check early, but she played her best basketball down the stretch.
- Maloney: “Latson, who is leading the country in scoring at 26.2 points per game, got off to a brutal start on Thursday, but came up clutch down the stretch. She scored 13 of the final 15 points for the Seminoles by slicing to the basket time and again against the Fighting Irish’s helpless defenders, and finished with 23 points, five rebounds and nine assists.”
This loss also deals a sizable blow to Notre Dame’s ACC title hopes. The Irish and NC State are tied at 15-2, but the Wolfpack own the tiebreaker and can seal the regular season championship with a win over SMU on Sunday.
👎 Not so honorable mentions
🏋 Athletic big men shine at NFL Combine
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The big men along the defensive line, along with the linebackers, kicked off the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine, and some of them really seized that opportunity.
Don’t let all the beef fool you. These guys have some real twitch and explosiveness to their game. There was perhaps no better example of that than Texas A&M pass-rusher Shemar Stewart, who put himself in the same category as Myles Garrett.
What does Stewart, who totaled 4.5 sacks in three college seasons, have in common with one of the NFL’s best pass-rushers? Aside from the fact that they are both Aggies, Stewart and Garrett are two of just four defensive linemen in combine history to weigh over 260 pounds and hit at least 40 inches in the vertical jump.
Stewart’s athleticism is off the charts, and it may convince a team to overlook his underwhelming production at the college level, as Cody Benjamin and Garrett Podell explain.
- Benjamin: “According to Relative Athletic Score, which is a site that grades out NFL prospects’ combine performances relative to other players at their respective position, both past and present, graded Stewart as 9.99 overall with 10 being the highest possible score. That ranks as the third-highest relative athletic score among 1,802 edge rusher prospects since 1987.”
While Stewart may have helped his stock the most, there were plenty of other standout performers. Josh Edwards graded the top DL prospects, and Oregon defensive lineman Derrick Harmon took home a sparkling report card.
- Derrick Harmon, Oregon: A
- Tyleik Williams, Ohio State: A-
- Omar Norman-Lott, Tennessee: B+
Not everyone was so fortunate. There were a handful of prospects who left NFL front offices with some questions after the first day in Indy. Iowa LB Jack Sawyer landed on Chris Trapasso’s list of losers after some poor measurements.
CBS Sports will have you covered with live updates from Indianapolis all weekend, and there has been plenty of news already. Travis Hunter, an elite two-way prospect, took his first team meeting as a wide receiver.
Abdul Carter, the highest-graded defensive end in the draft, didn’t participate due to a foot injury. Despite that, Carter was the first player off the board in Josh Edwards’ new mock draft.
🏀 Updated men’s collegiate power rankings heading into March
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If you close your eyes, you can almost hear the sound of workers clicking off of the NCAA Tournament live stream and into a spreadsheet as they pretend to work during March Madness. That’s how close we are to March, and a new round of college basketball power rankings is hot off the presses.
They say you want to play your best basketball going into March, and that is certainly the case for a few teams that made the jump into the top 10. Tennessee (No. 7), Louisville (No. 8) and Maryland (No. 9) all jumped up six spots thanks to some key wins in recent weeks.
Maryland lost its latest game in heartbreaking fashion, but Kyle Boone didn’t hold that against them. Instead, the Terrapins’ buzzer-beater loss to Michigan State showed they have what it takes to hang with the best.
- Boone: “The Terps move up this week after not only acquitting themselves well vs. an elite opponent but also for its run the last few weeks that includes wins over Illinois and Nebraska on the road and Wisconsin, Iowa and USC at home.”
Of course, when a few teams climb a half-dozen spots, that means a few more are heading in the wrong direction. Here are some of this week’s biggest fallers.
- Michigan (-5)
- Wisconsin (-4)
- Alabama (-3)
Indiana was not included in this week’s college basketball power rankings, but keep an eye on the Hoosiers down the stretch. They’re on the NCAA Tournament bubble and looking to make some magic happen before coach Mike Woodson exits at the end of the season.
As always, keep it locked on Jerry Palm’s Bracketology as things really heat up over the next couple weeks.
📺 What we’re watching this weekend
Friday
⛳ Cognizant Classic: Round 2, 3 p.m. on Golf Channel
🏀 Unrivaled, 7:15 p.m. on TNT
🏀 Cavaliers at Celtics, 7:30 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 UCLA at No. 20 Purdue (M), 8 p.m. on Fox
🏀 Clippers at Lakers, 9 p.m. on ESPN
Saturday
🏀 No. 1 Auburn at No. 17 Kentucky (M), 1 p.m. on ABC
🏒 Bruins at Penguins, 3 p.m. on ABC
⛳ Cognizant Classic: Round 3, 3 p.m. on NBC
🏀 No. 6 Alabama at No. 5 Tennessee (M), 4 p.m. on ESPN
🏒 Red Wings at Blue Jackets, 6 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 Unrivaled, 6 p.m. on truTV
🏀 Warriors at 76ers, 8:30 p.m. on ABC
🏀 No. 22 Arizona at No. 9 Iowa State (M), 9 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 No. 4 USC vs. No. 2 UCLA (W), 9 p.m. on Fox
Sunday
🏀 No. 25 Louisville at No. 3 Notre Dame (W), 12 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 Nuggets at Celtics, 1 p.m. on ABC
🏒 Maple Leafs at Penguins, 1 p.m. on TNT
🏀 No. 11 Wisconsin at No. 8 Michigan State (M), 1:30 p.m. on CBS
🏀 No. 15 Kentucky at No. 6 South Carolina, 2 p.m. on ESPN
⛳ Cognizant Classic: Round 4, 3 p.m. on NBC
🏒 Bruins at Wild, 3:30 p.m. on TNT
🏀 No. 12 Ohio State at No. 19 Maryland, 4:30 p.m. on Fox
🏒 Blues at Stars, 6 p.m. on TNT
🏀 Thunder at Spurs, 7 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 Timberwolves at Suns, 9:30 p.m. on ESPN
