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Once UNC's driving force, Marcus Paige has helped fuel a Final Four run by...
HOUSTON—After 4,502 minutes spent playing college basketball to date, Marcus Paige has reached his first Final Four. He is new to this, if little else in the sport, so North Carolina's senior guard...
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Could both Clemson and Florida State make the playoff? Sure, but that we're...
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — We can begin the theorizing about both Clemson and Florida State making the College Football Playoff with a concession: Both Clemson and Florida State probably won't make the College...
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Unproven but talented, Notre Dame's youthful defense could propel—or...
CULVER, Ind. — There's a plot of dirt for equestrian practice on one side of the Culver Academies football fields and the vast Lake Maxinkuckee on the other. But, for the moment, a pile of straw in...
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After missing last season with a neck injury, Clemson star WR Mike Williams...
CLEMSON, S.C. — There are many bad things that can happen after you run full-speed into a goalpost. In the Clemson football offices one summer afternoon, Mike Williams recounts them: There is a bolt...
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'A fight can mean so many different things': Cancer, like many would-be...
This story appeared in the Aug. 22, 2016, issue of Sports Illustrated . Read the rest of the issue and subscribe to the magazine here . The desktop in the football office has disappeared beneath a...
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All The Way Up: How Michigan State junior defensive lineman Malik McDowell is...
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Malik McDowell knew two things when he visited the Mayo Clinic in late June. He knew his Vitamin D level had been low. He knew that, according to Michigan State training staff,...
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It's Your Job to Keep Your Job: How Clemson created the nation's finest...
CLEMSON, S.C. —Christian Wilkins is an excitable man, and because he is also an athletic 6' 4", 310-pound man, he has special ways to express his feelings. Sometimes he sprints onto the field after...
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Better than Zeus: Driven by dad's success and failure, life and death,...
NORMAN, Okla. — In mid-August, during a break between toilsome two-a-day practices, Oklahoma players gathered in the team room for a speech on schoolwork. There are more exciting topics to command the...
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Serenity Now: Kevin Sumlin has Texas A&M off on the right foot, but can he...
COLLEGE STATION, Texas—It is a broiling Monday in September, and Kevin Sumlin occupies the ideal spot, away from the heat for now: In an air-conditioned office, Texas A&M's head coach sits alone...
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Restock and Reinforce: Michigan State is building a playoff contender in what...
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — As midnight came and went and Michigan State's players trundled to buses idling just north of Notre Dame Stadium, their 36–29 victory was being celebrated in very Michigan State...
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Seizing the moment: His breakout derailed in 2015, Wisconsin RB Corey Clement...
MADISON, Wis. — They say Daytona Beach is chill. Five months after a spring break trip there, Corey Clement laments that whoever they are got it astoundingly wrong. Most days it was calm until about...
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The smartest guy on the field: Central Michigan's Cooper Rush has brains to...
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. — The lights are on in Conference Room B at Central Michigan's indoor football complex, though only one seat is occupied. Cooper Rush is alone before the projection screen, front...
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Do the simple things better: USC's Clay Helton preaches incremental...
LOS ANGELES — Just outside the USC football practice fields, the sound of ice cubes and water meeting asphalt interrupts the early evening quiet. Inside, on the turf, Adoree' Jackson observes through...
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Fundamental breakdown: Stanford's glaring struggles most acute at position...
PALO ALTO, Calif. — The appearance of Tucky, the team golden retriever, with a ball in his mouth brings a smile to David Bright's face. It is a welcome afternoon pick-me-up for Stanford's senior...
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Super-sized: With personalities, athleticism as abundant as their frames,...
It is an enduring rule of preseason camp, one followed dutifully by the members of Washington's defensive line: If you see a ride, take the ride. There is no reason to walk the 200 yards between the...
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The keystone: Forged on fundamentals and fitness, Kendall Joseph revels in...
CLEMSON, S.C. — Kendall Joseph is a starting inside linebacker for Clemson, the curiously unacclaimed leading tackler for a team that remains in the chase for a second straight College Football...
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Monté Morris hopes to use Iowa State's NCAA tournament run to further help...
CHICAGO — Normally, nothing is too good for Ty the dog, because Monté Morris loves his 13-year-old Yorkshire terrier without limits. Monté, an only child, calls Ty his little brother. He schedules...
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Shootaround: Billy Kennedy's plan to turn Texas A&M into a perennial SEC...
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — On Wednesday morning, Billy Kennedy looked out his window and everything was beautiful again. It was a sunny, 70-degree day in southeast Texas, and Texas A&M's basketball...
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'I want to break all the records I can': Myles Garrett on Texas A&M's...
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — For a fleeting moment, Myles Garrett does not seem so terrifying. Yes, Texas A&M's 6' 5", 262-pound rising junior defensive end fills the door to the team meeting room....
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On Gard: Interim Wisconsin coach Greg Gard has Badgers back on track toward...
MADISON, Wis. — "I know it's a red folder," Greg Gard says, as he roots around a blast zone of papers near his desk, as well as on the floor behind it. In the office of the interim Wisconsin...
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Shootaround: Wichita State senior stars Ron Baker, Fred VanVleet ready for...
CHICAGO — On what was maybe the last night he'd play college basketball in his home state, Fred VanVleet's slow walk to the Wichita State locker room was interrupted by a man holding a two-foot-long...
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Jay Wright and Villanova believe they've found the perfect balance for a deep...
As he walked down a hallway in Milwaukee's Bradley Center late Saturday afternoon following an 89–79 win over Marquette, Jay Wright encountered a tall kid with a smiling face, coming from the opposite...
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Shootaround: After second Big Ten Title in four years, Tom Crean focusing on...
The day after Indiana won at Iowa to clinch an outright Big Ten title, Tom Crean was recruiting in Ohio. This was more a convenience than a deliberate attempt to capitalize on a big moment: The...
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Chalk it up: In an era of constant change, Bill Self has created a consistent...
LAWRENCE, Kan. — The sign for Salty Iguana, a Tex-Mex spot on the west side of town, is unsubtle. It is a lizard, wearing a sombrero and a serape, lounging in the giant margarita glass from which it...
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After near miss in 2015, Danuel House and Texas A&M ready for long-awaited...
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Danuel House was not serious about basketball until he was in 10 th grade, and as a result, he does not have many meaningful NCAA tournament memories. He says he devoted more...
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Sooners senior Ryan Spangler relishing in final opportunities to play at home...
NORMAN, Okla. — Ryan Spangler is the cool uncle. He is proudly the favorite of seven-year-old Evie Shae Spangler, who joined the world when he was a junior at Bridge Creek (Okla.) High and had an...
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Kansas finds its missing link in forward Landen Lucas, who has waited...
Landen Lucas moved back to Japan in sixth grade, settling in to Fukui, a coastal town of about 267,000 inhabitants. This required some adjusting. He had lived in the country until he was three, while...
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The quarterback who saved USC: Heaped with mountainous expectations, Sam...
The Thursday, Oct. 27 game between USC and Cal afforded Trojans quarterback Sam Darnold a chance to return to Capistrano Beach for the weekend and reconnect with those who would not reflexively revere...
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Better luck next year? Which of 2016's biggest flops will rebound in 2017 and...
A two-win team beat a two-win team last weekend, and New Year's Eve broke out. "You'd have thought we'd won the championship in that locker room," Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio said after his...
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Notre Dame's Brian Kelly survived controversy by winning. Can he survive...
At Notre Dame, it's exceptionally important to be considered different. Maybe nowhere else in the country is appearance so vital to the identity of a place: It fancies itself the high-minded sanctuary...
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