Yahoo Sports AM: The AP poll, four months later…

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🚨 Headlines

🏀 Historic comeback: Entering Monday, NBA teams had lost 1,552 straight games when trailing by 24+ points in the fourth quarter. The Timberwolves didn’t get the memo, coming back from 24 down to stun the Thunder in OT.

🇺🇸 Eagles eye White House trip: In 2018, President Donald Trump rescinded the Eagles’ invitation to the White House after some players refused to attend. Seven years later, the Eagles say they’d be “honored to visit” and “look forward to receiving the invitation.”

🏀 Hook ’em: Texas is No. 1 in the AP women’s basketball poll for the first time in 21 years. The Longhorns are the fourth team to hold the top spot this season (South Carolina, UCLA, Notre Dame), tied for the most ever in a season.

🏈 “Tush Push” ban? The Packers have reportedly submitted a proposal to have the NFL change its rules regarding the “Tush Push,” which the Eagles have run to extreme success. Green Bay, notably, lost to Philly in this year’s playoffs.

🏀 19 dimes: Nikola Jokić had 19 assists in Monday’s win over the Pacers, joining Wilt Chamberlain as the only centers to reach that mark. The three-time MVP is averaging 10.2 assists per game this season, which ranks second in the NBA.

🏀 Top 10 shakeup: Preseason vs. now

On October 14, the Associated Press released its preseason men’s college basketball poll. Four months later, half the top 10 teams in that initial poll aren’t even ranked. This is not normal.

Crashing out:

• Kansas: For the second straight year, the Jayhawks were the preseason No. 1 team. And for the second straight year, they’ve failed to live up to that hype. This year is worse, with KU falling out of the rankings for just the second time since 2009.

• UConn: The two-time defending champs went from preseason No. 3 to “is this team even good?” rather quickly. They’ve already lost more games (9) than all of last season (3) and the season before (8), and their three-peat odds are currently 50-to-1.

• Gonzaga: The Zags were once No. 6 in the nation. They are now No. 3 in their own conference. That’s foreign territory for Mark Few, who has only ever finished first (22 times) or second (3 times) in the WCC since taking the reins in 1999.

• Baylor: You can’t fault media members for thinking highly of the Bears, who have been consistently great under Scott Drew and possess plenty of talent. But this just hasn’t been their year. The latest lowlight? An ugly loss to Big 12 doormat Colorado.

• North Carolina: The Tar Heels went from preseason No. 9 to “First Four Out” in the latest NCAA tournament projection, which feels overly optimistic if you ask me. A year after compiling 10 Quad 1 wins,* Hubert Davis’ team has… one (vs. UCLA).

The other side: While five preseason Top 10 teams are now ranked, three preseason unranked teams are now in the Top 10.

• No. 7 St. John’s: Rick Pitino’s renaissance in Queens is one of the best stories in sports. The Red Storm’s top five scorers are all transfers, and they’ve delivered the school’s highest ranking in 33 years.

• No. 8 Michigan State: The Spartans were picked to finish fifth in the Big Ten. Instead, they’ve lost just five games and are currently on pace to win the conference. Whoops!

• No. 10 Texas Tech: The Red Raiders didn’t crack the Top 25 until January 27. Five days later, they upset Houston and it’s been a fairly steady rise ever since (though the Cougars did get revenge on Monday).

My take: The preseason poll has always been a crapshoot, so I don’t want to read too much into this. That said, the transfer portal has clearly made it even more difficult to judge teams before they take the court. Results from the previous season mean little when programs add new veterans each offseason, and parity is at an all-time high thanks to talent being more evenly distributed throughout the country.

🎥 Watch: AP poll movement, week-to-week

*Quadrants, explained: A Quad 1 win is a home win against a team ranked in the top 30 of the NET rankings, a neutral-site win against a NET top-50 team, or a road win against a NET top-75 team.

⚾️ When college teams play the pros

Have you ever wondered how college baseball teams would fare against pros? Unsurprisingly, the answer is not very well.

48-0: The Red Sox beat Northeastern University on Friday to improve to 38-0 this century — and 48-0 all-time — against their local “rivals” at Northeastern and Boston College. There have been some close calls, though.

Zoom out: The Sox aren’t the only MLB club that schedules college teams in spring training. And even though these games don’t mean anything and don’t feature many big league regulars, wins have been exceedingly rare for the college squads.

• MLB teams went 63-4 in exhibitions against college teams between 2009-18, per FanGraphs, winning by an average score of 8.8-1.9.

• All four losses came at the hands of Florida schools: Miami beat the Marlins (2011), the University of Tampa beat the Phillies (2015), and the State College of Florida beat the Pirates (2009) and Orioles (2012). Don’t let the Manatees get hot!

Turning the tables: The most notable example of college kids beating the pros is, of course, the Miracle on Ice. But perhaps the second-most notable came in 1992, when a “Select Team” of college basketball stars took down the Dream Team in a scrimmage ahead of the Barcelona Olympics. That game is the subject of HBO’s aptly titled new documentary, “We Beat the Dream Team,” streaming now on Max.

*Fun fact: The first game Fenway Park ever hosted was a 2-0 Sox win over Harvard on April 9, 1912. 11 days later, Boston played its first official game there, a 5-3 win over the New York Highlanders (now the Yankees).

🏀 Athlete spotlight: One-armed hoopers

Baileigh Sinaman-Daniel made history recently when the junior guard at Lesley University became the first D-III women’s basketball player with one arm to score in a collegiate game. Weeks later, she scored her second basket — on her birthday.

What she’s saying: “When people look at me, I just hope they see me as Baileigh,” said the Virginia native, who was born with a tiny right arm that she’s unable to use. “I hope they see me as a basketball player and as somebody who’s willing and able to do everything that everybody else is doing.”

She’s not alone… Hansel Enmanuel, who lost his arm at age six in a tragic accident, was a viral sensation in high school, has 1.5 million Instagram followers and gets consistent minutes for D-I Austin Peay. The junior guard had one of his best games of the season last week, recording 6 points, 5 rebounds and 3 steals in 25 minutes.

🎥 Watch: The Hansel Enmanuel story

🏀 The contenders: 40 before 20

The great Phil Jackson once proposed a simple yet powerful rule: If an NBA team reaches 40 wins before 20 losses, they are officially a title contender.

By the numbers: 37 of the last 41 NBA champions won 40 games before losing 20, so Jackson was clearly onto something. The only teams that fit that criteria this season?

1. Cavaliers* (47-10)

2. Thunder (46-11)

3. Celtics (41-16)

Just missed: The Nuggets (38-20), Grizzlies (37-20) and Knicks (37-20) all lost over the weekend, eliminating them from 40/20 contention.

The four exceptions: Since 1980, four teams have gone on to win the NBA championship despite failing the “40 before 20” test.

• 1994-95 Rockets: Houston (47–35) limped into the postseason but made history once they got there, becoming the lowest-seeded team (sixth) ever to win it all.

• 2003-04 Pistons: Detroit (54-28) found their missing piece in late February when they acquired Rasheed Wallace at the trade deadline. Ball Don’t Lie!

• 2005-06 Heat: Miami (52-30) was 11-10 when Stan Van Gundy resigned in December. Pat Riley replaced him and promptly won his fifth title as head coach.

• 2020-21 Bucks: Milwaukee (46-26) was hot and cold for much of the pandemic-shortened season before catching fire when it mattered most.

Food for thought… Who’s the most likely team to become the fifth exception to the 40/20 rule? I’ll go with the Nuggets, who won two years ago and have the best player on the planet. I briefly considered the Knicks, who have a roster built for the postseason, but then I saw that they’re 0-7 against OKC, Cleveland and Boston (yikes!) and ran for the hills.

*Entering historic territory: Cleveland is on pace for 68 wins, which is a mark only six teams have ever reached: the 2015-16 Warriors (73-9), 1995-96 Bulls (72-10), 1996-97 Bulls (69-13), 1971-72 Lakers (69-13), 1966-67 Sixers (68-13) and 1972-73 Celtics (68-14).

✍️ Extra points

💩 No more P00P: NBC Sports Philadelphia’s newly-designed scorebug signals the end of “P00P” games, so named for what the old scorebug looked like anytime the Phillies and Pirates were tied 0-0.

🏒 No more 4 Nations? Despite the success of the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off, commissioner Gary Bettman isn’t sure there will be room for it in the future. As a reminder, NHL players return to the Olympics in 2026 and the World Cup of Hockey returns in 2028.

⛳️ Now streaming: Scottie Scheffler’s arrest during last year’s PGA Championship is back in the spotlight thanks to Season 3 of “Full Swing,” which premiered on Netflix today and features new footage and interviews with players (including Scheffler himself).

🏎️ F1 lids: Formula 1 teams released helmet designs for all 20 drivers ahead of the 2025 season, which begins next month in Australia. Which one’s your favorite?

💔 Guardians owner dies: Guardians owner Larry Dolan has passed away at age 94. A lifelong Cleveland resident, Dolan and his family are the longest-tenured owners in Guardians history, having owned the team for the past 25 years.

🚌 Scary trip home: A bus carrying the IU Indianapolis men’s basketball team caught fire on Sunday night on the way home from a game in Kentucky. The fire, caused by a “mechanical issue,” destroyed the bus, but everyone on board escaped unharmed.

📺 Watchlist: Reunion in Los Angeles

The Lakers host the Mavericks tonight (10pm ET, TNT) in their first matchup since the Luka Dončić trade.

Surprisingly even: Los Angeles has won six of eight games since acquiring Dončić. Dallas has been nearly as good, winning five of their last seven despite losing Anthony Davis to injury.

More to watch:

• 🏀 NBA: Cavaliers at Magic (7:30pm, TNT) … The first-place Cavs have won seven straight games and 11 of their last 12.

• 🏀 NCAAM: No. 2 Duke at Miami (7pm, ESPN); No. 24 Mississippi State at No. 6 Alabama (9pm, ESPN2) … Tonight might be a little weird for Duke associate head coach Jai Lucas.*

• 🏒 NHL: Oilers at Lightning (7:30pm, Disney+) … Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl (86) and Tampa’s Nikita Kucherov (83) are second and third in points.

• ⛳️ TGL: The Bay vs. Jupiter Links (9pm, ESPN) … The Bay (3-0-0) are the only team that hasn’t lost. Did we just jinx them?

• ⚽️ Champions Cup: Inter Miami (1-0) vs. Sporting KC (8pm, FS2); LAFC (1-2) vs. Colorado Rapids (10pm, FS2) … First round, second leg.

*Coach in waiting: Lucas has reportedly agreed to become the new head coach at Miami, where he’ll succeed Jim Larrañaga, who stepped down in December. So he’ll be coaching against his future team tonight as he waits for the contract to be finalized.

🏀 MVP trivia

MVP favorite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is vying to become the eighth point guard to win the award.

Question: Can you name the seven point guards who have won?

Hint: Lakers, Suns, Warriors, Royals, Celtics, Bulls, Thunder.

Note: Allen Iverson and James Harden are combo guards, but both were listed as shooting guards when they won MVP.

Answer at the bottom.

📸 Photo finish: Red, White and Blue

What. A. Shot.

Trivia answer: Magic Johnson (3x), Steve Nash (2x), Stephen Curry (2x), Oscar Robertson, Bob Cousy, Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook

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