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A16 SPORTS
Wednesday 19 March 2025

Transfer portal and NIL are making it even more difficult to

three-peat in college basketball

By JOHN MARSHALL to their fifth national cham- Florida's back to back, no
AP Sports Writer pionship in 2023, retooled reigning champion had
Florida had a dominating the roster and added No. 6 even made it to the title
team in 2005-06, winning last season, becoming the game the next season until
33 games on its way to first team since Donovan's UConn.
the program's first national Gators to go back to back. Part of it is continuity. Col-
championship. The Gators The ride to a third straight ti- lege players have limited
returned nearly everyone tle has been a bumpy one. eligibility, so it's rare for
the following season and The Huskies opened the coaches to have the same
did it again, becoming the season No. 3 in the pre- rosters coming back. Inju-
seventh team to win con- season AP Top 25, but went ries also can crush a team's
secutive national titles. 0 for 3 at the Maui Invita- chances, or a bad match-
Their three-peat bid fell tional and have spent most up in the lose-and-go-
short the next year. The key of the season fighting in- home NCAA Tournament
players from the title teams juries and inconsistencies, can quickly halt a second
were all gone and the Ga- entering the bracket 23-10. UConn head coach Dan Hurley calls out to his team during deep March run.
tors didn't even make the UConn may not be as the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against More potholes have been
NCAA Tournament, prov- dominant now as it was Villanova at the Big East basketball tournament Thursday, March added over the past two
ing just how difficult it is to when winning NCAA Tour- 13, 2025, in New York. decades.
win three straight national nament games by an aver- Associated Press The one-and-done rule,
championships. age of 20 points per game company. John Wooden's "We set records that still implemented in 2005, al-
"It's just hard to win in gen- the past two seasons, but UCLA teams of the 1960s stand to this day," Walton lowed players to leave for
eral," said former Florida this is March and the Hus- and '70s set the standard said in a 2024 interview the NBA after a single col-
coach Billy Donovan, now kies have shown they can for college basketball ex- with The Associated Press, lege season, often stripping
the head coach of the tame the madness. cellence, winning at a rate a few months before he teams of their best players.
NBA's Chicago Bulls. "I've al- "Early in the year, it (three- not seen before or since. died in May. "He did not The transfer portal and NIL
ways said this: If you played peating) was something The Bruins won consecu- talk about winning and los- deals have made it even
the NCAA Tournament that was talked about tive titles in 1964-65 and ing. He talked about effort more difficult. The ability
over after it finished, you'd around here," said Hurley, set a mark that may never and purpose, and we tried to transfer from a school
have a different national whose team opens the be broken, seven straight with everything we had to without having to sit out a
champion every year, for NCAA Tournament against from 1967-73. UCLA had a get to acknowledge that year has created a revolv-
the most part." Oklahoma in Raleigh, North massive advantage with we were doing something ing door of rosters, forcing
Heading into this year's Carolina, on Friday. "With those teams, first with Lew right." coaches to overhaul their
NCAA Tournament, one the way that we played Alcindor (now Kareem Ab- Florida and Duke in 1991- teams nearly every year.
team has a chance at to this point, it is not some- dul-Jabbar), then with Bill 92 were the only teams to NIL opportunities have
the first three-peat in more thing we are talking about Walton, two of the greatest have a chance at joining turned into karats to lure
than 50 years: UConn. (now)." Should the Huskies centers in basketball his- UCLA in winning at least players out of high school
Dan Hurley led the Huskies pull it off, they'll join rare tory. three straight titles. Since or from other programs.q

Yamamoto, Ohtani deliver in return to Japan,

Dodgers beat the Cubs 4-1 in season opener

innings, Shohei Ohtani had ing no hits but walking four. one run on three hits and a
two hits and scored twice, The Dodgers jumped on Cubs walk, striking out four. Tanner
and the defending World Se- reliever Ben Brown (0-1) in the Scott earned his first save.
ries champion Los Angeles fifth, scoring three runs, partly Chicago's Miguel Amaya
Dodgers beat the Chicago because of a throwing er- drove in Dansby Swanson
Cubs 4-1 on Tuesday in Ma- ror by second baseman Jon with a two-out double that
jor League Baseball's season Berti. Tommy Edman and Will made it 1-0 in the second.
opener at the Tokyo Dome. Smith had RBI singles. The Cubs didn't have a hit
Playing in front of their home Ohtani was part of the rally, after the third.
country, Yamamoto and delivering a hard-hit single Dodgers first baseman Fred-
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtan follows connects for a single Cubs lefty Shota Imanaga through the right side. He die Freeman was scratched
in the fifth inning of an MLB Japan Series baseball game against both pitched well in the first finished 2 for 5 at the plate, before the game because of
the Chicago Cubs in Tokyo, Japan, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. all-Japanese starting pitching including a double to lead off left rib discomfort. Shortstop
Associated Press matchup on opening day in the ninth, eventually scoring Mookie Betts will miss both
By DAVID BRANDT TOKYO (AP) — Yoshinobu MLB history. Imanaga threw another run. games in Japan because of
AP Baseball Writer Yamamoto threw five strong four scoreless innings, allow- Yamamoto (1-0) gave up an illness.q