KEARNEY PINNACLE BANK AND GI HOME FEDERAL ELIMINATED IN AMERICAN LEGION CHAMPIONSHIPS:
All three Tri-Cities American Legion baseball teams have been eliminated from the Nebraska Class A State Tournaments.
The Grand Island Home Federal Seniors fell to Fremont yesterday 3-0 in the consolation rounds of the Seniors American Division Bracket.
Kearney Pinnacle Bank lost to Lincoln Southeast yesterday, 5-3.
MILES FIELD PROJECT HAS GOALPOSTS INSTALLED:
Kearney Catholic’s Miles Field project has reached a new milestone. Video released by the Kearney Catholic High School Foundation on Facebook yesterday highlighted the installation of new goalposts.
Earlier this month, Nemaha Sports Construction started installation of the first post-tensioned concrete running track in the Tri-Cities.
Beyond the track, the school’s sports stadium overhaul includes a synthetic turf football field, sports lighting, a press box, grandstands, a video board, changing rooms, concessions stand, restrooms, and storage facilities. They aim to unveil the completed complex by the Homecoming game on September 27, showcasing a state-of-the-art venue designed to elevate both athletic performance and school spirit.
MCVEIGH AND TOMINAGA PLAY THIS MORNING IN OLYMPIC BASKETBALL:
A pair of former Husker basketball players made their Olympic debuts on Saturday during the first full day of action at the Paris Olympics. Jack McVeigh keyed a win for Australia against Spain, while Keisei Tominaga and Japan dropped its opener to the defending FIBA World Champions.
McVeigh came off the bench and totaled 13 points on 4-of-8 shooting and seven rebounds in 20 minutes of Australia’s 92-80 win over Spain, including a trio of 3-pointers.
Keisei Tominaga saw limited action on Japan’s 97-77 loss to Germany, going scoreless off the bench, as he played the final minute of the first half. Tominaga becomes a two-time Olympian as he represented Japan in 3×3 in the Tokyo Olympics.
Both players will be in action this morning. Australia takes on Canada at 6:30 a.m. (central) while Japan’s next game is against France at 10:15 a.m. (central).
USA BASKETBALL ROUTS SERBIA IN OLYMPIC OPENER:
LeBron James was feeling some nervousness, some butterflies, maybe even a bit of angst as he listened to the national anthem play before his first Olympic game in 12 years.
It all went away quickly.
James and Kevin Durant — the two most-experienced Olympians on this American team — opened the Paris Games and a U.S. bid for a fifth consecutive gold medal with a near-perfect show. Durant made his first eight shots and scored 23 points, James added 21 points, nine assists and seven rebounds and the U.S. rolled to a 110-84 win over Serbia in the Olympic opener for both teams on Sunday.
Three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic scored 20 points for Serbia, while Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 14. Serbia got outscored 54-27 from the 3-point line.
PLENTY OF HUSKERS IN 2024 PARIS OLYMPICS:
There will be no shortage of Big Red representation at the Paris Olympics.
Nebraska will have 14 current and former Huskers in action at this year’s Games. Those Huskers will participate in four different sports.
The most representation comes from Nebraska track and field with six athletes. Rhema Otabor (Bahamas) and Maggie Malone-Hardin (USA) will compete in the women’s javelin, Axelina Johansson (Sweden) and Miné De Klerk (South Africa) are there for women’s shot put, and Till Steinforth (Germany) is an alternate for the decathlon. Petra Luteran (Hungary) will participate in the Paralympics.
Team USA volleyball has a trio of former Huskers: Jordan Larson, Justin Wong-Orantes, and Kelsey Robinson.
Nebrasketball has two former Huskers playing: Keisei Tominaga, Japan; Jack McVeigh, Australia. Tyronn Lue is also in Paris as an assistant for the U.S. Men’s Basketball National Team.
TNT PARENT COMPANY SUES NBA OVER NEW NBA MEDIA RIGHTS DEAL:
Warner Bros. Discovery has sued the NBA after the league did not accept the company’s matching offer for one of the packages in its upcoming 11-year media rights deal.
The lawsuit was filed on Friday in New York state court in Manhattan.
WBD, the parent company of TNT Sports, is seeking a judgement that it matched Amazon Prime Video’s offer and an order seeking to delay the new media rights deal from taking effect beginning with the 2025-26 season.
The NBA signed its deals with Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon Prime Video on Wednesday after saying it was not accepting Warner Bros. Discovery’s $1.8 billion per year offer. The deals will bring the league around $76 billion over 11 years.
“Given the NBA’s unjustified rejection of our matching of a third-party offer, we have taken legal action to enforce our rights,” TNT Sports said in a statement. “We strongly believe this is not just our contractual right, but also in the best interest of fans who want to keep watching our industry-leading NBA content with the choice and flexibility we offer them through our widely distributed WBD video-first distribution platforms – including TNT and Max.
SALT LAKE CITY FORMALLY WINS 2034 OLYMPIC BID:
Salt Lake City was formally awarded the 2034 Winter Olympics and Paralympics following a vote Wednesday by the International Olympic Committee in Paris, giving Utah its second Games after hosting in 2002.
About a thousand sports fans gathered in downtown Salt Lake City at 3 a.m. local time — 11 a.m. in Paris — to watch the long-anticipated announcement on a livestream. Some dressed in ski gear in the summer heat, while others donned Team USA merchandise and waved flags with the Olympic rings. The crowd erupted in cheers as Olympic officials made their final decision to return to a city where they said the local enthusiasm was palpable even two decades after it first hosted.
Utah’s capital city was the only candidate for 2034 after the Olympic committee gave Salt Lake City exclusive negotiating rights last year.
UNK FOOTBALL PICKED TENTH IN MIAA COACHES, MEDIA POLLS:
UNK Football was ranked tenth in the 2024 Preseason Coaches and Media polls, as announced by the conference Tuesday.
The Lopers took tenth in both polls out of ten schools, which has shrunk from twelve schools to ten with the departure of Lincoln University to the Great Lakes Valley Conference, and Northeastern State going NCAA independent for the next couple years.
2023 MIAA Co-Champion Central Missouri was first place in both polls, followed up by Pitt State. Northwest Missouri was ranked third in both polls.
The Lopers open up the season against in-state rival Chadron State in Chadron on August 29th. The MIAA slate begins on September 7th, against Northwest Missouri at Ron & Carol Cope Stadium in Kearney.
B1G FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYS START TODAY, NEBRASKA IN TOP HALF OF UNOFFICIAL POLL:
Nebraska football is expected to be in the top half of the expanded Big Ten Conferenced this fall.
That’s according to the Preseason Big Ten Football Poll from Cleveland.com. This is the 14th year the outlet has released a preseason poll.
This is the first year that the league has featured 18 teams. With 27 voters, the picks varied for some teams, though Ohio State was the runaway favorite with 21 votes to win the league.
Nebraska is slotted to finish No. 8 in the Big Ten. By all accounts, that would be a good final spot for the Big Red, who never finished above fourth in the West Division over the last seven seasons.
The last time NU finished in the top half of the Big Ten was 2016, when the Huskers went 9-4 overall and 6-3 in league play. That team was third in the West behind Wisconsin and Iowa while three teams in the East posted at least seven conference wins.
NORTH DAKOTA #1 RATED PLAYER COMMITS TO HUSKERS:
The Huskers snagged the commitment of 2025 defensive lineman Kade Pietrzak Sunday. Pietrzak is the No. 1 ranked recruit in North Dakota and is a 247Sports Composite four-star prospect.
The 6-5, 260-pounder out of Sheyenne High School in West Fargo picked NU over the Oklahoma Sooners and Kansas State Wildcats, among others. Pietrzak had made trips to Lincoln, Manhattan, and Norman last month, also visiting Madison, Wisconsin, at the end of May.
Nebraska is now up to 17 commitments for the class of 2025, including five four-star recruits. Two of those five are defensive lineman, with Pietrzak joining June commit Malcolm Simpson.
NEBRASKA VOLLEYBALL MEDIA DAY PLAYER REPRESENTATIVES NAMED:
The Nebraska Volleyball team is eager to reclaim their spot in the national championship match for 2024. That journey begins in Chicago on Aug. 6, as Nebraska will join other conference schools as part of the Big Ten Volleyball Media Day.
In a social media post Monday, Husker Volleyball announced that Lindsay Krause and Kennedi Orr would represent the Big Red – along with head coach John Cook – in the Windy City.
NEBRASKA FAN DAY FOR FOOTBALL & VOLLEYBALL ANNOUNCED:
A unique fan experience for the Huskers is set for this summer.
Nebraska fans will have the opportunity to meet-&-greet with both Husker football and volleyball players on Saturday, Aug. 24, for both The Nebraska Football Fan Day & Volleyball Fan Day which have been scheduled back-to-back on University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus.
Volleyball’s fan day was previously announced for the same date, but the event time has been adjusted to allow fans the opportunity to attend both.
The Husker Fan Day schedule is now as follow:
- Volleyball Fan Day – 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. – Bob Devaney Sports Center (1600 Court St)
- Football Fan Day – 11:00-12:30 p.m. – Hawks Championship Center (1111 Salt Creek Roadway)
TUESDAY KGFW Sports Schedule:
- SPORTS NIGHTLY 6-8PM
