BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — From tears, to praise, to a touch of anger.
South Florida’s Brian Hodgson ran the gamut of emotions in making his NCAA Tournament head coaching debut not far from where he grew up, and following an 83-79 first-round loss to Louisville on Thursday.
The Bulls' first-year coach’s eyes began to well when senior forward Izaiyah Nelson referred to Hodgson as a father figure.
“Really right now I’m just honestly struggling to picture myself coaching this game without him,” Hodgson said of Nelson, who followed the coach to South Florida this year after spending two seasons together at Arkansas State. “Just to hear what he said about me, I feel the same way about him times a million.”
Hodgson also paid tribute to his parents, Rebecca and Larry Hodgson, who adopted and raised him in Jamestown, New York.
The game marked the first time Hodgson’s parents got to see him in person in three seasons as a head coach. His father has dementia, making it difficult for him to travel to Florida and Arkansas. Buffalo, meantime, is only a 60-mile drive from Jamestown.
“Someone sent me a picture of my mom and dad with a big smile on their face,” Hodgson said, before crediting his players for clinching the program’s fourth tournament berth, and first since 2012.
“I’ll never be able to repay these young men, because I didn’t know if or when that would happen for my dad to be able to be here and see me in person and how excited he was,” he added.
Hodgson was abused as a child and placed in foster care at the age of 2 before being adopted. He wasn’t the only one taken in by his parents, who also fostered more than 100 children.
“They never did that to get recognition, but they deserved it because they’re phenomenal human beings,” Hodgson said. “I’m very fortunate to have them as my parents.”
As for the anger, Hodgson’s ire was raised upon hearing Louisville coach Pat Kelsey question South Florida players for apparently disrespecting the Cardinals.
“Our guys heard what they said,” Kelsey said, following the win. “It was definitely something we heard. We internalized. We don’t have a bunch of guys that are like, but I could tell it was simmering in them and it bothered them. But I do have a lot of respect for (South Florida).”
Kelsey didn’t specify what was said or when, except refer to a Bulls player saying: “We’re going to pop them and something, something.”
Hodgson was in the interview waiting area and didn’t like what he overheard.
“I’ve heard all the nonsense about how our young men spoke heading into the game. What are we even talking about? Do you want these young men to not talk confidently about how they’re going to play against their opponent?” Hodgson said.
He then defended guard Wes Enis, who caused a stir among Louisville fans by saying he believed South Florida — the East Region’s No. 11 seed — was the better team after the matchup was announced on Sunday.
“I don’t really care,” Enis said, referring to the seedings. “I wouldn’t really call it an upset.”
Hodgson didn’t consider his player’s comment as a swipe.
“Did we want Wes Enis to sit in that press conference and say, ‘No, we can’t beat Louisville?’ No,” Hodgson said.
“We instill that in these young men to carry themselves with confidence every day,” he added. “We could have won this game. Louisville won the game today. I wouldn’t mind playing Louisville again."
AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
FILE - South Florida head coach Bryan Hodgson works with his team during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Dec. 17, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Baseball is changing at a dizzying speed in 2026 with the arrival of robot umpires, the return home of the Tampa Bay Rays and an alphabet soup of networks televising games in perhaps the last season before a labor shutdown.
Much has transpired in the 4 1/2 months since the Los Angeles Dodgers rallied in World Series Game 7 to beat Toronto in 11 innings and become the first repeat champion since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees.
There was the usual free agent musical chairs that saw Kyle Tucker wind up with the Dodgers, Bo Bichette with the New York Mets, Alex Bregman with the Chicago Cubs and Pete Alonso with the Baltimore Orioles.
Venezuela became a first-time champion of a World Baseball Classic with record attendance and television viewers.
But looming above the usual excitement for opening day on Wednesday is the possibility of no games in a year.
Tony Clark was forced to resign as players' association head and replaced by Bruce Meyer as talk intensified about a possible management salary cap proposal the players' association vows to fight. Major League Baseball is likely to lock out players on Dec. 2, leaving 2027 in limbo.
Cy Young Award winners Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal are on the eight-man executive subcommittee that directs collective bargaining.
“We need people that are invested and kind of have status among players and within the game to go into the negotiations and be comfortable going toe to toe with the owners,” Skenes said. “It's not something that I sought out. Some guys nominated me for the position and that’s not something you say no to.”
Following testing that started in the minor leagues in 2019, MLB decided last September to use the Automated Ball-Strike System in the regular season.
While human umps call every pitch, each team has the ability to challenge two calls per game, retaining the challenge if successful, and have the possibility of at least one more in each extra inning.
“You want get the egregiously wrong calls fixed and you want make sure you get it right in a big spot,” three-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander said.
ABS won't be used for a two-game series between Arizona and San Diego in Mexico City on April 25-26, for the Philadelphia-Minnesota game at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, on Aug. 13 or the Atlanta-Milwaukee matchup in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, on Aug. 23.
Regular-season national broadcasts are split among Fox/FS1, TBS, ESPN, NBC/Peacock, AppleTV and Netflix. NBC's networks take over the Wild Card Series from ABC/ESPN.
In addition, MLB will produce and distribute the local telecasts of 14 teams following the financial problems of Main Street Sports Group, which operates the regional FanDuel Sports Network stations.
When the New York Yankees play the MLB season opener at the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday, the game will be exclusively on Netflix.
After becoming the first team to win consecutive championships since the 1998-2000 Yankees, the Dodgers try to become just the fifth group to win three in a row, joining those Yankees, five by the 1949-53 Yankees, four by the 1936-39 Yankees and three by the 1972-74 Oakland Athletics.
“When you're a Dodger, people want to take us down. They want to beat us,” manager Dave Roberts told players in his spring training speech. “It's a Game 7. So I think that we've got to look ahead and say that this is going to be harder than it's ever been and we got to work even harder. And so my ask as a team, as an organization is to push ourselves even more. We already got the talent. There isn't any more talent in a major league clubhouse than in this room.”
Coming off his fourth unanimous MVP award, Shohei Ohtani is expected to be a two-way player over a full season. He returned to the mound last June 16 following his second major elbow surgery on Sept. 19, 2023.
Tampa Bay returns to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg after a season playing home games across the bay at Steinbrenner Field, the spring training home of the Yankees.
Damage to the Trop caused by Hurricane Milton in October 2024 has been repaired. The Rays were 41-40 at Steinbrenner last year, their lowest home winning percentage since 2016. They drew 786,750 for an average of 9,713, selling out 61 games.
“There is genuine, authentic excitement to get back to the Trop,” manager Kevin Cash said. “We've played well in the Trop. We’ve had a lot of success in the Trop. And I think we’re going back to something that’s probably going to be a little bit newer, a little better than maybe as we left it because they had to do so many repairs.”
Four players could reach 400 career home runs this year.
Manny Machado starts the season at 369, followed by Freddie Freeman at 368, Aaron Judge at 367 and Bryce Harper at 363.
Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani, of Japan, throws against the San Francisco Giants during the first inning of a spring training baseball game, Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
