South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Heat pass 1st test of season’s 2nd half
Chaminade-Madonna’s Johnson decommits from Hurricanes
The Miami Heat (20-18) passed the first test that the second half of the season will bring, but there are many more to come.
Their victories over the Chicago Bulls on Friday and the Orlando Magic on Thursday completed the first of nine sets of back-toback games the Heat will play over their last 36 games, compared to the four they had during the first half of the pandemic-shortened
72-game season. “Back-to-backs are what they are. With the additional testing, it can be crazy,” said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, with the team set to play the Magic again on Sunday at 7 p.m. in the Amway Center before another back-to-back set versus the Cleveland Cavaliers at home on Tuesday and against the Memphis Grizzlies on the road on Wednesday. “You get in at 4 a.m. and you’re up at 9 a.m. testing. It’s not easy.”
Spoelstra and Heat players have described the second half of the season as a “sprint”, with even fewer let-ups than the first half brought.
The Heat are scheduled to play
36 games over a 67-day span in the NBA’s second half of the regular season compared to the 36 games they played in 72 days leading into the All-Star break.
“That experience [in the season’s first half ] prepared us for this,” Spoelstra said. “That was pretty fast. A lot of guys had opportunities to step up and play meaningful minutes and show that they can be productive. That depth will be useful and we’ll use it appropriately.”
Because of the scheduling format — in addition to Bam Adebayo’s injury-related absence over the last three games — KZ Okpala and Chris Silva have both played greater roles in the Heat’s rotation in the Heat’s first two games since the All-Star break.
Spoelstra recognized there’s a greater need to maintain the players’ workload ahead of the Heat’s third game of a stretch of five matchups in seven nights.
“There’s going to be a lot more communication about it,” he said. “And we feel that we’ve developed our depth the last few weeks where it’s functional depth, where guys have really stepped up and have been able to have bigger roles and produce for us.
“It might not mean days off, it just might mean — something like you saw [Thursday] night [against the Magic], playing 11 guys.”
But managing workloads doesn’t necessarily mean having how many minutes a player will be on the floor determined before the game starts.
“We’re just communicating a lot more about it, on a day-by-day, game-by-game basis,” Spoelstra said.
A silver lining to the Heat only having five breaks longer than one day in between games over the second half of the season? They have the East’s second easiest schedule in games after the All-Star break in regard to cumulative opponent winning percentage, according to NBA.com.
Stepping up: There isn’t one player who can replace what Adebayo brings to the Heat, but Kelly Olynyk has been doing his best to fill the gaps from a playmaking standpoint during Adebayo’s absence.
Olynyk has averaged four assists to just 1.7 turnovers over the Heat’s past three games.
Even after going 1-of-4 on
3-pointers against the Bulls, the
6-foot-11 Olynyk has averaged
15.7 points on 52.9% shooting on
3-pointers since Adebayo’s been out after an 11-game stretch where he shot 15.2% on 3s.
“It’s a luxury to have multiple bigs that can dribble, pass and just have that feel,” Duncan Robinson said of Olynyk. “Offensively, he just provides space, obviously but so much more than that. His ability to playmake and pass, and just his feel — he’s played really well. He does so many things that don’t necessarily show up in a box score.”
Magic remained shorthanded: The Magic will be shorthanded when they face the Heat on Sunday just like they were during their previous matchup.
Cole Anthony (fractured right rib), James Ennis III (sore left calf ), Evan Fournier (left groin strain) Markelle Fultz (torn ACL) Aaron Gordon (ankle — injury management) and Jonathan Isaac (left-knee injury recovery) are all listed as out for Sunday.
Jimmy Butler was looking for a breather and looking for a friend.
So Goran Dragic stepped up in Friday night’s fourth quarter to help lift Butler and the Miami Heat to a 101-90 victory over the Chicago Bulls at the United Center.
Even with Butler scoring 25 points over the first three periods, the Heat found themselves up by only two entering the fourth. So as Butler sat Dragic took over on the way to his highest-scoring quarter of the season, with 20 points in the final period.
“Jimmy told me at one point, ‘Hey G, we need you to be more aggressive and to be more involved,’ ” Dragic said. “When he went out, on the bench, I did it.”
By the time Butler returned, the Heat’s lead was in double figures, on the way to the a fifth consecutive road victory and ninth victory in the last 10 games overall.
“I was just more aggressive, more involved,” Dragic said. “I was kind of mad at myself at halftime and just came out more aggressive.”
Butler closed with 28 points, Dragic 25 — all after halftime — and Duncan Robinson had 15 as the Heat improved to 3-0 in the three games center Bam Adebayo has missed with the knee tendinitis that has him away from the team.
Zach LaVine scored 30 points for the Bulls, supported by 20 from Lauri Markkanen.
The Heat’s two-game trip concludes Sunday at the Amway Center against the Orlando Magic.
“We played together as a team,” Dragic said. “We defended better. Can’t wait to get Bam back.”
Five Degrees of Heat from Friday’s game: 1. Dragon fire: The Heat took a 70-68 lead into the fourth quarter, with eight consecutive Dragic points later pushing the Heat to an 81-72 lead. Dragic helped push the Heat to that lead as both Butler and LaVine started the fourth quarter on the bench.
When Dragic moved to 10 points in the fourth quarter, at a point Butler still was sitting and LaVine was back in the game, it lifted the Heat to a 86-76 lead.
It ultimately was Dragic’s 23rd 20-point game as a Heat reserve, passing Kevin Edwards’ previous franchise record of 22.
“The first half I was passive,” Dragic said. “I was not aggressive. I was more off the ball.”
Dragic shot 7 of 10 from the field and 3 of 5 on 3-pointers in the fourth quarter.
2. Butler attacks: This was not a night about filling individual statistical categories for Butler. This was about fueling the offense until someone could consistently join him in the scoring column.
Butler was up to 20 points with 6 minutes,
27 seconds left in the third period after completing a three-point play.
“He’s an ultra-competitor,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Butler keeping the Heat afloat. “And he sensed the moment as well that this was going to be that kind of game. It was going to feel like it was in the mud.”
Butler added eight assists, four steals and three rebounds, closing 10 of 12 from the line.
3. Robinson from deep: Robinson closed 5 of 8 on 3-pointers, with the rest of his teammates 7 of 27 from beyond the arc. The fifth
3-pointer also was the 500th field goal of his career.
Robinson’s six points in the fourth quarter, on a pair of 3-pointers, were second on the Heat to Dragic’s 20 in the period.
“The relief points for us, they really helped add some diversity to our offense,” Spoelstra said of Robinson’s shots.
“Anytime you can help your team get a road win on the second night of a back-toback, it’s certainly rewarding,” Robinson said. “It’s about staying consistent — never too high, never too low.”
4. Silva’s time: Chris Silva again played ahead of Precious Achiuwa in the Heat’s power rotation, getting the only second-half minutes of the two.
“His energy is absolutely contagious,” Spoelstra said. “He’s top percentile in terms of how hard he plays on every single possession. He’s leaving nothing in the tank.”
Silva played 11:45 Friday, closing with four points, three rebounds and two blocked shots. Achiuwa, the team’s 2020 first-round pick, played 3:02, all in the first half.
“In a game like this, where you need that energy, need some life, he was able to provide that for us,” Spoelstra said of Silva.
5. Brutal quarter: The Heat were held to
13 points in the second quarter, closing the period 3 of 18 from the field.
It was the lowest-scoring second period of the season for the Heat, who shot 1 of 7 on 3-pointers over the 12 minutes, in giving back all of an early 11-point lead.
Butler and Andre Iguodala both were 0 for
4 from the field in the quarter.
The Heat nonetheless were able to stand in a 42-42 tie at halftime.
The Miami Hurricanes lost one of their two football commitments in the 2022 recruiting class on Wednesday evening with Chaminade-Madonna defensive end Jamaal Johnson backing off his pledge with UM.
“After praying and talking to my mom and family about everything, I have decided to decommit from the University of Miami,” Johnson said in a statement posted on his Twitter account. “This was not an easy decision, but at the end of the day, I have to do what is best for my future and my education.
“Despite everything that is going on, I feel the need to explore my options and enjoy my recruiting process. Miami is a wonderful program and is still one of my top schools.”
Johnson is ranked as the No. 50 strongside defensive end nationally in the 247 Sports composite rankings. He was the first Hurricanes commitment in his class, when he initially made the decision last July.
A South Florida Sun Sentinel first-team all-county selection in Broward last season as a junior, Johnson had 54 tackles and a team-leading 13 sacks on the Class 3A state runner-up Lions.
Miami’s lone football commitment in the 2022 class now is Tampa Carrollwood Day defensive tackle Brandon Cleveland. The Hurricanes also have fourstar quarterback prospect and two-sport athlete Kaden Martin, from Knoxville, Tennessee, committed to play baseball but possibly set to join the football team as well once he arrives in Coral Gables.
UM coach Manny Diaz has previously stated while the
COVID-19 pandemic may have helped the Hurricanes keep a lot of South Florida talent home in the
2021 recruiting cycle, it has created challenges in evaluating and building early relationships with prospects in the 2022 class and beyond.
Colleges and universities rushing to invest in the booming arena of varsity esports are overwhelmingly committing opportunities and scholarships to male players, according to data collected by Associated Press.
Male gamers held 90.4% of roster spots and received 88.5% of scholarship funds in a sample of 27 public American schools surveyed by the AP during this school year. The glaring gender disparity exists even though 41% of U.S. gamers are female, according to the Entertainment Software Association, and in a realm where — unlike traditional sports — there are no physical barriers separating male and female competitors.
“It’s tremendously sad and tremendously not surprising,” said Grace Collins, an expert on gaming, education and gender.
The AP requested roster and scholarship data from 56 public U.S. schools identified among the 192 participants in the National Association of Collegiate Esports, relying largely on public records requests.
Several schools responded that although their programs compete at the varsity level, they had not been sanctioned varsity status by the school. Their roster data was often incomplete, and those programs were held out of the sample. A handful of other schools either denied the AP’s request or did not respond to repeated messages.
The AP’s data set covers only a small sample of the landscape. But the overwhelming results confirm what esports coaches, players and experts have identified on their own as a problem since the first varsity program launched in 2014:
As esports are carving out their place on college campuses — and doing so without a central governing body, such as the NCAA — little is being done to ensure resources are spread equally along gender lines.
“The way that these programs have been built out, the games that they select to play, the esports models that they’re looking at, the people that they are staffing, all are replicating an unequal system,” said Collins, CEO of Liminal Esports and a former liaison at the U.S. Department of Education focused on educational technology.
“So often it seems like to me, they’re trying to make another football for universities, and taking with it all of the baggage that is completely unnecessary to pull along with esports.”
Esports’ impact on campuses remains relatively small. The average roster in the AP’s sample included 30 players, but programs ranged from six to 83 gamers. Roughly a quarter of those players received scholarships, and the average payout was around $1,910.
Participation is sure to rise, though, especially after interest in gaming accelerated globally during the coronavirus pandemic. As people spent unprecedented amounts of time at home, the total esports audience swelled to 495 million last year, according to market research company Newzoo — a nearly 12% bump. That helped the competitive gaming industry surpass $1 billion in revenue for the first time.
While plenty of women play video games, they remain woefully underrepresented in many esports. There are several reasons for that, including a culture of toxicity and harassment
perpetuated by some male gamers who favor the most popular games, like “League of Legends.”
In traditional sports, Title IX has helped ensure athletic departments devote roughly equal resources to male and female students. The law mandates equitable opportunities to participate in sports for men and women, and it requires that scholarships be offered proportionally to participation. It also states that facilities, equipment and other provisions be roughly equal.
Many schools, intentionally or not, have sidestepped those restrictions by housing their esports program outside of the athletic department. Many of the esports scholarships reported to the AP were academic or merit-based funds.
Still, Title IX — which broadly prohibits gender discrimination in any educational program that receives federal funding — could be a tool for addressing esports’ inequity issue, according to Neena Chaudry, general counsel and senior advisor at the National Women’s Law Center.
“If schools are going to be adding esports — and this is true regardless of whether it’s in the athletic program or not — then they need to address barriers such as harassment and other forms of discrimination that women may be facing in esports,” Chaudry said. “Just as they would in any other sport or in the education program in general.”
Collins — who launched the first all-girls varsity esports high school team at a private girls school near Cleveland in 2018 — believes one way to boost female participation would be to expand the selection of games. They compare
it to a movie club that only watches “Die Hard” movies and then wonders why only boys or men show up.
“That’s not to say that girls on your campus don’t like to watch movies,” Collins said. “It’s just saying they don’t like to watch ‘Die Hard.’ ”
“League of Legends” is a staple of collegiate esports programs, as are male-dominated “Madden” and “Call of Duty.” “Overwatch ” — a game whose cover character is a gay woman — has a slightly better ratio of women to men and is also popular. Collins would like to see schools try games like “Just Dance,” “Mario Kart” or something from the fighting genre. Girls and women are also more likely to play mobile games.
Boise State was among the more equal schools in the AP’s survey, with 16 male players, five female players and three who identified as nonbinary. Esports coach Doc Haskell has been intentional about diversity — “These teams need to look like us, like our campus community,” he said — and among the pivotal steps he’s taken has been a focus on the way players communicate.
While scouting potential recruits, Haskell believes he places a higher priority relative to other programs on intangible qualities — teamwork in particular — than a player’s current ratings. Once players are in the program, he closely monitors the language they use in practice and competition, looking for teachable moments that foster inclusion.
“There are things that would be, in previous generations, considered ‘locker room talk,’ ”
Haskell said. “The grand truth is that we can hope to avoid these things. We can teach around these things.”
The only school in the AP’s sample with a 50-50 ratio of men and women was at the University of South Carolina-Sumter, which has eight male and eight female players. The program was the first in the state when it launched six years ago and initially had an all-male roster, but it picked up a couple of women gamers when it added “Overwatch” in its second year. That little bit of representation slowly built on itself.
“I didn’t do anything special, like, ‘Oh, I need to make sure I meet this quota or anything specific,’ ” coach Kris Weissman said. “But I made sure that we had an open and appealing program to everyone and anyone.”
Giona Mack, a freshman on the USC-Sumter team, had an avid interest in gaming during high school but was hesitant about collegiate esports because she didn’t want to be the token woman. Weissman arranged a campus visit for her, and the vibe of the co-ed team helped her believe she could reach her potential there as a gamer.
“I got more nervous when it came to males because I found them more competitive,” Mack said. “That was my online experience of games. I thought if I went into an esports team and it was mostly male-dominated, I would just feel overwhelmingly nervous, and the way I performed would reflected that.
“I really wanted to do something like this during college,” she added. “Knowing that there were females, just mentally for me was big.”
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Lee Westwood gets another shot at winning The Players Championship, and another crack at Bryson DeChambeau.
Westwood made a
25-foot birdie putt on the island-green 17th hole, and he closed out a 4-under
68 with a 5-footer for par to extend his bogey-free streak at the TPC Sawgrass to 44 holes.
It also gave him a two-shot lead over DeChambeau and set up a rematch from last week in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
They were in the final group at Bay Hill, where Westwood took a one-shot lead into the final round only for DeChambeau to make a 5-foot par on the final hole to beat him by one on a big-hitter’s ballpark.
“Round two,” Westwood said with a smile.
The Stadium Course at Sawgrass is more about position that power, though DeChambeau appears capable of winning on just about any course at the moment. He ran off three straight birdies to start the back nine and was most excited about his 15-foot par putt on the 18th for a 67.
Westwood was
13-under 203.
The 47-year-old from England had the 54-hole lead at Sawgrass in 2010 only to hit into the water on the par-3 17th to end his chances. He tied for fourth.
All these years later, he gets another chance and looks to be up to the task.
So does DeChambeau, going for his third victory this season.
He can’t blast away at Sawgrass because of the bending tree-lined fairways and water hazards. at
But his power still comes in handy. With his tee shot buried in deep rough right of the 18th fairway, some
210 yards away, he ripped an 8-iron to just short of the green and set up his chance at par. DeChambeau twice pumped his powerful arms when it dropped.
“You’ve got to make those to win tournaments,” he said. “I didn’t want to leave a sour taste in my mouth.”
Westwood has been around long enough to know that even with recent history of Bay Hill, DeChambeau is not the only one that figures to stand in his way, especially on a troublesome course like Sawgrass.
Saturday was evident of that.
Justin Thomas started the third round seven shots behind, opened with four straight birdies and then hit a 5-iron that stopped inches away on the par-5
16th that left him a tap-in eagle. He shot 64 and was three shots behind.
Paul Casey had six birdies and an eagle to offset his mistakes in a 67, leaving him four shots behind with Jon Rahm (67) and Doug Ghim (68), who is making his debut in The Players and was among seven players who had at least a share of the lead at one point.
Ghim was motoring along until one costly swing on the easiest hole, the par-5 16th. He came up well short in a bunker under a tree, tried to blast low under the limbs and caught the rough and wound up with his lone bogey.
Also four shots behind was Brian Harman, who began his day by holing a wedge for eagle and shot
69.
Sergio Garcia was five shots behind and still can’t handle the short putts. He had to settle for a 72.