2026-02-11 01:41:27
Asked what advice she’d give Tennessee head coach Kim Caldwell after the Lady Vols’ 93-50 loss to South Carolina on Sunday, a diplomatic Dawn Staley demurred: “I probably wouldn’t say it publicly.” That makes one! Caldwell, at her postgame press conference, had a lot to say publicly in the wake of the worst loss in program history.
“We just had a lot of quit in us tonight, and that’s been something that’s been consistent with our team,” Caldwell said. “When we’re not comfortable and things don’t go our way, I have a team that’ll just quit on you. And you can’t do that in big games—you can't do that any time in the SEC, but you certainly can't do that at a program like this.”
It was only a year ago that things were looking up for Tennessee and a just-hired Caldwell. Last February, the Lady Vols beat UConn to end an 18-year drought in their rivalry series. The win seemed to validate athletic director Danny White’s decision to hire someone with no prior connection to the program. Since Pat Summitt’s death, Tennessee had only considered and hired former players and assistants of hers. Caldwell, previously the coach at Marshall, was hired for her distinctive system, which focuses on creating as many offensive possessions as possible by forcing turnovers with a press, and shooting early in the clock. To keep the team in shape for this brand of play, Caldwell uses hockey-style line substitutions.
2026-02-11 01:24:23
Time for your weekly edition of the Defector Funbag. Got something on your mind? Email the Funbag. You can also read Drew over at SFGATE, and buy Drew’s books while you’re at it. Today, we're talking about halls of fame, Chuck Klosterman, taxes, how to lose your virginity at 50, and more.
Before I get to your emails, let’s address the Super Bowl. Yes, the game was boring. Yes, the redemption arc of Sam Darnold is one of the better football stories in recent memory. Also, the Seahawks may have been one of the greatest teams in league history if you go by DVOA, but they didn’t have enough brand names on the roster to keep casual fans and postgame shouters from accusing them of Tim Duncanism. You’ve already scavenged those narrative morsels from the game’s carcass. But I’d remiss if I didn’t personally take a moment here to shine the brightest of lights on the greatest of Sunday’s failures…
2026-02-10 23:51:48
Apologies to all otters, ferrets, badgers, ferret-badgers, weasels, fishers, polecats, wolverines, martens, and grisons, but the mustelid of the moment is the stoat. The mascots of the 2026 Winter Olympics are a pair of sibling stoats named Milo (short for Milano) and Tina (short for Cortina). Tina is white, just like stoats in the winter, and Milo is brown, just like stoats in the summer. Milo, the Paralympic mascot, was born without a leg and learned to use his tail as a substitute. Per official Olympics lore, Milo and Tina parted ways as they grew up—Tina moved to the city and Milo stayed in the mountains—but the two reunite each year in the winter in their childhood den. Also per the lore, Milo and Tina are "the first openly Gen Z Mascots," implying the existence of closeted Gen Z mascots—may they one day feel secure enough in their generational identity to come out on the world stage.
Those unfamiliar with mustelids may be curious to know what the deal is with stoats, which are also called ermines. The first and most important thing to know is that they are extremely, undeniably cute.
2026-02-10 23:27:07
Not so long ago, a contest against the Charlotte Hornets was not likely to meaningfully raise the heart rate of anyone on the opposing side. Maybe the sight of LaMelo Ball's unpleasant red tattoos would cause a moment's perturbation, but nothing acute, nothing to flush the face or crease the forehead. The basketball would be easy enough: For the most part you could wait around for the Hornets to defeat themselves. Not lately! Charlotte entered Monday night's home tilt against the Detroit Pistons having won nine straight and 12 of 15, and with a couple of eye-popping demolitions scattered in there. These are not the Hornets of yesteryear: These guys—healthy for what seems like the first time in 1,000 years—are athletic, feisty, and organized. They demand attention.
The Pistons treat everybody rudely. They might be the NBA's roughest bunch, and some of the league's also-rans seem to shrink from their snarling physicality. The Hornets did not. In the third quarter, with the Pistons leading by eight points, things were getting angsty. Following a Jalen Duren offensive foul, Ball threw some moves at Detroit's Duncan Robinson and drove to the lane, but lost his dribble and then was annoyed into a three-second penalty by the digging and swiping of Robinson and Duren. Ball complained and the crowd booed. On Detroit's next possession, Cade Cunningham tried to feed Duren in the paint but Moussa Diabate bumped Duren and batted the ball away, and the Pistons settled for a lousy Tobias Harris mid-ranger, which missed. The ball squirted out of bounds and Detroit kept possession. Duren and Diabate, both pretty fired up, chirped back and forth, and the Hornets broadcast chose a good time to talk about Detroit's bullying style.
On the inbound, Duren threw a mean forearm into Diabate's chest, then popped to the wing to gather the ball. Duren then attempted to drive at and through Diabate. Diabate, who looks very skinny next to Duren but I guess is pretty sturdy, stoned Duren at the edge of the paint. Duren lurched into an off-balance jumper and Diabate committed a dumb foul, grabbing onto his man's shoulder and tugging him down. The two squared up, with Duren's face crashing into Diabate's and then Diabate pushing his forehead into Duren's. This is when all hell broke loose.
2026-02-10 23:15:04
Imagine the training for the Olympics. All the work, the anxiety, the parties missed, and the mornings you'd rather have spent in bed. The money spent on training, equipment, travel, all of it. You sacrifice so much because you are single-mindedly focused on becoming the best. You make it to the Olympics, where you represent your country on the international stage, and for one shining moment, all those sacrifices seem worth it.
Now imagine that this is the photo of that moment that lives on in the collective memory, in the form of your top Getty Images search result:
2026-02-10 22:00:00
Blink and you might not have caught it. On Monday, Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry took to the rink and staked their claim to the ice dancing gold medal. Dancing to Madonna's "Vogue," complete with Blond Ambition–inspired costumes and voguing arms, their routine already is popular online. But the performance isn't the thing you might have missed. It was the explanation beforehand, from NBC's Terry Gannon, about the formation of the new skating partnership that was notably brief for all it conveyed.
Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry are a relatively new duo, formed less than a year ago. Recently, Cizeron's former partner, Gabriella Papadakis, published a memoir in which she called him "controlling, demanding, and critical," Gannon said. As for Fournier Beaudry, her former partner, Nikolaj Sørensen, was "suspended in a sexual maltreatment case that is still not resolved," Gannon said. The broadcast then segued to the natural conclusion: They are the biggest challenge to the United State ice dancing team for first place.
These type of glancing summaries are typical of how, if at all, figure skating coverage has discussed what brought Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry together. They might or might not mention how Cizeron's former partner with whom he won gold, Papadakis, was dropped by NBC for what she said. Or how the sexual misconduct case against Sørensen, Fournier Beaudry's longtime boyfriend and former partner, has been dragging on for more than two years, and how Fournier Beaudry has defended Sørensen through it all. The closest thing to a person with a big platform speaking out is retired U.S. figure skater Adam Rippon in the Netflix documentary Glitter & Gold: Ice Dancing—he tells us "there is some sinister energy around the partnership"—before the show has both skaters suggest to us that they are really victims.
