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RandySF's JournalWisconsin Supreme Court candidates make final campaign stops ahead of election day
MILWAUKEE — Wisconsin voters will head to the polls in just three days to decide the only statewide election on Tuesday's ballot, which is for a state Supreme Court seat.
State appellate court judges Maria Lazar and Chris Taylor are competing for a 10-year term to fill the seat of retiring conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley.
On Saturday, both candidates made a final push for votes at several campaign stops.
Judge Maria Lazar campaigned in Brown County Saturday morning, mingling with supporters and taking pictures in Bellevue at The Brown County GOP Headquarters.
https://www.wisn.com/article/wisconsin-supreme-court-candidates-make-final-campaign-stops-ahead-of-election-day/70935121
'No excuse': Geno Auriemma apologizes to South Carolina after post-game confrontation with Dawn Staley
UConn women’s basketball head coach Geno Auriemma on Saturday issued an apology and taken full responsibility for his conduct during the closing moments of the Huskies’ season-ending loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks on Friday night.
“There’s no excuse for how I handled the end of the game vs. South Carolina. It’s unlike what I do and what our standard is here at Connecticut,” Auriemma said in a statement released by the university.
“I want to apologize to the staff and the team at South Carolina. It was uncalled for in how I reacted. The story should be how well South Carolina played, and I don’t want my actions to detract from that.”
He added: “I’ve had a great relationship with their staff, and I sincerely want to apologize to them.”
https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/04/sport/march-madness-geno-auriemma-apology
LSU women's basketball great Flau'jae Johnson given key to the city of Baton Rouge
Mayor-President Sid Edwards awarded LSU women’s basketball great Flau’jae Johnson a key to the city of Baton Rouge on Saturday outside City Hall.
Edwards said Johnson received the honor because her impact on the city extends beyond basketball. She didn’t just star for the Tigers, he said. She also lent her efforts to various charitable causes throughout the Capitol Region, making sure she uplifted the children who looked up to her.
“It goes without saying, the basketball part,” Edwards said. “But what she does in the community and what she means to Baton Rouge, I just think, when we have a chance to celebrate a human being like that, we give the highest honor.”
Johnson, a 5-foot-10 guard, was the first McDonald’s All-American to commit to LSU after coach Kim Mulkey took over the program in 2021. She wrapped up her collegiate career on March 27, when the Tigers lost to Duke on a last-second shot in the Sweet 16. LSU won 125 games across the four seasons she spent in Baton Rouge, and the Tigers never failed to reach the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/sports/lsu/womens_basketball/lsu-womens-basketball-flaujae-johnson-key-to-the-city/article_d0200e8a-a89d-4141-a866-5f3c78bdb21b.html
LSU women's basketball great Flau'jae Johnson given key to the city of Baton Rouge
Mayor-President Sid Edwards awarded LSU women’s basketball great Flau’jae Johnson a key to the city of Baton Rouge on Saturday outside City Hall.
Edwards said Johnson received the honor because her impact on the city extends beyond basketball. She didn’t just star for the Tigers, he said. She also lent her efforts to various charitable causes throughout the Capitol Region, making sure she uplifted the children who looked up to her.
“It goes without saying, the basketball part,” Edwards said. “But what she does in the community and what she means to Baton Rouge, I just think, when we have a chance to celebrate a human being like that, we give the highest honor.”
Johnson, a 5-foot-10 guard, was the first McDonald’s All-American to commit to LSU after coach Kim Mulkey took over the program in 2021. She wrapped up her collegiate career on March 27, when the Tigers lost to Duke on a last-second shot in the Sweet 16. LSU won 125 games across the four seasons she spent in Baton Rouge, and the Tigers never failed to reach the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/sports/lsu/womens_basketball/lsu-womens-basketball-flaujae-johnson-key-to-the-city/article_d0200e8a-a89d-4141-a866-5f3c78bdb21b.html
WNBA Free Agency Is Shaping Up to Be Shockingly Quiet
PHOENIX — WNBA free agency this year had the makings of a high-octane, drama-filled blockbuster.
Instead, it’s shaping up to be nothing more than a blip.
More than 100 players are set to become free agents as a result of most veterans signing contracts that expired following the 2025 season in anticipation of a new collective bargaining agreement. But after CBA negotiations carried on for more than 15 months, ultimately leading to a deal being reached in March, free agency was put on hold.
Now, the league’s 15 general managers will have no more than two weeks to fill out their rosters, with free agency dates still not set by the league and training camp opening on April 19.
“A lot of decisions will have to be done relatively quickly,” New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu said. “I think GMs have been working for a really long time, though.”
https://frontofficesports.com/wnba-free-agency-cba-stars/
NCAA President Sees Trump Executive Order as Blueprint For Congress
INDIANAPOLIS — On Friday, President Donald Trump issued a sweeping executive order aimed at implementing a one-time transfer rule, setting eligibility standards that would prohibit former professional athletes by putting a five-year cap on the eligibility window, and limiting pay-for-play NIL (name, image, and likeness) deals. The biggest question, however, is whether any of the stipulations in the order are legally enforceable.
But regardless of its enforceability, Trump’s executive order may still be valuable to college sports leaders.
At the men’s Final Four on Saturday, NCAA President Charlie Baker told reporters he “appreciates” Trump’s interest in the issue and sees the executive action as positive. In his view, it signaled momentum in Washington for a federal solution to college sports and provided a potential blueprint for issues federal legislators should tackle.
“Having been a governor, I mean, you write executive orders for all sorts of reasons,” Baker said. “Sometimes, it’s to create an opportunity to clarify whatever existing authority you may have at the agency level. And sometimes, it’s to encourage the legislature to move on those kinds of issues.”
https://frontofficesports.com/ncaa-president-trump-executive-order-congress-blueprint/
Why Capital Is Flooding Into Women's Soccer
In Season 3, Episode 5 of Portfolio Players presented by E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley, cofounder of Muse Capital and Muse Sport, Assia Grazioli-Venier, breaks down how she evaluates opportunities across the rapidly evolving sports landscape.
Grazioli-Venier explains why women’s soccer has become a key driver of growth in the U.S., how the NWSL has positioned itself among the top leagues globally, and what early investments like the Washington Spirit reveal about long-term value creation.
She also explores the influx of capital into sports, why many emerging leagues will struggle to sustain momentum, and the nuanced role celebrity investors play in team ownership.
From league economics to cultural momentum and investment discipline, Grazioli-Venier outlines what it takes to build and back winning sports properties in today’s market.
https://frontofficesports.com/videos/why-capital-is-flooding-into-womens-soccer/
PWHL Breaks Women's Hockey Attendance Record With MSG Game
NEW YORK — The PWHL smashed its attendance record with a roaring, sold-out Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.
The three-year-old league’s first game at MSG featuring the New York Sirens vs. the Seattle Torrent brought in 18,006 fans, breaking the previous record it set at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena in February. It marks the highest-attended game in women’s hockey history.
“This is, for a lot of women, and for me, the realization of a dream,” Billie Jean King said to reporters before puck drop Saturday. King is a PWHL cofounder alongside her wife and business partner Ilana Kloss.
The landmark game at MSG came sooner than expected. “We were not forecasting this in year three,” PWHL advisory board member Stan Kasten, who is a co-owner of the Dodgers and WNBA’s Sparks with PWHL owner Mark Walter, said in the pregame press conference as he sat beside King.
https://frontofficesports.com/pwhl-breaks-womens-hockey-attendance-record-with-msg-game/
Reports: Five-star prospect Oliviyah Edwards requesting release from Tennessee
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Reports surfaced Saturday afternoon that five-star prospect Oliviyah Edwards is requesting a release from her signed letter of intent with Tennessee women’s basketball.
The 6-foot-3 forward from Lincoln High School in Tacoma, Washington, is the nation’s No. 2 ranked recruit, according to ESPNW. She is also the highest-ranked prospect for Tennessee since 2019, when the Lady Vols signed Jordan Horston.
Former Lady Vols assistant coach Gabe Lazo served as Edwards’ primary recruiter. Lazo resigned from Tennessee on Friday after previously accepting an assistant coaching position at LSU earlier in the week, and on Saturday accepted a head coaching job at UCF.
Edwards was one of two signees in Caldwell’s incoming freshman class. The other, four-star guard Gabby Minus, is still expected to join the Lady Vols next season.
https://www.wbir.com/article/sports/college/vols/reports-five-star-prospect-oliviyah-edwards-requesting-release-tennessee/51-487a1c89-b3a2-4174-b1b5-1b856581ae75
Wisconsin judicial race spotlights state GOP's struggles
Wisconsin Republicans are bracing for a lopsided state Supreme Court race next week, as liberals are all but expected to expand their majority. It underscores how the state GOP has struggled to compete in critical elections over nearly the last decade.
Democratic-backed judicial candidate Chris Taylor leads the conservative favorite, Maria Lazar, in recent polling, and Taylor’s campaign has outraised her opponent by a roughly 5-to-1 margin in the race that will determine whether the Wisconsin Supreme Court remains a 4-3 liberal majority or expands to 5-2 edge.
The unusually sleepy nature of Tuesday’s judicial race comes as Wisconsin Republicans have struggled to match the Badger State’s Democrats in state party apparatus and fundraising abilities in recent years.
“The [conservative] campaign apparatus is really degraded over the course of the last 10 years or so, particularly in the … fundraising side of things,” said Republican strategist Ben Voelkel, a former longtime aide to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who once ran for lieutenant governor.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5815729-wisconsin-republicans-state-supreme-court-race/
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