Eastern Mass. girls' lacrosse: Globe Players of the Week, April 20-27
Julia Kipperman
, Nauset
— The Warriors defeated Mansfield, 15-14, on Tuesday, and Bishop Stang, 12-7, behind a combined 14 goals from the Merrimack-bound junior — including the late winner against the Hornets.
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Gia Papa
, Dighton-Rehoboth
— The senior attack had eight goals and nine assists for 17 points on the week, including two goals and five assists in a victory over Taunton on Monday, and six goals and three assists in a win at Seekonk on Friday.
Isa Robinson
, North Andover
— In a 3-0 week for the No. 18 Scarlet Knights, the Furman-bound senior provided 19 goals and eclipsed 200 for her career, highlighted by a seven-goal showing in a 10-8 win over Burlington on Saturday.
Trevor Hass can be reached at
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Chicago Tribune
8 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
NBA draft: Here are the guards to watch for, including Kasparas Jakučionis and Dylan Harper
There's a deep set of high-end guard prospects in the upcoming NBA draft. Rutgers point guard Dylan Harper is positioned to be the first name called after projected No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg, while Baylor's VJ Edgecombe, Texas' Tre Johnson, Oklahoma's Jeremiah Fears and Illinois' Kasparas Jakučionis are possible top-10 picks as one-and-done prospects. Here's a look at the guards entering Wednesday's first round. Strengths: Jakučionis brings size (6-5, 205) and an all-around floor game to the perimeter. He averaged 15 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists with four double-digit rebounding games and eight games with at least seven assists. He was also one of the nation's best freshmen at getting to the foul line (5.1 attempts per game). Concerns: Jakučionis shot just 31.8% on 3s, including 5 of 22 (22.7%) in four bright-spotlight games during the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments. He averaged 3.7 turnovers — sixth-most in Division I, most among freshmen — and had 13 games with at least five turnovers. Strengths: The 6-foot-5, 213-pound son of former NBA guard Ron Harper has size at the point and two-way potential. The lefty thrived as a scorer (19.4 points) with athleticism to finish at the rim, score on stepbacks and hit catch-and-shoot looks. Notably, he went for 36 points in an overtime win against Notre Dame, then 37 more a day later in a loss to then-No. 9 Alabama during the Players Era Festival in November. Harper is a playmaker with good court vision, averaging 4.0 assists. He also averaged 1.4 steals, including six against Southern California and four more against a ranked Illinois team in February. Concerns: He shot 33.3% on 3-pointers while launching 5.2 per game, though shot selection against contested looks didn't always help. There's also the optics of being the NBA-bound floor leader on a team that finished with a losing record despite featuring a second one-and-done talent in forward Ace Bailey. Strengths: Explosive athleticism stands out at both ends, notably as an above-the-rim finisher who creates highlight-reel moments. The 6-4, 193-pound Edgecombe finished in the combine's top 10 with a 38.5-inch max vertical leap, had seven games with at least three made 3s and 11 games with three-plus steals. 'I think for freshmen, the universal (issue) is just being able to sustain the level of intensity required as long as they're on the court,' Baylor coach Scott Drew said recently. 'The size, length, speed is one thing, but just to be able to compete each and every play, it's a different level. And VJ has that.' Concerns: Edgecombe shot just 34% on 3s, though Drew said Edgecombe could see gains after refining his shot mechanics. He could also improve in shot creation, such making just 25% (13 of 59) in off-dribble jumpers, according to Synergy's analytics rankings. Strengths: The 6-5, 190-pound Johnson averaged 19.9 points to lead all Division I freshmen, as well as being the Southeastern Conference's overall scoring leader. The highlight was Johnson going for 39 points against Arkansas in February to break Kevin Durant's Longhorns freshman single-game record. He thrived off screens (shot 52.1% in those scenarios to rate in the 91st percentile in Synergy) and shot 39.7% from 3-point range, including 12 games with at least four made 3s. He also shot 87.1% at the foul line. Concerns: The 19-year-old could use some bulk on a slender frame to help him hold up against bigger and stronger opponents at both ends. Strengths: The combo guard pressures defenders with his ball-handling and space creation, averaging 17.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and 4.1 assists. He got to the line 6.3 times per game and ranked tied for 11th among all Division I players by making 183 free throws. Fears also had a knack for clutch plays, including a four-point play to beat a ranked Michigan team along with a tough late scoring drive for the lead in the SEC Tournament loss to Kentucky. Concerns: He needs to get stronger (6-3, 180) and improve his outside shot. He made 28.4% of his 3s, including nine games of going 0 for 3 or worse. Reducing turnovers (3.4) would help, too. Egor Demin: The BYU freshman from Russia is a possible lottery prospect as a playmaker with size (6-8, 199), known for elite passing and vision. He averaged 5.5 assists to rank second among all Division I freshmen. Jase Richardson: The Michigan State freshman and son of former NBA guard Jason Richardson is small (6-1, 178), though the first-round prospect is a 41.2% 3-point shooter. Nolan Traore: The 6-5, 175-pounder is a scoring playmaker from France. The first-round prospect had previously drawn interest from programs like Duke, Alabama and Gonzaga. Nique Clifford: The 6-5, 202-pound Clifford spent three years at Colorado then two at Colorado State. The first-round prospect is older (23) but had career-best numbers last year (18.9 points, 9.6 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 37.7% on 3s). NBA mock draft: Guards — including Illinois' Kasparas Jakučionis — could be big in Round 1Ben Saraf: The 6-6, 201-pound lefty from Israel is a scoring playmaker and first-round prospect. He averaged 12.8 points and 4.6 assists last season with Ratiopharm Ulm in Germany. Cedric Coward: The 6-5, 213-pound senior started at Division III Willamette, spent two years at Eastern Washington, had an injury-shortened season at Washington State and was set to transfer to Duke. Now he's a first-round prospect after testing well at the combine. Walter Clayton Jr.: The 6-2, 199-pound combo guard was a first-team Associated Press All-American and Final Four's most outstanding player in Florida's national title run. He's a first-round prospect and gamer who thrived in pressure moments. Drake Powell: The North Carolina freshman wing has perimeter size (6-6, 195), athleticism, 3-point range and defensive potential to be a possible first-round pick. He has a 7-foot wingspan and had combine-best marks in standing and max vertical leap. Kam Jones: The Marquette senior and potential first-rounder was a finalist for the Cousy Award presented to the nation's top point guard after averaging 19.2 points and 5.9 assists. He missed two games in his career.
San Francisco Chronicle
8 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Golden State Warriors help transform lives of incarcerated men through coaching program
VACAVILLE, Calif. (AP) — One day last fall, Ray Woodfork found himself being challenged to a fight by a fellow inmate half his age on the grounds of Solano State Prison. Woodfork would have been tempted not so long ago. The Golden State Warriors have helped turn him toward a different way of thinking. This time, the once-aspiring college basketball player, who was serving as referee for the prison football league that day, immediately made it clear he had no interest in an altercation. Woodfork said he chose to walk away and return to his dorm. He acknowledges had he fought there's no way he would now be part of a peer mentoring program or have a chance for the governor to review his case. And Woodfork certainly wouldn't be a certified basketball coach either if adrenaline and anger had won out. 'I was just like, 'That's not who I am, that's not what I'm about,' and I walked away,' Woodfork recalled. 'It's hard to do, because the flesh wants to do that.' The incident happened before Week 5 of a six-week program run by youth coaches from the Warriors Basketball Academy as part of the Twinning Project that is teaching incarcerated men at Solano coaching skills and showing them there is the chance for meaningful transformation. Woodfork successfully utilized a skill learned in the program: palms down. With palms facing down, it allows someone to move forward and focus on the next moment or play, forgetting whatever trigger might be right in front of them or something that already happened. Woodfork began writing rap lyrics about his experience with the Twinning Project, which started in the UK by pairing professional soccer teams like Arsenal and West Ham United of the Premier League with prisons to contribute in the rehabilitation process. U.S. clubs such as D.C. United, Angel City FC and Miami FC have become involved — and other NBA teams are showing interest. 'Golden State will be a hard act to follow,' Twinning Project CEO Hilton Freund said. 'With my palms down, I calm down, next move is on them.' ___ Several months later, Woodfork grabbed a mic and began rapping those very words in celebration as his 15 basketball teammates danced alongside him and hugged one another. It's graduation day. That means a stroll in front of the group to receive a certificate and Warriors jersey with each man's last name on back. The hope is these graduates will now use their skills to teach other incarcerated men not only how to coach but to be positive influences. When Warriors academy coach Ben Clarfield circles up the group at midcourt to give the men and instructors a chance to provide feedback, there is a common theme. The Twinning Project has provided these men a sense of self-worth and purpose, a break from the isolation of prison. Many of the participants expressed feeling loved and seen — often for the first time in years. This has been about grace and forgiveness, inclusion and acceptance. Oftentimes, those ideas have had to be learned or re-learned — and the Twinning Project played a crucial role in that process. 'It reintroduced me to my love of basketball, that people on the outside haven't given up on us,' former Fresno State student Jonquel Brooks said. 'It's wanting to coach but not knowing how to coach, then now being given the tools to have the opportunity.' Jeff Addiego, vice president of Warriors Basketball Academy, and his staff have also been changed by the outreach. They beamed and fought tears at the same time, overjoyed to see these men finding meaning in their new roles. The way this program works, the Warriors players and coaches aren't participating as some of the European professionals are, though former Golden State big man Festus Ezeli has been a regular visitor. 'We've gotten to know each and every one of these guys. If one of these guys was anywhere else I would give him a hug the first time I saw him,' Addiego said. 'It's amazing. We don't pry or ask them anything it, but what they've been willing to share with us, it's powerful stuff." Woodfork's mentor, Viet Kim Le, took part in the second coaching cohort. He has observed the commitment by Woodfork to show remorse for his crime and better himself while serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for murder. 'His beliefs have changed," Le said, "so he looks at life through a different lens.' ___ 'I don't react, I respond, I take a breath and I move on." ___ Spanning four hours each Tuesday, some of these men felt like actual basketball players again. They stepped into a changing area in the Solano gym and traded their prison blues for jerseys featuring the Warriors logo on front and Twinning Project on back before making their way to the court for drills like shooting, dribbling and defense. There was also mental training to find strategies for every situation they might encounter in prison or, for some perhaps eventually, life on the outside. They backpedaled with extra self-confidence, they high-fived, dishing out good-natured trash talk here and there, but more than anything they cheered each other on — through every great shot or errant pass. Many might never have mixed otherwise. Community-building is a big part of it. Freund launched his charitable foundation in 2018, and he and his wife attended the Feb. 11 graduation of the second group of 16 men at Solano receiving coaching certificates. He is thrilled the Warriors became involved. Freund references a study from the University of Oxford published last year showing the program's 'wholistic benefit" for the incarcerated leading to "better behavior, less propensity for violence, improved relationships amongst themselves and improved relationships with their prison officers.' ___ 'Making coaches out of convicts, we're taking over cities ... coaching with a passion, that's how we set the tone.' ___ The palms-down approach is about having the power to choose a response. That message and other learning tools came from mental skills coach Graham Betchart, who works regularly with the UConn men's basketball team. On his first drive to Solano, Betchart came up with the rhyme "let it go, give it back, next play I attack.' He had no idea Woodfork would soon begin turning those words into rap. 'Inspiring to the world," Betchart said, "and it comes in a way that I've never seen anybody deliver it the way that he does. ... And everything he's saying is PG-13 but it's delivered in a way that's so powerful you don't even realize that you'd want your 9-year-old kid listening to this.' ___ 'I let it go and get it back, the next play, you know I'm going to attack.' ___ Woodfork was arrested at age 20 for killing a man during an attempted robbery. He had expected to start playing college games in a summer tournament mere days later. 'So I was right there, right there,' Woodfork shared. Now he is hopeful his hard work will be considered by Gov. Gavin Newsom. A former gang member both outside and inside prison who once had dreams of playing in the NBA, Woodfork has trained to be a peer mentor — a program requiring he have five 'clean' years without trouble in order to participate. The Warriors' program has filled a major void. 'That's an understatement,' Woodfork said, 'due to the fact my aspirations were to play in the NBA one day, as a kid that was my end all, be all, that was my identity. Basketball was everything.' ___ 'It's deeper than the game and that name on your shirt, it's the Twinning Project, where real men put in work.' ___ It brings Addiego and the others to tears at times witnessing the progress — like Woodfork deciding not to fight that day. 'I talked myself off the ledge by speaking out loud about what happened,' said Woodfork, now working as a drug and alcohol counselor. 'This is an opportunity to show the world I'm not the person I was. It doesn't define me. I feel like I've outgrown prison, I feel like a fish swimming upstream, a salmon.'
Fox Sports
9 hours ago
- Fox Sports
Golden State Warriors help transform lives of incarcerated men through coaching program
Associated Press VACAVILLE, Calif. (AP) — One day last fall, Ray Woodfork found himself being challenged to a fight by a fellow inmate half his age on the grounds of Solano State Prison. Woodfork would have been tempted not so long ago. The Golden State Warriors have helped turn him toward a different way of thinking. This time, the once-aspiring college basketball player, who was serving as referee for the prison football league that day, immediately made it clear he had no interest in an altercation. Woodfork said he chose to walk away and return to his dorm. He acknowledges had he fought there's no way he would now be part of a peer mentoring program or have a chance for the governor to review his case. And Woodfork certainly wouldn't be a certified basketball coach either if adrenaline and anger had won out. 'I was just like, 'That's not who I am, that's not what I'm about,' and I walked away,' Woodfork recalled. 'It's hard to do, because the flesh wants to do that.' The incident happened before Week 5 of a six-week program run by youth coaches from the Warriors Basketball Academy as part of the Twinning Project that is teaching incarcerated men at Solano coaching skills and showing them there is the chance for meaningful transformation. Woodfork successfully utilized a skill learned in the program: palms down. With palms facing down, it allows someone to move forward and focus on the next moment or play, forgetting whatever trigger might be right in front of them or something that already happened. Woodfork began writing rap lyrics about his experience with the Twinning Project, which started in the UK by pairing professional soccer teams like Arsenal and West Ham United of the Premier League with prisons to contribute in the rehabilitation process. U.S. clubs such as D.C. United, Angel City FC and Miami FC have become involved — and other NBA teams are showing interest. 'Golden State will be a hard act to follow,' Twinning Project CEO Hilton Freund said. ___ 'With my palms down, I calm down, next move is on them.' ___ Several months later, Woodfork grabbed a mic and began rapping those very words in celebration as his 15 basketball teammates danced alongside him and hugged one another. It's graduation day. That means a stroll in front of the group to receive a certificate and Warriors jersey with each man's last name on back. The hope is these graduates will now use their skills to teach other incarcerated men not only how to coach but to be positive influences. When Warriors academy coach Ben Clarfield circles up the group at midcourt to give the men and instructors a chance to provide feedback, there is a common theme. The Twinning Project has provided these men a sense of self-worth and purpose, a break from the isolation of prison. Many of the participants expressed feeling loved and seen — often for the first time in years. This has been about grace and forgiveness, inclusion and acceptance. Oftentimes, those ideas have had to be learned or re-learned — and the Twinning Project played a crucial role in that process. 'It reintroduced me to my love of basketball, that people on the outside haven't given up on us,' former Fresno State student Jonquel Brooks said. 'It's wanting to coach but not knowing how to coach, then now being given the tools to have the opportunity.' Jeff Addiego, vice president of Warriors Basketball Academy, and his staff have also been changed by the outreach. They beamed and fought tears at the same time, overjoyed to see these men finding meaning in their new roles. The way this program works, the Warriors players and coaches aren't participating as some of the European professionals are, though former Golden State big man Festus Ezeli has been a regular visitor. 'We've gotten to know each and every one of these guys. If one of these guys was anywhere else I would give him a hug the first time I saw him,' Addiego said. 'It's amazing. We don't pry or ask them anything it, but what they've been willing to share with us, it's powerful stuff." Woodfork's mentor, Viet Kim Le, took part in the second coaching cohort. He has observed the commitment by Woodfork to show remorse for his crime and better himself while serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for murder. 'His beliefs have changed," Le said, "so he looks at life through a different lens.' ___ 'I don't react, I respond, I take a breath and I move on." ___ Spanning four hours each Tuesday, some of these men felt like actual basketball players again. They stepped into a changing area in the Solano gym and traded their prison blues for jerseys featuring the Warriors logo on front and Twinning Project on back before making their way to the court for drills like shooting, dribbling and defense. There was also mental training to find strategies for every situation they might encounter in prison or, for some perhaps eventually, life on the outside. They backpedaled with extra self-confidence, they high-fived, dishing out good-natured trash talk here and there, but more than anything they cheered each other on — through every great shot or errant pass. Many might never have mixed otherwise. Community-building is a big part of it. Freund launched his charitable foundation in 2018, and he and his wife attended the Feb. 11 graduation of the second group of 16 men at Solano receiving coaching certificates. He is thrilled the Warriors became involved. Freund references a study from the University of Oxford published last year showing the program's 'wholistic benefit" for the incarcerated leading to "better behavior, less propensity for violence, improved relationships amongst themselves and improved relationships with their prison officers.' ___ 'Making coaches out of convicts, we're taking over cities ... coaching with a passion, that's how we set the tone.' ___ The palms-down approach is about having the power to choose a response. That message and other learning tools came from mental skills coach Graham Betchart, who works regularly with the UConn men's basketball team. On his first drive to Solano, Betchart came up with the rhyme "let it go, give it back, next play I attack.' He had no idea Woodfork would soon begin turning those words into rap. 'Inspiring to the world," Betchart said, "and it comes in a way that I've never seen anybody deliver it the way that he does. ... And everything he's saying is PG-13 but it's delivered in a way that's so powerful you don't even realize that you'd want your 9-year-old kid listening to this.' ___ 'I let it go and get it back, the next play, you know I'm going to attack.' ___ Woodfork was arrested at age 20 for killing a man during an attempted robbery. He had expected to start playing college games in a summer tournament mere days later. 'So I was right there, right there,' Woodfork shared. Now he is hopeful his hard work will be considered by Gov. Gavin Newsom. A former gang member both outside and inside prison who once had dreams of playing in the NBA, Woodfork has trained to be a peer mentor — a program requiring he have five 'clean' years without trouble in order to participate. The Warriors' program has filled a major void. 'That's an understatement,' Woodfork said, 'due to the fact my aspirations were to play in the NBA one day, as a kid that was my end all, be all, that was my identity. Basketball was everything.' ___ 'It's deeper than the game and that name on your shirt, it's the Twinning Project, where real men put in work.' ___ It brings Addiego and the others to tears at times witnessing the progress — like Woodfork deciding not to fight that day. 'I talked myself off the ledge by speaking out loud about what happened,' said Woodfork, now working as a drug and alcohol counselor. 'This is an opportunity to show the world I'm not the person I was. It doesn't define me. I feel like I've outgrown prison, I feel like a fish swimming upstream, a salmon.' ___ AP NBA: recommended
