UFL’s Battlehawks concur with former Bengals quarterback Adam McCarron

One of the best athletes in spring football is back for another year. The St. Louis Battlehawks, one of the four remaining XFL clubs that will comprise the new United Football League come spring, and quarterback AJ McCarron reached an agreement to play for them on Friday.

In 2023, McCarron made nine starts for the Battlehawks, setting an XFL record with 24 touchdown passes and topping the league in completion percentage (68.8%). After starting Joe Burrow suffered a wrist injury that ended his season, he signed with the Cincinnati Bengals and played for the last six weeks of the season on their active roster.

After a brilliant career at Alabama, McCarron, 33, was selected by the Bengals in the fifth round of the 2014 NFL Draft. He has played for the Bengals, Raiders, and Texans in 19 NFL games overall.

On February 26, the Battlehawks will participate in a combined training camp in Arlington, Texas, along with three other XFL clubs and four former USFL teams. The 10-week UFL season begins on March 30.

Marquette gets destroyed by No. 1 UConn in a stunning rout of a top-5 squad.

STORRS, Connecticut Even though UConn is the top team in the country and the reigning national champion, the Huskies were hoping for a Big East championship, something the Golden Eagles earned a year ago, going into their game against No. 4 Marquette on Saturday.

With 17 points and 10 rebounds, Donovan Clingan led the Huskies to an 81-53 victory over Marquette, taking command of the league standings.

“We were just trying to prove who we are, and we’re just trying to win,” Clingan stated.

It was a historic rout; ESPN Stats & Information data indicates that UConn’s 28-point win margin was the biggest in poll history for an AP Top-5 conference game.

For the Huskies (24-2, 14-1), Tristen Newton contributed 15 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists.won 14 games in a row. Hassan Diarra and Cam Spencer both contributed 14 points.

With an eight-game winning run going into the game, Marquette (19-6, 10-4) was led by Kam Jones with 15 points and Oso Ighodaro with 14.

With five games remaining, the Huskies currently have a three-game lead over the Golden Eagles, who are in second place in the Big East.

After a good defensive first half and a putback by Newton to start the second half, the Huskies lead by 16 and 18, respectively.

After grabbing an offensive rebound, Newton found Clingan for a forceful slam down the lane, giving them a 21-point advantage at 51-30. In the second half, UConn increased its advantage to as much as 29 points.

“You play elite offense, you play elite defense and you’re a great rebounding team and you play harder than the opponent, it doesn’t give them a lot of places to go,” Dan Hurley, the coach at Connecticut, said.

Before UConn took over, the score was knotted at 18. The Huskies led 42-26 at the half after holding Marquette without a field goal for over four minutes. Late in the half, they went on a 13-0 run.

The clubs will play each other again in Milwaukee on March 6.

“What should we do differently when we play UConn next time? “It unfolds like Santa Claus’ list,” Marquette coach Shaka Smart remarked. “However, I believe that we need to play with a higher degree of aggressiveness after that.

In one game, Jared McCain ties the Duke rookie record with 35 points.

Florida’s Tallahassee — As the No. 9 Blue Devils upset Florida State 76-67 on Saturday, Jared McCain tied the school freshman record with 35 points and set a new record for Duke with eight 3-pointers.

McCain scored 60% from the field (12-for-20), including 8-for-11 from long range in his sixth game with 20 or more points. He made seven 3-pointers in the first half of the game. His number of points was equal to the 35 points scored by Zion Williamson versus Syracuse in 2019.

That’s absurd,” McCain remarked. “That is absurd. I just give thanks to God. It’s an exciting firm to be in.”

In the end, Seminoles coach Leonard Hamilton dismissed the performance as an opponent having a bad game and expressed satisfaction with his team’s defense against McCain.

“It seems as though every team will have a player, or several players, that are capable of going off for big numbers, against you,” Hamilton stated. “And I felt that, overall, our defensive strategy worked well.

But regardless of how you’re protected, everyone who has played basketball appears to have had a night when they just can’t seem to miss. And I believed McCain was having one of those evenings.”

McCain surprised everyone with his 3-point shooting accuracy. The 6-foot-3 shooter had createdWe had a terrific victory over them; they are a formidable squad. Their presence poses challenges for offensive coordinators like Jon Scheyer of Duke. “Jared, entering this environment as a freshman and doing what he accomplished is really unique. Simply said, it was a really unique performance.”

Duke (20-5, 11-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) won its fourth consecutive game behind the 15 points of Jeremy Roach. For the 27th consecutive season, the Blue Devils have won 20 or more games. With eight points and eight rebounds, Kyle Filipowski gave Duke a 35–22 rebounding advantage.

For Florida State (13-12, 7-7), which has lost three straight and five of six, Jamir Watkins scored 15 points, marking his 11th consecutive game in double digits.

After a McCain 3-pointer with 13:04 remaining in the first half gave the Blue Devils a 19-16 lead, even without Tyrese Proctor, and they never looked back. In Tallahassee, they triumphed for the eighth time in nine games.