Elena Delle Donne was driving in her car in September when a familiar, unwelcome sensation gave her pause. Pain shot down her leg, radiating and taking her back to eight months earlier, when she’d undergone surgery because a disc in her back was pushing on a nerve.

Up until then, Delle Donne had been feeling better. She had the operation in January 2020 and took the year to rehabilitate and strengthen. After finishing the 2019 WNBA Finals with three herniated discs — playing through the pain to win her first championship with the Washington Mystics — the two-time MVP was getting closer to making a full return.

She tried to continue with her physical therapy after the car incident, but the herniation was back and bigger this time.

“I knew the pain from before,” Delle Donne said over Zoom from her home workshop. “I was just hoping, along with the rest of my team, that through therapy I could get rid of it. But unfortunately it wouldn’t go away, and there are some things you can’t fix through rest, therapy and strengthening. I needed to go back for surgery.”

Delle Donne, 31, scheduled surgery to repair the herniated disc in early December. At that point, as she prepared for her second back operation in a year, she and her wife Amanda had an idea for a new project.

Since the 2019 Finals, Delle Donne had mostly been out of the public eye. She didn’t travel to Bradenton, Fla. last year to play in the WNBA bubble because of her chronic Lyme disease. She stayed within her pod through the COVID-19 pandemic, meeting with her physical therapist virtually and passing the time with board games, woodworking and at-home dance parties. It was Amanda who first suggested they document their lives from that point on, taking people behind the scenes of Delle Donne’s recovery and giving themselves a way to chronicle this bizarre but memorable year.

“Beyond the Game” will premiere Monday, April 19th, with new episodes dropping every Monday thereafter. 

“This series certainly goes through right after surgery, when I’m a little loopy, through all the different progressions and ways that I’ve tried to get back, like swimming,” Delle Donne said.

“There’s just a lot of silliness through it all, but I think people will really enjoy it.”

Delle Donne isn’t sure whether she’ll be ready for the first day of training camp on April 25 — she has her good days and bad days with the back. But she’s spending hours in the gym every day getting stronger, with the goal of playing in the Mystics’ regular season opener against the Chicago Sky on May 15.

It’s also not only her back she has to worry about. Delle Donne has been living and playing basketball with chronic Lyme for over 10 years now. She brought awareness to the condition last summer when she opted out of the bubble season and called out the WNBA for denying her a medical exemption and forcing her to decide between playing and forfeiting her paycheck (the Mystics ultimately paid out her full salary for the season).

Delle Donne revealed then that she takes 64 pills a day to manage the disease, and the side effects still linger.

“With the recovery of my back, there are days where I can tell that the Lyme stuff is what’s making it difficult to recover because it adds so much inflammation to my body,” she said. “It makes it confusing when you’re trying to figure out like, ‘OK, why is my back so inflamed now? Was it the workout yesterday? Is it something with Lyme?’ It’s just kind of a constant thing.”

The year and a half away from basketball has given Delle Donne an appreciation for her health and her loved ones. She’s found comfort in being home and taking time to pause, reflect and enjoy what she has.

The separation has also made her crave competition again. The Mystics return just five players from their 2019 championship team and yet boast arguably more talent now than they did then. Tina Charles will suit up for Washington for the first time after signing in free agency last year and sitting out of the bubble season with a medical exemption. Starting guard Natasha Cloud also returns, and Myisha Hines-Allen will look to build on her breakout 2020 campaign. Alysha Clark signed with the Mystics in February, but will miss the season with a foot injury.

And Delle Donne, after all, is just 19 months removed from her historic MVP season, when she became the first WNBA player to join the 50-40-90 club. After a year and a half spent staying in touch with teammates over Zoom and text messages, she’s counting down to the reunion with her team and basketball.

“I’m just trying to keep life simple now and keep my eyes on what is in front of me,” Delle Donne said. “And at this moment, it’s continuing to strengthen, get better and get myself back on the court for my teammates.”

Unrivaled’s Series A investment round closed on Monday, with the new 3x3 pro basketball league raising $28 million from investors including South Carolina’s three-time NCAA champion head coach Dawn Staley and USC sophomore phenom JuJu Watkins.

Joining Staley and Watkins in cutting checks were several industry leaders, venture capital funds, and other prominent athletes like US swimming legend Michael Phelps and NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Also contributing to this round were several of the league’s original $7 million seed investors, including USWNT icon Alex Morgan and legendary UConn head coach Geno Auriemma.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)

NCAA standouts seek Unrivaled access

Unrivaled's inclusion of college stars is particularly unique, and likely sets them up to join the league after graduation.

Other than Watkins, who partners with the league as an investor, Unrivaled has a pair of NIL deals with NCAA players. The league inked UConn’s Paige Bueckers — the expected No. 1 pick at the 2025 WNBA Draft — last summer, and added LSU's Flau'jae Johnson to its NIL roster earlier this month.

Both Bueckers's and Johnson's deals grant them equity stake in the league.

Unrivaled hits the financial ground running

Co-founded by WNBA stars Breanna Stewart (NY Liberty) and Napheesa Collier (Minnesota Lynx) to offer a domestic alternative to overseas offseason play, Unrivaled has now raised an impressive $35 million ahead of its inaugural season, which tips off in Miami on January 17th.

"As women’s sports continue to surge in popularity and impact, we’re inspired by the growing momentum around Unrivaled and grateful for the strong support from our investors," stated Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell.

"Our players haven’t even taken the court yet and the foundation we are building with our partners unites unparalleled expertise, strategic insight, and an incredible product. Together, we’re setting the stage for Unrivaled for years to come."

After another jam-packed weekend of 2024 NCAA Division I volleyball tournament action, all four No. 1 seeds are still standing, sending Pitt, Louisville, Penn State, and Nebraska to Thursday's national semifinals.

Overall No. 1 seed Pitt booked their fourth straight Final Four appearance by first squeaking by No. 4 seed Oregon in a back-and-forth five-set thriller in Thursday's Regional semifinal, before making quick work of No. 3 Kentucky in three straight sets on Saturday.

Also on Saturday, Louisville followed up their Thursday sweep of No. 4 Purdue with a redemptive 3-1 win over No. 2 Stanford, avenging their 3-1 loss to the Cardinal to close out regular season play.

On the other side of the NCAA bracket, reigning back-to-back national champions No. 3 Texas fell 3-1 to No. 2 Creighton on Friday. The Bluejays' hopes for a first-ever Final Four appearance didn't last long, however, as Penn State, who ousted No. 5 Marquette 3-1 on Friday, took down Creighton in five tough sets in Sunday's Regional final.

Finally, after downing underdogs No. 5 Dayton 3-1 in their Regional semifinal, Nebraska completed their 2024 hat trick of sweeps against No. 2 Wisconsin on Sunday, tacking on an NCAA tournament ousting to their two regular-season straight-set defeats of their Big Ten rivals.

An ACC vs. Big Ten championship on deck

This Sunday's national championship match is guaranteed to be an ACC vs. Big Ten affair, as both of Thursday's NCAA semifinals pit conference foes against each other. The fact that 2024's last-standing quartet hail from these Power Four leagues is unsurprising, as each has been the sport's two strongest conferences in recent history.

That said, the ACC is still seeking its first-ever NCAA volleyball championship, though both Pitt and Louisville have come wildly close in recent seasons. The Panthers fell in the national semifinals in each of the last three tournaments, while Louisville made the trip in both 2021, losing in the semis, and 2022, when they stumbled in the championship match to title-winners Texas.

The Big Ten's two semifinalists, on the other hand, boast a slew of national trophies. Penn State's seven titles and Nebraska's five trail only Stanford's nine for most by a program in NCAA volleyball history. That said, the Nittany Lions are entering on a nine-year title drought, and Nebraska hasn't hoisted national hardware since 2017, so both will be hungry to ascend this weekend's podium.

How to watch the 2024 NCAA volleyball tournament Final Four

The semifinal round will take place on Thursday, beginning at 6:30 PM ET with ACC champion Pitt taking on Louisville. Big Ten champion Nebraska will play Penn State shortly after the ACC tilt, with both matches airing live on ESPN.

The national championship match will go down at 3 PM ET on Sunday, with live coverage on ABC.

Less than two weeks after qualifying play wrapped, the 15 nations joining hosts Switzerland in the 2025 Euro were drawn into four groups on Monday, setting up intriguing matchups throughout the July tournament's group stage.

National teams were placed into four different selection pots based on UEFA rankings in an attempt to ensure each group contained as equal a level of competition as possible. The top two teams in each quartet at the end of group play will advance to the Euro quarterfinals.

The lone outlier from this process was Switzerland, with the host nation assigned to Group A prior to Monday's main draw.

Notably, Poland and Wales are not only making their Euro debuts next year, but their first appearances in a major tournament after upsetting Austria and Ireland, respectively, in the qualifying play-offs earlier this month.

2025 Euro groups littered with top-tier matchups

Monday's draw laid out the path to next year's European Championship, complete with match dates and venues.

Switzerland's Group A will kick off the tournament on July 2nd, with the Swiss taking on two-time champions Norway while Iceland contends with Finland.

Headlining Group B is 2023 World Cup champions Spain, who will face their neighbors and rivals Portugal to open their 2025 Euro account on July 3rd. Later that same day, the remaining Group B competitors, Belgium and Italy, will take the pitch.

July 4th begins with tournament behemoth Germany, who've won an astounding eight of the 13 Euro titles, taking on debutant Poland in Group C action. The biggest group-stage threat to Germany's first title since 2013, though, likely rests in the day's second match between a tough Denmark team and inaugural Euro champions Sweden.

Group D is arguably this edition's "Group of Death," as reigning champions England must face perennial contenders France and the Netherlands, plus UK rival Wales, throughout group play.

Interestingly, England boss Sarina Weigman, who won the last two Euros by first leading first the Dutch to the top of the 2017 podium before doing the same with the Lionesses, will face off against her previous team and home country the Netherlands in England's second group-stage match on July 9th. The Lionesses will begin defending their title by taking on France on July 5th.

The 2025 Euro groups

• Group A: Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Finland
• Group B: Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Italy
• Group C: Germany, Poland, Denmark, Sweden
• Group D: France, England, Wales, The Netherlands

Last week's blockbuster Top-10 matchup between No. 2 UConn and No. 8 Notre Dame scored ESPN their highest ratings of the young NCAA women's basketball season, averaging 847,000 viewers while peaking at 915,000 during the Thursday evening broadcast.

Notre Dame's big 79-68 win also marked the largest viewing audience for a pre-January NCAA women's basketball game on ESPN since 2011.

College basketball's record-breaking growth continues

Breaking viewership records is nothing new on the college basketball court. Later rounds of the NCAA tournament draw millions, with last year's national championship game scoring 18.9 million viewers to become ESPN's most-watched college basketball game ever, men's or women's.

That said, recent years have seen significant growth in regular-season play, too. The 2022-23 campaign averaged audiences of almost 200,000 across ESPN's platforms, an increase of 11% year-over-year. Last season upped the ante, averaging 272,000 viewers in regular-season play for a 37% increase over 2022-23. That bump made the 2023-24 season ESPN's most-watched in 15 years.

Even more, 2023-24 regular-season play on ESPN and ABC garnered 476,000 viewers per game, with 13 games drawing over 500,000 — the most to ever surpass that mark in a single season.

With Thursday's tilt between the Irish and the Huskies drawing 78% more viewers than last season's ESPN and ABC average, college basketball isn't slowing down — it's ramping up.

Top stars fuel NCAA basketball viewership records

The NCAA's Caitlin Clark era is over, but stars like Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo and UConn's Paige Bueckers are fueling the demand for college basketball. These individual players' talent and skills, combined with massive recognition birthed by the NIL era across college sports, have allowed top athletes to build brands and fan followings that rival the pros.

Considering Bueckers and other college stars like USC's JuJu Watkins feature in national ad campaigns for huge companies like Nike and State Farm nearly as often as they top the NCAA's stat sheet, it's no wonder they've become household names that hundreds of thousands want to watch in action.