After a whirlwind 2024, USWNT and Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman has been catching the attention of club teams around the world.

Now entering her contract's final year, the 2021 Rookie of the Year's name has come up amid the recent wave of NWSL departures. Subsequently, speculation about the Olympic gold medalist's future is making headlines both at home and abroad. 

But Rodman herself isn't letting the noise get to her. Instead, she's been laser-focused on getting back to the pitch at 100% fitness after lingering back injuries impacted the latter half of the 22-year-old's season.

"The off-season was a great reset for me, mentally and physically," Rodman told Just Women’s Sports at NWSL Media Day in January. "I got to do a lot of physical therapy, which was nice. I got to be with family, and right now I'm just focused on not jumping right back into it."

Recovering from a taxing 2024 NWSL season

Rodman is known as a player whose motion on and off the ball can confuse defenders, running with a fearlessness that makes her even more dangerous on the attack.

But she's also had trouble balancing her style of play with ongoing pain in her torso. For years, the pain seemed to pass after hard contact, but it escalated last September when she had to exit a match by wheelchair.

Rodman returned to the Spirit ahead of the 2024 NWSL playoffs. But later, she mentioned that her back issues were still in play after the Spirit fell to the Orlando Pride in the 2024 NWSL Championship game. She went on to say that the injury had been haunting her since the US won gold at the Paris Olympics.

"That's not an excuse, but I wasn't the Trin that I wanted to be today," she said at the time.

But for a player that gets joy out of every moment on the pitch, taking a step back to get herself healthy has been a learning process.

Alongside "Triple Espresso" teammates Sophia Smith and Mallory Swanson, Rodman has chosen to take time off from the last couple USWNT camps. And she credits her coaching staff for keeping her on the road to recovery.

"[I'm] just kind of progressing slowly," she told JWS. "Even if I feel good, I don't want to set it back again and be in a bad position."

Speedy Rodman learns to slow things down

Despite her off-field efforts, balancing rest with the needs of her team hasn't been easy.

"It's still very difficult, especially once you get later on in the season," she said. "There's not those moments where you can say, 'Oh, I need to sit out this game,' because every game is important."

"I definitely don't have it down yet, trying to figure out that balance. But I'm learning, and I'm trying to get better at communicating with the medical team and with my coaches."

For a Washington Spirit team that finished second in both the 2024 NWSL table and postseason, getting players healthy could take the team to new heights. The Spirit lost numerous starters throughout the 2024 season, including Rookie and Defender of the Year Croix Bethune, captain Andi Sullivan, and starting forward Ouleye Sarr.

Of course, Rodman is just as ready to see her teammates back on the pitch as she is herself.

"I'm very excited that people are coming back from injury — Andi's journey, Ouleye's journey, Croix's journey, being able to hopefully see them back sooner than later," she said. "So far, even just this first week, the energy has been great. We're very together already, and going off last season, I think we set a really good foundation."

Despite injuries, consistency is key

A year without a major tournament involving the USWNT gives Rodman and her teammates time to gel. It also provides Rodman time to get ahead of the pain that has been following her for much of her career.

Last week, she told gathered media that USWNT manager Emma Hayes is planning to hire a specialist to help her continue to strengthen her back, describing it as "a hard location of injury."

With a stronger physical foundation, Rodman is eager to put injury woes behind her and focus on her game. But the 2024 NWSL MVP finalist is also realistic. She acknowledges that she might not be grinding out full 90-minute performances during the early season, if that's deemed detrimental to her long-term health. 

These days, Rodman is committed to developing consistency as a player. She places as much emphasis on being a playmaker as putting the ball in the back of the net. And if the immediate future limits her to leading from the sideline, she's all in.

"I don't need to be the person that's scoring three goals every game, but just making an impact in any way that I can, even if that's in games where I'm getting pulled out earlier," she said. "I'm excited to see how I grow in that way of celebrating other people, and being able to play at my highest level when I'm in the game."

Three Top 10 NCAA basketball teams suffered big upset losses on Thursday, shifting late-season momentum to the sport's underdogs ahead of next week’s conference tournaments.

No. 3 Notre Dame fell 86-81 to No. 24 Florida State, marking the Irish's second straight loss since reaching No. 1 in the AP Poll on February 17th.

"Just really frustrated with our performance defensively tonight," Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey after last night’s game. "I didn’t think that we were locked in for four quarters."

No. 7 LSU and No. 8 UNC also saw tough results, with the Tigers falling in a narrow 88-85 overtime battle to No. 20 Alabama while the Tar Heels stumbled 68-53 to in-state rival No. 16 Duke.

Even No. 1 Texas faced some adversity, eking out a 68-64 win after unranked Mississippi State pushed the Longhorns to the brink.

All in all, as the hyper-competitive 2024/25 women's college basketball season draws to a close, building exhaustion, waning focus, and minutes management are inducing game-changing upsets — putting the country’s top teams firmly on notice.

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Conference titles on the line in final NCAA games

While most of Thursday's upsets affect seedings further down conference tables, Notre Dame's loss puts the Irish in danger of losing the ACC tournament’s No. 1 seed right at the finish line.

Notre Dame now sits alongside No. 9 NC State atop the conference table, with the Wolfpack holding a potential tie-breaking head-to-head advantage over the Irish. The only way Notre Dame can now book the top ACC tournament spot is with a win over No. 25 Louisville plus an NC State loss against unranked SMU this Sunday.

Even more, Notre Dame could now lose their projected top-seeded entry into the 2025 NCAA tournament.

Along with the ACC trophy, regular-season titles in the SEC, Big 12, and Big Ten will now come down to weekend finales. The Big East's No. 5 UConn stands alone as the only major conference team to have already secured their title.

Similar to the ACC, the No. 1 SEC seed relies on a pair of Sunday games featuring the conference's two top contenders: No. 1 Texas and No. 6 South Carolina.

The Big 12 and Big Ten, however, finish the season with table leaders meeting in winner-take-all finals this weekend. The Big Ten title will be decided in Saturday's clash between No. 4 USC and No. 2 UCLA, before No. 10 TCU and No. 17 Baylor will battle for the Big 12 trophy on Sunday.

In the pair's first rounds earlier this season, USC and TCU emerged with wins over their respective conference foes.

How to watch top women's college basketball games this weekend

The country's best NCAA teams are all aiming to take care of conference business this weekend, pushing for top seeds and eyeing deep postseason runs.

Saturday's spotlight belongs to No. 4 USC and No. 2 UCLA, with the crosstown rivales' rematch determining the Big Ten title. USC tips off against UCLA at 9 PM ET, live on Fox Sports.

Then, Notre Dame kicks off ESPN's Sunday coverage with a decisive game against No. 25 Louisville at 12 PM ET.

Sunday's DI finale belongs to the Big 12, where No. 10 TCU takes on No. 17 Baylor at 6:30 PM ET, airing live on FS1.

Unrivaled basketball returns to action on Friday night, with the 3×3 league's weekend games bolstered by Thursday's huge off-court business breakthrough with the WNBA Players Association (WNBPA).

The offseason league officially secured a licensing deal with the WNBPA, allowing Unrivaled to sell merchandise showcasing player names, images, and likenesses both in-person and online.

Without a brokered licensing deal, Unrivaled faced limitations in its attempts to capitalize on its near-instant popularity, as the league could previously only use non-player-specific team branding.

The WNBPA’s willingness to help Unrivaled push the envelope — despite the lengthy negotiation — sets an important precedence for increased monetization opportunities across women’s sports.

"This is a sign of the Players Association’s responsibility to its players, to its members to monetize the rights fully," WNBPA executive director Terri Jackson told Front Office Sports on Thursday. "Their group rights don’t need to be limited to WNBA-only associated products."

While the player-specific merchandise isn't available just yet, fans can expect customized jerseys, T-shirts, and even game-used memorabilia to hit shelves soon — especially as the league’s March 10th regular-season finale nears.

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Postseason line looms as Unrivaled hits Friday's court

As the 3×3 basketball stars return to work this weekend, Unrivaled co-founder Breanna Stewart’s Mist and her NY Liberty teammate Sabrina Ionescu’s Phantom BC will both be hunting a bit of magic to boost them above the postseason cutoff line.

Trailing the pack with twin 3-7 records, the squads square off against each other on Friday, each aiming to step up into playoff contention with a win.

With all Unrivaled teams taking the weekend's court hoping to create separation from the bottom of the standings, Vinyl BC has arguably the most to lose. Currently sitting in fourth place on the league table, Arike Ogunbowale's squad faces an uphill climb against the third-place Laces on Friday and the league-leading Lunar Owls on Saturday to maintain their precarious postseason positioning.

How to watch Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball games this weekend

The Vinyl will kick off Unrivaled's weekend action against the Laces on Friday at 7:15 PM ET, with the Mist taking on the Phantom one hour later. Both games will air live on TNT.

Saturday's games will air on truTV beginning at 6 PM ET, when the Lunar Owls battle Vinyl BC before the Mist tip off against Angel Reese's Rose BC.

After the second day of competition, Korean golfer A Lim Kim holds a one-stroke lead at the LPGA Tour's HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore — with New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim, and the UK’s Charley Hull hot on her heels.

World No. 9 Hull kept pace in second after the first day of competition, but No. 3 Ko pulled ahead to sit one stroke behind No. 34 A Lim Kim after two days of play.

Meanwhile, No. 29 Hyo Joo Kim sliced seven strokes off her first-round performance to pull level with Hull in third place after a strong second round.

The USA's top contenders thus far are No. 69 Sarah Schmelzel and recently minted first-time LPGA champion No. 30 Yealimi Noh, both of whom currently sit one stroke behind Hull in a five-way tie for fifth place.

Elite LPGA golfers lock in on high-stakes battle

The field in Singapore features nine of the world’s Top-10 players and 13 of the Top 15, with the only top-ranked absences coming from US stars No. 1 Nelly Korda and No. 15 Rose Zhang.

Korda is sitting out the Asia leg of the LPGA Tour for the second year in a row. She will also miss the upcoming tournaments in Thailand and China before making a scheduled return at Arizona's Ford Championship in late March.

Korda’s absence hasn’t lightened the Women's World Championship competition, however, as the tournament’s $1.8 million purse remains in close contention halfway through the event's four rounds.

"I don’t think I typically play really well on this golf course and I thought this year would be a good year to kind of turn that around," reigning Olympic gold medalist Ko told reporters following the second round.

"The scores haven’t really been that low these past couple days," she added. "I'm just trying to focus on me and hopefully just keep climbing up the leaderboard."

How to watch the LPGA Tour at the Women's World Championship

The third round of the LPGA Tour's 2025 HSBC Women’s World Championship tees off at 8:30 PM ET on Friday, with live coverage on the Golf Channel.
 

Retired WNBA star Layshia Clarendon is being inducted into the LGBTQ Sports Hall of Fame, with the former LA Spark earning recognition for contributions both on and off the court on Thursday.

After coming out in a 2015 Players Tribune article, Clarendon made history as the league's first openly trans and nonbinary player. They played 11 seasons in the WNBA, repping half of the league's 12 teams by the time they retired in 2024.

The 2017 All-Star's off-court endeavors included advocating for justice and inclusivity across all sectors. They became the first vice president of the WNBA Players Association in 2016, helped negotiate the league's game-changing 2020 CBA, and served on the league's Social Justice Council, among other accomplishments.

"Layshia made a huge impact on and off the court throughout their outstanding basketball career," said former LA coach Curt Miller. "Lay was a true professional, showing up each day with a desire to help our teams compete and improve."

"Off the court, Lay is a trailblazer and impacted so many with their bravery to be authentic and unapologetic while consistently fighting for the marginalized."

Current USC manager Lindsay Gottlieb, who coached Clarendon at Cal, echoed Miller's assessment.

"The way the W looks and feels right now is largely a testament to the people that have been doing the work," she said. "And there's no one more important in that realm than Layshia."

Clarendon joins first LGBTQ Sports Hall of Fame class in 10 years

First established in 2013, the LGBTQ Sports HOF honors coaches, athletes, advocates, and executives "who have made an enduring impact on the sports world through leadership, visibility, and commitment to inclusion."

The HOF grew to 49 inductees through 2015. It then lay dormant for a decade before the Sports Equality Foundation resurrected it.

The SEF plans to announce additional members of the 2025 class in the coming weeks.

This year's cohort will be officially inducted in Las Vegas on August 10th. Then, Clarendon will join past honorees like tennis icon Billie Jean King, USWNT star Megan Rapinoe, WNBA standout Brittney Griner, and golf legend Patty Sheehan in the LGBTQ HOF.