May 25, 2025; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) walks downcourt during the third quarter against the New York Knicks during game three of the eastern conference finals for the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images
Tyrese Haliburton gets Pacers out to series lead
The former Cyclone helped the Indiana Pacers get out to a 2-0 lead before the team faced off with New York for a home game on Indy 500 Sunday.
Throw in the 20-point lead Indiana got to during Game 3 and the momentum really couldn’t have been higher for the Pacers.
Yet, for the third time in the 2025 playoffs, the Knicks would complete a 20-point comeback and eventually finish the game off to close the series to 2-1.
The good news for Indiana is that it will get game 4 at home, too. It would love a 31-point game from Haliburton like the one it saw in game 1.
Regardless, it’s pretty remarkable to see the run that Haliburton is on. It’s sort of similar to Purdy’s a couple seasons ago. We’ll see how the next three weeks play out.
Greg Sankey takes a shot
The SEC commissioner hosted a media session ahead of the conference’s spring meetings to address where the vote might go in the new format for the College Football Playoff.
Like other league leaders have, Sankey took it as an opportunity to take a shot, this one going at the Big 12 and SEC.
Greg Sankey fires a barb at the ACC & Big 12 for statements they released last week after the straight-seeding vote.
“I don’t lecture others about good of the game. Coordinated press releases about good of the game… I’m looking for ideas to move us forward.”
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) May 26, 2025
The difference in the shot here is that there was never a press release that was put out, but it appears Sankey took a page out of the SEC fans’ books that deal with hypotheticals and making things up.
I’ll dive deeper into the ramifications of all this after the meetings, but Ross Dellenger has a great look into it here.
The Big 10 voted to support the 4-4-2-2-1 format of the playoff, which would grant themselves and the SEC with four automatic spots – something other conferences will take opposition to.
On top of it, Dellenger also reports that the league gave Sankey the power to split away from the NCAA if he feels the conference needs to.
We’re as close as we’ve ever gotten to total turmoil in CFB, and that move feels bigger than anything we’ve seen in the last few seasons.
Dominykas Pleta classified as a freshman
T.J. Otzelberger revealed during the Tailgate Tour that Dominykas Pleta, Iowa State’s highly touted recruit out of Germany, will be classified as a freshman.
With how things currently stand with the transfer portal in college sports, the likelihood of Pleta using all four years of eligibility is lower than it would be in years past, but having it as an option isn’t a bad thing.
The 6-foot-10, 225-pound forward is part of the four-player class that will come to Ames this year with three players rated in 247’s top 150. Pleta doesn’t have a rating yet, but did average over 20 points and eight boards per game in Germany’s top professional league.
Quick Hits
Alex Palou immortalized his name as an Indianapolis 500 winner on Sunday. The IndyCar talent was already a three-time series champion, and started off the year winning an unprecedented four times in the first five races.
If you’re familiar with F1, we’ve seen that a few times in the last couple of decades – this isn’t as simple as ‘this team has the best cars and it’s expected they’ll win.’
Palou is a generational talent that is in the prime of his career at 28 years old, with a win at Indy being the one thing that was missing from his resume.
It’s still odd to me that some question how big this race is when 350,000 people watched Palou cross the bricks first (bagging him $3.8 million) while another 7 million (8.5 million watched his final laps) watched on TV… but I thought the video captured the moment as best as I’ve seen.
Alex Palou celebrates with his team after winning the #INDY500 pic.twitter.com/GSWUqvx1iJ
— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) May 25, 2025
Amazon Prime’s Coca Cola 600 broadcast blew me away. I’ve never been sold on streaming-exclusive events and the NFL seems to be the only place where they’ll put up the TV numbers expected for a game.
But Prime went full boar on delivering a broadcast worth buying – even if we’re not technically paying a dime because it put a 30-day free trial up for the stretch of five races that it’s contracted for.
They put Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the call with other familiar names in the sport, limited commercials and overall just hit a damn home run in a day in age where broadcasts have gone downhill.
Prime even went with a postrace show that lasted nearly 90 minutes – something fans haven’t gotten in motorsports on a regular basis ever.
I was out on streaming companies and all the subscriptions we’re roped into paying, but last night made me a big supporter in my book.
Ross Chastain has a ways to go in that medium, but winning that race proves you’ve got the skill, and team, it takes to be successful in NASCAR.
A well-deserved burnout for Ross Chastain! #NASCARonPrime pic.twitter.com/zBjpVkSaSV
— Sports on Prime (@SportsonPrime) May 26, 2025
