Team USA is taking on a new look with young stars such as Angel Reese joining the senior team. Local college teams are facing the ups and downs of the season, and the Chicago Bulls face a crucial home-and-away series this weekend.
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Angel Reese joins ‘young and turnt’ Team USA core
Kiki Iriafen guards Angel Reese during the United States Women’s Basketball Team training camp at Duke University on Dec. 12, 2025, in Durham, North Carolina. (Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images)
In her first day of Team USA camp in Durham, N.C., last week, Dallas Wings star Paige Bueckers crafted a new moniker for the next generation of the national team: “young and turnt.”
The “young and turnt” crew includes stars like Bueckers, Cameron Brink, Caitlin Clark and the Sky’s Angel Reese. It’s an apt description for the group of 10 players who earned their first senior team call-up in this weekend’s camp.
Team USA is moving forward under new managing director Sue Bird and coach Kara Lawson. After winning eight consecutive gold medals at the Olympics, the team is greeting a new era without long-standing stars like Diana Taurasi — and that means embracing the future with players like Bueckers, Clark and Reese.
“You must give honors to the players that played before and are continuing to play,” Reese said. “I watched Sue and I watched Kara when they were part of the USA team and being able to walk in their footsteps is something that we don’t take for granted.”
The core of this young group grew up in the Team USA youth development system, winning hardware together at the U-17 and U-19 levels of the FIBA tournaments. But most of these players haven’t been called up for international duty in years; for instance, Reese hasn’t played for Team USA since the 2023 FIBA AmeriCup.
That doesn’t mean the national team hasn’t been a focus for these young stars. Reese set a goal of making the regular rotation for the senior team — and a loftier ambition to be selected for the Olympic roster in 2028. That process began with learning the system and identity that Bird and Lawson plan to instill in the program over the next four years of development.
“I’m really excited to be here,” Reese said. “To be back here, to be on this team is really, really important to me. … I want to represent this country well.”
During Team USA availability, Reese confirmed that she feels fully healed from a back injury that sidelined her in the final weeks of the 2025 season. She will not participate in Unrivaled this year after serving as one of the primary members of the inaugural lineup and plans to spend the majority of the offseason training in Orlando.
Reaching 200
Northwestern head coach Chris Collins watches in the first half against DePaul at Wintrust Arena on Nov. 14, 2025, in Chicago. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
Northwestern coach Chris Collins said he was so caught up in trying to help the Wildcats improve last week while on a three-game losing streak that he didn’t realize he was nearing 200 wins. Then the announcer informed the crowd at the buzzer Saturday against Jackson State.
“I was like, ‘Man, that’s a lot of games,’” Collins said at his postgame news conference.
The 93-53 win brought Collins’ record to 200-194 since he took his first head coaching job in Evanston in 2013-14. He is second all-time in NU history behind Dutch Lonborg’s 236 wins from 1927-50.
Collins, whose team is 6-4 this season, praised his players and his assistants who believed in him when “I had never coached a game, never called a timeout.” He said he didn’t set out to climb the coaching wins ladder.
“Growing up in this area, the way this program was talked about, my biggest goal was to earn respect,” Collins said. “To earn respect as a place that does things right, that’s competitive, that is one that’s respected within Big Ten circles. … So that’s the thing I’m most proud of.”
Two losses
Notre Dame guard Markus Burton shoots a layup against Kansas guard Tre White on Monday, Nov. 24, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Lucas Peltier)
Both the Notre Dame men’s and women’s teams have lost key players to injury.
The Irish men announced last week that junior guard Markus Burton, who was leading the team with 18.5 points per game, had surgery on his left ankle Wednesday.
“We’re always trying to seek advantages on offense, and that’s one advantage that’s taken away,” coach Micah Shrewsberry told reporters. “Now we just have to do it in a different way. It’s going to test us as coaches. You can’t be cookie-cutter.
“We’re not the Dukes of the world, the Kansases of the world that we’re going to out-talent you no matter who you are. We’re going to have to coach, we’re going to have to scheme, we’re going to have to figure it out. And our guys, we’ve got a bunch of basketball players. We’ve got a bunch of guys who love it. We’ve got a bunch of guys that might end up coaching at some point in time, unfortunately for them. I think they enjoy this kind of process of — how do we win the next game?”
On Thursday, during the No. 20 Irish women’s win over Morehead State, senior guard KK Bransford suffered a knee injury. Bransford was averaging 9.7 points and 5.8 rebounds per game.
Coach Niele Ivey said the injury is not season-ending.
“There’s no timetable, but we’re just really grateful that news was good,” Ivey told reporters.
Number of the week: minus-10.7
New Orleans Pelicans’ Derik Queen dunks over Chicago Bulls’ Nikola Vučević, center, and Kevin Huerter, left, on Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
The Bulls are in a rut. That’s been obvious enough in the results of the last three weeks, in which the Bulls lost eight of their nine games. But the numbers tell an even bleaker story. Over the last nine games, the Bulls have ranked dead-last in the league in net rating: minus-10.7.
This is a harsh reflection of this team’s overall ineffectuality on both ends of the ball. The Bulls averaged 111 points of scoring while giving up 121.1 points per game in this nine-game stretch. Opponents averaged 9.8 steals and shot 49.4% from the floor against the Bulls in this period. The Bulls, meanwhile, made only 33% of their 3-point attempts over the last nine games.
Chicago is hopeful that the return of a fleet of injured players — including Jalen Smith, Tre Jones and Kevin Huerter — will offset this recent collapse. But after falling five games below .500, making a return to the middle of the Eastern Conference standings will be an uphill battle.
Week ahead: Bulls
Wednesday: vs. Cavaliers, 7 p.m. (CHSN)
Friday: @ Cavaliers, 6:30 p.m. (CHSN)
Sunday: @ Hawks, 2:30 p.m. (CHSN)
The Bulls take on the Cavaliers in a home-and-away series this weekend that could help Chicago make up serious ground in the Eastern Conference standings. Despite tall expectations due to their prior standing as an Eastern Conference juggernaut, the Cavaliers have struggled to stack wins this season and currently sit in eighth in the conference standings.
The Bulls are still four games back from Cleveland due to their recent losing skid — and three other teams (Miami, Philadelphia, Atlanta). Guard Ayo Dosunmu is expected to return to the lineup during this series after missing two games with a thumb sprain.
Week ahead: Best college basketball games
Tuesday: DePaul at No. 22 St. John’s, 6 p.m. (Peacock)
Saturday: Northwestern at Butler, 3 p.m. (Peacock)
Monday: No. 18 Illinois vs. Missouri in St. Louis, 7 p.m. (FS1)
DePaul, which has opened the season 8-3, takes a step up against its first ranked opponent this season when it plays at No. 22 St. John’s (6-3) in its Big East opener.
Illinois (8-3) looks to rebound from its loss to No. 15 Nebraska on a buzzer-beater when it heads to the annual Braggin’ Rights game against Missouri (10-2) in St. Louis.
What we’re reading this morning
Quote of the week
“Mental acuity, mental awareness in transition. How does the best shooter in the Big Ten get a buck-naked 3, three minutes into the game in transition? That’s just five dudes out there who aren’t dialed in. That’s where I’ve got to help them.” — Illinois coach Brad Underwood on his team’s defense in an 83-80 loss to Nebraska, including allowing Pryce Sandfort to score 32 points