Jack Kayil Intends to Stay in NBA Draft, Leaving Hole in Gonzaga's Backcourt
Receiving first-round feedback in the NBA Draft process, Gonzaga commit Jack Kayil has decided to stay in the draft, his agents first told Jonathan Givoy of DraftExpress.
But since the initial reports, in an interview with basketball-world.news, Kayil’s agent Milan Nikolic said that “Jack definitely won’t go to college – for any number in the world. This is final.”
Because the German guard is an international player, he technically has until June 13 to withdraw from the draft, but based on Kayil’s sentiments about college basketball, suiting up for the Zags is firmly off the table for him even if he is not on an NBA roster next season. The situation is a tough break for GU, which never got to deploy the talented 20-year-old in its system after he officially signed with the program last November.
Rashid Shaheed More Than Just a Return Specialist for Seahawks
When John Schneider pulled the trigger on a trade with the New Orleans Saints at the trade deadline last season, it changed the trajectory of Seattle’s season. It’s not too far-fetched to say that the move to bring in Rashid Shaheed helped the Seahawks get over the hump and win the Super Bowl.
While Shaheed is a receiver, he truly turned the tide for Seattle as a return man. He ran back a kick return to open the second half against the Falcons when the game was tied and the offense was sputtering. That sparked Seattle to a blowout win in Atlanta. Later, he returned a punt for a touchdown when Seattle was down two scores to the Rams at home, with the division and No. 1 seed in the NFC possibly at stake. That helped the Seahawks rally to one of the most dramatic wins in franchise history.
He didn’t stop there. On the opening kickoff of Seattle’s postseason, against the 49ers, Shaheed ran it 95 yards and pranced into the endzone for the game-opening score amid the smoke from the pregame fireworks. Before the dust and smoke had cleared, Seattle was already winning and they never looked back.
It’s impossible to tell the story of the 2025 Seahawks without Shaheed. He is a vital part of it, interwoven with so many critical moments leading up to Seattle hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.
Instant Takeaways: Storm Fall Victim to Vengeful Mystics in Blowout Loss
The Seattle Storm got bullied on the glass and struggled to convert from long range in a vengeful 78-64 loss to the Washington Mystics on Wednesday, May 27, at Climate Pledge Arena.
Seattle (3-5) was never competitive against Washington (3-3) despite being just a few days removed from a 12-point route of the same team on the same court. Only Jade Melbourne for the Storm cracked double figures, totaling 15 points, three rebounds, three assists and a steal.
Shakira Austin (18 points), Michaela Onyenwere (14 points) and Kiki Iriafen (13 points) led the Mystics to victory. Austin and Iriafen combined for 22 rebounds as well.
M’s Complete 22-4 Sweep of A’s with 9-1 Blowout, Take First Place in AL West
Despite still being a game back of .500, the Mariners are in first place in the AL West. In one sense, it doesn’t matter; a man once said that you should check the standings once on June 1 and every day starting July 1. But in another sense, the series was massive.
“Yeah, I think so,” said Mariners starter Logan Gilbert when asked if the series (in which they outscored their opponents by 18 runs) was their most complete of the season. “To go out there and prove it like that, and everybody steppin’ up at different times, it says a lot about the team.”
For the first time since sweeping the Astros at home back in April, the M’s cobbled together three consecutive complete wins. From the first inning onward on Wednesday afternoon, Seattle held a watertight lid on a team that had come into the series scoring 4.8 runs per game in their home ballpark. Julio Rodríguez put a bow on the whole thing with a three-run jack in the eighth, but the final outcome was not in doubt long before the 9-1 final score.
Rob Refsnyder got the Mariners started with a three-run homer, continuing an inchoate upturn.
The Mariners’ $6.25 million acquisition of platoon bat Rob Refsnyder hasn’t been a very productive signing despite the clear pedigree of production against lefties over his previous four seasons. With a horrific .113/.195/.197 slash line going into Wednesday’s game, it appeared that his time with the Mariners was nearing an ignominious conclusion.
That may yet be true. But a glimmer of hope shone through in the first inning, as he built on a hit in Tuesday’s game with a loud 107.7 mile per hour bomb.
Seahawks Bolster Gunner Competition, Acquire Irv Charles From Jets
Orchestrating a rare late May trade, the Seattle Seahawks have added another viable contender to the mix to help replace departed receiver Dareke Young as one of the team’s primary gunners covering punts on special teams.
According to Zach Blatt of the Athletic, Seattle has agreed to send a conditional 2028 seventh round pick to the New York Jets for veteran receiver Irvin Charles. The team officially announced the trade on their official website with undrafted rookie Trayvon Rudolph waived to create a roster spot in a corresponding move.
Highly recruited out of high school, Charles began his collegiate career at Penn State, playing two seasons for the Nittany Lions before transferring to Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2018. He didn’t play football for the next three seasons, returning to the gridiron as a graduate student in 2021 and catching 39 passes for 792 yards and 12 touchdowns, using that successful comeback audition at the Division II level to climb back onto the NFL radar.
Gonzaga WBB Adds Rider Transfer Emmy Roach as Taller Option in Backcourt
Wanting to add size to its backcourt, Gonzaga women’s basketball announced the addition of Emmy Roach, the team’s first landed transfer ahead of the 2026-27 season.
A priority on head coach Lisa Fortier’s offseason checklist, the 6-0 Roach brings a unique skillset from her years in New Jersey and overseas. She spent the last two seasons at Rider University, appearing in 28 games each year for the Broncs. But the Australian also has semi-professional experience, playing in the NBL1 before her collegiate career began, which will now continue in Spokane. Roach will likely fill a desired role in replacing senior Inês Bettencourt, as a guard with two-way abilities who can take pressure off of Allie Turner as a ball-handling option.
In a statement released by the team, Fortier said, “We are excited for Emmy to join our team! She brings versatility, a solid basketball IQ, and shoots the ball in a way that fits great for how we want to play.”
Sunblock Required: Huskies Non-conference September Slate Scheduled for Daytime
Get your sunblock ready.
There will be no Dawgs after dark for the Washington Huskies football team during the first three home games.
The Big Ten announced TV times for the first three weeks of the season, and it includes a few anomalies for UW. First, there are no true night games for the Huskies during the first three weeks, which are all home non-conference games. And with college football starting the regular season a week before the NFL, the season-opening Apple Cup will be played on a Sunday, making it three games in 14 days at Husky Stadium.
M’s Move Within Striking Distance of Division Lead with Win over A’s
Tuesday night was the first time the 2026 Mariners followed up a win of six or more run differential with a win of three or more run differential. Those benchmarks are largely meaningless in and of themselves, but they showed that the team finally managed to string together two largely complete victories, Tuesday’s a solid 4-1 win.
With a lead in hand for nearly the whole contest, the M’s did well to keep the powerful Athletics lineup off the board and away from any sort of comeback; not once after the first did the hosts have the tying run at the plate. But most of all, the team finally showed life against a side of the mound they have been vexed by for a grueling stretch of time.
The Mariners Jump-started their offense against a debutant Sacramento southpaw.
It’s no secret that the Mariners have been horrendous batsmen against left-handers, coming into the game with a .190/.277/.315 slash line against southpaws going into Tuesday’s game. The A’s sought to exploit this fact with quite the bold move: calling up lefty pitching prospect Gage Jump from Triple-A in order to be able to face the M’s on their weaker side.
Analysis: Why Continue Piggyback When Tactic Lacks Intended Benefit?
From the score of the game itself, the Mariners’ performance on Monday against the A’s was as good as they could hope for. Seattle took advantage of some defensive miscues in the top of the third to scratch across a pair of runs before the wheels flew off Sacramento starter Aaron Civale’s bus with two outs and the team wound up with a 6-0 lead before the end of the frame and a 9-2 win by the end of the game.
But that explosion of runs papered over some clear tension as the team continued to use its tactic of piggybacking two of their six starters. To be abundantly clear, the tension itself isn’t the main reason why the idea is flawed - that would be the self-imposed constraints on player usage - but given that it seems to have been adopted in order for such tension to be avoided, the uneasiness was notable and instructive.
Bryce Miller had spun a gem given his pitch limitations on Tuesday, May 19, going 5 ⅔ innings in the first of Seattle’s attempted piggybacked starts. The game fell apart in the ninth as the M’s tried to stretch the piggyback beyond the point where it made sense, but Miller’s performance itself during that game was a good sign.
He's In: Cristian Roldan Makes USMNT Cut Ahead of World Cup
The saga is over.
Cristian Roldan was one of 26 players named to the United States Men's National Team for the June FIFA World Cup after months of speculation on whether the 30-year-old would make the cut. Roldan, who has notched 45 caps with the USMNT, enters the largest sporting event in the world alongside stars like Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie. He's the only Sounder projected to play in this year's World Cup.
Roldan made the cut in Qatar in 2022 as the U.S. finished in the Round of 16, but never got on the pitch. If his form is good enough to get minutes this time around, local fans will get a chance to see him when the U.S. takes on Australia in the group stage on June 19 at Lumen Field (AKA Seattle Stadium for the next month and a half).
The USMNT will take on Senegal on May 31 and Germany on June 6 in friendlies as it ramps up.
With the eye of former skipper Gregg Berhalter in the past, Roldan's versatile skillset in the defending midfield captured the attention of new USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino in recent months as he made practically every camp the team has put on.
Analysis: What to Watch as Seahawks Kick Off OTAs
Taking the next step towards a new season, the Seattle Seahawks will open the final phase of their offseason program with the start of OTAs, partaking in the first open session to media on May 26.
With three open sessions and 10 total practices scheduled in the next two weeks before mandatory minicamp in mid-June, here are five storylines to watch heading into OTAs at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center:
1. Brian Fleury begins his journey as a first-time play caller with massive shoes to fill.
This time last spring, after dismissing Ryan Grubb just one day after missing the playoffs in 2024, the Seahawks handed the keys to their offense to Klint Kubiak, who held previous experience as an NFL play caller with the Vikings and Saints. That courtship ended up being a home run for the franchise and the coach, as Seattle finished in the top five in the league in points scored and set a team record for points scored in a single season. That success ultimately led to Kubiak being hired as the new coach of the Las Vegas Raiders in February, and while nobody could have reasonably expected such a triumphant one-and-done scenario to play out, there were signs that his scheme would bring out the best in quarterback Sam Darnold and company in OTAs.
It’s Time for Dan Wilson, Mariners to End Platoon Obsession
The Seattle Mariners began this season with a clear plan to cycle through several players. A “platoon” in baseball is defined as a “a managerial strategy where two players share a single defensive position, alternating starts based on the handedness of the opposing starting pitcher.”
For example, the Mariners signed Rob Refsnyder this offseason to mash against left-handed pitching. When Seattle faced a right-handed starter, Dominic Canzone and Luke Raley would be in the lineup with Refsnyder on the bench.
But after 55 games, now closer to the halfway point of the season than the season opener, it’s time to ditch this approach.
Washington State Draws Oregon State on Friday to Start NCAA Tournament Play
The NCAA Tournament returns to Eugene this weekend with a regional field that features familiar ex-Pac 12 rivals, a future conference matchup, and two of the Washington State Cougars biggest games in years.
Washington State will open regional play on Friday against Oregon State at PK Park, home of top-seeded Oregon. The Cougars will then continue in the double-elimination regional format against either the Ducks or Yale Bulldogs, depending on the outcome of Friday’s opening games.
The Eugene Regional carries an unusual amount of Pac-12 history. Three schools with previous conference ties are grouped together as college athletics continues to shift through conference realignment. Oregon now competes in the Big Ten after the collapse of the Pac-12, while Oregon State spent the past two baseball seasons competing as an independent before agreeing to officially rejoin the rebuilt Pac-12 next year alongside Washington State. The regional gives the weekend a familiar West Coast feel despite the changing conference landscape.
Hounds Domesticate Seawolves in Chicago with 57-17 Beatdown
With the Seawolves taking on the undefeated Chicago Hounds on Sunday, there were only two ways the game was going to go. Either the Seawolves would hand the best team in the MLR a complete stunner on their own turf, or the Hounds would take care of business in front of their own fans and go to 8-0 on the 10-game season.
The clearly more likely outcome was the one that wound up happening. Although the Seawolves put in admirable effort and relatively limited their mistakes (especially in the first half), the same energy deficit that sunk them quickly at home against the Hounds sunk them on the road against that same team, only a little slower, steadier, and without a red card on Seattle.
When Seattle had the ball, things looked a little bit more even. Progress was slow but clear, but they pushed forward slowly and grinded out the occasional holes. The backfield especially had moments of electricity, while Ezekiel Lindenmuth’s return from red card suspension went well in the front row.
More College Football is Good, So Washington Huskies' Fans Should Be All in on 24-Team Playoff
“Why do you hate football so much?”
I pulled myself away from aiming at the cue ball on a pool table at a long-since-gone sports bar called The Endzone along Highway 99 in Kent, Washington, and looked up to see if the old guy was talking to me.
I say “old,” but back in 1998, he was probably younger than I am now. He wore a Don James-style purple Huskies hat with a yellow “W,” and had the requisite 1990s goatee. He stared at me, awaiting my response. Turns out he’d heard my rant about college football bowl games. My buddies and I were in our mid-20s, back when we knew everything.
“Huh?” I asked.
“You said there are way too many bowl games,” he said. “Why do you hate football so much?”
Gonzaga Joins Staggering Field in Expanding 2026 Players Era Tournament
The Gonzaga Bulldogs will be seeking redemption in the expanded Players Era Tournament. Roster shakeups at Kansas State and high-profile matchups with Baylor, Alabama, and potential rematches with tournament champion Michigan set the stage for an electric preseason showdown in Las Vegas. Emerald City Spectrum reporter Howard Woodard highlights the Zags’ challenging non-conference schedule, featuring dates with Purdue and Duke, and explores how a blend of returning talent and incoming transfers position Gonzaga as a top-10 contender. He examines the Players Era tournament’s new two-week format, bracket predictions, tougher competition, and which matchups could ignite new rivalries.
Sounders Hopes Dashed by Late LAFC Winner Before World Cup Break
It was all going to plan for the Seattle Sounders through eight games.
Sitting at 6-1-1 with the best defense in the league, head coach Brian Schmetzer’s squad looked to insert itself into the top of the Supporters Shield Race with a road game against flailing Sporting Kansas City and a three-match homestand coming.
Instead of thriving on the schedule, Seattle went 1-1-2 heading into a key road date with a struggling LAFC squad (7-5-3), fresh off three losses, on the final Sunday before the June World Cup Break.
Seattle managed to play a scoreless game through 85 minutes, bringing on offensive subs late to try and steal three points. But it was the home team that notched the win, as midfielder Timothy Tillman came out of nowhere late to slam a cross-goal service past Andrew Thomas for the win.
Seattle dropped to 7-3-3 and into sixth place out west with nearly two months to go before its return to play against Portland on July 16.
Washington State Baseball Wins Mountain West, Earns NCAA Tournament Bid
The Washington State Cougars baseball team is officially headed back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2010 after defeating San Diego State 14-4 Sunday afternoon to win the Mountain West Championship. The Cougars earned the conference’s automatic bid and completed one of the program’s biggest turnarounds in recent history.
The Cougars entered their winner take all game with a 29-26 overall record and finished second in the Mountain West standings with a 15-9 conference record, trailing only San Diego State in the standings. After finishing 18-36 a season ago, Washington State returned much of the same roster and turned that experience into a postseason run that few expected.
Washington State opened the conference tournament Friday night with a 5-1 win over Air Force to advance to the semifinals. On Saturday, the Cougars faced top-seeded San Diego State and pulled off a 14-9 upset to move into the championship game undefeated.
San Diego State stayed alive later that day by defeating Air Force 11-8 in an elimination game, setting up a rematch with Washington State on Sunday. Because the Cougars had not yet lost in the double-elimination tournament, the Aztecs needed to beat Washington State twice to claim the championship and NCAA Tournament berth.
Instant Takeaways: Storm Trample Mystics in Awa Fam’s Debut
Rookie No. 3 pick Awa Fam made her WNBA debut, and the Seattle Storm carried their momentum from Friday’s win into a 97-85 victory over the Connecticut Sun on Sunday, May 24, at Climate Pledge Arena.
Still without Ezi Magbegor and Dominique Malonga, the Storm finally got the second of their two prized rookie draft pick on the court for the first time. Katie Lou Samuelson also made her season debut, playing her first game for the Storm since 2021.
The final score makes it look closer than it was. This was a game the Storm dominated from the end of the first quarter to the final buzzer, making it by far their best game of the season against a quality opponent.
Kraken the Ice: How Can Seattle Execute ‘Prolific” Offseason?
The Seattle Kraken eye a “prolific offseason" with a new regime in charge after missing the playoffs for the fourth time in five seasons, but will bold words translate to pivotal on-ice upgrades?
On a new Kraken the Ice podcast, Emerald City Spectrum writer Nick Lee breaks down the Kraken’s ambitions, highlighting key offseason tasks like re-signing Bobby McMann and leveraging two first-round draft picks for maximum impact, potentially looking to acquire a proven scoring blue liner via trade. The discussion explores possibilities on defense and offense, including spotlighting prospects such as Chase Reid, Ethan Belchetz, and Dax Rudolph to bolster Seattle’s roster. Can management deliver meaningful roster changes, and will hard decisions - such as potentially moving Shane Wright - help reset the franchise’s direction?
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