HATTIESBURG, Miss. — Southern Mississippi has hired Jay Ladner as its basketball coach. Ladner has been the coach at Southeastern Louisiana the past five years and led the Lions to a Southland Conference regular-season title in 2018. Ladner was an accomplished high school coach in Mississippi before moving into college coaching in 2012. He graduated

9:08 AM ET Emily KaplanESPN Now that the Tampa Bay Lightning are out, the field is wide open — and yet things are tighter than ever, with three of the six remaining series tied (pending the result of Thursday’s Carolina Hurricanes–Washington Capitals clash in Raleigh, North Carolina). Here’s a recap of Wednesday night’s action (check

9:36 AM ET ESPN staff Max Verstappen hopes Red Bull will be able to regularly challenge Ferrari and Mercedes for race victories by the middle of the 2019 campaign. Red Bull has had a positive start to its Honda engine partnership but still remains adrift of the lead pair. As in previous seasons, its best

CHICAGO — If you watch much baseball, you’ve no doubt seen the latest MLB promo so many times that, by now, it’s probably receded into your subconscious. That’s how much it’s replayed. That’s how much Major League Baseball wants you to get the message. A podium is filled with many of baseball’s current top players.

SPOKANE, Wash. — Gonzaga forward Brandon Clarke, who led the nation in blocked shots this season, plans to skip his senior year and enter the NBA draft. Clarke is No. 12 in the ESPN rankings of top NBA prospects. Under new NCAA rules, the junior can sign with an agent and still return to school

You’d think the NFL, the corporate and cultural behemoth of American sports, would have a set of rules governing the attributes of a franchise quarterback. You’d think, 100 years into this thing, it would have a stone-scroll template that determines how it chooses the young men who become the most exalted and fetishized athletes in

For the first time, Notre Dame will have a female leprechaun cheering on the sideline for the Fighting Irish this season. Lynette Wukie, a sophomore from Elyria, Ohio, was one of three students selected Tuesday to wear the green suit and Irish country hat as Notre Dame’s mascot. She is the first woman selected since

You’ve probably heard a lot about college basketball and the transfer portal over the last couple of months. There are more than 500 Division I names in it right now, and that number is sure to increase as the offseason begins. But what is it, really? To fill in the blanks, we got a sneak

BOSTON — Seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson didn’t have many problems on the Boston Marathon course Monday, finishing in 3 hours, 9 minutes, 7 seconds. It was only after receiving his medal from 2014 winner Meb Keflezighi that Johnson ran into a road block: On his way to a postrace media availability, security wouldn’t let

LAS VEGAS — San Jose Sharks center Joe Thornton may face NHL punishment over a hit on the Golden Knights’ Tomas Nosek of a Game 3 loss to Vegas. The NHL’s Department of Player Safety said Monday it would hold a hearing with Thornton over the hit during the second period of Sunday’s Game 3.