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Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton III and his rocket arm guided the No. 6 Volunteers to a 31-14 win over the No. 7 Clemson Tigers in the Orange Bowl on Friday at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.
Milton completed 19 of 28 passes for 251 yards and three touchdowns. His first score went to wide receiver Bru McCoy for 16 yards.
The Vols' next touchdown came via a two-yard run by Jabari Small in the second quarter, but Milton set up the score with a 50-yard pass to Squirrel White.
The senior later hit White (game-high nine catches, 108 yards) from 14 yards out in the third.
The Tigers made it a one-score game at 21-14 with 10:01 remaining in the fourth quarter, but Milton responded on the following drive with a 46-yard touchdown lob to Ramel Keyton, who got behind the Clemson defense for the pitch-and-catch.
The Vols defense shut down Clemson from there, and a 32-yard field goal by Chase McGrath with 3:07 remaining closed the scoring on the evening.
The 2022 campaign ended up being Tennessee's best season since 2001, when the Vols went 11-2, won the Citrus Bowl and finished fourth in the Associated Press poll. This team also went 11-2 and could very well earn a Top Five AP finish.
The Orange Bowl was an especially impressive ending to the campaign considering that star quarterback Hendon Hooker (32 total touchdowns, two interceptions) was out with a torn ACL suffered Nov. 19 against South Carolina.
And Twitter recognized Milton's stellar evening.
Milton has one year of eligibility left, and he's in line to be Tennessee's starter in 2023.
The Volunteers open next season on Sept. 2 against the Virginia Cavaliers.
In a clash of titans, it was Zion Williamson left standing at the expense of Joel Embiid.
The New Orleans Pelicans superstar went off for 36 points and five rebounds against the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday night, leading his team to a 127-116 win.
Embiid didn't exactly roll over without a fight. The superstar center had a vintage performance of his own, putting up 37 points and eight rebounds while trying to will his team to a tough road victory.
But the one-two punch of Williamson and CJ McCollum (42 points, career- and franchise-high 11 threes) was too much to overcome.
McCollum was shooting fireballs from beyond the arc all night long:
Unsurprisingly, NBA Twitter enjoyed every moment of the showdown:
It was an incredibly impressive offensive showing from the Pelicans (23-12), especially without Brandon Ingram available because of a toe injury.
For the Sixers (20-14), meanwhile, it was a second straight loss after an impressive eight-game winning streak.
The good news for the Sixers was that star guard Tyrese Maxey returned after a lengthy layoff. The bad news was that he struggled in his return, coming off the bench to post just nine points on 4-of-10 shooting from the field in 19 minutes. Some rust was to be expected, however, after missing over a month.
It didn't help that James Harden had a particularly odd game, offering up a 20-point, 10-assist double-double but also adding seven turnovers on the evening, and he only attempted eight shots from the field.
It may not have mattered had he played better. This night clearly belonged to Zion's bulldozing drives into the lane and McCollum's sniper-scope precision. Had the Sixers played a perfect game, maybe they could have overcome that duo's offensive fireworks.
But they didn't play a perfect game, and they left New Orleans with a loss.
LeBron James celebrated his 38th birthday with 47 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a 130-121 road win over the Atlanta Hawks on Friday.
The ageless 20-year NBA veteran made 18 of 27 field goals and 4 of 6 three-pointers despite starting the game 1 of 5. He notably scored half of his team's 32 fourth quarter points, including 10 in the final four minutes.
Much like Hawks legend Dominique Wilkins, James was a human highlight reel in Atlanta.
As Lakers reporter Mike Trudell noted, only 11 NBA players have played 20 or more NBA seasons. James also happened to be playing his third game in four nights.
And yet that didn't stop James from posting one of the best individual performances of the season from any NBA player. A host of people offered their praise postgame, including Kevin Durant, Magic Johnson and Pau Gasol.
James and the Lakers will now visit the Charlotte Hornets on Monday evening before returning home for a stretch of seven of nine games in L.A.
Charlotte Flair made her triumphant return to the WWE ring for the first time in nearly eight months and defeated Ronda Rousey in an impromptu match for the SmackDown Women's Championship on Friday.
Rousey had just defeated Raquel Rodriguez with an armbar to retain the SmackDown belt. She stayed in the ring with her partner in crime, Shayna Baszler, to cut a promo before being interrupted by Flair's music and the roars of a stunned crowd.
Flair stormed down to the ring and challenged her foe to a championship bout.
Rousey accepted, but this did not work in her favor as Flair quickly defeated her by countering an armbar and rolling the ex-UFC champion over for a pin to become a 14-time world title-holder.
Flair was last seen in the WWE ring during WrestleMania Backlash on May 8, when she lost to Rousey in an "I Quit" match for the belt.
She suffered a kayfabe fractured radius after Rousey put her in an armbar, but in reality, Flair took time off to get married to fellow professional wrestler Andrade El Idolo.
Flair is back just in time for the Road to WrestleMania in March, however, and things just got very interesting as the WWE calendar starts to heat up.
Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: profanity).
Sporting KC was reportedly the closest MLS club to signing Cristiano Ronaldo, per multiple reports, before the veteran striker signed with Saudi Arabia's Al-Nassr on Friday.
"I am fortunate that I have won everything I set out to win in European football and feel now that this is the right moment to share my experience in Asia," Ronaldo said on Friday after making the decision to continue his club career in Saudi Arabia.
The 37-year-old went scorched earth at Manchester United in an effort to depart the club, going so far as to rip ownership and manager Erik ten Hag in an explosive interview with Piers Morgan.
Manchester United responded by terminating his contract.
The original belief was that Ronaldo was seeking a move to a Champions League club. But when no such move materialized, likely because of Ronaldo's waning impact but massive wages, he instead joined Al-Nassr on what are reportedly astronomical wages:
"I'm thrilled for a new experience in a different league and a different country, the vision that Al-Nassr has is very inspiring," Ronaldo said. "I'm very excited to join my teammates, and to help the team to achieve more success."
It's somewhat hard to imagine that an MLS club could have offered a similar deal to the one Ronaldo received in Saudi Arabia, though a number of older stars have made their way to the MLS in the past, including David Beckham, Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Wayne Rooney, Kaká, Andrea Pirlo, Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard, among others.
But none are a global icon the likes of Ronaldo, who has the most Instagram followers among individuals in the world. Without question, he would have been the biggest star in the history of MLS, and would have drawn major attention to the league.
Instead, Ronaldo fans from around the world might have to find ways to stream Saudi Pro League matches to keep up with the Portuguese dynamo.
It wasn't always pretty. Going nearly four months between games will cause some rust. But when Notre Dame needed quarterback Tyler Buchner to step up, he did just that.
The sophomore quarterback threw for 274 yards and three scores and added 61 rushing yards for another two touchdowns in Notre Dame's 45-38 shootout win over South Carolina in Friday's TaxSlayer Gator Bowl at TIAA Bank Field.
But no, Buchner didn't make it easy. He threw three interceptions, and two of them were returned for touchdowns. He only completed 18 of 33 passes. He dug Notre Dame a hole in the first quarter, as his first pick-six gave the Gamecocks a 21-7 lead.
And with Notre Dame driving down the field in the fourth quarter, in the red zone with a chance to go up two touchdowns, Buchner threw his second pick-six, tying the game.
Suffice it to say, college football Twitter had some thoughts on the performance, both good and bad:
Again, context is key. Buchner hadn't played since Sept. 10 after suffering a shoulder strain. He was only making the third start of his career. It's just as fair to question some of the play-calling on his interceptions—given how well the Fighting Irish ran the ball—as it's fair to call out his own decision-making.
Oh, and he did still throw the game-winning touchdown.
And luckily for Buchner, he wasn't on an island. The running back duo of Audric Estime (95 rushing yards) and Logan Diggs (170 yards from scrimmage, two scores) gashed the Gamecocks (8-5) all night long.
That, in turn, kept the ball out of Spencer Rattler's hands (29-of-46 for 246 yards, two touchdowns and an interception) for long stretches, a key factor for a Notre Dame defense that struggled to slow him down.
Buchner will want some throws back, no doubt. But he still got the win in the end, he accounted for five total touchdowns. And Notre Dame (9-4) finished an otherwise disappointing season on a high note.
