Feb 5, 2025
Los Angeles Lakers’ Luka Doncic speaks during an introductory NBA basketball press conference Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, in El Segundo, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Women: Washington at PSU
Tipoff: 6 p.m., Bryce Jordan Center, University Park
Records: Washington (13-9, 4-6 in Big Ten); Penn State (10-12, 1-10 in Big Ten)
TV: Big Ten+
Internet: Penn State Sports Network on the Penn State app
Notable: Penn State will be celebrating 60 years of women’s sports at the school. … Washington has lost three in a row and five of its last six games. … Penn State is 2-0 all-time against Washington, but the teams have not played since an 85-82 Lady Lions victory in 1996. … The bottom three teams miss the Big Ten tournament. PSU is currently tied for next-to-last at 1-10 with Rutgers and Purdue. Northwestern is 0-9.
Mirror prediction: Washington 65, Penn State 61
Mirror prediction record: 20-2
— Michael Boytim
Doncic excited to join the Lakers
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Luka Doncic was nearly asleep last Saturday night in Dallas when his phone buzzed. Only then did he learn that the Mavericks had just stunned the sports world by trading him to the Los Angeles Lakers.
“You can imagine how surprised I was,” Doncic said. “I had to check if it was April 1. I didn’t really believe it.”
The superstar has begun to recover after his first two days in LA, and he’s growing increasingly excited about a new chapter with LeBron James and his famed new team on the sunny West Coast.
And while his past and future teammates say Doncic has never lacked motivation to be great, he has all the fuel he’ll ever need after the Mavericks inherently questioned his talent and determination by making this seismic trade.
“It was a big shock,” Doncic said. “(Dallas) was home, so it was really hard moments for me. … (But now) I get to play in the greatest club in the world, and I’m excited for this new journey.”
The Lakers formally welcomed Doncic on Tuesday, less than three days after they traded Anthony Davis and Max Christie in a three-team deal for the Slovenian scorer who won his first scoring title last season before leading the Mavs to the NBA Finals. Doncic is a five-time All-NBA selection and a five-time All-Star.
Stars of Doncic’s age and accomplishments are almost never traded in any sport, and particularly not in such an abrupt manner. But when Dallas decided to move on from its 25-year-old centerpiece, the Lakers eagerly gave up Davis — one of basketball’s best big men — to make it happen.
Doncic is still processing the upheaval, but he already is seeing the limitless upside of a career in Los Angeles that will begin alongside the 40-year-old James, the top scorer in NBA history.
“Honestly, it was hard at first,” Doncic said. “That first day was really hard. I felt like these last 48 hours was one month. Emotionally, it was really hard, but today was much better. This is the Lakers. It’s one of the best clubs in history, so I’m excited to be here.”
General manager Rob Pelinka didn’t hide his glee at landing Doncic when they met with the media at the Lakers’ training complex. In his typically florid style of discourse, Pelinka said Doncic’s arrival would bring “basketball joy to the world.”
“We have one of the game’s biggest superstars and an international player coming to join the Lakers,” Pelinka said. “I think it’s going to be something incredibly special that the NBA and basketball has never seen before.”
Davis still not ready to play
Anthony Davis gave up a $6 million bonus as part of the seismic trade that brought him to the Dallas Mavericks and sent Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in a rare swap of superstars.
Perhaps it was the first small step for the 10-time All-Star in trying to illustrate his understanding of the magnitude of a move that infuriated fans of his new team.
Most of the ire has been directed at general manager Nico Harrison. Still, Davis is at risk of being viewed by Dallas fans as the guy in the deal that cost them their beloved Doncic, no matter what the Mavs do with one of the members of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team.
“Losing a monumental piece like Luka. It’s a lot, right?” Davis said of his fellow five-time All-NBA first-team player. “So I’m just trying to do my part and help Nico and the organization on how we can continuously get better. That’s just always the right thing to do.”
Davis spoke Tuesday at shootaround in Philadelphia, a few hours before the Mavs played the 76ers. He already had been ruled out with the abdominal injury that sidelined him in his final days with the Lakers.
Of course, he didn’t know when he sustained the injury a week ago against the Sixers that he had played his last game for LA. Just as Doncic never imagined his final game with the Mavs would be on Christmas, when he strained a calf.
WVU’s DeVries will miss rest of season
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia guard-forward Tucker DeVries will have surgery for an upper-body injury and miss the rest of the season.
His father, West Virginia’s first-year coach, Darian DeVries, made the announcement Tuesday, saying the school will apply for a medical redshirt that would allow his son, a senior, to play another season.
Before the injury, the 6-foot-7 Tucker DeVries started the first eight games of the season, averaging 14.9 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.
“Since early December, we have consulted with our team doctors and numerous medical professionals to evaluate and treat Tucker’s injury,” Darian DeVries said. “Tucker did everything he could to get back on the court this season, but unfortunately it has been determined by all parties involved that surgery is necessary.”
The DeVries duo came to West Virginia from Drake, where Tucker DeVries was a two-time Missouri Valley Conference player of the year.
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