From a brand and player development perspective, South Carolina flexed with five starters from Clayton White’s defense drafted. That includes three in the second round — Nick Emmanwori (No. 35 overall), T.J. Sanders (No. 41) and Demetrius Knight (No. 49) SEC Defensive Player of the Year Kyle Kennard,  got the call in the fourth round at No. 125 while Tonka Hemingway went 10 picks later.

Seeing five players selected is a testament to quality coaching at South Carolina under Shane Beamer. Emmanwori, Sanders and Hemingway all signed with the Gamecocks as three-star recruits originally and blossomed into early draft picks. That said, that’s a ton of talent to replace on defense coming off a 9-3 season.

Shaquille O’Neal is adding to his post-NBA resume.

A federal judge on Monday “dismissed a sweeping antitrust lawsuit” brought by former NBAer Mario Chalmers and “other prolific college basketball players against the NCAA.” Chalmers filed the antitrust class action last year alongside 15 other former college basketball players, who claimed that the NCAA is “unjustly enriching itself” off the NIL of its athletes to promote the NCAA Tournament. But U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer “sided with the NCAA in dismissing Chalmers’ complaint Monday, finding it untimely.” A four-year statute of limitations “limits legal action for violations of federal antitrust law.” Chalmers and the other plaintiffs contested that the law “continues to be breached to this day by the NCAA using their likeness in promotional material, making their claims timely despite the four-year limit,” but Engelmayer “wasn’t persuaded.” At a court hearing in January, Engelmayer also implied that past litigation like O’Bannon v. NCAA “didn’t help plaintiffs’ current case, since many of those same issues were already litigated.” Engelmayer “acknowledged that again in his Monday order, writing that ‘all named plaintiffs were members of the O’Bannon injunctive class’” (COURTHOUSE NEWS SERVICE, 4/28).

Shaquille O’Neal has agreed to become the Sacramento State men’s basketball general manager, sources told ESPN.

It will be an unpaid, voluntary role for the Basketball Hall of Famer, whose son Shaqir O’Neal will play for Sacramento State under new coach Mike Bibby after transferring out of Florida A&M in late March to join the Hornets.

Shaquille O’Neal is the latest high-profile athlete to accept a general manager role with a school. NBA superstar Stephen Curry was named an assistant GM at his alma mater, Davidson, last month, and Hawks star Trae Young has that same role at Oklahoma. Retired NFL quarterback Andrew Luck last year accepted the GM position with his old school, Stanford.

O’Neal won four NBA titles, three NBA Finals MVPs and a league MVP during his 19-year career in the NBA. He is currently an analyst on TNT’s “Inside the NBA” show. He also served as a minority owner of the Sacramento Kings from 2013 to 2022.

Sacramento State is slated to open a new basketball facility on campus this fall. University president Luke Wood, an alum and the youngest president ever appointed in the California State University system, has been aggressive in his approach with the athletic programs — and the addition of Shaquille O’Neal continues that.

The Hornets hired Bibby, a 14-year NBA veteran and former Kings star, last month. He replaced Michael Czepil, who served as interim head coach for the 2024-25 season after David Patrick left to take a job as associate head coach at LSU.

Sacramento State went 7-25 this past season under Czepil and had gone 28-42 in two campaigns with Patrick at the helm. The program has not made an NCAA tournament since moving up to Division I in 1991 and has posted a winning record only twice since then, going 21-12 in 2014-15 and 16-14 in 2019-20.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.