CHICAGO — The ongoing Sophie Cunningham saga has another chapter.

The Indiana Fever guard took a hard shot to the face from Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington during the first quarter Saturday at the United Center that earned Carrington a Flagrant 2 foul and an ejection.

After an errant pass from the Sky’s Elizabeth Williams, the Fever’s Monique Billings collected the loose ball and threw ahead to a streaking Cunningham. On the shot attempt, Carrington’s left arm connected with Cunningham’s head and jaw, sending her to the floor.

The foul by DiJonai Carrington on Sophie Cunningham that resulted in a Flagrant 2 and ejection.

(via @ESPN) pic.twitter.com/Z27J934irs https://t.co/GAMYI5V151

— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) August 8, 2026

Cunningham immediately popped up and had to be separated from Carrington by teammate Makayla Timpson. After a review, officials upgraded the common foul to a Flagrant 2 and sent Carrington to the locker room. On her way through the tunnel, Carrington grinned and shook her head as Sky fans gave her an ovation.

Cunningham, an eighth-year veteran reserve, has been in the spotlight since ESPN quoted her in a July 21 story saying she wants to “protect young girls in a locker room” and that “they shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”

The ensuing uproar has included demonstrations and counter-demonstrations outside of Fever games, a trend that continued Saturday near the United Center on Chicago’s West Side. In addition, Cunningham has been booed by crowds in Portland and Minneapolis, and Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve wore a T-shirt declaring “Trans kids belong” during her team’s game against the Fever on Aug. 2.

On Friday, the Women’s National Basketball Players Association denounced “hate, abuse, and demonization” of the transgender community in a statement that did not reference Cunningham by name.

Against the Sky, Cunningham checked into the game at the 6:13 mark of the first quarter to a strong but mixed reaction of boos and cheers. After the dust-up with Carrington and the Sky guard’s ejection, the United Center scoreboard showed a fan with a T-shirt supporting transgender rights before quickly cutting away to a different attendee.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Kyle Shanahan is ready to return to the sideline.

The San Francisco 49ers head coach, a limited participant in training camp after suffering a concussion and other injuries in a July 14 car crash, said he’s feeling more like himself and plans to coach the team’s preseason opener against the Tennessee Titans next Thursday at Levi’s Stadium.

“I can’t tell you guys how close it is. I’m getting there. And I will be there,” Shanahan said during an impromptu news conference.

The appearance marked Shanahan’s first appearance at the podium since the crash, which he said is part of a push to do a little bit more every day. He’s already been doing film review since training camp began, and he addressed the team for the first time on Aug. 1.

“The team meeting was a big step for me,” Shanahan said. “… As far as the important stuff, I feel like it’s 100 percent.”

Since the beginning of training camp, offensive line coach and longtime Shanahan assistant Chris Foerster has run practices, with defensive coordinator Raheem Morris running his side of the ball and offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak calling the plays for Brock Purdy and the 49ers quarterbacks.

Shanahan has steadily been working his way back to full duty. When training camp first began, he stood well behind the defense next to general manager John Lynch and had little interaction.

After about a week, he changed his vantage point and has been adding duties.

“He’s inching closer,” quarterback Mac Jones said Thursday.

Last month’s car crash in Palo Alto, Ca., which occurred when Shanahan turned into oncoming traffic while retrieving a fallen cell phone, left him with a concussion, broken ribs, a broken bone in his hand and a gash above his right eye that took more than 40 stitches to close. The driver of the other car wasn’t injured, and no one was cited, which Palo Alto police said was up to the discretion of the responding officer.

Two weeks after the incident, Shanahan’s face looked fine, but the concussion symptoms lingered in the form of headaches, issues with noise and light, as well as fatigue.

“I just can’t stay the hours right now,” he said during a small group interview in his office with reporters on July 28.

Despite the odd circumstance, Purdy noted the roster is full of longtime 49ers, which has made things easier.

“We’ve been around the block and understand how this goes and what all goes into winning games in the NFL,” he said. “We have that. We have older guys that can help the young guys, and we can go through installs, we can go through practice, we can go through game prep and understand what it takes.”

UConn men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley said coaches who are taking advantage of court rulings to add to their roster for the upcoming season are hurting college basketball. He added that it’s not a “victimless situation.”

“We can’t go on the way we’re going on like this,” Hurley told reporters Friday. “It’s the (college) players, but then you also have kids in high school who get affected by this, so there are people who end up losing. You can’t act like it’s a victimless situation. There are kids who are 17, 18 years old who potentially may lose out on opportunities, so it’s not victimless.”

On July 31, a U.S. District Court judge in Colorado granted a preliminary injunction that gives college athletes from the high school class of 2022 another year of eligibility for the 2026-2027 school year. Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney handed down the ruling in response to plaintiffs challenging the NCAA’s age-based eligibility rule, which ran out the clock this past spring on college athletes from the high school class of 2022.

Hurley said the current state of college basketball is “not sustainable” and called it “absolute chaos.”

“If you’re a coach and the sport has given you a lot, (then) doing things to hurt the sport so that you can win a little more, I think you have to be able to look in the mirror a little bit on that,” Hurley said.

Texas Tech announced Friday that former All-Big 12 first-teamer Darrion Williams, who entered the 2026 NBA Draft but wasn’t selected, is returning to the Red Raiders after one season at NC State. Florida’s Denzel Aberdeen is a high-profile player who could impact the Gators’ roster this upcoming season, and former UCLA floor general Donovan Dent is on the market.

Coaches typically build their rosters throughout the offseason, so most roster spots are already filled given that schools have allocated most of their name, image and likeness resources. Hurley said UConn’s process for putting a team together involves high school recruiting and jumping into the transfer portal before summer practices begin. But now that a new wave of players have been granted eligibility, Hurley said coaching has been “cheapened.”

“You can put together better teams, compete and not have to identify young talent, develop that talent (and) have a vision of putting together a team over time to develop,” Hurley said. “Now you can screw up high school recruiting, (transfer) portal recruiting, not have a very good team and now start plucking from a group of players in August and put together a team.”

Hurley said he won’t add any players to his roster but called the situation “frustrating.”

“If compliance says something is illegal and we can’t do it, or a player is ineligible based on the rules, our reaction as a university isn’t, ‘Let’s go find a lawyer in Willimantic, Connecticut.’”

UConn will chase its third national championship in five seasons after finishing as national runner-up in April. Braylon Mullins, the Huskies’ NCAA Tournament shot-making hero, returns for his sophomore season alongside seniors Silas Demary Jr. and Jayden Ross. The Huskies also added a few players via the transfer portal, including 6-foot-11 Seton Hall transfer Na’jai Hines.

“No other sport is going on like this,” Hurley said. “And anyone that acts like this is great, it’s fine, it’s good for college basketball; they’ve already taken the stance that this is what they’ve wanted and now they’re just defending their position.”