While last year's season did not go as planned for the Sacramento Kings, multiple young players made the most of their increased opportunities, including 2020 first round pick Precious Achiuwa.

Achiuwa signed a veteran minimum deal with the Kings last season, and ended up having a career year.

The six-year journeyman averaged a career-best 10.1 points per game, adding 6.7 rebounds.

Following his strong season, Achiuwa is definitely in line for a larger contract, and Sacramento would benefit from bringing him back.

On Tuesday, ESPN Kings Insider James Ham said that the two's reunion is a growing possibility.

"The word I'm hearing is it's very very likely that Precious Achiuwa will be back next season," Ham said on ESPN 1320 Sacramento. 

In mid-March, following a 116-111 win over the Utah Jazz, Achiuwa expressed his gratitude for the Kings giving him a shot, while saying that he would love to return to the team next season.

"Absolutely. I love Sacramento. The city’s embraced me, the team’s embraced me, the organization—from the front office to my teammates and the coaching staff. I truly, truly love being here, and I would really love to be here," Achiuwa said. "I hope once the offseason comes around, they’ll be willing to have me come back.”

Achiuwa really caught his groove after the All-Star Break, upping his numbers in nearly every category and turning it up a notch on the defensive end.

But, perhaps his best attributes are his intangibles, as head coach Doug Christie talked about during last season.

"He's so coachable. He's a pleasure as a coach because he's listening," Christie said. He wants to win, he's about the team, all the right things. He wants to win so he'll be upset but then he lets it go and the smile is back on his face."

On all of his previous squads, Achiuwa has taken a selfless approach, doing whatever the team needs from him.

However, last season, with Sacramento riddled with injuries, Achiuwa took it upon himself to get more aggressive.

In the final game of the season, Achiuwa left the Kings front office with a good last impression, scoring a game-high 27 points against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Achiuwa ended the month of April averaging over 15 points per game for the second consecutive month.

With the Kings $82 million over the projected cap limit, according to Spotrac, signing Achiuwa could become difficult, but with some savvy money moves, opening up space for the former Memphis standout should not be too difficult.

Nevertheless, Achiuwa has certainly earned himself additional compensation after outplaying his minimum contract standing last season.

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Charlotte Knights 5, Buffalo Bisons 0
The Knights (42-33) poured on five in the top of the first, which was plenty to shut out the Bisons (35-40) and win the series. Charlotte loaded the bases twice in the first, leading to a two-run knock from Caden Connor and a bases-clearing double from Andy Weber just a couple of batters later. Outside of Connor’s second hit of the day in the sixth, the Charlotte bats seemed to die for the rest of the game, only getting a few baserunners from walks. As a team, the Knights went 3-for-11 with runners in scoring position and left six on base; it’s a good thing the pitching staff so excellent today.

Lefthander Noah Schultz made his second rehab start with the Knights, and though he’s still shaking off some rust he was decent in his 2 2/3 frames, striking out four despite occasionally losing some control with a pair of hit batters and a walk. Schultz loaded the bases in the third with two outs after a clean, 1-2-3 second inning, prompting Charlotte to swap lefties in the bullpen, bringing Chris Murphy in to close out the inning with a line out on the first pitch. Murphy handled the next four frames, allowing just one hit, one walk, striking out four, and also earning his third win of the season. As they have been all season, Ben Peoples and Jairo Iriarte both were successful in their respective innings, helping close out the game and steal a series win on the road.

Pensacola Blue Wahoos 11, Birmingham Barons 4
After a late, rainy night down in Pensacola, the Barons (26-43) strung together nine hits throughout the game Sunday and matched the Blue Wahoos’ (36-33) three home runs, but couldn’t capitalize and didn’t give themselves enough scoring opportunities, dropping the game and series. Five of the nine Bham hits were for extra bases, and Brenden Dixon had himself a day in falling just a triple short of a cycle. Jorge Corona and and Anthony DePino mashed the other two long balls for the Barons,. As a team they missed on the three opportunities with runners in scoring position (0-for-3) and left six on base, but they would have needed more than that to beat Pensacola today.

Defensively, things were a bit of a mess. Birmingham seemingly decided to go with a bullpen day, with Phil Fox opening the game with the first frame and six relievers splitting the remaining seven innings of work. Three scored off Fox right off the bat, and he ended up being tagged with the loss even though one of his three runs allowed was unearned and Morris Austin gave up four with two homers. Jonathan Clark and Jackson Kelley were the only Barons pitchers to not give up a run, and on top of that, the Blue Wahoos were essentially doing laps around the bases with Corona behind the plate, stealing six stolen bases — ouch. After a rainy week, Birmingham will head back home for a new series against the Knoxville Smokies.

Winston-Salem Dash 10, Greensboro Grasshoppers 4
The Dash (39-30) offense exploded for 10 runs on 13 hits while the bullpen was lights-out for the final four frames, defeating the Grasshoppers (43-26) to split the series. Winston-Salem scored eight runs in the first three innings to give the pitching staff a nice big cushion. Righthander Drew McDaniel made his 12th start of the season, and outside of a two-run home run, he was solid in his four innings of work, walking one while striking out six. The other two runs for the Grasshoppers scored off a second two-run shot off of Jake Curtis in the fifth, but the bullpen allowed zero hits the rest of the game with Jack Young recording his fourth win of the season.

On the other side of the ball, three monster days at the plate set the tone for the Dash: Kyle Lodise, Boston Smith, and Arxy Hernández. Both Lodise and Smith launched two homers on the day while scoring three times apiece, with Smith leading the team in RBIs (four). Piling onto that, Hernández mashed three hits with a double while driving in three. These three accounted for nine of the 10 runs batted in, and the other was brought in by Kaleb Freeman, who also had two hits on the day. It was a well-rounded win for the Dash to wrap up their home series before heading on a road trip.

Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 14, Fayetteville Woodpeckers 6
Not only did the Cannon Ballers (35-34) tally 10 hits in Sunday’s blowout against the Woodpeckers (33-35), they also walked 11 times against nine strikeouts and also launched three home runs to win the game and prevent a series loss. Fayetteville was leading, 6-3, through seven, but a whopping 10 runs came in for Kanny in the top of the eighth after a meltdown on the mound from the Woodpeckers.

It was truly a wild sequence of events. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this chaotic of an inning:

• Three consecutive Kanny walks loaded the bases, still 6-3, Fayetteville.
• Jurdrick Profar RBI base hit. (6-4)
• Efren Teran two-run single. (6-6)
• Jaden Fauske walk to re-load the bases. (6-6)
• Matthew Boughton two-run single. (8-6)
• Woodpeckers finally record two back-to-back outs. (8-6)
• Fayetteville pitching change.
• Alexander Albertus walks to re-load the bases. (8-6)
• Nick McLain walks, run scores. (9-6)
• Woodpeckers wild pitch to score Kanny’s 10th run. (10-6)
• Adrian Gil three-run bomb. (13-6).
• Woodpeckers finally get the third out. (13-6).

Adrian Gil leaves the yard!

It’s a 🔟-run 8th inning for the Ballers! pic.twitter.com/ozOkTKvCrY

Ouch. Six walks, a wild pitch, three singles, and a three-run tank. That’ll definitely do it! Fauske led the Ballers with three hits (3-for-5) and three runs scored, even mashing his own solo shot in the ninth, though both McLain and Gil drove in three runs apiece. Kanny went 5-for-11 with runners in scoring position, and even with 14 coming across the plate, there were still another seven stranded.

Righthander Caedmon Parker struggled with his command, walking five walks compared to four strikeouts, but he was able to battle through the 2 2/3 frames, only allowing one run and one hit. Anthony Patterson III came in to relieve Parker, and though four runs scored with him on the mound, only two were earned. I know we’ve already talked about how strange this game was, but those two unearned runs happened from two catcher interferences on Gil in the fourth, just two batters apart, both later scoring on a the three-run homer against Patterson. Righthander Carlton Perkins was the lucky bullpen arm to get the W out of the 10-run eighth frame, however. His first win of the season came despite one run scored on two hits and three Ks, leaving Landen Payne to close out the last two innings, striking out three in the process.

North Carolina kept its championship hopes alive with a 6-2 win over Oklahoma in Game 2 of the College World Series final on Sunday, forcing a decisive Game 3 on Monday night. The Tar Heels got dominant pitching from starter Caden Glauber and key production throughout the lineup to even the best-of-three series.

Glauber delivered five shutout innings, allowing just one hit and striking out eight to quiet the Sooners’ bats. At the plate, first baseman Erik Paulsen went 3-for-5, while third baseman Cooper Nicholson provided a pivotal two-run home run in the seventh inning to extend North Carolina’s lead.

The winner-take-all Game 3 is scheduled for Monday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN. After Sunday’s win, head coach Scott Forbes, along with Glauber, Nicholson and Paulsen, met with reporters to discuss the performance and look ahead to the championship showdown.

Here are some excerpts from what Forbes said.

I mean, it’s just what you expect. It’s like the Dustin Ackley version of a pitcher. If something happens, you’re, like, shocked. I felt like when The Dust, that’s what we called him, was here if he didn’t get a hit, something was wrong with him.

And I’m sitting here thinking I might start him tomorrow because our chances are pretty good when he pitches.

I didn’t know that stat. I’m glad I didn’t know it. Maybe we need to try to get ahead tomorrow, obviously.

I believe in this team, and they believe in themselves. And in a weird way, they’ve played better, as they said, when their backs are against the wall.

For some reason I had a weird feeling on Friday when we played Southern Cal, but I woke up with a better feeling on that Saturday. I felt the same way this morning, but I felt that way because I know our players.

Jake Schaffner is a great one to talk about. I mean, that kid brings it every day. Nobody recruited him much. Went North Dakota and thankfully he picked us. I think he’s one of the best shortstops in the country. I know he’s one of the best overall players and teammates and one of the most impressive young men that I’ve ever coached just because of his grittiness and how hard he plays.

He plays through some nicks and bruises. But I think he’s always ready up there, and ready for the big moment.

He hadn’t got a lot of hits it seems like lately. So that was big for him, too, because he’d been stinging it.

No, question. I think he threw about 50. But obviously, I felt we should have scored more runs there. So I want us to hopefully, tomorrow night, do the same thing but get that big hit. And hopefully we will.

But when a guy is that good, I mean, there was a point where I thought we might set a World Series record for strikeouts because he was that on with that change-up. And a good change-up is tough to do anything with when you back it up with 95, 97 miles an hour.

But we got him in the stretch. He started missing a little bit, and he was leaving the change-up up more so we can make contact with it.

But ill thought getting the pitch count up in that inning allowed us to get him out of the game.

My mentality is, number one, this is the position we all want to be in. I sure as heck do. And our players want to be in it. So that’s the first thing. Embrace that, enjoy it and go after it.

It will be all hands on deck. I trust our pitchers. I have a great relationship with them.

I can’t make that decision tonight because I want to see how guys feel. We take a lot of value in catch play. I told Coach Gaines, I feel like we’ve got about seven options to start tomorrow, and I like every one of them.

And I’m not trying to hide anything. But I want to sleep on it. And our approach will be everybody available as long as they feel good. If somebody doesn’t feel good, they’re going to be honest with me. It’s just a matter of who we decide as a coaching staff to start. I’m not sure who that’s going to be.

I told a lot of people sleep is important. I got nine hours of sleep last night. I have to be careful because the guys know I’m a little louder and I have to make sure I don’t get thrown out of a game with umpires.

I have more energy. But just to enjoy it. I slept great. As a matter of fact, I ate a huge breakfast this morning, probably the biggest breakfast I’ve eaten.

When you do this long enough, you understand that there’s more to it than — don’t get me wrong here — we want to win the national championship, and we’re going to go after it like crazy — but you coach long enough, you understand there’s way more to it. And I just want the guys to play free and easy and to have fun going after that national championship. So I’m going to do the same thing and practice what I preach.

Yeah, honestly, I feel like he’s done it, for the most, part the whole season. I think he struggled out of the gate maybe the first two weeks. But then he’ll also tell you that he decided to listen more and not have 15 hitting coaches, and listen to one, because that’s important. These kids have way too much, sometimes, distractions.

But he’s been so consistent. Again, I don’t remember a player that has been that clutch. I remember a lot of them, obviously, like a Colin Moran with all those RBIs. You’ve got guys like Kyle Seager and Dustin Ackley that were doubles machines. But you’ve got a ton of them. You got Chad Flack, who always got the big knock.

But what he’s done in driving in almost 90 runs, it’s unbelievable. He just has a knack for the big hit. And that home run was a big hit because you know they’re going to make a run. They made a run at the end. And every run we can scratch for, we needed.

The first thing, I was thankful that he told me it wasn’t his arm, because that’s what you dread as a coach. Got a kid out there pitching that’s going to make his career in the Major Leagues, not making his career here. I felt better about that.

He just said that his oblique kept getting tighter and tighter, had not pulled yet. I’ve known it long enough — could it have been dehydration? I hope it was. Because if he tells me he feels great tomorrow, he might be the starter.

But I just felt that’s my job is to take care of him, and I didn’t want to hurt it. I’ve seen things like that tear. So we just kind of — I just made that decision to not let him throw anymore, or even try to throw anymore because he’s a power pitcher. He sits 95 to 98. And that last pitch, I think, was 92 or 93. So he was backing off the gas a little bit. So I just wanted to protect him.

Yeah, I’m really enjoying it. We tell the guys in the first meeting, I have a PowerPoint, and the first thing that I show them is the word “love.” And we talk about the word “love” and what it means, and it’s the strongest force on the planet.

But obviously they know, like I said the other day, there’s some tough love. But this team really loves each other. And I think there’s some tough love in that locker room that I never have to get — it never gets to me where I have to be the tough-love guy.

That’s a credit to them in the locker room, working things out, because things aren’t perfect throughout the year. I’ve been a player, but if you have a special locker room, they work it out, even though they have difficult discussions. Hopefully there’s no bloody noses or anything in there.

But you know it’s a credit to Gavin Gallaher and Matty Matthijs, but a lot of other guys, not just our captains.

I just smile when I think of Carter French. Obviously, coaching, you have a lot of different players from a lot of different backgrounds, but the great thing about a team sport is you have to have Carter Frenches on your team that aren’t the highest recruited players, kind of an old-fashioned walk-on. His summer coach let me know about him. He got into UNC on his own.

I’ll never forget the meeting. He came up to my office. He was about 150 pounds, probably. But I said, I’ll give you a locker and the rest is up to you. And then after about a week, he’ll tell you, I had to have a chat with him like, are you serious about this or not? Because it looks like to me you’re just somebody who somebody told you to try out and you’re not going after it.

But from that day, that kid has not let up. He’s worked. He’s been in the weight room. He’s maximized his potential. And he’s played great for us, made great plays in the outfield. He has that slow heartbeat and ice water in his veins, and his at-bats today were huge for us. I told him, I said — because my job is to always think ahead and coach. So I had written 10 down beside him, because he would have led off the 10th. I was hoping he wouldn’t. But man, I think he led off, what did you say, four times, and he got on base every time. And that’s what we need to lengthen out our lineup.

I say that’s a tough one. Give me a second and I’ll get it together. Sorry.

Erik called me July 4th, I think, and the phone rang really early, so I knew it was bad news. So that’s a tough deal.

My wife lost her dad suddenly the week of 2011. So even though I had not — my wife more than me, it was her dad, not my dad, I feel like he was my dad.

I told him, look, we’ll be here for you. I know I can’t help you by words. I learned going through that with my wife that the best thing you can do is just be there and learn to listen, have some feel and not ask them every day about it.

But my wife was also 30 years old and this kid is just showing up at UNC still in his 20s. To see what he’s done and to see his team embrace him, good night.

I met his dad, too. And his dad was awesome. I mean, straight NYPD, a bad dude. And he served us. He served our country. He served us 9/11. I know that he’s with Erik. I know he’s watching Erik.

And today’s a tough day for a lot of people, and it was a tough day for him. But it was a little less tough, I think, because he knew of his presence. He knew he was with him. And he knows he has a lot of guys in there that are there for him, and it’s okay to get emotional. It’s okay to have some tears.

But, man, you know, this is why you coach, at the end of the day. You want to help these kids leave here and get through things and have better lives and learn to deal with — life’s hard. Baseball’s not.

So I’m just thankful that he’s been in my presence, because, I mean, he’s been way stronger than I would have been probably at that age. I love him like a son. Hopefully he feels that.

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This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: UNC Baseball: What Scott Forbes said after Tar Heels force Game 3 in CWS

Group play matches continue at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Some teams have already booked a spot to the Round of 32, such as Mexico and the United States. Other teams are hoping to join them in the knockout round over the next few days.

Then there are the teams in Group G, who enter the second set of matches completely level.

Here is the state of play in Group G ahead of the second day of matches in group play for these four teams.

Here are the standings in Group G, following Egypt-New Zealand on June 21:

Two match days remain in Group G action, starting with a pair of matches on Sunday, June 21. All times listed are Eastern.

Sunday, June 21

Belgium 0, Iran 0
Egypt 3, New Zealand 1

Friday, June 26

New Zealand vs. Belgium, 11:00 p.m.
Egypt vs. Iran, 11:00 p.m.

At the moment, there are none.

With each team sitting on one point, all four teams remain alive for a spot in the knockout round. However, none of the four teams can clinch a spot with the results from Sunday, June 21.

In addition, none of the four teams can be eliminated from the results on Sunday, June 21.

We will update this piece with the scenarios following the second day of matches in Group G.