Lamar Jackson, Kyle Van Noy sound off on NFL's admission of error… — and more

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A pretty big fight broke out early in the second half at John Paul Jones Arena on Tuesday night, leading to an ejection in the win for the Cavaliers.

No. 11 Virginia rolled to a dominant 90-61 win over NC State on Tuesday. But things got heated, and fast, in the second half of that contest.

Not even three minutes into the second period, Virginia’s Sam Lewis and NC State’s Darrion Williams got into a brief confrontation at midcourt. It’s unclear what started it, but Lewis appeared to shove Williams, and both he and Paul McNiel Jr. retaliated and shoved Lewis back. That sparked a big scrum in the middle of the floor, which took several coaches and officials to get separated.

NC State’s Scottie Ebube was ejected from the contest for leaving the bench. He had not played in the game at that point. Both Lewis and Williams were hit with technical fouls, and the game continued on normally.

Despite that incident, Virginia had no issue rolling to the 29-point win. The Cavaliers led the entire way on Tuesday, held the Wolfpack to just 19 points in the first half and had five players hit double figures. Thijs De Ridder led the way with 19 points after he went 7-of-10 from the field, and Lewis added 16 points and three rebounds.

McNeil led NC State with 22 points and six rebounds, and Williams added 14 points. The Wolfpack fell to 19-9 on the season with the loss, which marked their third in a four-game span. The lone win there, though, came in the form of a 24-point win over North Carolina last week.

Virginia, meanwhile, is very quietly rolling to a very impressive run in the ACC. The Cavaliers have now won nine straight and sit at 25-3 on the season. They are in second in the conference standings, too, and will take on No. 1 Duke next on Saturday in Durham, North Carolina. A win there would give them the lead in the conference race entering the final week of play.

“Virginia’s a great team. They can go to the Final Four,” NC State coach Will Wade said, via 247 Sports’ Jacquie Franciulli. “They steamrolled us. They’re better than we are.

“If we played them 10 times, I’m not sure we would beat them. Maybe once.”

During a 20-minute interview with the media Tuesday, new Lakers president of business operations Lon Rosen said Magic Johnson won’t be involved in any “day–to-day” involvement with the team and that hopes season-ticket holders will “renew” them despite the enormous increase for next season.

Rosen, who has been an executive vice president and chief marketing officer with the Dodgers since 2012 when Mark Walter and Guggenheim Baseball Management purchased the club, took over the Lakers job after Tim Harris resigned from that role.

Rosen, who is back with the Lakers after Walter purchased the team for a $10-billion evaluation, was asked about Johnson’s role with the Lakers and how he would be involved with Rob Pelinka, the team’s president of basketball operations and general manager.

Johnson was president of basketball operations for the Lakers from Feb. 21, 2017 until April 9, 2019, when he abruptly resigned.

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“Earvin's involved with all types of things. He owns football teams, baseball teams, soccer teams, insurance companies, a lot of things. He's always gonna have some type of involvement with all the teams, but he is not gonna have a day-to-day involvement (with the Lakers),” Rosen said. “It's gonna be no different since he left the Lakers. Obviously he's a huge fan of the Lakers, but he's not gonna be, 'Hey Rob go sign this player. Do that.' He'll always be involved with all the teams that he's involved in, but no, he's not gonna have day-to-day involvement at all. He is a super Laker fan and he'll continue to be a super Laker fan. It's not bad to have that. You see the involvement he had the other day when Pat (Riley) was here (to have his statue unveiled) and he'll always be involved that way.”

Rosen was asked about ticket prices increasing for the 2026-27 season.

There have been reports from Lakers fans that gave an example of their tickets in the 300-level increasing to over 45% from $6,192 to $9,035.

One fan said his increase was about 15% and another 3% fee if the tickets were not paid for upfront.

“We hope they renew. And obviously it reflects on what the market is now and the demand for tickets,” Rosen said. “You can look at how tickets sell and what the prices are. You look at primary and secondary market and you can see where their demand is.”

Pelinka told the media after the trade deadline that he’ll work with Walter and Jeanie Buss, who is still the board of governor for the Lakers, when it comes time to make basketball decisions this summer.

Both Andrew Friedman, the president of baseball operations for the Dodgers, and Farhan Zaidi, an special advisor with the Dodgers, will be advisors for the Lakers and Pelinka. Zaidi was seen at the Lakers’ practice facility Monday.

“Rob's empowered to do what he does,” Rosen said. “And he's talked about it and I can talk about it. Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi, they have involvement helping Rob a bit. It gives you a deeper bench, and I think Rob appreciates that. And it is unique. But they have a skill set that they can transfer some of it here. And that's really how we look at it. Look, I have a really good relationship with Rob. I've known Rob Pelinka from when he was representing Kobe (Bryant). I met him many many years ago."

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.