Charlotte Hornets' Kon Knueppel Sets Rookie 3 point Record

And now for your sports news, we're joined by NBC's Dave Martin. Dave, we've got NFL, World Cup and college basketball news, but let's start in the NBA as Charlotte's Con Kanepel set a rookie record last night. Yeah, Kanepel broke the rookie record for three pointers made in a season. We hit his 207th last night against the Indiana Pacers. Now Kanepel scored 28 points in the game, hit eight threes in the night, tying his career high. He now has 209 on the season. That leaves the whole NBA, not just rookies there as well. Now, just for some context, the rookie record was set three years ago by Keegan Murray, who hit 206 in 80 games. Kanepel has 209 in just 59 games, so quite a higher pace there. That's even well ahead of what all-time leader Steph Curry did as a rookie. Curry hit 166 back in 2010. Of course, Curry, though, has the all-time single season record of 402. So he's a ways away from that. In any case, Kanepel is certainly one of the leading candidates to win rookie of the year, probably going to Cooper Cup, if you ask me. OK, it's not the con man. Shifting gears to the NFL, the Dallas Cowboys will reportedly place the franchise tag on wide receiver George Pickens. What exactly does this mean for the Cowboys? Yeah, well, it basically means they keep him from entering free agency this season for a hefty, you know, one year salary. Basically, teams can place a franchise tag on a player whose contract runs out to keep him from signing elsewhere. The flip side is that tag, even though it's a one-year contract, is expensive. I mean, it's the average of the top five salaries at their position or 120% of their previous salaries. So for Pickens, that equates to a $27 million salary for the upcoming season. Now, last year was Pickens' first in Dallas. After coming over via trade from Pittsburgh, he really had his best year ever. Made the Pro Bowl, was the second team all-pro, set career highs in catches with 93 and receiving yards with more than 1,400. So it'll be interesting to see how this works out for Dallas, because the Cowboys already have C.V. Lamb at wide receiver. Lamb is one of the best in the league and he's paid as much, $34 million a season. It would be tough to allocate those two salaries just in one position and also be under the salary cap. That's roughly $60 million. Salary cap is $301 million. That's 20% just wide receiver. So we'll see how this actually works out there. You follow that? Not slim pickings for Pickens. I'm glad you're paying attention to that part. I practice that. Moving to World Cup news, though, there's been some security questions regarding the matches scheduled to take place in Mexico this summer following the recent death of a powerful drug lord. What has been FIFA's response? Yeah, FIFA is going to be sending representatives to assess those security concerns in Mexico. And that's according to Mexican President Fadi Echangbon. Now, that army operation that killed the drug lord on Sunday and all the violent repercussions ended up taking the lives of 70 people. So a very serious situation. The cars, the cartels have set some cars on fire. They blocked some streets as well. Some in even the same state as Guadalajara. Some concern, though, is the fact that World Aquatics has canceled a diving World Cup event that's scheduled for next week near Guadalajara. But Echangbon said that FIFA President Gianni Antetokounmpo assured her that the World Cup would still be held in their country. Now they are scheduled to host 13 matches between the three cities of Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey. A lot happening in Mexico. We'll see if a lot of spring break gets canceled because of everything. Well, you know, I think they they they they more prefer to go to Baja. Right for that. Maybe they'll have to go to Daytona next. Well, yeah, you go to Daytona. You could always go to Daytona or you go to Baja maybe. Or what's the other popular one? There's another Miami, Miami Shore. The complete opposite end of the country. They have some options for those kids who want to get drunk and have a crazy time. All right. Well, looking at college basketball action tonight, we have a pair of games involving ranked teams, including one that's already in progress. Yes. 21st ranked Miami of Ohio is already is playing Western Michigan right now to Miami of Ohio. The Red Hawks, which is their nickname, they are the only undefeated team left in the country, yet they are really having trouble climbing up the polls, mainly due to their strength of schedule. They have not played a team yet that was ranked either at the time of their game or is currently ranked now, but their 28-0 record is still hard to argue with. Now, after today's game, they've got two more regular season games and then the conference tournament before the NCAA tournament starts. So there's a pretty good chance now, looking like it, that they could enter the NCAA tournament with an undefeated record, which does not happen very often. Also tonight in the Big Ten, we've got a top ten battle. Number three, Michigan playing at tenth ranked Illinois. Wolverines are atop the Big Ten standings. They've got a three game lead over three teams tied for second, including Illinois. A win tonight by Michigan would clinch the Big Ten title outright. So no, no ties. A lot at stake. Yeah, a lot at stake here. Very important game. You know, you'll be watching. I'm going to be glued to the TV watching this one for sure. Speaking of which, we'll let you go. So nice to meet you. Dave, as always, thanks for joining us. Thank you.