There are spoilers ahead. You might want to solvetoday's puzzlebefore reading further!Fallback Positions Constructor:Wendy L. Brandes Editors:Amie Walker & Amanda Rafkin Wendy:The idea for this puzzle came from watching the Knicks play against the Celtics this season. Watching the point guards, shooting guards and power forwards, I started thinking about other positions these basketball players might take up in the future. I had a lot of fun brainstorming alternatives. Amanda, as always, was extremely creative and offered a lot of help as the puzzle took shape. Jared was also extremely helpful. 57-Across made me think of the song "Mustang Sally" and, of course, I thought of Sally and Off the Grid. 44-Across led me into a deep dive on sculptors who work with different media. I had heard of Camile Claudell, but learned a lot more about her thanks to this puzzle. Many thanks to everyone at USA Today who helped with this puzzle. And thanks, as always, to Sally for her insights and enthusiasm! STONE (44A: Medium for sculptor Camille Claudel)Camille Claudel(1864-1943) was a French sculptor known for her bronze and STONE works. Early in her career, she worked with Auguste Rodin, who became her lover as well as her mentor. Although Camille Claudel's work was relatively unrecognized during her lifetime, after her death her work has been recognized for its originality and high quality. Her works includeThe WaltzandThe Age of Maturity. OMAHA (13A: Nebraska's largest city) Lincoln is the capital of Nebraska, but OMAHA is the state's largest city. With a population of just over 489,000, OMAHA is the41st most-populous cityin the United States. It would take over 17 cities the size of OMAHA to equal the size of the largest U.S. city, New York City. ORA (19A: "Let You Love Me" singer Rita)"Let You Love Me"is a 2018 song by Rita ORA. The song is from her second studio album,Phoenix. ACME (27A: Wile E. Coyote's favorite corporation) The ACME Corporation is a fictional business featured in the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons. The company is the source of many devices used by Wile E. Coyote in his attempt to outwit the Road Runner, such as invisible paint, anvils, exploding tennis balls, dehydrated boulders, rocket-powered roller skates, and, well, you get the idea. NATO (35A: Sweden joined it in 2024 (Abbr.)) The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a military alliance established with the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949. Including Sweden, which joined NATO on March 7, 2024 NATO is comprised of 32 member states. NATO is making back-to-back puzzle appearances, as we saw ityesterdayclued as [Org. with a phonetic alphabet]. ROMEO (37A: Love interest brought back from the dead in "& Juliet") I was excited to see this clue, because my husband and I recently saw the jukebox musical& Juliet, which features the music of Swedish songwriter Max Martin. Songs in& Julietinclude "Oops!...I Did it Again," "Since U Been Gone," and "Can't Stop the Feeling!" as well as many other popular numbers. The musical features William Shakespeare and his wife, Anne Hathaway, as characters. It imagines what might happen if Juliet did not die at the end of Shakespeare'sROMEO and Juliet. As the clue informs us, ROMEO is brought back from the dead as the show unfolds. My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed& Juliet. If you ever have an opportunity to see it, I encourage you to do so. ENID (46A: "Wednesday" werewolf) Wednesday Addams is the daughter of the Addams Family franchise, which is based on characters created by cartoonist Charles Addams. She is also the title character ofWednesday, a TV series that premiered on Netflix in November 2022. Jenna Ortega portrays Wednesday on the show. ENID Sinclair, portrayed by Emma Myers, is a werewolf and is Wednesday's roommate at Nevermore Academy. MUSTANG (57A: Free-roaming horse found in the western U.S.) The free-roaming MUSTANGs in the Western United States are descended from horses that were brought to the Americas by Spanish conquistadors. Although these MUSTANGs are sometimes referred to as "wild horses," they are actually "feral horses" since they are descended from animals that were domesticated. The Bureau of Land Management, which is responsible for managing the free-roaming MUSTANGs, estimates the population of these horses is just over 73,000. Free-roaming MUSTANGs are present in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. About half of the current population lives in Nevada. ALI (64A: Boxer Laila) Laila ALI, the daughter of Muhammad ALI, retired from an eight-year undefeated professional boxing career in 2007. SNEEZE GUARD (65A: Protective barrier at a salad bar) Well, this answer brought back some memories for me. When I was in high school (many years ago now), I worked at a Bonanza Steakhouse. (I can still recite most of the menu, along with each entree's corresponding menu number.) One of my jobs was maintaining the salad bar, which included keeping the SNEEZE GUARD clean. That experience convinced my teenage self that SNEEZE GUARDs are an important feature of salad bars. TONGA (69A: Kingdom east of Fiji) TONGA, officially the Kingdom of TONGA, is a Polynesian country comprised of 169 islands in the Pacific Ocean. The capital of TONGA is Nuku'alofa. LEE (71A: Olympic gymnast Sunisa) At the 2020 Olympics (held in 2021), Sunisa "Suni" LEE, an American gymnast, won the gold medal for all-around in Gymnastics. At the 2024 Olympics, Suni LEE was part of the USA team that won gold. Individually, she won bronze medals in uneven bars and the all-around. MAE (5D: Astronaut Jemison) MAE Jemison is an engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut. She was a mission specialist on the Space ShuttleEndeavor, and was the first Black woman to travel into space. Fun fact:MAE Jemison was the first real-life astronaut to appear onStar Trek. In 1993, she appeared in "Second Chances," an episode ofStar Trek: The Next Generation. ANAIS (24D: "Delta of Venus" author Nin) ANAÏS Nin (1903-1977) began journalling at the age of eleven and continued the practice until she died. Many of her journals have been published. In addition to her journals, she also wrote novels, short stories, essays, and erotic literature.Delta of Venusis a collection of short stories by ANAÏS Nin that was published posthumously in 1977. The stories were mostly written in the 1940s as erotica for a private collector. ERIE (39D: Creepy-sounding Great Lake) Our crossword friend Lake ERIE does indeed have a name that sounds eerie. This is the first puzzle appearance of ERIE this month. LENNON (48D: Musician Julian who inspired the song "Hey Jude") Julian LENNON is a musician, photographer, author, and philanthropist. His parents are Beatles member John LENNON (1940-1980) and Cynthia LENNON (1939-2015). The Beatles 1968 song"Hey Jude"was written by Paul McCartney, who wrote it to comfort Julian LENNON after his father left to be with Yoko Ono. Julian LENNON's seventh studio album, released in 2022, is titledJude, a nod to the Beatles song. SEGA (56D: Sonic the Hedgehog creator) Sonic the Hedgehog is the title character of SEGA's video game and media franchise. Sonic is an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog. A few other clues I especially enjoyed: MORPH (5A: Change from Bruce Banner into the Hulk, say) AWARE (15A: "Oh, I'm ___" ("I knew that already")) SELFIE (59A: Photo that might be taken with a stick) CIVIC CENTER (17A: Municipal building with public recreation spaces, often) PAYING IT FORWARD (41A: Passing kindness along) SNEEZE GUARD (65A: Protective barrier at a salad bar) FALLBACK POSITIONS: At the end (BACK) of each theme answer is found a basketball POSITION: CENTER, FORWARD, and GUARD. The word FALLBACK in the title alerted me to look at the ends of the theme answers for the theme. After filling in CIVIC CENTER and PAY IT FORWARD, I thought the theme was general POSITION words, so uncovering SNEEZE GUARD threw me a bit. There was a nice "Aha!" moment when I realized, "Oh, this is probably a sports thing." I, of course, immediately then recognized CENTER, FORWARD, and GUARD as the three main positions on a basketball team. (That's my story and I'm sticking with it...) Thank you, Wendy, for this enjoyable puzzle. USA TODAY's Daily Crossword Puzzles Sudoku & Crossword Puzzle Answers This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Crossword Blog & Answers for June 18, 2025 by Sally Hoelscher
