Sports category, Page 282
No March Madness brackets remain perfect but 1 bracket won $1 million at Warren Buffett’s company
Brackets, busted. The handful of remaining perfect brackets in the NCAA Tournament busted out on Sunday, ending the hopes of millions against exceptionally long odds. The final perfect brackets on Yahoo Sports and CBS Sports were shredded with Saturday’s games. Top-seeded Florida’s 77-75 win over two-time reigning national champion UConn...
Florida ends UConn’s bid for 3rd straight national title with 77-75 March Madness winVideo
RALEIGH, N.C. — For 30 minutes, UConn showed the mettle and toughness that delivered back-to-back national championships for Dan Hurley, outplaying top-seeded Florida in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. And then Walter Clayton Jr. took over. The Gators’ first-team All-America guard scored 13 of his 23 points in...
N.C. State officially announces hiring of McNeese’s Will Wade as new Wolfpack men’s basketball coach
RALEIGH, N.C. — N.C. State has made it official: McNeese’s Will Wade is the Wolfpack’s new men’s basketball coach. The school announced the hiring Sunday, coming a day after Wade’s McNeese team lost to Purdue in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. An introductory news conference for Wade is...
Fired high school girls basketball coach apologizes for hair-pulling incident with playerVideo
NORTHVILLE, N.Y. — A coach who was fired within hours of pulling a player’s ponytail after a loss in a New York girls basketball state championship game issued an apology Sunday, saying his actions were unacceptable. Jim Zullo, formerly the coach of the girls team at Northville Central, was dismissed...
NL West Preview: Dodgers, Diamondbacks, Padres lead a loaded division
Could October deliver another thrilling slugfest between the rival Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres? Or, it could be the Arizona Diamondbacks’ turn again on the big fall stage. In the loaded NL West, Shohei Ohtani and the big-money Dodgers remain the team to beat after winning 11 of...
NL East Preview: Juan Soto joins Mets in power-packed division with Phillies and Braves
NEW YORK — Juan Soto is back in the NL East, a much richer man with a new address and a different uniform. Same powerful bat, though. Again a serious problem for Braves and Phillies pitchers. Following a World Series appearance for the New York Yankees last year, Soto jumped...
NL Central Preview: Brewers looking to hold off Cubs and Reds at top of division
CHICAGO — Christian Yelich and Milwaukee finished on top of the NL Central each of the past two seasons. A three-peat is going to be quite the challenge. While the Brewers had a quiet winter in the wake of their third division title in four years, the Chicago Cubs revamped...
AL West Preview: The Astros will look different, and that could mean a new division champ this year
The Houston Astros will certainly look different when trying to continue their impressive run of AL West titles, after letting two of their best hitters go and with Jose Altuve likely moving to left field. This could be the season that another team finally overtakes the Astros as division champs....
AL East Preview: Yankees and Orioles are still talented, but the race at the top could be tighter
Juan Soto and Corbin Burnes are gone from the division, and although the Yankees and Orioles can certainly succeed without them, the AL East seems noticeably tougher to predict this year. In 2023, Baltimore and Tampa Bay won 101 and 99 games, with the rest of the division another 10...
AL Central Preview: Four solid teams, and then the White Sox
The American League Central was a surprisingly strong division last season, with four teams finishing above .500. Then there was the Chicago White Sox — who racked up 121 losses for the most defeats in modern Major League Baseball history. Expect more of the same in 2025. The defending champion...
Tim Benz: Pirates hopes of winning ‘in the margins’ is easier said than done
Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton laid out the key to his team’s 2025 improvement on a 76-86 record a year ago. “I think you win in the margins, very much so,” Shelton told reporters in Bradenton, Fla. “We have to win those margins.” Exactly how wide are these “margins” we...
MLB preview: Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers hope to become 1st repeat champs since ’98-’00 YankeesVideo
Shohei Ohtani was in the batter’s box for the season’s first pitch Tuesday, arriving at the Tokyo Dome coronated a World Series champion. Twenty-nine other teams will be trying to dethrone his Los Angeles Dodgers, who flexed their financial might again during the offseason hoping to become the first repeat...
Defying odds after knee injury, Hunter Stratton rewarded by Pirates with 40-man roster spot
Hunter Stratton had beaten the odds before, so the Pittsburgh Pirates reliever was convinced he could beat a timeline to return from injury. A 16th-round draft pick who spent seven seasons in the minor leagues, Stratton persevered to make his major-league debut in September 2023. After being nontendered that offseason,...
2025 Pirates 40-man roster breakdown
The Pittsburgh Pirates have 20 pitchers and 20 position players on their 40-man roster as the 2025 season approaches. Here’s a look at each player: Pirates’ 40-man roster No. Name, Ht., Wt., Pos. 67 Braxton Ashcraft, 6-5, 220, RHP: If top-10 prospect can stay healthy, his upper 90s fastball should...
‘I want to win’: Paul Skenes sets bar high, aims to raise ceiling for Pirates
Paul Skenes isn’t shy about saying he wants to win with the Pittsburgh Pirates, though he doesn’t directly discuss winning a World Series. Instead, the 22-year-old right-hander talks about raising the floor and the ceiling as if issuing a challenge not just to himself but the entire franchise. Skenes is...
Penn State, Carter Starocci celebrate titles, Gable Steveson upset at NCAA wrestling
PHILADELPHIA — Penn State’s Carter Starocci won an unprecedented fifth national title and Oklahoma State’s Wyatt Hendrickson stunned Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson in the heavyweight final Saturday night at the NCAA men’s wrestling championships with President Donald Trump in attendance. Hendrickson, a transfer from Air Force, trailed in the...
Riverhounds pick up 1st win of season in home opener
As the seconds ticked off the Highmark Stadium scoreboard Saturday along the banks of the Monongahela, Bob Lilley and his Pittsburgh Riverhounds found the much-needed first win and 3 points, putting together a 1-0 home-opener victory against Hartford Athletic. The game was played in brisk, windy conditions as 4,026 braved...
Minor league report: Avery Hayes gives Penguins overtime winVideo
A goal by forward Avery Hayes at 2:09 of overtime gave the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins a 3-2 win against the rival Hershey Bears at Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre on Saturday. Forward Atley Calvert scored both regulation goals for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (34-18-7-1) while goaltender Sergei Murashov made 24 saves on 26 shots...
Pirates option Henry Davis, select RHP Hunter Stratton, DFA Joshua Palacios in roster moves
The Pittsburgh Pirates took steps toward finalizing their Opening Day roster by making a handful of roster moves Saturday, including one that involves a former No. 1 overall pick. The Pirates selected right-handed reliever Hunter Stratton to their major league roster, designated outfielder Joshua Palacios for assignment and optioned catcher...
Kyle Larson trying to avoid another disappointing weekend at HomesteadVideo
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Kyle Larson is tired of his weekends at Homestead-Miami Speedway ending in disappointment. The Hendrick Motorsports driver has won a NASCAR Cup Series race and Xfinity Series race in his career at the South Florida track, but he mostly just remembers the heartbreaks there. Last year it...
NCAA Tournament roundup: John Calipari, Arkansas beat Rick Pitino, St. John’sVideo
Moon native John Calipari is heading to the Sweet 16 for the 16th time, and this one could be the sweetest of all. Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks beat longtime nemesis Rick Pitino and No. 2 seed St. John’s, 75-66, on Saturday, sending their itinerant coach to the second weekend of the...
JJ Qunierly’s 27 points lifts West Virginia women to NCAA tourney win
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — JJ Quinerly scored 27 points, including the 2,000th of her career, Jordan Harrison matched a career-high with 23 and sixth-seeded West Virginia led wire-to-wire in a 78-59 victory over 11th-seeded Columbia on Saturday in the first round of the women’s NCAA Tournament. Quinerly also had seven...
Penguins’ remaining games still mean somethingVideo
It wasn’t an order. Or even a guarantee. More of a suggestion. “Enjoy the show!” That’s what forward Boko Imama said to a Pittsburgh Penguins broadcaster Friday after a morning skate in Cranberry. Approximately eight hours later, Imama dazzled just anyone watching his team’s 6-3 win against the Columbus Blue...
Paul Skenes sharp in final spring training outing, but Pirates no-hit by Baltimore
After his fifth and final spring training outing Saturday afternoon, only a few days stand between Pittsburgh Pirates phenom Paul Skenes and the regular-season opener, which he’s set to start Thursday at Miami. Skenes delivered 3 1/3 scoreless innings Saturday against the Baltimore Orioles, throwing 51 pitches (33 for strikes)...
Who’s No. 1, Andy Toole’s current Colonials or Matt Furjanic’s Robert Morris teams from the ’80s?
Andy Toole said he might get text messages from people challenging his claim that this season’s Robert Morris team is the best in school history. Matt Furjanic didn’t send a text, but he certainly could have an argument with Toole. Furjanic coached the first Robert Morris teams that went to...
