U.S./World Sports category, Page 140
Analysis: As NBA’s first quarter ends, the contenders emerge
Miami Heat President Pat Riley has a longstanding belief: After 20 games, a team knows its identity. He’s right. And after 20 games, title contenders are usually known as well. Think of this as the end of the season’s first quarter. That’s basically where the NBA is right now, with...
Loss for Messi and Argentina among biggest World Cup upsets
DOHA, Qatar — The staggering loss for Lionel Messi and Argentina at the World Cup at the hands of Saudi Arabia is right up there with the biggest upsets in tournament history. Messi, who had given Argentina the lead before the Saudis came back to win 2-1, is playing at...
World Cup stunner: Saudi Arabia beats Messi’s Argentina
LUSAIL, Qatar — Lionel Messi stood with his hands on his hips near the center circle, looking stone-faced as Saudi Arabia’s jubilant players ran in all directions around him after scoring one of the biggest World Cup upsets ever against Argentina. The South American champion and one of the tournament...
Bale salvages 1-1 draw for Wales against U.S. in World CupVideo
AL RAYYAN, Qatar — Gareth Bale converted a penalty kick in the 82nd minute to offset Tim Weah’s first-half goal and give Wales a 1-1 draw against the United States on Monday in the return to the World Cup for both nations. Weah, a son of former FIFA Player of...
AP Top 25: Virginia climbs to No. 5, UNC and Houston are 1-2
Virginia had the difficult task of playing two ranked teams while grieving a tragedy that shook the Cavaliers and the rest of their campus. Playing a week after three football players were shot to death on a bus, Virginia won the Continental Tire Main Event in Las Vegas over No....
Wounded University of Virginia football player leaves hospital
RICHMOND, Va. — A University of Virginia football player who was seriously wounded in a shooting that killed three of his teammates has been released from the hospital. Brenda Hollins, the mother of running back Mike Hollins, tweeted early Monday: “Mike has been discharged!!! HALLELUJAH.” She asked for continued prayers...
World Cup dismay for Qatar as Ecuador wins opening gameVideo
AL KHOR, Qatar — The large swaths of empty seats in the second half summed up the Qatar soccer team’s disappointing start to its first ever World Cup. The night started with more than 67,000 mostly Qatari fans filling the cavernous Al Bayt Stadium, enjoying an opening ceremony that showcased...
U.S. returns to World Cup against Wales after 8-year waitVideo
DOHA, Qatar — Gio Reyna, Joe Scally and Yusuf Musah were 11 years old the last time the United States took the field in a World Cup match. On the 3,066th day after that loss in Brazil, the Americans return to soccer’s showcase with a new-look team dreaming lofty goals...
AP Top 25: USC moves into top 5 for 1st time in 5 years
Southern California moved into the top five of The Associated Press college football poll Sunday for the first time in five years. Georgia received 62 of the 63 first-place votes in the AP Top 25 presented by Regions Bank as the top four teams held their places after playing varying...
World Cup Viewer’s Guide: Qatar kicks off, USA ready to play
DOHA, Qatar — The first World Cup in the Middle East finally began Sunday night with a flashy opening ceremony and a match between Qatar and Ecuador without any beer for sale in the stadium. The beer ban imposed two days before the start of the tournament was the latest...
After disaster 4 years ago, U.S. men’s soccer team aims to be World Cup spoiler
DOHA, Qatar — The soundtrack of the U.S. national team’s failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup will always be Taylor Twellman’s epic rant inside an ESPN studio in Bristol, Conn. “It is an utter embarrassment!” Twellman, a former national team player, screamed at a camera moments after the...
Sale of beer with alcohol banned at World Cup stadiums
DOHA, Qatar — The sale of all beer with alcohol at the eight World Cup stadiums was banned Friday, only two days before the soccer tournament is set to start. Non-alcoholic beer will still be sold at the 64 matches in the country. “Following discussions between host country authorities and...
Running QBs in ACC sacrifice their bodies to get more yards
Drake Maye is the frontrunner for Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year, a redshirt freshman with 34 touchdown passes in just 10 games, tied for the most in the Bowl Subdivision. He’s also the leading rusher for the No. 13 Tar Heels, and his running style is more like...
Maradona ‘Hand of God’ World Cup ball sold for $2.4M
LONDON — The ball punched in by Diego Maradona for his “Hand of God” goal at the 1986 World Cup has been sold at auction for nearly $2.4 million by the referee who missed soccer’s most famous handball. Ali Bin Nasser, the Tunisian former match official who refereed the quarterfinal...
Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, TCU remain top 4 in CFPVideo
Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan and TCU held on to the top four spots in the College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday night, with Tennessee at No. 5 and LSU at No. 6. With three of the top six teams and only three weeks left until Selection Sunday, the SEC appears...
Budweiser stalls to be less prominent at World Cup stadiums
Budweiser beer stands at the eight World Cup stadiums are being moved aside to less prominent spots just days before the games start, Qatari organizers said Monday. It’s the latest late change in World Cup planning that started more than a decade ago in the majority-Muslim emirate where alcohol sales...
AP Top 25: No. 1 UGA leads unchanged top 5; Ducks, UCLA slip
No. 1 Georgia led an unchanged top five in The Associated Press college football poll Sunday, while the rest of the Top 25 was shuffled after eight ranked teams lost — including two big upsets in the Pac-12. For the second straight week, the Bulldogs received all but one of...
Fake LeBron James, Adam Schefter accounts among those tweeting non-newsVideo
So if Twitter is to be believed, LeBron James wants to leave the Los Angeles Lakers, Adam Schefter says Josh McDaniels is done as coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, Aroldis Chapman is sticking with the New York Yankees, and Connor McDavid has been traded from the Edmonton Oilers to...
Tim Ream, Haji Wright make U.S. World Cup roster; Zack Steffen, Paul Arriola cutVideo
NEW YORK — Tim Ream, Haji Wright, Joe Scally and Sean Johnson made the United States’ World Cup roster, while Zack Steffen, Paul Arriola, Jordan Pefok and Ricardo Pepi were among those cut. U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter made the long-awaited announcement Wednesday of the 26-man group that will gather in...
Tiger Woods to return at his tournament in the BahamasVideo
Tiger Woods made it official Wednesday by announcing he would return to competition as part of the 20-man field at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. Woods is the tournament host of the unofficial event Dec. 1-4 at Albany Golf Club, where the tournament has been played since 2015....
Griner sent to Russian penal colony to serve sentence
MOSCOW — American basketball star Brittney Griner has been sent to a penal colony in Russia to serve her sentence for drug possession, her legal team said Wednesday. A Russian court rejected an appeal of her nine-year sentence last month. The eight-time all-star center with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and...
Georgia is new CFP No. 1, followed by Ohio St, Michigan, TCUVideo
Georgia was the new No. 1 in the College Football Playoff rankings Tuesday night, followed by Ohio State, Michigan and TCU. The Bulldogs’ rise from No. 3 was no surprise after their dominant victory against previously top-ranked Tennessee on Saturday. Clemson, which was No. 4 in the selection committee’s first...
Christian Pulisic embracing the pressure of spearheading U.S. World Cup ambitionsVideo
LOS ANGELES — Landon Donovan was the young leader of a talented U.S. team that hadn’t won a World Cup game in eight years when he made his tournament debut in 2002. That’s the same situation Christian Pulisic will face Nov. 21 when the U.S., which didn’t qualify for the...
Column: Replenishing PGA Tour pipeline starts in collegeVideo
Tiger Woods was one college kid who got everyone’s attention on the PGA Tour. Retired commissioner Tim Finchem recalls being in the players’ dining room at Firestone during the old World Series of Golf in 1996 when Woods, the NCAA champion at Stanford, was going after a third straight U.S....
Iowa’s Spencer Lee puts pedal to metal going for 4th title
IOWA CITY, Iowa — The focus of Iowa’s Spencer Lee is so narrow, he doesn’t even risk driving over the speed limit. Lee, who missed almost all of last season after having surgeries on both knees, is back for a sixth year to chase a fourth NCAA national title, a...
