U.S./World Sports category, Page 254
Iowa’s Spencer Lee withdraws from Olympic Trials
Another day, another surprising announcement from one of college wrestling’s most celebrated lightweights. Iowa senior Spencer Lee, fresh off a third NCAA championship that he won while competing with two torn ACLs, made it known Friday he will not compete at the U.S. Olympic Trials next month. “It is not...
Cheery Garcia comes up aces on frenetic Friday at Match PlayVideo
AUSTIN, Texas — Needing to win the final hole to advance, Bob MacIntrye drilled a driver to 3 feet of the cup on he 371-yard 18th hole. Moments later, Sergio Garcia ended one of the record eight sudden-death playoffs with a hole-in-one. Already the most fickle event in golf, the...
Shaka Smart leaves Texas for Big East’s MarquetteVideo
MILWAUKEE — Shaka Smart is leaving Texas to coach Marquette. Marquette announced the hiring Friday. It comes a week after Marquette fired Steve Wojciechowski and Smart’s Texas team was upset 53-52 by Abilene Christian in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. “Throughout the search, one individual continued to rise...
Thanks to Syracuse and others, Midwest Regions puts madness in MarchVideo
INDIANAPOLIS — It is the region that has caused more busted NCAA Tournament brackets than any other, the quadrant where No. 1 seed Illinois was sent packing by Loyola Chicago, West Virginia was dumped by a team that barely made the field, and Tennessee and Oklahoma State failed to survive...
Florida State charts course for ACC as its ‘new blood’Video
INDIANAPOLIS — North Carolina is long gone. Duke never made it. To find the ACC’s biggest threat at March Madness this year, look past Tobacco Road and into the panhandle of Florida. That’s the home of Florida State, a school where hoops has moved out from the shadows of the...
Sacrifices paying off for foreign players in NCAA women’s basketball tournament
Michigan’s Hailey Brown says she came very close to opting out of this women’s basketball season. The 6-foot-1 senior forward from Hamilton, Ontario, was struggling with a fear of covid-19 and the travel restrictions she faced as a Canadian with the border being closed. “She’s battled with that, with her...
MLB 2021: NL East team-by-team previewVideo
Capsules of National League East teams, in order of last year’s finish last year: Atlanta Braves 2020: 35-25, first place, lost to Dodgers in NL Championship Series. Manager: Brian Snitker (sixth season). He’s Here: RHP Charlie Morton, LHP Drew Smyly, RHP Carl Edwards Jr., SS Ehire Adrianza, 3B Jake Lamb,...
Soccer star Thierry Henry to quit social media, says racism unchecked
LONDON — Thierry Henry is quitting social media to protest online racial abuse and bullying that he said goes unregulated. The former France great said Friday that social media companies haven’t done enough to stop abusive behavior, which regularly targets Black athletes. “From tomorrow morning I will be removing myself...
Post players having big impact on women’s NCAA Tournament
Post players are having a big impact on the women’s NCAA Tournament. Teams that have reached the Sweet 16 teams are getting major contributions from their “Bigs.” The impressive list includes: • Aliyah Boston. The South Carolina All-American has had 39 points and 25 rebounds in her first two career...
Grand Canyon basketball player Oscar Frayer killed in crash
PHOENIX — Grand Canyon basketball player Oscar Frayer died from a car accident, three days after the Antelopes played in the NCAA Tournament for the first time. He was 23. Frayer and his sister, 28-year-old Andrea Moore, were killed with an unidentified person in a car crash in Lodi, Calif.,...
Michigan, Villanova push past key injuries in NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 runVideo
INDIANAPOLIS — Villanova spent all season operating with the security of having senior point guard Collin Gillespie leading the attack. Michigan knew it could depend on versatile veteran Isaiah Livers. Now the Wildcats and Wolverines have figured out how to win without them in the NCAA Tournament. Gillespie is out...
Bob MacIntyre battles world No. 1 Dustin Johnson to a drawVideo
AUSTIN, Texas — Bob MacIntyre grew up playing the rough-and-tumble Scottish sport of shinty, and he had more than enough fight to give Dustin Johnson all he could handle Thursday in the Dell Technologies Match Play. Johnson had to rally late with an eagle and a clutch birdie to send...
Top-ranked Ash Barty overcomes match point for Miami Open win
MIAMI — Because of canceled flights, it took Ash Barty 45 hours to travel from her native Australia to Florida for a tennis tournament. Her stay at the Miami Open will be longer than that, thanks only to an improbable comeback Thursday. The top-ranked Barty rallied from a big third-set...
Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger retires after 35-year careerVideo
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger announced his retirement Thursday, ending a 35-year career that included taking five schools to the NCAA Tournament — with two of them reaching the Final Four — and more than 650 career wins. The 68-year-old Kruger led Florida to the national semifinals in...
Hornets acquire former Pitt star Brad Wanamaker from WarriorsVideo
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Charlotte Hornets acquired guard Brad Wanamaker, a former Pitt star, from the Golden State Warriors, a person familiar with the situation said Thursday. The teams exchanged heavily protected future second-round picks, according to the person who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because...
Trade deadline passes, Kyle Lowry remains with RaptorsVideo
Kyle Lowry stayed with the Toronto Raptors, and the Miami Heat got Victor Oladipo instead. And on a trade deadline day where moves were getting made right up until the last possible moment, the Denver Nuggets took a big swing at getting better for a playoff run while the Orlando...
U.S. beats Jamaica in exhibition in AustriaVideo
Sergiño Dest scored his first international goal with a spectacular 25-yard shot, Sebastian Lletget added a pair of second-half goals and the United States beat Jamaica 4-1 in an exhibition Thursday night at Wiener Neustadt, Austria. Brenden Aaronson scored for the U.S. in the 53rd minute. Jamal Lowe got Jamaica’s...
NCAA hires law firm to evaluate potential equity issues
INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA is hiring a law firm to review potential equity gender issues related to how it conducts its men’s and women’s championship events. The NCAA has been criticized the past two weeks for not providing equal amenities to the teams in the men’s and women’s Division I...
Few Black women coaches lead Power Five basketball programs
Dawn Staley and Joni Taylor embraced before and after the Southeastern Conference Tournament championship, savoring a historic moment in women’s basketball. It took 41 years for two Black women head coaches to meet in a tournament championship of a Power Five conference. For it to happen quicker was statistically improbable...
How did your March Madness bracket get busted? One coach explains the path to all those upsets
Is your March Madness bracket busted? Yeah. Mine, too. Whose isn’t? If ever there was a year to “expect the unexpected” in the NCAA tournament, this is it. After all, with the odd circumstances affecting almost every conference — and nearly every team that qualified for the tournament — it...
This date in sports history: March 25Video
1934 — Horton Smith wins the first Masters golf tournament by one stroke over Craig Wood. 1947 — Holy Cross, led by George Kaftan, beats Oklahoma, 58-47, in the NCAA basketball championship. 1958 — Sugar Ray Robinson regains the middleweight title for a record fifth time with a 15-round decision...
Match Play championship brings out emotions, upsetsVideo
AUSTIN, Texas — Jon Rahm and Patrick Cantlay thrust their fists in celebration with birdies on the final hole to win, the kind of emotions typical for a final round. In the Dell Technologies Match Play, every day can feel like Sunday. The opening round of group play Wednesday featured...
Experience still matters to teams in NCAA Sweet 16Video
Michigan’s second-round game against LSU was intense from the start. Up and down the court the teams went, trading runs and momentum swings with the season on the line. One player for the Wolverines seemed calm and steady: guard Eli Brooks. “I think just all the amount of reps we...
Syracuse stay defenders of the zone as other NCAA powers man upVideo
INDIANAPOLIS — It had been nearly a decade since West Virginia coach Bob Huggins had to draw up a game plan to beat the infuriating zone defense run by Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, going all the way back to their time together in the old Big East. The job hasn’t...
Betting sites offer software blocks for compulsive gamblers
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Some sports betting companies are offering tools that allow compulsive gamblers to block themselves from most online sites. Unibet last week announced it was making software from U.K.-based Gamban available to customers in the U.S. The tools allow customers to in effect ban themselves from gambling...
