U.S./World Sports category, Page 371
UCF’s 7-foot-6 center Tacko Fall set for his NCAA Tournament debut
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The tallest man in college basketball is finally on the game’s grandest stage: 7-foot-6 Tacko Fall is set for the NCAA Tournament. Fall’s ninth-seeded UCF (23-8) opens East Region play Friday night against No. 8 seed VCU (25-7). “For me, for us, I would say it means...
Late mistakes cost New Mexico State in loss to Auburn
SALT LAKE CITY — After a teammate passed up an open layup that could have tied the game, New Mexico State’s Terrell Brown was fouled behind the arc and missed two of three free throws as the Aggies dropped a 78-77 heartbreaker Thursday to fifth-seeded Auburn in the NCAA Tournament....
NCAA Tournament roundup: Maryland holds off Belmont
Maryland’s Darryl Morsell made a crucial defensive stop as the Terrapins fended off Belmont, 79-77, in a first-round game in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday. The mid-major powerhouse from Nashville, Tenn., couldn’t knock off the No. 6-seeded Terrapins from the Big Ten despite a 35-point performance by Dylan Windler. Maryland...
NCAA wrestling tournament Session 1 recap: Penn State dominant in opening round
More than 300 wrestlers took the mats Thursday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena for the preliminary and first rounds of the NCAA wrestling championships. Penn State, which won seven of the past eight championships, held the team lead after the end of the first session with 21 points, ahead of...
Arizona State dispatches St. Johns in First Four game
DAYTON, Ohio — Luguentz Dort overcame a hard foul and a leg injury, scored 21 points and led Arizona State to a long-awaited NCAA Tournament victory Wednesday night, 74-65, over St. John’s in the First Four. The 11th-seeded Sun Devils (23-10) will play Mid-American Conference champion Buffalo on Friday in...
Five matches to watch during the 1st round of the NCAA Division I wrestling championships
The NCAA Division I wrestling championship begins Thursday, and here are some interesting first-round matches to watch (each wrestler’s name is preceded by his seeding): 28-Gage Curry, American (23-11) vs. 5-Jack Mueller, Virginia (17-0) Mueller (125 pounds) could make some noise in the tournament. Curry isn’t an easy draw. The...
NCAA Tournament East Region preview: Michigan State hopes to avoid upset
DES MOINES, Iowa — It seems as though coach Tom Izzo has Michigan State poised to make a Final Four run nearly every year. The Spartans need to focus on surviving the first weekend this time around. It has been four years since Michigan State (28-6) made it to the...
NCAA Tournament Midwest preview: Injury hangs over Kentucky
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — As the Kentucky Wildcats went through a casual shootaround the day before their opening game of the NCAA Tournament, complete with a blaring band and thousands of blue-clad fans watching every move, something was missing. Their best player. PJ Washington, a rare sophomore amid John Calipari’s latest...
NCAA Tournament South Region preview: Villanova in different spot
HARTFORD, Conn. — Villanova is coming into the NCAA Tournament this year from an unfamiliar angle. The defending national champions bring the cache that comes with two NCAA titles in the last three seasons, along with a couple of key senior leaders who have a wealth of postseason experience and,...
NCAA Tournament West Region preview: Gonzaga eager to bounce back
SALT LAKE CITY — Gonzaga enters the NCAA Tournament after a loss for one of the rare times under coach Mark Few. The dominant team in the West Coast Conference for two decades, the Zags lost to Saint Mary’s in the conference title game last week in Las Vegas. The...
North Dakota State gets shot at Duke with First Four victory
DAYTON, Ohio — North Dakota State is one of the best free-throw shooting teams in the country, and that’s what it came down to at the end of the Bison’s First Four win over North Carolina Central. Vinnie Shahid sank three foul shots in the last 8 seconds to secure...
What to watch at this year’s NCAA Tournament
The NCAA Tournament somehow seems to be getting better every year, almost as if each bracket is extending from the previous one. Last year brought one of the maddest of Marches, starting with Maryland-Baltimore County becoming the first No. 16 seed to beat a 1 — poor Virginia — to...
Ja Morant, Markus Howard headline Murray State-Marquette matchup
HARTFORD, Conn. — Murray State’s Ja Morant and Marquette’s Markus Howard have much in common: Point guards, prolific scorers, conference players of the year, All-America contenders. And, apparently, promptness. Morant and Howard struck up a friendship last summer at NBA All-Star Chris Paul’s camp for elite guards. “We were the...
Former WPIAL wrestlers embrace home-mat advantage at NCAAsVideo
For Luke Pletcher, the stakes are higher than most. A Latrobe graduate, Pletcher was one of the best WPIAL wrestlers in recent memory earlier this decade. But the three-time PIAA champion took his talents across the state line to the west. Pletcher became an All-American at Ohio State, placing fourth...
At-large wrestlers can make good on reprieve at NCAAs
Greg Bulsak and Nick Kiussis spent the minutes leading up to 3 p.m. March 12 repeatedly refreshing the NCAA wrestling website on their phones. Sammy Krivus kept himself busy by lifting weights. Ultimately, all three wrestlers received the news they were hoping for the same way: from somebody else. Bulsak,...
Mariners top A’s in MLB opener in Japan
TOKYO — Ichiro drew all the cheers. Most everyone else on the Seattle Mariners did all the hitting. A crowd that came to salute Ichiro Suzuki in his homeland saw Domingo Santana deliver the biggest hit at the Tokyo Dome, a grand slam that sent Seattle over the Oakland Athletics,...
Baltimore mayor sues to block move of Preakness Stakes from Pimlico
BALTIMORE — Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh has sued the owners of Pimlico Race Course in an effort to seize the horse racetrack and block the move of the Preakness Stakes out of the city. News outlets report that on behalf of the city, Pugh is also trying to prevent the...
Tim Benz: A little tweak to make the NCAA Tournament’s First Four better
You may not have even submitted your bracket yet, and the 2019 NCAA Tournament is one night old. One potential 16th-seeded Cinderella — Prairie View A&M — is already going home. Another — either North Carolina Central or North Dakota State — will get eliminated Wednesday night. All that before...
Ex-Pitt star Cameron Johnson part of powerful North Carolina offense
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Cameron Johnson swears there’s no deals among North Carolina’s top three scorers determining who gets to lead the offense in each game. It sure seems that way sometimes, though. The graduate wing, freshman point guard Coby White and senior Luke Maye have proven capable of carrying...
Belmont tops Temple for 1st NCAA Tournament victory
DAYTON, Ohio — Kevin McClain scored 29 points and led the decisive second-half run as Belmont got its first NCAA Tournament win, pulling away to an 81-70 victory Tuesday night and ending Temple coach Fran Dunphy’s career in the First Four. The 11th-seeded Bruins (27-5) play Maryland on Thursday in...
Fairleigh Dickinson rallies for 1st NCAA Tournament win
DAYTON, Ohio — Eleven months ago, Fairleigh Dickinson coach Greg Herenda was seriously ill with life-threatening blood clots. On Tuesday night, he danced on the court and hugged his players after they secured the first NCAA Tournament win in school history. Senior guard Darnell Edge scored a career-high 33 points,...
Single-bid leagues feature standouts, upset possibilities
Vermont’s Anthony Lamb is among several players from one-bid conferences capable of leading their teams to major upsets in the NCAA Tournament. The 6-foot-6 junior forward scored 24 points against Kansas and 25 points against Louisville in the NIT Season Tip Off in November. Although Vermont lost both games, Lamb...
Latrobe grad, Virginia Tech senior Zack Zavatsky wants to go out on top at NCAAs
For Zack Zavatsky, something that’s been a significant part of his life will come to an abrupt end later this month. So why not go out on top? A Latrobe alum, Zavatsky’s final competitive wrestling act figures to come at the NCAA championships this weekend at PPG Paints Arena in...
Latrobe well represented at NCAA wrestling championshipsVideo
When the NCAA wrestling championships come to PPG Paints Arena beginning Thursday, Latrobe will be prominently represented. Three former Wildcats stars will compete in the event. Each of them — Virginia Tech’s Zack Zavatsky and Luke Pletcher and Ethan Smith of Ohio State — has a chance to make the...
Pittsburgh getting bigger, better NCAA wrestling championships
Bob Bubb became an NCAA All-American in 1959, wrestling in the University of Iowa’s gymnasium. Nearly 60 years later, Nico Megaludis won a national title in “The World’s Most Famous Arena,” New York’s Madison Square Garden, with a finals attendance of 19,270 — more than the crowd for the entire...
