Update on the latest sports
APCOLLEGE BASKETBALL-NCAA TOURNAMENT-MEN
Sweet 16 tips off
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The NCAA Tournament moves to the Sweet 16 on Saturday with men’s semifinals in the South and Midwest regions.
Top seed Baylor faces No. 5 seed Villanova. This is Baylor’s fifth trip to the second weekend of the tournament under coach Scott Drew. Villanova is in the Sweet 16 for the fifth time the last seven NCAA Tournaments. Baylor went three full weeks without a game last month due to COVID-19 protocols.
In the other South Region semifinal, No. 15 seed Oral Roberts will play No. 3 seed Arkansas. The Golden Eagles are only the second No. 15 seed in history to get to the Sweet 16. Oral Roberts coach Paul Mills says he believed all season his team would win multiple NCAA Tournament games. Arkansas second-year coach Eric Musselman has the Razorbacks in the Sweet 16 for the first time in more than 20 years.
The Midwest Region has caused more busted NCAA Tournament brackets than any other. But perhaps the four teams in the quadrant that have sent Illinois, Tennessee and Oklahoma State packing shouldn’t be that surprising. Loyola Chicago, Houston and Syracuse all have coaches that have been to the Final Four. Oregon State has lost just once in the past five weeks.
Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim (BAY’-hym) is back in the Sweet 16 for the 20th time in his Hall of Fame career. The 11th-seeded Orange will face second-seeded Houston. Syracuse struggled during the regular season but is rolling in the tournament behind Boeheim’s son Buddy. Eighth-seeded Loyola Chicago faces 12th-seeded Oregon State.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL-NCAA TOURNAMENT-WOMEN
Sweet 16 games begin
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The women’s Sweet 16 gets started Saturday with UConn against Iowa. The game matches two freshman phenoms in the Huskies’ Paige Bueckers and the Hawkeyes’ Caitlin Clark. The two happen to be good friends.
Then, Baylor plays sixth-seeded Michigan, NC State takes on Indiana and Texas A&M faces Arizona.
OLLEGE FOOTBALL-OBIT-SCHNELLENBERGER
Former Miami, Louisville coach Schenellenberger dies
MIAMI (AP) — Former football college Howard Schnellenberger has died.
Schnellenberger revived football at the University of Miami and Louisville and started the program at Florida Atlantic during a coaching career that spanned half a century. He had a career record below .500, but when it came to building, he was a winner. His legacy includes on-campus stadiums at Louisville and Florida Atlantic. He led the Miami Hurricanes to the first of their five national championships in 1983, and coached Louisville to a Fiesta Bowl win over Alabama to cap the 1990 season. He then founded the program at Florida Atlantic. Howard Schnellenberger was 87 years old.
Schnellenberger died Saturday at age 87. FAU announced his death and said he recently had been in a care center in South Florida.
FIGURE SKATING-WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Chen wins 3rd straight worlds, beating Olympic champ Hanyu
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Nathan Chen has put himself in the company of history’s best figure skaters, becoming the first American since Scott Hamilton to win a third consecutive World Figure Skating Championships men’s title.
Chen was dynamic in easily surpassing two-time Olympic champ Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan in the free skate in Stockholm and stamp himself as the man to beat at next year’s Beijing Olympics. Hanyu struggled enough Saturday to fall to third place behind 17-year-old countryman Yuma Kagiyama, who took silver in his first senior worlds.
