April 10, 2024 4:34 am
The women’s NCAA championship game drew a bigger television audience than the men’s title game for the first time, with an average of 18.9 million viewers watching undefeated South Carolina beat Iowa and superstar Caitlin Clark. The Sunday afternoon game on ABC and ESPN outdrew Monday’s men’s final between UConn and Purdue by four million. The Huskies’ 75-60 victory averaged 14.82 million on TBS and TNT. The women’s final was the second most-watched non-Olympic women’s sporting event on U.S. television, trailing only the 2015 Women’s World Cup final between the United States and Japan.
April 10, 2024 4:35 am
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — John Calipari says he is stepping down as Kentucky’s men’s basketball coach after 15 years. He say the “program probably needs to hear another voice” amid reports that he’s closing in on a deal with Arkansas. Calipari posted a video on X in which he said that after talking with his wife, Ellen, he decided a change was needed. He didn’t specifically mention the Arkansas opening. The Hall of Famer simply said, “There have been opportunities that have been presented to us, so we’re discussing them as a family.” Calipari leaves a Wildcats program he guided to the 2012 NCAA championship among four Final Four appearances.
April 8, 2024 4:31 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Bryan Reynolds hit his 100th career home run as the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Detroit Tigers 7-4. Connor Joe and Jared Triolo had two hits and two RBIs for the Pirates as Pittsburgh improved to 9-2. That’s tied with the New York Yankees for the best record in the majors. Mitch Keller struck out nine in six innings to pick up his first win of the season. Detroit’s Reese Olson allowed six runs on nine hits with three walks and three strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings. The Tigers have dropped four of five after starting 5-0.
April 9, 2024 4:29 am
TORONTO (AP) — Jake McCabe scored at 1:30 of overtime and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2. Auston Matthews got his NHL-leading 65th goal of the season to go along with an assist, while Matthew Knies also scored for Toronto. Ilya Samsonov made 30 saves. Rickard Rakell and Drew O’Connor scored for Pittsburgh, which is now 6-0-3 over its last nine to get back into the Eastern Conference playoff race. Alex Nedeljkovic had 20 saves. The Penguins are tied with Detroit for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference, and trail the New York Islanders by one point for third place in the Metropolitan Division.
April 9, 2024 4:34 am
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — UConn delivered the latest of its suffocating basketball beatdowns, smothering Purdue for a 75-60 victory to become the first team since 2007 to capture back-to-back national championships. Tristen Newton scored 20 points for the Huskies, who won their 12th straight March Madness game — not a single one of them decided by fewer than 13 points. UConn was efficient on offense but won this with defense. The Huskies limited the country’s second-best 3-point shooting team to a mere seven shots behind the arc, and Purdue only made one. Meanwhile, UConn allowed Zach Edey to go for 37 points on 25 shot attempts.
April 9, 2024 4:34 am
BRISTOL, Conn. (AP) — South Carolina’s victory over Caitlin Clark and Iowa in Sunday’s women’s NCAA championship game had a preliminary audience average of 18.7 million on ABC and ESPN. The only sporting events in the United States to draw a bigger TV audience since 2019 have been football, the World Cup and the Olympics. The audience numbers are expected to increase when Nielsen releases its final numbers on Tuesday. Nielsen says the audience peaked at 24 million. It’s the most-watched basketball game since 2019, when the men’s NCAA title game between Virginia and Texas Tech averaged 19.6 million on CBS.
April 9, 2024 4:37 am
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics has announced a policy that all but bans transgender athletes from women’s sports. The NAIA is the governing body for mostly small colleges, covering about 83,000 athletes across the country. The NAIA’s Council of Presidents approved the policy in a 20-0 vote. The NAIA is believed to be the first college sports organization to take such a step. The NCAA responded by saying it remains committed to “fair competition for all student-athletes in all NCAA championships.”
April 8, 2024 4:33 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Baltimore Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson made a diving stop near second base on Edward Oliveras’ grounder in a try for a game-ending double play, then threw wildly past first for an error as two runs scored and gave the Pittsburgh Pirates a 3-2 win. With the wild win, the Pirates improved to 8-2 for the first time since 2018. Henderson gloved Olivares’ grounder and his momentum carried him into second. He tagged the base with his glove, and Henderson hooked his throw around the runner and to the outfield side of Ryan Mountcastle at first as two runs scored.
April 8, 2024 4:38 am
CLEVELAND (AP) — Coach Dawn Staley and South Carolina have completed their perfect season, ending Caitlin Clark’s historic college career with an 87-75 win over Iowa in the NCAA championship game. The 38-0 Gamecocks became the 10th Division I team to go through a season without a loss. And they accomplished the feat after they lost all five starters from last season’s team that lost to Clark’s squad in the national semifinals. Clark did all she could to lead the Hawkeyes to their first championship. She scored 30 points, including a championship-record 18 in the first quarter. She will go down as one of the greatest players in NCAA history.
April 8, 2024 4:39 am
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — UConn and Purdue have dominated this year’s NCAA Tournament. Now they’re set to meet for the national championship on Monday night. The Huskies are going for the first repeat men’s title since Florida in 2006 and 2007. They have beaten five tournament opponents by an average of 25 points per game, with the closest margin coming by 14 points. The Boilermakers are in the title game for the first time since falling to UCLA in 1969 in their lone appearance. Purdue is winning its tournament games by an average margin of 19.6 points.
