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March 19, 2024
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March 19, 2024
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Update on the latest sports

 
AP-Summary Brief-Sports
March 19, 2024

March Madness as we know it could be on the way out amid seismic changes in college sports

Tracking the changes upending college sports can be as frenetic as keeping up during the first week of March Madness. Ultimately, those changes could impact what America’s favorite basketball tournament looks like in the future. News about athlete compensation, player unions and realignment dominate discussions. Everything in college sports is open for discussion, interpretation and adjustment. That includes the industry’s most hallowed tradition, the NCAA basketball tournaments, which begin this week and will stretch from coast to coast. The bottom line behind it all is money.

Olympic law rewrite calls for public funding for SafeSport and federal grassroots sports office

DENVER (AP) — A proposed rewrite of the law governing the Olympics in the United States calls on public funding for the embattled U.S. Center for SafeSport while also forming a new government office to oversee grassroots sports that have long been attached to the Olympics themselves. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the legislation, which is bring proposed to rework the 1978 law that put the current Olympic structure in place. The word “amateur” would be stripped from the law’s title and would also be removed throughout the legislation in a nod to the reality that professional athletes have been part of the Olympics for at least four decades.

IOC urges sports, governments to avoid Russia-organized possible rival to Olympic Games

GENEVA (AP) — The IOC is facing a Russia-organized potential rival to the Olympics and has urged sports and political leaders not to take part. The Friendship Games are due to launch in Russia in September weeks after the Summer Games in Paris. The International Olympic Committee has denounced Russian diplomatic moves to promote the inaugural event as “a cynical attempt” to politicize sports. Russian President Vladimir Putin decreed last year to start organizing the Friendship Games and paying tens of millions of dollars in prize money. Russia aims to counter its isolation in sports since the military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

PGA Tour’s Monahan describes ‘constructive’ meeting with Saudi leader of LIV Golf

PALM HARBOR, Fla. (AP) — The PGA Tour has taken a step toward sparking negotiations with the Saudi Arabia national wealth fund behind LIV Golf. Commissioner Jay Monahan sent a memo to players telling them about a Monday meeting in the Bahamas. He describes it as constructive. He says the head of the Public Investment Fund had a chance to share his vision of golf and why PIF wants to invest. One person informed of the meeting says Tiger Woods played nine holes with PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan at Albany Golf Club. Woods is one of the six player directors on the PGA Tour Enterprises board.

Clemson joins Florida State, becomes second school to sue ACC as it seeks to exit conference

Clemson has filed a lawsuit against the Atlantic Coast Conference in a South Carolina court. It joins Florida State to become the second member school to challenge the league’s right to charge hundreds of millions of dollars to leave. The complaint filed in Pickens County says the ACC’s “exorbitant $140 million” exit penalty and the grant of right used to bind schools to a conference through their media rights should be struck down. Clemson says the ACC’s rules stand in the way of the school exploring its options regarding conference membership.

NBA teams on the defensive as scoring goes slightly down after All-Star break

Contrary to popular belief, there has been some defense played in the NBA this season. It’s been on display even more out of the All-Star break and on the heels of that record-setting 211-186 All-Star Game when guarding anyone wasn’t remotely part of the game plan. The numbers speak volumes post-break: NBA teams were averaging four points less per game since the break, dropping from 115.5 to 111.3. NBA coaches and players have various explanations for that. Maybe defenders are being allowed to get away with more by officials, becoming wise to the tricks of the elite scorers. Or maybe it’s because the NBA playoff race is tightening up down the stretch.

Retired Belarusian hockey player Konstantin Koltsov dies in Florida at 42

MIAMI (AP) — Retired Belarusian hockey player-turned-coach Konstantin Koltsov has died in Florida. He was 42. Miami-Dade Police confirmed Koltsov’s death and called it an apparent suicide. Koltsov had been dating second-ranked women’s tennis player Aryna Sabalenka, who was set to play in a tournament in Miami. Koltsov had been serving as an assistant coach for a team in the KHL. He played in 144 NHL games for the Pittsburgh Penguins from 2003-06.

March Madness is known for late-game winners. The guys who hit those last year are back for more

The last-second shot fuels to the allure of the NCAA Tournament and March Madness. San Diego State’s Lamont Butler understands that well after hitting a buzzer-beating jumper in last year’s Final Four to send the Aztecs to the title game. Butler joins Florida Atlantic’s Nick Boyd and TCU’s JaKobe Coles as players who hit final-seconds shots in last year’s tournament and are back in the field of 68 this year. Butler says the key for him was playing confident and “fearless” in a pressure-packed moment to beat Florida Atlantic. The NCAAs begin play this week.

Creighton’s Isaac Traudt wears glucose monitor to stay in game. His diabetes was diagnosed at age 4

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Creighton’s Isaac Traudt is playing at the highest level of college basketball while managing Type 1 diabetes. He wears an insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor under his uniform. The CGM tells him his blood glucose level at five-minute intervals. He uses Honey Stinger energy chews to bump up his sugar when the device or his body tell him he’s low. Dr. Lori Laffel is an endocrinologist and clinical investigator who works with children and young adults at the Harvard Medical School’s Joslin Diabetes Center. She said technological advances have made it easier for athletes to manage their diabetes.

March Madness hits different for Tom Izzo at Michigan State, where 26th bid in a row wasn’t a layup

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — March Madness kept Tom Izzo sleepless for more than 24 hours before he heard and saw Michigan State made it into a 26th consecutive NCAA Tournament. Izzo says he had one of the most anxious days of his career on Sunday. He sensed that a record-breaking streak might get snapped after the Spartans started No. 4 in the AP Top 25 preseason poll and finished an uneven season with five losses in seven games. Izzo was able to exhale and get some much-needed sleep because Michigan State is a No. 9 seed matched up with No. 8 seed Mississippi State.