Historically Black underdog Alabama State to face in-state powerhouse Auburn in March Madness | Sports

American University leading scorer Matt Rogers has been ruled out of his team’s First Four game against Mount St. Mary’s with a right knee injury. Rogers initially tweaked his knee four minutes into the game between No. 16 seeds seeking to advance to the main March Madness bracket. He went to the locker room, got it wrapped and was able to return. But he seemingly made the injury worse while trying to defend the post. While lying on the court, Rogers reached out to grab coach Duane Simpkins’ hand as trainers looked at his knee. Rogers was helped to the locker room and quickly ruled out.

Nick Kyrgios has won a match for the first time in nearly 2 1/2 years. The 2022 Wimbledon runner-up beat Mackie McDonald 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 at the Miami Open on Wednesday. Kyrgios was wearing a thick wrap of beige tape on his surgically repaired right wrist that he said was numb after he took five painkillers. Kyrgios is an Australian who turns 30 next month. He hadn’t come out on the right end of an official contest since October 2022 in Tokyo. Since then, Kyrgios needed operations for a torn ligament in his wrist and on his knee.

All-Star guards Klay Thompson and Tyrese Haliburton have been ruled out of Wednesday’s game between the Dallas Mavericks and Indiana Pacers. Dallas coach Jason Kidd says Thompson is out with an illness, creating an even shorter bench for the already short-handed Mavs. Haliburton continues to recover from an injured back. But Kidd did have some encouraging news about Anthony Davis, saying the All-Star center had a “positive experience” in his most recent five-on-five practice. Davis likely will not return to game action soon, though, Kidd says.

The stakes will be a lot lower this time around when Bill Self and John Calipari meet in March Madness. Calipari and Self will face each other in the NCAA Tournament for the third time on Thursday night in Providence, Rhode Island, when Arkansas plays Kansas in the opening round of the West Region. The others were both in the national championship game, with the winner walking away with the trophy. Calipari was with Memphis when he lost to Kansas in the 2008 title game. Four years later, Calipari earned his only title when Kentucky beat Kansas in the final.

Kyler Filewich doesn’t go to the free throw line looking for style points, just those that count on the scoreboard for Wofford. That’s why the 6-foot-9 center from Winnipeg, Manitoba, asked coaches for tips, leading him to switch to a throwback style. Granny-style. Underhand toss. It’s the shot that Basketball Hall of Fame member Rick Barry turned into an art form. Barry even came to Spartanburg, South Carolina, to give Filewich some personal tutoring. The numbers say Filewich continues to struggle at the free-throw line, but he says he’s more confident. Wofford plays No. 2 seed Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament’s Midwest Region on Thursday night.

A person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press on Wednesday veteran linebacker Willie Gay Jr. has agreed to a one-year contract with the Miami Dolphins. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the team had not announced the signing. ESPN first reported the deal. Gay played for New Orleans in 2024 after spending the first four seasons of his career with Kansas City. A second-round pick by the Chiefs in 2020, Gay won back-to-back Super Bowls with Kansas City in 2023 and 2024. Gay recorded 28 tackles, two sacks, two tackles for loss and three pass breakups last season.

A person with knowledge of the move says the Washington Commanders have reworked Deebo Samuel’s contract to guarantee $17 million in salary this season with $3 million in additional incentives. Samuel is entering the final season of the three-year, $71.55 million extension he signed with San Francisco in 2022. The Commanders acquired the wide receiver from the 49ers on March 1 for a fifth-round draft pick. Samuel is one of several high-profile additions made by second-year general manager Adam Peters after his team made an improbable run to the NFC championship game.

Carter Starocci is seeking an unprecedented fifth national title as Penn State chases its fourth straight team championship at the NCAA Division I Men’s Wrestling Championships. Starocci, a graduate student at Penn State who is taking advantage of his COVID year, has a 20-0 career record in the NCAA Tournament. He is wrestling at 184 pounds after winning his previous four championships at 174. Penn State has won 11 of the past 13 championships under Cael Sanderson and seeks its third four-peat. Minnesota’s Gable Steveson is chasing a third heavyweight national title after going back to college wrestling.

Alabama State coach Tony Madlock knows he and his Hornets won’t get much sleep before taking the court Thursday against Auburn. Madlock isn’t worried about facing the NCAA Tournament’s No. 1 overall seed. His Hornets have plenty of experience against power conference teams for a simple reason, and they’re coming off the program’s first NCAA Tournament victory. They beat Saint Francis 70-68 to kick off this year’s tournament. Also, historically Black colleges and universities are used to making do and playing against tough competition to help pay the bills. Madlock said they’ve done it and are used to it.

First West Virginia was a surprising omission from the NCAA Tournament. Then the Mountaineers lost their coach. It’s been a lousy week for a school facing its third men’s basketball coaching change in 21 months, all occurring since Wren Baker became West Virginia’s athletic director. The latest blow came Tuesday when Indiana hired away Darian DeVries after he spent a little less than a year with the Mountaineers. But Baker says he’s resilient. He believes a program that beat three top-10 teams in the AP Top 25 poll this season and had six Quad-1 wins despite a complete roster makeover will be attractive to the next coach.

McNeese State is in the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year. This time, student manager Amir Khan is in the spotlight as the 12th-seeded Cowboys prepare to take on fifth-seeded Clemson in the first round of the Midwest Region on Thursday. Khan went viral on social media by rapping and carrying a boom box strapped around his shoulder as he led the team to the court before a game in February. As a result, he became the first known basketball manager to receive an NIL deal. He got sponsorships from Buffalo Wild Wings, TickPick and Insomnia Cookies.

The Southwestern Athletic Conference suspended six baseball players from Jackson State and three from Prairie View A&M for engaging in an altercation after a weekend game. The SWAC announced both schools violated the league’s code of ethics/conduct by committing acts of unsportsmanlike conduct. The players were suspended for four games and the schools were fined $25,000 each. Prairie View won Saturday’s game 7-6 in 11 innings on Trenton Bush’s walk-off double. Jackson State players confronted the Panthers on the infield as they were celebrating. A video of the melee showed a Jackson State player heaving a bat into the stands.

The Auburn Tigers are experienced and remember all too well the feeling of being one-and-done at the NCAA Tournament a year ago. Watching Alabama State win literally on a last-second bucket to reach Thursday’s first round? No better reminder of how quickly fortunes change during March Madness. Auburn coach Bruce Pearl says anybody can have that “One Shining Moment,” mentioning the song that sums up the ride of the NCAA Tournament. His Tigers are the overall No. 1 seed and play 16th-seeded Alabama State on Thursday afternoon in the South Regional. The Tigers watched Alabama State’s thrilling win as it happened on TV.

The defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers opened the 2025 season by sweeping the Chicago Cubs in a two-game series in Japan. Highlights included the return of two-way star Shohei Ohtani to his native country.He homered in Wednesday’s game. Other Japanese players had a chance to shine as well. Yoshinobu Yamamoto won the opener on the mound, with Shota Imanaga throwing four scoreless innings for Chicago. That was the first all-Japanese starting pitching duel on opening day in major league history. Then prized rookie Roki Sasaki made his debut for the Dodgers in the second game.

When Caitlin Clark set the NCAA’s career scoring record last season, JuJu Watkins was widely considered the player most likely to challenge it. She’s on pace so far. Watkins has scored more points than Clark did through two seasons. She will be in position to threaten Kelsey Mitchell’s record two-year total if No. 1 seed Southern California wins at least two games in the NCAA Tournament. Watkins has 1,684 points in 65 games. She passed Clark’s two-year total of 1,662 in 62 games for Iowa. She needs 79 more to pass Mitchell’s total of 1,762 for Ohio State from 2014-16.

A former warehouse worker for the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia was sentenced to one year in federal prison for transporting millions of dollars’ worth of stolen Masters tournament memorabilia and historic items, including one of Arnold Palmer’s iconic green jackets. Richard Globensky of Georgia appeared in federal court Wednesday in Chicago. He pleaded guilty last year. Federal prosecutors say the 40-year-old took items from the warehouse to another party in Florida for sale online. They say the scheme lasted nearly a decade and Globensky made roughly $5 million from the sales.

Four-time Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz says he was unaware there would be a class-action lawsuit filed in U.S. federal court against some of the groups that run tennis and made clear that he does not back the effort by the players’ association co-founded by Novak Djokovic. Alcaraz was asked about the case at a pre-tournament news conference for the Miami Open. He said there are some things in the court filing he agrees with and some he doesn’t. But he said the main takeaway should be that he does not support the suit.

The top seeds in March Madness are facing a trickier path to the Final Four. The past four NCAA Tournaments have seen more lower-seeded teams making deeper runs. That coincides with coaches’ growing use of the transfer portal to find talent. Notably, the average combined seeds of Final Four teams from 2021-24 was 17.0. That’s up from 13.5 in the four tournaments before the COVID-19 pandemic. There also has been at least one team seeded eighth or lower in four consecutive Final Fours, a first since the tournament’s expansion to 64 teams in 1985.

Some of the best coaches to never have won a national championship have teams packed into the Midwest Region of the NCAA Tournament, which begins in earnest on Thursday. Houston coach Kelvin Sampson and Gonzaga’s Mark Few have been to two Final Fours apiece, and Purdue’s Matt Painter, UCLA counterpart Mick Cronin and Tennessee’s Rick Barnes have been there, too. But none of them have ever been the last one standing. They will be trying to change that in a region in which the Cougars are the No. 1 seed, Barnes has his team seeded second and the Boilermakers are the No. 4 seed.