U.S./World Sports category, Page 296

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla — Joe Gibbs was trying to apologize. His driver won another checkered flag at Daytona — the same track where Gibbs’ eponymous race team is the defending Daytona 500 champion — and the 79-year-old wanted to make some things right. He was eight days removed from giving...

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Joey Logano won the first qualifying race for the Daytona 500 for the second consecutive year. Logano led 19 laps in the No. 22 Ford for Team Penske in Thursday night’s 60-lap qualifying race that sets the field for the Daytona 500. He will start from...

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — Fans are calling foul against Northern Iowa and its business sponsor, who denied a $10,000 prize to a student who appeared to win a halftime basketball shooting promotion. The flap began Wednesday night when Northern Iowa student Dalton Hinsch got a chance at the prize if...

Kent State University announced Wednesday that it has partnered with the LeBron James Family Foundation to provide free tuition for four years to eligible students in the first graduating class of his I PROMISE school. According to Bleacher Report, there are 193 students in the oldest I PROMISE class, and...

EUGENE, Ore. — After Oregon’s run to the Sweet 16 last season, guard Payton Pritchard explored going pro. It certainly wasn’t a futile exercise. Pritchard resolutely had picked up the Ducks and carried them to a Pac-12 tournament championship and on to a run in the NCAA Tournament. In the...

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Speedweeks is facing a significant shakeup. The Daytona 500 is scheduled for Valentine’s Day in 2021, a week earlier than usual and putting NASCAR’s version of the Super Bowl seven days after the actual Super Bowl. The revised date could cause changes to Speedweeks, the opening...

NEW YORK — Primped and poised, Siba the standard poodle owned the ring. Even with the crowd at Madison Square Garden chanting for a popular golden retriever, the statuesque Siba strutted off with best in show Tuesday night at the Westminster Kennel Club. Adorned with black puffs and pompoms, the...

LOS ANGELES — There is no better place for Tiger Woods to set the PGA Tour record for most career victories than at Riviera. Because this is where he played his first PGA Tour event as a 16-year-old amateur? No. Because he is tournament host of the Genesis Invitational, giving...

CINCINNATI — Coach Luke Fickell informed Michigan State on Monday that he’s decided to stay at Cincinnati, leaving the Spartans to resume their search to find Mark Dantonio’s replacement. Fickell has rebuilt Cincinnati into a Top 25 program in his three seasons. Dantonio, who stepped down from the job this...

FARMINGTON, Conn. — Central Connecticut pitcher Michael Delease was throwing fastballs inside the Center for Motion Analysis and wasn’t getting much movement on his pitches. His problem was quickly diagnosed by coaches and scientists looking at data gathered by the instrumented pitching mound from which he was throwing, the electrodes...

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Nick Taylor had more trouble with the wind than he did with Phil Mickelson. The Canadian managed both just fine Sunday and won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am for his second career victory. With the gallery eager to see Mickelson add a record sixth victory at...

SAN FRANCISCO Andrew Wiggins wasn’t spectacular in his first game as a Golden State Warrior. He wasn’t a revelation to the team or the game of basketball. But his Saturday debut in blue and yellow was an unquestioned success. Wiggins looked good, solid. He looked like he fit in with...

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The first race of the NASCAR season was a demolition derby that turned Daytona International Speedway into a giant junkyard. The Busch Clash? More like the Busch Crash. Erik Jones won Sunday’s race that left a multi-million dollar trail of destruction and masked the fact the...

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Ricky Stenhouse Jr. needed just two days to get his new team to the top. Stenhouse won the pole Sunday for the season-opening Daytona 500 next weekend, putting JTG-Daugherty Racing in the NASCAR spotlight for a week. Stenhouse’s third pole in 257 Cup Series starts and...

Purdue is positioned to chase down an NCAA Tournament bid, thanks in part to the Big Ten’s depth of quality teams. The Boilermakers had 10 losses by the end of January and are one game better than .500 in conference play. Yet they are ranked No. 26 in the NCAA’s...

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Kevin Harvick put a mic drop on his TV broadcasting career and turned off the dial on his radio show. The moonlighting gigs have been parked, minimizing his distractions, maximizing his family time, but certainly not accelerating any thoughts about retirement. If he kept his talk...

San Diego State has rolled through its schedule, charging into February as the only Division I team still undefeated. But if teams were selected for the NCAA Tournament today, the Aztecs would travel across the country to play in New York. The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee gave San...

WASHINGTON — The debut of the new XFL had a punt blocked for a touchdown, a juiced-up crowd roaring for big plays and a player swearing during an in-game TV interview. The actual football was hit and miss. College national championship-winning former Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones was the biggest...

ORLANDO, Fla. — Baseball returns to the field next week when pitchers, catchers and cheaters report to spring training. Fans await the annual sunny scenes of favorites stretching on bright green grass in Florida and Arizona. This year the players bring along dark clouds of scandal — the 2017 World...