U.S./World Sports category, Page 311

AUSTIN, Texas — The chase was on for Tom Herman. In late 2016, Texas and LSU were eyeing the young hotshot coach from Houston until a wild Thanksgiving weekend that included a Tigers win, a Longhorns loss and leaked details of contract negotiations swung Herman to Texas and pushed LSU...

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Hints that Tevin Bush could make an impact for West Virginia in 2019 began at a simple team-building exercise during preseason camp. During a game of musical chairs, 300-pound linemen were knocking each other over to get to empty seats when the song stopped. The speedy, 5-foot-6...

NEW YORK — Betrayed by his forehand, and maybe his body, too, Roger Federer is out of the U.S. Open. Federer gave away a lead against a guy he’d never lost to and was beaten 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 by 78th-ranked Grigor Dimitrov in the quarterfinals before a stunned...

The Top 25 went 23-0 against unranked teams to open the season, leaving the rankings mostly unchanged with No. 1 Clemson and No. 2 Alabama at the top of the first regular-season AP college football poll of 2019. The Tigers received 54 first-place votes out of 62 in the media...

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Joe Gibbs has had the hottest hand in NASCAR this season. Now, after Erik Jones’ gritty, overnight victory at Darlington Raceway, the championship owner has four aces ready to contend for another title. Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. have won four times each this...

NORMAN, Okla. — Even one of the best nights ever for an Oklahoma player wasn’t good enough for Jalen Hurts. The new Sooners quarterback passed for three touchdowns and ran for three more, and No. 4 Oklahoma rolled past Houston 49-31 on Sunday night. It was Hurts’ first game for...

NEW YORK — Serena Williams was in pain — “acceptable” pain, her coach called it — after rolling her right ankle during the second set of a U.S. Open victory. That was the bad news. The good news for Williams as she pursues a seventh championship at Flushing Meadows and...

NEW YORK — First, the tears came from Coco Gauff as the 15-year-old American’s U.S. Open came to an end against defending champion and No. 1 seed Naomi Osaka. Then it was Osaka’s turn to cry, moments after comforting Gauff with a hug and some words of encouragement Saturday night....

ATLANTA — Now that’s more like it, Alabama. Playing for the first time since its crushing loss to Clemson in the national championship game, the second-ranked Crimson Tide overcame a sluggish start to blow out Duke, 42-3, on Saturday in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game. Tua Tagovailoa threw for 336 yards...

AMES, Iowa — Iowa State quarterback Brock Purdy’s eyes lit up when he saw a potential fumble floating aimlessly near the goal line. The sophomore sprang into action, snapping up Sheldon Croney Jr.’s triple-overtime miscue and saving the Cyclones from a devastating defeat — even by their standards. Croney Jr....

ARLINGTON, Texas — For all the expectations the 11th-ranked Oregon Ducks have for this season, there will first be a flashback to their championship near-misses of the past when they open against No. 16 Auburn. When the Ducks last played in the home stadium of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys five...

NEW YORK — Roger Federer didn’t change much, outside of where his team was sitting. He certainly wasn’t going to overreact to a couple of poor starts after all these years and do anything different with his tennis. Federer rolled into the fourth round with a 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 victory...

MOBILE, Ala. — Alabama police have issued an arrest warrant for Los Angeles Lakers center DeMarcus Cousins on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge for harassing communications. The Mobile municipal court website indicates a warrant was issued for harassing communications, but does not list other details TMZ released an audio recording...

NEW YORK — Coco Gauff is still not quite used to hearing her name shouted by thousands of U.S. Open spectators reveling in each booming serve, each “How did she do that?” shot and each victory by a 15-year-old American who is the youngest woman in the U.S. Open’s third...

NEW YORK — The pure, raw emotion from Taylor Townsend came through after she delivered one last crisp forehand volley to complete her U.S. Open upset of two-time major champion Simona Halep, then clenched her fists, raised her arms and yelled, “Yes! Yes!” before patting her heart. And there it...

INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA wants a level playing field for all athletes, even if state law proposals threaten its longtime model for amateur sports. With the California assembly considering a potentially landmark measure that would allow athletes at state colleges and universities to profit from the use of their names,...

FLINT, Mich. — There’s more evidence of Michigan’s woeful roads: A champion runner says he fractured a leg bone when he stepped into a pothole during a 10-mile race in Flint. Chris Derrick, a three-time U.S. Cross Country champion, posted a photo of his right leg on Instagram. View this...

NEW YORK — Roger Federer’s not about to start trying new tricks now. So even though he has lost the opening set in each of his first two U.S. Open matches for the first time in the 19 times he has entered the Grand Slam tournament, it’s not as if...

Led by a decline in football for the fifth straight year, participation in U.S. high school sports dropped in 2018-19 for the first time in 30 years, according to an annual survey conducted by the National Federation of State High School Associations. The 2018-19 total of 7,937,491 participants was a...

Bjorn Fratangelo, a native of Plum, engaged in a four-set battle with France’s Gilles Simon on Tuesday in the first round of the men’s singles draw at the U.S. Open in Flushing, N.Y., but the seven-year pro was not able to advance. Fratangelo, who picked up a wild-card entry to...

NEW YORK — Here’s how new all of this is to Coco Gauff: She didn’t quite realize she only has to play every other day at the U.S. Open. “I’m still used to playing juniors,” the American said with a chuckle, “so I forgot about the day off.” She’s just...

BUFFALO, N.Y.— The National Women’s Hockey League is taking its game outdoors with the Buffalo Beauts scheduled to host the Metropolitan Riveters on Dec. 28 in what’s being called the “Buffalo Believes Classic.” The game will be played at RiverWorks, a year-round bar/entertainment complex located on the banks of the...