FT. WORTH, Texas – From the sideline of McCallum Stadium at Bishop Gorman in Tyler to the new frontier of Texas Wesleyan football’s revival at Farrington Field in Ft. Worth, head coach Joe Prud’homme has brought success to every program he’s coached. However, that same football revival will now continue under a new coach, as Prud’homme announced his resignation on Monday.
According to a release from the University obtained by the Antler Sports Network, Paul Duckworth, Texas Wesleyan defensive coordinator, will serve as the interim coach. Last season, the Rams season ended heartbreakingly, with a loss to Louisiana Christian which was broadcasted on ASN2 for the Sooner Athletic Conference (SAC) title. The loss clinched back-to-back SAC Co-Championships for the Rams.
Texas Wesleyan Athletic Director Ricky Dotson had positive words regarding Prud’homme’s resignation. “We are certainly sad to see Joe go. He built a football program at Texas Wesleyan from the ground up. […] he built a culture that will benefit his athletes throughout the remainder of their lives,” Dotson said.
The University stated that Prud’homme will assist the University with the transition until a search for a new coach begins.
FRISCO, Texas (AP) — The Dallas Cowboys are slightly reducing quarterback Dak Prescott’s massive salary cap hit by reworking his contract going into the final year of the deal, a person with knowledge of the move said Monday.
A $5 million roster bonus has been converted into a signing bonus to reduce the 2024 cap hit by $4 million, to about $55 million, the person told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the club doesn’t release details of contracts. The move was first reported by ESPN.
The Cowboys can create more salary cap relief with an extension for Prescott, who is coming off a wild-card loss at home to Green Bay that dropped his playoff record to 2-5.
While Jerry Jones has said the club plans to keep Prescott, the team owner and general manager hasn’t struck the same definitive tone he did in 2021 before signing his franchise QB to a club-record $160 million, four-year contract.
The reworking of the contract included adding two more voidable years in 2027 and 2028, which pushed Prescott’s salary cap number in 2025 up slightly to $40 million.
The Cowboys have been quiet in free agency in part because of looming paydays for All-Pro receiver CeeDee Lamb and star pass rusher Micah Parsons, the 2021 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year.
Committing to Prescott beyond the coming season would make it easier to get deals done with Lamb and Parsons.
The only addition for Dallas from another team so far is linebacker Eric Kendricks on a one-year deal worth up to $3.5 million. The Cowboys added Kendricks while releasing linebacker Leighton Vander Esch, their 2018 first-round pick, on a failed physical designation after another neck injury last season.
Prescott, a three-time Pro Bowler, has started ever since the beginning of his rookie year after Tony Romo was injured during the preseason in 2016. Prescott went from unheralded fourth-round pick to the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year while leading Dallas to the top seed in the NFC playoffs.
The Cowboys lost Prescott’s playoff debut to Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers, and they haven’t advanced past the divisional round in four other tries since then. Dallas hasn’t been to an NFC championship game since the last of the franchise’s five Super Bowl titles to cap the 1995 season.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Scottie Scheffler is next in line for comparisons with Tiger Woods because golf, like other sports, is always looking for the heir to the throne.
Scheffler is playing great golf, measured as much by his elite ball-striking and alarming consistency as the results. He now has nine victories against the strongest fields — one of them a small field in the Bahamas — in the 25 months since he won his first PGA Tour title.
Equally impressive is his 65% rate of finishing in the top 10.
The next Woods?
“I think that’s a funny question,” Scheffler said Sunday evening after his record-tying final round made him the first back-to-back winner of The Players Championship.
He found out the answer a month earlier at Riviera during the Genesis Invitational.
“I’m not going to remember the exact numbers, but we’re playing at Riv this year and I hit my tee ball, and this guy yells out, ‘Congrats on being No. 1, Scottie — 11 more years to go!’” he said.
And then Scheffler repeated the number to let it sink in for anyone listen.
“Eleven more years to go.”
Scheffler reached No. 1 in the world for the fourth time after his runner-up finish in the PGA Championship last May, and he has been there ever since, challenged a few times by either Jon Rahm or Rory McIlroy.
And now with his second straight win — a five-shot victory at Bay Hill, a five-shot comeback at the TPC Sawgrass — his lead at the top of the ranking is the largest since Dustin Johnson in May 2017. Johnson stayed No. 1 for 64 consecutive weeks, the longest in the post-Woods era. Scheffler is currently at 43 weeks. His total time has been 78 weeks.
Woods holds the record at 281 consecutive weeks, breaking his previous mark of 264 consecutive weeks. His total time at No. 1 was slightly more than 13 years.
Scheffler was off by two years. No need to quibble.
“Anytime you can be compared to Tiger I think is really special,” Scheffler said. “But I mean, the guy stands alone I think in our game. He really does.”
Scheffler has tied Woods with the most Players Championship titles — two.
“Outside of that, I’ve got 14 more majors and 70-some PGA Tour events to catch up,” he said. “So I think I’m going to stick to my routine and just continue to plod along, try and stay as even-keeled as I can.”
It’s easy to overlook Johnson, partly because he is with LIV Golf and is seen against a full roster of great players only at the four majors, and partly because it has been seven years since he was at his most dominant. He won three straight tournaments — Riviera and two World Golf Championships — and was the overwhelming favorite at the Masters until slipping down the stairs the day before the first round and having to withdraw.
Before him was McIlroy, who won seven times from May 2014 through May 2015, including consecutive majors. And then he injured his knee playing soccer, missing the British Open at St. Andrews, and lost the No. 1 ranking to Jordan Spieth.
Scheffler offered a small reminder about looking too far into the future. He felt something in his neck on the second hole of his second round, and the pain was such that it hurt to take the club too far back. He needed treatment after the 13th, 14th and 15th holes. He had reason to withdraw except that he was playing well — he was tied when he felt the pain — and his competitiveness kept him from stopping.
So he got through Friday with a 69, and then relied more on his hands for a game he described as “kind of slapping it around.” He birdied the last three holes Saturday for a 68 to stay in the game, five shots behind.
And then he felt better on Sunday and delivered a masterpiece — a hole-out from 92 yards for eagle on No. 4, four birdies in a five-hole stretch around the turn and a 64 to match the Players Championship record for lowest Sunday score by a winner.
And no one was terribly surprised, the ultimate compliment.
Statistically, he led the field from tee-to-green, just like he seems to do whenever and wherever he plays. It wasn’t his best week with the irons — remember the “slapping it around” from Saturday — and he a little better than middle of the pack in putting.
It’s been that way for some time. His consistently great play first came into focus at the start of 2023 when it took until July at the British Open for his first result worse than a tie for 12th. And it hasn’t really stopped.
The best since Woods in his prime? Scheffler gets closer the larger his sample size gets. The real measure is when expectations get too high for anyone but Woods to match. It’s getting close. Still to be determined is whether it gets to him, which sounds unlikely.
“I try not to place too much emphasis on results, good or bad,” Scheffler said. “I show up to try and perform my best and hopefully win tournaments. But when I stand on the tee on Thursday, I’m not thinking about the trophy ceremony at the end of the week. I’m just trying to be committed to the shot and just go from there.”
FRISCO (AP) — Leighton Vander Esch retired Monday following six NFL seasons, with the linebacker stepping away after missing 12 games for the Dallas Cowboys last year because of the latest in a series of neck injuries.
The announcement by the 28-year-old former first-round draft pick came three days after the Cowboys released Vander Esch with a failed physical designation. His injury last season was the fourth since 2019 involving the neck and was considered career-threatening.
“I realize that I am no longer able to adhere to the unwavering standard of excellence that professional football demands. I say this with a heavy heart: I am medically retiring from the NFL,” Vander Esch said in a statement. “I love the game of football so much, and my body won’t cooperate any longer. I cherished every moment of my NFL career, and it has been such a blessing to play the game for as long as I have played.”
After being the 19th overall pick in the 2018 NFL draft, Vander Esch started 65 of the 71 games he played for Dallas. He finished with 557 career tackles. He set a club rookie record with 176 tackles and was a Pro Bowl pick in his first season.
“We’re proud that he wore the star on his helmet,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said.
After the first neck injury in 2019, Vander Esch was diagnosed with a narrow spinal column and underwent fusion surgery. The latest injury happened when he was pushed from behind in Week 5 against San Francisco last season and jammed his neck into teammate Micah Parsons’ right leg.
Vander Esch had issues with his neck at Boise State before the Cowboys drafted him.
In part because of the neck issues, Dallas declined the fifth-year option on his rookie contract but brought him back in 2022 on a one-year deal. Vander Esch had one year remaining on a two-year contract.
“Seldom do you come across a player like Leighton, who grew up playing eight-man football only to first play the 11-man game at the major collegiate level and excel,” Jones said. “His passion and love for the game was contagious, and from the moment he arrived, he has been a difference maker. His grit, toughness, motivation, determination and football IQ will be sorely missed.”
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Alejandro Vasquez sank five 3-pointers on his way to scoring a career-high 29, Yaxel Lendeborg finished with his 19th double-double of the season and UAB cruised to a wire-to-wire 85-69 victory over Temple on Sunday in the championship game of the American Athletic Conference Tournament, earning the Blazers a spot in the NCAA Tournament for a 17th time.
Vasquez opened the scoring with a 3-pointer two minutes into the game and the fourth-seeded Blazers (23-11) never looked back, heading to the Big Dance on a five-game win streak. Vasquez had 21 points by halftime to lead UAB to a 43-27 advantage.
Vasquez accounted for nearly half of UAB’s first-half output, hitting all five of his 3-point attempts on 7-for-9 shooting. The Blazers shot 52% in the first half and made 7 of 13 from beyond the arc.
Hysier Miller hit two 3-pointers and had 16 points at the break for Temple. Miller hit 4 of 8 shots, while the rest of the Owls made 5 of 22. Temple shot 30% overall and missed 10 of 12 from distance.
Vasquez made 11 of 16 shots, missing his only 3-point attempt in the second half, for UAB. Lendeborg totaled 14 points and 16 rebounds. Eric Gaines added 15 points, nine assists, six rebounds and five steals. Christian Coleman scored 15 on 7-for-12 shooting.
Miller scored a career-high 32 to lead 11th-seeded Temple (16-20). He made 9 of 18 shots with four 3-pointers and 10 of 11 foul shots. Shane Dezonie added 11 points, four rebounds and four assists off the bench.
Coach Adam Fisher’s Owls had won five in a row entering play and hadn’t lost since a 100-72 setback to UAB. After that loss a gambling investigation was announced due to unusual betting.
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Houston has a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year, but will have to navigate the likes of Duke, Kentucky and Marquette in the South Region if the Cougars are able to make their first Final Four since 2021.
The Cougars (30-4) were rewarded on Sunday after winning the Big 12 regular-season title and reached the conference tournament title game before losing to Iowa State. They will face No. 16 seed Longwood, the Big South champion, in Memphis, Tennessee, in the first round on Thursday.
Houston is be a No. 1 seed for the third time in school history, joining the 1983 team that reached the national championship game and last season when the Cougars were bounced by Miami in the Sweet 16. Should the Cougars advance past the first weekend — a Longwood win would bring a matchup with either Nebraska or Texas A&M — they’ll only need to head up Interstate 45 to Dallas for the regional.
The Cougars will be trying to rebound after getting blown out by the Cyclones in the Big 12 title game. It was the largest margin of defeat for a No. 1 team since UCLA beat Houston by 32 in the 1968 Final Four. Houston was riding an 11-game win streak before the loss.
“We’ll pick ourselves up. We’ve had a great year,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said after the Iowa State loss. “Obviously 40 minutes is not going to define three months, but we’ll get some guys treatment and healthy and get back at it.”
The South Region also features No. 2 seed Marquette, who will get standout Tyler Kolek back after he missed the Big East Tournament due to an oblique injury. The Golden Eagles (25-9) reached the Big East title game before falling to UConn.
Kentucky (23-9) is the No. 3 seed in the region and will open against No. 14 seed Oakland. Duke (24-8) rounds out the top-four seeds in the region and will face No. 13 seed Vermont in the first round in Brooklyn, New York on Friday.
KOLEK CONCERN
Marquette coach Shaka Smart expressed cautious optimism on Sunday that Kolek, the 2023 Big East player of the year, would play in the NCAA opener. Kolek has missed Marquette’s last six games with an oblique injury. The Golden Eagles will face No. 15 seed Western Kentucky (22-11) on Friday in Indianapolis.
“The plan is for him to play, but he’s got to go through a progression this week,” Smart said Sunday.
Smart relayed a story that after the team returned from New York following the Big East title game, Kolek was already going back into the gym to do some ball handling.
“So he has a level of excitement and passion because he feels like he’s going to play. Now we’ve just got to check the boxes we need to check so he can,” Smart said.
Marquette went 3-3 in Kolek’s absence, with two of the losses coming to UConn and the other coming at Creighton.
The Golden Eagles have other injury issues as well. Oso Ighodaro sat out the last seven minutes of the Big East championship game loss he appeared to hurt his knee, and Stevie Mitchell was wearing a brace on his right shoulder during that game.
Smart expects both to play Friday.
POWER CHAMPION
The South Region features only one team from a power conference that won its conference tournament title. And it’s a team that wasn’t going to make the NCAAs if not for its tournament run.
North Carolina State is the No. 11 seed in the region after its stunning run to the ACC tournament title winning five games in five days including upset wins over rivals Duke and North Carolina in the semifinals and championship game respectively. It was N.C. State’s first ACC title since 1987.
The Wolfpack will face No. 6 seed Texas Tech in Pittsburgh.
30 CLUB
Four teams enter the NCAAs with at least 30 victories. Two of them reside in the South Region.
Houston is one of them. The other is James Madison, the champion of the Sun Belt Conference tournament and the hottest team in the country entering the NCAAs. James Madison is the No. 12 seed and will face No. 5 seed Wisconsin on Friday in Brooklyn.
The Dukes went 31-3, knocked off Arkansas State in the Sun Belt championship game and are riding a 13-game win streak. James Madison started the season with a 14-game win streak before its first setback.
It’s the sixth NCAA appearance for James Madison and the first since 2013. And the Dukes’ can score – they average 84.4 points per game, good for ninth nationally.
___
AP Sports Writer Steve Megargee contributed.
ByABC News
The New England Patriots filled a need at wide receiver by agreeing to a one-year contract with K.J. Osborn, a source told ESPN on Sunday.
The agreement is for $4 million and can be worth up to $6 million, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
The Patriots had made an aggressive free agent pitch to receiver Calvin Ridley before he decided to sign with the Tennessee Titans. Even after adding Osborn, the expectation is that New England still hopes to upgrade at receiver, perhaps looking to the draft. NFL scouts view the position as one of the deepest and most talented this year, and the Patriots own the No. 3 pick, in addition to selections near the top of the second (No. 34), third (No. 68) and fourth (No. 103) rounds.
Osborn joins a depth chart that is topped by veterans JuJu Smith-Schuster, Kendrick Bourne and Jalen Reagor, as well as promising slot receiver Demario “Pop” Douglas (2022 sixth-round pick).
The Vikings drafted Osborn just four rounds after selecting Justin Jefferson in 2020, and he did not begin seeing regular playing time on offense until midway through the 2021 season. Osborn first broke through as a target in the Vikings’ two-minute drills that season, and his production there prompted quarterback Kirk Cousins to suggest a full-time role in the scheme.
Osborn spent the next 1½ seasons as the Vikings’ No. 3 receiver, behind Jefferson and Adam Thielen, catching 110 passes for 1,255 yards and 12 touchdowns over that span.
Thielen’s departure after the 2022 season opened the door for Osborn as a potential starter next to Jefferson, but the Vikings were simultaneously thinking of a longer-term solution. They drafted Jordan Addison with the No. 23 overall pick in 2023, giving them a chance to pair Jefferson with a more explosive (and cheaper) receiver.
Osborn, 26, started a career-high 12 games last season but had 33 fewer targets than Addison. In all, Osborn finished 2023 with his lowest season totals in catches (48), yards (540) and touchdowns (3) since his rookie campaign.
The news of Osborn’s agreement was first reported by NFL Network.
ESPN’s Mike Reiss and Kevin Seifert contributed to this report.
ByABC News
NEW YORK — Matt Knowling hit a jumper at the buzzer and Yale closed the game on an 8-1 run to beat Brown 62-61 in the championship game of the Ivy League tournament Sunday, sending the Bulldogs to the NCAA tournament for the seventh time.
Kino Lilly Jr. sank two free throws to give the fourth-seeded Bears (13-18) a 60-54 lead with 27 seconds remaining. Bez Mbeng answered with a three-point play for No. 2 seed Yale (22-9) to make it a one-possession game. Nana Owusu-Anane hit the second of two free throws for Brown, but John Poulakidas buried a 3-pointer and the Bulldogs trailed 61-60 with 14 seconds left.
Poulakidas fouled Malachi Ndur, who missed two free throws to set the stage for Knowling.
“I don’t even know. … It’s hard to process right now,” Knowling said after the game. “I just wanted to put myself in a position to clean up any misses around the basket. … I work on my floater every day and it went in and I’m at a loss of words and I’m extremely grateful.”
It was a tough finish for the Bears, who beat Yale 84-81 in the final game of the regular season. Brown won six in a row to end the season and grab the conference tourney’s fourth and final berth.
The Bears beat top-seeded Princeton 90-80 in the semifinals in search of their first NCAA tournament appearance since 1986. Their only other trip to the Big Dance came in 1939.
Yale, which knocked off No. 3 seed Cornell 69-57 to reach the final, last appeared in the NCAA tourney in 2022. The Bulldogs have won three of five championships since the Ivy began playing a four-team league tournament.
Knowling and August Mahoney scored seven points apiece to guide Yale to a 26-22 advantage at halftime. Lilly had seven at the break for Brown.
Yale stayed in front until back-to-back baskets by Ndur and Kalu Anya gave Brown a 46-44 lead with 8:22 left to play. The Bears never trailed from there until the final shot.
Poulakidas led the Bulldogs with 18 points, sinking 4 of 9 from 3-point range. Mahoney added 15 points and five rebounds. Knowling totaled 11 points, five rebounds and five assists. Danny Wolf had 13 rebounds to go with nine points.
“He was cooking,” Knowling said of Poulakidas. “Him and August kept us in the game when we weren’t having any of our offense. Big kudos to all of my teammates. I had the last shot, but we wouldn’t be in this situation without any of my teammates.”
Lilly made three 3-pointers and scored 21 to lead Brown. Anya had 12 points and seven rebounds. Ndur pitched in with 12 points, six rebounds, four assists and two blocks off the bench.
ByABC News
Duquesne-colored red, white and blue streamers fell from the rafters at Barclays Center with the Dukes leading by 15 in the Atlantic 10 tournament championship game, their first NCAA tournament bid in 47 years in reach.
Problem was, there was still about 18 minutes left to play.
Jimmy Clark III, Dae Dae Grant, coach Keith Dambrot and Duquesne eventually got the the full postgame celebration — with a few less streamers — beating fifth-seeded VCU 57-51 on Sunday to earn their first invite to March Madness since 1977.
For the sixth-seeded Dukes (24-11), who started the conference season with a five-game losing streak, the hard way is the only way they know.
“This isn’t a situation we haven’t been in before so we knew exactly what to do,” said Clark, who scored nine points and made four free throws in the final 21 seconds left to help seal the title.
The Dukes led by 14 at the half, but bringing home that long-awaited NCAA bid was a struggle. Duquesne scored only 21 points and shot 5-for-29 from the field in the second half, but the small Catholic school in Pittsburgh will head into the Big Dance with an eight-game winning streak.
“We’ve all year won at the defensive end,” Dambrot said. “We’ve had some monstrosities on offense.”
The 65-year-old Dambrot, who coached LeBron James for two years in high school, and the Dukes matched a program record for victories set in 1953-54, when Dambrot’s father, Sid, played for Duquesne.
“YESSIRRR!! Punch that [ticket] to the Big Dance @DuqMBB!!!” James posted on X.
The last time Duquesne won the A-10 and went to the NCAA tournament, future NBA All-Star Norm Nixon was leading the Dukes, who beat Villanova in the conference title game.
Dambrot left the University of Akron in 2017 — where he took the Zips to the NCAA tournament three times in 13 years — to take over a Duquesne program that was close to his heart but didn’t have much history of success.
“I knew it was going to be hard, especially when we’re building off of not much tradition,” Dambrot said.
Joe Bamisile led VCU (22-13), which was trying to repeat as A-10 tournament champs, with 20 points.
“Two teams competing for a championship, it doesn’t look pretty,” Bamisile said. “It was just an ugly game on both sides.”
After Clark’s free throws with 21 seconds left to made it a five-point game, Fousseyni Drame made two to put the Dukes up 55-48.
A long 3 from Zeb Jackson with 9.9 left gave VCU a glimmer of hope. The Rams fouled Jakub Necas as the Dukes struggled to inbound the ball, but he missed both shots.
Clark made two more from the line with 1.9 left, and finally Duquesne fans could celebrate for real.
Grant led the Dukes with 10 points, all in the first half, and was named the tournament’s most outstanding player.
The Dukes were up 15 early in the second half and the ball was in play when the game had to be stopped because of the falling streamers. Most landed on press row courtside — CBS play-by-play man Kevin Harlan had to pull some off himself and partner Dan Bonner — with a few making it onto the floor. The game was delayed about three minutes for clean up.
A-10 officials said the streamers and confetti used for the postgame celebration are red, white and blue no matter which team wins, to match the conference logo. A technical glitch cause them to fall too early, they said.
Maybe the premature celebration tempted fate, because the Dukes went the next seven minutes without scoring. They started the second half 1-for-15 from the field.
Dambrot, who admitted he is a superstitious former baseball player, said he was unfazed by the potential jinx.
“I was the most relaxed I’ve ever been,” Dambrot said. “I just tried to enjoy it for the first time in my life.”
It has been challenging season away from the court for Dambrot, whose wife, Donna, has been battling breast cancer.
Keith Dambrot said the four tournament games at Barclays were the first Donna has attended all season.
Duquesne finally found some offense to hold off the Rams, and Necas made a 3 from the wing with 4:35 left to push the lead to 49-41.
The Rams made one more push.
Jackson made a 3-pointer for the Rams with 2:12 remaining to cut Duquesne’s lead to 49-46 and after a forcing a turnover, Bamisile made two free throws to cut it to one with 1:34 left. That was as a close as VCU would get.
“It’s crazy to be able to come here and make history,” Clark said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
ByMARK SCHLABACH
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — In the first 49 years of the Players Championship, there had never been a repeat winner.
Jack Nicklaus couldn’t do it (three times). Neither could Fred Couples (twice), Davis Love III (twice), Tiger Woods (twice) and so many others.
On Sunday, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler became the first back-to-back Players winner in the 50th edition of the “fifth major” at TPC Sawgrass, chasing down Xander Schauffele from 5 strokes back at the start of the final round to win with a 72-hole total of 20 under.
“It’s tough enough to win one Players,” said Scheffler, who closed with an 8-under 64. “So to have it back-to-back is extremely special. Yeah, really thankful.”
With the two most recent major championship winners, Brian Harman (The Open) and Wyndham Clark (U.S. Open), and the world’s sixth-ranked golfer, Schauffele, chasing him, Scheffler could only watch from the driving range as the trio tried to make one more birdie to force a playoff.
Scheffler’s second victory in as many weeks wasn’t secured until Clark, after he birdied the iconic 17th hole to move to 1 back, watched his 17-foot birdie try on the difficult 18th cruelly catch the left lip and spin out for par.
“I was out on the range,” Scheffler said. “I was listening to the crowd noise. I heard a groan, and so it sounded like a missed putt.”
Clark, who had a 4-shot lead after 36 holes, said he was “gutted” the attempt didn’t fall.
“I don’t know how that putt doesn’t go in,” Clark said. “It was kind of right-center with like a foot to go, and I knew it was going to keep breaking. But it had speed and I thought it was going to go inside left, and even when it kind of lipped, I thought it would lip in. I’m pretty gutted it didn’t go in.”
Scheffler became only the fourth Players winner to shoot 65 or better in the final round, joining Nicklaus (65 in 1976), Couples (64 in 1996) and Love (64 in 2003).
Harman, Schauffele and Clark tied for second at 19 under. Former Open Championship winner Matt Fitzpatrick was fifth at 16 under, birdieing his final four holes.
Scheffler matched the largest comeback by a Players Championship winner at TPC Sawgrass; Justin Leonard and Henrik Stenson also came from 5 behind in the final round in 1998 and 2009, respectively. Scheffler didn’t make a bogey over his final 31 holes.
Scheffler was plagued by a neck injury in the second and third rounds, but battled through the pain Saturday to post birdies on four of his last five holes to stay in the hunt.
“I said before when you get an acute injury like that, if you can wake up the next day feeling a little bit better or the exact same, it’s a win,” Scheffler said. “Usually the morning after is worse the following day. Woke up Saturday feeling a little bit better, was able to hit some shots yesterday but not many. Then today I woke up feeling fairly close to normal. I went out there and had a good round of golf.”
After putting himself back into striking position, Scheffler said a “hot day [Sunday] could go a long way.”
He was indeed hot over the final 18 holes. After posting pars on his first three holes, he jump-started his round by carding a hole-out eagle on the par-4 fourth from 92 yards away to move to 14 under. He followed that with an 18-foot putt for birdie on No. 5 and birdie putts of 16 feet and 11 feet on Nos. 8 and 9, respectively.
Scheffler, a former Masters champion, grabbed a share of the lead at 19 under with back-to-back birdies on Nos. 11 and 12. He squandered a chance to take the solo lead when he missed a 5-foot birdie putt on No. 13, his only miss inside 5 feet the entire tournament.
Clark said he looked at a scoreboard for the first time at 11.
“I kind of chuckled and I said, ‘Yeah, of course,'” he said. “I mean, he’s the best player in the world.”
When Schauffele saw Scheffler near the top, he thought, “It’s just another week.”
After falling 1 behind Schauffele, Scheffler tied him again at 20 under on the par-5 16th. After hitting his approach shot into the small greenside pot bunker, Scheffler chipped out to 1 foot and tapped in for birdie. By then, Schauffele had posted back-to-back bogeys, Clark had fallen back and Harman was running out of holes.
ByABC News
Defending national champion UConn, a day removed from winning the Big East tournament and improving to 31-3, was chosen as the men’s No. 1 overall seed Sunday during the NCAA tournament selection show.
The Huskies, who have won seven in a row and finished 7-2 this season against teams in the Associated Press Top 25, are joined on the 1 line by Houston, Purdue and North Carolina, three teams that have been consistently in the top 10 during 2023-24 but lost in their respective conference tournaments last week.
UConn will open its title defense at Barclays Center in Brooklyn against Stetson on Friday. Should the Huskies advance, they will play either Florida Atlantic or Northwestern.
“It’s tough no matter where you are,” UConn coach Dan Hurley told ESPN’s Bracketology panel after the selection show. “There’s so much depth in college basketball these days. This time of year comes down to who plays the best to their identity.”
For the Cougars and Boilermakers, Sunday’s selections mark the second time in as many years they landed at No. 1. They were joined last season by Alabama and Kansas, which both heard their names called this season but not on the top line.
Houston will have to navigate the likes of Duke, Kentucky and Marquette in the South Region if the Cougars are able to make their first Final Four since 2021. The Cougars were rewarded for being the Big 12 regular-season champions and reaching the conference tournament title game before losing to Iowa State. They will face No. 16 seed Longwood, the Big South champion, in Memphis, Tennessee, in the first round Thursday. Houston will be a No. 1 seed for the third time in school history.
“Longwood is a champion — that’s what I know about them,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said in his media availability after the selection show when asked about the Cougars’ first opponent. “They just won a championship.”
For North Carolina, its No. 1 seed is the fourth and final, and came after much debate amid the committee. The Tar Heels will open Thursday in Spokane, Washington, against a winner from Tuesday’s First Four.
“There was a lot of discussion, obviously, North Carolina got it,” Charles McClelland, the chair of this year’s committee, said on CBS’ selection show. “We looked at some head to heads, but overall, North Carolina had a magnificent season. They did what they were supposed to do in the regular season.”
Tar Heels coach Hubert Davis, speaking to reporters in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, after the show, concurred with McClelland.
“We’re a No. 1 seed because of the work this team has done this season,” he said. “I’m proud of how they’ve worked all season, how they’ve played, how they’ve prepared and how — from the start of the season — they’ve wanted to be a team.”
Purdue will also play a First Four advancer. The 29-4 Boilermakers will begin their run Friday in Indianapolis. Purdue, which lost in the first round last season to Fairleigh Dickinson, has won six of its past seven games.
“Our goal was to get right back where we were last year, and obviously, play better and win games,” Purdue coach Matt Painter told reporters in West Lafayette, Indiana, following the selection show. “But this is a real tribute to our guys. … You don’t start as a No. 1 seed the next year. You have to earn it, and our guys have earned it.”
Purdue’s road could include a matchup with No. 4 seed Kansas or No. 5 seed Gonzaga, two teams accustomed to much better seeds this time of year, just to reach the Sweet 16. And to reach the Final Four, the road could go through No. 2 seed Tennessee or No. 3 seed Creighton, which are both coming off disappointing appearances in their conference tournaments.
Hurley’s team has been the most dominant for much of the season, and the Huskies kept that rolling last week at Madison Square Garden. Purdue had the best collection of wins and Houston was No. 1 in most metrics, but their upsets in the Big Ten and Big 12 tournaments, respectively, loomed large in the committee room Sunday.
With several upsets in the conference tournaments this weekend, and several automatic bid teams stealing spots from bubble teams, McClelland called this year’s decisions among “the most difficult” in years.
The Big East was among the conferences that were well represented on the outside portion of the cut line. And Hurley, in speaking with reporters in Storrs, Connecticut, after the selection show, disagreed with St. John’s and Seton Hall, two conference rivals of the Huskies, not making the tournament.
“I’m probably just a little embarrassed for the league, for such a proud league,” Hurley said of the Big East, which ended up with three tournament teams, including Marquette and Creighton. “The whole thing is just kind of a shell game. And it just really comes down to what the committee values.”
Both the SEC and Big 12 placed eight teams in the field, while the Big Ten and Mountain West each had six.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
ByABC News
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Carlos Alcaraz arrived at Indian Wells full of doubt about his twisted right ankle. He’s leaving as a two-time champion.
He defeated Daniil Medvedev 7-6 (5), 6-1 for the second straight year in the BNP Paribas Open final on Sunday, earning his first title since winning Wimbledon last year.
Alcaraz sprained his ankle at the Rio Open in late February. His first practice at Indian Wells lasted 30 minutes without any movement. His first practice with his fellow pros “was really tough for me,” he said in a Tennis Channel interview.
Alcaraz outlasted Jannik Sinner in a three-set semifinal after needing three sets to get out of his second-round match.
“After every match I was feeling better,” Alcaraz said. “I was getting more confident after every match. Winning a Master 1000 again, a really important tournament to win, gives you motivation to keep going.”
Alcaraz became the first man to defend his Indian Wells title since Novak Djokovic won three in a row from 2014 to 2016. He beat Medvedev 6-3, 6-2 last year in the Southern California desert.
“It’s definitely your court, you like it here,” Medvedev told Alcaraz during the victory ceremony. “Hopefully you can one day let me play a little bit better here.”
Medvedev led 3-0 in the first set while Alcaraz had eight unforced errors over those games. The Spaniard won three games in a row to tie it 3-3.
The players held serve the rest of the set, with Alcaraz serving a love game to get into the tiebreaker. He led 3-0 and 5-2 before Medvedev tied it 5-5. Alcaraz won the next two points to close it out.
Alcaraz got the only two breaks in the second set, when Medvedev had one winner and nine errors.
For the match, Alcaraz hit 25 winners and had 26 unforced errors, while Medvedev had 11 winners and 23 unforced errors.
Alcaraz is the second player to win five or more ATP Masters 1000 titles before their 21st birthday since the series began in 1990. The other is Rafael Nadal.
Alcaraz earned $1.1 million for his win. That’s less than the $1.26 million the men’s champion received in 2023. This year more prize money was allocated to the earlier rounds, reducing the champions’ prize money by nearly 13%.
ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
ByTIM MACMAHON
DALLAS — One detail about the second game-winning buzzer-beater of Kyrie Irving’s career caught the eight-time All-Star guard by surprise.
“I thought I got a little closer in the paint, but I looked at it after the game and I was pretty far out,” Irving said after swishing a contested left-handed hook to give the Dallas Mavericks a 107-105 win Sunday afternoon over the defending champion Denver Nuggets.
The exact distance of the buzzer-beater, according to Second Spectrum tracking, was 20.1 feet. That ranks as the second-longest hook shot made by any player this season, per the NBA.com play-by-play data.
“Hell of a shot by Kyrie,” said Nuggets coach Michael Malone, whose team fell to 47-21, slipping a half-game behind the Oklahoma City Thunder in the race for first place in the Western Conference. “Give him all the credit.”
The longest hook this season? That was also by Irving, when he banked one in from the top of the key in a January 3 win over the Portland Trail Blazers. That right-handed shot was actually an accident, an errant lob pass intended for center Dereck Lively II that luckily went in the hoop.
Irving credited hours in the gym working on his off hand for this spectacular game-winner, which resulted him being mobbed by his Mavericks teammates and minority owner Mark Cuban at half court. He entered the game 38-of-87 on left-handed shots this season, many of which were high degree-of-difficulty finishes in the paint. The average distance of those southpaw attempts was 4.7 feet with the longest from 15 feet, according to Second Spectrum tracking.
But if felt natural for Irving, who had 24 points and nine assists in the win, to launch a lefty hook after curling off a baseline screen and catching the inbounds pass from Maxi Kleber with 2.8 seconds remaining. With Nuggets superstar center Nikola Jokic switched onto him, Irving took two hard, left-handed dribbles toward the elbow to create just enough space to loft up the hook shot.
“Man, majority of it is instinctual and comes from preparation for hours that no one sees,” Irving said. “I saw a Jokic taking away my pull-up going left. I knew that he was going to come up, but I didn’t know he was going to commit like that, so he was forcing me inside the 3-point line. As soon as I felt him kind of behind me, I was like, oh, I have my left hand. It’s wide open, so why not go to it?”
It was a buzzer-beater that awed even Mavs co-star Luka Doncic, the NBA scoring leader who has earned a reputation for making ridiculously difficult shots.
“That shot was unbelievable, man,” said Doncic, who had 37 points in his return after sitting out Thursday’s loss to the Thunder due to left hamstring soreness. “I couldn’t believe it.”
On a rare off day for Jokic, who finished with 16 points on 6-of-16 shooting and seven assists, Dallas took its largest lead of the afternoon when Irving assisted Doncic for a layup that put the Mavs up by 13 points with 6:50 remaining. The Nuggets rallied to take the lead on Jamal Murray’s tie-breaking 3 with 27.1 seconds remaining.
Doncic tied it up again by hitting a catch-and-shoot, 29-foot 3 off the inbounds pass on the ensuing possession following a timeout.
“I give a lot of credit to him and getting us to that position and then allowing me to get that game-winner at the end,” Irving said of Doncic.
The Mavs ran the same inbounds play coming out of a timeout following Murray’s missed midrange pull-up. With Nuggets shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope denying Doncic above the top of the arc, Kleber read that Irving had an advantage and delivered the pass to him.
“He’s very talented and gifted [with] both hands and he does crazy plays like that, so that’s just what he does,” Kleber said. “But it’s still an unbelievable shot, so obviously you’ve going to be a little bit in shock once it goes in.”
After the shot went in, Irving responded by exaggeratedly staring at his left hand as he strutted toward the teammates rushing toward him, celebrating a moment that could prove pivotal in Dallas’ attempt to avoid the play-in scenario. The Mavs (39-29), who have won five of six, are percentage points behind the sixth-place Sacramento Kings (38-28) in the West standings.
“He’s a magician,” Mavs center Daniel Gafford said. “He is a very crafty finisher, but finishing somewhere that far around the basket? I don’t know if he works on something like that, but I know he works on his left hand. It went in and then we just got crazy.”
ByABC News
Dawn Staley and South Carolina could see some familiar faces on their path to an undefeated season.
The Gamecocks, named the No. 1 overall seed in the women’s NCAA tournament Sunday, are looking to become the 10th women’s basketball team to go unbeaten for an entire season.
They had a chance last season before falling just short against Caitlin Clark and Iowa in the Final Four. The Hawkeyes received the other No. 1 seed in the Albany Regional on Sunday. The two teams wouldn’t potentially face off until the national championship game this time. Iowa is a one-seed for the first time since 1992.
USC and star freshman JuJu Watkins earned the Trojans’ first No. 1 seed since 1986 as the top choice in a Portland Regional. Texas earned the fourth No. 1 seed, its first since 2004, and will play Drexel in the other Portland Regional opener. There was debate whether Texas or Stanford would get the fourth No. 1 seed.
“To say we talked about it more than once was an understatement,” NCAA selection committee chair Lisa Peterson said. “What it came down to was Texas had to play three tournament teams to get to the [Big 12] championship.”
Staley’s squad has been challenged a few times this season, including needing a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Kamilla Cardoso to win the semifinals of the SEC tournament over Tennessee, but has always pulled through. The Gamecocks, who are a No. 1 seed for the fourth consecutive year, will play the winner of Sacred Heart and Presbyterian in the first round of the tournament.
“I always feel good to be the No. 1 overall seed and to be undefeated,” Staley said. “I’m excited because we get a chance to know what our path is to win the national championship and, all great teams, a lot of familiar faces that are in our region. But we have to take it one game at a time, and that’s what we’ll do on Friday.”
Cardoso will miss the opening game after getting ejected for fighting in the SEC title game. The Gamecocks would have her back for a potential second-round matchup against either North Carolina or Michigan State. South Carolina beat the Tar Heels earlier in the season.
“Fortunately for us, it’s someone we played without for four games this season,” Staley said. “We know we’re a better basketball team when Kamilla Cardoso is in the lineup.”
Joining the Gamecocks in the Albany 1 Region are No. 2 seed Notre Dame, third-seeded Oregon State and fourth-seeded Indiana. South Carolina opened its season against the Irish, routing them in Paris.
Clark, who became the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer this year, is trying to win her first title. The Hawkeyes open against the winner of Holy Cross and UT Martin. Joining the Hawkeyes in the Albany 2 Region are No. 2 UCLA, defending champion and third-seeded LSU and fourth-seeded Kansas State. The Tigers beat the Hawkeyes for the national championship last year.
“You really have to go game to game. After you get out of the first round, every team is basically a top-25 team,” Clark said. “You need a little luck, a good draw, need to be playing your best basketball, but I think the biggest thing for me is just enjoying every single second because this is the most fun basketball.
“I think this is the greatest postseason tournament in all of sport. You don’t have it one night, you’re out of luck, but if you do have it and you can string some games together, you can put a special run together.”
The other top teams in USC’s bracket are Ohio State, UConn and Virginia Tech. The Huskies were the last team to go undefeated in a season, running through the 2015-16 campaign.
Texas could have to contend with No. 2 Stanford, No. 3 NC State and fourth-seeded Gonzaga.
The NCAA changed its format last season and is having two regional sites for the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds. Albany, New York, hosts one and Portland, Oregon, the other. Once again the top four teams in each region will host the opening two rounds.
The tournament begins Wednesday with two First Four games. The full madness starts with 16 games Friday and 16 more Saturday. The Final Four will be played in Cleveland for the first time since 2007. The national semifinals are April 5, with the championship game two days later.
Tennessee continued its streak of appearing in all 42 NCAA tournaments. On the other end, Presbyterian, California Baptist, Columbia and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi are all making their first appearances.
The Lions were one of the last four teams in the field. Just outside the field of 68 were Penn State, Washington State, Miami and Villanova.
“There were seven or eight schools we talked about,” Peterson said of the final few spots. “That conversation lasted over two days.”
The Atlantic Coast Conference and Southeastern Conference both have eight teams in the field. The Big Ten, Pac-12 and Big 12 each have seven. The Big East has three teams. The West Coast Conference and Ivy League each have two. It’s the second time that the Ivy League has gotten an at-large bid.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
ByABC News
Dreams die hard, particularly in March.
The Big East found that out Sunday as three 20-win teams — Providence, Seton Hall and St. John’s — were all snubbed by the NCAA selection committee.
St. John’s arguably had the biggest gripe of the three. It finished 20-13 overall, winning six games in a row — four of them by at least 14 points — before a loss to overall No. 1 seed UConn in the Big East semifinals on Friday.
Red Storm coach Rick Pitino backed his team’s résumé on Sunday. It ranked 24th in the Basketball Power Index (BPI), best of any squad that did not make the NCAA tournament. It also had a NET ranking of 32nd, second best among teams to miss the tournament behind Indiana State (28th).
“First off, I think we should all probably never mention that word [NET] again because I think it’s fraudulent,” Pitino told SNY. “I think the NET is something that shouldn’t even be mentioned anymore.
“I think that we had a good strength of schedule. KenPom, why mention him? We were 26th in KenPom. We tried to play a tough schedule. We tried to do things the right way, and we didn’t get in. But I never make excuses. I respect the committee for what they do. They give their time, they give their energy to it. They didn’t think we measured up to their standards, and we’ll take it very positively like men and move forward. We’re not going to gripe. We’re not going to say we got screwed.”
Had the Red Storm gotten in, Pitino would have led his sixth school into the NCAA tournament. Instead, they won’t play again this season, as Pitino told the National Invitation Tournament selection committee that the team didn’t want to play in the also-ran event.
“After thorough consideration of all that goes into postseason participation, we believe at this time it is best for our team and basketball program to prepare for next season,” he said in a statement.
While the Big 12 got a conference-record eight teams in the field, Oklahoma (20-12) was left out even though it didn’t lose outside of Quadrant 1 games. The SEC-bound Sooners did lose nine of their last 14 games following a 15-3 start. Like St. John’s, they declined an NIT invite, with coach Porter Moser saying he felt the team’s résumé and metrics were worthy of being in the field while noting that the choice not to continue the season was done with the “well-being of our student-athletes as the top priority.”
Pittsburgh also said Sunday night that it had declined an NIT invite. The Panthers (22-11) won 12 of their last 16 games, a stretch that began with a win at Duke. The early losses by the Panthers included one at home to Missouri, which went 0-18 in SEC play.
Coach Kim English was looking to lead Providence to the NCAA tournament in his first season with the Friars, but they too fell short despite a 21-13 record.
Providence finished 58th in the NET rankings but had a host of big wins, including over Marquette and twice versus Creighton — with one those victories coming in the Big East tournament.
“I think the analytics are bulls—,” English told reporters. “I think you could schedule bad teams in your nonleague and beat the snot out of them, beat them by 50 or 60. Coaching for so long has been a gentleman’s agreement: You have a large lead at the end of the game, for health reasons you take guys out. To get some other guys the opportunity to play, you take guys out. But right now might be a change in college basketball. Scheduling to beat teams by 40 and 50 might be a thing to do.
“When you get into this league, the analytics aren’t going to look very good in league. You’re playing against some really, really good coaches. We played at Connecticut, and they shoot 40% from the field. We’re a good defense. They won the game. They should be credited for winning the game. I do think there are some flaws in the system.”
After UConn, only two Big East teams made the NCAA tournament: Marquette is a 2-seed, and Creighton is a 3-seed.
“To me, the whole thing is kind of shell game,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “In the end, it just comes down to what the committee values.
“I just don’t understand how a Providence team that can beat Wisconsin in the nonconference, Creighton, Marquette and have those quality of wins and not get in. How does Seton Hall do what they did in the second-rated conference in the country and win 13 games and not get in? How is St. John’s so far off the cutline [to get in] too?”
The selection committee said Oklahoma, 28-win Indiana State, Seton Hall and Pittsburgh were the first four teams left out.
NCAA selection committee chairman Charles McClelland, commissioner of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, said five bids were stolen during the conference tournaments — and one of those was going to go to Indiana State, which fell in the final of the Missouri Valley tournament to Drake.
McClelland said that Virginia, which was on the bubble but drew a 7-seed in the NCAA tournament, rose above teams with higher NET rankings and comparable résumés, such as St. John’s and Indiana State, because some of the other bubble teams had too many “dents and dings.”
He also said where teams won mattered too.
“One of the things that we talked about more specifically is that this tournament is played at neutral sites,” McClelland said on ESPN Radio’s “Selection Sunday” show. “It’s not played at home, so there were some teams that had a lot of wins, but they were all at home, none on the road, and no very good wins on the road. So, we have to start looking at some of those factors.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.