Tuesday Sports in Brief

NCAA BASKETBALL

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Gonzaga and UCLA rounded out the Final Four for the NCAA Tournament, joining Baylor and Houston.

Gonzaga got on a roll and put on a show, moving to 30-0 on the season and cruising into the Final Four with an 85-66 victory against Southern California. Drew Timme scored 23 points to help the top-seeded and top-ranked Bulldogs become the third team to bring an undefeated record into the Final Four since the bracket expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

Johnny Juzang poured in 28 points while playing most of the second half on an injured ankle, and UCLA survived a series of misses by top-seeded Michigan in the closing seconds to hold on for a 51-49 victory that made the Bruins the fifth No. 11 seed ever to reach the Final Four.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Official Bert Smith collapsed on the floor early in the Elite Eight game between Gonzaga and Southern California and had to be taken off the court on a stretcher.

Smith had just set up on the baseline as the Trojans were moving onto offense when he collapsed and hit his head on the floor.

He stayed down for about five minutes, and then was able to stand up and move to a nearby stretcher. He was alert and sitting up with his arms crossed as he was taken off the court.

In a statement, NCAA spokesman David Worlock said Smith is “alert and stable,”

SAN ANTONIO (AP) - South Carolina and Stanford will join UConn and Arizona Stanford in the Final Four of the women’s NCAA Tournament.

Zia Cooke scored 16 points and South Carolina used its stifling defense to advance to the Final Four for the third time, shutting down Texas for a 62-34.

Lexie Hull scored 21 points and Stanford reached the Final Four by rallying for a 78-63 victory over Louisville.

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (AP) - Jason Shay has resigned after one season as head coach of the men’s basketball team at East Tennessee State.

Athletic director Scott Carter said Shay told him earlier Tuesday of his intention to resign.

Shay spent six seasons with ETSU, his first five as an assistant and one as head coach. He replaced Steve Forbes who left for Wake Forest last year, but Shay said he decided it was in the best interest of himself and his family and also the ETSU program for him to resign.

MARTIN, Tenn. (AP) - UT Martin has hired Ryan Ridder as the Skyhawks’ new men’s basketball coach.

Athletic director Kurt McGuffin announced the hiring Tuesday, and Ridder will be introduced next week on campus.

Ridder, 36, spent the past four seasons at Bethune-Cookman in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. He had a 64.6% winning percentage in league play and won the 2017-18 MEAC regular season title. He had 48 wins at Bethune-Cookman before the school opted out of all sports for the 2020-21 seasons.

He won the Joe B. Hall Award in 2018 after leading Bethune-Cookeman to its second MEAC regular season title in its 38-year history.

NEW YORK (AP) - Fordham hired longtime Villanova assistant Kyle Neptune on Tuesday to take over a men’s basketball program that has had only two winning seasons since joining the Atlantic 10 Conference in 1995.

The 36-year-old Neptune grew up in Brooklyn before attending Lehigh, where he played for four years and was a team captain as a senior.

Neptune has been an assistant at Villanova under Jay Wright for the last eight seasons. During that time the Wildcats have won two national championships and five Big East titles.

NCAA ATHLETICS

NCAA President Mark Emmert is planning to meet this week with a group of basketball players who used a social media campaign at the start of March Madness to protest rules banning college athletes from earning money from their names, images and likenesses.

Ramogi Huma, executive director of the National College Players Association, said Tuesday that Emmert is scheduled to hold a video conference call with Michigan’s Isaiah Livers, Iowa’s Jordan Bohannon and Rutgers’ Geo Baker on Thursday.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) - The Women’s Basketball Coaches Association sent a letter to NCAA President Mark Emmert saying the external review he proposed to look into potential gender equity issues wasn’t good enough.

In the letter, obtained by The Associated Press, the WBCA asked for a “Commission on Gender Inequity in College Sports” led by people chosen by both the WBCA and NCAA. The letter was sent last Thursday, the same day Emmert announced they were hiring a law firm to review potential gender equity issues related to how it conducts its men’s and women’s championship events.

NFL

NEW YORK (AP) - The NFL is increasing the regular season to 17 games and reducing the preseason to three games to generate additional revenue for America’s most popular sport.

Team owners on Tuesday approved the 17th game as expected, marking the first time in 43 years the regular season has been increased. It went from 14 to 16 games in 1978.

The Super Bowl now will move back a week to Feb. 13, which places it directly in the middle of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. Coincidentally, NBC has the broadcast rights to both.

NHL

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The Flyers placed defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere on waivers on Tuesday, a surprising move that comes as Philadelphia is attempting to stay in the playoff hunt.

Gostisbehere has five goals and six assists for 11 points in 25 games, and he was benched for a three-game stretch two weeks ago. He produced three assists in five games since returning to action.

The 27-year-old’s production has dropped off since scoring 13 goals and adding 52 assists for a career-best 65 points in 78 games in 2017-18. Gostisbehere has managed just 19 goals and 59 points in his last 145 games.

GOLF

RIDGELAND, S.C. (AP) - The PGA Tour is returning to South Carolina for a third time this year, adding an event in the Palmetto State for June to take the spot of the canceled RBC Canadian Open.

The tour announced the addition Tuesday. It means the PGA Tour will play three times in the state in as many months, starting with its regular yearly event the RBC Heritage on Hilton Head Island in April. The world’s best will play the PGA Championship at The Ocean Course on Kiawah Island near Charleston in May.

The latest event will be played at the Congaree Golf Club in Ridgeland, South Carolina, some 80 miles southwest of Charleston.

SOCCER

LONDON (AP) - An English men’s professional league game will have a female referee for the first time when Rebecca Welch takes charge of the fourth tier fixture between Harrogate and Port Vale on Monday.

The English Football League runs the three divisions below the Premier League, including League Two where Welch will officiate Monday’s game.

CYCLING

AIGLE, Switzerland (AP) - Italian team Vini Zabù faces a suspension from racing after a second rider tested positive for doping, the International Cycling Union said Tuesday.

Teams with two doping cases in a 12-month period can be banned from racing for 15 to 45 days, possibly ruling the team out of the Giro d’Italia. The three-week Italian race starts on May 8.

The UCI said Matteo De Bonis has been provisionally suspended pending a disciplinary case after testing positive for the blood-boosting hormone EPO in a sample taken on Feb. 16.

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