All things sporty (3)

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uconn no. 1; south carolina in top 25 for first time since 2017
Reigning national champion UConn, Purdue and North Carolina remained atop The Associated Press Top 25 men's college basketball poll for the third consecutive week, while South Carolina cracked the rankings for the first time in nearly seven years.

Top-5
No.1: UConn (20-2)
No,2: Purdue (21-2)
No.3: North Carolina (18-4)
No.4: Kansas (18-4)
No.5: Houston (19-3)

 

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men's power rankings: UConn is still flexing, and we have some other ups and downs
The dust has settled from the most loaded weekend schedule of the entire regular season, a stretch that featured four matchups involving two top-10 teams. There were nine losses this past week by teams ranked in the top 10 of last week's Power Rankings,

Top-5
No.1: UConn (20-2)
No.2: Purdue (21-2)
No.3: North Carolina (18-4)
No.4: Tennessee (16-5)
No.5: Marquette (17-5)

 

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iowa no. 2 in women's ap top 25, south carolina unanimous no. 1
It's the second time in a few weeks that the Hawkeyes have been second in the poll, a spot that hasn't been kind to teams the past month. UCLA, Iowa and Kansas State all took turns in the second position since Jan. 8 and none of the schools could hold that ranking for more than a week at a time.

Top-5
No.1: South Carolina (21-0)
No.2: Iowa (21-2)
No.3: NC State (19-2)
No.4: Colorado (19-3)
No.5: Ohio State (19-3)

 

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women's power rankings: clark helps iowa back No. 2
Iowa guard catlin Clark had been expected to break the NCAA women's baskrtball scoring record in late February. But assuming all continues to go well for her, Clark has potentially sped up the timeline. And her success goes hand in hand with the success of the Hawkeyes, who return to the No. 2 spot in this week's ESPN Power Rankings.

Top-5
No.1: South Carolina (21-0)
No.2: Iowa (21-2)
No.3: NC State (19-2)
No.4: Ohio State (19-3)
No.5: Colorado (19-3)

 

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england's john ryder retires after back-to back losses
Ryder (32-7, 18 KOs), rated No. 9 by ESPN at super middleweight, made his announcement 10 days after he was dropped four times en route to a ninth-round TKO loss to Mexico's Jaime Munguia. That defeat followed a wide-points defeat in May 2023 to Canelo Alvarez, boxing's top star. Ryder's best win came in 2022, when he scored a split-decision victory over former champion Daniel Jacobs.

oleksandr usyk won't judge tyson fury for postponing fight
The fight was delayed from Feb. 17 to May 18 -- still in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia -- after Fury needed stitches for the cut. It is the second time the fight has been delayed, with a date this past December also having fallen through. Usyk, from Ukraine, holds the WBA, IBF and WBO titles. Fury, from Britain, has the WBC belt. The winner will be crowned the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis in 2000.

 

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sec to distributes about $51.3mper school '22-23' fiscal year
The league said the total included $718 million distributed directly from the SEC office and another $23 million that was retained by members for football bowl game expenses. It's a $19.2 million increase from the total that was distributed by the SEC in 2021-22.

 

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no. 23 indiana state for the first time since 1979
Now the Sycamores have something that hasn't happened since Larry Bird played in Terre Haute: a spot in the AP Top 25. UConn and Purdue kept the top two spots in the AP Top 25. The defending national champion Huskies received 45 first-place votes from a 61-person media panel and the Boilermakers had 16.

Top-5
No.1: UConn (22-2)
No.2: Purdue (22-2)
No.3: Houston (21-3)
No.4: Marquette (18-5)
No.5: Arizona (19-5)

 

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men's powere rankings: concerns for kentucky, wisconsin as uconn , purdue continues domination
Last week we'd talked here about UConn and Purdue separating themselves from the rest of the country. That theme was cemented once again this past week, with eight of the other 14 teams in last week's Power Rankings suffering at least one defeat. All three teams in the waiting room lost. The next three teams under consideration did, too.


No.1: UConn (22-2)
No.2: Purdue (22-2)
No.3: Houston (21-3)
No.4: Marquette (18-5)
No.5: Arizona (19-5)

 

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ohio state climbs to no. 2 behind south carolina in women's ap poll
The Buckeyes, who were fifth last week, have won 11 straight games, and their only losses have come to USC, UCLA and Michigan. South Carolina remained the unanimous No. 1 choice, grabbing all 35 first-place votes again in Monday's poll

AP Top-5
No.1: South Carolina (23-0)
No.2: Ohio State (21-3)
No.3: Stanford (22-3)
No.4: Iowa (22-3)
No.5: Texas (22-3)

 

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women's power rankings: can osu stop revolving door at no. 2?
The No. 2 spot in ESPN's women's college basketball Power Rankings has been hard to hold on to since the calendar turned to 2024. Once again this week, a different team sits behind undefeated South Carolina.

No.1: South Carolina (23-0)
No.2: Ohio State (21-3)
No.3: Stanford (22-3)
No.4: Iowa (22-3)
No.5: Texas (22-3)

 

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Boxing pound-for-pound rankings: Which fighter made a bigger impact? Teofimo or Beterbiev?​

Since our last rankings two top fighters have won in their respective division, but while one of them got praised, the other lost some ground. Unified light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev shined in a seventh-round TKO victory against Callum Smith in January, and while that wasn't enough to move up in the rankings, he closed the gap between him and No. 6 Devin Haney. He also distanced himself from No. 8, Gervonta Davis, to solidify the No. 7 spot.

Teofirmo Lopez Jr. was knocking on the top 10 door and had an opportunity to get in, but a poor performance in a disputed decision victory over Jamaine Ortiz to retain his WBO junior welterweight belt on Friday had our panel dropping him farther below.

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Iowa's Caitlin Clark breaks NCAA women's hoops scoring record​

Catlin Clark had no specific plan for how she hoped to break the NCAA women's basketball scoring record Thursday. But after doing so while also setting the Iowa Hawkeyes' single-game scoring record, Clark had to grin. Clark came into No. 4 Iowa's game against Michigan with 3,520 points, needing eight to break the mark previously set by Washington's Kelsey Plum (3,527) from 2013 to 2017. Clark did it about as quickly as she possibly could. This was Clark's fourth career game scoring 45 points or more, and she had 13 assists. In total, she scored or assisted on 79 of Iowa's 106 points (74.5%).

Clark could reach even more scoring milestones this season. The AIAW large-school women's record -- set just before the NCAA era by Kansas' Lynette Woodard from 1977 to 1981 -- is 3,649 points. The NCAA men's record is 3,667 by LSU's Pete Maravich from 1967 to 1970, before freshman eligibility in college basketball. There also is a chance the AIAW overall record -- 3,884 points, set by Francis Marion's Pearl Moore from 1975 to 1979 -- could be in play for Clark, depending on how far Iowa advances in the postseason. Clark is currently averaging 32.8 points for the 23-3 Hawkeyes, who have four regular-season games left.

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uconn first unanimous no. 1 in men's top 25 ap poll this season
The Huskies remained atop the poll for the sixth consecutive week. Scooping up the 16 first-place votes Purdue lost when the Boilermakers fell to Ohio State on Sunday. Marquette dropped three spots following its loss to the Huskies and was seventh.

Top-5
No.1: UConn (24-2)
No.2: Houston (22-3)
No.3: Purdue (23-3)
No.4: Arizona (20-5)
No.5: Tennessee (19-6)

 

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usc jumps to no. 7 in women's ap top 25, south carolina still tops
USC swept Oregon and then-No. 11 Oregon State over the weekend. The Trojans moved into a tie for second place in the Pac-12 Conference,. Ohio State was right behind South Carolina, marking the first time in seven weeks that a No. 2 team held its place for two consecutive polls.

Top-5
No.1: South Carolina (25-0)
No.2: Ohio State (22-3)
No.3: Stanford (23-3)
No.4: Iowa (23-3)
No.5: Texas (24-4)

 

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women's power rankings: clark helps iowa back No. 2
But it was a pretty static week in ESPN's women's college basketball Power Rankings, at least near the top, with teams 1 through 7 staying in place. However, there was a big jump into the top 10: USC, out of the Power Rankings the past three weeks, is back in at No. 9.

Top-5
No.1: South Carolina (25-0)
No.2: Ohio State (22-3)
No.3: Stanford (23-3)
No.4: Iowa (23-3)
No.5: Texas (24-3)

 

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men's power tankings: Purdue loses, uconn distances itself as no. 1
Through all the upheaval and chaos of the men's college basketball Power Rankings over the past several weeks, there remained two constants: UConn and Purdue were at the top of the pile. The Huskies haven't lost since Dec. 20, and the Boilermakers hadn't lost since Jan. 9

Top-5
No.1: UConn (24-2)
No.2: Purdue (23-3)
No.3: Houston (22-3)
No.4: Arizona (20-5)
No.5: Tennessee (19-6)

 

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south carolina wins record 43rd straight sec regular-season game
The Gamecocks (25-0, 12-0 SEC) broke a mark Tennessee and the late, great Pat Summitt achieved with 42 straight SEC victories from January 1992 through January 1996.

 

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CFP unanimously approves 5+7 model for new 12-team playoff​

The College Football Playoff board of managers unanimously approved a model that will guarantee the five highest-ranked conference champions' inclusion in the expanded 12-team field this fall, along with the next seven highest-ranked teams, the CFP announced Tuesday. After months of delay at the behest of the dwindling Pac-12, the decision was made Tuesday morning in a virtual meeting of the 10 FBS commissioners and the Notre Dame president, Rev. John Jenkins. The vote had to be unanimous for the 5+7 format to be approved, and the Pac-12 had either previously abstained or asked for a delay as it worked on determining its future following sweeping conference realignment.

In most years, the 5+7 format will assure the conference champions from the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC a spot in the playoff, along with the highest-ranked Group of 5 conference champion. The CFP intentionally won't refer to the Group of 5 in its description of the format, though, because there is a chance that a champion from one of the Power 4 conferences finishes ranked below the top champion from the American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, Mountain West, Sun Belt or Mid-American Conference. In 2021, for example, when undefeated No. 4 Cincinnati was the American Athletic Conference champion, ACC champion Pitt finished at No. 12 with two losses. In the 12-team format, the four highest-ranked conference champions will receive a first-round bye.

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Novak Djokovic in Miami Open field after five-year hiatus​

Novak Djokovic is set to return to the Miami Open next month after a five-year hiatus because of COVID-19 and U.S. travel restrictions, after being included on the entry list released by tournament organizers on Wednesday. The Serbian world No. 1 player owns a record-tying six Miami Open titles but was unable to even attempt adding to that tally in recent years as the United States did not allow unvaccinated foreigners to enter the country. Reigning champion Daniel Medvedev and 2023 finalist Jannik Sinner are also on the entry list, with the latter having since avenged that loss when he beat the Russian in the Australian Open final to become the first Italian man to win a Grand Slam title since 1976. This year's Miami Open is scheduled for March 17-31.

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tiger woods' son, charlie, 15 to play thursday in pre-qualifier
Woods, 15, will play Thursday in an 18-hole event at Lost Lake Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Florida, one of four pre-qualifying sites, the PGA Tour website reported Wednesday.

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Woods has competed with his father in the past four editions of the PNC Championship -- a 36-hole event featuring two-player teams made up of a major champion and a family member -- and finished runner-up in 2021.