With its win at No. 20/19 Cincinnati on Sunday afternoon, No. 12/12 Houston claimed the outright American Athletic Conference regular season title and will be the No. 1 seed in the 2019 Air Force Reserve American Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Championship, held March 14-17 at FedExForum in Memphis, Tenn.,Houston has been a top-three seed in The American Championship in each of the past three seasons and will take on the winner of No. 8 Tulsa and No. 9 UConn on Friday, March 15 at noon ET/11 a.m. CT.,The Bulls played their last two games without starting point guard Laquincy Rideau who should be ready to make his return on Thursday, March 14 when USF faces No. 9 UConn in first game of the 2019 Championship at 1 p.m. ET/noon CT.,With the Huskies’ regular-season finale victory against the Pirates, UConn will take on No. 8 USF in the tip-off game of the tournament on Thursday, March 14 at 1 p.m. ET/noon CT.,No. 9 UConn vs. No. 8 USF, 1 p.m. ET/noon CT (ESPNU)

No. 12 Tulane vs. No. 5 Memphis, 3 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT (ESPNU) read more

Even though the Thunder narrowly ended their 4-game skid last night @ Portland, they are still 1 loss away from losing 5 of 6 and 6 of 8 games.,Next up for the Hawks was a 6 game Western Conference road trip against average to good teams, all of which would be underdogs to them.,Proposed bet#3: .3 units on LA Lakers ML +200 ~ Potential Profit = .6 units -(Subtracted by the .1 from Denver Bet & the .2 units from Phoenix bet) =+0.3 units

Regardless of which game they loss, my friend Jay would profit between .1 and .6 units as long as they lost one game.,Although I haven't employed such an ambitious strategy, I have always thought about the ways in which Jay would manufacture value by betting against a team multiple times - knowing that if he was wrong on the first game, he would get better value betting against them the next game.,If the true value of the Hawks against OKC, the 6th game of their trip, was an even money proposition, by the time the Hawks won their next 5 games the market would make them significantly more expensive, and the Thunder would obtain more value, around at +130 or better. read more

Jeff Long/C-N Photo

BOWLING GREEN — Thanks to a seventh-place finish at the district diving meet at Bowling Green State University on Wednesday, Defiance’s Addison Fleischman earned her second consecutive berth in the Division II state diving championships.,Fleischman put up a total score of 350.35 to earn her spot in the state tournament.,Meanwhile, Napoleon’s Audrey Seemann earned her third straight state berth with a district runner-up score of 399.20 and Wildcat teammate Britney Meienberg was fourth with 385.70 for a fourth straight state trip, believed to be a school record.,Addison Heitman rounded out the Napoleon girls’ state contingent with a ninth-place effort at districts to clinch a state spot.,Joining Fleischman and the Napoleon divers at state are Bryan’s Taylor Peters (third place), Wauseon’s Kennedy Nation (10th) and Tinora freshman Lauren Melia, who finished sixth to earn the first state diving berth in school history for the Rams. read more

Without McCoy, who transferred to Texas after he was enrolled in classes for less than three weeks, USC does not have a five-star in the fold for its recruiting class for the first time since 2000, when recruiting services began ranking the top high school players.,Over more recent years, the Trojans have faced more difficulty reeling in five-star talent, largely the prospects from outside California, at times leaving them over-reliant on top players from their own backyard.,The Trojans finished 5-7 last year, their first losing season since 2000, prompting calls from fans for Helton to be fired following his third full season before the embattled coach was retained by Athletic Director Lynn Swann.,But even in the initial seasons under Helton, while the Trojans made consecutive New Year’s Six bowl games, they were unable to pluck five-star recruits from other regions of the country and poach prospects from other blue-blood schools that have had a better recent track record of producing NFL draft picks, especially among offensive linemen.,Gorney and other analysts reasoned that the Trojans have had enough talent in recent seasons to contend for Pac-12 championships, and they won the conference crown in their second season under Helton in 2017.

NORMAN— The No. 1 Oklahoma men's gymnastics team hosts the No. 8 Ohio State Buckeyes inside McCasland Field House Saturday night at 7 p.m. CT as the Sooners chase their 105th straight victory.,Oklahoma continues its chase for its fifth straight national title on Saturday as the No. 1 Sooners (7-0) welcome No. 8 Ohio State (2-3) to McCasland Field House at 7 p.m. CT.,Entering his 20th season at the helm of OU men’s gymnastics, head coach Mark Williams and his team are aiming at an NCAA men's gym record 12th national championship in 2019.,In the Road to Nationals rankings, OU holds the top team average (414.500) along with the top spot on floor exercise (70.325), still rings (70.025), vault (72.450) and high bar (67.250).,Individually, senior co-captain Genki Suzuki recorded the top all-around score of the season (83.600) in last weekend's home opener, putting him at No. 1 in the all-around ranks.

Oklahoma begins its chase for its fifth straight national title on Saturday, as the preseason No. 1 Sooners head west to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., to face a challenging slate of opponents at the Rocky Mountain Open.,Senior Yul Moldauer is looking to conclude a historic collegiate career, coming off a junior season in which he earned four individual national titles (AA, FX, VT, PB), in addition to All-America nods on , pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars and all-around.,Other key returners are senior Genki Suzuki, an All-American on pommel horse last season, and junior Tanner Justus, who earned All-America honors on vault in 2018.,Last season marked Moldauer's second all-around national title, after claiming the crown during his freshman season in 2016.,Guimaraes, a product of 5280 Gymnastics in Colorado, finished just behind Goodell in the all-around at the U.S. Championships, claiming fourth, but took home junior national titles on floor exercise and vault.

The new-look Fox Corp. on Friday announced that it will not bid for the 22 regional sports networks the Walt Disney Co. is selling off in accordance with the terms of the two media giants' $71.3 billion asset transfer.,Given its stated emphasis on sports, live events and news, the so-called "New Fox" that will emerge after the Disney deal goes through was thought to be the most likely contender to buy back the RSNs.,While YES Network is the crown jewel of the bunch—the Yankees/Brooklyn Nets outlet has been the most-watched RSN in the country for 14 of the last 16 years—the Cleveland Cavaliers put up huge numbers on Fox Sports Ohio, while the MLB's Royals are no slouch on Fox Sports Kansas City.,Sinclair is now seen as the last viable bidder for the entire RSN portfolio; meanwhile, Amazon and the New York Yankees are teaming up in an apparent venture to take YES Network off Disney's hands.,Many RSNs now trail only ESPN as the most costly line-item expense on subscribers' monthly cable bills; per SNL Kagan estimates, three of the Fox RSNs—YES Network ($6.74), Fox Sports Detroit ($6.69), Fox Sports Arizona ($5.48)—command among the priciest affiliate fees on the menu.

A cowboy hat is awarded to each of the winners at the Doc Buchanan Wrestling Invitational Tournament being held Friday and Saturday at Clovis High School.,Seven of the teams in the Orange County top 10 are sending wrestlers to The Doc B, including No. 2 Villa Park, No. 3 Esperanza, No. 4.,The top two teams in the state rankings, No. 1 Buchanan and No. 2 St. John Bosco, will be represented at The Doc B.

Cross sees The Doc B as the perfect tournament at the perfect time of the season.,Taking a look around Orange County high school sports: read more

Lacking sufficient students willing and able to pay for costly basketball tickets to fill the new Pauley Pavilion, why should UCLA cough up millions any top-market basketball coach would feel himself to be worth?,How much did it cost UCLA to serve as an uncompensated NBA training camp?My vision of UCLA basketball is somewhat different from Plaschkes: Ticket prices reduced precisely because the coach is not being paid the stellar wage commensurate with a rock star status, and students cheering for actual student-athletes who might go into fields other than pro.,The simple fact is that UCLA does not have someone who knows what he is doing and therein lies UCLAs problem over the past 16 years of Dan Guerreros tenure.Success at the highest level in the two major sports, football and basketball, requires not onlya top-flight coach, but also a top-flight athletic director.,Trump U., for example.Michael JenningVan Nuys::Bill Plaschke, just what was the purpose of your hatchet job description of the UCLA basketball program in your column on New Years Day?,Of course, I was watching the Lady Bruins and their coach, Cori Close.Now that the mens program is looking for someone to take over for coach Alford, perhaps UCLA look no further than its own campus.Mike FeixChino HIlls::For front page news on New Years Day we are offered Bill Plaschkes lament on the failure of basketball at UCLA.

The Beavercreek High girls cross country team used their friends on the girls soccer team as motivation the following day, Nov. 10, at the state cross country championships at the famous National Trail Raceway drag strip.,The Beavercreek High School girls cross country team celebrates its state title on the victory podium, Nov. 10 at National Trail Raceway in Hebron.,The Beavercreek High School girls cross country team celebrates its state title on the victory podium, Nov. 10 at National Trail Raceway in Hebron.,The Beavercreek High School girls soccer team poses for a team photo with the girls Division I state championship trophy, Nov. 9 after defeating Strongsville 4-2 at MAPFRE Stadium in Columbus.,The Beavercreek High School girls soccer team poses for a team photo with the girls Division I state championship trophy, Nov. 9 after defeating Strongsville 4-2 at MAPFRE Stadium in Columbus.