IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Payton Sandfort scored 30 points and made seven 3-pointers to lead Iowa over Kansas State 91-82 on Tuesday night in the NIT.
Sandfort added 12 rebounds for the Hawkeyes (19-14). Ben Krikke scored 24 points while going 9 of 15 and 5 of 8 from the free-throw line and added 11 rebounds and three steals. Owen Freeman had 10 points and shot 3 of 6 from the field and 4 of 5 from the free-throw line. Dai Dai Ames finished with 16 points and five assists for the Wildcats (19-15). William McNair added 15 points and seven rebounds for Kansas State. Cam Carter had 13 points and three steals.
UNDATED (AP) — Kansas guard Kevin McCullar Jr. has been ruled out of the NCAA Tournament because of a bone bruise on his knee that caused him to miss six of the past 12 games, including the Jayhawks’ one-and-done ouster in the Big 12 Tournament. Kansas coach Bill Self told reporters Tuesday upon the team's arrival in Salt Lake City that McCullar would be out. The news comes two days before the fourth-seeded Jayhawks play No. 13 seed Samford in the first round. The Jayhawks at least get second-team All-American Hunter Dickinson back. He dislocated his shoulder in their regular-season finale against Houston.
UNDATED (AP) — Iowa State will make the short trip to Omaha for the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament in a lot better frame of mind than the Cyclones team that traveled to Greensboro a year ago. This team blew out Houston in the Big 12 Tournament championship game three days ago and earned a No. 2 NCAA seed, matching the highest in program history. All systems are go, unlike last year when the Cyclones lost 59-41 to Pittsburgh in the first round. ISU plays 15-seed South Dakota State on Thursday night.
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — Joel Scott had 23 points and 11 rebounds as Colorado State won an NCAA Tournament game for the first time in 11 years, blowing out Virginia 67-42 in the First Four. Nique Clifford scored 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Rams. Colorado advances as a No. 10 seed to play seventh-seeded Texas in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday. Reece Beekman had 15 points on 4-of-16 shooting for Virginia, which hasn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since it won the national title in 2019. That stretch includes two first-round losses as a No. 4 seed.
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — Wagner kicked off March Madness with the first NCAA Tournament win in program history, getting 21 points from Melvin Council Jr. and holding off a late rally by Howard to win 71-68 in the First Four. The Northeast Conference champion Seahawks advanced as the No. 16 seed in the West Region and will play top seed North Carolina on Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina. Howard trailed by 17 points early in the second half but went on a late 14-2 run, closing within 69-68 on Bryce Harris’ layup with 18 seconds left. Howard attempted three 3-pointers in the last 6 seconds but missed them all.
UNDATED (AP) — The College Football Playoff and ESPN have announced a deal that will give the network exclusive rights to the expanded postseason through the 2031 season. The agreement puts the national championship game on ABC starting in 2026. Financial terms were not announced, but as previously reported the new six-year agreement will pay the CFP and participating conferences $1.3 billion annually and nearly $8 billion in all. The major conferences and Notre Dame agreed on a new revenue-sharing plan last week that allowed the CFP to finalize the deal with ESPN.
UNDATED (AP) — Purdue big man Zach Edey is an unanimous first-team All-American for The Associated Press for the second straight season. The 7-foot-4 senior topped all 62 ballots from AP Top 25 poll voters in results released Tuesday. Edey was joined on the first team by Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht, North Carolina’s RJ Davis, Houston’s Jamal Shead and Connecticut’s Tristen Newton. Marquette’s Tyler Kolek, Dayton’s DaRon Holmes II, Alabama’s Mark Sears, Duke’s Kyle Filipowski and Kansas’ Hunter Dickinson were second-team picks. San Diego State’s Jaedon LeDee, Auburn’s Johni Broome, Arizona’s Caleb Love, Creighton’s Baylor Scheierman and Illinois’ Terrence Shannon Jr. were third-team picks.
UNDATED (AP) — Tracking the changes upending college sports can be as frenetic as keeping up during the first week of March Madness. Ultimately, those changes could impact what America’s favorite basketball tournament looks like in the future. News about athlete compensation, player unions and realignment dominate discussions. Everything in college sports is open for discussion, interpretation and adjustment. That includes the industry’s most hallowed tradition, the NCAA basketball tournaments, which begin this week and will stretch from coast to coast. The bottom line behind it all is money.
UNDATED (AP) — The last-second shot fuels to the allure of the NCAA Tournament and March Madness. San Diego State’s Lamont Butler understands that well after hitting a buzzer-beating jumper in last year’s Final Four to send the Aztecs to the title game. Butler joins Florida Atlantic’s Nick Boyd and TCU’s JaKobe Coles as players who hit final-seconds shots in last year’s tournament and are back in the field of 68 this year. Butler says the key for him was playing confident and “fearless” in a pressure-packed moment to beat Florida Atlantic. The NCAAs begin play this week.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Former Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres pitcher Chan Ho Park threw the ceremonial first pitch ahead of the two teams’ season opening game in South Korea. Park began his Major League Baseball career in 1994 with Los Angeles as the first South Korean-born player in the big leagues. He waved to cheering crowds packing Seoul’s Gocheok Sky Dome while wearing a Padres jersey since he works for San Diego as an adviser. Park went into his wind-up and threw the ball to San Diego’s current South Korean shortstop Ha-Seong Kim.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean police say they’ve found no explosives at Seoul’s Gocheok Sky Dome after searching the site following a reported bomb threat against Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani. Police say about 150 officers used sniffer dogs and X-ray detectors to search through the stadium but no suspicious objects have been discovered. Police officers said they acted on a tip that there was a threat targeting Ohtani but didn’t elaborate. Major League Baseball's opening game between the Dodgers and the San Diego Padres is scheduled to start later Wednesday at the stadium.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Trevor Bauer was cleared to play in the Mexican League because he was not convicted for charges of sexual assault, according to the executive president for the Diablos Rojos club, Othón Díaz. Bauer, the 2020 NL Cy Young Award winner, is slated to play five games for Diablos Rojos that included a weekend exhibition against the New York Yankees. The 33-year-old Bauer served a 194-game suspension from MLB after a San Diego woman said Bauer beat and sexually abused, an accusation the pitcher denied. Bauer was not charged with any crime.
MONDAY SCORES
NCAA First Four
MIDWEST
Final Colorado St. 67 Virginia 42
WEST
Final Wagner 71 Howard 68
NIT First Round
Final North Texas 84 LSU 77
Final Boston College 62 Providence 57
Final Utah 84 UC Irvine 75
Final South Florida 83 UCF 77
Final Iowa 91 Kansas St. 82
Final Minnesota 73 Butler 72
Final Virginia Tech 74 Richmond 58
Final Georgia 78 Xavier 76
Final Ohio St. 88 Cornell 83
CIT Round 1
Final Tarleton St. 82 Texas Southern 71
Final Abilene Christian 73 Texas A&M-CC 63
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Final Milwaukee 8 Cleveland 5
Final L.A. Angels 10 Cincinnati 6
Final Seattle 12 Colorado 3
Final San Francisco 9 Kansas City 8
Final Cleveland 8 Colorado 8
Final Philadelphia 0 Detroit 0
Final Miami 3 Houston 3
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Final Boston 5 Tampa Bay 2
Final Baltimore 13 Toronto 8
Final Oakland 7 Texas 7
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Final St. Louis 11 Miami 10
Final N.Y. Mets 3 St. Louis 1
Final Arizona 4 Chicago Cubs 1
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Final Orlando 112 Charlotte 92
Final Houston 137 Washington 114
Final New Orleans 104 Brooklyn 91
Final Dallas 113 San Antonio 107
Final Denver 115 Minnesota 112
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Final OT Detroit 4 Columbus 3
Final New Jersey 5 Pittsburgh 2
Final Philadelphia 4 Toronto 3
Final Winnipeg 4 N-Y Rangers 2
Final Boston 6 Ottawa 2
Final Carolina 4 N-Y Islanders 1
Final Colorado 4 St. Louis 3
Final Nashville 8 San Jose 2
Final OT Edmonton 3 Montreal 2
Final Minnesota 4 Anaheim 0
Final Los Angeles 6 Chicago 2
Final Tampa Bay 5 Vegas 3