IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Caitlin Clark wasn’t back in her home arena to play a game. Still, the “butterflies,” the former Iowa guard said, were quite similar. Clark returned to Iowa’s Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Sunday to have her number 22 retired in a ceremony after the Hawkeyes’ 76-67 win over No. 4 USC, one season after she completed her historic college career. “I feel like I already have those butterflies in your stomach when you walk in here,” Clark said during a pregame press conference. “Not so much for a basketball game now, but obviously just to be around everybody and to enjoy this environment. I don’t have to go and compete for 40 minutes, even though I wish maybe I could. I think it will definitely be a little bit more emotional that I don’t have to compete.” Clark was at center court with her family as the No. 22 went up into the rafters. She was smiling throughout the ceremony. The jersey retirement capped a historic career for Clark at Iowa. She became college basketball’s all-time leading scorer while leading the Hawkeyes to back-to-back appearances in the NCAA national championship game the last two seasons.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska spring game, one of the best-attended in college football and a major revenue producer, likely won’t be held going forward because of coach Matt Rhule’s concern about other teams poaching his players. “The word ‘tampering’ doesn’t exist anymore,” Rhule said Saturday at his midwinter news conference. “It’s just an absolute free open common market. I don’t necessarily want to open up to the outside world and have people watch our guys and say, ‘He looks like a pretty good player. Let’s go get him.’” The spring game has a long tradition at Nebraska. Last year the event drew 60,452 to Memorial Stadium, fourth-highest in the nation behind spring games at Ohio State, Alabama and Penn State. The Cornhuskers’ game also was televised on the Big Ten Network. “I dealt with a lot of people offering our players a lot of opportunities after that,” Rhule said. “To go out and bring in a bunch of new players and showcase them for all the other schools to watch doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.”
NEW YORK (AP) — Fay Vincent, who became an unexpected baseball commissioner in 1989 following the death of A. Bartlett Giamatti and then was forced out three years later by owners intent on a labor confrontation with players, has died. He was 86. Vincent had undergone radiation and chemotherapy for bladder cancer and developed complications that included bleeding, said his wife, Christina. He asked that treatment be stopped and died Saturday at a hospital in Vero Beach, Florida. “Mr. Vincent served the game during a time of many challenges, and he remained proud of his association with our national pastime throughout his life,” current commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. A lawyer who became a movie studio executive at the behest of a college friend, Vincent had been retired for three decades and lived in New Canaan, Connecticut, and Vero Beach.
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Pebble Beach looked as spectacular as ever. So did Rory McIlroy. The combination of one of golf’s biggest stars and America’s most scenic coastal golf course was the just the spark the PGA Tour needed, and both lived up to their reputations Sunday in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. McIlroy was in complete control of his shots, leading to two key birdies when he made the turn against a pack of contenders. And then he delivered a haymaker, blasting his drive over a tree down the 14th fairway, leaving him only a 7-iron to the 571-yard hole to set up eagle. “We both hit 7 there,” Sepp Straka said. “His was 7-iron, mine was 7-wood.” All that was left was a soothing stroll down the 18th fairway, enough sunshine to turn the surf turquoise, enough of a cushion to have no stress. McIlroy finished with a par for a 6-under 66 and a two-shot victory over Irish pal Shane Lowry.
SUNDAY SCORES
NCAA MEN TOP 25
Nebraska 77, No. 16 Oregon 71
No. 18 Illinois 87, Ohio State 79
No. 19 Memphis 86, Rice 83
NCAA WOMEN TOP 25
No. 1 UCLA 79, Minnesota 53
No. 2 South Carolina 83, Auburn 66
No. 3 Notre Dame 89, Louisville 71
No. 5 Texas 70, Texas A&M 50
No. 6 UConn 101, Butler 59
No. 8 Ohio State 66, Washington 56
No. 9 TCU 82, Iowa State 69
No. 11 K-State 91, Kansas 64
No. 12 Kentucky 95, No. 13 Oklahoma 86
Illinois 66, No. 14 Maryland 65
No. 15 North Carolina 69, Stanford 67
No. 16 Michigan State 89, Northwestern 75
No. 18 Tennessee 76, Missouri 71
No. 19 California 84, Pittsburgh 53
Iowa 76, No. 4 USC 69
No. 7 LSU 81, Mississippi State 67
No. 20 Georgia Tech 77, Miami 66
No. 22 Alabama 72, Georgia 57
Ole Miss 76, No. 23 Vanderbilt 61
No. 25 Florida State 97, Wake Forest 68