Sports

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments are seeing double-digit viewer increases over last year. The men’s tournament is up 12% over last year. The tournament is also off to its best start in five years, averaging 9.12 million viewers through the second round. The women’s tournament is up 15% overall through

By DAVE CAMPBELL AP Pro Football Writer EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — Hiring a new general manager and head coach created an expectation that major roster moves by the Minnesota Vikings would follow. They have instead kept their best and costliest players largely intact. Owner and president Mark Wilf spoke out against starting over. General manager

By JIM VERTUNO AP Sports Writer SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Arizona point guard Kerr Kriisa is a bit wild and more than a handful. Not just for opponents, but sometimes for the top-seeded Wildcats. The Estonian sophomore is the cocky and feisty sort who can drive opponents crazy, taunt their fans and question game officials.

MONTREAL (AP) — A Quebec judge has sentenced once-celebrated baseball writer Jonah Keri to 21 months in jail for repeated abuse of his ex-wife. Quebec court Judge Alexandre Dalmau’s sentence was considerably higher than the one sought by the Crown, which was for a minimum of one year in jail. Before his July 2019 arrest

By DAVID BRANDT AP Sports Writer PHOENIX (AP) — Trevor Story and Nick Castellanos are among the newest $100 million men during a Major League Baseball offseason full of big contracts. There’s been a robust market for the sport’s star players, even with a 99-day lockout that froze negotiations from December until mid-March. Story and

By TIM BOOTH AP Sports Writer RENTON, Wash. (AP) — Quandre Diggs says being in a comfortable environment played heavily into his decision to re-sign with the Seattle Seahawks rather than going elsewhere in free agency. The Pro Bowl free safety signed a three-year deal worth up to $39 million. Diggs says he didn’t want

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi quarterback Matt Corral showed off his right arm and his apparently healthy right ankle for NFL teams. Corral threw Wednesday for representatives of almost every NFL team at the Ole Miss pro day, including at least four head coaches. Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin, Atlanta’s Arthur Smith, Carolina’s Matt Rhule and Mike

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana High School Athletic Association on Wednesday commended Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb’s veto of a bill banning transgender females from participating in girls school sports after the association previously held back from taking an explicit stance on the proposal. IHSAA Commissioner Paul Neidig expressed reservations that the proposed legislation only addressed

By JENNA FRYER AP Auto Racing Writer Danielle Shepherd last weekend became just the second woman in at least two decades to lead an IMSA sports car team to victory. Shepherd earned her victory in the Twelve Hours of Sebring in just the second race of her new job. The 28-year-old was promoted during the

By TOM CANAVAN AP Sports Writer JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) — Saint Peter’s University wasn’t just little-known nationally before this year’s NCAA Tournament. The Jesuit-run school doesn’t even have a high profile locally. One could drive right past it on John F. Kennedy Boulevard in Jersey City, New Jersey, without even noticing. But that’s the

By CHUCK KING Associated Press WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Eager to get back to where he was, Justin Verlander says he still needs to get sharper. The Houston ace was pulled after another scoreless outing, taken out after 2 2-3 innings Wednesday when he reached a team-imposed pitch limit. Verlander missed all of

By DAVE SKRETTA AP Sports Writer KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs traded Tyreek Hill to Miami for a package of draft picks Wednesday, and the Dolphins are giving the three-time All-Pro wide receiver a $120 million, four-year contract extension that makes Hill the highest-paid player at his position in NFL history.

ELAINE GANLEY Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A man suspected in the weekend killing of former Argentina rugby player Federico Martin Aramburu was arrested early Wednesday in Hungary, European Union judicial cooperation agency Eurojust said. A second man was arrested in France, a French judicial official said. Both men were linked to France’s

By ERIC OLSON AP Sports Writer The South Dakota women’s basketball team’s run to the NCAA Sweet 16 has elicited pride border to border in the sparsely populated state. Many fans are expected in Wichita, Kansas, for the game between the 10th-seeded Coyotes and No. 3 seed Michigan on Saturday. South Dakota has an enrollment

FOXBOROUGH, Mass (AP) — Cornerback Malcolm Butler is returning to the New England Patriots, where he went from Super Bowl star to the bench. Butler’s agent said the hero of the Patriots’ 2014 championship agreed to a two-year deal worth up to $9 million. Butler sat out the 2021 season for personal reasons and was

By DAVE SKRETTA AP Sports Writer The U.S. pairs team of Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier took the lead after the short program at the figure skating world championships in France. The majority of Olympic figure skating medalists are absent because of the ban on Russian athletes from international competition. In the women’s event, Olympic