College Basketball
Stanford fires men's basketball coach Dawkins
STANFORD, Calif. – A person with direct knowledge of the decision tells The Associated Press that Johnny Dawkins has been fired after eight seasons of coaching the Stanford men's basketball team.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity Monday because the school hadn't announced the dismissal. Dawkins guided the Cardinal to the Sweet 16 of the 2014 NCAA Tournament and NIT championships after the 2012 and '15 seasons.
Stanford went 15-15 this season and finished ninth in the Pac-12 Conference at 8-10.
Twitter topples CBS selection show with leaked NCAA bracket
NEW YORK – The first blockbuster upset of March Madness: Twitter over CBS on Selection Sunday.
The NCAA said Sunday night it is looking into how a copy of this year's tournament bracket got leaked online during the network's extended selection show on Sunday.
The bracket was being shared on Twitter about 20 minutes after the start of the two-hour broadcast, generating thousands of retweets as Charles Barkley fumbled around with a touch screen monitor making picks.
It's not clear who posted the tweet, which was labeled “Spoiler alert.” The account used a Kansas logo as its avatar photo, with the name “Sarcastic” followed by a vulgar word. The user later changed the name and protected the account, shortly before the account appeared to be deleted and turned over to a different user.
University of Denver hires Rodney Billups as coach
DENVER – The University of Denver has hired Rodney Billups as its basketball coach.
He spent the last six seasons on the Colorado coaching staff. He succeeds Joe Scott, who was fired after a 16-15 record in the last of his nine seasons at Denver.
Billups is a former Pioneers point guard spent and the younger brother of former NBA star Chauncey Billups.
He played professionally in Latvia and Finland before being hired by Colorado as director of basketball operations in 2010. He was promoted to assistant coach in 2012.
Sled Dog Racing
Reigning champ leads Iditarod in final push to Nome
NOME, Alaska – Reigning Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race champion Dallas Seavey leads the 2016 race as mushers move up the Bering Sea coast.
Seavey reached the village of Elim at 4:09 a.m. Tuesday, stayed two minutes, and headed north with nine dogs in harness.
He has a 26-minute lead over Brent Sass, who reached Elim just before 4:30 a.m., stayed eight minutes and left with 13 dogs at 4:37 a.m.
Seavey's father, former champion Mitch Seavey, was three minutes behind Sass. He left Elim at 4:40 a.m.
Aliy Zirkle (AL-ee ZUR-cul), one of two mushers whose teams were hit by a snowmobile Saturday morning, is in fourth.
Teams must take a mandatory eight-hour rest stop at the village of White Mountain but could reach the finish line at Nome by Tuesday morning.
Soccer
FIFA bans 2 South Africans over pre-World Cup match-fixing
ZURICHFIFA has banned two more former South African Football Association officials over match-fixing in friendly games ahead of the country's hosting of the 2010 World Cup.
FIFA on Monday banned former SAFA chief executive Leslie Sedibe for five years and fined him 20,000 Swiss francs ($20,200). The governing body also banned Steve Goddard and Adeel Carelse, both former officials at SAFA's referees department, for two years each.
Last year, Lindile Kika, SAFA's head of national teams in 2010, was banned from all soccer activities for six years.
FIFA believes that at least one of the South African national team's friendly games in the weeks ahead of the World Cup was fixed by the referee. SAFA officials were under investigation for allowing a company controlled by match-fixers to appoint the referees for the games.
FIFA cancels 2 of Kuwait's World Cup qualifying matches
ZURICH – FIFA says it has canceled Kuwait's two scheduled World Cup qualifying matches this month and opened a disciplinary case against the country's soccer federation.
Kuwait has been suspended by FIFA since October because of government interference in how the federation is run.
The national team also failed to play a previous World Cup qualifier in November. That match was forfeited as a 3-0 win for Myanmar.
Kuwait was scheduled to play Laos on March 24 and complete its program against group leader South Korea five days later.
FIFA says it told the federations involved that the matches “cannot take place as things stand.”
Kuwait faces forfeiting both matches and being fined.
