College Basketball
NEW YORK – UConn’s drive for five will begin at home.
Winners of 107 consecutive games, coach Geno Auriemma and the Huskies won’t have to leave the state of Connecticut in the NCAA Tournament until the Final Four as they try for an unprecedented fifth consecutive national championship.
While the Huskies won’t have to leave the state until potentially heading to Dallas for the national semifinals, the other No. 1 seeds aren’t as lucky.
South Carolina is the top seed in Stockton, California. The Gamecocks are headed out of the Eastern time zone for the third time in four seasons. The Gamecocks’ lone trip to the Final Four came when they played a regional in Greensboro in 2015.
Baylor is the No. 1 in the Oklahoma City Regional and Notre Dame is the top choice in Lexington, Kentucky.
Cycling
CIVITANOVA MARCHE, Italy – Fernando Gaviria won the sixth stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico cycling race Monday, and Nairo Quintana retained the overall lead heading into the final leg.
Gaviria, who rides for Quick Step, held off world champion Peter Sagan in a bunch sprint at the end of the 104-mile route from Ascoli Piceno to Civitanova Marche to win by half a bike wheel. Jasper Stuyven was third.
Quintana remained 50 seconds ahead of Thibaut Pinot, who moved into second, and 1 minute, 6 seconds ahead of Rohan Dennis.
The breakaway was halted for three minutes near the halfway point after the peloton was held up at a train crossing.
Tuesday’s final stage is a 6-mile individual time trial around San Benedetto del Tronto.
MLB
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – The Colorado Rockies lost one of their biggest offseason acquisitions when Ian Desmond was hit by a pitch Sunday, breaking his left hand.
Desmond was plunked by Cincinnati right-hander Rookie Davis with a 93 mph fastball in the fourth inning of the Rockies’ 9-8 loss in spring training. The team says the preliminary diagnosis on Desmond is a left hand fracture, and he saw a specialist Monday.
The Rockies signed Desmond to a $70 million, five-year contract over the winter to help balance out their lineup. Desmond broke into the majors as a shortstop and played in the outfield last year with Texas, but was transitioning to first base with Colorado.
The 31-year-old Desmond hit .285 with 22 homers and 86 RBIs this year in his lone season with the Rangers, earning his first All-Star trip since 2012. He also had 21 steals and scored a career-high 107 runs.
He broke into the majors in 2009 with Washington and is a .267 hitter with 132 homers and 518 RBIs in eight seasons.
Skiing
ASPEN – Vincent Kriechmayr of Austria posted the fastest time in a downhill training run Monday at the World Cup Finals.
Kriechmayr navigated the aggressive course in Aspen, Colorado, in 1 minute, 34.58 seconds. His run was 0.26 seconds ahead of Peter Fill of Italy.
The men’s downhill is Wednesday. Kjetil Jansrud of Norway holds a 33-point lead over Fill in the race for the season-long title in the discipline.
Jansrud wound up 15th in training and 2.01 seconds behind Kriechmayr’s time.
The 31-year-old Jansrud said after his run that his approach on race day will be simple: “It’s not letting myself be nervous.”
Fill captured the downhill crown last season. Jansrud won it in 2014-15.
Associated Press
