College Basketball
Michigan State remains the unanimous No. 1 pick
Michigan State won three games last week and remained a runaway No. 1 in The Associated Press’ college basketball poll.
The Spartans (6-0) held the top spot for a second consecutive week by receiving 56 first-place votes Monday from the 65-member national media poll.
Kansas drew eight first-place votes and remains second. Kentucky, the preseason No. 1, and Arizona moved up one spot each to third and fourth. Oklahoma State received the other No. 1 vote and jumped from seventh to fifth.
Duke remained sixth.
Ohio State, Syracuse, Louisville and Wisconsin rounded out the top 10. Louisville dropped from third after losing to North Carolina.
Iowa and Massachusetts moved into the rankings at 23rd and 24th. They replaced Virginia Commonwealth, which dropped from 10th after losing twice, and New Mexico, which had been 19th.
Connecticut remains the unanimous No. 1 pick
The UConn women’s basketball team remained the unanimous No. 1 in The Associated Press poll after easily winning four games in five days.
The Huskies beat Oregon, Boston University, Monmouth and St. Bonaventure by an average of nearly 52 points a game. UConn is off until Sunday.
The top nine teams stayed the same with Duke, Tennessee, Louisville and Notre Dame rounding out the first five. Stanford, Kentucky, Maryland, Baylor and Nebraska followed.
NBA
Lakers re-up Bryant for 2: hashtag, ‘Laker4Life’
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – The Los Angeles Lakers signed All-Star guard Kobe Bryant to a 2-year contract extension.
General manager Mitch Kupchak made the anticipated announcement Monday, ending speculation that Bryant could end up with another team after this season.
Bryant, the fourth-leading scorer in NBA history, tweeted a picture of his signature on a contract later Monday morning with the hashtag: Laker4Life.
Terms of the deal were not released.
Another year, another surgery: Rose is out for the season
CHICAGO – Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose is out for the remainder of the season. The team said Rose had successful surgery Monday morning in Chicago to repair a torn medial meniscus in his right knee. He was hurt Friday night at Portland.
The 2011 NBA MVP missed all of last season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in Chicago’s 2012 playoff opener against Philadelphia.
Soccer
Rapids’ Powers and Brown voted the top two rookies
NEW YORK – Colorado midfielder Dillon Powers was voted Major League Soccer’s Rookie of the Year.
The 22-year-old from Notre Dame started 29 games and had five goals and six assists this season.
The league announced Monday that Powers received 93 percent of media, player and team votes. Rapids forward Deshorn Brown was second at 75 percent, and Seattle defender DeAndre Yedlin was third at 43.
The Los Angeles Galaxy won the team Fair Play Award, and Portland midfielder Darlington Nagbe won the individual Fair Play Award.
Tennis
Oudin, 22, forced to put her offseason on pause
Surprise 2009 U.S. Open quarterfinalist Melanie Oudin said she has a muscle-damaging condition that may be caused by intense exertion.
Oudin wrote on her Twitter feed that her “off season is a little paused at the moment” because of the ailment, called rhabdomyolysis, and she is “doing everything possible for a speedy” recovery.
Oudin, who turned 22 in September, is ranked 129th.
Associated Press
