Basketball
USA Basketball announces four exhibition opponents
NEW YORK – The United States national team will play exhibition games in the Canary Islands, Chicago and New York before this summer’s World Cup of Basketball.
The Americans will play Brazil in Chicago on Aug. 16, before games at Madison Square Garden in New York against the Dominican Republic on Aug. 20 and Puerto Rico two days later. The training tour will wrap up against Slovenia on Aug. 26 at the Canary Islands.
The schedule was announced Wednesday by USA Basketball.
The Americans will begin their training in Las Vegas and will play an intrasquad exhibition game at the Thomas & Mack Center on Aug. 1.
The World Cup of Basketball is Aug. 30-Sept. 14 in Spain.
The U.S. is the defending world champion.
KU freshman center Embiid declares for the NBA draft
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Kansas freshman Joel Embiid is entering the NBA draft after a breakthrough season that ended with a stress fracture in his back that kept the 7-footer out of the NCAA Tournament.
Embiid had been mulling whether to return for his sophomore season for weeks.
Embiid, who some believe could go first overall, averaged 11.2 points and 8.1 rebounds while blocking 72 shots and earning Big 12 defensive player of the year honors.
Cycling
Contador keeps Basque lead; Matthews wins Stage 3
VITORIA, Spain – Alberto Contador maintained his overall grip on the Tour of the Basque Country on Wednesday, while Australian cyclist Michael Matthews won the long third stage in northern Spain.
Matthews took advantage of smart work by his Orica-GreenEdge team to beat Kevin Reza of Europcar and Michal Kwiatkowski of Omega Pharma-Quick-Step. Matthews covered the 121 miles in 5 hours, 2 minutes, 9 seconds.
Contador stayed with the peloton to maintain his 14-second lead over fellow Spaniard Alejandro Valverde. Contador, of Tinkoff-Saxo, has an overall time of 12:54:03.
The five-stage race could be all but decided Thursday, with a summit finish closing a difficult fourth leg featuring five categorized climbs.
NFL
Arizona will host next year’s Pro Bowl-Super Bowl double
HONOLULU – The next Pro Bowl will be played in Arizona at the site of the Super Bowl, skipping Hawaii for the first time since 2010.
The game will return to Hawaii in 2016, the NFL announced Wednesday.
The 2015 game will be the third time the Pro Bowl is held in the same city as the Super Bowl.
The Pro Bowl will remain a week before the Super Bowl, as it has the last five years.
The Pro Bowl after this coming season will take place Jan. 25, 2015, at University of Phoenix Stadium. A year later, the game will be held Jan. 31, 2016, at Aloha Stadium.
Tennis
France and USA announce their Fed Cup rosters
Top-ranked Serena Williams is too wiped out to play in the Fed Cup against France on April 19-20, United States’ captain Mary Joe Fernandez said Wednesday.
Neither of the Williams sisters was on the roster submitted Wednesday by Fernandez for the upcoming World Group playoff, to be played on an indoor hard court at Saint Louis University.
Fernandez picked a young roster that includes 18th-ranked Sloane Stephens, No. 42 Madison Keys, No. 49 Varvara Lepchenko and No. 57 Christina McHale.
French captain Amelie Mauresmo’s players are No. 22 Alize Cornet, No. 74 Caroline Garcia, No. 76 Virginie Razzano and No. 87 Kristina Mladenovic.
The winning nation will enter the World Group in 2015 and compete for the Fed Cup title.
Associated Press
