College Basketball
Scandal lands former Toledo players probation
DETROIT – Two former University of Toledo basketball players were been given probation for their roles in a sports bribery scandal at the Ohio school.
Kashif Payne and Keith Triplett were sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Detroit. In addition to serving three years of probation, they must pay fines and perform community service.
Two other former basketball players and three ex-football players have been sentenced to probation.
All pleaded guilty to conspiracy, admitting they accepted cash and other benefits from a Detroit-area gambler from 2004 through 2006. The players supplied information or altered their performance to affect the final score.
One Shining Moment: title game viewship hits high
NEW YORK – Even without an undefeated team, the NCAA title game drew its largest TV audience in 18 years.
Duke’s 68-63 comeback win over Wisconsin on Monday night on CBS averaged 28.3 million viewers, the most since 1997, when Arizona upset defending champion Kentucky in overtime, CBS and Turner Sports said Tuesday. That’s up 33 percent from the 21.3 million for Connecticut’s victory over Kentucky last year.
NFL
Tynes suing Tampa Bay over career-ending infection
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Former NFL kicker Lawrence Tynes filed a lawsuit against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers over a Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection he contracted in a toe on his kicking foot, prematurely ending his career.
Attorney Stephen F. Rosenthal said Tuesday that Tynes got the infection in 2013 at the Bucs’ training facility. The lawsuit filed in Broward County Circuit Court accuses the team of negligence for failing to properly sanitize the facility to prevent spread of the contagious, drug-resistant infection.
Rosenthal says the infection cost Tynes at least $20 million in potential earnings.
Olympics
2018 venues aim for ease of pronunciation for all
SEOUL, South Korea – Organizers of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang say they have selected names for the event venues that will be easy for both Korean and non-Korean speakers to identify.
The organizing committee said in a statement Tuesday the venues will be grouped in two main areas – the Pyeongchang Mountain Cluster, where skiing and snowboarding events will be held, and the Gangneung Coastal Cluster, the site of hockey, curling and skating events.
The venue names include the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium, the site of the opening and closing ceremonies; the Alpensia Ski Jumping Center (ski jumping and Nordic combined events); the Gangneung Oval (speed-skating events); and Bokwang Snow Park (snowboarding events).
Swimming
Phelps’ suspension set to expire at Arizona meet
MESA, Ariz. – Michael Phelps will return to competition from a six-month suspension at a swimming meet in Mesa, Arizona, next week.
The 18-time Olympic gold medalist will compete in the Arena Pro Swim Series that runs April 15-18 at Skyline Aquatic Center.
The Mesa meet was the first one Phelps swam in after coming out of retirement last year.
Phelps’ suspension, handed down by USA Swimming in the wake of his second drunken driving arrest, ended April 6. He entered a six-week inpatient rehabilitation program a day after the suspension was announced in October.
Associated Press
