AP National Sports

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — LSU’s national championship women’s basketball team has returned to campus where thousands of fans gathered to welcome them back. LSU coach and Louisiana native Kim Mulkey says “timing is everything“ and that it was time for her to come home. Mulkey and her players climbed onto a stage inside the

By DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — British Open champion Cameron Smith refers to Augusta National as his happy place. He arrived with a little trepidation now that he’s with LIV Golf. Smith says he found it was business as usual. He says there’s a lot of clamor at the Masters about

By DAVE SKRETTA AP Sports Writer AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Jordan Spieth is back at Augusta National, eight years after he first slipped on the green jacket as a 21-year-old champion with boundless potential. He’s gone on to win the U.S. Open and British Open along with other significant tournaments along the way. But winning

MADRID (AP) — Valencia couldn’t manage more than a 1-1 draw at home against Rayo Vallecano and remains near the relegation zone in the Spanish league. The result moved Valencia to 17th place but it hasd the same points as 18th-placed Espanyol and second-to-last Almeria. It could have risen to 15th with a victory at

WASHINGTON (AP) — First lady Jill Biden said Monday that she wants the defeated Iowa women’s basketball team to be invited to the White House in addition to the national title winner Louisiana State University. She watched LSU’s 102-85 victory over Iowa from the stands on Sunday night. Biden, speaking at the Colorado state capital

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Espanyol has fired Diego Martínez and hired former player Luis García as its new coach. The coaching change was made after Espanyol lost at Girona 2-1 on Saturday. The result left the team in the relegation zone after 27 matches. It was Espanyol’s fourth straight league loss. The 42-year-old García was

LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Michael Keane made amends for giving away a penalty by scoring off a long-range thunderbolt in the 90th minute to earn Everton a 1-1 draw with Tottenham in a feisty English Premier League game. Both teams finished with 10 men. Keane’s dipping strike took Everton out of the relegation zone and

By STEVE MEGARGEE AP Sports Writer MILWAUKEE (AP) — Rookie Brice Turang hit a grand slam for his first major league homer to cap a seven-run fifth inning as the Milwaukee Brewers opened their home schedule by routing the New York Mets 10-0 on Monday. Brian Anderson also homered and Freddy Peralta pitched six shutout

By MAURICIO SAVARESE AP Sports Writer SAO PAULO (AP) — Olympic volleyball gold medalist Wallace de Souza has been suspended for one year by Brazil’s Olympic Committee for online abuse of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The committee’s ethics council agreed unanimously to suspend de Souza “due to the anti-ethical action of promoting and

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — Olympic gymnastics champion Sunisa Lee says a kidney issue cut short her college career, but she still has her sights set on the Paris Games next year. Lee already had announced plans to leave college and resume training at the elite level this spring. She missed the end of the season

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Ricochet, the beloved Golden Retriever who found her calling as a therapy dog when she learned to surf, has died in Southern California. The 15-year-old canine helped countless veterans and kids during more than a decade providing therapy in the waves off San Diego, according to her owner Judy Fridono. The

By ERIC OLSON AP Sports Writer Wake Forest’s baseball season keeps getting better. The Demon Deacons took three games from Clemson this past weekend and are coming off their first back-to-back Atlantic Coast Conference sweeps in 21 years. They are 26-3 for their best start since 1949. The weekend rotation of Rhett Lowder, Sean Sullivan

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago White Sox closer Liam Hendriks says he was beginning his final round of chemotherapy on Monday. Hendriks, battling non-Hodgkin lymphoma, made the announcement in an eight-second video shown prior to Chicago’s home opener against the San Francisco Giants. He wished White Sox fans a happy opening day while announcing he was

ABERDEEN, Scotland (AP) — Alex Ferguson is getting another medal to add to his extensive collection. Some of the key people behind Scottish team Aberdeen’s win over Real Madrid in the European Cup Winners’ Cup final in 1983 have been granted medals by UEFA 40 years later. They include Ferguson, the great Manchester United manager

By DANIELLA MATAR AP Sports Writer MILAN (AP) — Empoli has beaten fellow struggler Lecce 1-0 in Serie A for its first win since January. Francesco Caputo’s 62nd-minute penalty kick ended a four-match losing run and lifted Empoli 12 points above the bottom three. Lecce is four points below the Tuscan side. Kickoff was delayed

By MICHAEL MAROT AP Sports Writer Former Indiana Hoosiers coach Bob Knight was hospitalized over the weekend with an undisclosed illness but was not listed as a patient on Monday at two hospitals in Bloomington, Indiana, where he lives. An email from the university about Knight’s health was sent to former Indiana basketball players on

By RONALD BLUM AP Baseball Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball’s average game time dropped by 30 minutes during the first four days this season, stolen bases doubled and batting average increased by 16 percentage points from last year’s opening weekend. Games averaged 2 hours, 38 minutes through Sunday with the new pitch

By STEVE MEGARGEE AP Sports Writer MILWAUKEE (AP) — Milwaukee Brewers principal owner Mark Attanasio offered a reminder that negotiations were still in the “early innings” as he discussed legislation on financing renovations to American Family Field. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers issued a proposal earlier this year to spend $290 million on repairs to American

By RONALD BLUM AP Baseball Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball owners unanimously approved an initial five-year labor contract with minor league players that will more than double player salaries. The agreement was reached last Wednesday and ratified by players on Friday. Minor league players formed a bargaining unit as part of the