AP National Sports

By AARON BEARD AP Basketball Writer North Carolina and Gonzaga are 1-2 in the first regular-season men’s college basketball poll from The Associated Press. Third-ranked Houston and fourth-ranked Kentucky picked up the remaining first-place votes in Top 25 with only slight changes from the preseason rankings. Baylor, Kansas, Duke, UCLA, Arkansas and Creighton round out

By The Associated Press Christian Pulisic will wear No. 10 for the United States at the World Cup and goalkeeper Matt Turner will wear No. 1. The U.S. team announced jersey numbers, a week before the Americans play Wales at Al Rayyan, Qatar, in their first World Cup match since 2014. DeAndre Yedlin, the only

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Charleston Southern has dismissed football coach Autry Denson after four seasons at the Championship Subdivision school. Athletic director Jeff Barber said Denson’s contract would not be renewed. Denson went 14-22 in his four years, including 2-8 this year as the Buccaneers ended with a 20-10 loss at North Carolina A&T

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia has fired athletic director Shane Lyons, a move that comes amid the worst stretch for the football team in more than four decades. President Gordon Gee says there are no immediate plans for changes in the football team. Gee says the new athletic director will review coach Neal Brown’s

TURIN, Italy (AP) — Russian tennis player Andrey Rublev has made an appeal for peace following his win over compatriot Daniil Medvedev at the ATP Finals in Turin. The seventh-ranked Rublev wrote “Peace, Peace, Peace, All we need,” on a TV camera lens. Rublev and Medvedev along with all Russian and Belarus tennis players have

LOS ANGELES (AP) — DaMarcus Beasley, the only man to play for the U.S. at four World Cups, will serve as a digital host and analyst in Qatar for Fox’s U.S. English-language World Cup coverage. Beasley, a midfielder and defender who played for the U.S. in 2002, ’06, ’10 and ’14, retired as a player

By AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — CIA Director Bill Burns has met with his Russian intelligence counterpart to warn of consequences if Russia were to deploy a nuclear weapon in Ukraine. That’s according to a White House National Security Council official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition

By AARON BEARD AP Basketball Writer North Carolina and Gonzaga are 1-2 in the first regular-season men’s college basketball poll from The Associated Press. Third-ranked Houston and fourth-ranked Kentucky picked up the remaining first-place votes in Top 25 with only slight changes from the preseason rankings. Baylor, Kansas, Duke, UCLA, Arkansas and Creighton round out

By SARAH RANKIN Associated Press CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — The suspect in a shooting at the University of Virginia that killed three members of the football team was taken into custody Monday, more than 13 hours after he allegedly gunned down fellow students in a bus as they returned from a school field trip, authorities

By JAMES ELLINGWORTH AP Sports Writer DÜSSELDORF, Germany (AP) — One of Germany’s top players at the World Cup in Qatar could easily have been in the England squad. Bayern Munich’s attacking midfielder Jamal Musiala represented England at junior level before finally opting for Germany last year after being persuaded by then-coach Joachim Löw. Musiala

By STEVE REED AP Sports Writer CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Baker Mayfield will start at quarterback for the Carolina Panthers on Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens after P.J. Walker was diagnosed with a high ankle sprain. Walker was injured in Thursday night’s 25-15 victory against the Atlanta Falcons but coach Steve Wilks said Walker toughed

Arsenal looks like the real deal after building a five-point lead at the top of the Premier League. Few saw Mikel Arteta’s team as credible title challengers at the start of the season but 12 wins from 14 games have set a pace that even Manchester City cannot match. In Spain, Barcelona enters the World

By The Associated Press Russia hosted the World Cup party in 2018 but now it’s off the guest list. Russia will be playing a little-noticed friendly game against Uzbekistan on the day the World Cup begins in Qatar. Russia was kicked out of World Cup qualifying after it invaded Ukraine and now can only play

By TOM WITHERS AP Sports Writer CLEVELAND (AP) — Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson has been cleared to practice, a significant step in his return to the NFL following an 11-game suspension. Watson was accused of sexual misconduct by more than two dozen women during massage therapy sessions while he played for Houston. He reached

By GERALD IMRAY AP Sports Writer Ghana has had to leave its top two goalkeepers out of the World Cup squad because of injury. First-choice Jojo Wollacott broke a finger in the warmup ahead of a game with English club side Charlton Athletic this weekend while backup Richard Ofori has a knee injury. That means

By JAMES ROBSON AP Soccer Writer MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Cristiano Ronaldo’s explosive TV interview with Piers Morgan seems certain to end his Manchester United career. It is hard to see a way back for the 37-year-old forward, who said he does not respect manager Erik ten Hag and feels “betrayed” by the club. The

By MASHA MACPHERSON and THOMAS ADAMSON Associated Press PARIS (AP) — The mascots for the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics have been revealed — a Phrygian cap. The soft red cap, also known as a liberty cap, is an updated version of a conical hat worn in antiquity in places such as Persia, the Balkans,