USA Basketball picks Grant Hill to replace Colangelo as director

Grant Hill helped the U.S. win Olympic gold in 1996. He would have been on the team again in 2000 if not for injury. And he was among the college kids who famously beat the first “Dream Team” in a scrimmage before the 1992 Olympics.

Now, USA Basketball is bringing him back.

Hill will become the men’s national team managing director following the Tokyo Olympics, USA Basketball said Saturday. He’ll replace the retiring Jerry Colangelo, in a move where one Basketball Hall of Famer takes over for another in the critical role of assembling teams that will compete for gold.

“It’s just an incredible opportunity, also an incredible challenge,” Hill said Saturday. “I had the good fortune of participating in international play — the Pan American Games, of course the Olympic team — and I have been a fan of Team USA going back to the 1984 Olympic team when I first started to fall in love with basketball. The more I thought about it, the more intrigued, excited and the more willing I was to roll up my sleeves and move forward with this awesome responsibility.”

Hill’s resume is elite. He played 19 NBA seasons, was an All-Star seven times — likely would have been more if not for the ankle problems that derailed his career — and made five AllNBA teams. At Duke, he helped the Blue Devils win national championships in 1991 and 1992.

Hill went into the Hall of Fame in 2018 and has worked as an NBA and college basketball analyst for Turner Sports for nearly a decade. And he’s part of the broadcast team for the men’s Final Four this weekend in Indianapolis, the sixth straight year he’s been on that crew.

Barty repeats as Miami champ

MIAMI » Ash Barty pushed a forehand winner into the open court as her opponent, Bianca Andreescu, laid on her back in the far corner, injured yet again. With that, the Miami Open final was decided.

Andreescu limped through 11 more points before she retired, crying, shaking her head and trailing 6-3, 4-0.

The No. 1-ranked Barty won her second successive Miami titley, and the Australian was already in control of the match when Andreescu turned her right foot while hitting a forehand and sprawled to the hard court. Barty hit one more shot to win the point, and play continued.

But during the ensuing changeover, a trainer taped Andreescu’s foot, and after another game the injury-plagued Canadian reluctantly called it quits.

“I really do feel for Bianca,” Barty said. “She has had such a rough trot with injuries in the past.”

Long shot Bourbonic, 72-1, pulls huge upset in Wood

OZONE PARK, N.Y. » Bourbonic, a 72-1 long shot, stormed from the rear entering the stretch to edge Dynamic One by a head to win the $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on Saturday and earn 100 points toward the Kentucky Derby.

The colt trained by Todd Pletcher entered the nine-horse Grade 2 field as the most experienced, with five starts, but was making his stakes debut. Bourbonic started from the No. 3 post and trailed the field entering the final turn before charging forward at the top of the stretch on the outside and past multiple horses before catching Dynamic One and nipping him at the wire.

Rock Your World rocks field in Santa Anita Derby

ARCADIA, CALIF. » Rock Your World won the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby by 4 1/4 lengths on Saturday over 4-5 favorite Medina Spirit, preventing Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert from earning his 10th win in the West Coast’s prep for the Kentucky Derby.

Ridden by Umberto Rispoli, Rock Your World ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.17 and paid $12.40, $4.60 and $3.40 at 5-1 odds. It was the 3-year-old colt’s dirt debut; he won his first two starts on turf for trainer John Sadler.

Baffert’s other entry, Defunded, finished fourth. Sadler’s other entry, Back Ring Luck, was eighth in the nine-horse field.

Oklahoma hires Loyola’s Moser

Porter Moser orchestrated one of the great underdog stories in sports in recent years, leading mid-major Loyola Chicago to two deep NCAA Tournament runs with the blessing of Sister Jean.

Moser’s teams won’t surprise anyone now.

Oklahoma hired Moser as its basketball coach following Lon Kruger’s retirement. Moser embraces the challenge of coaching at a Big 12 program that reached the Final Four in 2016 and has featured NBA talents Buddy Hield and Trae Young.

“I’ve always said there are reasons why you win,” Moser said in a statement. “If you look at the standards that the programs at Oklahoma have set, there are reasons why they’ve won. The coaches, infrastructure and community are all championship caliber. You just want to be a part of that. To play in a premier league like the Big 12 and be a part of this championship culture excites me.”

Kruger led the Sooners to a 195128 record in 10 years and reached seven of the past eight NCAA Tournaments. In Kruger’s final season at Oklahoma, the Sooners went 16-11 and finished with a loss to top-seeded Gonzaga in the second round.

Moser praised Kruger and believes the foundation is set.

LYNNE SLADKY — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Ash Barty returns a shot to Bianca Andreescu during the finals at the Miami Open on Saturday. Barty won 6-3, 4-0, as Andreescu retired due to injury.