Miller, No. 2 Alabama win in OT
Embattled Brandon Miller scored a career-high 41 points, including the goahead layup with 0.9 seconds left in overtime, as visiting No. 2 Alabama outlasted South Carolina 78-76 on Wednesday night.
Miller's performance came a day after the 6-foot-9 freshman standout was linked to a fatal shooting near campus last month. However, hours before tipoff, Alabama said Miller was “not a suspect” and would remain an “active member” for the Crimson Tide (24-4, 14-1 SEC).
Miller's final basket in regulation, with 4.1 seconds to play, tied the game at 68 and forced the extra period. Miller finished 14 of 25 from the field and had six of Alabama's seven 3-pointers.
It was a wild finish to an eventful day when Alabama officials announced hours before tipoff Miller would travel and play against the Gamecocks despite testimony he transported the gun used in a fatal shooting to former teammate Darius Miles, now one of two people facing capital murder charges.
Miller's attorney said his client never touched the gun and drove away from the scene when shots were fired.
The game appeared to be the biggest of mismatches with Alabama rolling toward a No. 1 seed in the SEC and NCAA tournaments, and South Carolina (10-17, 3-11) having lost its previous seven conference games at home.
NO. 1 HOUSTON 89, TULANE 59 >> J'Wan Roberts had 26 points and seven rebounds, Marcus Sasser scored 22 points and the host Cougars clinched at least a share of the AAC regularseason championship.
Houston (26-2, 14-1) has won eight straight games.
Jalen Cook scored 23 points for Tulane (17-8, 104), which saw its five-game winning streak snapped. BOSTON COLLEGE 63, NO. 6 VIRGINIA 48 >> Makai Ashton-Langford scored 16 points and the host Eagles (14-15, 8-10 ACC) held the Cavaliers to a season-low 32% from the field.
Jayden Gardner scored 16 points for Virginia (21-5, 13-4), which had won four in a row and 11 of its previous 12 games. hope to pick a 30th team by the end of the year.
Garber was speaking Wednesday during a kickoff event in New York at the league's new television studio built together with Apple TV.
MLS has nearly tripled in size from 2004, when it was a 10-team league. St. Louis, the 29th team, starts play Saturday at Austin.
“We do need more teams. The 30th team will come at some point soon. We'd like to get that announced by the end of the year,” Garber said. “We say we're going to stop at 30 but the other major leagues are larger than that. There are many other markets that are opportunities for us. I think San Diego and Las Vegas are the most likely opportunities for 30.”
He mentioned Detroit, Phoenix, Sacramento and Tampa as other possibilities.
MLS is expanding its playoffs to include the nine top finishers from each of its two conferences, 62% of the league's teams.
An opening “wild card” round will feature matches between the eighth- and ninth-seeded teams in the Eastern and Western conferences.
The first round will be a best-of-three series, with the top finisher in each conference facing the winner of the wild-card match. The second seed will play the seventh, No. 3 will play No. 6 and No. 4 will play No. 5.
The conference semifinals, finals and MLS Cup championship will all be single games, hosted by the higher seed.
There will be a maximum of 33 postseason games, up from 13 last year.
In the previous format, only the top seven teams from each conference made the playoffs. The top seeds each had a first-round bye to the conference semifinals.
Former college coach Taggart joining Ravens
The Baltimore Ravens hired former Florida Atlantic, Oregon and Florida State head coach Willie Taggart as their running backs coach, their first staff tweak under new offensive coordinator Todd Monken.
Craig Ver Steeg coached the Ravens' running backs in 2021 and 2022, when the team finished third and second in rushing, respectively, under previous offensive coordinator Greg Roman. Ver Steeg has been on coach John Harbaugh's staff since 2008 and could shift to a different role.
Taggart, 46, played quarterback and coached for Harbaugh's father, Jack, at Western Kentucky and then served as quarterbacks coach for Jim Harbaugh at Stanford from 2007 to 2009. From there, he returned to Western Kentucky as head coach. He jumped to South Florida in 2013, Oregon in 2017, and Florida State in 2018. He was fired in November 2019 after going 9-12 with the Seminoles but resurfaced at Florida Atlantic in 2020, going 1518 in three seasons there. He's 71-80 overall as a college head coach.
• The Tennessee Titans released three-time Pro Bowl left tackle Taylor Lewan for a failed physical and also released veteran wide receiver Robert Woods and kicker Randy Bullock.
Woods, the former Serra High and USC star, was acquired from the Rams last offseason and led the Titans with 53 catches for 527 yards with two TDs. He started 15 games, but was due $13.7 million in base salary with a cap hit of $14.6 million. His release cost the Titans only $2.6 million in dead cap money.
Woods, who turns 31 in April, wrote on social media “Free” after being released.
• New Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon has added 29-year-old Nick Rallis as the team's defensive coordinator.
Gannon and Rallis know each other well, working together on the Philadelphia Eagles' staff over the past two seasons. Gannon was the defensive coordinator while Rallis was the linebackers coach.
Together, they helped craft an Eagles defense that was among the best in the NFL as the team reached the Super Bowl.
The Eagles led the NFL with a franchise singleseason record 70 sacks.
Rallis inherits a Cardinals defense that has some good young players, including two-time All-Pro safety Budda Baker.
Gannon said that Rallis, who played at Minnesota and was previously an assistant at Wake Forest and with the Vikings, will call the defensive plays.
Sabalenka remains unbeaten this year
Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka improved to 13-0 this year with a 2-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory over Jelena Ostapenko to reach the quarterfinals of the Dubai Championships.
The second-ranked Sabalenka will next face Barbora Krejcikova, who beat fellow Czech player Petra Kvitova 6-3, 6-2.
Earlier, top-ranked Iga Swiatek reached the quarterfinals by beating Liudmila Samsonova 6-1, 6-0.
The 21-year-old Pole was then issued a walkover to the semifinals after former No. 1 Karolina Pliskova withdrew because of an illness. Pliskova had advanced to the quarterfinals by defeating Anhelina Kalinina 7-5, 6-7 (6), 6-2 in the round of 16.
Swiatek, a three-time Grand Slam champion, has won her last five matches including the successful defense of her Qatar Open title last week.
Swiatek will face the winner of the all-American quarterfinal match between Madison Keys and Coco Gauff.
Keys beat Victoria Azarenka 6-2, 6-1, and the 18-year-old Gauff advanced after Australian Open runner-up Elena Rybakina withdrew from their scheduled match because of a lower back injury.
• Thomas Bellucci, Brazil's main flagbearer on the men's tennis tour for the last decade, has retired after losing in straight sets to sixth-seeded Sebastian Baez 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of the Rio Open.
Belluci is now preparing to transition into coaching.
The 35-year-old Bellucci won 200 professional matches, lifted four titles and reached a career-high No. 21 in the ATP rankings. He's one of the five players to win a set 6-0 against Novak Djokovic on clay. He beat Top 10 players six times in his career, including then No. 4-ranked Andy Murray at the Madrid Open in 2011.
PGA, LPGA set for mixed team event
PGA Tour and LPGA Tour players will compete for a $4 million purse on network television as the tournament long known as the Shark Shootout becomes a mixed team event this year with 16 teams.
The tours formally announced the change Wednesday, with Grant Thornton serving as the title sponsor.
The Grant Thornton Invitational will be Dec. 8-10 at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida.
The event began in 1989 as the Shark Shootout, and in recent years it has added LPGA Tour players to the field. Other unofficial events, such as the CVS Charity Classic in Rhode Island, also included women.
But this will be the first fully mixed event since the final edition of the JC Penney Classic in 1999 won by John Daly and Laura Davies.
MEN
AP TOP 25
Wednesday's results
No. 1 Houston 89, Tulane 59
No. 2 Alabama 78, South Carolina 76 Boston College 63, No. 6 Virginia 48 No. 18 UConn 87, No. 20 Providence 69
Today's games
No. 4 UCLA at Utah, 8 p.m.
No. 12 Gonzaga vs. San Diego, 8 p.m.
No. 15 Saint Mary's (Cal.) vs. Pacific, 7 p.m. No. 21 Northwestern at Illinois, 6 p.m.
WOMEN
AP TOP 25
Wednesday's results
Oklahoma St. 73, No. 20 Iowa St. 68 Nebraska 90, No. 25 Illinois 57
Today's games
No. 1 South Carolina at Tennessee, 4 p.m. No. 3 Stanford at No. 21 Colorado, 2 p.m. No. 5 LSU at Vanderbilt, 4:30 p.m.
No. 8 Utah vs. Cal, 4 p.m.
No. 9 Virginia Tech at No. 22 North Carolina, 5 p.m.
No. 10 Notre Dame vs. Georgia Tech, 3 p.m. No. 11 Duke vs. NC State, 5 p.m.
No. 12 Michigan vs. Rutgers, 4 p.m.
No. 14 Arizona at Oregon, 7 p.m.
No. 17 UCLA vs. Washington St., 6 p.m. No. 18 Gonzaga at San Diego, 6 p.m.
No. 23 Florida St. at Wake Forest, 3 p.m. No. 24 UNLV vs. Utah St., 6:30 p.m.
Due to unprecedented winter conditions forecast for Southern California through this weekend, Santa Anita Park has cancelled Saturday and Sunday's racing programs prior to entries being taken for either day. The track had already called off the Friday racing card, which was a makeup day not originally on the calendar.
Blizzard warnings have been issued for the San Gabriel Mountains behind the historic track, with snowfall expected at the 1,000 foot level. The storm, which is expected to begin late this
ATP-RIO OPEN
At Jockey Club Brasileiro, Rio de Janeiro Purse:
$2,013,940
MEN'S SINGLES
Round of 32
Dusan Lajovic, Serbia, def. Diego Schwartzman (5), Argentina, 6-1, 6-4 Bernabe Zapata Miralles, Spain, def. Jaume Munar, Spain, 6-3, 7-5. Sebastian Baez (6), Argentina, def. Thomaz Bellucci, Brazil, 6-3, 6-2.
MEN'S SINGLES
Round of 16
Hugo Dellien, Bolivia, def. Alex Molcan (9), Slovakia, 1-6, 6-2, 6-2. Cameron Norrie (2), Britain, def. Thiago Monteiro, Brazil, 7-5, 7-5.
WTA-MERIDA OPEN AKRON
At Yucatan Country Club, Merida, Mexico Purse:
$259,303
WOMEN'S SINGLES
Round of 16
Kimberly Birrell, Australia, def. Wang Xiyu, China, 6-3, 6-2. Caty McNally, United States, def. Katie Volynets, United States, 6-3, 6-0. Camila Giorgi, Italy, def. Nuria Parrizas Diaz, Spain, 7-6 (5), 6-2. Elisabetta Cocciaretto (7), Italy, def. Wang Xinyu, China, 6-4, 6-2.