Pitino calls for delayed start
Iona coach Rick Pitino is calling for a delayed start to the college basketball season as COVID-19 cases rise across the country.
“Save the Season,” Pitino tweeted on Saturday. “Move the start back. Play league schedule and have May Madness. Spiking and protocols make it impossible to play right now.”
NCAA vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt said this week that he’s fully confident there will be a season, but an increase in coronavirus cases have led to multiple cancellations in football and caused uncertainty about basketball.
Many schools are still trying to fill out schedules with the season set to start on Nov. 25.
In other college news:
• Texas picked up a verbal commitment from Shadow Creek four-star linebacker Terrence Cooks II.
The 2021 prospect is the nation’s No. 20 outside linebacker and the state’s No. 46 prospect, per 247Sports composite rankings. Baylor, Georgia and LSU also showed considerable interested in the 6foot-2, 210-pound linebacker, and he currently holds at least 35 scholarship offers from schools around the nation.
Cooks was named a District 10-5A D-I secondteam selection at as a junior after helping Shadow Creek go 16-0 and capture a state championship. Cooks last season ranked second on the team with 70 total tackles and three forced fumbles.
Cooks is the 18th player to pledge to the Longhorns’ 2021 signing class, which also includes Arlington Martin four-star outside linebacker Morice Blackwell (No. 22 OLB).
NBA Cheeks named Bulls assistant
Hall of Famer Maurice Cheeks is returning to his hometown to serve as an assistant under new coach Billy Donovan, the Chicago Bulls announced.
Cheeks, who grewup on Chicago’s South Side, was on Donovan’s staff in Oklahoma City the past five seasons. The Bulls hired Donovan in September to replace the fired
Jim Boylen.
A steady point guard who won a championship playing alongside Julius Erving and Moses Malone in Philadelphia, Cheeks spent most of his 15-year playing career with the 76ers. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2018.
Cheeks compiled a record of 305-315 as the head coach of the Detroit Pistons, the Sixers and Portland Trail Blazers.
NFL Bills’ Norman tests positive
Buffalo Bills cornerback Josh Norman has tested positive for COVID-19 and will be one of four players and one assistant coach not traveling with the team for its game at Arizona on Sunday.
The team also ruled out tight end Tyler Kroft, cornerback LeviWallace and safety Dean Marlowe by placing them on the reserve-COVID-19 list. The three were deemed to have been in close contact with Norman.
Defensive assistant coach Leonard Johnson also will not travel with the team.
In other news:
• Chicago running back David Montgomery has been declared out for Monday night’s game against Minnesota, due to the concussion he suffered in the second half of Sunday’s loss to Tennessee. Montgomery has not been cleared to return to practice and will miss the first game of his career on Monday.
The Bears have also declared quarterback Mitch Trubisky (shoulder), defensive lineman John Jenkins (ankle) and defensive back Sherrick McManis (finger) out.
• The Packers have activated linebacker Christian Kirksey from injured reserve and placed tight end/fullback John Lovett on IR.
Kirksey missed Green Bay’s last five games with a pectoral injury. He ranks fifth on the team with 27 tackles despite having played in less than half of the Packers’ eight games.
• The Vikings waived guard Pat Elflein, in the middle of another injuryimpacted season for a player who started 43 games over four years at three positions on the offensive line.
MOTOR SPORTS Stroll takes pole at Turkish GP
Lance Stroll took the first pole position of his Formula One career at a rain-soaked and chaotic qualifying session for the Turkish Grand Prix at Istanbul.
The Canadian driver placed .3 seconds ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who looked certain to take pole after topping the first two sections of qualifying and had the leading time in Q3 when his team aborted the lap to switch him from wet tires to intermediate tires.
The move backfired and Verstappen was left feeling bitter and angry at the call, using an expletive over the team radio to describe the tires.
On a strong day for Racing Point, Stroll’s teammate Sergio Perez was third, while Red Bull’s Alexander Albon finished fourth ahead of Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo.
It was a miserable day for Mercedes, with championship leader Lewis
Hamilton qualifying sixth and teammate Valtteri
Bottas only ninth. Hamilton only needs to finish ahead of Bottas on Sunday to clinch his seventh F1 title and equal
Michael Schumacher’s record.
In other news:
• Jim Pace, the overall winner of the 1996 24 Hours of Daytona, has died after contracting COVID-19. He was 59.
Pace’s family said he died Friday in Memphis.
TENNIS Sinner captures first ATP title
Italian player Jannik Sinner earned his maiden ATP title after beating Vasek Pospisil 6-4, 3-6,
7-6 (3) in the Sofia Open final at Sofia, Bulgaria.
At 19, Sinner became the youngest man to capture an ATP title in more than 12 years, after Kei Nishikori, then 18, in 2008 at Delray Beach. Sinner is the youngest player in the top 100, and will crack the top 40 for the first time in the rankings on Monday.
“It is special,” Sinner said. “Playing finals like this, 7-6 in the third … is always tough. But when you win, it is an even better win than winning 6-1 6-1.”
In other news:
• Top-seeds Aryna Sabalenka and Elise Mertens had three-set wins to advance to the final of the season-ending Upper Austria Ladies Linz at Linz, Austria.
Sabalenka outlasted Barbora Krejcikova 7-5, 4-6, 6-3, and Mertens rallied to defeat Ekaterina Alexandrova 2-6, 6-1, 7-5.
By reaching the final, Sabalenka will enter the top 10 of the WTA rankings for the first time, overtaking