Indiana hires Dayton’s Miller
On Saturday, less than 24 hours after UCLA’s Steve Alford pulled his name out of the Indiana sweepstakes, the Hoosiers hired Archie Miller from Dayton. Miller replaces Tom Crean, who was fired March 16 after missing the NCAA tournament five times in nine seasons.
Miller, the 38-year-old younger brother of Arizona Coach Sean Miller, put together a solid track record in six seasons with the Flyers — earning four straight NCAA tournament bids, winning 24 games in each of those seasons and claiming the last two Atlantic 10 regular-season titles.
Joakim Noah of the New York Knicks was suspended 20 games without pay for violating the league’s anti-drug policy. He tested positive for a substance found in some over-the-counter supplements, the league said Saturday.
Noah has not played since Feb. 4 and was likely to miss the Knicks’ final 10 games this season because of a left knee injury. The NBA said Noah’s suspension will begin with the first regular-season or playoff game for which he is “eligible and physically able to play.”
At minimum, that means the suspension will carry over into at least the first 10 games of next season and probably longer, since Noah is not currently able to play.
Venezuela’s Jorge Linares knocked down Anthony Crolla in the seventh round and beat him by unanimous decision for the second time in six months to keep the WBA lightweight title at Manchester, England. Linares (42-3) hasn’t lost in five years.
Roger Federer won his opening match at the Miami Open, returning to the tournament after a two-year absence and beating 19-year-old American qualifier Frances Tiafoe, 7-6 (2), 6-3.
Stan Wawrinka, seeded No. 1 in an ATP Masters 1000 tournament for the first time, easily won his opening match against Horacio Zeballos, 6-3, 6-4. Wawrinka lost only 13 points in his 10 service games.
Cory Abbott pitched the first perfect game in Loyola Marymount history in a 2-0 victory over Brigham Young. The junior struck out 13 of 27 batters and threw 106 pitches, including 79 strikes, for the Lions (13-10, 4-2 West Coast Conference).
Cristiano Ronaldo teamed up with rising talent Andre Silva to score twice and lead Portugal past Hungary, 3-0, in World Cup qualifying. With 70 career goals in 137 appearances for Portugal, Ronaldo moved to fourth on Europe’s all-time list, behind Miroslav Klose (71), Sandor Kocsis (75) and Ferenc Puskas (84).
In other European qualifying, teenager Matthijs de Ligt’s dream debut for the Netherlands quickly turned into a nightmare as he handed Bulgaria an early goal in a 2-0 defeat for the Dutch, and Andorra’s 0-0 draw with Faroe Islands ended its run of 58 competitive defeats.
Justin Pitts scored 23 points and Northwest Missouri State defeated Fairmont State, 71-61, in the NCAA Division II championship game.