News+Notes: UNC coach Williams retiring,
North Carolina announced Thursday that Hall of Fame basketball coach Roy Williams is retiring after a 33-year career that includes three national championships.
The decision comes two weeks after the 70-year-old Williams closed his 18th season with the Tar Heels after a highly successful run at Kansas. In all, Williams won 903 games in a career that included those three titles, all with the Tar Heels, in 2005, 2009 and 2017.
The Tar Heels lost to Wisconsinin the first round of the NCAA Tournament in his final game, which was Williams’ only first-round loss in 30 tournaments.
Williams spent 10 seasons at his alma mater as an assistant coach to late mentor Dean Smith before leaving to take over the Jayhawks program in 1988. He spent 15 seasons there, taking Kansas to four Final Fours and two national title games.
CUNNINGHAM TO ENTER NBA DRAFT » Cade Cunningham announced that he will enter the NBA draft after a dynamic freshman season that saw him named a firstteam AP All-American.
The 6-foot-8 point guard is expected to be a high pick — possibly No. 1 overall. Cunningham won the Wayman Tisdale Award as the top freshman in college basketball. He led the Big 12 in scoring with 20.2 points per game.
IOWA’S GARZA NAMED AP MEN’S COLLEGE PLAYER OF THE YEAR » Iowa senior Luka Garza was named The Associated Press’ men’s college basketball national player of the year after finishing second last season. He was the runaway choice for the award, receiving 50 of 63 votes from AP Top 25 voters.
Ayo Dosunmu, who led Illinois to the Big Ten Tournament title and a No. 1 NCAA seed, was second with six votes, followed by Oklahoma State freshman Cade Cunningham with three. Gonzaga’s Corey Kispert and Baylor’s Jared Butler each earned two votes.
Garza ranked second nationally by averaging 24.1 points with 8.7 rebounds. MICHIGAN’S HOWARD NAMED AP COLLEGE COACH OF THE YEAR » Michigan’s Juwan Howard was named The Associated Press’ men’s college basketball coach of the year, receiving 35 of 63 votes from a national media panel. Gonzaga’s Mark Few was second with 16 votes, and Baylor’s Scott Drew and Alabama’s Nate Oats each received five.
The Wolverines reached as high as No. 2 in the AP Top 25 and finished No. 4 aftera19-3regularseason. BEARD LEAVING FOR TEXAS » The athletic director at Texas Tech said that men’s basketball coach Chris Beard has informed the school he is taking the job at Texas.
Beard led the Red Raiders to an NCAA Tournament runner-up finish two seasons ago. At Texas, he will replace Shaka Smart, who left after six seasons for Marquette after failing to lead the Longhorns past the first round of the tournament in three appearance.
Pro football
SPANOS’ SISTER PETITIONS COURT TO FORCE CHARGERS’ SALE»
The sister of Los Angeles Chargers controlling owner Dean Spanos is petitioning a California court to put one-third of the team’s ownership stake up for sale.
Dea Spanos Berberian filed a petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court contending that mounting debt from the franchise is creating an estimated yearly loss of at least $11 million for the family trust.
According to the petition, the trust had debts and expenses of $353 million as of Sept. 30. Nearly half of that ($164,778,931) is due to the trust’s investment in the Chargers. The trust’s stake in the Chargers makes up 83% of its holdings.
Tennis
BARTY RETURNS TO MIAMI OPEN FINAL »
Defending champion Ash Barty returned to the final of the Miami Open by beating No. 5-seeded Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-3.
On Saturday, Barty will play the winner of the second semifinal between No. 8 Bianca Andreescu and No. 23 Maria Sakkari.
On the men’s side, Hubert Hurkacz of Poland earned his first semifinal berth in a top-level ATP event by rallying past No. 2-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.