Defending champ Stanford opens No. 3 in AP women’s hoops rankings
Stanford returns all but one player from last season’s NCAA national championship team, but the Cardinal will open the season No. 3 in the Associated Press Top 25 women’s basketball poll.
As they say, it’s not where you start, but where you finish. And Stanford knows this as well any anyone. Last season the Cardinal opened at No. 2 and spent a couple of weeks as low as No. 6, but none of that mattered when Tara VanDerveer and her players were cutting down the nets after the program’s third national championship and first since 1992. Now the Cardinal has a chance to become just the fourth school to win backto-back titles since the NCAA Tournament began in 1982.
Stanford has two returning all-Pac-12 players, Lexie Hull and Haley Jones, to anchor a deep squad bolstered by the sixth-ranked recruiting class, but the Cardinal will have its hands full in its title defense. South Carolina and Connecticut, the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the AP preseason poll, return their entire starting lineups and also had top-notch recruiting classes. The Cardinal was picked to win the Pac-12, but the conference figures to be tough as usual with four other teams ranked in the top 25 to start the season.
Stanford received five of the 29 first-place votes from a national panel of media. The Gamecocks received 14 and UConn got the other 10. South Carolina is ranked No. 1 for the second year in a row.
Maryland and North Carolina State rounded out the top five.
NFL
BROWNS STAR RB CHUBB TO MISS SECOND GAME >>The NFL’s top rushing team has run into major trouble.
Browns star back Nick Chubb will miss his second straight game with a calf injury, leaving Cleveland without its two best backs Thursday night against the Denver Broncos.
Chubb was ruled out Tuesday by coach Kevin Stefanski before practice. He also didn’t play against Arizona on Sunday, when running back Kareem Hunt suffered a calf injury that could sideline him for more than a month.
Hunt was placed on injured reserve — meaning he will miss at least three games — along with rookie linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah.
MLB
BOONE RETURNS BUT YANKEES DEMAND SUCCESS >> Aaron Boone will be back with the New York Yankees next year, their first manager since Miller Huggins in 1922 to return for a fifth season after failing to win a title during his first four.
A third-generation major leaguer who hit a pennant-winning home run for the Yankees in 2003, Boone led the team to a 328-218 record and four postseason appearances but just one AL East title.
“I think I can help lead us to the top. That’s why I’m here. That’s why I came back,” Boone said. “Ultimately, though, the proof will be in the pudding.”
NBA
76ERS SUSPEND SIMMONS 1
GAME >> Ben Simmons has been suspended by the Philadelphia 76ers for one game due to conduct detrimental to the team. Simmons will miss the 76ers’ season opener Wednesday night at New Orleans.
The three-time All-Star guard was a holdout in training camp in the wake of his offseason trade demand. He reported last week and practiced Sunday and Monday with the Sixers. He was scheduled to practice and talk to the media on Tuesday.
Simmons lingered outside the huddle, dribbled a basketball and looked uninterested during a team huddle at Monday’s practice, where he did not practice with the first team.