Tennessee hires former Marshall head coach Caldwell
Tennessee athletic director Danny White has moved quickly and gone outside the historic Lady Vols’ program in hiring Marshall coach Kim Caldwell as only its fourth head women’s basketball coach in the NCAA era.
White announced the hiring Sunday, within a couple of hours of the women’s national championship game. It’s a game the Lady Vols have not played in since 2008 when they won their eighth and last national title under Pat Summitt.
Caldwell will be introduced at a news conference Tuesday, wrapping up a search that started April 1 when White fired Kellie Harper after five seasons at her alma mater and a 108-52 record. She replaced Holly Warlick, promoted to replace Summitt and fired after going 172-67 in seven seasons.
Tennessee will pay Caldwell $750,000 in base pay a year through March 2029 under the memorandum of understanding signed Sunday morning.
Caldwell won the 2024 Maggie Dixon NCAA Division I Rookie Coach of the Year award for her work at Marshall, going 26-7 to earn the program’s second NCAA Tournament berth ever and first since 1997. She is 217-31 in eight seasons as a head coach.
Pro football
The Patriots are re-signing safety Kyle Dugger to a four-year contract, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press.
The new deal is worth a base salary of $58 million, which includes $32.5 million in guarantees, and has a maximum value of $66 million, according to the person who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because terms have not been announced. The deal was first reported by NFL Network.
Auto racing
William Byron took the lead with 73 laps to go and held onto it during a two-lap overtime finish to enhance Hendrick Motorsports’ celebration of its 40-year anniversary of its first victory in racing with a victory in the NASCAR Cup Series at Martinsville Speedway. Byron, the first of the contenders to pit under a green flag with 104 laps to go, moved to the front 31 laps later and was never threatened after getting the jump at the start of overtime. It was his third win this season, and his second on the 0.526-mile, paperclip shaped oval.
• Max Verstappen’s record-breaking dominance in Formula 1 resumed with his victory in the Japanese Grand Prix, leading almost the entire race on a sunny day in central Japan. Verstappen basically led from start to finish except briefly after a pit stop. He was followed across the finish line by Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez — 12.5 seconds behind — and Carlos Sainz of Ferrari. Sainz was 20 seconds off the pace.
Tennis
Danielle Collins followed her Miami Open title with the Charleston Open championship. Collins powered past 11th-ranked Daria Kasatkina for a 6-2, 6-1 victory, her career-best 13th straight match win as she became the first since Serena Williams in 2013 to follow a hard-court victory at Miami with one on the green clay of Charleston.
• Ben Shelton captured his second career ATP Tour title, outlasting defending champion Frances Tiafoe, 75, 4-6, 6-3, to win the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship.
Golf
Akshay Bhatia nearly celebrated too soon, hurting his left shoulder while pumping his arms on a 12-foot birdie to force a playoff. He recovered to make birdie on the first extra hole and win the Texas Open over hard-luck Denny McCarthy to earn a trip to the Masters.
• Nelly Korda won the TMobile Match Play to become the first LPGA Tour player in 16 years to win four straight starts, taking four of the first seven holes and going on to beat Leona Maguire 4 and 3 at Shadow Creek.
• Dean Burmester of South Africa won for the first time on the LIV Golf League by closing with a 4under 68 and beating Sergio Garcia in a playoff when the Spaniard hit into the water on the second extra hole at LIV Golf Miami.
• Steven Fisk birdied three of his last four holes for a 4-under 68, and then won with a par on the first extra hole to win the Club Car Championship at The Landings to win his first Korn Ferry Tour event.
Cycling
Dutch cycling star Mathieu Van der Poel broke away with 37 miles remaining to win the Paris-Roubaix cycling classic for the second straight year with a dominant performance. With his archrival Wout van Aert recovering from multiple injuries sustained at the Dwars door Vlaanderen race in late March, Van der Poel dominated the grueling 161-mile trek from its start in Compiègne to Roubaix in northern France.
Distance running
Ethopian runners Mulugeta Uma and Mestawut Fikir won the men’s and women’s Paris Marathon at their first attempt. He clocked a winning time of 2 hours, 5 minutes, 33 seconds and finished ahead of Kenyan pair Titus Kipruto (2:05.48) and 2021 champion Elisha Rotich (2:06.54). Fikir was pushed harder than Uma and only pulled ahead of countrywoman Enat Tirusew on the home stretch. Tirusew was right alongside her when Fikir casually looked at her watch and then darted away to win in 2:20:45, with Tirusew three seconds behind.