USF calls it a season after 21-win Dons left out of NIT mix
After three consecutive 20-win seasons, USF’s basketball program decided it’s no longer settling for a thirdor fourth-tier postseason tournament.
The Dons would have joined NCAA Tournament-bound Saint Mary’s as the only Bay Area teams invited to play in a tournament, but glumly decided Sunday night they wouldn’t accept a bid to play in either the CBI (College Basketball Invitational) or the CIT (CollegeInsider.com Tournament).
USF (21-10) felt it deserved to be selected Sunday for the National Invitational Tournament and didn’t want to settle for anything less.
“The disappointment of not getting an invitation to the NIT is a testament to how far the program has come so quickly,” said Dons coach Kyle Smith, who is the first coach in program history to win 20 games in each of his first three seasons.
A 12-1 start had USF dreaming of making it to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 21 years, but the Dons faltered and ultimately finished at 21-10 and in fourth place in the West Coast Conference.
Smith’s Dons have played in the pay-to-play CBI the past two seasons, including last year when USF lost a best-of-3 championship series to North Texas. Unlike the NCAA and NIT tournaments, teams participating in the 16-team CBI have to pay a $50,000 entry fee.
Colleges
CAL’S SANDOVAL RETIRING >> Tony Sandoval, a fixture with Cal track & field over the past 37 years, announced he is retiring after the outdoor season.
“It’s been an honor and pleasure to coach and mentor at the University of California, Berkeley,” said Sandoval, who has coached numerous All-Americans, national champions and Olympians at Cal. “Just as I knew when it was time to hang up my spikes as a collegiate runner, I know it is now time to give up my stopwatch and pass the baton onto someone else to serve this great university. Go Bears!”
Sandoval has served as Cal’s Director of Track & Field and Cross Country the past 12 years. He arrived at Cal as the head coach of the women’s team in 1982 and served in that capacity for nine years before the men’s
and women’s teams combined.
The men finished in the top 25 for three consecutive seasons from 200911. The women finished in the top 20 of the NCAA Outdoor Championship three times between 1987 and 1990.
Baseball
KERSHAW’S OPENING DAY STREAK WILL END >> For the first time since 2010, Clayton Kershaw won’t be the Opening Day starter for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The left-handed Kershaw was ruled out of the March 28 opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks due to the persistent shoulder inflammation he has dealt with all spring. He has yet to pitch in a spring training game.
Kershaw has started a club-record eight straight openers. The last Opening Day starter for the Dodgers not named Kershaw was Vicente Padilla in 2010.
BRAVES TAB TEHERAN FOR SIXTH STRAIGHT OPENER >> Atlanta Braves right-hander Julio Teheran is set to make his sixth consecutive Opening Day start, which would tie him with Hall of Famer Warren Spahn for the longest modern-day streak in franchise history.
Spahn opened six seasons in a row from 1957 to 1962, when the team was in Milwaukee. Teheran’s Opening Day streak is now the longest current one in the majors.
PEDROIA HEADED TO IL >> Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia will not break camp with the team and instead will begin the 2019 season on the injured list and play extended spring training games to build strength in his surgically repaired left knee.
NBA
NOWITZKI PASSES WILT >> Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki knocked down his first two jumpers on Monday night against the New Orleans Pelicans to pass Wilt Chamberlain for the No. 6 spot on the NBA’s alltime scoring list.
He entered the game needing four points to pass Chamberlain, who scored 31,419 career points. Nowitzki spent several years as the sixth-leading scorer in NBA history before LeBron James passed him, Chamberlain and Michael Jordan earlier this season.
Football
NGATA HAS MESSAGE FROM THE MOUNTAIN TOP >> Defensive lineman Haloti Ngata went to great lengths - rather heights - to announce his retirement. The 13-year-NFL veteran posted a photo on Instagram showing him standing atop Mount Kilimanjaro holding a banner that read, “I’m retiring from the NFL on top.”
“Just a man standing on top of the world with a heart full of gratitude. Thank you Lord for letting play the game I love for 13 unforgettable years,” his social media post read, in part.
Ngata, 35, was a two-time All-Pro who played in five Pro Bowls and won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens in 2013.
BORTLES SIGNS WITH RAMS >> The Los Angeles Rams added an experienced backup quarterback, agreeing with former Jacksonville Jaguars starter Blake Bortles on a one-year contract. Bortles, 26, gives the defending NFC champions an experienced starter behind Jared Goff as the team moves on from former backup Sean Mannion, the Pleasanton product who is an unrestricted free agent.
MMA
ESPN+ GETS UFC DEAL >> The streaming digital sports service ESPN+ will become the exclusive distributor of pay-per-view events for the Ultimate Fighting Championship in the United States, the companies announced. The events will begin on April 13.