Smart leaves Texas to take over Marquette

Shaka Smart is leaving Texas to coach Marquette.

Marquette announced the hiring Friday. It comes a week after Marquette fired Steve Wojciechowski and Smart’s Texas team was upset 53-52 by Abilene Christian in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Smart, who turns 44 on April 8, will be formally introduced at a Monday news conference. His decision to head north ends a six-season tenure at Texas that fell short of the lofty expectations that accompanied his arrival.

Smart went 109-86 with no NCAA Tournament victories at Texas after a remarkably successful six-year run at VCU, where he went 163-56 and led the Rams to a Final Four appearance in 2011. Texas went 19-8 this season and won the Big 12 Tournament.

MLB: Twins bench coach Mike Bell, the younger brother of Reds manager David Bell, died Friday of kidney cancer. He was 46. At the request of

Bell’s family to take the field in his honor, the Twins said their exhibition game against the Braves would be played as scheduled.

NFL: The NFL is planning to expand its international presence with more games abroad in 2022 if the 17-game regular-season schedule is approved. Team owners meet next week and are expected to rubber stamp the additional game, while reducing the number of preseason contests to three per club. The additional games will be interconference, all of them in current home stadiums. But next year, the league would take four games from the conference and designate them to occur at neutral sites, almost certainly outside the United States.

NHL: The Sabres are welcoming a limited number of fans to attend four games next month. Fans will be allowed in if they have proof of being fully vaccinated 14 days before the game, or proof of a negative PCR COVID-19 test within three days of the game.