MORNING ROUNDUP
OKC Spark to play as independent pro softball team in 2024 season
The Oklahoma City Spark is leaving the Women’s Professional Fastpitch softball league after one season and will play as an independent team for the 2024 season, the team announced Wednesday night.
The Spark, which went 21-14 in its lone season in the WPF, will likely play national teams preparing for the 2028 Olympics, as well as another independent next season, team owner Tina Floyd told D1Softball on Thursday.
“I look at this as a turning point for pro softball,” Floyd said, citing the need to grow the sport.
“Pro softball has been trying to get this momentum for so long. ... It took the WNBA 14 times to get it right. This is not an easy thing to create and to get the right players at the table at the right seats.
“To see softball keep going through a regrowth, a rebranding, I think we’re getting close though. I think we’re getting close though. I think we’re getting to where we can all be on the same page and all play together.”
Regardless of which teams the Spark will face, Floyd said the team will continue playing home games at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium after the Women’s College World Series concludes in early June.
Key players Jocelyn Alo and Sydney Sherrill are also set to return to the Spark in 2024.
“The gang will be back together next summer,” Floyd said.
RJ Davis scores 23 points, No. 11 UNC knocks off unbeaten No. 7 OU
RJ Davis was left off the All-Atlantic Coast Conference preseason team.
The senior is proving that was a big oversight.
Davis scored 23 points, Armando Bacot added 14 points and eight rebounds and No. 11 North Carolina handed seventh-ranked Oklahoma its first loss of the season 81-69 on Wednesday night at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C.
Cormac Ryan had 13 points and Harrison Ingram added 11 for the Tar Heels (8-3), who snapped a two-game losing streak.
Otega Oweh had 23 points and Javian McCollum had 14 for Oklahoma (10-1), which never led. The Sooners’ loss leaves No. 3 Houston, No. 20 James Madison and No. 25 Ole Miss as the only unbeaten teams in Division I basketball.
The Sooners cracked The Associated Press Top 10 this week for the first time since February 2021, but struggled from the onset in their first meeting with North Carolina since a 72-60 loss in the Elite Eight of the 2009 NCAA Tournament.
Extra points
COLLEGES: Florida State will hold a board of trustees meeting Friday and The Associated Press has confirmed that the future of the athletic department and its affiliation with the Atlantic Coast Conference will be discussed. Florida State leaders are unhappy with the ACC, where revenue distribution lags far behind payouts by the Southeastern Conference and Big Ten. The ACC is locked into a media rights deal for more than a decade. Any school wanting to leave would have to challenge details of that deal and pay more than $100 million as an exit fee.
NFL: New York Jets quarterback Zach Wilson remained in the concussion protocol Thursday and hasn’t participated in practice this week. It makes it more likely Trevor Siemian will start Sunday against the Washington Commanders. Offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett certainly sounded as though he was preparing to have Siemian under center when he talked about getting Siemian comfortable in practice. Wilson was injured in the first half of the Jets’ 30-0 loss at Miami last Sunday before Siemian replaced him. Siemian would become the fourth quarterback to start for the Jets this season. It would mark only the second time in franchise history they have used that many in one season.
—Staff and wire reports