Brunson, Wilson win Wooden Awards
Jalen Brunson of national champion Villanova and A’ja Wilson of South Carolina won the John R. Wooden Award as national players of the year Friday night.
Brunson also claimed the Bob Cousy point guard of the year award, having averaged more than 18 points while helping Villanova win its second national title in three years. Brunson claimed a slew of honors, including The Associated Press player of the year.
Wilson helped South Carolina to its first title last year and averaged 22.6 points and 11.8 rebounds for the team this season before the Gamecocks lost to UConn in the NCAA regional finals. She was also the AP women’s player of the year and is expected to be the first pick in the upcoming WNBA draft.
Duke: Gary Trent Jr. says he’s leaving Duke after one year for the NBA draft. The freshman guard said in a statement he is in the process of hiring an agent.
Texas-Arlington: Hired Texas Tech assistant Chris Ogden as its coach. The former Texas player and assistant coach spent the past two years on Chris Beard’s staff at Texas Tech.
ODDS AND ENDS
Tennis: The United States has a big advantage in world rankings, and John Isner and Sam Querrey have given the Americans a 2-0 lead in the Davis Cup quarterfinals over Belgium. First, Isner beat Joris De Loore 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (8), 6-4, and Querrey followed by beating Ruben Bemelmans 6-1, 7-6 (5), 7-5 Friday night to put the U.S. a victory away from reaching the semifinals for the first time since 2012.
■ Saturday’s semifinals of the Volvo Car Open were postponed because of rain in Charleston, S.C. No. 5 seeded Julia Goerges of Germany and Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia, the eighth seed, were tied 4-all in the opening set when the match was postponed. The schedule today calls for seventh-seeded American Madison Keys to play No. 12 Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands, followed by the conclusion of the Goerges-Sevastova match.
Formula One: Sebastian Vettel is perfectly placed to strike another early blow to Lewis Hamilton’s title defense. The German driver took pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix, followed by Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen under desert floodlights Saturday. This setback follows Hamilton’s bitter disappointment in Australia two weeks ago, when he led the season-opening grand prix from the pole position only to finish second behind Vettel.
Soccer: Manchester City collapsed to Manchester United to lose 3-2 and missed out on securing the English Premier League in record time. For City, which had previously lost only once in the league this season at Liverpool, it was a first home defeat since December 2016. United reduced City’s lead to 13 points, but with six games remaining it seems inevitable City will win the title for the third time since 2012.