Texas-Tide offers glimpse of future

Alabama and Texas will someday meet as Southeastern Conference rivals, bidding for supremacy against one another within the league. Just not quite yet. The 11th-ranked Longhorns (1-0), who are on their last go-around in the Big 12 Conference before joining the SEC next season, will visit third-ranked Alabama (1-0) on Saturday night in a game that has everything but the league stakes. The winner should enter or remain firmly in the national championship conversation, while the loser should remain among the favorites in its conference. Either way, it’s certainly a better barometer for where both teams stand than their blowout openers. Texas is hitting the road after last week’s 37-10 home win against Rice in Austin, while the Crimson Tide are in Tuscaloosa for the second straight Saturday after a 56-7 win against Middle Tennessee State. “It’s a great opportunity for our team to see kind of where you’re at as a football team,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “Everybody wonders that all the time.” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian, 14-12 through two-plus seasons with the Longhorns, is trying to restore his proud program to its glory days as a national contender. He has been to the heights before, having served as Saban’s offensive coordinator during the Tide’s run to the national championship for the 2020 season. Sarkisian emphasized the key Saturday night is in the preparation “to put yourself in position to win.” His Longhorns nearly pulled off an upset of the Tide last season in Austin before falling 20-19 on a field goal with 10 seconds left. Texas tight end JT Sanders said last year’s close call “was definitely a confidencebuilder.” The Longhorns, who are 3-6 in true road games under Sarkisian, would like to get more than that out of this one — but they are well aware it could swing far in the other direction if they’re not prepared. “If we don’t come out there with the right mindset,” Sanders said, “we’re definitely going to get whipped.”

BASKETBALL

›

MANILA, Philippines — There will be no gold medal for the United States at this World Cup. And for the second consecutive time in FIBA’s biggest tournament, there might not be any medal at all for the Americans. Instead, it’s Germany on the cusp of a world championship. Andreas Obst had 24 points, Franz Wagner added 22 and Germany scored more than any team ever has against a U.S. basketball team featuring NBA players, earning a 113-111 win in Friday’s World Cup semifinals. Germany led for 30 of the game’s 40 minutes, the U.S. led for about 4 1/2, and there was little question who was controlling play much of the way. Anthony Edwards scored 23 points to lead the U.S., which shot 58% but let Germany shoot 58% as well, and that was the Americans’ ultimate undoing. “This team is very worthy of winning a championship,” U.S. coach Steve Kerr said. “And we just didn’t get it done.” No, it didn’t, and now questions will fly once again. USA Basketball has been talking for years about how the continuity of top international teams has closed what was once a sizable gap between the Americans and the rest of the world. The U.S. has won the past four Olympic titles, but now it’s two straight World Cups with no gold for the most historically successful program on the planet. Germany — the last unbeaten team left in the tournament at 7-0 — will face Serbia (6-1) in the championship final Sunday, after the U.S. (5-2) takes on Canada (5-2) in the bronze medal matchup earlier in the day. Serbia beat Canada 95-86 in the first semifinal Friday, getting to its second World Cup title game in a run of three tournaments; Serbia lost 129-92 to the U.S. in 2014 to finish second.

BASEBALL

› WASHINGTON — Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler will not return to the majors this season as he continues his recovery from Tommy John surgery. Buehler, who had previously undergone elbow ligament replacement surgery in 2015, had aimed to return this month to L.A., which has the second-best record in the National League — behind the MLB-leading Atlanta Braves — and owns a double-digit lead atop the NL West Division standings with the regular season in its final weeks. In a statement released by the team on Friday, the 29-year-old righthander said that “after many conversations with my doctor, the Dodgers’ front office, training staff and my family, we concluded that waiting until next season is the right course of action.” A two-time All-Star who is 46-16 with 3.02 ERA in 115 career appearances, Buehler has not pitched in the majors since June 10, 2022. He threw two scoreless innings in a rehabilitation appearance Sunday for Triple-A Oklahoma City, his first outing since having surgery on Aug. 23, 2022.