No. 1 Gonzaga averts upset, rallies to win WCC tourney title
Jalen Suggs hit two late 3-pointers and scored 23 points, helping the top-ranked Gonzaga men survive their biggest test of an undefeated season to beat Brigham Young 88-78 in the West Coast Conference Tournament title game on Tuesday night in Las Vegas.
The Bulldogs (26-0) had been unstoppable all season, winning all but one of their games by double digits as they advanced to the WCC title game for the 24th straight year.
The Cougars made the lopsided losses list twice, but exposed Gonzaga’s lone weakness in the first half at Orleans Arena: its defense.
BYU (20-6) shot confidently, using an early 11-0 run to build a 12-point halftime lead.
The Zags responded to their biggest halftime deficit in three years by locking down defensively and getting back to their efficient ways on offense.
Suggs took charge down the stretch, hitting consecutive 3-pointers to put Gonzaga up by nine with 1:28 left. Corey Kispert scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half.
Gonzaga has won a school-record 30 straight games over two seasons and will be the first team since Kentucky in 2015 and 16th overall to enter the NCAA Tournament undefeated. The Zags won their eighth WCC title in nine years and 17th under coach Mark Few.
Trevin Knell led the Cougars with 20 points.
BYU was the last team to beat Gonzaga, 91-78 on Feb. 22, 2020.
• No. 11 Kansas will be without starting center David McCormack for this week’s Big 12 Tournament due to COVID-19 protocols.
McCormack is averaging 13.4 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.
•Jill Townsend scored on a 15foot fadeaway jumper as time expired and No. 18 Gonzaga (23-3) rallied past second-seeded BYU (18-5) in the West Coast Conference women’s tournament championship game 43-42 to advance to the NCAA Tournament.
Townsend, one of three starters who did not start because of illness, came off a Jenn Wirth screen and just got the shot off over 6-foot-7 Sara Hamson for her only points of the game.
WRs Godwin, Robinson top franchise tag list
The big money that accompanies franchise tags for the 2021 season is going to receivers, safeties and linemen.
No running backs. No tight ends. No linebackers. And, with Dak Prescott reaching agreement with the Dallas Cowboys on a new four-year deal, no quarterbacks.
So wideouts Chris Godwin, who helped the Buccaneers win the Super Bowl, and Chicago’s Allen Robinson were tagged just before Tuesday’s NFL deadline. So were tackles Taylor Moton of Carolina and Cam Robinson of Jacksonville, and defensive tackle Leonard Williams of the New York Giants.
Previously announced as tagged players were safeties Marcus Maye of the New York Jets and Justin Simmons of the Denver Broncos, and All-Pro guard Brandon Scherff by Washington.
While none of them is in line for the $160 million, four-year contract — with a record $66 million signing bonus — that Prescott got, they all will bring home hefty paychecks.
Williams, the former USC standout, Scherff and Simmons were tagged for a second straight year. Barring their teams working out long-term deals by July 15, they will earn about $19 million, $18 million and $13.7 million, respectively.
Godwin and the veteran Allen Robinson will be paid approximately $16.4 million each in 2021.
The going rate for safeties under their first tag is around $10.5 million, which Maye will make. Moton and Cam Robinson will come in at about $14 million.
The 2021 salary cap has not been set yet, but it will decrease from $198.2 million to between $180 and $185 million due to lost revenues for the league during the coronavirus-impacted 2020 season. It is the first decrease in the cap.
• The Buccaneers are bringing back inside linebacker Lavonte David on a two-year, $25 million deal, multiple outlets reported.
David has started 137 out of a possible 144 regular-season games since the Buccaneers drafted him in the second round in 2012.
He has registered at least 100 tackles in eight of his nine seasons, including 117 stops in 2020.
• Offensive tackle Trent Brown will head back to the New England Patriots two years after signing a lucrative deal to join the Raiders.
A person familiar with the trade says the Raiders agreed to send Brown to New England and that Brown will rework his contract, which had two non-guaranteed years for $29.25 million remaining, to an $11 million, oneyear deal.
NFL Network first reported the trade that also includes a swap of 2022 draft picks, with the Raiders getting a fifth-rounder from New England and sending a seventhround pick back to the Patriots.
Brown was a prominent part of an expensive 2019 free agent class that didn’t work out for the Raiders. He signed a $66 million, four-year contract but missed 16 of 32 games and was limited to less than 10 snaps in two others.
• The Tennessee Titans released cornerback Malcolm Butler three years into the five-year deal he signed in March 2018.
Butler signed for more than $60 million in March 2018 after leaving New England as a free agent. He was due $11 million in base salary this season and $11.2 million in 2022. But Butler had the team’s third-highest salary cap hit at $14.2 million for this season.
The seven-year veteran started all 16 games last season and tied for the team lead with four interceptions. That tied his career high of four interceptions in 2016 with New England, and his most famous pick clinched the 2015 Super Bowl for the Patriots over Seattle.
• The Minnesota Vikings cleared more salary cap space by cutting veteran kicker Dan Bailey.
Bailey ranked last in the league in 2020 in field goals (68.2 percent) and extra points (86.0 percent), among kickers who appeared in 10 or more games. The 10-year veteran missed five field goals and five extra points over the final five games.
Longtime major league pitcher Cormier dies at 53
Rheal Cormier, the durable left-hander who spent 16 seasons in the majors and remarkably pitched in the Olympics before and after his time in the big leagues, died Monday. He was 53.
The Philadelphia Phillies said Cormier died of cancer at his home in New Brunswick, Canada.
Cormier was the winning pitcher in the final game that Philadelphia won at Veterans Stadium in 2003, and also was the winner in the first game the Phils won after moving into Citizens Bank Park in 2004.
Overall, he was 71-64 with two saves and a 4.03 ERA from 19912007 with St. Louis, Boston, Montreal, Philadelphia and Cincinnati.
A member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, Cormier pitched 683 games — among his countrymen, only Paul Quantrill (841) pitched more in the majors.
Three years before his big league debut, he pitched for Canada in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Then in 2008, a year after his final game in the majors, he again threw for Canada in the 2008 Beijing Games.
• New York Yankees lefthanded reliever Zack Britton needs arthroscopic surgery to remove a bone chip from his pitching elbow and seems certain to miss the start of the season.
Britton, 33, disclosed last weekend that he was recovering from COVID-19, which he contracted in January. He has not pitched in any exhibitions.
Britton, a two-time All-Star, was 1-2 with a 1.89 ERA and eight saves in 20 appearances during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. He filled in as closer when Aroldis Chapman was recovering from COVID-19.
Britton is entering his fourth full season with the Yankees and is starting the third season of a contract now worth $52 million over four years.
• Cleveland Indians third baseman José Ramírez and slugger Franmil Reyes rejoined their teammates at training camp after being banned for breaking COVID-19 protocols.
The players tested negative for the coronavirus and were back at the team’s facility in Goodyear, Arizona.
Ramírez and Reyes had been isolated at their temporary spring training homes since Saturday after they went out to dinner indoors, which violated virus guidelines set by Major League Baseball and the players’ union.
Former Alabama linebacker Kaho transferring to UCLA
Former Alabama linebacker Brandon ‘Ale’ Kaho announced his commitment to the UCLA football program Monday night.
He was a four-star prospect coming out of Reno (Nev.) High School and spent the last three seasons with Coach Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide.
Kaho decided to transfer to Pac-12 South rival Utah in late February but changed course and landed at UCLA, becoming the seventh incoming transfer for the 2021 recruiting class.
Kaho contributed on special teams and rotated in at linebacker, playing in at least 12 games in each of his three seasons at Alabama. He will join the Bruins’ roster as a junior with two years of eligibility after the NCAA granted players an extra year because of the pandemic.
He adds depth to a group of UCLA linebackers that saw just one departure this offseason when Leni Toailoa entered the transfer portal.