Texas to stick with Smart
Texas will stick with coach Shaka Smart next season after the Longhorns won five of their final six games and were fighting for a spot in the NCAA Tournament before it was canceled amid the coronavirus scare.
Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte said,
“Shaka’s our coach.”
Smart was facing open speculation on his future with the Longhorns at midseason when the program was mired near the bottom of the Big 12. The Longhorns had missed the tournament in two of the previous four seasons.
Next season will be Smart’s sixth in a seven-year contract. He is 90-78 overall at Texas but just 40-50 in the Big 12. The Longhorns were 19-12 last season with no seniors and are expected to return the entire lineup.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
TreVeyon Henderson, a 5-foot-11, 195-pounder from Hopewell, Virginia, announced that he would join next year’s Ohio State class, which is already ranked first nationally.
Henderson is ranked as the 17th overall prospect nationally and the second-ranked running back in the 247Sports composite rankings. The four-star recruit becomes the 15th member of Ohio State’s 2021 class.
He ran for 2,424 yards and 45 touchdowns for Hopewell, which went undefeated and won the state title.
He also considered Michigan, Oklahoma, North Carolina and Virginia.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Les Hunter, a star on Loyola Chicago’s barrierbreaking 1963 NCAA championship team, died of cancer at the age of 77.
Hunter helped Loyola – with four black starters – break down racial barriers and capture what remains the only NCAA Division I championship for an Illinois school by beating Cincinnati. The 6foot-7 center from Nashville, Tennessee, averaged 17 points and 11.4 rebounds as a junior that season and followed that up by turning in 21.4 and 15.3 as a senior.
Hunter had 1,472 points in three seasons, second on the school’s career list.
HOCKEY
Trevor Zegras signed a three-year contract with the Anaheim Ducks.
Zegras was the ninth pick in last year’s NHL draft. The center had 11 goals and 25 assists in 33 games as a freshman at Boston University.
From Journal Sentinel wire reports