Commanders select Bieniemy as their OC

Eric Bieniemy has agreed to be the Commanders’ offensive coordinator and assistant head coach, Washington announced Saturday.

Bieniemy, a two-time Super Bowl-winning assistant with Kansas City, now gets the chance to show what he can do without Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes.

Bieniemy, who turns 54 in August, emerged from a pool of more than a half-dozen candidates as Washington’s choice for the job following the Chiefs’ second championship in his five seasons as their offensive coordinator. The longtime NFL assistant has interviewed for numerous head coaching jobs, but Reid calling plays for an offense featuring a two-time MVP in Mahomes clouded Bieniemy’s stock.

The decisions by teams not to hire Bieniemy, who is Black, as a head coach have been an ongoing talking point for critics of the NFL’s minority hiring practices.

Bieniemy will get the chance to call plays and run every aspect of Washington’s offense under Ron Rivera, a defensive-minded coach and former linebacker who’s going into his fourth season in charge of the team’s football operations.

Alabama tops early list of NCAA seeds

Alabama has the edge on Houston for the No. 1 overall seed in the first glimpse at the potential top 16 seeds for the NCAA Tournament.

The committee that will select the field of 68 revealed its preliminary list of top teams Saturday, with the Crimson Tide taking the top spot over the Cougars due to a head-to-head road win in December — which committee chairman Chris Reynolds said made the difference.

Purdue and reigning national champion Kansas were the other No. 1 seeds. If the order holds, it would mark the first No. 1 regional seed for Nate Oats’ Crimson Tide in program history.

Alabama climbed to No. 1 in the AP Top 25 poll earlier this week for the first time since 2003, though the Tide lost to No. 10 Tennessee on Wednesday in its first game with that ranking.

Texas, Arizona, Baylor and UCLA were the No. 2 seeds, followed by Tennessee, Virginia, Iowa State and Kansas State as 3seeds. Indiana, Marquette, Gonzaga and Xavier rounded out the list as No. 4 seeds.

Reynolds said Creighton, Miami, Saint Mary’s and Connecticut were the top teams to miss the cut.

Selection Sunday is March 12, with First Four games beginning two days later.

Gowdy awards: The Basketball Hall of Fame announced that Oakland-area resident Marc Spears, senior NBA writer for ESPN Andscape, will receive a Curt Gowdy media award this year. Spears attended San Jose Andrew Hill High, Foothill College and San Jose State.

“I decided to be a sportswriter in the seven grade after a career day workshop with someone from the Warriors at Sylvandale Junior High in San Jose,” Spears said. “A lot of my sportswriting mentors and people I tried to emulate were in or from the Bay Area. To get into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is the honor of a lifetime in my business. The Bay played a major role in building the foundation to get there.”

ESPN’s Holly Rowe and CBS Sports were also named as recipients.

Skiing: Mikaela Shiffrin wanted to cap off the Alpine world championships in signature form, finishing the biggest event outside of the Olympics with another gold medal at the end of nearly two weeks of drama.

But it was not to be, even though the event finished with slalom, her best discipline event. Shiffrin lost her lead at the top of the second run and had to settle for her second silver in the world championships and her third medal of the meet. She won the gold medal in giant slalom Thursday and last week won the silver in super-G. Only a slip in the final stretch of the slalom portion of the Alpine combined prevented her from winning a medal in every race she competed in, and she did so amid a very public breakup with her longtime coach in the middle of the event.

MLB: Seattle outfielder Teoscar Hernández was among five players who lost their salary arbitration cases on Saturday, and Angels outfielder Hunter Renfroe won as teams finished with a 13-6 advantage in decisions.

Angels infielder Gio Urshela, Tampa Bay pitchers Colin Poche and Ryan Thompson, and St. Louis reliever Génesis Cabrera also lost their cases.

Hernández will receive $14 million instead of his request for $16 million, still the highest salary for a player in a case that went to a decision.

It topped the $13.5 million for both Gerrit Cole and Max Fried.

NASCAR: Three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin and his six fellow Toyota drivers skipped the final practice for “The Great American Race.”

Even action sports star Travis Pastrana, who has little experience at Daytona International Speedway, sat out the 50-minute session Saturday.

He is driving a third car for 23XI Racing, the team co-owned by Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan.

Sixteen of 40 cars did get in a final practice, but not pole-sitter Alex Bowman or his fellow Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott and William Byron.