General Sports 24-Hour Briefing
×NCAA Basketball
One of the so-called fixers in a sprawling betting scheme to cash in on big bets on rigged NCAA basketball games pleaded guilty Monday. The final AP poll before Selection Sunday has a new top five, though Duke, Arizona and Michigan stay top three. No. 2 UCLA picked up three first-place votes from top-ranked UConn in this week's Associated Press women's basketball Top 25 poll, while Texas jumped South Carolina to move into the No. 3 spot. This week's rankings were shaken up after underwhelming performances from top teams. A week before Selection Sunday, which teams should be worried (Tennessee) or encouraged (Notre ? And what's the state of the bubble?
Winter Sports
Ukraine's Maksym Murashkovskyi says he has Chat GPT to thank for helping him win Para-biathlon silver at the Winter Paralympics. Gillian Fortescue-Thomas remembers the 1976 Cheltenham Festival where she became the first female rider to complete a race. Sean Bowen has achieved most of what there is to achieve as a jockey but there is one glaring omission on his impressive CV - a Cheltenham Festival win. Trainer Jeremy Scott believes Golden Ace can successfully defend her Champion Hurdle title at the Cheltenham Festival. Great Britain's joyless start to the Winter Paralympics continues as wheelchair curlers Jo Butterfield and Jason Kean miss out on the mixed doubles semi-finals. Para-alpine skier Varvara Voronchikhina wins the first Paralympic gold medal for Russia since 2014 with victory in the standing super G.
College Basketball Tournaments
West Virginia avenged two regular-season losses to No. 10 TCU by beating the reigning Big 12 tournament champion 62-53 in the conference title game Sunday. Gianna Kneepkens scored 19 points and Kiki Rice added 15 points and eight assists Sunday as No. 2 UCLA rolled past No. 9 Iowa 96-45 to win its second straight Big Ten tournament crown. Madison Booker scored 18 points as No. 4 Texas sprinted to a 14-0 lead against No. 3 South Carolina en route to the Longhorns' first women's SEC tournament title. Chris Ashby made 10 3-pointers and scored 34 points to lead Queens University to an NCAA berth in its first year of eligibility with a 98-93 win over Central Arkansas in the Atlantic Sun tournament.
International Sports
Sri Lanka name former South Africa batter Gary Kirsten as their new head coach. Ireland clinch a place in the Hockey World Cup finals with a dramatic shootout win over Japan to finish third at the qualification tournament in Santiago. Britain's Sky Brown becomes a skateboarding world champion for the second time after winning gold in a rain-disrupted park event in Brazil. Emma Raducanu wins only 11 points in the first set as Amanda Anisimova wins 6-1 6-1 to reach the fourth round at Indian Wells.
Combat Sports
Ex-UFC, PFL heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou will return to action on May 16 as part of Jake Paul's Most Valuable Promotions' inaugural MMA fight card headlined by Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano. The BMF title headliner between Charles Oliveira and Max Holloway earned the lowest grade at UFC. Jai Opetaia could be stripped of his IBF cruiserweight belt after he defeats Brandon Glanton to win the inaugural Zuffa World cruiserweight title. BBC Sport NI provides the backdrop to Saturday's WBA super-featherweight title fight between James 'Jazza' Dickens and Anthony Cacace in Dublin this Saturday.
Rugby
Scotland will be without first-choice second-row pair Gregor Brown and Scott Cummings, winger Duhan van der Merwe and three others in Dublin. Ireland head coach Andy Farrell says his side will benefit from the pressure of having to secure a win in Saturday's game against Scotland to secure the Triple Crown. England will travel to Dublin to face Ireland in the opening match of the 2027 Six Nations. After three straight defeats and a backline overhaul for the loss to Italy, England head coach Steve Borthwick may make major changes for the trip to France. As Scotland's players stood with hands on heads after what appeared to be a ruinous opening Six Nations defeat by Italy in Rome, a Wooden Spoon appeared a distinct possibility. A title challenge? No chance. A sensational fourth weekend of the Six Nations sees Scotland give themselves a chance of the title, while Italy beat England for the first time.
Golf
Akshay Bhatia beats fellow American Daniel Berger on the first sudden death play-off hole to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in Orlando. We run through the top contenders among the 123-man field to win the PGA Tour's flagship event at TPC Sawgrass.
Auto Racing
Ryan Blaney completed a Team Penske sweep at Phoenix Raceway by winning the Cup Series race Sunday. After a wild, often polarising Australian Grand Prix weekend, ESPN looks at some of the sweeping generalisations being made about Formula 1 and judges whether they're overblown or not.
Other Sports
Michigan State point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. received another technical foul for a kick toward a player's groin area. Wales hope Tottenham defender Ashley Phillips could boost their World Cup qualifying hopes, if they can persuade the 20-year-old to switch allegiance from England. Before The Hundred player auction Welsh Fire co-owner Sanjay Govil explains why he chose to buy the worst performing franchise in the tournament's history.