UNDATED (AP) β Duke and Michigan State have advanced to the NCAA Final Four and will face each other next Saturday before Kentucky takes on Wisconsin. Justise Winslow drained a pair of 3-pointers down the stretch and finished with 16 points as top seed Duke beat Gonzaga 66-52 to win the South Region. Travis Trice paced the Spartans with 17 points and Denzel Valentine added 15 in a 76-70 overtime win against Louisville.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) β Fired Texas basketball coach Rick Barnes says athletic director Steve Patterson told him a week ago he’d return for another season, but “some things changed.” Barnes said at a news conference he was “shocked” by what he said were athletic department leaks to the media in recent days that he was being pressured to fire his assistant coaches to save his own job. Barnes says he refused staff members’ offers to quit.
MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) β Denny Hamlin passed teammate Matt Kenseth for the lead with 28 laps to go and went on to end Toyota’s 32-race winless streak in the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Martinsville Speedway. The driver for Joe Gibbs Racing held off a five-lap, bumper-to-tail challenge from Brad Keselowski for his 25th career victory and his fifth at the smallest and oldest track in the premier series. Pole sitter Joey Logano finished third, followed by Matt Kenseth and David Ragan.
SAN ANTONIO (AP) β Jimmy Walker birdied the 16th and 17th holes in closing out a four-shot victory over Jordan Spieth (speeth) in the PGA’s Texas Open. The San Antonio native closed with a 2-under 70 for an 11-under total in his hometown tournament. Walker won the Sony Open in Hawaii by nine shots in January and has a tour-best five victories in the past two seasons.
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) β Alabama coach Nick Saban has dismissed Jonathan Taylor from the team following the second domestic violence arrest of the defensive lineman’s college career. Saban announced the decision a day after Taylor was arrested when a woman reported she was assaulted by her boyfriend. Taylor signed with the Crimson Tide about six months after his dismissal from Georgia following his arrest in a girlfriend’s assault.
