Los Angeles Times - 11.03.2020

Drew Timme scored 17

points, Filip Petrusev had a

double-double and No. 2

Gonzaga beat rival St.

Mary’s 84-66 to reclaim the

West Coast Conference tour-

nament title Tuesday night

in Las Vegas.

Top-seeded Gonzaga

(31-2, 15-1) bounced back

from a middling perform-

ance in the semifinals to win

their eighth WCC tourna-

ment title in 10 years,

outscoring St. Mary’s 48-22

in the paint..

Playing in its 23rd

straight WCC title game,

Gonzaga raced away from

the Gaels in a dominating

second half — and all but

guaranteeing itself a No. 1

seed in the NCAA tourna-

ment.

St. Mary’s (26-8, 11-5) up-

set Gonzaga in last year’s

title game.

at Robert Morris 77, St.

Francis 67:Robert Morris

used a second-half surge to

defeat rival St. Francis (22-

10, 13-5) in the Northeast

Conference tournament

championship. With the vic-

tory, the Colonials (20-14,

13-5) qualified for the NCAA

tournament for the first

time since 2015.

Northern Kentucky 71,

Illinois Chicago: Tyler

Sharpe scored 16 points and

Jalen Tate added 14, helping

Northern Kentucky (23-9,

13-5) lock up its second

straight Horizon League

tournament title in India-

napolis and earn its third

trip in four seasons to the

NCAA tournament.

North Dakota State 89,

North Dakota 53: Top-

seeded North Dakota State

(25-8, 13-3) led from start to

finish and overwhelmed

North Dakota in the Sum-

mit League tournament title

game in Sioux Falls, S.D., to

secure the automatic NCAA

tournament bid. Leading

scorer Vinnie Shahid led the

Bison with 25 points.

Hofstra 70, Northeast-

ern 61: Senior guard Eli

Pemberton scored 12 of his 19

points in the second half and

Hofstra came from behind

to beat Northeastern to win

the Colonial Athletic Assn.

tournament in Washington

and return to the NCAA

tournament for the first

time since 2001.

COREY KISPERT and Gonzaga can point to the

NCAA tournament after defeating St. Mary’s.

John LocherAssociated Press

COLLEGE BASKETBALL ROUNDUP

Gonzaga bounces

back to win title

associated press

D2 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2020 LATIMES.COM/SPORTS

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Shade denotes home game * CONCACAF Champions League

TIME EVENT ON THE AIR

BASEBALL EXHIBITIONS

10 a.m. New York Yankees vs. Miami at Jupiter, Fla. TV:MLB Network

1 p.m. Oakland vs. Angels at Tempe, Ariz. TV:FSW, MLB

Network R: 830

6 p.m. Milwaukee vs. Dodgers at Phoenix TV:SNLA, MLB

Network

BASKETBALL

5 p.m. Denver at Dallas TV:ESPN, ESPND

7 p.m. G League, Austin at South Bay Lakers TV:SpecSN

7:30 p.m. New Orleans at Sacramento TV:ESPN, ESPND

COLLEGE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTS

9 a.m. Atlantic Coast, second round, Miami vs. ClemsonTV:ESPN

11 a.m. Atlantic Coast, second round, North Carolina

State vs. Pittsburgh

TV:ESPN

Noon Pac-12, first round, Utah vs. Oregon State TV:Pac-12

2:30 p.m. Pac-12, first round, Washington vs. Arizona TV:Pac-12

3 p.m. Big Ten, first round, Northwestern vs. Minnesota TV:Big Ten

4 p.m. Atlantic Coast, second round, Boston College vs.

Notre Dame

TV:ESPN2

4 p.m. Big 12, first round, Iowa State vs. Oklahoma

State

TV:ESPNU

4 p.m. Southeastern, first round, Georgia vs. MississippiTV:SEC

4 p.m. Big East, first round, St. John’s vs. Georgetown TV:FS1

4:30 p.m. Patriot League, final, Boston Univ. vs. Colgate TV:CBSSN

5:30 p.m. Big Ten, first round, Nebraska vs. Indiana TV:Big Ten

6 p.m. Atlantic Coast, second round, Syracuse vs. North

Carolina

TV:ESPN2.

6 p.m. Big 12, first round, Kansas State vs. Texas

Christian

TV:ESPNU

6 p.m. Pac-12, first round, California vs. Stanford TV:Pac-12

6:30 p.m. Southeastern, first round, Vanderbilt vs. ArkansasTV:SEC

6:30 p.m. Big East, first round, DePaul vs. Xavier TV:FS1

8:30 p.m. Pac-12, first round, Washington State vs.

Colorado

TV:Pac-12

HOCKEY

5 p.m. San Jose at Chicago TV:NBCSN

7 p.m. St. Louis at Ducks TV:Prime. R: 830

7:30 p.m. Ottawa at Kings TV:FSW

R:iHeart

SOCCER

10:30 a.m. Germany, Borussia Monchengladbach vs.

Cologne

TV:FS2, FOXD

12:30 p.m. UEFA Champions League, Paris Saint-Germain

vs. Borussia Dortmund

TV:GALA

1 p.m. UEFA Champions League, Liverpool vs. Atletico

Madrid

TV:TNT, KFTR,

TUDN, Unimas

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3 p.m. South America Cup, Colo-Colo vs. Paranaense TV:bein1

3 p.m. South America Cup, River Plate vs. Binacional TV:beinES

5 p.m. Women, SheBelieves Cup, U.S. vs. Japan TV:ESPNews

5 p.m. CONCACAF Champions League, New York City FC

at UANL

TV:FS2, TUDN

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5:30 p.m. South America Cup, Flamengo vs. Barcelona TV:bein1

5:30 p.m. South America Cup, Sao Paulo vs. Quito TV:beinES

7 p.m. CONCACAF Champions League, Club America vs.

Atlanta United

TV:FS2, TUND

R: 1330

8 p.m. Mexican Cup, Monterrey vs. Juarez TV:FOXD

TODAY ON THE AIR

With college athletes on

the brink of being able to

profit from their name, im-

age and likeness, there has

been debate about which

schools would offer the best

earning opportunities for

prospective recruits: those

near metropolitan areas or

schools in more rural lo-

cales.

The University of Ne-

braska, one of college sports’

behemoths sitting firmly in

America’s heartland, made

a swift move Tuesday to gain

some early ground in what is

sure to be a budding market-

place. Nebraska announced

that it would partner with

Opendorse, a leader in help-

ing sports organizations and

their athletes monetize their

social media followings, for

the launch of the first pro-

gram designed to help col-

lege athletes build their indi-

vidual brands.

“Today starts a new bat-

tle in the next decade of re-

cruiting in college sports,”

said Blake Lawrence, a for-

mer Nebraska linebacker

who co-founded Opendorse,

which has partnered with

the NHL, NFL Players Assn.

and PGA Tour. That battle,

he said, “is educating poten-

tial recruits on what your

program is going to do to

help you maximize the value

of your NIL [name, image

and likeness] on campus.

Just as, 50 years ago, Ne-

braska was the first to build

a weight room and say

strength training matters to

winning football games, to-

day Nebraska is saying

brand building matters to

setting students up for life.”

Nebraska is one of nearly

30 states that have drafted

legislation in the mold of

California’s Senate Bill 206,

the first to grant college ath-

letes the same rights as non-

athlete students to profit

from their NIL and was

signed into law Sept. 30 by

Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The NCAA is currently

soliciting help from Con-

gress to find a blanket fed-

eral solution that would pla-

cate the states’ desires while

maintaining key core princi-

ples of the “collegiate mod-

el.”

Nobody knows where the

NCAA rule book will ulti-

mately land on the spectrum

between the current system,

which does not allow players

to be compensated beyond

the full cost of attendance,

and a free market scenario.

“Regardless of what

change comes in NIL legisla-

tion, we want every Ne-

braska athlete to be pre-

pared with the blueprint for

success beyond the field,”

Nebraska football coach

Scott Frost said. “We believe

social media is at the core of

this next frontier for player

development.”

NCAA President Mark

Emmert says that one of the

big challenges with athletes

being able to profit from en-

dorsement deals by partner-

ing with companies like

Opendorse is making sure

that the market isn’t in-

flated by boosters who are

trying to ensure an athlete

signs with their school.

Lawrence says Open-

dorse uses various metrics

to assign what a client’s mar-

ket value is worth, which

would make social media ad-

vertising and influencing

easy to track and regulate

for the NCAA and schools.

“We’re using a decade of

data, thousands and thou-

sands of transactions that

occur through our technol-

ogy, and what you can do

with that is have a definitive

market rate,” Lawrence

said. “The more technology

that’s involved in it, the more

trackable, the more com-

fortable lawmakers can be

with the future. The greatest

risk to the model is a system

that is lacking control. There

must be some level of vari-

able control, and it’s not nec-

essarily to limit but to pro-

tect the integrity of college

sports that we love so

much.”

In Nebraska, where the

Cornhuskers are the only

show in town and women’s

volleyball players share the

same revered treatment as

football players, there is a

sense that there will be no

shortage of NIL opportuni-

ties for college athletes.

“With the unrivaled pas-

sion of the Husker fan base,”

Frost said, “I believe a cur-

rent student-athlete’s brand

can be considerably more

valuable at Nebraska.”

Cornhuskers get jump on social media

Nebraska will partner

with Opendorse to

help student-athletes

monetize NIL issues.

By J. Brady McCollough

MEN

TOP 25

No. 2 Gonzaga 84, St. Mary’s 66

WEST

West Coast championship

Gonzaga 84, St. Mary’s 66

EAST

America East semifinals

Hartford 64, Stony Brook 58

Vermont 81, Maryland-Baltimore County 74

Colonial Athletic championship

Hofstra 70, Northeastern 61

Metro Atlantic first round

Manhattan 61, Fairfield 43

Iona 70, Canisius 60

Niagara 56, Marist 54

Northeast final

Robert Morris 77, St. Francis (Pa.) 67

SOUTH

Atlantic Coast first round

Pittsburgh 81, Wake Forest 72

North Carolina 78, Virginia Tech 56

Mid-Eastern Athletic first round

Delaware State 68, Maryland-Eastern Shore 64

Howard 70, South Carolina State 63

Southwest Athletic quarterfinals

Prairie View A&M 82, Alabama A&M 60

Southern U. 67, Alabama State 53

Jackson State 69, Alcorn State 52

Texas Southern 75, Grambling 62

MIDWEST

Horizon championship

Northern Kentucky 71, Illinois-Chicago 62

Summit championship

North Dakota State 89, North Dakota 53

WOMEN

TOP 25

No. 17 South Dakota 63, South Dakota State 58

SOUTHLAND

Big West first round

Cal Poly 59, Long Beach State 48

Cal State Fullerton 67, Cal State Northridge 52

WEST

West Coast championship

Portland 64, San Diego 63, OT

ROCKIES

Big Sky quarterfinals

Montana State 67, Northern Colorado 62

Northern Arizona 68, Montana 65

Idaho 56, Portland State 54

Idaho State 70, Southern Utah 63

OTHER TOURNAMENTS

Big South first round

UNC-Asheville 82, Charleston Southern 46

South Carolina-Upstate 60, Winthrop 57

Presbyterian 82, Longwood 73

Horizon championship

IUPUI 61, Green Bay 37

Metro Atlantic first round

Niagara 64, St. Peter’s 53

Monmouth 69, Iona 60

Siena 58, Canisius 48

Mid-Eastern Athletic

Maryland-Eastern Shore 62, Coppin State 50

Howard 79, South Carolina State 72

Southwestern Athletic quarterfinals

Southern U. 59, Prairie View A&M 55

Texas Southern 77, Arkansas-Pine Bluff 46

Alabama A&M 74, Alcorn State 54

Jackson State 71, Alabama State 53

Summit League championship

South Dakota 63, South Dakota State 58

Sun Belt first round

Texas-Arlington 74, Texas State 50

Louisiana-Lafayette 81, Georgia Southern 64

Arkansa-Little Rock 48, Appalachian State 47

South Alabama 82, Arkansas State 71

COLLEGE RESULTS

NCAA bids

Teams that have clinched

tournament berths:

MEN

8 Belmont, Ohio Valley

8 Bradley, Missouri Valley

8 East Tennessee State,

Southern

8 Gonzaga, West Coast

8 Hofstra, Colonial

8 Liberty, Atlantic Sun

8 North Dakota State,

Summit

8 Northern Kentucky,

Horizon

8 Robert Morris, Northeast

8 Utah State,

Mountain West

8 Winthrop, Big South

WOMEN

8 Boise State,

Mountain West

8 Connecticut,

American Athletic

8 Dayton, Atlantic 10

8 DePaul, Big East

8 IUPUI, Horizon

8 Maryland, Big Ten

8 North Carolina State,

Atlantic Coast

8 Oregon, Pac-12

8 Portland, West Coast

8 Samford, Southern

8 South Carolina,

Southeastern

8 South Dakota, Summit

8 Southeast Missouri State,

Ohio Valley

The California Horse Rac-
ing Board’s investigation into
the fatalities last year at
Santa Anita validated many
of the prevalent theories as to
why there was a spike in
deaths but found no smoking
gun or overriding reason for
what happened.
Although the 76-page re-
port did not absolve the
track, trainers or the model
that drives the sport, it did
confirm the long-held belief
that most breakdowns re-
sulting in the death of a horse
were tied to preexisting con-
ditions. This was the case in
21 of the 23 horses whose nec-
ropsies were examined.
New diagnostic equip-
ment has been brought in to

Santa Anita but it’s unclear

how many of the injuries

could have been prevented

had the horses been scanned.

“In general, a lot of the pa-

thology that is preexisting

stays asymptomatic even if

you could find it with diag-

nostic imaging,” said Tim

Grande, one of the veterinari-

ans who worked on the inves-

tigation.

Rick Arthur, equine medi-

cal director of the CHRB who

also helped write the report,

believed that nine of the le-

sions that eventually led to a

breakdown could have been

found had the new PET scan

equipment been in place.

Overtraining during a

horse’s career was cited mul-

tiple times as a possible con-

tributing factor to the deaths.

“We’ve known for a num-

ber of years that work[outs]

per starts are much higher

here than in the rest of the

country,” Arthur said.

“Horses are trained harder

and have more high-speed

workouts.”

The trainers were criti-

cized for poor record keeping

and a lack of knowledge

about the anatomy of horses

or curiosity about necropsies.

Also found were several cases

of program training, a prac-

tice in which someone other

than the licensed trainer was

overseeing the training of a

horse.

“One of the most disap-

pointing aspects is how few

trainers had reviewed their

necropsy reports before sit-

ting down with [investiga-

tors],” Arthur said.

The board plans to inves-

tigate seven instances of im-

proper record keeping by

trainers and three of license

violations.

The report suggested that

Santa Anita “should contin-

ue to consider replacing the

dirt track with a synthetic

surface,” because it holds up

better when it rains.

Dr. Greg Ferraro, chair-

man of the CHRB, did not be-

lieve the board will mandate

synthetics.

Santa Anita brought in

Mick Peterson, considered

the country’s leading expert

of racing surfaces, during last

year’s crisis. At the time he

said he could find nothing

wrong with the dirt track.

The report tells a different

story, saying that Peterson

told investigators that the

“track was not consistent due

to the complex maintenance

decisions made by track

management” during the

heavy rain period.

The report also said that

trainers felt pressured by the

track to run their horses, al-

though only one trainer could

give a specific example.

No trainers or horses were

named in the detailed analy-

sis of each death, citing state

confidentiality statues, how-

ever the date of each incident

made it clear which horse was

detailed.

There were 16 key find-

ings, many a curation of data

from necropsies. The study

was confined to the 23 deaths

between Dec. 30, 2018, and

March 31, 2019. Seven more

horses died during the track’s

winter-spring meeting. When

the track reopened for its

one-month fall meeting there

were seven deaths, including

Mongolian Groom in the

Breeders’ Cup Classic, the

biggest race of the year for

older horses.

This year there have been

nine fatalities, compared

with 21 to this date last year.

However, Santa Anita is run-

ning fewer races and has a

smaller horse population.

The CHRB report out-

lined 47 recommendations, 12

of which are already in the

regulatory pipeline. Most

dealt with establishing proto-

cols for training, racing and

when to cancel racing, mov-

ing toward digital record

keeping and transparency in

medical records.

“The long-term goal of the

board is to follow up on the

recommendations,” Ferraro

said.

Preexisting conditions cited in horse deaths

Report by California

board finds no

overriding reason for

the spike in fatalities

at Santa Anita.

By John Cherwa

A STATUE OF ZENYATTAstands at Santa Anita,

where nine horses have died this year.

Jae C. HongAssociated Press