BASKETBALL
WORLD CUP: USA Basketball will face Puerto Rico, Mexico and Cuba in the first round of qualifying for the 2023 Basketball World Cup.
The Americans, who won a fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal in Tokyo but finished only seventh at the most recent Basketball World Cup two years ago, found out their qualifying opponents Tuesday when the draw was held at FIBA headquarters in Mies, Switzerland.
It will also be the first major tournament for USA Basketball with Grant Hill as managing director. Hill is succeeding Jerry Colangelo in that role; Colangelo oversaw each of the last four Olympics for the U.S., helping assemble teams that won gold medals each time.
The U.S. has won the World Cup five times, most recently in 2014.
There are 80 teams in the qualifying rounds. It begins with a double round-robin; all teams in the various groups for the first round will play the other three teams in their group twice. First-round games will be played during three different windows – Nov. 20-30, Feb. 21-March 1 and June 27-July 5.
Second-round games begin in August 2022 and run through February 2023. The next World Cup – to be hosted by the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia – takes place from Aug. 25 through Sept. 10, 2023.
COLLEGES
COVID MANDATE BLOCKED: A judge on Tuesday blocked Western Michigan University from enforcing a COVID-19 vaccine requirement on four female soccer players, ruling they are likely to prevail on claims it violates their constitutional religious rights.
U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney in Grand Rapids, Michigan, issued the temporary restraining order on the day of the school’s deadline for athletes to get an initial shot or be unable to practice or compete. He said while the university had not had an opportunity to respond to the lawsuit, “WMU’s vaccination requirement for student athletes is not justified by a compelling interest and is not narrowly tailored.”
He scheduled a hearing concerning a temporary injunction on Sept. 9. Unlike at other Michigan universities, Western’s vaccine requirement does not extend to all students and employees, though the unvaccinated do have to undergo weekly coronavirus testing. The four athletes said they were denied religious exemptions to play without getting a dose.
SPORTS BETTING
CONNECTICUT: A legislative committee on Tuesday approved proposed state regulations for a new gambling market in Connecticut, a major step toward legalized sports wagering, online casino gambling and other new forms of betting in the state.
Connecticut now awaits the U.S. Department of the Interior’s approval of changes to agreements between the state and its two federally recognized tribal nations, who play major roles in the state’s gambling expansion plan.
After months of work, the state Department of Consumer Protection submitted the wide-ranging package of proposed rules to the General Assembly’s Regulations Review Committee under a fast-tracked process. Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration and the tribes – the Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegans – have expressed a desire to have a legalized sports wagering system up and running by the time the regular NFL season kicks off on Sept. 9.
SOCCER
BARCELONA: Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba have taken pay cuts at Barcelona to allow the team to register Sergio Aguero to play in the Spanish league, the Catalan club said Tuesday. They follow another senior player, Gerard Pique, in taking a salary reduction to enable their financially troubled club to register new players and fit into the league’s strict financial fair play regulations.
Barcelona, which recently announced its debt at 1.35 billion euros ($1.6 billion), was unable to keep longtime star Lionel Messi because of financial regulations. As a result, Messi signed for Paris Saint-Germain but Aguero, his fellow Argentina international, will be free to play for Barcelona once he recovers from a calf injury that could keep him out until mid-October.
HOCKEY
NHL: The Chicago Blackhawks announced a four-year contract extension with defenseman Connor Murphy on Tuesday. The deal runs through the 2025-26 season and carries a $4.4 million salary-cap hit.
The 28-year-old Murphy has turned into one of Chicago’s most reliable defensemen. He had three goals and 12 assists while averaging a career-high 22:09 of ice time over 50 games last season.
The 6-foot-4 Murphy was selected by the Coyotes in the first round of the 2011 NHL entry draft. He was traded to the Blackhawks in June 2017 along with Laurent Dauphin for Niklas Hjalmarsson. Murphy made his NHL debut in November 2013. He has 28 goals and 82 assists in 494 career games.
CYCLING
SPANISH VUELTA: Fabio Jakobsen celebrated his 25th birthday with his third stage win at this year’s Spanish Vuelta on Tuesday, with Odd Christian Eiking holding on to the overall lead.
Jakobsen prevailed along with his Deceuninck-Quick Step teammates through the twisty finale of the 180-kilometer (111.8-mile) 16th stage that took riders from Laredo to Santa Cruz de Bezana in northern Spain. Jakobsen, who had also won the fourth and eighth stages, finished the sprint ahead of Jordi Meeus and Matteo Trentin.
The Dutch rider has been enjoying his greatest results since being involved in a horrific crash that left him fighting for his life in an induced coma more than a year ago.
There was no change at the top of the general classification, with Eiking comfortably staying ahead of Guillaume Martin and two-time defending Vuelta champion Primoz Roglic. The Norwegian rider said the Lagos de Covadonga will be “very decisive” on Wednesday.
“It will be a really hard racing from the start,” Eiking said. “It will be a lot of fun to race up there.”
The 185-kilometer (115-mile) 17th stage will see riders complete two loops around a circuit that includes an unprecedented climb at Collada Llomena before they take on the difficult Lagos de Covadonga summit.
LUGE
U.S., CANADA LOSE RACES: Luge’s governing body took upcoming World Cup races away from the U.S. and Canada on Tuesday, citing ongoing difficulties in getting foreign athletes into and out of the North American countries during the pandemic.
The planned World Cup stops in Whistler, British Columbia, and Lake Placid, New York, will now both be held at the 2014 Sochi Olympic track in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia. They will be the second and third stops on the World Cup schedule, the first from Nov. 26-28 and the second from Dec. 3-5.
The World Cup season will begin at the new track built for the 2022 Beijing Olympics, with racing being held Nov. 19-21.
The International Luge Federation’s decision means that there will be no World Cup events in any of the three sliding sports – bobsled, skeleton and luge – in North America for a second consecutive season.
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