COLLEGE FOOTBALL
CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) - Clemson officials are confident the athletic department’s practices and policies will prevent a repeat of the failed performance-enhancing drug tests that caused three players to be suspended before last season’s College Football Playoff.
The Tigers were riding into a fourth straight CFP appearance when they were hit with the news in December that star defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, reserve offensive lineman Zach Giella and freshman tight end Braden Galloway had tested positive for the banned substance ostarine.
Lawrence missed both his team’s semifinal and championship wins on the way to their second national title in three years. In the seven months since the ban, Clemson has double and triple checked how it handles everything from talc in the weight room to the protein shakes it provides to ensure the wrong things won’t cost players time on the field.
“We’ve always looked at a really robust and fundamentally sound drug-testing program,” athletic director Dan Radakovich said. “We’ve always looked at how we get our supplements into our students’ hands.”
The department’s review came through the NCAA appeal led by Lawrence, Giella and Galloway, who were subject to a one-year ban for the positive tests. The NCAA rejected the players’ appeal this past spring. All three have said they had no idea how ostarine got into their systems.
NBA
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Los Angeles Clippers unveiled the first renderings for the lavish arena complex they hope to build in Inglewood.
While significant hurdles remain, the Clippers are hoping to break ground by 2021 on an 18,500-seat arena and a surrounding 26-acre, billion-dollar development project. They hope to be finished by 2024, when their lease expires at Staples Center.
The team claims the complex will be funded entirely by owner Steve Ballmer and will require no public money or additional public infrastructure. The Microsoft billionaire is the wealthiest owner in U.S. team sports, and Ballmer said he wants his “Clippers to have the best home in all of sports.”
“What that means to me is an unparalleled environment for players, for fans, for sponsors and for the community of Inglewood,” Ballmer added in a statement. “Our goal is to build a facility that re-sets fans’ expectations while having a transformative impact on the city we will call home.”
The Clippers hope to build their arena just across the street from the multi-billion-dollar football stadium complex nearing completion. Billionaire Stan Kroenke is building that project, which will house his Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers when it opens next year.
The renderings for the proposed arena reveal a striking roof with diamond-shaped metal panels designed to look like a basketball going through a net. The designers plan indoor-outdoor garden areas, a concert area and a large plaza for public viewing of games.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - The NCAA has given a 15-year show-cause penalty to a former UNC Greensboro assistant women’s basketball coach for gambling on pro and college sports - including games involving the school’s men’s basketball team.
Neither the school nor the NCAA identified the assistant Thursday in announcing the sanctions. The News & Record of Greensboro reported the coach was Phil Collins, who was fired in May 2018.
UNC Greensboro says the men’s basketball program was not involved.
The NCAA and school agree that UNC Greensboro failed to monitor and ensure compliance because seven staff members did not initially report the unidentified former coach’s actions, and that the coach violated ethical conduct rules for failing to cooperate.
The school also was placed on three years of probation and fined $15,000.
An investigation that began in May 2018 found the coach placed “an extensive number” of online wagers from August 2017 to that May, betting on at least four single games and roughly 10 multi-game parlays - all involving the men’s team.
BASEBALL
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - Texas Rangers outfielder Joey Gallo will miss at least a month after the All-Star slugger had surgery to remove part of a bone in his right wrist.
Gallo left Tuesday’s game in Seattle because of soreness in his wrist. After undergoing X-rays and an MRI, the 25-year-old Gallo returned to Texas, where Dr. Thomas DiLiberti removed a fractured hook of the hamate bone in Gallo’s wrist.
“Really disappointed but I’m actually not surprised after what I saw the last four games, especially the swing,” Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. “I think it’s been bothering him for a little bit.”
Gallo is hitting .252 with 22 homers and 49 RBIs this season, but was mired in a 1-for-28 slump over his last seven games before the surgery. The lone hit was a solo home run against Arizona on July 16.
Woodward noted that Gallo has been dealing with various health issues for much of the year. Gallo was out for more than three weeks in June with a left oblique strain.
Because of the type of surgery he had, Gallo can begin rehabbing very soon.
“He’s had some nagging things this year and always tried to play through them, always trying to convince me, ’I’m good, I’m good,’” Woodward said. “After that game (Tuesday), ’It’s killing me, it really hurts.’ That was surprising to hear.”
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