Thursday Sports in Brief

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The NCAA Tournament returned to the big stage with a small first step, proving it can still showcase tight games and generate real excitement, even in mostly empty arenas.

A 710-day hiatus caused by the pandemic officially ended with the tournament’s ‘First Four’ games - contests that will launch UCLA, Drake, Texas Southern and Norfolk State into the 64-team main bracket that begins play Friday.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A social media effort to raise awareness about inequities in college sports by some prominent basketball players came with calls for rules changes and requests for meetings with the NCAA president and lawmakers.

The players who got #NotNCAAProperty trending on social made no threats of protests at tournament games, which started Thursday night.

NCAA vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt, who communicates frequently with coaches, said Thursday he was not aware of any plans for player protests that could interfere with tournament games being played.

AMES, Iowa (AP) - T.J. Otzelberger is returning to Iowa State as head coach after two years at UNLV, athletic director Jamie Pollard announced Thursday.

This will be the 43-year-old Otzelberger’s third stint in Ames, his first as head coach. He was an assistant under Greg McDermott, Fred Hoiberg and Steve Prohm, who was fired Tuesday after a 2-22 season in which the Cyclones went winless in the Big 12.

NFL

NEW YORK (AP) - The NFL will nearly double its media revenue to more than $10 billion a season with new rights agreements announced Thursday, including a deal with Amazon Prime Video that gives the streaming service exclusive rights to “Thursday Night Football” beginning in 2022.

The league took in $5.9 billion a year in its current contracts. It will get $113 billion over the 11 seasons of the new deals that begin in 2023, an increase of 80% over the previous such period, a person with direct knowledge of the contracts told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the money figures were not made public.

- By AP Sports Writer Joe Reedy.

DALLAS (AP) - The NFL said Thursday that it was investigating allegations that Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson sexually assaulted multiple women after three massage therapists filed lawsuits against the star player.

In lawsuits filed this week, two of the women claim that Watson touched them with his penis during massages last year, and the third alleges he forced her to perform oral sex.

Watson, 25, has broadly denied that he acted inappropriately and said he looks forward to clearing his name.

OLYMPICS

TOKYO (AP) - Tokyo Olympics director Hiroshi Sasaki has resigned after making demeaning comments about a well-known female celebrity in Japan.

It is yet another setback for the postponed games and another involving comments about women. In February the president of the organizing committee was forced to resign after sexist comments after saying women talk too much in meetings.

Sasaki was in charge of the opening and closing ceremonies for the Olympics, which open on July 23.

Last year he told planning staff members that well-known entertainer Naomi Watanabe could perform in the ceremony as an “Olympig.” She is a heavy-set woman and “Olympig” was a play on the word “Olympic.”

SAILING

Britain’s Royal Yacht Squadron Racing has been confirmed as the Challenger of Record for the 37th America’s Cup, meaning it will help determine the rules and location for the next edition of sailing’s marquee regatta.

The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron made the announcement on Friday in Auckland. Royal Yacht Squadron Racing presented its challenged two days earlier, immediately after Emirates Team New Zealand successfully defended the Auld Mug with a 7-3 victory over Italy’s Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team on the Hauraki Gulf.

TRACK AND FIELD

MONACO (AP) - Olympic hammer throw champion Dilshod Nazarov of Tajikistan has been banned for two years in a doping case and will not be able to defend his title at the Tokyo Games, the Athletics Integrity Unit said Thursday.

Nazarov was handed a two-year ban backdated to September 2019.

That was when Nazarov was first provisionally suspended after a retest of his sample from the 2011 world championships came back positive for the banned steroid turinabol.

COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - Virginia has fired volleyball coach Aaron Smith and his staff and canceled the remainder of its season one day after placing the staff on paid administrative leave to review a personnel matter.

The school gave no further details of the circumstances.

Athletic director Carla Williams made the announcement Thursday. The Cavaliers (2-12, 0-11 Atlantic Coast Conference) had four road matches remaining on their spring schedule.

AWARDS

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry’s tireless work off the basketball court campaigning for social justice, supporting women’s causes and even interviewing Dr. Anthony Fauci about the coronavirus pandemic is drawing acclaim from civil rights leaders.

The NAACP has given him its Jackie Robinson Sports Award. And, for the first time, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization is recognizing more than one person by honoring the WNBA Players Association.

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