DARLINGTON, S.C. (AP) — The NASCAR team co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan continued its strong 2026 start in the Cup Series, locking up the top two starting spots Saturday at Darlington Raceway.

Daytona 500 winner Tyler Reddick, the first driver in NASCAR history to win the season’s first three races, qualified first for Sunday’s 400-mile race with a 169.152 mph lap on the 1.366-mile oval.

The 23XI Racing driver captured his 13th pole position despite smacking the wall with his No. 45 Toyota as he struggled with a new package that makes driving harder with higher horsepower and lower downforce.

“I tried to take it easy and just overdid the throttle,” Reddick said. “I kind of knew I was in trouble about a third of the way through, so I just had to hit the wall at that point.

“Just really proud of everyone at 23XI. It was a huge focal point with the adjustments to the engine and downforce to stay as strong as we have been the last couple of years. I knew it would be a huge challenge in qualifying today, and it was. I damn near wrecked.”

Teammate Bubba Wallace qualified second at 168.434 mph in his No. 23 Toyota for 23XI, marking the second front row sweep for the team founded by Jordan and NASCAR star Denny Hamlin. Reddick and Wallace are also ranked 1-2 in the points standings through five races.

“That’s Reddick for you,” Wallace said. “He pushes it to the limit. That was a hell of a lap. Just proud of the efforts of the team. Continue to ride the momentum from Race 1 to now and Darlington’s super tough. This package is a handful.”

Wallace dedicated the lap to his newborn daughter, who was born Thursday.

Chase Elliott qualified third after his No. 9 Chevrolet failed inspection twice before the session, resulting in the loss of pit selection and the ejection of car chief Matt Barndt.

Kyle Larson and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top five in qualifying.

Chris Buescher qualified sixth, but his No. 17 Ford also failed inspection twice. The team lost its pit selection and car chief Josh Sisco for the race.

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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — Tyler Fay pitched Alabama's first nine-inning, complete-game no-hitter in 84 years, striking out 13 in a 6-0 victory over Florida on Friday night.

Fay retired the last 10 batters, getting Brendan Lawson to fly out to left to end the game. Fay, who had never pitched more than seven innings in college, threw a career-high 132 pitches, 85 for strikes.

The redshirt junior from Doniphan, Nebraska, issued a walk in the second inning and another in the sixth against the Gators (19-4, 3-1 SEC), who are ranked as high as No. 17. Fay came into the season as Alabama's No. 1 starter and entered the game with a 3-2 record and 5.43 ERA.

The Crimson Tide (16-7, 1-3) hadn't had a pitcher throw a complete-game, nine-inning no-hitter since Eddie Wocar did it at Mississippi on April 24, 1942.

Florida was no-hit for the first time since Jacksonville’s Tom McMillan did it in a seven-inning game June 1, 1963.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Logan Thompson made 30 saves, losing his shutout bid with just 43 seconds remaining, and the Washington Capitals beat the New Jersey Devils 2-1 on Friday night.

Ryan Leonard scored midway through the first period, and Aliaksei Protas added an empty-netter with 1:43 remaining.

Jesper Bratt scored for the Devils, extending his point streak with three goals and four assists over his last seven games. Jake Allen stopped 26 shots.

It was the third meeting between the teams and the first that didn't require extra time. The Devils beat the Capitals in a 3-2 shootout win on Nov. 15, but lost 4-3 in overtime on Dec. 27. Thompson and Allen covered the net in all three games. They will conclude their season series on April 2 in Newark.

Up next

Devils visit the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night.

Capitals wrap a four-game homestand against the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday afternoon.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — High Point's bracket-busting NCAA Tournament upset has put the spotlight on the private school in North Carolina that offers some unusual perks for its student body.

The campus, home to some 6,300 students, has a steakhouse that’s part of the meal plan where reservations are required; there's a dress code and no cellphones are allowed. There's also a mock airplane cabin on campus where students can rehearse talking up executives during a flight.

“Their president, I got to meet this guy sometime. I mean, he goes and builds a five-star restaurant that the students go to once a week. What? I’m going to go to school there. They have an airline where they go and show you how to sit in an airplane and talk to a CEO who you happen to be next to,” Arkansas coach John Calipari said.

In other words, Cinderella's slipper might not fit for this school.

High Point, the No. 12 seed in the West Region, pulled off the biggest upset of Thursday's first-round slate, an 83-82 victory over Wisconsin. The Panthers (31-4) will face Calipari's fourth-seeded Razorbacks (27-8) in the second round on Saturday.

High Point, located outside Greensboro, describes itself as a “life skills university” that teaches students the know-how to be successful. One of its more celebrated alumni is basketball coach Tubby Smith, who led Kentucky to the 1998 national title and later coached his alma mater for four seasons, stepping down in 2022.

“All the things they do are student-driven, which means their basketball players and their students are confident because someone really cares,” Calipari said.

For some of High Point's players, the focus has been on basketball, not the fine dining experience. Guard Rob Martin and forward Owen Aquino went to to the steakhouse during their campus visits, but guard Cam'Ron Fletcher has never been there.

“It’s really nice, really nice,” Aquino said.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Purdue guard Braden Smith broke former Duke star Bobby Hurley's Division I assist record, picking up his second of the game and the 1,077th of his career with a feed to Trey Kaufman-Renn with 12:11 to go in the first half of the Boilermakers' NCAA Tournament game against Queens on Friday night.

The All-American already was the only player in NCAA history with at least 1,500 points, 1,000 assists and 500 career rebounds, and he is one of two players along with Southern's Avery Johnson to have had at least 300 assists in two different seasons.

“It is surreal,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said during a break in the action. “Happy for him. Really happy for him. He has worked really hard. He’s an unbelievable passer, man. He makes the game look easy at times."

Last weekend, Smith set the Big Ten Tournament assists record while helping Purdue beat Michigan for the championship.

Smith picked up his first assist for the second-seeded Boilermakers on Friday night on a feed to Oscar Cluff a couple of minutes into their game against the No. 15 seed. But it seemed as if the second might never come when Fletcher Loyer missed a wide-open 3-pointer that would have done it, and Kaufman-Renn missed an even more wide-open jumper from the foul line.

Kaufman-Renn finally converted off Smith's feed a few minutes later — and all the senior guard did was ever-so-briefly stick a finger in the air as the crowd tilted heavily toward Purdue fans gave him a standing ovation.

Smith was good enough coming out of Westfield High School, located about an hour southeast of West Lafayette and on the northern outskirts of Indianapolis — the site of this year's Final Four — that he was voted Indiana Mr. Basketball as a senior.

Yet most of his scholarship offers came from the likes of Appalachian State, Belmont and Montana. Purdue was his only high-major at the time of his commitment, though schools such as Indiana, Villanova and Gonzaga had started to pay attention.

Did they ever miss out on a gem.

Smith and fellow Indiana native Loyer arrived on campus in 2022 and joined Painter's starting lineup from Day 1, which put them at 146 starts and counting by the time they tipped off against Queens on Friday night. Along the way, Smith and Loyer were part of a couple of Big Ten regular-season title teams, a couple Big Ten tourney titles, and reached the 2024 national title game.

They wound up losing to UConn in Glendale, Arizona, to finish as the runner-up for the second time in school history.

Purdue still has never won a title. But that would certainly be quite the capstone to Smith's career.

He earned 12 first-team votes for AP All-America this week, landing him on the second team. Smith was a first-team pick last year and honorable mention for the 2023-24 season, making him a rare player to receive recognition in three consecutive seasons.

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LENS, France (AP) — Florian Thauvin scored one and made two and Odsonne Edouard grabbed a double as Lens beat Angers 5-1 to leapfrog Paris Saint-Germain and return to the top of Ligue 1 on Friday.

Lens is seeking a first French title since 1998 but its challenge has faltered in recent weeks with losses to Lorient and Monaco.

However, it made its intentions clear in a comprehensive win over a side that has lost five of its last six league matches.

Thauvin set the ball rolling in the 13th minute with his fourth goal in six games.

Then he set up Edouard to make it 2-0. Mamadou Sangare added the third just before halftime.

Edouard scored a fourth three minutes into the second half after taking a perfectly weighted pass from the outstanding Thauvin. Although Lanroy Machine pulled a goal back for Angers 14 minutes later it was no more than a consolation.

Matthieu Udol restored Lens' four-goal cushion with a spectacular fifth.

The result took Lens two points clear of PSG, which has two games in hand.

Angers, meanwhile, was in 12th place, far from the fight from European places but well above the relegation zone.

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FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Avery Howell had 30 points and nine rebounds to lead Washington to its first women's NCAA Tournament victory since 2017, beating South Dakota State 72-54 on Friday.

South Dakota State jumped out to a 13-3 lead in the first five minutes, but the game was tied at 15 when Howell made a 3-pointer with 50 seconds left in the first quarter. Howell made another 3 only 55 seconds into the second quarter to break that tie and put Washington (22-10) ahead to stay.

Howell, the transfer from Southern Cal who as a freshman last season was part of the Trojan's run to the Elite Eight, finished with seven 3s.

Brynn McGaughy added 14 points in 18 minutes for the sixth-seeded Huskies, whose last NCAA tourney win came on their way to the Sweet 16 nine years ago. They lost a First Four game to Columbia last season in what had been their only other appearance since then.

Brooklyn Meyer had 29 points and seven rebounds for South Dakota State (27-7), which had its 10-game winning streak snapped. Emilee Fox had 14 points.

The Jackrabbits ended their 15th consecutive 20-win season, matching schools like No. 1 overall seed UConn, Baylor, Louisville and South Carolina with that kind of active streak.

Up next

The Huskies on Sunday play host and third-seeded TCU (30-5), an Elite Eight team last season that has won 43 consecutive home games since February 2023. The Horned Frogs beat UC San Diego 86-40 in their first-round game earlier Friday.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Baseball is changing at a dizzying speed in 2026 with the arrival of robot umpires, the return home of the Tampa Bay Rays and an alphabet soup of networks televising games in perhaps the last season before a labor shutdown.

Much has transpired in the 4 1/2 months since the Los Angeles Dodgers rallied in World Series Game 7 to beat Toronto in 11 innings and become the first repeat champion since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees.

There was the usual free agent musical chairs that saw Kyle Tucker wind up with the Dodgers, Bo Bichette with the New York Mets, Alex Bregman with the Chicago Cubs and Pete Alonso with the Baltimore Orioles.

Venezuela became a first-time champion of a World Baseball Classic with record attendance and television viewers.

But looming above the usual excitement for opening day on Wednesday is the possibility of no games in a year.

Tony Clark was forced to resign as players' association head and replaced by Bruce Meyer as talk intensified about a possible management salary cap proposal the players' association vows to fight. Major League Baseball is likely to lock out players on Dec. 2, leaving 2027 in limbo.

Cy Young Award winners Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal are on the eight-man executive subcommittee that directs collective bargaining.

“We need people that are invested and kind of have status among players and within the game to go into the negotiations and be comfortable going toe to toe with the owners,” Skenes said. “It's not something that I sought out. Some guys nominated me for the position and that’s not something you say no to.”

Send in the robots

Following testing that started in the minor leagues in 2019, MLB decided last September to use the Automated Ball-Strike System in the regular season.

While human umps call every pitch, each team has the ability to challenge two calls per game, retaining the challenge if successful, and have the possibility of at least one more in each extra inning.

“You want get the egregiously wrong calls fixed and you want make sure you get it right in a big spot,” three-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander said.

ABS won't be used for a two-game series between Arizona and San Diego in Mexico City on April 25-26, for the Philadelphia-Minnesota game at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, on Aug. 13 or the Atlanta-Milwaukee matchup in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, on Aug. 23.

Finding where a game is televised is more complicated than ever.

Regular-season national broadcasts are split among Fox/FS1, TBS, ESPN, NBC/Peacock, AppleTV and Netflix. NBC's networks take over the Wild Card Series from ABC/ESPN.

In addition, MLB will produce and distribute the local telecasts of 14 teams following the financial problems of Main Street Sports Group, which operates the regional FanDuel Sports Network stations.

When the New York Yankees play the MLB season opener at the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday, the game will be exclusively on Netflix.

Dodgers go for three-peat

After becoming the first team to win consecutive championships since the 1998-2000 Yankees, the Dodgers try to become just the fifth group to win three in a row, joining those Yankees, five by the 1949-53 Yankees, four by the 1936-39 Yankees and three by the 1972-74 Oakland Athletics.

“When you're a Dodger, people want to take us down. They want to beat us,” manager Dave Roberts told players in his spring training speech. “It's a Game 7. So I think that we've got to look ahead and say that this is going to be harder than it's ever been and we got to work even harder. And so my ask as a team, as an organization is to push ourselves even more. We already got the talent. There isn't any more talent in a major league clubhouse than in this room.”

Coming off his fourth unanimous MVP award, Shohei Ohtani is expected to be a two-way player over a full season. He returned to the mound last June 16 following his second major elbow surgery on Sept. 19, 2023.

Back at the Trop

Tampa Bay returns to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg after a season playing home games across the bay at Steinbrenner Field, the spring training home of the Yankees.

Damage to the Trop caused by Hurricane Milton in October 2024 has been repaired. The Rays were 41-40 at Steinbrenner last year, their lowest home winning percentage since 2016. They drew 786,750 for an average of 9,713, selling out 61 games.

“There is genuine, authentic excitement to get back to the Trop,” manager Kevin Cash said. “We've played well in the Trop. We’ve had a lot of success in the Trop. And I think we’re going back to something that’s probably going to be a little bit newer, a little better than maybe as we left it because they had to do so many repairs.”

Milestone watch

Four players could reach 400 career home runs this year.

Manny Machado starts the season at 369, followed by Freddie Freeman at 368, Aaron Judge at 367 and Bryce Harper at 363.

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