The WNBA is changing its playoff format to a more traditional bracket. The league announced Thursday the postseason will consist of three rounds — best-of-three games for the first round and best-of-five games for subsequent ones — beginning this summer. The top eight teams overall will make the playoffs. “We have been evaluating different playoff formats over the past 12 months, and the new playoff format being announced today will enable fans to engage with all of the league’s best teams and top stars right from the start of the postseason with all eight championship contenders immediately involved in exciting, first-round action,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a statement. The league adopted a playoff structure in 2016 that had single-elimination games in the opening two rounds and gave byes to the semifinals for the top two teams. While the league will lose a round of the playoffs under the new format, going from four to three, it will gain more games using a series structure.“ In the new format, the No. 1 seed will play the eighth-seeded team in the opening round. The winner of that series will play either the fourth or fifth seed in the semifinals. On the other side of the bracket, the No. 3 seed will play the sixth-seeded team and the second seed will face No. 7. Those two winners will play in the semifinals. “Really excited for our league to move to all series,” said Connecticut Sun coach Curt Miller. “It’s ultimately where we want to be. There’s growth with even that down the line.” The higher seed will host the first two games of the best-of-three series. The lower seed will host a third game if necessary. That potentially will save the league time and money on travel in the postseason instead of going with a more traditional format where the teams alternate home games. The semifinals and finals series will remain unchanged from the previous format, with the higher seed hosts the first two games and a decisive fifth game if necessary.
Walter Whtye leads BU men’s basketball past Hartford
Walter Whyte had 21 points as the Boston University men’s basketball team held on to beat host Hartford, 75-70. Anthony Morales had 18 points for the Terriers (2-2). Javante McCoy added 15 points, including the clinching free throws with three seconds left. Sukhmail Mathon had 11 points and nine rebounds . . . The UMass men’s basketball team absorbed an 88-73 setback against Weber State in St. Petersburg, Fla. Noah Fernandes scored a career-high 21 points for the Minutemen (2-2) while Trent Buttrick added 12 points and C.J. Kelly had 11 points . . . Jim Calhoun, 79, who led the UConn men’s basketball team to three national titles, has retired again, this time after four years at Division 3 Saint Joseph in West Hartford, Conn. Calhoun, a native of Braintree, Mass., ends his career with a record of 920-397. That includes 248 wins in 14 years at Northeastern and 625 in 26 years at UConn.
Ohio St. QB reinstated after DUI arrest
Ohio State quarterback Jack Miller III has been reinstated to the team Thursday after his drunken-driving charge was reduced to a minor misdemeanor traffic offense. The freshman, who is currently the Buckeyes’ third-string quarterback behind classmates C.J. Stroud and Kyle McCord, was stopped in the university district on Nov. 5 by an Ohio Highway Patrol trooper who said Miller’s pickup truck was weaving. After a field-sobriety test, he was arrested, but he declined to take a breath test. He was subsequently suspended from the team. The charge was reduced during Miller’s arraignment in Franklin County Municipal Court. He pleaded guilty and agreed to pay a $150 fine and court costs. “Miller has fulfilled all of the obligations required of him and the legal case is now closed,” a spokesman for the football program said . . . Virginia Tech football coach J.C. Price, who was tabbed to lead the Hokies in their last two regular season games after Justin Fuente opted not to finish the season, said it was “bittersweet” to take over the reins at his alma mater. “On one hand you have such respect for Coach Fuente and the job he was doing, then just overwhelmingly humbled by the [athletic director] Whit Babcock’s belief in me.” The Hokies (5-5, 3-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) play at Miami (5-5, 3-3) on Saturday and close the regular season at Virginia the following week. Price, a senior captain when the Hokies beat Texas in the 1995 Sugar Bowl, told the team he won’t be the head coach beyond this year . . . Clarissa Chun, 40, a two-time Olympian who won bronze in London in 2012 and was fifth in Beijing in 2008, was named coach of Iowa’s new women’s wrestling program, making the Big Ten school the first in a Power Five conference to start a women’s wrestling team.
Muguruza prevails in WTA Finals
As her final shot forced one final error, and Garbiñe Muguruza beat Anett Kontaveit and slammed an exclamation point onto the tennis season by winning the WTA Finals in Guadalajara, Mexico. Muguruza, of Spain, prevailed, 6-3, 7-5, in 99 minutes and had her opponent on her heels from the start, finding opportunities to break Kontaveit nearly every time she served in the first set . . . The top three players to the semifinals at the ATP Finals . . . Third-ranked Alexander Zverev beat Hubert Hurkacz 6-2, 6-4 to join No. 1 Novak Djokovic and No. 2 Daniil Medvedev in the last four at the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin, Italy, the event for the top eight players. Having qualified second in his group behind Medvedev, Zverev’s semifinal opponent will be Djokovic, who won the other group. Medvedev’s semifinal opponent will be determined on Friday when Andrey Rublev meets Casper Ruud on the final day of round-robin play.Miscellany
Bob Bradley, Los Angeles FC part ways
Coach Bob Bradley and Los Angeles FC mutually agreed to part ways. Bradley was the first and only coach in the Major League Soccer expansion franchise’s four-year history. The 63-year-old Bradley is the second-winningest coach in MLS history, posting successful stints with the Chicago Fire and the MetroStars earlier in his career. He went 58-34-32 at LAFC, racking up 206 points. The former US men’s national team and Swansea coach led LAFC to the Supporters’ Shield in 2019 amid three consecutive playoff appearances, but LAFC missed the MLS postseason this year while finishing ninth in the Western Conference. LAFC set the MLS record for the most points in a debut season under Bradley in 2018, and it led the league with 72 points in 2019 while scoring an MLS-record 85 goals with an exciting, fan-friendly style of play. Nothing clicked this season for LAFC after a second straight year of key player departures and the continued injury problems of forward Carlos Vela, who has rarely been healthy since winning the league MVP award in 2019. LAFC finished ninth in the Western Conference at 12-13-9, missing the playoffs for the first time . . . NBC retained US English- and Spanish-language broadcast rights to England’s Premier League with a bid of more than $2.7 billion over six years, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press. NBC gained rights to soccer’s top league from Fox for the 2013-14 season but faced heavy competition in bidding from CBS and ESPN, who put in a joint offer during the second round of bidding. Fox, which holds rights to the 2022 and 2026 World Cups, also bid. NBC’s previous six-year deal, which began in 2016, was worth $1 billion.
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WNBA adopts more traditional bracket for its playoff format - The Boston Globe
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