Jason Day hopes that a more streamlined process will lead to increased success as he makes his first trip to Mexico in a decade.

Day has not played in each of the first three iterations of the WGC-Mexico Championship since the tournament shifted from Doral to Mexico City, and he hasn't played the Mayakoba Golf Classic since a T-28 finish in 2009. But the Aussie is back in Playa del Carmen this week, thanks in large part to his desire to remain sharp for the Presidents Cup after being added by International captain Ernie Els last week.

Day has had a mediocre year by his lofty standards, as the former world No. 1 is down to 29th in the latest world rankings. That's his lowest position since before the 2013 Masters, and it's a byproduct of a solid but unspectacular stretch that has included just one top-10 finish since the Masters.

Speaking to reporters at Mayakoba, Day shared that he didn't have a trainer for most of the year, a decision he regretted after a back injury sparked his withdrawal at Bay Hill and lingered throughout the season.

"You put everything together, the results have pretty much spoken for themselves," Day said.

He also pointed the finger to a revolving door on his bag. Day has employed four different caddies this year, including a short-lived union with Steve Williams. He's back to friend David Lutterus this week on the El Camaleon course.

"I went through three caddies — I'm on my fourth — and my back was injured. Like, that's not a good formula for success," Day said. "What do I need to be successful? I need to not have to worry about any of this. All those things that I was worrying about throughout the year is a distraction."

Day opened the new wraparound season with two starts in Asia, highlighted by his T-22 finish at the Zozo Championship that came on the heels of his skins game exhibition win in Japan. He'll also play the Australian Open before joining his International teammates at Royal Melbourne.

Day has added both a "golf trainer" and a "physio trainer" in recent months. With the hope that Lutterus can become a long-term caddie solution, he remains optimistic that he'll be able to mount another charge at world No. 1 having just celebrated his 32nd birthday on Monday.

"I feel like I've got a good team back together," he said. "I think the biggest thing for me is to be healthy. I mean, golf is tough enough as it is. If I'm giving these guys an advantage with me being, you know, having a sore back or having an injury, it's not the right way to go about it; it's not professional. I need to be at my best to beat these guys."

As Evansville's K.J. Riley and his teammates rode the bus back to campus following Tuesday night's 67-64 upset of No. 1 Kentucky in Lexington, coach Walter McCarty told his energized team to quiet down because Charles Barkley wanted to congratulate it.

He put the TNT analyst and Hall of Famer on speakerphone.

"I didn't even know he knew Charles Barkley," said Riley, who led all scorers with 18 points. "He congratulated us and he told us that the hard work is paying off."

Overall, McCarty said he had 400 congratulatory text messages waiting for him after Tuesday's win, which was tied for the third-largest upset in college basketball over the last 15 seasons (Evansville was a 25-point underdog), per ESPN Stats & Information.

Rick Pitino, McCarty's coach when Kentucky won the national title in 1996, reached out. Georgetown's Patrick Ewing, McCarty's teammate when he played for the New York Knicks during the 1996-97 season, texted him to praise his team, too. Oklahoma City Thunder coach Billy Donovan, an assistant when McCarty was at Kentucky, also contacted him after the victory.

Sam Cunliffe's two free throws with 6.8 seconds to play sealed the win for Evansville as Kentucky's Tyrese Maxey missed a deep 3-pointer at the buzzer to tie the game. Kentucky made just 37 percent of its field goal attempts and committed 11 turnovers in the first half.

Kentucky had previously won 52 consecutive home games against unranked opponents. Evansville, picked to finish eighth in the Missouri Valley Conference preseason poll, finished 11-21 overall and 5-13 during the 2018-19 campaign, McCarty's first as the team's head coach.

It was the program's first victory over a No. 1 team.

ESPN's BPI gave Evansville a 4 percent chance to win.

McCarty said his team's experience fueled the win. He said he told his team that it could win at Kentucky, where he won a multitude of games as a player, if it stood strong in the opening minutes and refused to allow the crowd to become a factor.

"They were not going to get rattled," he said. "They weren't afraid. Nothing against Kentucky, but they're young. It feels good that people are paying attention to us."

When they returned to campus, the Purple Aces were greeted by hundreds of students. Riley said he didn't get to bed until 2 a.m. He was also inundated with texts. One in particular surprised him.

"It was from a Kentucky fan," Riley said. "He said, 'I'm a Kentucky fan but you're my favorite player now.'"

The Memphis East High School basketball team, who won a 2017-18 state championship with Penny Hardaway as its coach and James Wiseman as its star player, is in danger of being stripped of its title because Wiseman and another player were ineligible.

Shelby County Chancery Court Judge Jim Kyle ruled on Oct. 3 that the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association's decision to rule Wiseman and Ryan Boyce ineligible in November 2017 did not violate the student's property rights.

Kyle also wrote in his decision that the court lacked jurisdiction to overturn TSSAA's decisions because it's a voluntary organization and the matter didn't involve fraud, lack of jurisdiction, or the invasion of property rights or interests.

The Shelby County Board of Education, Memphis East principal Marilyn Hilliard, Wiseman's mother and Boyce and his mother appealed the ruling earlier this month.

TSSAA assistant executive director Matthew Gillespie told ESPN on Wednesday that Memphis East will be ordered to forfeit games in which Wiseman and Boyce played -- and vacate the 2017-18 state championship -- if the association's initial ruling regarding Wiseman's and Boyce's eligibility is upheld by the court.

"There's still pending litigation, but if the decision comes out that our rules will be enforced as they initially were, games won while using an ineligible player would be forfeited," Gillespie said. "Therefore, with a championship game being one of them, a state title game would be forfeited and they'd no longer be crowned state champions."

Gillespie told ESPN that the TSSAA wasn't aware that Hardaway provided $11,500 to help Wiseman's family move to Memphis during its earlier investigation. He said that allegation might constitute a recruiting violation under its rules, which would put Memphis East at risk for additional penalties including probation and monetary fines.

During a deposition on March 28, 2018, Wiseman said he and his mother, Donzaleigh Artis, moved to Memphis to be closer to a family member who was suffering from health issues.

Kyle is the same judge who issued a temporary restraining order on Friday that allowed Wiseman to play for the University of Memphis after the NCAA declared him ineligible because Hardaway provided the $11,500 to help Wiseman's family move from Nashville to Memphis in the summer of 2017.

The NCAA classified Hardaway as a Tigers booster because he donated $1 million to the school in 2008 to help build the Penny Hardaway Hall of Fame.

Hardaway is in his second season coaching his alma mater.

Wiseman, a 7-foot-1 center who is considered a potential No. 1 pick in the 2020 NBA draft, has averaged 19.7 points and 10.7 rebounds in his first three games with the No. 13 Tigers.

On Nov. 15, 2017, the TSSAA declared Boyce and Wiseman ineligible for the 2017-18 season at Memphis East because of the association's "athletic coaching link" rule, which makes student-athletes who transfer to a new school ineligible if an athletic coaching link existed during the previous 12 months.

After the TSSAA declared Boyce and Wiseman ineligible, the Shelby County School Board of Education filed a petition for a temporary restraining order to allow them to play. On Nov. 29, 2017, Kyle issued an order that allowed them to play until the court resolved the issue.

Wiseman, who was the No. 1-ranked recruit in the 2019 class, transferred to Memphis East from the Ensworth School in Nashville in August 2017 -- after he played for Team Penny on the grassroots circuit. Boyce transferred there from Houston High School in Germantown, Tennessee, in April 2017.

Hardaway, a former NBA player, coached at Memphis East in 2017-18, when Wiseman helped lead the team to its third consecutive Class AAA state title. He had 19 points and six rebounds in a 72-50 victory over Whitehaven in the championship game.

Attorneys representing the Shelby County Board of Education and the players have argued that Hardaway wasn't a coach with Team Penny. They contend that former Arkansas player Todd Day was the head coach.

The TSSAA believed that Hardaway at least helped coach the team. In a motion, the TSSAA's lawyers wrote that Hardaway provided a practice facility and vans for transportation for Team Penny, allowed his valuable name to be associated with the team, secured a Nike EYBL contract, and coached the team at practices and gave instruction or advice to players on how to improve their play.

In making his decision, Kyle relied on a similar case in which the Tennessee Court of Appeals found that "[t]he 'coaching link' rule is not unfair or unjust [and] ... is not vague and overboard."

"Here, based on this reasoning, the Court must find that TSSAA's 'coaching link' is not unfair, unjust, vague, or overboard, and TSSAA correctly applied its rule when it found Coach Hardaway coached Boyce and Wiseman, which made them ineligible for the 2017-18 season," Kyle wrote in his motion.

When the University of Memphis hired Hardaway to replace Tubby Smith in March 2018, Hardaway made Wiseman his top target in the 2019 recruiting class. Wiseman picked Memphis over Kentucky in November 2018.

Boyce and two other former Memphis East players - sophomore guard Alex Lomax and freshman center Malcolm Dandridge -- also play for Hardaway at Memphis.

Rory Best will captain the Barbarians against Fiji in Saturday's clash at Twickenham.

Former Ireland and Ulster skipper Best, 37, has been given the armband by Barbarians coach Eddie Jones for the first of a three-game series.

Best earned his 124th and final Ireland cap in the World Cup quarter-final defeat by New Zealand on 19 October.

He also played 218 provincial games for Ulster and made nine Lions appearances during a 14-year career.

The Barbarians squad also includes three of South Africa's World Cup-winning side; Tendai Mtawarira, Makazole Mapimpi and Lukhanyo Am.

Jones' side will face Brazil and Wales after taking on Fiji.

Barbarians: David Havili, Dillyn Leyds, Mathieu Bastareaud, Andre Esterhuizen, Makazole Mapimpi, Curwin Bosch, Joe Powell; Tendai Mtawarira, Rory Best, Enrique Pieretto, Luke Jones, Tyler Ardron, Pete Samu, Marco van Staden, Josh Strauss.

Replacements: Andrew Makalio, Campese Ma'afu, Hencus van Wyk, Angus Cottrell, Matt Philip, Jano Vermaak, Lukhanyo Am, Morne Steyn.

WHEATLAND, Mo. – Robbie Reed’s goal was set early in the season, after he bounced back from a poor opening-night run at Lucas Oil Speedway and won the week-two Pitts Homes USRA modified feature.

Even though that was his lone trip to victory lane, Reed was a mark of consistency en route to his first Lucas Oil Speedway track championship.

Reed used three second-place finishes and seven top-five runs to finish 62 points ahead of runner-up Jason Pursley.

“We kind of set out a goal to race for it early in the year,” Reed said. “It was kind of an accomplishment to get it done. There are a lot of good drivers that come through there. A lot of tracks you go to, you’re racing the same guys every week. There’s good cars and good drivers from different series that come through there every week.

“I feel like we really did something by winning that championship.”

Reed, from the mid-Missouri town of Mexico, made the most of his decision to become a regular at Lucas Oil Speedway for the first time.

Driving a new Vanderbuilt Race Car, Reed said a key was maximizing the most of the bad nights, even if those were few and far between.

“On your bad nights, you have to get every position you can when running for something like that,” Reed said. “We were able to do that.”

Not only did Reed capture the track title, he looked good doing it. He took home the Best Appearing Race Car Award at the speedway’s postseason banquet.

That included all four Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series divisions and was selected by track photographer Kenny Shaw and the track staff.

“For all the cars that come through there, that was a pretty cool deal,” Reed said. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

Reed said he’s always taken a lot of pride in how his race car looks, even his work vehicles at his recycling business, Central Metals. But he praised crew member Derek “Dirk” Keith, in particular, for keeping the race car looking sharp.

“Dirk takes is really into it; he goes over and above with the looks of the car and keeping it up,” Reed said. “He takes a lot of pride in it.

“They do a lot for the team,” Reed added of Dirk and brother Buddy Keith, along with Dale Test. “They probably are more into racing than I am. I probably wouldn’t get to go do it as much without their help.”

Following one more race, later this month, Reed said work will begin on refurbishing his two race cars for the 2020 season. He plans to go after another championship at Lucas Oil Speedway and said the best might be yet to come.

“I’m kind of (eager) to run it again down there,” Reed said of the Vanderbuilt car. “We’ve got a really good car that’s dialed in now. We’re two-for-two in wins since getting it dialed in and haven’t go to run it at Lucas Oil since the season ended so early down there. I think we really have something to take there, now.”

What did he and the team figure out? With a laugh, Reed declined to be specific.

“It’s just working a lot better. It’s driving off the corners,” he said. “I can’t really say what we’ve done. It’s kind of a secret. But we’ve got it working better than we had it all year.

“We sure had a lot of seconds down there. I wish we had the car that we have today, then. We’ve have had more wins down there.”

POMONA, Calif. — Two years ago, Brittany Force rode a wave of momentum into Auto Club Raceway at Pomona after winning two of the first five races in the NHRA Countdown to the Championship.

Entering the season-ending Auto Club NHRA Finals, she trailed Steve Torrence by just 20 points in her bid to become the first woman in 35 years to win the NHRA Top Fuel title.

She responded by qualifying No. 1, setting the track record, winning the race and joining Shirley Muldowney as the only other woman to win the sport’s ultimate prize.

Since then, Force has changed crew chiefs, crews, engine and drivetrain components and her primary sponsor, but just because everything has changed doesn’t mean anything is truly different.

In fact, Force returns this week to her home track for the 55th renewal of the Auto Club NHRA Finals trailing Torrence by just 16 points in a David Grubnic and Mac Savage-tuned Advance Auto Parts dragster that has proven itself to be the current T-Rex of Top Fuel.

“I’m very confident going into Pomona this weekend with this Advance Auto Parts team and chasing down the 2019 championship. I’m lucky to have David Grubnic and Mac Savage in my corner and the eight other guys around me who are the most dedicated, hard-working guys I know,” said Force. “We really turned a corner at the right time and we’ve made some big moves this season. The start of the Countdown, at Reading, that seemed to be the turning point for us. We set the National ET record, qualified No. 1 and made a semifinal appearance. Charlotte, we qualified top 3 and made another semifinal showing.

“Now, there’s only one race left, and we are looking to finish this year off with a championship.”

The second youngest of racing legend John Force’s four daughters, Brittany Force has started from No. 1 eight times this season, has run quick time of the event on 10 occasions and has raced to the top speed of the meet seven times. All are category bests.

Now, coming off a victory two weeks ago at Las Vegas and after becoming the first Top Fuel driver since Tony Schumacher to simultaneously hold the NHRA performance records for time (3.623 seconds) and speed (338.17 miles per hour), Force is poised to become just the 10th driver in Top Fuel history to win multiple championships.

“Vegas was a big weekend for our Advance Auto Parts team. We moved up to second in points and came home with our second win of the season but every year, the competition gets tougher and tougher,” said Force. “The biggest difference this time around is I’ve been in the hunt for a championship before, so I have a better idea of how to deal with the pressure.

“The key to this year has been the support system I have around me. I have an incredible crew chief, David Grubnic, and I work with some of the best guys,” she continued. “I’m proud to be in the fight with them and wouldn’t choose anyone else going into Pomona.”

Roberto Luongo retired from the Florida Panthers. He just never left.

And now the goaltender is officially part of the franchise again.

Florida's all-time leader in wins and shutouts has agreed to become a special adviser to general manager Dale Tallon, a move that has been in the works for some time and was formally announced Wednesday.

His hiring was no surprise: Luongo has been a fixture at games with the Florida front-office brain trust this season, only now wearing suits instead of skates and having conversations in press boxes instead of locker rooms.

"I've had the honor and privilege to work with Roberto during his time playing for the Panthers and am proud to welcome him to our franchise's hockey operations staff," said Tallon, who is both Florida's GM and president of hockey operations.

Luongo, 40, retired this past summer after 19 seasons in the NHL, 11 of them with Florida, and indicated then that he would be interested in staying with the Panthers in some capacity. His plan was to take some time and figure out in what role, and how quickly.

Turns out, the five-time NHL All-Star didn't need that long to think.

Luongo and his family are remaining as residents of Parkland, Florida -- the city where he lived at the end of his playing career -- and since he's sticking around, it was always assumed that he was going to be with Tallon again before long.

"Roberto always approached every game with an unmatched work ethic, and we are confident he will take to this new role with the same passion," Tallon said. "A cornerstone player in our franchise's history, we are thrilled that Lu will be a part of shaping our franchise's future."

Luongo joins Panthers senior vice president Shawn Thornton, director of player personnel Bryan McCabe and assistant coach Derek MacKenzie as former Florida players who have remained with the team after retirement in various key roles.

The Panthers are retiring Luongo's No. 1 jersey on March 7, before a game against Montreal, his hometown team.

Luongo was the fourth overall pick in the 1997 draft by the New York Islanders, with whom he made his NHL debut on Nov. 28, 1999. Luongo then spent five years with Florida, the next eight with Vancouver and returned to the Panthers on March 14, 2014. His last game was April 6, two days after his 40th birthday.

CHAMPIONS GATE, Florida -- Sergino Dest said some of his Ajax teammates "didn't like" his decision to represent the U.S. over the Netherlands.

The dual national declared his intentions on Oct. 28, capping off what had become an intense tug-of-war between the Netherlands -- the country of his birth -- and the U.S., where his father is from and whom he had represented at youth level.

Predictably, Dest's choice drew mixed reactions. He said some of his Ajax teammates "didn't like" his decision, while others congratulated him for following his heart. The reaction from fans drew a similar range of emotions.

"On this side, the American side, a lot of people were happy. They gave me compliments," Dest told reporters ahead of Friday's CONCACAF Nations League match against Canada (live at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2).

"But on the other side they were mad. They said I'm raised over there, and why didn't I play for the Netherlands because I'm raised over there, I'm born over there. In soccer it's going different, you know. A lot of things happened."

Nonetheless, the 19-year-old admitted to a sense of relief at finally having made his decision.

"It felt great because everybody was pulling at me, everybody wanted to know an answer, you know? I just took my time and I think I made the right decision," he said.

Dest was asked about the various influences on his decision, from U.S. Soccer sporting director Earnie Stewart -- himself a Dutch-American -- to his club and international teammates and on down to his parents. He insisted he's his own man, and that it was the accumulation of time spent representing the U.S. at youth level that drove his thinking.

"I just made my own decision. I don't think they had a lot of influence," Dest said about his parents. "It's my life, and if it's not working out well, I'm the one who is...in trouble. That's the reason why I want to make my own decision, and I'm old enough to make them."

Dest admitted he still feels an affinity for both the U.S. and Netherlands, but in some ways, it's almost unfair for a player to choose one country over another. However, he realizes that is nature of FIFA's rules regarding player eligibility at international level.

"It's a hard decision of course. You're for both [countries]," he said. "You have to make decisions in life. I made one, and I'm glad that I made one. Now I have to make sure I made a good one and show what I've got."

Dest has seen his playing time decrease in recent weeks at Ajax, with manager Erik ten Hag preferring Noussair Mazraoui at right-back. But the U.S. international remains confident especially with him likely to feature on Friday against Canada.

"It's gone super fast," he said about the last few months. "If I'm not playing, it's not like I'm going backwards because you can also do a lot of things when you're not playing, and when the rest of the world doesn't see it. I'm still working and at the moment I've got a chance again. I will show myself."

Dest said he hadn't bothered to watch the U.S. team's 2-0 loss to Canada last month, though he's expecting a different outcome this time around.

"That's not going to happen the next game," he said about the Canada defeat. "We're not going to lose, 100 percent."

The U.S. has its hands full in the upcoming days, needing to defeat both Canada and Cuba over the next week while also making up a three-goal differential on Canada in order to reach the Nations League semifinals.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic's tenure with the LA Galaxy has come to an end as the club announced they mutually parted ways on Wednesday.

In his trademark bombastic manner, the Swedish star tweeted a message thanking the club, saying: "You wanted Zlatan, I gave you Zlatan."

"I came, I saw, I conquered. Thank you @lagalaxy for making me feel alive again. To the Galaxy fans -- you wanted Zlatan, I gave you Zlatan. You are welcome. The story continues...Now go back to [watching] baseball."