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Days after tying knot, Pepperdine’s William Mouw begins final NCAA Championship
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – It’s ring season.
And for Pepperdine senior William Mouw, in more ways than one.
Before Mouw and the Waves began play Friday at the NCAA Championship, the 22-year-old Mouw, a key piece in Pepperdine’s 2021 NCAA title, experienced the best day of his life to date last Sunday. He and his high-school sweetheart, Hannah, were married about a half hour south of Grayhawk, in Mesa.
“It’s just been a week,” Mouw said after opening his final NCAAs in 3-over 73. “All kinds of different emotions, nervous, excited, a few different things running through your head. But you know, to get married, it was unbelievable.”
The now Mr. and Mrs. Mouw met while attending rival high schools in Chino, California. Mouw was a star shooting guard, and during a game, he spotted Hannah in the crowd. After the contest, he walked over and gave her his phone number. The rest, they say, is history.
With the biggest tournament of William’s season just days away, the Mouws honeymooned for a couple days in Scottsdale, where Hannah works at a hospital not far from Grayhawk. They stayed two nights at the swanky Phoenician, played the resort’s golf course and enjoyed a nice dinner at a local steakhouse.
“Really enjoyed it,” Mouw said, “and kind of got a good feel for what we’re going to do for the rest of our lives together.”
Then on Wednesday, it was time for Mouw to rejoin his team for a practice round at Silverleaf. He enters nationals having posted five top-5 finishes this season and sitting fifth in the PGA Tour University standings, currently in position for full Korn Ferry Tour status this summer.
Mouw is still getting used to playing with his wedding ring – he’s decided to wear it on a chain during rounds.
As for now being a married man, Mouw has already noticed a difference.
“It feels a lot different,” Mouw said. “I feel more completed, more mature. It’s really something. Very excited and very blessed.”
Pep Guardiola has said he is "not optimistic" Spain will take appropriate measures to combat racism in the country after Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior was again subjected to insults on Sunday.
Three people have been arrested for racially abusing the Brazil winger at Valencia on Sunday, and the club have been hit with a fine and a partial closure of the Mestalla.
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The incident has opened a wider debate about the issue of racism in Spain, but Guardiola, who spent time as a player and manager in La Liga, said he does not expect things to change quickly.
"Of course racism is a problem everywhere, not just in one specific place," Guardiola said.
"Everywhere we have [people] thinking we are better than our neighbours, we are better than the other one.
"The problem is that there is racism everywhere. Not just for gender but for colour, for attitudes. We believe that our language is better than the other one, our country is better than the other one.
"We need to accept diversity as a strength, like a human being, and still right now, we are far away from that. Hopefully it can be one step to getting better in Spain, but I'm not optimistic. I know a little bit the country and I'm not really optimistic.
"There are a lot of Black people stepping forward to defend what they should not [have to] defend. Hopefully justice can help to do it, but at the same time, is it going to change anything in Spain?"
Meanwhile, City have one last Premier League game against Brentford before preparing for the FA Cup final against Manchester United and the Champions League final against Inter Milan.
Guardiola said he wants to keep his team in rhythm when they play at the Gtech Community Stadium on Sunday, adding he is expecting players to soon start knocking on his door to ask if they are playing against United and Inter.
"They will come, but not yet," Guardiola said.
"I have a vague idea [of the teams for the FA Cup and Champions League finals]. United play completely different to Inter Milan and Inter Milan are different to United. We have to defend and attack differently. Can players adjust better? First Brentford, see what we have to do."
Brazil will play friendlies against two African nations as part of an anti-racism campaign in support of their Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior, who has been racially abused in Spanish League games this season, the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) said on Friday.
The five-time world champions will face Guinea in Barcelona on June 17 and Senegal in Lisbon three days later.
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The CBF has also launched a national campaign against racism in Brazilian league matches starting this weekend following the racist insults 22-year-old Vinicius suffered in a LaLiga match at Valencia on Sunday, the 10th such episode against the player that LaLiga has reported to prosecutors this season.
With the slogan "There is no game with racism," the CBF aims to extend the fight started in 2022 under its new president Ednaldo Rodrigues, who pushed for changes in legislation that saw the football authorities and Brazilian justice system apply more severe punishments against racism in stadiums.
"We want Brazil to lead the fight against racism worldwide," Rodrigues told Reuters in a interview in March.
The CBF worked closely with Vinicius on the details surrounding the two friendlies as it wanted to be sure the player was comfortable with the matches being held in Iberia and the Real Madrid winger supported the idea, sources said.
With the CBF still looking for a new national team manager, Brazil will again be coached by caretaker Ramon Menezes, who will leave the Under-20s for a day during the World Cup that is currently being played in Argentina to announce on Sunday in Rio de Janeiro the squad for the Barcelona and Lisbon friendlies.
Rodrigues told Reuters in March that Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti would be an obvious choice for the vacant Brazil post if he was available at the end of the European season.
However, last week the Italian said he would honour the last year of his contract at the Bernabeu.
The United States made it three wins from three games at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup with a 2-0 victory over Slovakia in San Juan, Argentina, on Friday to clinch the top spot in Group B.
Forward Cade Cowell was the star for the young Americans, netting a superb solo goal on 38 minutes that sent them on the way to victory. Substitute Niko Tsakiris added a second deep into second-half stoppage time to ensure the U.S. would finish the group stage with maximum points and not a single goal conceded.
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The U.S. was already guaranteed a place in the round of 16 after previous wins over Ecuador and Fiji. Ecuador, on six points, will join the U.S. in the round of 16, while Slovakia, with three points, will have to wait to see if it qualifies as one of the four best third-place teams.
The U.S. will now face one of the best third-place teams Tuesday for a place in the quarterfinals.
It is San Jose Earthquakes star Cowell who will rightly take the plaudits from this latest win for Mikey Varas' side. The 19-year-old's goal showed why he has already been a regular in MLS for three years and has been regularly linked with interest from clubs in Europe.
After intercepting a pass on halfway, Cowell slalomed inside and out a series of Slovakia players at high speed before finding the net with a low left-footed shot.
The goal had been coming for the U.S. and for Cowell after he twice got close to breaking the deadlock before his memorable strike.
Cowell should have found the back of the net in the 27th minute after getting to a long ball forward from defender Brandan Craig ahead of Slovakia goalkeeper Adam Hrdina, lifting the ball over his head but completely whiffing on his shot into an open net.
Eight minutes later, Cowell did have the ball in the net after racing onto a through ball and beating Hrdina, only for the offside flag to immediately be raised.
But Cowell would not be denied, putting the U.S. ahead at the interval.
That goal could have been added to on multiple occasions in the second half as Cowell continued to cause havoc in the Slovakia ranks. Twice Diego Luna was unable to make the most of Cowell's setup play, volleying over from close range and then striking the post with a side-footed effort from the center of the box.
Cowell almost had another stunning solo goal, too, only this time to be denied by the legs of Hrdina.
Instead, after Cowell departed early to deserved applause, it was his San Jose teammate Tsakiris who grabbed the second goal with a clever finish at the near post in the sixth minute of added time.
Real Madrid attacker Marco Asensio is in advanced talks to join Paris Saint-Germain as a free agent, sources have told ESPN.
The Spain international, whose contract expires in the summer, received a proposal to renew with Madrid that convinced him financially but he has decided to move on after a season in which he has started less than half of the club's LaLiga games.
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Sources told ESPN that Aston Villa, Juventus and AC Milan have also shown interest in the Mallorcan in recent months but the PSG proposal is currently the one that is proving most tempting to Asensio.
The good relationship between Jorge Mendes, Asensio's agent, and Luis Campos, PSG's sporting director, has been key in the negotiations, sources added.
PSG are planning an overhaul in the summer that will include the departure of Lionel Messi and the hiring of a coach to replace Christophe Galtier.
The Parisian team also want to part ways with Neymar and are looking for forwards to accompany Kylian Mbappe in attack, sources said. As a result, Asensio has emerged as an intriguing option because at 27 years old he would arrive with the best years of his career ahead of him and as a free agent.
More than the economic aspect, Asensio understood that his role at Madrid, in terms of minutes, was not going to change next season, hence his decision to leave the Santiago Bernabeu on June 30.
Debutant Das hits dashing hundred as Ireland toil in Essex warm-up
Ireland 38 for 2 trail Essex 343 (Das 132, Dockrell 74, Adair 62, Mayes 4-68) by 305 runs
Ireland play England at Lord's in a four-day Test on June 1 and this game represents their only match practice before that fixture. They arrived in England on Wednesday evening, though a delay in the arrival of their luggage forced them to cancel a planned training session the following day.
But it was Das, a product of Brentwood School who has already fielded as a substitute for England in Test cricket, who underpinned Essex's total of 343, reaching a 101-ball hundred before eventually falling to Andy McBrine's offspin.
McBrine came in for some rough treatment, conceding 98 runs in his 14 overs, as Essex scored at a run rate of nearly five an over across their first innings.
Paul Stirling missed the first day of the match to fulfil his commitments with Birmingham Bears in the T20 Blast, but will join up with the squad in Chelmsford ahead of the second day.
Gujarat Titans 233 for 3 (Gill 129, Sudharsan 43, Chawla 1-45) beat Mumbai Indians 171 (Suryakumar 61, Varma 43, Mohit 5-10) by 62 runs
Mohit, who hadn't bowled till the 14th over, used his slower balls to good effect and finished with figures of 2.2-0-10-5.
Unstoppable Gill
Despite scoring at least one four in every over from the second to fifth, Titans reached only 38 for no loss after five. Gill then latched onto Chris Jordan in the last over of the powerplay. The second legal delivery of the over was too short and sat up on this sticky pitch. Gill waited for it and pulled it with disdain over deep square leg. The next one was slightly short outside off. Gill once again showed no mercy and cut it ferociously to the cover boundary.
Luck too was on Gill's side. In the same Jordan over, he punched one uppishly to the right of mid-on where Tim David dived, got both hands to the ball but couldn't hold on to it. He was on 30 at that point.
Titans finished the powerplay on 50 for no loss but Wriddhiman Saha was struggling for timing. In the fourth over of the innings, Akash Madhwal had hit him on the helmet with a skiddy bouncer, and soon after Piyush Chawla had him stumped with a leg-side wide. It was the sixth time in 16 innings this season that Chawla struck in his first over of the match.
Gill brought up his fifty off 32 balls. And then he cut loose. In a space of nine balls, he hit five sixes and a four off Madhwal and Chawla. He didn't slow down even in the 90s; his second fifty took just 17 balls. Immediately after reaching his hundred, he smashed Cameron Green for 6, 4 and 6. By the time Gill holed out to deep midwicket, off Madhwal, Titans had reached 192 in the 17th over.
Titans retire out Sudharsan
All this happened while Sai Sudharsan was playing second fiddle to Gill. But with nine wickets in hand, Titans needed both batters to attack. The 18th and 19th overs combined went for just 16, after which Titans retired out Sudharsan who scored 43 off 31. Rashid replaced him in the middle and hit his first ball for four. Hardik Pandya then applied the finishing touch, hitting the last two balls of the innings for four and six.
Shami strikes twice in powerplay
Coming into this game, Mohammed Shami had represented Titans three times against Mumbai. On all three occasions, he went wicketless. Tonight, though, he struck twice inside the powerplay to put Mumbai on the back foot. Nehal Wadhera, who came in as Impact Player for Madhwal, was caught behind in the first over of the chase, and Rohit top-edged a pull in the third.
In between those two dismissals, Hardik hit Green on the left forearm with a short ball, forcing the batter to retire hurt. During the first innings, Ishan Kishan had walked off the field after Jordan's elbow hit him in the eye when the two were crossing each other. So when Rohit departed, leaving Mumbai 21 for 2, it felt like they were effectively 21 for 4. But Green came out to resume his innings later, and Kishan's injury had seemingly resulted in a concussion, so Mumbai replaced him with Vishnu Vinod.
Rashid, Mohit trump mighty Mumbai
Varma started by hitting two sixes in his first four balls, and then smashed Shami for four fours and a six in a 24-run over. He had moved to 43 off just 13 with 100% control over his shots. Hardik turned to Rashid in an attempt to put the brakes on the scoring rate. The spinner duly obliged his captain by bowling Varma when the batter tried to sweep him. It was a rare kind of delivery; the speed was less than 85kph. Rashid is usually way quicker.
At the fall of Varma's wicket, Green came out once again, and was looking dangerous. He and Suryakumar added 52 in 5.2 overs before Josh Little pinged his leg stump with a delivery that seamed in from good length.
Suryakumar, though, was still battling in the middle. He reached his fifty, off 33 balls, with a scoop-pull over the wicketkeeper's head. He brought down the equation to 79 needed from 34 balls before Mohit sent him packing. Two balls later, the seamer had Vinod caught at extra cover.
David was Mumbai's last hope. Hardik, as always, had saved Rashid's one over and brought him on in the 16th. With his third ball, Rashid trapped David lbw. The batter reviewed the decision but he couldn't have been more out. From the other end, Mohit cleaned up the tail to pick up his maiden five-for in T20 cricket.
Hemant Brar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
Rohit Sharma: 'Young batters coming through the biggest positive for us this season'
"I mean playing this game, qualifying as third in the tournament, you know, it gives us a lot of confidence," Rohit told the host broadcaster after the game.
"Our batting actually was the biggest positive," Rohit said. "Some of the younger players who have come through this tournament really well is a big positive for us, something that we can take into the next season and see what we can do with the squad."
"Yeah, look, it was a great total. Shubman batted really well. The wicket was really good. We thought, you know they got 20-25 runs extra. But you know with the batting line-up we had, we were quite positive once we went inside after the first half," Rohit said. "Couldn't stitch long partnerships. Greeny and Surya batted well in the middle, but we just lost our way there a little bit."
Rohit felt that because they lost three wickets, Mumbai didn't make the most of the powerplay, even as they raced to 72 after the first six overs.
"We thought about giving it a good crack. We wanted to be positive. And you know, you've got to make full use of the powerplay as well, which didn't go well for us. We lost a couple of wickets there and then, yeah, couldn't get that momentum which you actually want when you're chasing a target like that.
"But I thought Surya and Greeny batted well in the middle, got something for us there. But yeah, you know what? We wanted one batter just like what Gujarat did, Shubman batted till the end. We wanted someone to go and bat and take the game till deep and you never know, anything can happen."
"Yeah, I mean, it's something that we didn't expect. He had a bit of a concussion there. I dont know how that happened, but yeah, it was a last-minute change," Rohit said. "But you know as a team you've got to adapt. That is something that we've been talking about since the start of the tournament.
"You've got to adapt to different conditions, different situations of the game. But yeah, I'm not going to look at that. We just didn't play well to win the game."
Vinod came out to bat in the 12th over, ahead of Tim David, and made 5 off 7 deliveries. Rohit said that decision was so that David could get a later point of entry, which seems more suited to his game.
"Tim through the season, we've given him a role, given him a certain situation of the game where he where he is going to bat. But yeah, I mean, look, we wanted Vishnu to come and play his game," Rohit said. "He is a good player. We have seen that. I have seen that personally. I mean, like I said, it didn't come off today. So I'm not going to look at any judgment that we made today went wrong. Its just that, you know, Gujarat came on top today."
Pakistan players awaiting clearance on MLC participation
A handful of Pakistan players are waiting to hear if they will be permitted to play in the inaugural season of Major League Cricket in the United States in July.
Two other players, who are national team regulars in both white-ball formats and are centrally contracted, have also been in talks with another franchise but are waiting to hear from the PCB whether they will be granted No-Objection Certificates (NOCs) to play in the tournament.
ESPNcricinfo understands that MLC's organisers have been in talks with the PCB in recent weeks to discuss the potential participation of Pakistan players. The PCB are thought to be evaluating the league and exploring the specific terms and conditions upon which NOCs may be granted. There are some suggestions that the PCB could ask for a fee in the region of USD$25,000 in exchange for an NOC. There is some anxiety from league organisers as to whether Pakistan players will be granted visas, though that is not believed to be a serious obstacle.
A more pressing obstacle to their potential participation will be the nature and, indeed, fate of Pakistan's July commitment in Sri Lanka. That series is currently a two-Test World Test Championship series which overlaps with MLC - the league takes place from July 13-30 at Grand Prairie Stadium in Texas. There is speculation that series may turn into an ODI series as preparation for the World Cup. If so the two centrally contracted players will likely not be able to play in the US as they would be required to appear for Pakistan.
Any appearance by Pakistani players would be significant because they have missed out on the two other big leagues launched in the UAE and South Africa, both with significant IPL franchise ownership. The ostensible reason for their absence from the ILT20 and the SA20 was because of a busy international home season for their top players. But there were also suggestions at the time that IPL franchise owners were reluctant to pick Pakistani players because of strained political ties between India and Pakistan - Pakistani players have not featured in the IPL since the inaugural season.
Four of the six MLC franchises have investors who own or co-own IPL teams, while Cricket Victoria and Cricket New South Wales have stakes in the other two.
Each team will only play five group games in the inaugural season, though MLC is likely to expand in future years.
Hardik on Gill's century: 'One of the finest innings I have seen in a T20 game'
When asked about the biggest change in Gill from last year, Hardik, his captain, said, "The clarity this year he has. The confidence which he is carrying is amazing. The innings which I saw today was one of the finest innings I have seen in a T20 game."
Gill made the highest individual score in the IPL playoffs - after being dropped on 30 in the powerplay. He struck seven fours and ten sixes during his stay and powered Titans to 233 for 3, which proved 62 too many for Mumbai.
"At no point of time he looked rushed, at no point he looked like he was not in control," Hardik said. "It looked as if someone was throwing down the balls and he was just hitting. He is a superstar and is going to do big things to franchise cricket and Indian cricket."
He is a superstar and is going to do big things to franchise cricket and Indian cricket
Hardik Pandya on Shubman Gill
"When things are not going the way I like," Hardik said, "he [Rashid] is someone who comes and changes momentum and makes sure we keep getting wickets. That's the beauty. We have spoken enough about Rashid but sometimes I am short of words for what he does."
Titans will now take on Chennai Super Kings for the title in Ahmedabad on Sunday. Hardik credited his team-mates for taking ownership while also acknowledging the effort they put in every day.
"My job is simple in the team - I make sure that the boys are in the right frame of mind and it starts from me. If I lead with example in my energy, it feeds off to the boys and that is something I look forward. Every individual takes ownership.
"A lot of hardwork has gone behind it. Irrelevant of the result, if we put our 100% and try our level best, the knockouts are fun it can go here or there."
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