I Dig Sports
INDIANAPOLIS — With 36 cars entered in the 103rdIndianapolis 500, Ben Hanley and DragonSpeed Racing were given little chance of making the 33-car field.
A lot of people were wrong.
Not only did Hanley make it, the DragonSpeed Chevrolet made the field easily during Saturday’s qualifying.
It’s rather remarkable that this FIA World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans Series team owned by Elton Julian and based in Jupiter, Fla., could enter the Indy 500 with little experience and easily get in the show.
Meanwhile, the famed McLaren team and two drivers from Carlin, which runs full time in the NTT IndyCar Series failed to qualify.
“It’s a massive relief,” Julian said. “It’s a big relief I think for both of us. I think for everybody. We expected to come and fight for the last row realistically, so there was always potential. We had a chance that maybe we could crack that and exceed our no-tow speeds during the week and thinking, ‘Well, maybe just maybe.’
“Little things make big differences, but sometimes little things make no difference. Sometimes you don’t gain any speed, you don’t gain any performance, and it’s easy to get frustrated. We had a little bit of that one day, but we stayed cool, and more important, Ben stayed cool, and we kept pretty much to the program, and here we are.”It took Hanley three attempts to get in the Indianapolis 500 starting lineup. He had an issue in his first attempt but did not panic.
The 34-year-old driver from England qualified with a four-lap average of 227.482 mph and will start 27thin Sunday’s 103rdIndianapolis 500.
“We got stuck in sixth gear on our first qualifying run, so that wasn’t helpful, especially the last two laps where I needed to downshift and we were stuck in sixth,” Hanley recalled. “We were just losing momentum every lap.
“But, obviously, we knew we could go a chunk quicker than our first effort, so it was always the plan to go again.
“And then we jumped up to 30th, which wasn’t enough because there was still plenty of time left, so other people were going to run. So again, I knew we were going to have to make another run. We made just a few small adjustments, and it came together really well for our last attempt. It was a big chunk for us.
“Even though it was small adjustments, this place is pretty special and unique, and tiny little changes, very, very small, has a big difference,” Hanley continued. “Those speeds, you don’t need to do much and the car gave me more confidence and was quicker. Take those two things together and we made a significant step forward. It was enough to make it straight through to the 500.”
Hanley and Julian hope to one day become full-time competitors in the NTT IndyCar Series.
When asked if it bothered them to hear most people predict they would be one of the three cars that would go home, Hanley was straightforward with his answer.
“No, because we weren’t planning on going home,” Hanley said. “I think that’s one of the key things that people can follow quite easily this week is we’ve never been at the top of the charts. More often in the bottom four. But it didn’t faze us and we knew our job, and we knew what we needed to do to get the job done, which our primary focus was make the race.
“So, whether that’s going through as we did Saturday, which is a fantastic achievement, we were just as ready to knuckle down Saturday night and try and make some more adjustments and come back Sunday and make it into the field,” he added. “We weren’t expecting to be in the top 10.
“But at the same time, we were working really hard and systematically to make the improvements to get us in the field.”
“It’s unrealistic to think you’re not in that group,” Julian said. “We’re fighting from the ropes. And we don’t plan on letting that mentality go away.”
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NEW YORK -- Behind the microphone for the last New York Rangers championship in 1994, John Davidson is now front and center to try to parade the Stanley Cup down Broadway again.
Davidson recalled 1994 as one of the best times of his life, and after moving from broadcasting to the front office with St. Louis and Columbus has returned home to oversee the Rangers' rebuilding process. The proud, big-spending Original Six franchise is in the midst of a rare youth movement, attempting to step back to make the leap from annual playoff team to perennial title contender.
General manager Jeff Gorton began that at the 2018 trade deadline and will remain in control of day-to-day operations. Davidson is now his boss as team president and wants to be the soul of the organization by charting the right course to return New York to prominence.
"There's a lot of work to be done here," Davidson said Wednesday when he was introduced as the 11th team president in franchise history. "There's no shortcuts. It's nothing but hard work, and it takes patience and resolve, and I really want to make sure that I use the word 'patience' and I use the word 'resolve,' because we're going to be in a battle here to get this club to be better. But you have to be patient when you go through a build like this."
Patience generally isn't part of the fabric of New York sports or the Rangers' MO. But Davidson said he is on the same page with owner James Dolan, president-turned-adviser Glen Sather, Gorton, and coach David Quinn on doing this right.
It helps that Davidson knows the Rangers inside out from parts of eight seasons as a goaltender and two decades as a broadcaster. This is a different challenge than the ones he undertook with the Blues and Blue Jackets, which seemed daunting at those times.
In some ways it's easier because Gorton already took the first few steps and Quinn established a standard for players as a good starting point.
"I like that the entire organization stated that they were going to rebuild," Davidson said. "There's no secrets to it. There's no, 'Well, we're going to do this, but don't tell anybody.' This is something that has been very transparent and that's a good way to go. There's a game plan in place. The foundation is being built."
Based on his success in building the foundation in St. Louis that has now become the basis for a Stanley Cup finalist, and ushering in an era of success in Columbus, Davidson looks like the perfect person to steer the Rangers' ship. Dolan said Davidson's "knowledge of the game, experience and passion for the Rangers made him the ideal choice."
Davidson isn't as "green" as he was when he took over the Blues in 2006, and the lessons Davidson learned from his first two front-office jobs should only help guide Gorton.
"I think it's going to be a huge benefit," Gorton said. "He's gone through it in two organizations. He's done everything in hockey. His experiences, just his even-keel way about him, it's going to be a great asset for us as we go through this process, there's no question about that."
The Rangers missed the playoffs the past two seasons and likely will again in 2019-20. But with the No. 2 draft pick and one of two potential stars -- Jack Hughes or Kaapo Kakko -- on the way, and youth and competitive balance so prominent in the NHL, Davidson isn't acting like this is a long-range rebuild.
"It can be done because of the youth that plays in this league now," Davidson said. "Obviously the sooner you win the better and that's the goal, but you have to do it the right way to get there."
Hockey Hall of Famer Brian Leetch, a key piece of that 1994 Rangers Stanley Cup team, believes Davidson has accumulated the right credentials in his previous two jobs to deliver another championship to New York.
"He's made the transition each step along the way," Leetch said. "He's admitted that each one wasn't seamless: You had to learn, you had to ask others for help. And each one he's made that transition and risen to the top at each level. To expect anything different would be wrong. I just think all those things together, and then the strong feelings that he has for New York City and the Rangers organization, just makes him the perfect fit at the right time."
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Duke tops Wake Forest for national title at NCAA Women's Championship
Published in
Golf
Wednesday, 22 May 2019 13:41
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Trailing in four of five matches on the back nine, Duke knew there was plenty of time in what became the longest day of the NCAA Women's Golf Championship.
Duke sent three of those matches to extra holes, won two of them and walked away with a seventh NCAA title.
Miranda Wang won the decisive match on the 20th hole when Letizia Bagnoli of Wake Forest tried to hit a fade around a tree with a fairway metal and pulled it into a creek. A final hour of nail-biting moments ended when Bagnoli quietly reached down to pick up Wang's ball and concede the par.
''All of us know this course, you need a lot of patience,'' Wang said. ''We've been through a lot. We know things turn around.''
They turned in Duke's favor, denying Wake Forest its first NCAA title and Jennifer Kupcho a storybook ending to her decorated career.
Kupcho, who won the NCAA individual title last year and the inaugural Augusta National Women's Amateur last month, had never trailed in any of her three matches until Duke sophomore Jaravee Boonchant made a 12-foot birdie on the 17th hole for her first lead of the match.
Boonchant nearly threw it away with a clunker of an approach that led to bogey on the 18th to go to overtime. But on the first hole, Kupcho pulled her tee shot into a hazard, hacked out and Boonchant didn't let her escape by making par to win in 19 holes.
''We've been working hard all year and it paid off,'' Boonchant said.
In the other match that went extra holes, Siyun Liu of Wake Forest made birdie to give the Demon Deacons their second match.
It was the first time three matches went extra holes in the championship round since the NCAA switched to this format in 2015. Making the final day even longer was a six-hour rain delay Tuesday at Blessings Golf Club that forced the semifinals and championship match to be played Wednesday.
Duke outlasted defending champion Arizona in the semifinal, with freshman Gina Kim delivering the winning point with a fairway bunker shot to 2 feet. Wake Forest had no trouble against Auburn, winning four of the matches and tying the other.
Wake appeared to be on its way, leading in four matches, though all of them were tight enough to turn quickly.
Ana Belac went out first and put the first point on the board for Duke with a 5-and-3 win over Vanessa Knecht. Emilia Migliaccio, who won all three of her matches for Wake Forest, hit her approach to 2 feet for birdie for a 1-up victory over Kim to keep a fourth match from going extra holes.
It all came down to Wang, who broke into an early celebration on the 18th hole when her 10-foot birdie putt for the win caught the left edge of the cup and spun out. Both players were in the fairway on the par-5 second hole, with Bagnoli blocked slightly by a tree. Her teammates lining the left side of the fairway watched it go long and left and into the creek. Wang went just right of the green with her second and Bagnoli was short of options.
She eventually took a drop, playing short of the green and her pitch over bunkers for par settled 3 feet away. Wang chipped some 20 feet beyond the hole and lagged it to 2 feet. The par was conceded and the celebration was on.
Duke now trails only Arizona State, which has eight NCAA titles. Duke last won a national title in 2014, the final year of stroke play.
''We wanted to be on this stage,'' Wake Forest coach Kim Lewellen said. ''It was an outstanding match. They came out on top, but I'm proud of these young ladies. We've got two freshmen and a junior. We've got another chance at it.''
It won't include Kupcho, who was in tears. She earned an LPGA card late last year and deferred it until after college. Kupcho, along with NCAA champion Maria Fassi of Arkansas, make their pro debuts next week in the U.S. Women's Open.
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Show goes on at Colonial Country Club with Charles Schwab as sponsor
Published in
Golf
Wednesday, 22 May 2019 14:12
FORT WORTH, Texas - Colonial Country Club is the longest-running host of a PGA Tour event played on its original site, a fact that seemed in jeopardy not too long ago.
Local companies backed the tournament last year when it was called the Fort Worth Invitational following an upscale grocer's withdrawal as title sponsor two years into a six-year contract.
Now the event that was first played at Hogan's Alley in 1946 is on solid footing again as the Charles Schwab Challenge. The tournament starts Thursday.
''Been here since 1946. Been in essentially the same spot in our schedule. Been a lot of change in our schedule. This hasn't changed. I don't see it changing,'' PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said Wednesday at Colonial. ''It's the history, the tradition, the passionate fan base, the success we've had, the impact we've had. We'll do everything we can to make certain these events are here.''
The Dallas-Fort Worth Tour stops, the Byron Nelson and Colonial, were split up this year with the PGA Championship's move up to May from late summer. The Nelson two weeks ago was played at Trinity Forest Golf Club for the second time after moving from the TPC Four Seasons.
Nine of the world's top 20 players are at Colonial, topped by third-ranked Justin Rose, the defending champion .
While PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka and runner-up Dustin Johnson, the top two players, are taking a week off, five of the top 10 are in North Texas. Koepka, who at 17 under was the 2018 Colonial runner-up three strokes behind Rose, was one of only two top-20 players at the Nelson two weeks ago.
Financial services provider Charles Schwab & Co. was already deeply involved in golf when it became title sponsor at Colonial, where Hall of Famer and Fort Worth native Ben Hogan was a club member and won the inaugural PGA Tour event for first of his five wins on his home course.
Charles Schwab has a four-year agreement through 2022 with an option to add to that.
''We love being here in Fort Worth,'' Monahan said. ''We love the support we get. And knowing that this is a brand that's all about elevation and about innovation and challenging, it's a perfect time to come in. This event has a great future, and we know you're going to push it along with us to new heights in the years ahead.''
On the PGA Tour Champions, for players over 50, the Charles Schwab Cup is awarded to the season's top player. The company on Wednesday made a $5 million donation to the First Tee program to help the organization expand its programs and deepen its impact on young people in Texas.
After Dean and Deluca reneged on a title sponsorship after two years, local companies such as American Airlines, AT&T, XTO Energy and Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway supported Colonial Country Club in putting on the tournament last year.
Jordan Spieth, winless since the 2017 British Open, is coming off his first top-20 finish of the season when he tied for third last week at the PGA.
While Spieth played his first Tour event as a 16-year-old amateur at the Nelson in 2010, the Dallas-born player also considers Colonial a hometown tournament. Spieth won the 2016 Colonial.
Ryan Palmer is playing on his home course, the one where caddie James Edmondson has won multiple club championships. Palmer's only PGA Tour victory since 2010 came in the two-man team event with Jon Rahm, though his four top-10 finishes in 14 starts this season are already his most since 2015.
At Colonial, Palmer missed the cut last year, after finishing tied for 70th in 2017, a year after his Colonial-best finish of third. He has missed the cut four times at Hogan's Alley, and has an average finish of 33rd in his other 11 appearances, including three top 10s.
''It's hard at times because the pressure I put on myself and you want to play so well, and so many of my friends and family are here at Colonial Country Club,'' Palmer said. ''James and I both play regularly. I guess this is our fifth major.''
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Weather, Oak Hill combine for tough test at Senior PGA Championship
Published in
Golf
Wednesday, 22 May 2019 14:22
PITTSFORD, N.Y. - It didn't take long for Jay Haas to be reminded of how gusting winds can wreak havoc on players attempting to navigate the narrow fairways of Oak Hill Country Club's East Course.
''Got here on Sunday night and played nine holes Monday, and it was blowing, what, 25, 30 (miles per hour),'' Haas said with a laugh Wednesday, a day before the Senior PGA Championship opens.
''I couldn't wait to get off the golf course,'' he added. ''I was making bogeys and doubles on every hole. It was pretty discouraging.''
In some ways, the 65-year-old's experience was no different than his previous visit to the Rochester suburbs 11 years ago. That's when Haas overcame frigid conditions, heavy wind gusts and a one-stroke final-round deficit to finish with a 7-over 287 and win his second Senior PGA title.
And no, 7 over is not a misprint.
''There's not many tournaments that you can be trailing by a stroke, shoot 4 over, no birdies and win the tournament,'' Haas said. ''That's a testament to how difficult the golf course was playing that week.''
No need to remind Bernhard Langer, who shot a final-round 6 over to finish second to Haas all those years ago.
''I think that was some of the highest scoring and most difficult conditions I've ever experienced anywhere for four days in a row,'' said the 61-year-old, who has one victory among his five top-10 finishes this season and ranks second on the money list. ''This golf course is very difficult even if you have good weather.''
It shouldn't be any different this time at the $3.25 million major, of which $585,000 goes to the winner. The 6,800-yard course is notable for its narrow fairways, tiny greens and an unforgiving rough that places a premium on hitting it straight off the tee.
While temperatures are finally warming after an unseasonably rainy and chilly start to spring in western New York, the forecast for the next four days is all over the map.
There is the possibility for severe thunderstorms with wind gusts approaching 40 mph for the opening round Thursday. The forecast Friday is more settled, though about 10-degrees cooler, with temperatures in the mid-60s expected. And then there are more storms forecast for the weekend.
The weather and the course's stingy reputation led to several competitors projecting an even-par 280 to be the winning score.
Colin Montgomerie wasn't surprised by Haas' finish in 2008, which remains the highest score in relation to par to win the Senior PGA.
''If the weather was at all inclement, that's a hell of a score,'' Montgomerie said.
''You can't play this course from the rough. You just can't do it,'' added Montgomerie, a two-time Senior PGA champion and member of the European Ryder Cup team that rallied to beat the United States at Oak Hill in 1995. ''Bogeys are going to happen. You're going to miss the fairway. Make a bogey. Don't make it a double and get on with it.''
The field of 156 includes Scott McCarron, who enters the weekend with two victories and six top-10 finishes while leading the Champions Tour money list at just under $1 million.
And then there's Steve Stricker, who is splitting time between the PGA and Champions tours. Stricker was planning to compete at Colonial on the PGA Tour this weekend before electing to head to Oak Hill after winning the Champions Tour's first major - The Regions Tradition - two weeks ago.
He will be competing in his third major in three weeks, making the six-hour cross-state drive from Long Island after missing the cut by a stroke at the PGA Championship at Bethpage last weekend.
NOTES: Haas is playing Oak Hill for the sixth time and was honored by having his name engraved on a plaque and placed on a tree on Oak Hill's ''Hill of Fame,'' which circles the 13th hole. Among those previously honored were Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Nancy Lopez, Bob Hope and President Gerald Ford. ... Paul Broadhurst is the defending Senior PGA champion after shooting a 19-under 265 at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, Michigan. ... Oak Hill will have a new look when it hosts the PGA Championship in four years. The East Course is undergoing major renovations starting in August in a move to return it to its original Donald Ross design after changes were made to holes 5, 6 and 15 in the late 1970s. The course is scheduled to reopen in May 2020.
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Duke digs deep to close curtain on Kupcho, Wake Forest in NCAA women’s final
Published in
Golf
Wednesday, 22 May 2019 16:20
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Jennifer Kupcho came back to school for this moment.
The Wake Forest senior deferred her LPGA membership this spring in hopes of leading the Demon Deacons to their first NCAA team title, and Wednesday at Blessings Golf Club, she and her teammates were on the cusp of achieving their ultimate goal.
But storied Duke University, chasing a seventh national championship, had other plans. The Blue Devils went down to Arkansas and stole victory away from Kupcho and the Deacons in an extra-hole thriller.
Three matches went past the 18th hole, with Duke sophomore Miranda Wang earning the clinching point in a 3-2 triumph on the second playoff hole, the par-5 15th, after Wake freshman Letizia Bagnoli snap-hooked her second shot into the penalty area.
With Bagnoli facing a bogey putt, Wang calmly lagged a birdie roll close and was conceded the winning par. As Kupcho watched in tears, Wang’s teammates mobbed her on the green in celebration.
“I couldn't feel more proud than I do right now,” said Duke’s head coach of 35 seasons, Dan Brooks, who got choked up talking about what his team had just accomplished, fighting through weather delays, multi-round days and close-calls.
“It's been a heck of a week.”
Duke’s seventh national title – its first since 2014 and first in the match-play format – ended a four-year winless gap that shockingly spanned the decorated career of former Duke great Leona Maguire. Maguire, a two-time winner and money leader on the Symetra Tour this season, was a two-time Annika Award recipient in college, yet she had never gotten the Blue Devils past the semifinals in three trips to match play.
The Blue Devils’ Achilles heel during the Maguire era – shaky play from the bottom of the lineup – became a strength this year.
“The cool thing about this team is, you know, we went into all of our tournaments with the idea that any one of them individually could win … and that's the kind of team that is a lot of fun [to coach],” Brooks said. “You're going to get contribution [from everyone]. It makes the pairing party a lot easier, too, because we really don't have to sweat much on who plays who.”
On a team featuring four top-50-ranked players, Wang, at No. 148 in Golfstat, was the most unlikely of heroes. The five-spot sophomore missed the final four tournaments of her freshman season with a knee injury. She didn’t notch a top-10 finish this season and skipped this week’s practice round after injuring her right wrist moving out of her dorm.
She carried a bag of ice and an 0-2 match-play record to the first tee Wednesday before falling 2 down after five holes. As Wang held on with halve after halve, Brooks made the executive decision to catch up with Wang on the back nine and walk with her the rest of the way.
“Miranda and I have had a good thing going in the last two months where she has made some changes in the way she thinks out here, and I thought I could possibly affect the change by going with her,” Brooks said. “I felt like if I could get that win, you’ve got some heavy hitters playing against each other that could swing [those matches] one way or another.”
In Wednesday morning’s semifinal match against defending national champion Arizona, Wang nearly came back from a 4-down deficit. She took confidence from that and won Nos. 13 and 15 to square the match, setting up her eventual comeback.
“I was like, ‘I’m going to do this for my team,’” Wang said.
Her teammates reciprocated the effort.
Junior Ana Belac receives a text message from Maguirie before nearly every round. Maguire’s message to Belac before Wednesday’s final was, “Go get it.” Belac went 3-0, capping her week with a 5-and-4 dispatch of Vanessa Knecht to give Duke its first point of the championship match.
Wake Forest’s Emilia Migliaccio also went 3-0 and gave the Demon Deacons their first point with a stiff approach and birdie on No. 18 to defeat Duke freshman Gina Kim, who earlier that morning had delivered an impressive approach on the same hole to set up a match-clinching birdie for the Blue Devils.
Virginia Elena Carta, the 2016 NCAA individual champion and lone senior, is known as the team’s ice-breaker. She led off in each of the three sessions and went 2-1. She prevailed in 24 holes in the quarterfinals and again went into extras Wednesday afternoon, though she ultimately fell to Siyun Liu in 20 holes.
With two Wake points on the board and Wang in a battle, Duke’s top-ranked player, sophomore Jaravee Boonchant, needed to win her match against Kupcho. Boonchant faced the opposing team’s best player all week – she lost to Stanford’s Andrea Lee in the quarters and then fell to Arizona’s Haley Moore in the semis.
But Brooks remained confident that Boonchant, the squad’s only first-team All-American, could finally deliver.
“I think we'd all agree that we'd put money on her,” Brooks said.
Kupcho had not trailed for 48 holes before Boonchant birdied the par-3 17th to take a 1-up lead. Though Kupcho clawed back with a winning par on No. 18, the world’s No. 1-ranked amateur hooked her drive at the first into the hazard. Boonchant routinely made par to send Kupcho packing.
“There are no words to describe it,” Kupcho said. “… It’s the end of my college career. It’s hard to swallow, but I’ve gotten a bunch of texts and I know that I have a big professional career ahead of me.”
Kupcho will tee it up in next week’s U.S. Women’s Open, her first event as a pro. She’ll leave behind an impressive college and amateur career that included last year's NCAA individual title, three first-team All-America awards and numerous school records.
“When people think of women’s golf at Wake Forest, they definitely are going to think of Jennifer Kupcho,” said Wake’s first-year head coach Kim Lewellen.
Though Kupcho could barely compose herself to reflect on Wednesday's heartbreak, she has no regrets. Kupcho’s unwavering decision to see her college career to the end paid massive dividends. She gained national notoriety and captured hearts everywhere by winning the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur, the highlight of a “whirlwind” spring, as described by her dad, Michael Kupcho.
“I think that the world has seen it,” Lewellen said, “… she's impacted women's golf by winning at Augusta National, Wake Forest University by being a national champion, but also by deferring her LPGA status to be here with her team and help us get to the final match.”
Kupcho’s winning walk-off never happened. The storybook ending she had hoped would conclude with glory? Well, it did.
The moment just didn't belong to her and her teammates, it belonged to Duke.
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Borussia Dortmund have signed Thorgan Hazard from Borussia Monchengladbach for a reported transfer fee of €25.5 million, excluding add-ons.
Thorgan, who has signed a five-year contract with Dortmund, becomes the first Hazard to move this summer with his older brother Eden linked with a transfer from Chelsea to Real Madrid.
"We are delighted, Thorgan has opted for Borussia Dortmund with his full conviction," BVB sporting director Michael Zorc said. "He's an experienced Bundesliga player and a Belgium international. He will help us with his pace and his nose for goals."
HA⚡️ARD pic.twitter.com/1tQniD6gkP
— Borussia Dortmund (@BlackYellow) May 22, 2019
Like his brother Eden, Hazard had been on the books at Chelsea, but left the club for Gladbach in 2014, initially on a loan and then on a permanent transfer. In his five years for the Foals, Hazard contributed 46 goals and a further 44 assists in 182 appearances across all competitions.
"I am thankful for five great years at Gladbach," Hazard said, adding that it was time to make the next step in his career. "I am proud to be able to play for Borussia Dortmund, a top club with incredible fans."
Hazard becomes Dortmund's second transfer this summer. Earlier this week, BVB signed Hoffenheim and Germany left-back Nico Schulz for a similar fee and soon after signing Hazard they announced a deal had been struck to sign Germany international Julian Brandt from Bayer Leverkusen.
The Bundesliga runners-up have said they finally want to break Bayern Munich's seven-year-long dominance of German football next term and are closing in on adding Barcelona defender Mateu Morey.
Other than United States international Christian Pulisic, who has joined Chelsea for €64m, no player has left the club yet.
However, former Manchester United midfielder Shinji Kagawa and 2014 World Cup winner Andre Schurrle are among those deemed surplus to requirements.
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Spin to define Australia's World Cup - Ricky Ponting
Published in
Cricket
Wednesday, 22 May 2019 22:54
Ricky Ponting has declared that Australia's World Cup chances will be defined by how well Aaron Finch's team use spin bowling and also bat against it, having only recently placed fresh emphasis on this component of their ODI set-up after ignoring it for some years.
Part of Justin Langer's coaching group as an assistant for the tournament, Ponting provides enormous experience both of playing in World Cups - the 1996, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011 editions - but also winning three in a row from 1999 to 2007. Finch, Steven Smith, David Warner, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc, as well as assistant coach Brad Haddin, were all part of the victorious team at the 2015 tournament on home soil.
That success was underpinned largely by top order runs and Starc's furiously fast, hyper-aggressive bowling, with the Australians choosing their specialist spin bowler Xavier Doherty for only one match in the entire tournament. However this time around, Adam Zampa and Nathan Lyon loom as key components of the team, while Ponting also pointed out that the proliferation of spin bowlers among the world's leading teams in the past three years have also raised the emphasis on playing spin bowling adroitly.
"The thing that will define Australia's success in the World Cup is, one, how well they bowl spin and, two, how well they play it," Ponting told The Telegraph. "That's been their Achilles' heel the last 12 or 18 months. With [Adam] Zampa bowling well now, Nathan Lyon's obviously in the squad and Glenn Maxwell's done a good job with the ball whenever he's played.
"And I think some of our middle order are probably slightly better players of spin now than they were 12 or 18 months ago. With Warner there now and Steve Smith coming back in, the middle order looks a lot better against spin bowling than it probably was."
"Australia's got a very proud history. I know that'll be something that will be spoken about within the group." Ricky Ponting
Smith and Warner have returned to Australia's set-up after 12-month bans over the ball tampering scandal in South Africa last year. Ponting acknowledged the level of criticism the pair were likely to attract from English crowds, but said it was more important to see signs that both Smith and Warner were finding form at the right time.
"They're both playing really well. Steve Smith still thinks he's not probably 100% fit just yet - but he's not far away. And Warner's been the dominant batsman in the IPL," Ponting said. "Those two coming in, obviously they're class players - they'll have their fair share of issues to deal with from the crowds and stuff when they get over there. But they're big boys. They've been there and seen it all before. I'm sure they'll be fine."
Assessing the way that a successful team would navigate the tournament, which is using a round robin and semi-finals format for the first time since the 1992 event in Australia and New Zealand, Ponting said that Finch's team could recall past Australian victories to provide inspiration and knowledge of the need to avoid peaking too early.
"I guess that's probably one of the reasons they've got me involved - having been around some successful World Cup campaigns," Ponting said. "Tournament play is a different thing, it's not just another five-game series or three-game series. This is all about a pretty long tournament of one-day cricket.
"You've got to find a way to build your way into the tournament and make sure you're playing your best cricket at the back alley. That's one thing Australian teams have always done. They've tended to play their best cricket in the World Cups and when it has mattered in the big games.
"Australia's got a very proud history. I know that'll be something that will be spoken about within the group. But it's also a chance for this current group of players to make a name for themselves on the world stage and a chance for them all to become World Cup winners as well."
As captain, Finch had faced plenty of speculation over his place during an extended run of low scores. But the team's unexpected series win in India was accompanied by the first signs that Finch was returning to batting touch, and a subsequent series win over Pakistan in the UAE brought runs for the entire top order before it was bolstered by Smith and Warner.
"The fact that Aaron Finch has just had a bit of success lately as captain and had got himself back into the runs after a pretty lean 12 months with the bat, that'll give him a lot of confidence going into this World Cup," Ponting said. "To beat India in India for him as a captain is a big feather in his cap."
"They've got a really good chance - I've been saying that for 12 months. It looks like a lot of the work that Justin and the senior players have done around the group is starting to pay off."
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The NBA has made the late decision to cancel the NBA Global Camp, a showcase for draft-eligible prospects from outside the United States that was scheduled for May 30 to June 2 in Monaco.
"We have cancelled the NBA Global Camp 2019 due to logistical issues and other contributing factors that jeopardized our ability to successfully conduct the camp," NBA executive vice president of basketball operations Kiki VanDeWeghe said in a statement to ESPN. "The camp will return in the future."
The Global Camp was a new event that came under the NBA umbrella for the first time in 2018, essentially becoming the international version of the NBA combine, with interviews, medical examinations, drills and scrimmages conducted in a similar format to the draft combine in Chicago.
It was spun off of the longtime Adidas EuroCamp event that was conducted annually in Treviso, Italy, starting in 2003, but was abandoned by the sneaker company in the wake of the FBI investigation into college basketball corruption. The NBA elected to officially take over the camp in April 2018, hoping to use it as a vehicle to promote the league on a global scale and also provide exposure for their academies.
"Twenty-five percent of our league are international players," VanDeWeghe told ESPN at the time. "Some of the best players in the NBA are internationals. That will only grow. It's a big world. The NBA is expanding globally. That's an important part. We're invested in academies around the world; we have seven of those currently. Having the ability to spread the knowledge of basketball, to provide great training against great competition -- this is a natural part of that."
After conducting the camp in Treviso last year for its inaugural event, the Global Camp was moving to Monaco this year -- and many NBA teams, players, families, agents and basketball industry executives already have booked their travel to the exotic but expensive destination.
Sources say that confusion over which venues actually were booked by the organizers are among the key reasons for the last-minute cancellation. AS Monaco Basket, a professional team that competes in the French first division, said it was not consulted about the availability of its arena, which was slated to host the Global Camp.
After starting the season 8-9, AS Monaco won 16 of its last 17 games and finished the league in second place. Should the team advance past the quarterfinals of the French playoffs starting on Friday, the arena will be unavailable to the NBA for the dates of the Global Camp due to television production obligations and practice schedules for the teams slated to play in the semifinals, a source told ESPN.
Two auxiliary gyms, which typically are used for high school and amateur league basketball games because of limited seating and infrastructure, would have been the main venues available, something that, sources say, the NBA deemed unacceptable once the extent of the problem was fully discovered.
The decision to withdraw leaves a significant void in the scouting calendar for teams and players alike. A number of international agents told ESPN they only elected to enter their players' names into the draft pool in hopes they would be selected to play at the Global Camp, partially explaining why a record-breaking number of international players were on the early-entry list.
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NBA Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert and MVP finalists Giannis Antetokounmpo and Paul George were the leading vote-getters for the All-Defensive first team.
The Boston Celtics' Marcus Smart and the Milwaukee Bucks' Eric Bledsoe rounded out the first team that was announced Wednesday.
Gobert finished with 97 first-team points and 196 points and as a result earned himself a $500,000 bonus from the Jazz. This is the Utah center's third straight first-team selection.
George, an Oklahoma City Thunder forward, had 96 first-team votes and 195 points, followed by Bucks swingman Antetokounmpo (94, 193).
Smart and Bledsoe both earned their first All-Defensive team selections.
The second team included the Golden State Warriors' Draymond Green and Klay Thompson, who earned his first selection. They were joined by the Toronto Raptors' Kawhi Leonard, the Philadelphia 76ers' Joel Embiid and New Orleans Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday, who earned a $100,000 bonus for the honor.
The teams were selected by a panel of 100 writers and broadcasters.
ESPN's Bobby Marks and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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