(MIZ)—A historic Missouri Tiger men’s basketball season has come to an end with a disappointing 15-point loss to Princeton in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The Tigers couldn’t threes and couldn’t buy offensive rebounds and the Princeton defense neutralized Kobe Brown and D’Moi Hodge, the Tigers’ one-two punch in their win over Utah State.

Princeton’s 15-point win is the largest win margin for a 15^th seed in NCAA Tournament hsitoryl.

Missouri was 6 for 33 from the outside and finished the season at 25-10.

The men’s team will be remembered for over-achieving, predicted in the pre-season conference polls to finish 11^th.  But they couldn’t make it to the Sweet Sixteen, something Missouri hasn’t done since 2009.

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Missouri’s women’s team played Kansas in Lawrence’s Allen Field House last night.  The second round game was the first time the two teams had played each other since Missouri won 80-65 in Lawrence in February, 2012 but it hardly provided any great memories for Mizzou fans.

The Jayhawks pounded the Lady Tigers 75-47. Missouri never scored more than 15 points in a quarter and has ony six in the third.  Missouri finishes 18-14.

They’re 54-62 in the last four years. Coach Robin Pingeton, who finished her 13^th year as head coach this year,  promises an aggressive recruitment effort through the transfer portal to go with an incoming recruit class she considers solid.

(WBC)—The World Baseball Classic is nearing its end with the United States ready to play for the championship against Japan tonight.  Japan got a walk-off double in the ninth inning to beat Mexico 6-5 last night.

Team USA hammered Cuba Sunday night 14-2 with Cardinals stars, uh, starring.  Paul Goldschmidt’s two-run homer in the first inning put USA in the lead., In the fourth, Nolan Arenado drove in Goldschmidt with a triple and then scored the teams’ seventh run on a wild pitch. He left the game in the fifth inning when a pitch hit him on the right hand but an X-ray showed no fracture. The Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr., took his place in the lineup.

Goldschmidt drove in two more runs in the fifth inning.

Adam Wainwright went four innings, gave up a run in the first inning but shut Cuba down in the other three. Miles Mikolas went the next four and also gave up just one run.

Witt’s appearance last night was only the fourth time he’s been in a game. He’d had only two at-bats before last night. While his lack of playing time might disappoint Royals fans, a look at the roster indicates why he has watched more than he has played.  Treat Turner, who has put on a power show in the last two games in particular, is the top shortstop—which is Witt’s normal position.  Nolan Arenado is anchored at third.  And there are plenty of senior guys for DH.

Royals catcher Salvatore Perez has had a solid tournament for Team Venezuela.  In its win over Puerto Rico, Perez went 4 for 4 with a home run, five runs batted in, and three runs scored. Venezuela won the game 9-6.

(IN THE CAMPS)—The Cardinals go into their last days in Florida with the best record in the Grapefruit League, at 13-6 despite their contributions to the WBC.  They’re a game ahead of Boston.

In the Cactus League, the Royals are 16-9 and have half-game leads on the Dodgers and the Angels who have slightly better winning percentages but have played fewer games.

Opening day is March 30. All teams are scheduled to play that day. It’s the first time every team in both leagues is opening on the same day since 1968.

(NASCAR)—The first 17 cars finished within one-second behind Joey Logano Sunday at Atlanta.   Logano got a big push on the backstretch during the final lap from Christopher Bell that got hm past Brad Keselowski, who had his best finish in a couple of years with his Roush-Fenway-Keselowski Racing. Bell was third.

Logano had dominated the race, starting from pole and leading 140 of the 260 laps but Keselowski had taken the lead on lap 231 and had skillfully blocked all challengers until Logano got the bump from Bell that gave him the lead and his first win of the year.

NASCAR takes to the Circuit of the Americas road course in Texas next week.

(F1)—Red Bull’s Sergio Perez has won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix but some Formula 1 bureaucratic blundering and some churlishness by Perez’s teammate took some of shine off of things.   Perez finished five seconds ahead of defending F1 champion Max Verstappen, who had little to say about his team’s second straight 1-2 finish to open the season.

“The whole feeling in the team, everyone is happy,” he said afterwards. “But personally, I’m not happy because I’m not here to be second…”  He was still upset because of a drive shaft failure during qualifying that left him 15^th on the starting grid.  He passed everybody but his teammate and posted the fastest lap—which gave him an extra point that keeps him ahead of Perez in the standings.

Two-time F1 champion Fernando Alonso thought he had the 100^th podium finish of his career until race stewards slapped him after the race with a pit penalty. The penalty later was overturned, she he finished third after all.

Formula One is off next weekend before the Australian Grand Pix on April 2.

(INDYCAR)—INDYCAR is quiet until it races through the streets of Long Beach on April 16.