The Latest: ACC men's hoops tourney going back to Greensboro

By Associated Press 29 April 2020, 12:00AM

The Latest on the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on sports around the world:

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The Atlantic Coast Conference will bring its men’s basketball tournament back to Greensboro, North Carolina in 2023 after this year’s tournament there was canceled near the midway point due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The league announced the move Tuesday.

The ACC is headquartered in Greensboro, which has hosted the tournament 27 times, the most of any location. Last month’s event was canceled after two days of play, with regular-season champion Florida State being presented the tournament championship trophy in accordance with league bylaws without even playing a game.

In a statement, commissioner John Swofford said returning to Greensboro in 2023 was “the right thing to do” while calling the relationship between the ACC and the city “extremely special.”

The ACC Tournament will be held in Washington next year and in Brooklyn in 2022.

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Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt says the school will cut nearly $7 million from the athletic budget in the upcoming school year, including eliminating performance bonuses for himself and Red Raiders coaches.

The cuts are needed because of the economic shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and deeper cuts may be needed if college football can’t play a full season, Hocutt told A-J Media in Lubbock, Texas.

Hocutt did not say the school was cutting any jobs or sports. Most of the cuts will come from reducing administrative and operational expenses. Eliminating the bonuses for the coaches and himself will save nearly $2 million, he said.

“The starting point here is simply we’re not spending any money right now that we don’t have to, and we’re not spending much,” Hocutt said.

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Swin Cash and Kyle Korver are among the guests on the debut of a new NBA weekly roundtable series that will discuss how minority communities are being impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

The roundtable will be shown on the NBA’s Twitter page. Former NBA player Caron Butler will host.

The roundtable coincides with several teams and players directing efforts to help meet the needs of those neighborhoods.

Cash was a three-time WNBA champion player and now is the vice president of basketball operations for the New Orleans Pelicans.

She says players “have really just tried to focus in on saying, ‘Look, we want to help the people that are losing their jobs, but we also know that there is a serious crisis dealing with the African-American and minority community.’”

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The French government says the rest of the soccer and rugby seasons won’t be completed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe says “the 2019-20 season of professional sport ... won’t be able to resume.”

The top two divisions in French soccer both had 10 league games left to play. Rugby’s Top 14 league had reached the semifinal stage.

France is expected to end its lockdown on May 11.

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The French Rugby Federation has announced a support package worth 35 million euros ($38 million) to help ease the financial concerns of its amateur clubs during the coronavirus pandemic.

Amateur rugby competitions in France were canceled for the season on March 27 after strict social measures were put in place to deal with the outbreak.

The FFR has now arranged a package that will see 14 million euros ($15 million) go to clubs to cover losses and fees for this season and a further 21 million euros ($22.5 million) for the 2020-21 season.

It means they will not have to pay for such things as insurance costs and license fees.

Rugby officials are waiting to see what rules the government sets out following the end of lockdown before definitively deciding if a resumption is possible in the country’s top league.

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Athletes in track and field can apply for money from a $500,000 fund to help them get through the coronavirus pandemic.

World Athletics and the International Athletics Foundation have launched the fund to help athletes who have lost income because competitions are suspended.

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe says the fund will try “to help as many athletes as possible.”

It’s unclear when or if the track season can begin. Diamond League meets and the Olympics have been postponed.

Coe says the fund was the idea of 1,500-meter world record holder Hicham El Guerrouj. The Moroccan runner will be part of the team examining applications from athletes.

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The end of the Argentine league soccer season is expected to be ratified by the national association executive committee.

AFA president Claudio Tapia says there will be no relegation until 2022 to ease club finances burdened by the coronavirus pandemic.

The end of player contracts on June 30 will be honored.

Boca Juniors won the title shortly before the AFA suspended all soccer on March 15.

How teams qualify for the 2021 Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana is also to be resolved.

Tapia tells TNT Sports “everyone wants to play again when we can, and if we have to play in January because we couldn’t do it earlier in the year, we will.”

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More AP sports: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

By Associated Press 29 April 2020, 12:00AM

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