FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT
B3
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • FrIday, MarcH 26, 2021
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NBA
MEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL | NCAA TOURNAMENT
Blazers trade for
Raptors’ Powell
PORTLAND — The
Portland Trail Blazers have
acquired shooting guard
Norman Powell in a trade
with the Toronto Raptors
in exchange for Gary Trent
Jr. and Rodney Hood.
Powell, 27, is averaging
a career-best 19.6 points
per game this season and
is shooting 43.5% from
beyond the arc. He scored
a career-high 43 points
against the Pistons earlier
this month.
“We are a 3-point
shooting team. He’ll get
good looks. And I think
that really fits in with
our style of play in some
ways,” Blazers coach Terry
Stotts said.
Powell, who had a
player option for next
season, was expected to
instead test free agency
this summer.
He was the 46th over-
all pick in the 2015 draft
out of UCLA by the Mil-
waukee Bucks, who dealt
his draft rights to the Rap-
tors. Powell won an NBA
title with Toronto in 2019.
“He’s got a lot of ex-
perience, winning expe-
rience,” Stotts said. “He
knows what it takes to
win in this league. And
that’s why we got him.
He’s ready to help us
compete at a high level.”
The Blazers (26-18) are
sitting in sixth place in the
Western Conference, tied
with the Denver Nuggets
after defeating Miami on
Thursday night.
Trent, a restricted free
agent after this season, is
averaging a career-best
15 points per game. The
22-year-old is in his third
season. He was selected
37th overall in the 2018
draft by Sacramento.
Hood, 28, has aver-
aged 4.7 points and 19.1
minutes in 38 games this
season, with five starts.
— Associated Press
NFL
Seahawks, Dunlap
agree on deal
RENTON, Wash. — Less
than three weeks after
being released in a salary
cap move, Carlos Dunlap
is returning to the Seattle
Seahawks on a two-year
deal. Dunlap’s agent Drew
Rosenhaus confirmed
Thursday night the sides
agreed on a new con-
tract that is expected to
be worth more than $16
million.
It’s a major victory for
Seattle bringing back its
top pass rusher on a day
filled with news about its
defensive line.
Earlier Thursday, the
team officially announced
the signing of free agent
defensive end Kerry Hy-
der Jr., but also seemed
on the verge of saying
goodbye to veteran de-
fensive tackle Jarran Reed.
Reed tweeted a goodbye
to Seattle fans amid re-
ports he could be traded
or released due to his con-
tract situation.
Dunlap was released
because Seattle desper-
ately needed salary cap
space and letting go of
the pass rusher saved the
Seahawks $14.1 million.
But there was optimism
about bringing Dunlap
back to Seattle depending
on what the free agent
market yielded.
Dunlap, 32, was a ma-
jor boost to Seattle’s pass
rush following his midsea-
son arrival in a trade from
Cincinnati. He appeared
in eight regular-season
games for the Seahawks
with five sacks and 14
quarterback hits. He was
the spark for a Seattle
pass rush that was among
the better units in the
league over the second
half of the season.
— Associated Press
PAC-12
FLEX
Outgoing commissioner Larry Scott
is not upset that Pac-12 Conference
teams received low seeds
BY BEN BOLCH
Los Angeles Times
arry Scott is coming to Indianapolis,
L
where he might be joined — at
least virtually — by the only bigger
champion of the “Conference of Champions.”
“Somehow,” Scott, the outgoing Pac-12
commissioner, said in a telephone interview
Tuesday, “I have a sneaking suspicion that
CBS or Turner will get a hold of Bill Walton
sometime over this next weekend.”
Walton, the UCLA legend and legendary
absurdist broadcaster who picked five Pac-
12 teams to make the Final Four, has a few
things in common with Scott, who measures
every word as if nuclear codes might be
divulged if he says the wrong thing.
Both relentlessly tout the strength of a
conference given little respect nationally.
Both are wearing the smile of someone
Paul Sancya/AP
Oregon’s Eric Williams Jr. (50) and Will Richardson (0) celebrate a basket against Iowa during the the second round of
the NCAA Tournament in Indianapolis on Monday. The Ducks face Southern Cal in the Sweet 16.
with inside information.
“We’ve seen it coming for some time,” Scott said.
Widely disparaged for his handling of a confer-
ence lagging in both revenue and prestige, Scott also
happens to preside over teams responsible for the
best story of the NCAA Tournament.
UCLA, USC, Oregon and Oregon State have
all advanced to regional semifinals next weekend,
making the Pac-12 the first conference to have four
teams seeded No. 4 or lower reach that round.
Take that, selection committee.
Oregon was given a No. 7 seed despite winning
the conference’s regular-season title and being na-
tionally ranked for much of the season. UCLA was
handed a No. 11 seed and shipped to West Lafayette,
Indiana, for a First Four game despite playing for
the conference title on the last weekend of the regu-
lar season.
“I think if you asked any of my peers across the country, how would you feel about having two teams
playing (against each other) in the Sweet 16, it’s good news. You have two teams and you have at
least one advancing, but certainly also some disappointment because I think both USC and Oregon
have the potential to be not just Elite Eight teams but Final Four and beyond.”
— Larry Scott, Pac-12 commissioner
The way the Ducks and Bruins responded, win-
ning every game, has apparently put Scott in a for-
giving mood. Rather than slam the selection com-
mittee for undervaluing his teams, Scott said he
didn’t assign any blame, noting COVID-19 disrup-
tions and truncated nonconference schedules stem-
ming from the pandemic led to blurry evaluations
of teams.
“I think it’s important to show grace to the com-
OLYMPICS
mittee this year,” said Scott, whose conference has
twice as many teams left as the far more ballyhooed
Atlantic Coast and Southeastern conferences.
The Pac-12 teams still alive haven’t just won but
dominated, prevailing in their most recent games by
double digits. USC thwacked Kansas by 34 points,
giving the storied Jayhawks their worst loss in
NCAA Tournament history.
See Pac-12 / B4
WOMEN’S NCAA TOURNAMENT
Torch relay for Tokyo Games Familiar faces joined by a
kicks off its 121-day journey few new ones in Sweet 16
BY DOUG FEINBERG
AP Basketball Writer
BY STEPHEN WADE
Associated Press
TOKYO — The torch re-
lay for the postponed Tokyo
Olympics began its 121-day
journey across Japan on
Thursday and is headed to-
ward the opening ceremony
in Tokyo on July 23.
The relay began in north-
eastern Fukushima prefecture,
the area that was devastated
by the 2011 earthquake, tsu-
nami and the meltdown of
three nuclear reactors. About
18,000 died in the tragedy.
The first runner with the
torch was Azusa Iwashimizu,
a key player in the Japan team
that won the Women’s World
Cup in 2011.
Wearing a white track suit,
she carried the torch out of the
J-Village indoor soccer training
center and was surrounded by
14 other members of that 2011
World Cup squad and coach
Philip Fong/Pool AFP
Japanese torchbearer Azusa Iwashimizu, center, a member of Japan
women’s national football team, arrives at a torch kiss point to pass
on the flame during the torch relay grand start outside J-Village Na-
tional Training Center in Naraha, Fukushima prefecture, northeast-
ern Japan, on Thursday.
Norio Sasaki at the rear. They
were also decked out in white
track suits.
The ceremony was closed
to the public because of the
fear of spreading COVID-19
but was streamed live.
See Olympics / B5
SAN ANTONIO — The
women’s NCAA Tournament
regional semifinals field is set
with many familiar faces like
UConn, Baylor, Stanford and
South Carolina. There’s also
some fresh ones, including
Michigan and Arizona.
The Sweet 16 will tip off
Saturday with a much an-
ticipated matchup between
UConn and Iowa. The schools
are led by heralded freshmen
Paige Bueckers and Caitlyn
Clark. Geno Auriemma, who
will be coaching the Huskies
for the first time in the tour-
nament after being sidelined
with COVID-19 the first two
rounds, couldn’t remember a
time when there was so much
hype around two freshmen.
“It’s been a while since you
have two kids that have had
this kind of an impact, both on
their teams and on the game
itself nationally. To have one
is kind of cool. To have two
and to be so alike in so many
ways?” Auriemma said. “And
yet unfortunately, they’re go-
ing to be put in a situation
where it’s like a big football
game, where they say it’s (Tom)
Brady versus Aaron Rogers. It
couldn’t be further from the
truth.
“It’s two really, really young
kids, really good players that
do a lot for their teams.”
Clark has led Iowa back to
the Sweet 16. The Hawkeyes
are one of a record four Big
Ten teams in the regional semi-
finals with. Michigan, Indiana
and Maryland joining them.
Wolverines coach Kim
Barnes Arico is happy to have
her team in the regional semi-
finals for the first time as op-
posed to Connecticut, which
is making its 27th consecutive
appearance in the round of 16.
See Sweet 16 / B5