Sports briefs
WVU signs JC player
West Virginia has signed junior college basketball transfer Jimmy Bell Jr. for the 2022-23 season.
Coach Bob Huggins announced Bell’s signing Monday. He will have two years of eligibility remaining.
The 6-10 Bell averaged more than nine points, nine rebounds and one blocked shot per game last season at Moberly (Missouri) Area Community College. He spent his first two seasons at Saint Louis.
A native of Saginaw, Mich., the 280-pound Bell brings some welcome help to West Virginia’s inside game. The Mountaineers ranked last in the Big 12 in rebounding and scoring defense and finished in last place. Bell will be joined by another 6-10 junior college transfer, Mohamed Wague.
“Jimmy is a big man who has the ability to score and defend inside the way we weren’t able to do a year ago,” Huggins said. “He has the ability to change offenses around the rim and the ability to score the ball close.”
Huggins announced the signings of Wague, former Iowa guard Joe Touissant and former South Carolina guard Erik Stevenson last week.
In the NFL
Denzel Ward got locked down. Now there’s a switch.
Cleveland’s two-time Pro Bowl cornerback agreed Monday to a five-year, $100.5 million contract extension with the Browns, a person familiar with the negotiations told the Associated Press.
Ward’s deal includes $71.25 million guaranteed, said the person who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the 24-year-old has not yet signed the contract.
With a yearly average of $20.1 million, Ward will be the NFL’s highest-paid cornerback, surpassing the $20 million per year for Jalen Ramsey of the Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams.
In the NBA
Boston’s Marcus Smart is the first guard in over a quarter-century to win the NBA defensive player of the year award.
The last guard to win this honor was Seattle’s Gary Payton in 1995-96.
Smart helped the Celtics lead the NBA in defensive rating and scoring defense (104.6) while holding opponents to a league-low field-goal percentage (.434) and 3-point percentage (.339). The 28-year-old ranked seventh in the NBA in steals per game (1.68) and tied for sixth in total steals (119).
Smart received 257 total points and earned 37 first-place votes from a panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters. Phoenix Suns forward Mikal Bridges finished second with 202 points and 22 first-place votes.
In college basketball
Big man Mark Williams is the first of Duke’s multiple NBA prospects to say he’s leaving to enter the draft.
The 7-1, 242-pound sophomore announced his decision in a social media video Monday evening.
Ranked as the No. 18 draft prospect by ESPN, Williams was an elite rim protector last season and a finalist for national defensive player of the year. The Virginia Beach, Va., native started all 39 games, averaged 11.2 points and 7.4 rebounds and ranked 12th nationally with 2.82 blocks per game.
In the NHL
Detroit Red Wings center Dylan Larkin had core muscle surgery Monday, ending his second season as the team’s captain.
The Red Wings say his recovery is expected to last eight to 10 weeks. The 25-year-old Larkin leads the Red Wings with 31 goals and 69 points in 71 games.