The Sports Report: Former UCLA defensive coordinator Bill McGovern dies

Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.

From Ben Bolch: Even after his health deteriorated, sidelining him for nearly half a season, Bill McGovern yearned to stay around the players who rejuvenated him and the game that had been a lifelong love.

He returned from a five-game absence to coach UCLA’s defense in the Sun Bowl last December, eagerly announcing that he “absolutely” expected to be the Bruins’ defensive coordinator in 2023. When McGovern’s health issues forced him into a less demanding role as director of football administration, he remained a regular at spring practices, his presence a symbol of perseverance.

On Tuesday, having fought an undisclosed form of cancer to the very end, McGovern succumbed while surrounded by family at his Southern California home. He was 60.

“It was the honor of Bill’s coaching career to be the defensive coordinator for the UCLA Bruins, and this past season was one of the highlights of Bill’s coaching career,” McGovern’s family said in a statement. “We are so thankful for the opportunity to be a part of such a historic athletic tradition and, more importantly, we could not have made it through this past year without the love and prayers of our UCLA family.”

Beloved for his self-deprecating humor and deep knowledge of the game, McGovern immediately connected with players a fraction of his age during his one season as the Bruins’ defensive coordinator.

“He just lets me be me,” cornerback Devin Kirkwood said in August. “He’s just helped me express my game in ways I wasn’t able to do last year, so now when I demonstrate it, it just looks like poetry.”

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NBA PLAYOFFS

Results, schedule
All times Pacific
NBA Finals

No. 1 Denver vs. No. 8 Miami
Thursday at Denver, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Sunday at Denver, 5 p.m., ABC
Wed., June 7 at Miami, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Friday, June 9 at Miami, 5:30 p.m., ABC
*Monday, June 12 at Denver, 5:30 p.m., ABC
*Thursday, June 15 at Miami, 5:30 p.m., ABC
*Sunday, June 18 at Denver, 5 p.m., ABC

*-if necessary

NHL PLAYOFFS

Results, schedule
All times Pacific
Stanley Cup Finals

Vegas (P1) vs. Florida (WC2)
Saturday at Vegas, 5 p.m., TNT
Monday at Vegas, 5 p.m., TNT
Thursday, June 8 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Saturday, June 10 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
*Tuesday, June 13 at Vegas, 5 p.m., TNT
*Friday, June 16 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
*Monday, June 19 at Vegas, 5 p.m., TNT

*-if necessary

DODGERS

From Mike DiGiovanna: It looked like a laugher for the Dodgers, who scored two runs on a J.D. Martinez home run in the seventh inning and three more runs in the eighth to pull away for a 9-3 victory over the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night.

But there was no chuckling among the crowd of 46,571 in Chavez Ravine in the top of the seventh–only hearty boos echoing through the stadium–when reliever Alex Vesia came perilously close to blowing a three-run lead the Dodgers had worked so hard to achieve.

Dodgers right-hander Tony Gonsolin gave up one run and three hits in six efficient but hardly dominant innings, striking out two and walking two in a 70-pitch start, and he handed the ball to Vesia to start the seventh with a 4-1 lead.

Vesia, a breakout relief star in 2022, was demoted to triple-A in early May after going 0-2 with a 7.84 ERA in 13 games for the Dodgers, but the left-hander was recalled earlier Tuesday after allowing no earned runs, five hits and striking out 18 in 9 ⅔ innings of his last nine appearances for Oklahoma City.

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Dodgers reliever Daniel Hudson ready for ‘next step’ after throwing session

ANGELS

Romy González just might play his way into a bigger role with the Chicago White Sox. If he keeps connecting like this, manager Pedro Grifol will have no choice.

González homered in his third straight game, Andrew Vaughn drove in three runs and Chicago beat the Angels 7-3 on Tuesday night.

The White Sox looked as if they were headed toward their fourth straight loss after the Angels grabbed a 3-1 lead against Lucas Giolito (4-4). But the White Sox turned it around in a big way, scoring five runs in the fourth against Tyler Anderson (2-1).

HORSE RACING

From John Cherwa: Kentucky considers itself the cradle of horse racing in the United States. It has the most important race and the largest breeding facilities but is dealing with an unwelcome crisis — the deaths of racing thoroughbreds. So, where does it look for advice? California.

Jamie Eads, the newly appointed executive director of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, called her counterpart at the California Horse Racing Board, Scott Chaney, over the weekend after Churchill Downs suffered its 11th and 12th fatalities in the last 30 days.

The two spoke Tuesday with the major topic being the post-entry panel that California uses to screen horses that possibly shouldn’t be racing.

“She generally wanted to know about our experiences in 2019,” Chaney said. “It stemmed from something [equine medical director] Jeff Blea said about how a horse that had the past performances like the one in Kentucky would have been flagged. She wanted to know how the post-entry panel worked and who was on it.”

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SOCCER

From Kevin Baxter: When Bruce Arena left the Galaxy for the U.S. national team after the 2016 season, club president Chris Klein and Dan Beckerman, CEO of the team’s parent company AEG, vowed to take the team in a new direction.

They succeeded, with the last seven years marking the worst stretch in franchise history. So Tuesday, Beckerman finally determined that direction wasn’t the right one, firing Klein after 11 seasons as the club’s top executive.

According to people familiar with the situation who were not authorized to speak on the record, the decision was finalized in a series of meetings Tuesday morning. The Galaxy (2-9-3) are last in the 29-team MLS table, have been shut out seven times in 14 matches and have the worst goal differential in the league, making Tuesday’s move not only necessary, but long overdue.

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From Kevin Baxter: B.J. Callaghan will coach the men’s national team during this summer’s CONCACAF Nations League and Gold Cup tournaments, replacing Anthony Hudson, who has served as the team’s interim manager since January.

Callaghan has served with the USMNT since 2019, joining the program as the strategy analyst before being elevated to an assistant coach. He is the longest-serving member of the technical staff.

The U.S. has been without a full-time manager since Gregg Berhalter’s contract expired following last year’s World Cup in Qatar, where the team reached the round of 16. Berhalter remains a candidate for the permanent job that Matt Crocker, the team’s sporting director, said he hopes to fill by the end of summer.

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THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1927 — Detroit first baseman Johnny Neun records an unassisted triple play in the ninth inning to end the 1-0 win over the Cleveland Indians. Neun grabs a Homer Summa line drive, tags Charlie Jamieson at first and outruns Glenn Myatt to tag second.

1938 — Henry Armstrong beats Barney Ross for the world welterweight title.

1942 — Sam Snead wins the PGA Championship, beating Jim Turnesa in the final round 2 and 1.

1949 — Sam Snead wins the PGA Championship, defeating Johnny Palmer in the final round 3 and 2.

1965 — Jim Clark becomes the first non-U.S. driver in 49 years to win the Indianapolis 500.

1983 — The Philadelphia 76ers win the NBA championship with a 115-108 victory over the Lakers, completing a four-game sweep.

1987 — The Edmonton Oilers win their third Stanley Cup by beating the Philadelphia Flyers 3-1 in Game 7.

1992 — Ayrton Senna wins his fourth consecutive Monaco Grand Prix to end Nigel Mansell’s season-opening winning streak at five races.

1997 — Ila Borders becomes the first woman to pitch in a regular-season pro baseball game, in the sixth inning of the St. Paul Saints’ Northern League game against Sioux Falls. She struggles, giving up three earned runs without getting an out.

2001 — Pat Day becomes the third jockey to reach 8,000 wins by guiding Camden Park to a one-length victory on the turf in the sixth race at Churchill Downs. The 47-year-old Day trails only Laffit Pincay Jr. (9,147) and Bill Shoemaker (8,833).

2002 — Jason Kidd becomes the first player in 35 years to record three triple-doubles in an NBA playoff series, and the New Jersey Nets finish off the Boston Celtics with a 96-88 victory in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals. He joins Oscar Robertson (1963) and Wilt Chamberlain (1967) as the only players with three triple-doubles in a series.

2007 — LeBron James scores a career playoff-high 48 points to lead Cleveland to a 109-107, Game 5 win over Detroit in two overtimes. James is the first player to score 25 straight points for a team in the postseason while scoring 29 of the Cavaliers’ final 30 points.

2008 — Usain Bolt sets the world record in the 100 meters with a time of 9.72 seconds at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York. Bolt is .02 seconds faster than the old record held by fellow Jamaican, Asafa Powell.

2009 — Rafael Nadal’s unbeaten run at the French Open ends when the four-time defending champion loses to Robin Soderling of Sweden 6-2, 6-7 (2), 6-4, 7-6 (2) in the fourth round. Nadal’s record winning streak at Roland Garros ends at 31 matches.

2009 — Stephen Cardullo sets a tournament record with seven hits, including three of Florida State’s NCAA-record 15 doubles, as the Seminoles routs Ohio State 37-6 to advance to the super regionals.

2011 — Austrian player Daniel Koellerer is been banned for life by a tennis anti-corruption unit for attempting to fix matches. Koellerer, who was ranked No. 55 in 2009, is found guilty of three violations of the Uniform Tennis Anti-Corruption Program between October 2009 and July 2010.

2012 — Kevin Durant scores 22 points, Thabo Sefolosha sets playoff career-bests with 19 points and six steals, and the Oklahoma City Thunder snap San Antonio’s 20-game winning streak by beating the Spurs 102-82 in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals.

2018 — Zinédine Zidane announces his resignation as Real Madrid manager after 3 successive Champions League titles.

2021 — Naomi Osaka pulls out of the French Open citing her mental health, after refusing to appear at compulsory post match press conferences.

—Compiled by the Associated Press

And finally...

Racing in New York, Usain Bolt sets the world record in the 100 meters. Watch and listen here.