John Calipari brought Kentucky to town focused most on the NCAA tournament. An arena dripping Kentucky blue with Wildcats faithful filling the streets outside has changed his intentions, and now Calipari wants to reward their loyalty by winning the Southeastern Conference tournament title those fans see as their birthright.

Center fielder Denard Span and the Minnesota Twins have agreed to a $16.5 million, five-year contract, a deal that includes a $9 million team option for 2015. “We go through a pretty good checklist of criteria before we enter discussions with a player about a long-term contract and he has been very good for us for two years,” Twins general manager Bill Smith said before Saturday’s…

Evan Turner rescued No. 6 Ohio State for the second straight day in the Big Ten tournament. He scored 12 of his 31 points after regulation, helping the Buckeyes pull away for an 88-81 double overtime victory over Illinois in the semifinals. Turner finished with a triple double — 31 points, 10 rebounds and 10 turnovers.

Kyle Singler scored 27 points to help fourth-ranked Duke push ahead in the second half to beat Miami 77-74 in Saturday’s Atlantic Coast Conference tournament semifinals. Jon Scheyer added 16 points, including eight in the go-ahead 15-0 run early in the second half that restored some sense of order in an upset-filled tournament.

Chris Pronger scored with 2.1 seconds remaining to lift the Philadelphia Flyers to a come-from-behind 3-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday. The defenseman took a pass from Claude Giroux and beat a diving Cristobal Huet to the glove side to cap a flurry of scoring that saw all five goals tallied in the final period.

As Tom Penders climbed to the top of a ladder to clip down the nets, his players gathered around to make sure he wasn’t going to fall. At age 64, “Tournament Tom” is headed back to the NCAAs — with a little different hop in his step. Kelvin Lewis scored 28 points and made six 3-pointers to break a Conference USA championship game record, and Houston surged past No.

LaDainian Tomlinson is heading home to San Diego to consider his options after spending a day with the New York Jets and leaving without a deal. The free-agent running back was on a flight Saturday morning after his visit. He had dinner in New Jersey on Friday night with coach Rex Ryan, general manager Mike Tannenbaum and other team officials.

Kelvin Lewis scored 28 points and Houston surged past No. 25 UTEP down the stretch to claim its first NCAA tournament berth in 18 years with an 81-73 victory in the Conference USA tournament title game that snapped the Miners’ 16-game winning streak. National scoring leader Aubrey Coleman struggled through a 4-for-20 shooting performance for the seventh-seeded Cougars (19-15), but came up with…

The Minnesota Twins have signed center fielder Denard Span to a five-year, $16.5 million contract extension. “We go through a pretty good checklist of criteria before we enter discussions with a player about a long-term contract and he has been very good for us for two years,” Twins general manager Bill Smith said before Saturday’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Mike Leach sat across from his accuser Saturday as Craig James gave sworn testimony in the former coach’s lawsuit against Texas Tech. James, whose complaint of mistreatment of his son led to Leach’s firing, declined to comment as he walked into the university’s administration building before his deposition.