Thursday’s Sports in Brief

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

This Sweet 16 is picking up right where its zany lead-in left off. Two No. 9 seeds and an 11 are in the Elite Eight, and at least one of those underdogs will reach the Final Four.

Fitting for this NCAA Tournament that’s cranked up the unpredictability of March Madness to never-before-seen levels.

Barry Brown’s tiebreaking layup with 19 seconds remaining helped No. 9 seed Kansas State beat No. 5 seed Kentucky 61-58 in the South Region semifinal in Atlanta. No. 11 seed Loyola-Chicago toppled comeback artists Nevada with yet another player stepping up to snatch a win in the final moments.

And Terance Mann scored 18 points to help No. 9 seed Florida State upset fourth-seeded Gonzaga, 75-60, guaranteeing that the Final Four will have a completely different look from last year.

In the only game won by a favorite, third-seeded Michigan rolled past No. 7 seed Texas A&M; 99-72.

NCAA officials say only two 9s had ever advanced to the regional finals before this tournament. And Kansas State goes in as a bracket favorite against Loyola in the topsy-turvy South, which again bounced its two highest remaining seeds.

In Las Vegas sports books, however, Kansas State and Loyola opened as a straight pick - no favorite, and neither being labeled the underdog anymore in a game for a Final Four berth.

BASEBALL

Minor league baseball players who make as little as $5,500 a season would be stripped of the protection of federal minimum wage laws under a provision in government spending legislation expected to be approved by Congress this week.

The “Save America’s Pastime Act” is included on page 1,967 of the $1.3 trillion spending bill and appears to pre-empt a lawsuit filed four years ago in U.S. District Court in San Francisco by three players alleging Major League Baseball and its teams violate the Fair Labor Standards Act and state minimum wage and overtime requirements for a work week they estimated at 50-to-60 hours.

The provision in the legislation would exempt “any employee employed to play baseball who is compensated pursuant to a contract that provides for a weekly salary for services performed during the league’s championship season (but not spring training or the offseason) at a rate that is not less than a weekly salary equal to the minimum wage … for a workweek of 40 hours, irrespective of the number of hours the employee devotes to baseball related activities.”

PRO FOOTBALL

STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - Free agent safety Eric Reid said he is not planning to protest during the national anthem this upcoming season.

Reid has been among the NFL’s most visible protesters since former San Francisco teammate Colin Kaepernick decided not to stand for the national anthem in 2016.

Reid continued the protest of racial injustice and police brutality against minorities by kneeling during the anthem last season as Kaepernick was unable to find a job. But Reid said he will take a different approach in 2018.

“We understand you have to change with the times,” he said after watching his brother, Justin, take part in his Pro Day at Stanford.

“I’m not saying I’m going to stop being active because I won’t. I’m just going to consider different ways to be active, different ways to bring awareness to the issues of this country and improve on the issues happening in this country. I don’t think it will be in the form of protesting during the anthem. I say during because it’s crazy that the narrative changed to we were protesting the anthem and that wasn’t the case. I think we’re going to take a different approach to how we’re going to be active.”

PRO BASKETBALL

Protesters decrying this week’s fatal shooting of an unarmed black man formed a human chain blocking fans trying to attend a professional basketball game between the Sacramento Kings and Atlanta Hawks.

The protest briefly delayed the game while dozens of police attempted to clear entrances.

There was shouting but no apparent violence as frustrated fans waited outside. The basketball teams began the game nearly a half-hour late in a mostly empty Golden 1 Center.

The protesters earlier marched from Sacramento City Hall and onto a nearby freeway, disrupting rush hour traffic and holding signs with messages like “Sac PD: Stop killing us!”

They are angry over the fatal shooting Sunday of 22-year-old Stephon Clark. Police say they feared he had a handgun, but investigators found only a cellphone.