The University of Louisville national champion basketball team will have one of its standouts return for his senior season. Russ Smith announced at a news conference this afternoon he will come back and help defend the national title.

Smith was the Cardinals leading scorer this past season at 18.7 points per game. Smith’s father had said following Louisville’s win over Michigan that he would turn pro. The younger Smith said at the news conference he wanted to be the first in his family to graduate from college.

Coach Rick Pitino said when Smith leaves U of L, he will be remembered as one of the most successful Cardinal players ever.

High School Baseball/Softball: Pairings for the Forcht Bank/KHSAA State Baseball and the Rawlings/KHSAA State Softball tournaments were announced Tuesday.

Baseball: The 2^nd region winner will play the 14^th region winner Monday June 3^rd at Whitaker Bank Ballpark in Lexington, with game time to be announced later. Also on that day, the Region 3 winner would play the 12^th region winner.

The 4^th region winner plays the 7^th region winner on Tuesday June 4^th, with the 1^st region winner to play the 5^th region winner. Times will be announced later.

The quarterfinals will be played Wednesday June 5^th and Thursday June 6^th, with the semi finals Friday June 7^th and the final on Saturday June 8^th.

Softball: All first round games will be played Thursday June 6^th at Jack Fisher Park in Owensboro. The 2^nd region winner meets the 3^rd region winner at 7 pm, with the 1^st region winner playing the 5^th region winner and the 4^th region winner plays the 13^th region winner at 5 pm. The tournament continues with winner and loser bracket games on Friday June 7^th, with the championship game to be played Saturday June 8^th.

MLB: Games this afternoon include Cincinnati hosting the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis at Washington and Atlanta at Colorado.

NBA: There’s three more playoff games are on tap this evening, starting with the defending Western Conference champion Oklahoma City Thunder looking to build off a lopsided Game 1 win over the Houston Rockets. The Atlanta Hawks will try to pull even with the Indiana Pacers, while the nightcap features the San Antonio Spurs hosting the Los Angeles Lakers. San Antonio won the opener of that series on Sunday.

High School Softball-Tuesday scores: 7^th ranked Christian County scored 12 of their 13 runs in the 2^nd and 3^rd innings in downing Hopkinsville 13-0. Kalan Alder had three hits and four RBI to lead Christian County, while Maggie Glass and Alexis Sumner combined to allow Hopkinsville just one hit, an infield single by Bailey Downs. Christian County improved to 18-5/2-0 in district play, while Hopkinsville went to 1-14/1-2 in district competition.

Elsewhere: Lyon County defeated Trigg County 6-1, Hopkins Central over Dawson Springs 13-2, Livingston Central run ruled Crittenden County 12-0 in 6 innings, Madisonville edged Henderson County 6-5, Union County shut out Webster County 12-0, Marshall County defeated Murray 5-1.

High School Baseball-Tuesday scores: Hopkinsville edged University Heights 4-3 in 8 innings to sweep the 8^th district series between the teams. The wins put the Tigers into a first place tie with Christian County in the 8^th district race as both teams are now 3-1 in district play.

Elsewhere: Franklin Simpson defeated Logan County 5-1, Trigg County run ruled Lyon County 21-1 in five innings, Caldwell County edged Mayfield 3-2, Hopkins Central won a pair of games over Dawson Springs 10-0 in 5 innings and 6-0, Madisonville won a slug fest with Crittenden County 15-11, Livingston Central over Union County 6-1, Henderson County defeated Webster County 10-1, Owensboro Catholic over Muhlenberg County 7-3.

High School Tennis: University Heights defeated Henderson County’s boys and girls teams Tuesday. The Blazers won 6-3, while the Lady Blazers won 5-4.

College Basketball: Former Kentucky player Nerlens Noel met with reporters Tuesday and says he has no regrets about his brief Wildcat career. Noel says his torn ACL—repaired surgically six weeks ago—is doing well and he hopes to be able to play by Christmas time. Noel did say it was a hard decision to leave for the NBA, but said Coach John Calipari prepared him well to move to the next level.

The Leaf Chronicle reports Austin Peay has landed another prospect for its junior college laden recruiting class. Washington DC native Edward Dyson is coming to Clarksville, via Cloud County Community College in Kansas. The 6-4 Dyson averaged 15.1 points and 5.4 rebounds last season.

College Baseball: In a game that took 6 hours and 3 minutes to complete and lasted 18 innings, Western Kentucky got a walk off home run from Trevor Lowe in the bottom of the 18^th to defeat Kentucky 3-2.

Former Hopkinsville High pitcher Justin Hageman got the start, going 5 1/3 innings allowing a run on four hits, walking two and striking out four in 93 pitches. The game is believed to be the longest in the history of WKU baseball and the longest in Division 1 this season.

Minor League Baseball: The Bowling Green Hot Rods got a 12-6 win over Fort Wayne Tuesday morning at Bowling Green Ballpark. The teams are scheduled to close out the series with a 7:05 game this evening.

The Nashville Sounds dropped the series finale with Omaha 7-1 Tuesday. The Sounds are off today, before opening a series with the Memphis Redbirds tomorrow night at Greer Stadium.

NHL: The Nashville Predators ended the home portion of the season with a 4-3 win over Calgary at Bridgestone Arena.   The Predators close out the shortened season with road games at Detroit Thursday and Columbus Saturday.

College Football: The Sporting News has ranked the top coaches in college football. Alabama’s Nick Saban is first, followed by Ohio State’s Urban Meyer, Chris Petersen of Boise State, Bob Stoops of Oklahoma and Brian Kelly of Notre Dame rounding out the top five.

Louisville’s Charlie Strong is 19^th, Western Kentucky’s Bobby Petrino is 20^th and new Kentucky coach Mark Stoops is 90^th. The rankings are based on a number of factors including wins, championships, recruiting and future potential.

College Basketball: WDRB-Louisville reports University of Louisville guard Russ Smith may announce tomorrow whether he will return for his senior year or go to the NBA.

Smith’s father had said after Louisville won the national championship his son would not return next year, but coach Rick Pitino said a couple of days later there was a “50-50” chance Smith would return next season.

ESPN reports the NCAA Board of Directors will talk about reducing the shot clock in college basketball next month. The board will vote May 2^nd on shortening the shot clock from 35 to 30 seconds. The NCAA Basketball rules committee then would have to vote on the measure. If it’s approved, there would be at least a transition or experimentation year before the rule would go into effect.

MLB: The Cincinnati Reds continue their series with the Chicago Cubs this evening at Great American Ballpark, while St. Louis plays Washington and Atlanta and Colorado play a day-night doubleheader in Denver.

NBA: Playoff action continues tonight as Miami hosts Milwaukee in game two of its Eastern Conference series, with Boston and New York also playing game two. The Heat and Knicks hold 1-0 leads in their series.

Denver has a 1-0 lead on Golden State as they play game two of their Western Conference series this evening.

High School Baseball-Monday scores: Hopkinsville defeated University Heights 5-1, Christian County defeated Calloway County 7-2 in 8 innings, Fort Campbell won a 1-0 forfeit over Sycamore, TN, Madisonville over Dawson Springs 8-3, Hopkins Central doubled up McLean County 6-3, Lone Oak defeated Marshall County 9-5.

Today’s games: Hopkinsville hosts University Heights, Russellville welcomes Todd Central, Logan County hosts Franklin Simpson, Trigg County at Lyon County, Dawson Springs at Hopkins Central, Caldwell County hosts Mayfield, Muhlenberg County hosts Owensboro Catholic, Webster County hosts Henderson County, Crittenden County at Heath, Livingston Central hosts Union County, Marshall County at Murray, Graves County at Ballard Memorial.

High School Softball-Monday scores: University Heights shut out Caldwell County 3-0, Logan County run ruled Hopkinsville 16-0 in four innings, Edmonson County shut out Russellville 10-0, Webster County over Dawson Springs 6-2, Livingston Central run ruled Trigg County 10-0 in 5 innings.

Hopkins Central over Muhlenberg County 8-4, Henderson County run ruled Lyon County 10-0 in 5 innings, Calloway County edged Murray 3-2, Heath shut out Paducah Tilghman 8-0, Hickman County run ruled Mayfield 12-0 in 5 innings.

Today’s games: Christian County hosts Hopkinsville in an 8^th district matchup at Lady Colonel Field. First pitch takes place at 5:30, with the Heritage Bank pre game show airing at 5:15 on News/Talk WHOP and online at whopam.com.

Other games have Todd Central at Franklin Simpson, Russellville hosts Logan County, Caldwell County goes to Paducah Tilghman, Trigg County at Lyon County, Dawson Springs hosting Hopkins Central, Madisonville welcomes Henderson County, Crittenden County entertains Livingston Central, Webster County hosts Union County, Marshall County at Murray, Calloway County hosts Reidland.

Pairings for the KHSAA State Baseball and Softball tournaments will be announced this afternoon in Lexington. The Forcht Bank/KHSAA State Baseball Tournament will be contested June 3-8 at Whitaker Bank Ballpark in Lexington, while the Rawlings/KHSAA State Softball tournament will be played June 6-8 at Jack Fisher Park in Owensboro.

College Basketball: Kentucky’s Alex Poythress and Willie Cauley-Stein spoke to the media Monday. Both talked about why they are coming back for their sophomore seasons. Poythress said he is returning to prove he is more than potential and that last season left a bad taste for him. Cauley-Stein says Kentucky had the potential this past season, but didn’t capitalize on it.

Kentucky Wesleyan introduced Happy Osborne as its basketball coach Monday. Osborne says the opportunity to coach at KWC was too good to pass up and the Panther program has what he called the “whole package”.

Osborne spent this past season as head coach at Montgomery County High School, leading the Indians to a semi final appearance at the Boys Sweet 16. Before that, Osborne spent 15 seasons as head coach at Georgetown University and one year as an assistant at Tennessee Tech.

Murray State picked up a signee for its women’s basketball program. Janssen Starks recently wrapped up her prep career at Murray High, where she led the Lady Tigers to three 1^st region runner up titles and one regional title. Starks becomes the fifth signee for the 2013-14 class.

Two members of Austin Peay’s women’s team are leaving the program to pursue other opportunities. Sophomore guard Shira Buley of Knoxville will be transferring to another program at the end of the school year, while fellow sophomore Shelby Olszewski will stay at Austin Peay, but play soccer instead of basketball.

The Courier Journal reports Western Kentucky has hired former Louisville player Candyce Bingham as a member of the coaching staff for the women’s program. Bingham played on Louisville’s 2009 national runner up team and was a graduate assistant at Louisville this past season.

College Football:  Officials with the Franklin American Music City Bowl announced Monday this year’s game will take place Monday December 30^th at 2:15 pm at LP Field. The game matches teams from the Southeastern Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference for the 8^th straight year. ESPN will televise the contest. Last year, Vanderbilt defeated NC State 38-24.

Minor League Baseball: The Bowling Green Hot Rods opened a nine game homestand with a 10-5 win over the Fort Wayne Tin Caps. Game two of the series takes place at 10:35 this morning at Bowling Green Ballpark.

The Nashville Sounds lost to the Omaha Storm Chasers 12-3, with the finale of the series this morning at 11:05 at Greer Stadium.

College Baseball: Western Kentucky hosts Kentucky this evening at Bowling Green Ballpark, while Murray State travels to Missouri.

NHL: The Nashville Predators close out the home portion of their season this evening, hosting the Calgary Flames at 7 in Bridgestone Arena.