Sports briefly: Final arguments heard in Aaron Hernandez trial

Closing arguments were made Thursday in Boston in the double-murder trial of former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez.

The jury was expected to begin deliberations Friday after hearing final instructions on the law from the judge.

Relatives of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, slain in 2012, filled the first two rows of the courtroom during closing arguments. Seated one row behind them was Hernandez's longtime fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins Hernandez.

Hernandez, 27, already is serving life in prison for the 2013 killing of semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd, who was dating the sister of Jenkins Hernandez.

Kansas sophomore Carlton Bragg will transfer to a yet-to-be-determined school, coach Bill Self announced.

Bragg, a 6-10 forward from Cleveland, averaged 5.2 points, 4.1 rebounds and 13.8 minutes per game during a stormy 2016-17 season in which he was suspended for four of Kansas' 35 games. He did not play in the Jayhawks' season-ending Elite Eight loss to Oregon.

After a breakout season at Duke, sophomore Luke Kennard will enter the NBA draft.

Kentucky sophomore guard Isaiah Briscoe also will enter the draft and hire an agent.

Former Wisconsin running back Montee Ball opened up to Sporting News about his alcohol and domestic violence issues that began in Madison and continued through his abbreviated NFL career.

Ball has recently sought treatment and counseling, according to a Sporting News story posted online Wednesday, and is returning to Wisconsin through a re-entry program that allows former athletes to finish their degrees.

In the story, Ball said he began drinking heavily in 2011, when he was a junior. He scored 39 touchdowns that season, tied for the most in FBS history, and went on to score 22 more the next year to become the NCAA career leader in touchdowns (83).

The number of blacks and women hired in college sports declined in 2016, according to a diversity report released Thursday.

The combined grade of a C+ overall for racial and gender hiring was the lowest among all sports covered by the institute.

Crystal Dunn scored twice on the same field where she tied a national team record with five goals in a game last year and the U.S. women rolled to a 4-0 exhibition victory over Russia in Frisco, Texas.

Allie Long also scored two goals to give her five for her national team career as the U.S. celebrated with an easy win a day after the announcement of a new labor deal that will cover the 2019 World Cup and 2020 Tokyo Olympics.