d No. 13 Michigan State has a GSR of 63 percent.The Univers

The Chicago Sky will have a chance to carry a four-game winning streak into the WNBAs Olympic break when it plays host to the Connecticut Sun on Friday night at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill.Chicago (11-12) has won three in a row and four of its last five. The Sky is fourth in the Eastern Conference, just a half game behind the Atlanta Dream and Indiana Fever, which are tied for second behind the New York Liberty.Connecticut (7-16) has won four of its last seven games. The Sun is last in the Eastern Conference, four games behind Chicago and 9 1/2 games behind New York.Chicago is coming off a dramatic 79-77 victory over the Phoenix Mercury. Elena Delle Donne had 18 points and nine rebounds, Jamierra Faulkner scored 14 points and Jessica Breland made a putback with 0.2 seconds remaining to help the Sky prevail.Connecticut is coming off an 89-78 road win over the Dallas Wings. Chiney Ogwumike turned in a monster performance, finishing with 26 points, 15 rebounds and seven blocked shots. Jasmine Thomas added 20 points for the Sun, which shot 49.3 percent from the field while holding the Wings to 38.4-percent shooting.Delle Donne is leading the WNBA in scoring at 21.3 points per game. She is 10th in rebounding, averaging 7.4 rebounds per game.Alex Bentley leads Connecticut in scoring at 13.5 points per contest. Ogwumike and Alyssa Thomas are tied for the team lead in rebounding, averaging six rebounds per game.This is the second time Chicago and Connecticut have met this season. The Sky beat the Sun 93-70 in the season opener May 14 at Allstate Arena.Courtney Vandersloot had 14 points and seven assists for Chicago. Cappie Pondexter scored 13 points. Bentley scored 14 points to lead Connecticut. Delle Donne missed that game due to illness.Chicago and Connecticut will take time off after this game for the WNBAs month-long break for the Summer Olympics. 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SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The NCAA announced Tuesday that 77 percent of black mens Division I basketball players who entered college in 2009 earned a degree within six years, up five points from a year earlier and a record high.That improvement helped the overall Graduation Success Rate match last years record of 86 percent of athletes graduating within six years, the NCAA said. Of all black Division I student-athletes, 74 percent graduated within six years. NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a news release the improved rates were hugely significant.Over the last 15 years, the overall Graduation Success Rate has dramatically improved, but the really good news is how college sports helps more and more minority students, especially those playing our highest-profile sport, earn a degree that will help them long after their athletics career is over, he said.The graduation rate for black basketball players is up 31 percentage points over the past 15 years, the NCAA said . Overall, all black male athletes have increased their GSR by 19 percentage points to 70 percent during that time. Black female athletes improved their rate 13 points to 84 percent over that same time.For all Division I athletes, the rate increased 12 percentage points during the past 15 years.B. David Ridpath, an associate professor and sports business and president of The Drake Group, an NCAA watchdog, said the GSR provides only a partial picture, pointing to reports of athletes at North Carolina taking courses aimed at boosting their GPAs in a department popular with athletes.Are we essentially practicing eligibility maintenance, potentially in a major with friendly faculty? he said. Are these kids graduating with a very meaningful, vital degree that can benefit them for the next 50 to 60 years of their life? In some cases, yes, this is happening. But all too often -- aand I know this because I worked in college athletics -- were essentially pushing these kids through, keeping them eligible and in cases where they do graduate they might not be graduating with the requisite skills.ddddddddddddAmong football teams in The Associated Press Top 25 , the only teams with a GSR 65 percent or lower were No. 25 Troy at 65 percent and No. 13 Oklahoma State at 50 percent. Among Top 25 mens basketball teams , No. 4 Oregon had a GSR of 38 percent, No. 25 California 40 percent, No. 5 North Carolina, No. 18 Syracuse and No. 24 Cincinnati all had GSRs of 50 percent, and No. 13 Michigan State has a GSR of 63 percent.The University of Connecticut mens basketball team had one of the lower graduation rates at 22 percent, according to the latest results. But those 2009 numbers were actually a big improvement over previous years. The teams GSR rose from just 8 percent in 2006, 17 percent the following year and 20 percent in 2008.School spokesman Mike Enright said the poor graduation rate reflects the same time period for which UConn was sanctioned by the NCAA and missed the 2013 postseason because of an another indicator, the Academic Progress Rate, which measures whether players are in good academic standing.The school has reported perfect or near perfect APR scores since 2012-13 and is expecting similar numbers this year, Enright said. He also said all current members of the basketball team are on track to graduate.The academic achievement of our mens basketball team has been outstanding the past several years and I have a full expectation that this will continue, athletic director David Benedict said.---AP Sports Writer Pat Eaton-Robb in Storrs, Connecticut, contributed to this report. ' ' '