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Sports Briefs: Arizona's Budinger unsure about draft
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Published: June 13, 2008
Chase Budinger hasn't decided whether he'll turn pro or return for his junior year at Arizona.
But he keeps hearing that he might be selected in the top 20 of the NBA Draft.
Asked if that would be good enough to turn pro, Budinger said, "In my mind, I think that's good enough, yes."
Budinger spoke after a yesterday morning workout in front of Suns coaches and staff at US Airways Center in Phoenix. Budinger was among six guards and forwards at the workout, including Lee Cummard, a Brigham Young guard and a product of Mesa High School.
Budinger has until Monday to decide whether to withdraw from the draft, set for June 26. Because he hasn't signed with an agent, he would retain his college eligibility.
Budinger danced around questions about which way he is leaning, a subject of intense interest among Wildcats faithful. Arizona has already lost leading scorer Jerryd Bayless to the draft, and losing Budinger would be a heavy blow to the once-mighty program.
"It's stressful at times," Budinger said. "It's a big decision. It's my career that I'm playing for right now. These workouts are kind of nerve-racking."
This was Budinger's fourth workout, and he has six more scheduled, but only one before the draft deadline.
Budinger shot 46.3 percent from the floor in his first two seasons at Arizona, including 37.5 percent from beyond the arc.
More basketball
■ Guard Doneal Mack wants more playing time than he's receiving with the Memphis Tigers, and his father says his son will be transferring once he receives his release.
The Commercial Appeal newspaper reported on its Web site yesterday that Mack, a 6-5 guard, feels it's time to move on. Greg Mack told the newspaper that they believe it's time to go now with two seasons of eligibility remaining.
Mack averaged 12.5 minutes during the Tigers' run to the national championship game. Mack is from Charlotte and he originally signed with Florida but was denied admission and signed with Memphis late in the summer of 2006.
Greg Mack listed Clemson, Wake Forest and LSU as possible schools for his son.
■ Center Marreese Speights of Florida has hired an agent and will stay in the NBA Draft, giving up his final two years of eligibility. He averaged 14.5 points and 8.1 rebounds last season and led Florida with 49 blocked shots.
■ Elena Delle Donne, a women's basketball recruit at Connecticut and last season's national high-school player of the year, has left summer school to return home to Delaware.
She told ESPN on Wednesday that her problems go beyond basketball and that she will take a long break but denied reports that she left after an on-court dispute with other players.
A UConn spokesman said that the school had no comment because the issue is a personal one between Delle Donne, her family and Coach Geno Auriemma.
Hockey
■ Alex Ovechkin of the washington Capitals kicked off a big night yesterday in Toronto when he won the Lester B. Pearson Award, given by the NHL Players' Association to the league's player of the year.
Ovechkin, who led the NHL with 65 goals and 112 points, edged finalists Jarome Iginla of the Calgary Flames and Evgeni Malkin of Pittsburgh for the honor.
Ovechkin joined Sergei Fedorov (1994) as the only Russian-born players to win the Pearson.
Iginla, who captured it in 2002, recorded his second 50-goal season and a career-best 98 points in 82 games. He also led his team with a plus-27 and nine winning goals.
The Capitals were honored further after their Southeast Division title when Bruce Boudreau captured the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year, beating out Mike Babcock of the Red Wings and Guy Carbonneau of the Montreal Canadiens.
Washington's run of awards was stopped when forward Patrick Kane, 18, of the Chicago Blackhawks, won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.
In other awards, Jason Blake of the Toronto Maple Leafs, diagnosed with leukemia just before the start of the regular season, received the Bill Masterton Trophy as the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.
Pavel Datsyuk of the Red Wings took the Selke Trophy as the NHL's best defensive forward.
College football
■ Georgia State has its first football coach and, at 65, Bill Curry has a new job.
Curry, a former coach at Georgia Tech, Alabama and Kentucky and for the last 10 years a football commentator for ESPN, was introduced yesterday as the coach of Georgia State's new program, which will start play in 2010.
Georgia State will compete in the Colonial Athletic Association and will play home games at the Georgia Dome.
Miscellaneous
■ Cat Whitehill, a defender for the U.S. women's soccer team and former player at North Carolina, tore the anterior-cruciate in her left knee during a practice Tuesday and will miss the Beijing Olympics. She will have surgery sometime in the next few weeks, according to a statement from U.S. Soccer.
Stephanie Cox will travel to South Korea, where the U.S. is preparing for the Peace Queen Cup, to replace Whitehill on the U.S. roster. Cox also will take Whitehill's spot among the 22 players being considered for the Olympics team.
■ The world governing body of cycling has suspended the French federation for the rest of the year for a breach of rules.
The UCI said that French officials were disloyal and broke its rules when they sided with organizers of Paris-Nice and used French rules and doping controls for that race in March.
The UCI sanctions made no mention of the three-week Tour de France, which is scheduled to start July 5. The UCI has been in a long-running power struggle with Amaury Sports Organization, which runs the Tour de France.
■ Cuba's Dayron Robles set a world record in the 110-meter hurdles yesterday, finishing in 12.87 seconds at the Golden Spike meet in Ostrava, Czech Republic. His time was 1/100th of a second faster than the previous mark, set by China's Liu Xiang in 2006.
■ The Post and Courier of Charleston, S.C., has reported that Larry Leckonby, an athletics-department administrator at Maryland, will replace the retiring Les Robinson as the athletics director at The Citadel.
The school said in a statement that it plans to introduce its new AD today. Leckonby has been as Maryland's senior associate athletics director for business and finance since 2002.
■ Presbyterian, in the second year of its move from NCAA Division II to Division I, is eligible for Big South regular-season titles in all sports except football after a recent vote by the conference's chief executives. Presbyterian's football team will not play a full Big South schedule this fall. Presbyterian will be a full Division I member in 2011-12.
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