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Sports Briefs: Indiana waits for sanctions from NCAA
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Published: October 1, 2008
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana University men's basketball program has already taken some big hits from its NCAA infractions case. More could come in a less than a month.
In the school's response to the latest NCAA allegation, that it failed to monitor Coach Kelvin Sampson, university officials said the self-imposed penalties have been strong enough -- even though they are bracing for additional sanctions from the phone-call scandal that rocked the school's signature program.
It's unclear whether the university anticipates a postseason or television ban. But, clearly, Indiana thinks the infractions committee will hand down harsher punishment when it rules on the case, probably sometime in October.
The case stems from more than 100 impermissible phone calls made by Sampson and his staff, and the accusation that Sampson provided false and misleading testimony to investigators. Sampson has repeatedly denied providing false and misleading testimony and said he was unaware the phone calls were not allowed under the probation he incurred for a similar scandal at Oklahoma.
More basketball
■ Center Kendrick Perkins of the Boston Celtics will be kept out of scrimmages during training camp because of offseason surgery on his left shoulder.
Celtics coach Doc Rivers said yesterday that Perkins is allowed to run the floor "as long as no one else is running up and down the floor with him."
Perkins injured his shoulder in Game 4 of the NBA finals against the Los Angeles Lakers. He missed Games 5 and 6 as the Celtics won their record 17th championship.
■ The Toronto Raptors have signed Jamal Sampson, a free-agent forward and cousin of Ralph Sampson, for frontcourt depth after losing Nathan Jawai. The Raptors announced Monday that Jawai will be held out of practice because of concerns from a routine cardiac screening.
Sampson, a five-year veteran, has played for Charlotte, Denver, the Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee and Sacramento and has averaged two points and 3.4 rebounds in 72 games.
■ Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol might sit out some of the Los Angeles Lakers' preseason games after a hectic offseason.
Bryant helped lead the United States to a victory over Gasol and Spain in the gold-medal game in the Summer Olympics. Bryant and Gasol each took only a few weeks off before reporting for the first day of training camp yesterday.
Coach Phil Jackson said last week he was determined to monitor Bryant's playing time more closely this season. Bryant, the reigning NBA MVP who turned 30 on Aug. 23 and is entering his 13th season, averaged 28.3 points in 38.9 minutes in leading the Lakers to the NBA finals last season.
■ Players Joe Mazzulla and Cam Thoroughman of West Virginia have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a July scuffle with police at a Pittsburgh Pirates game. The two were charged with disorderly conduct and public drunkenness and were each ordered to pay $222 in fines and court costs.
Mazzulla, a junior, is expected to start at point guard this season. Thoroughman is a redshirt sophomore.
Hockey
■ Jeff O'Neill has ended his NHL comeback bid with the Carolina Hurricanes.
O'Neill told the team of his decision after Sunday's exhibition win over Philadelphia. Jim Rutherford, the Hurricanes president and general manager, said it's difficult for a player who sat out a season to return to the league but that O'Neill looked fine in training camp.
O'Neill was a key scorer on the Hurricanes team that reached the 2002 Stanley Cup finals.
Also, the Hurricanes' first-round draft pick this year has had a pin removed from his left wrist.
The team said yesterday that center Zach Boychuk had the pin taken out of his surgically repaired wrist and will be held out of contact in practice for two weeks.
Boychuk, 18, was taken by Carolina with the 14th pick in June's draft.
■ Center Paul Gaustad of the Buffalo Sabres could miss the first three weeks of the regular season after undergoing surgery yesterday to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb. Gaustad, entering his fourth NHL season, was hurt during a fight in Buffalo's 2-1 shootout loss to Minnesota on Sunday.
■ Defenseman Sergei Gonchar of the Pittsburgh Penguins will have arthroscopic surgery on his dislocated left shoulder Thursday and will miss four to six months of the coming season. Gonchar, 34, has cartilage and ligament damage, the team said yesterday.
■ Roberto Luongo is the new captain of the Vancouver Canucks, although he won't wear a "C" on his sweater.
According to the NHL rulebook, goalies may not technically "act" as captains. The rule was put in place in the late 1940s after criticism that Canadiens captain Bill Durnan was too often leaving his crease to protest calls, in effect creating timeouts for Montreal.
Defensemen Willie Mitchell and Mattias Ohlund and forward Ryan Kesler will be alternate captains for Vancouver.
Golf
■ Jim Ferree, a former PGA and Champions tour winner, is the newest member of the South Carolina Golf Hall of Fame. Ferree won the 1958 Vancouver Open on the PGA Tour and also had two victories on the old Senior PGA Tour, which is now the Champions Tour.
Ferree, 77, is a native of Pinebluff, N.C., in Moore County. He also lived in Winston-Salem for several years and was a two-time winner of the Forsyth Invitational in the mid-1950s.
■ The European Tour will require its members to play in at least 12 tournaments next year, increasing the minimum by one as more players contemplate whether to join the $10 million Race to Dubai.
The tour's Tournament Committee voted for the change yesterday.
Miscellaneous
■ The 2011 Women's World Cup soccer tournament in Germany will open in Berlin, and the championship game will be played in Frankfurt.
Other host cities for the 16-team tournament -- scheduled June 26-July 17 -- will be Augsburg, Bochum, Dresden, Leverkusen, Moenchengladbach, Sinsheim and Wolfsburg.
■ The U.S. Olympic Committee board of directors could pick the successor for chairman Peter Ueberroth when it meets on Thursday in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Ueberroth's term on the board ends this year, and though he will stay with the USOC as an honorary president, the federation must select a new leader of the 10-person board.
Among the newest candidates are Ursula Burns and Larry Probst, who were added to the board earlier this month to take the places of Ueberroth and Erroll Davis, whose term is also expiring.
Burns is the president of Xerox. Probst is a longtime executive for video game firm Electronic Arts. Other members on the new board are Bob Bowlsby, Anita DeFrantz, James Easton, John Hendricks, Jair Lynch, Mary McCagg, Mike Plant and Stephanie Streeter.
The new chairman must get a majority of the board's 10 votes.
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