Sports Briefs March 9, 2010
Basketball
Bob Nash was fired as coach of the University of Hawaii's men's basketball team on Monday after posting a 34-56 record over three seasons.
Nash was a member of the "Fabulous Five," a group of UH basketball players during the 1970-71 and 1971-72 seasons that led the team to a 47-8 record. They made the postseason twice, including the school's first NCAA tournament appearance.
n A defense attorney hired by Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger disputed in a Milledgeville, Ga., courtroon that a college student's claim that the two-time Super Bowl winner sexually assaulted her at a Georgia nightclub.
The 20-year-old told police Roethlisberger, who had been out barhopping with friends, assaulted her early Friday. Roethlisberger has not been charged.
n President Barack Obama honored the national championship University of Alabama football team, congratulating the team for its undefeated season and recognizing the program for its first national title in 17 years.
n Charles Garcia is hoping his size and skills, combined with a strong start to his only season of major college basketball, are good enough for the NBA.
Seattle University's 6-foot-10 junior forward wasted no time and declared for the NBA draft, effective the end of the Redhawks season. Combining the size of a big man with the ball-handling skills of a perimeter player, Garcia became a must-see for NBA scouts after starting the year as an unknown.
n Former University of Kentucky basketball player Ed Davender has pleaded guilty to his part in a men's basketball season-ticket scam.
Baseball
Prince Fielder knocked in a pair of runs and Corey Hart hit a solo homer to lead the Milwaukee Brewers to a 6-2 exhibition win over a Seattle split squad in Phoenix.
n Matt Tuiasosopo had three hits, and Franklin Gutierrez and Chris Woodward each had a run-scoring sacrifice fly to lead a Mariners split squad to a 5-4 victory over the Chicago White Sox in Glendale, Ariz.
The 20-year-old Ping wedges with square-shaped grooves will no longer be allowed on the PGA Tour starting March 29 under an agreement reached with Ping executives.
John Solheim, the chairman and CEO of Ping, said the Phoenix-based company is waiving its right that had kept the PGA Tour from banning Ping Eye2 wedges made before April 1, 1990 that have deeper, wide grooves no longer allowed under new USGA regulations.
Those wedges were allowed through a 1990 settlement from when Ping sued the PGA Tour and U.S. Golf Association. Phil Mickelson, Hunter Mahan, John Daly and Fred Couples were among players who used the Ping wedges.
Horse racing
The wait is almost over for Rachel Alexandra.
The 2009 Horse of the Year will face four rivals when she makes her first start in six months in Saturday's $200,000 New Orleans Ladies at the Fair Grounds.
Dog sledding
Canadian Sebastian Schnuelle regained the early lead in the Iditarod Sled Dog race when he became the first musher to leave the Rainy Pass checkpoint, about 224 miles beyond Anchorage. Following him out of Rainy Pass were John Baker and Warren Palfrey.
- The Associated Press