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Sports Briefs March 23, 2010

| March 22, 2010 9:00 PM

College

Mississippi State athletic director Greg Byrne will take the same position at Arizona.

Byrne, who graduated from Arizona State and previously worked at Pac-10 schools Oregon and Oregon State, replaces Jim Livengood, who left in December to become the AD at UNLV.

"I'm absolutely over the top with excitement about the hire. ... This is going to be a tremendous hire for the U of A," university president Robert Shelton said Monday in Tucson, Ariz., adding that he and Byrne finalized a deal last week.

Byrne, who has been the AD at Mississippi State since February 2008, will start at Arizona on May 1. He will be introduced at a press conference Wednesday.

Byrne will be paid a base salary of $390,000 and his contract, which must still be approved by the Arizona Board of Regents, includes incentives for academic and athletic achievement.

Football

• Scot McCloughan is out as the San Francisco 49ers' general manager in a "mutual parting," and director of player personnel Trent Baalke will lead the team into next month's draft.

Team president Jed York said it's in the best interest of both parties and called the move a "private personnel matter."

Basketball

Tom Penders resigned as coach at Houston, ending a six-year tenure that culminated in the Cougars' first trip to the NCAA tournament since 1992.

The Cougars qualified after winning the Conference USA tournament, but lost to Maryland 89-77 in the first round Friday night.

Baseball

Two-time All-Star Justin Duchscherer threw four scoreless innings while facing major league hitters for the first time in 19 months, then declared himself ready for the season as the Oakland Athletics beat Seattle 7-2 in Peoria, Ariz.

Duchscherer allowed four hits, walked one and struck out one in a pain-free outing.

The 32-year-old righty called his spring debut "awesome." He missed all of 2009 with season because of elbow surgery and depression.

Seattle's Ian Snell allowed six earned runs and seven hits and four innings to raise his spring ERA to 6.92.

NHL

Red Wings 3, Penguins 1: Henrik Zetterberg scored his second goal early in the third period and had an assist, lifting visiting Detroit over Pittsburgh.

Senators 2, Canadiens 0: Brian Elliott made 29 saves for his fourth shutout, Erik Karlsson had a goal and an assist, and visiting Ottawa ended a five-game losing streak by beating Montreal.

Kings 4, Avalanche 3, OT: Drew Doughty scored on a fierce slap shot with 1:20 left in overtime, and host Los Angeles beat Colorado.

• NHL players are looking to tweak the proposed rule on blindsided hits to the head in an effort to get it in place this season.

Competition committee member Jason Spezza said in Montreal that the NHL Players' Association is looking to make a counterproposal to the rule drafted by general managers earlier this month. However, the players aren't seeking any major changes.

The NHLPA first expressed a desire to see a head-checking penalty in March 2009.

Michelle Wie has signed an endorsement deal with McDonald's, with an advertising campaign that will be launched next month in five languages.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Wie is one of the most popular players in women's golf, especially after the 20-year-old from Hawaii won her first LPGA Tour event last year in Mexico.