NBA
HOUSTON -- Houston Rockets assistant Elston Turner says he will interview to be head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Turner said he was contacted Monday by David Kahn, president of basketball operations for the Timberwolves, about the vacancy.
"You always feel privileged to get these kinds of opportunities," Turner said in an interview with KRIV-TV in Houston. "It's an opportunity like I had last year with Phoenix. It's a chance to see what they are talking about and see if the situation fits."
Turner was a candidate for the Phoenix Suns job last year. He has also worked as an assistant in Sacramento and Portland.
He said the interview will take place in Las Vegas, where he is coaching the Rockets summer league team.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
STILLWATER, Okla. -- A July 29 arraignment is set for two Oklahoma State football players who face misdemeanor drug counts.
Payne County prosecutors charged sophomore Jamal Mosley and freshman Dexter Pratt with one count each of possession of marijuana on Wednesday. According to court documents, the date of the offense was June 17.
According to police records, the men were in possession of "a small plastic bag containing what appeared to be, and subsequently field tested positive" as a small amount of marijuana.
Both live in Davis Hall on the OSU campus.
Oklahoma State media relations officials said head coach Mike Gundy is out of town and would have no immediate comment on the situation.
Mosley is a tight end and Pratt is one of the top incoming recruits for the Cowboys.
COLLEGE SPORTS
NEW YORK -- A fundraiser at an upstate university has sued two senior athletics department officials, accusing them of using her as a "plaything" and trying to make her ply big donors with her sexuality.
The plaintiff, Elizabeth Williams, filed late Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan alleging that after she took the fundraising position late last year in the Binghamton University athletics department, she "discovered that her new bosses viewed women as playthings and expected women in the department to raise money by exploiting their sexuality."
Among Williams' allegations is a claim that before an alumni gathering in New York City early this year, an athletics department official instructed her to dress provocatively and use her sexuality as a "business tactic." The lawsuit says a private dinner with school officials and favored donors grew especially offensive.
One of the donors "began laying down $100 bills on the table one at a time and told Williams to stop him when it got to be enough to sleep with him," the suit says. "When Williams made it clear she was not interested, [the donor] asked, 'Well, how much would it cost for you to sleep with me and my wife?'"
NASCAR
JOLIET, Ill. -- Brian Vickers has won his fifth pole of the NASCAR Spring Cup series season, running a lap of 184.162 mph at Chicagoland Speedway.
Red Bull Racing teammate Scott Speed qualified second on Thursday at 182.958. Three-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson was third.
Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer round out the top five.
Vickers hasn't had those poles help him drive to Victory Lane. He hasn't finished higher than fifth this season.
He has 10 career poles in 191 Cup races.
GOLF
MELBOURNE, Australia -- Tiger Woods' first scheduled appearance in Australia since 1998 is already paying dividends for Australian Masters organizers.
Tournament officials said Friday that premium grandstand seating on the 18th hole had sold out for every day of the Nov. 12-15 tournament at Kingston Heath.
All daily passes have been purchased for Friday's second round, and less than 10 percent of daily passes for Sunday's fourth round remain to be sold. Organizers have placed a limit of 20,000 spectators per day on the course to ensure high security.
The Victorian state government, which is contributing to Woods' reported $3 million appearance fee, welcomed the news of the ticket surge.
"Melbourne is the only place fans will see the world's greatest golfer compete in Australia for some time so I'm not surprised at the unprecedented level of interest," state Premier John Brumby said. "Thousands of tickets have been sold to interstate and overseas tourists who will come to Melbourne helping to boost tourism and securing jobs for Victorians."
NFL
TEMPE, Ariz. -- The Arizona Cardinals have signed third-round draft pick Rashad Johnson to a three-year contract.
The 5-foot-11, 203-pound safety from Alabama was the 95th selection overall.
The signing announced Thursday leaves only first-round pick running back Beanie Wells and second-round pick linebacker Cody Brown without contract agreements among Cardinal draft picks.
OLYMPICS
LONDON -- The International Olympic Committee chastised U.S. Olympic officials on Thursday for "unilaterally" launching their own television network, warning the project could jeopardize relations with Olympic broadcaster NBC.
The IOC accused the U.S. Olympic Committee of acting hastily by announcing plans Wednesday for the U.S. Olympic Network, which is scheduled to go on air next year after the Vancouver Winter Games with Comcast as broadcast partner.
"We were aware that the USOC had been considering a new 'Olympic broadcast network', but we have never been presented with a plan, and we had assumed that we would have an opportunity to discuss unresolved questions together before the project moved forward," the IOC said in a statement from Lausanne, Switzerland. "It is for this reason that the IOC is disappointed that USOC acted unilaterally and, in our view, in haste by announcing their plans before we had had a chance to consider together the ramifications."
NBC holds the U.S. broadcast rights through the 2012 London Olympics. The network acquired the rights to the Vancouver and London Games in 2003 in a deal worth $2.2 billion. NBC is also expected to be among the U.S. networks bidding for rights to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi and 2016 Summer Games.
BOXING
NEW YORK -- Showtime is putting the final touches on a six-man super middleweight round-robin tournament that will include two current champions and three former U.S. Olympians.
Two people with knowledge of the discussions told The Associated Press on Thursday that the details, possibly including sites and dates, are being worked out this week. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because negotiations were ongoing.
The tournament is expected to include WBA champion Mikkel Kessler and WBC champion Carl Froch along with IBF middleweight titleholder Arthur Abraham. The three Europeans will be joined by former U.S. Olympians Jermain Taylor, Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell.
Showtime issued a statement saying all six fighters would be in New York on Monday for a "groundbreaking boxing announcement," but declined to elaborate. They have a combined record of 161-4-1 with 117 knockouts. Abraham, Froch, Dirrell and Ward have never been beaten.
Unlike elimination tournaments, the format would reward fighters with points based on the decision. A victory would earn two points, with a bonus point for a knockout, and a draw would be worth one point. The four fighters with the most points at the end of the round-robin would advance to seeded semifinals.
-- Wire reports
RSS
Mobile
Daily Emails
Twitter
Facebook
