Pac-10 picks Maualuga as top defensive player

USC middle linebacker Rey Maualuga, who leads the nation’s top-ranked defense, was voted the Pacific 10 Conference defensive player of the year by league coaches, it was announced Monday.

Maualuga, a senior from Eureka, Calif., was selected to the all-conference first team for the third year in a row. Oregon State running back Jacquizz Rodgers, who had a major role in USC’s only defeat, was selected offensive player of the year and freshman of the year. Oregon State’s Mike Riley was coach of the year.

USC had eight players voted to the first team: quarterback Mark Sanchez and center Kristofer O’Dowd on offense; Maualuga, tackle Fili Moala, linebacker Brian Cushing, safeties Kevin Ellison and Taylor Mays on defense; and kicker David Buehler. Defensive tackle Brian Price and punter Aaron Perez were UCLA’s first-team selections.

-- Gary Klein

Illinois offensive coordinator Mike Locksley was hired as New Mexico’s coach, becoming the fourth black football coach at a major school. Illinois Athletic Director Paul Krebs said he was “thrilled” at the hire but declined to comment further until the coach is introduced in Albuquerque today.

After USC offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian was introduced as Washington’s third coach in five years, he told a crowd of Huskies fans: “I’m going to bring a lot of passion to these kids. We just have to change the way they think.”

Texas quarterback Colt McCoy confirmed that he’ll return to the Longhorns for his senior season in 2009. McCoy has led No. 3 Texas (11-1) to a Fiesta Bowl matchup against Ohio State with 3,445 yards passing and 32 touchdowns.

“I’m not going anywhere,” McCoy said in an interview published on the Austin American-Statesman’s website.

Oklahoma State Coach Mike Gundy kicked junior receiver Jeremy Broadway, a former starter, off the team for breaking team rules.

GOLF

Frazar tops PGA Tour qualifiers

Harrison Frazar finished a memorable week that included a 59 by reaching his ultimate goal, closing with a five-under-par 67 at the PGA Tour qualifying tournament at La Quinta to lead 28 players who earned their cards for next season. Frazar finished at 32-under 400. “

Typical of Q-school, the drama took place around the cutoff for the top 25 and ties to earn full status on the PGA Tour next year.

Notah Begay, a four-time PGA Tour winner and college teammate at Stanford with Tiger Woods, was one of only two qualifiers who faced the tougher TPC Stadium course in the final round. Two shots below the cut line with four holes to play, Begay ran off three consecutive birdies for a 67 to make it by one shot.

“Tiger and I always talk about, ‘You gotta do what you gotta do.’ I was thinking about him the last day,” Begay said.

Among the other former PGA Tour winners who earned their cards were John Huston, who tied for fourth; Glen Day, who tied for seventh; Ted Purdy, who finished at 19 under; and Chris Riley, who played in the 2004 Ryder Cup. Riley shot 69 to make it on the number.

Among the newcomers to the tour will be James Oh of Los Angeles, who went 68-69 on the weekend and made it with two shots to spare.

Paul Azinger, who led the U.S. Ryder Cup team to victory this year, will not be returning as captain for the 2010 matches in Wales. He said his successor would be announced Thursday.

CYCLING

Two teams add drug-test expert

The top two U.S.-based professional cycling teams, Team Columbia and Team Garmin-Slipstream, hired former UCLA drug-testing expert Don Catlin to do year-round blood testing on their riders.

Catlin left UCLA, where he began doing drug testing in advance of the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, and has his own research facility, Anti-Doping Sciences Institute. Catlin may also do personal testing for Lance Armstrong.

-- Diane Pucin

ETC.

Ellison’s boat won’t sail in Cup

Larry Ellison’s BMW-Oracle sailing syndicate won’t compete in the America’s Cup envisioned by Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli as a legal battle over sailing’s oldest event continues. BMW-Oracle contends that Bertarelli’s Alinghi team, which holds the Cup, negotiated unfair rules.

Petty Enterprises released at least three dozen employees as the team continues to search for a merger or a miracle that would keep it operating in 2009.