NCAA wants Paterno family’s suit dismissed

The NCAA asked a Pennsylvania court on Tuesday to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the family of the late football coach Joe Paterno that seeks to overturn the sanctions against Penn State for the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

Some trustees, former players and coaches and current faculty members are also taking part in the same lawsuit, which the NCAA said was flawed and contained “various significant legal deficiencies.”

College sports’ governing body said in the filing in Centre County court that the civil suit must be dismissed in part because the university itself isn’t part of the suit. The sanctions handed down in July 2012 were agreed to by the NCAA and the university president.

The NCAA also firmly denied a claim that it had conspired with former FBI director Louis Freeh’s team in formulating the sanctions. Freeh led the school’s internal investigation into the scandal, and the Paterno family and three former school officials have vehemently denied Freeh’s scathing allegations of a cover-up.

It was the NCAA’s first response to the case since the lawsuit was filed in late May. The NCAA also asked for related complaints against NCAA President Mark Emmert and Oregon State President Ed Ray to be dismissed for lack of merit. Ray was chair of the NCAA executive committee when the penalties were announced.

ETC.: Trevor Lewis gets one-year deal with Kings

Forward Trevor Lewis and the Kings avoided salary arbitration, reaching a one-year deal worth a reported $1.325 million.

Tuesday’s announcement comes one day after Lewis was among the 48 players invited to Team USA’s orientation camp in late August. Lewis, a restricted free agent, had been scheduled to go to arbitration Aug. 2.

Lewis, 26, made $750,000 this past season, in which he appeared in all 48 games and recorded a career-high 14 points.

Team USA’s camp will be Aug. 26-27 and among the other invitees are Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick and captain Dustin Brown. The final roster for the Sochi Olympics is expected to be announced in late December.

—Lisa Dillman

The New Jersey Devils signed 41-year-old forward Jaromir Jagr to make up for some of the scoring lost with the recent retirement of Ilya Kovalchuk. The one-year contract is worth $2 million.

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The Golden State Warriors signed free-agent center Jermaine O’Neal to a $2-million, one-year contract. Golden State is likely to use the 34-year-old O’Neal as a backup to Andrew Bogut.

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Kristi Toliver and Nneka Ogwumike of the Sparks were named as reserves on the WNBA Western Conference All-Stars, joining starter Candace Parker in Saturday’s game at Connecticut.

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UCLA safety Dietrich Riley will be unable to continue his football career because of lingering problems with neck and shoulder injuries. Riley, from Pasadena St. Francis High, would have been a junior. He was unable to get final medical clearance, thinning out an area that lacks experience. UCLA lost all four starters from the secondary from the 2012 season.

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In his first public comments since Aaron Hernandez was arrested, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was understated, saying simply that he has “moved on” when asked his reaction to the murder charge against his former tight end.

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Jacksonville Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew made good on his promise last month that he would be ready to go at the start of training camp when he was cleared by team doctors to start practice with his teammates Friday. Jones-Drew suffered a broken left foot last October.

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The Florida State Attorney’s Office has dropped misdemeanor charges against Florida linebacker Antonio Morrison, who was arrested Sunday and charged with barking at a police dog and resisting arrest. State Attorney Bill Cervone said Tuesday that the “dismissal is based on the lack of evidence to warrant much less legally sustain those charges and the complete inappropriateness of pursing court action against Morrison, or anyone else, under the circumstances involved.”

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Former NFL running back Larry Johnson pleaded no contest to charges that he choked an ex-girlfriend into unconsciousness and left her only in her underwear in a Las Vegas hotel hallway. Johnson was sentenced to one year of probation and ordered to pay a $345 fine. He must also perform 48 hours of community service and attend six months of counseling.

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Thomaz Bellucci’s defense of the Swiss Open title ended in the first round at Gstaad when he lost to Federico Delbonis, who beat Roger Federer in Germany last week. Delbonis won, 7-5, 7-6 (2), against Bellucci, who also took the clay-court title at the Swiss ski resort in 2009. ... Fifth-seeded Tommy Robredo cruised into the second round of the Croatia Open at Umag, beating Jan Hajek, 6-3, 6-2, in 71 minutes.

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Gerardo Martino, a relatively unknown Argentine league coach, reached an agreement to coach a Barcelona team led by Lionel Messi that is one of great clubs in soccer history. Martino will be given a two-year contract, the Spanish team said.

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Players, team officials and referees were banned for life and four amateur clubs for 10 years after Nigeria’s soccer federation found they fixed two lower-league playoff games that ended with scores of 79-0 and 67-0. In findings of an investigation sent to the Associated Press, the Nigerian Football Federation ruled that there was “a fraudulent conspiracy among the teams” to fix the games after Plateau United Feeders and Police Machine figured out that they needed to boost their goal tallies to beat the other to promotion to the lowest tier of Nigeria’s pro league.

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China’s He Zi won her second world title in the women’s 1-meter springboard, edging Italy’s Tania Cagnotto by 0.10 points after executing a nearly flawless final dive at Barcelona.