THE SIDELINES : Female Coach for Male Cagers?

The University of Kentucky basketball program soon could become the first Division 1 men’s program to hire a female graduate assistant coach. Coach Rick Pitino said at a high school fund-raiser that he is serious about plans to hire a woman. He said the decision could come early next month.

“We’ll start with a graduate assistant and teach her the system,” Pitino said Tuesday. “She won’t be my right-hand man.”