Ndiaye Spurns UCLA, Chooses Michigan : Basketball

Detroit Pistons star Isiah Thomas, who was left off the 1992 Olympic basketball team, won a spot on the U.S. squad that will compete in this summer’s world championships in Toronto.

USA Basketball announced Thomas will replace Tim Hardaway, the Golden State guard who suffered a torn knee ligament in October and will remain an honorary team member.

Bruce J. Mathis, an amateur boxing administrator for more than 20 years, was named executive director of USA Boxing.

College Basketball

North Carolina returned to No. 1 ending Arkansas’ five-week run atop the Associated Press college basketball poll.

Duke (9-0) moved up one place to second. Kansas (15-1) is third, Arkansas (10-1) fourth and UCLA (9-0) fifth.

The Supreme Court refused to revive the wiretapping lawsuit of basketball player Deon Thomas, whose recruitment cost the University of Illinois a year of NCAA tournament eligibility.

The court left intact rulings that threw out Thomas’ lawsuit against Bruce Pearl, who as a University of Iowa assistant coach tried to land Thomas as a player for that school.

The lawsuit contended that Pearl violated federal law in 1989 by secretly recording some telephone conversations he had with Thomas, then a high school senior in Chicago. During the conversations, Thomas seemed to confirm Pearl’s suggestion that Illinois offered improper inducements.

Names in the News

Israel’s Yaniv Sharon defeated Palestinian Mohamed Al Turk, 11-4, 11-8, 11-7, 11-6, in a preliminary round of the $100,000 2nd Global Youth Table Tennis Championships at Tokyo, marking the first time an Israeli and Palestinian have met in an international sports competition.

George (Lefty) James, coach of Cornell football teams dubbed the “James Boys” when they beat several national powers, died in Sarasota, Fla. He was 88.