Fab Four Becomes Fab Three

Juwan Howard, the first of the Fab Five, became the second to leave Michigan before graduating.

Howard announced Monday that he would skip his senior basketball season and make himself available for the NBA draft.

Teammate Jalen Rose is expected to announce his plans today. If Rose leaves, too, only Jimmy King and Ray Jackson will remain from the all-freshman lineup that started the NCAA championship game against Duke in 1992.

“There will never be a freshman class like the Fab Five,” Howard said. “I can’t imagine five freshmen starting the final game for the NCAA championship ever again.”

Diving

Mark Lenzi, the 1992 Olympic three-meter diving champion, says he might have to sell his Olympic gold medal to raise money for flight school.

“I really don’t want to do it,” Lenzi said. “But if worse comes to worst, I’ll have to. A lot of people ask me what it’s like to be rich and famous. Well, I’m not rich.”

Lenzi, 25, says that unless he can find another way to pay the $25,000 tuition at the school he wants to attend, he will sell his medal to the highest bidder.

Jurisprudence

Members of the UCLA men’s swimming and gymnastics teams have won a judicial reprieve from program cuts.

Superior Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki issued a temporary order barring the University of California regents, UCLA Chancellor Charles Young and intercollegiate athletic director Peter Dalis from cutting the programs for now.

But his order also prevents the teams from recruiting new members or scheduling competition for the next school year, and it requires lawyers to be back in court May 16 for more argument.

Houston Oiler linebacker Lamar Lathon has been charged with misdemeanor assault for allegedly choking a dancer at a Houston nightclub. Houston police said the dancer alleged that Lathon, 26, pushed her to the floor and began choking her after they had argued at the club where she was performing.

Former UNLV basketball Coach Jerry Tarkanian lost a second Supreme Court battle with the NCAA when the high court let stand a lower court ruling striking down Nevada’s due-process law.

The ruling was handed down six years after a Supreme Court ruling involving Tarkanian that said the NCAA does not have to meet constitutional due-process standards in its investigations.

Richard Dumas of the Phoenix Suns was cited for violating a noise ordinance--playing his car stereo too loudly in a Phoenix parking lot. Police then found he was being sought for failing to appear on a 2-year-old speeding ticket.

The 24-year-old forward, who has spent the season on the NBA’s suspended list while seeking treatment for a substance abuse problem, was arrested and held at the city jail for a short time.

Seattle Seahawks defensive tackle Tyrone Rodgers pleaded innocent in Seattle to second-degree assault. Rodgers is accused of beating a tow truck driver who was trying to repossess Rodgers’ car.

Colleges

The Western Athletic Conference will add six members, including Southern Methodist, Texas Christian and Rice, The Dallas Morning News reported. Citing an official close to the negotiations, the newspaper said the WAC would become a 16-team league in 1996 by also taking in Nevada Las Vegas, San Jose State and Tulsa.

Names In The News

Brian Lara of the West Indies set a world record in cricket with a single-inningscore of 375 runs against England at St. John’s, Antigua, beating the 365 hit by fellow West Indian Sir Garry Sobers 36 years ago. In all, Lara, 24, batted for 12 hours and 46 minutes over three days and hit 45 fours--the cricket equivalent of a home run. . . . Salvadore Jasso, Raul Basulto and Jauquin Gallardo of Southern California won first-round matches in the national Golden Gloves tournament at Milwaukee. . . . Los Angeles-based Zack Padilla retained his World Boxing Organization junior welterweight title with a sixth-round technical knockout of Harold Miller in Rotterdam, Netherlands. . . . Orlando Magic forward Jeff Turner will sit out the rest of the regular season because of a knee injury.