Parents Ask Calipari to Reinstate Suspended Guard Williams

The parents of Massachusetts basketball player Mike Williams implored Coach John Calipari on Monday to reinstate their son two games into an indefinite suspension.

“We feel that this has caused immeasurable damage to his mental stability, his character and his career,” the player’s father, Alphonza Williams, said at a news conference called by the couple.

Mike Williams, who did not attend the news conference, was suspended for three games at the beginning of the season for academic reasons. On Thursday, just before the Minutemen’s game against Duquesne, the team issued a statement saying he would again be suspended--this time indefinitely--for violating team rules.

Alphonza Williams said that his son, who was averaging 12.6 points, wrote a letter to Calipari on Thursday, apologizing and asking to be reinstated.

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Akron Coach Coleman Crawford and an assistant were reprimanded by the Mid-American Conference for unsportsmanlike conduct--criticizing game officials--after Saturday’s 75-58 loss to Ohio.

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Sam Mitchell, former Michigan and Cleveland State basketball player, was found dead in his apartment in Fabriano, Italy, after having complained about feeling ill, authorities said. He was 24.

Doctors suspected that Mitchell had died of a heart ailment, but an autopsy was scheduled. He had arrived in Italy in December to join the Fabriano-Turboair team.

Pro Football

Newspapers in Texas reported that defensive end Jim Jeffcoat is leaving the Dallas Cowboys for the Buffalo Bills, who reportedly will give him a multiyear contract at $1 million a year.

Former Washington Redskin Dexter Manley appeared headed for a psychiatric hospital after three drug arrests in four months.

The former defensive end’s arraignment in a Houston court was postponed until March 3 so his attorney could prepare a petition for an involuntary psychiatric commitment to a hospital.

The Carolina Panthers signed two unrestricted free agents, Seattle Seahawk kicker John Kasay and New York Giant defensive lineman Mike Fox.

Reggie Roby became the NFL’s highest-paid punter, signing a three-year contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers worth a little less than $2 million.

Baseball

Sparky Anderson told the Detroit Free Press that Tigers’ front office has been run “with phoniness” in the past several years and that the team is “a mess.”

Anderson was placed on unpaid leave Friday when he refused to manage potential strikebreakers on the first day of spring training in Lakeland, Fla. Some in the team’s front office wanted Anderson fired, the newspaper reported.

Much of Anderson’s anger with the front office stems from a deteriorating relationship with Joe Klein, the general manager, the newspaper said. Anderson went over Klein’s head when he asked club president John McHale Jr. that he be allowed to deal only with minor league players and not replacements.

Miscellany

Olympic figure skating champion Oksana Baiul plans to return to the amateur ranks in time to qualify for the 1998 Winter Games.

American figure skaters Michael Weiss and Damon Allen overcame the lead of China’s Zhang Min from the short program to win gold and silver, giving the United States its first medals of the Winter University Games at Jaca, Spain.

Top-ranked Pete Sampras has told U.S. Davis Cup Captain Tom Gullikson that he will not play in a quarterfinal match against Italy next month at Palermo, Sicily.

Defending champion Michael Chang defeated Richard Fromberg, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5), in a baseline duel in the first round of the Comcast U.S. Indoor tennis championship in Philadelphia.

Chang, seeded third, next faces Jim Grabb.

Thomas Enqvist upset sixth-seeded Jaime Yzaga, 2-6, 7-6 (8-6), 7-5.

Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee, denounced the abuse of drugs and doping by athletes during a speech in Rome.