Green Sets Speed Record While Wheels Are Parked

Andy Green is officially the fastest man on wheels.

On an otherwise frustrating Thursday for the British Thrust SSC team, which was parked because of bad weather in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, good news came when the International Automobile Federation sanctioned Green’s 714.144-mph run made Sept. 25.

Green has gone faster, but not in an officially timed run. The record had belonged to his boss, Richard Noble, who set the previous standard of 633.47 mph on Oct. 4, 1983.

College Basketball

A law firm hired by the University of Michigan to investigate its men’s basketball program found only three minor NCAA violations, school officials said. But a partner with the firm cautioned that the university’s determinations of major and minor were open to interpretation.

“I don’t know how the university’s counting,” Mike Glazier told the Associated Press from his Bond, Schoeneck & King firm in Overland Park, Kan. “That’s someone’s own characterizing of what’s significant.”

The 250-page report, based on a seven-month investigation, has been forwarded to the NCAA, which can accept the findings or pursue its own investigation.

The University of Louisville did not disclose conflicting information in some key areas when it reported to the NCAA about problems with its men’s basketball program, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported.

The records, from which the report was drawn, show the university did not disclose whether an assistant basketball coach improperly encouraged a player’s father to move to Louisville and whether any players improperly received free hotel rooms, the newspaper said.

What was omitted from the 16-page report could affect what penalties, if any, the NCAA decided to levy against the program, according to the newspaper.

Boxing

Heavyweight contender Ray Mercer is offering World Boxing Council champion Lennox Lewis of Britain $20 million for a chance at the title, Mercer’s manager, Marc Roberts, said.

Mercer, who lost a close 10-round decision to Lewis in May of last year, would fight for nothing if Lewis agreed to donate $10 million to a charity of Mercer’s choice, should Lewis lose.

Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson said former opponent Mitch Green came after him like “a madman,” grabbing him and ripping his shirt. That was how their street fight began on Aug. 23, 1988, Tyson testified in New York.

Green is suing Tyson for $25 million for beating him up during the fight in Harlem.

Tennis

Americans Jim Courier and Jonathan Stark and Swedes Thomas Johansson and Magnus Gustafsson advanced to the quarterfinals of the Heineken Open in Singapore. Courier beat Michael Tebbutt of Australia, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2); Stark defeated Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; Johansson eliminated Marcus Ondruska of South Africa, 6-4, 6-4; and Gustafsson defeated Martin Sinner of Germany, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 3-6.

Mary Joe Fernandez lost to Naoko Sawamatsu of Japan, 6-2, 0-6, 6-3, and South Africa’s Amanda Coetzer outlasted Anna Kournikova of Russia, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, to reach the quarterfinals of the Porsche Cup WTA tournament in Filderstadt, Germany.

Unseeded Todd Martin, coming back from an elbow injury, defeated sixth-seeded Thomas Muster in the CA Trophy tournament in Vienna, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Soccer

Italian midfielder Roberto Donadoni, a big-name player in Major League Soccer last year for the New York-New Jersey MetroStars, said he would return to his former club, AC Milan.

Germany ended the U.S. women’s team’s 12-game international unbeaten streak and 30-game overall unbeaten run by beating the Americans, 3-1, in in Duisburg, Germany.

Olympics

All of the venues for the 2002 Winter Games are in place with the announcement by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee that Wasatch Mountain State Park, 35 miles east of Salt Lake City, will be the site for the biathlon, cross-country skiing and ski jumping.

Miscellany

Billy Boat recorded a lap of 207.413 mph to knock Davey Hamilton off the pole for Saturday’s Las Vegas 500. Tony Stewart, the Indy Racing League points leader heading into the season-ending event, qualified third.

The American Basketball League is offering players a personal stake in their future, announcing a stock option plan it says is unprecedented in sports. About 10% of the league’s stock is reserved for the women who play.

Laurent Jalabert of France won the men’s individual time trial at the World Cycling Championships in San Sebastian, Spain.