NEWSWIRE

The championship of one of the most exciting NCAA tournaments in history got the lowest prime-time television rating ever, a 17.8 with a 28 share.

It was the lowest rating for an NCAA title game since UCLA and Florida State in 1972, which, played in the afternoon, got a 16.0. Last year’s game between Arizona and Kentucky got an 18.9.

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Ticket applications for next year’s NCAA Final Fours, both men and women, will be available throughout April from the NCAA in Overland Park, Kan. Applications must be received by May 15 to be included in computerized drawings in July. The men’s Final Four is March 27 and 29 in St. Petersburg, Fla., the women’s March 26 and 28 at San Jose.

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As expected, North Carolina Charlotte Coach Melvin Watkins resigned to become coach at Texas A&M.; . . . Nebraska guard Tyronn Lue announced he is making himself available for the NBA draft. . . . Marquette point guard Aaron Hutchins was in satisfactory condition in a Milwaukee hospital after a car accident.

Tennis

Two-time champion Conchita Martinez was beaten in her first match at the Family Circle Cup in Hilton Head, S.C., by Poland’s Magdalena Grzybowska, 7-5, 6-2. Martinez, who had a first-round bye, won the event in 1994 and 1995. Top-seeded Lindsay Davenport defeated Corina Morariu, 6-3, 6-0, in just under an hour.

Germany’s new Davis Cup player-manager, Boris Becker, said he might play in three matches in the first round against South Africa beginning Friday. It had been speculated that Becker might concentrate on doubles because of recent injuries, but he said he has trained well and is fit.

Boxing

Boxing returns to the Olympic Auditorium on a monthly basis beginning April 18. Promoter Bob Arum’s Top Rank organization, in conjunction with the Univision network, will revive the sport in a building where fights once flourished.

Only one boxing show was held there last year and this will be the first in 1998.

Opening statements in the second insurance fraud trial of promoter Don King in New York probably won’t take place for another week because jury selection has taken longer than expected.

King faces charges he faked a contract with Lloyd’s of London to collect $350,000 in nonexistent training expenses for a canceled 1991 bout between Julio Cesar Chavez and Harold Brazier.

Miscellany

A chartered plane carrying 19 members of the Leeds United soccer team crash-landed after its right engine caught fire shortly after takeoff from Leeds, England.

The two-engine British Aerospace 748 aircraft, which had climbed only 150 feet, overshot the runway as it touched down and the nose wheel collapsed as the craft came to a stop about 300 feet from the perimeter fence.

Sydney Olympics organizers affirmed that French will remain an official language at the 2000 Summer Games in an agreement with the French government.

All official announcements and written material at an Olympics must be in English and French, the two official languages of the Olympics.

Names in the News

Steven Kay, an attorney for San Francisco 49er owner Eddie DeBartolo, has been ordered to appear before a federal grand jury investigating alleged gambling corruption in Louisiana, the San Francisco Examiner reported.

DeBartolo and former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards are among those targeted in an ongoing corruption probe in Louisiana. Edwards has said DeBartolo gave him $400,000 for help securing a state license for his riverboat gambling venture.

Prosecutors say the money is the result of criminal activity.

Tim Flock, recently chosen as one of NASCAR’s top 50 drivers, died at his home in Charlotte, N.C., after a battle with cancer of the liver and throat. He was 73.

Four-time basketball Olympian Teresa Edwards, giving up her role as player-coach for the Atlanta Glory of the ABL, was traded as a player only to the Philadelphia Rage for all-star forward Adrienne Goodson. . . . Cindy Blodgett of Maine, the leading scorer in women’s college basketball in two of the last three seasons, signed with the WNBA and will be available in the draft April 29. The 5-foot-9 guard averaged 27 points last season. . . . Former USC women’s coach Fred Williams is joining the Utah Starzz of the WNBA as an assistant coach.