New Mexico State Suddenly Hits the Recruiting Jackpot

Recruiting doesn’t get much easier than this. On Tuesday, New Mexico State picked up five players and an assistant coach from one school, Northeastern Illinois.

The Midwestern school’s decision to drop basketball came at the right time for New Mexico State, which badly needed players for next season because of recruiting restrictions because of a probation.

Two former Northeastern Illinois players, guards Daveeno Hines and William Keyes, have signed financial aid papers with the school and three others, Zachary Norvell, Brad Bestor and Gerrard Moore, also are expected to join the Aggies.

New Mexico State Coach Lou Henson, who formerly coached at Illinois, also has added ex-Northeastern assistant coach Thomas Trotter to his staff.

New Mexico State is completing a three-year probation, and as part of the sanctions, was banned from recruiting junior college players until next year.

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Former Artesia High star Jonathan Nelson, a part-time starter for Oregon last season as a junior, will transfer at the end of the academic term, the school announced. Nelson, a forward, averaged 6.4 points and 4.0 rebounds last season.

Pro Basketball

The Long Beach StingRays traded starting center Venus Lacy to the ABL’s Nashville expansion team for Stacey Lovelace, who played last season for the now-defunct Atlanta Glory.

With Long Beach’s Yolanda Griffith having gone to Chicago in the trade for ABL most valuable player Natalie Williams, the StingRays were left with two low post starters, Lacy and Williams. Lovelace gives Long Beach a 14 points-a-game scorer who can play either forward position.

Pro Football

Running back Rodney Hampton, the New York Giants’ all-time leading rusher, was released by the team after having only 22 carries in two games last season. He was scheduled to make $1.95 million in 1998.

Meanwhile, the Giants signed Gary Brown, who ran for 945 yards in San Diego last season.

The Detroit Lions traded kick returner Glyn Milburn to the Green Bay Packers for a conditional 1999 draft choice.

During a book-signing party at Denver, quarterback John Elway said he will decide in June whether to retire or return for a 16th season with the Denver Broncos.

Vernon Holland, a first-round draft choice of the Cincinnati Bengals in 1971, died of an apparent heart attack at Nashville.

Boxing

The World Boxing Assn. and the World Boxing Council have agreed to standardize some of their fight rules, paving the way for undisputed title bouts between holders of the two belts, a top WBA official said in Caracas, Venezuela.

Among the accords were the WBC’s decision to adopt the WBA’s three-knockdown rule, awarding a victory after three knockdowns in the same round.

Similarly, the WBA will apply the WBC’s procedure of deducting one point for an intentional or unintentional clash of heads.

Jurisprudence

A couple injured when Latrell Sprewell slammed into their car while swerving out of an exit-only lane at Martinez, Calif., has sued the suspended Golden State Warrior basketball star.

Arnulfo Perlas, 54, and Irma Feliciano, 53, are seeking unspecified exemplary, general and property damages, as well as medical costs, according to the suit filed in Contra Costa County Superior Court.

San Diego State running back Tyrone Evans pleaded no contest to 13 misdemeanor charges including beating his former girlfriend outside his apartment last year. Sentencing was set for June 12. Evans faces a maximum of 12 years in jail and a $17,000 fine.

Tomar Cooper Locker, charged in the fatal shooting of pro boxer Reuben Bell at Washington in February, was indicted on 13 charges by a grand jury. Locker, 23, of Columbia, S.C., is charged with first-degree murder and faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted.

Tennis

A resurgent Andre Agassi routed Todd Martin, 6-2, 6-1, in the first round of the Monte Carlo Open, setting up a rare early showdown with Pete Sampras.

Sampras is trying to regain his No. 1 ranking from Marcelo Rios.

“To play Pete so early in the tournament is unsettling,” Agassi said. “He’s the guy you always expect to play at the end of the tournament.”

Thomas Muster, a three-time winner of the event, lasted less than an hour, losing, 6-0, 6-3, to 14th-seeded Carlos Moya. Sergi Bruguera, a two-time champion at Monte Carlo, advanced with a 6-1, 1-6, 7-5 victory over American qualifier Jeff Tarango and Andrei Medvedev, the 1995 winner, downed Goran Ivanisevic, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (9-7).

Defending champion Michael Chang overcame a spirited challenge from Paraguay’s Ramon Delgado, winning, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-1) to struggle into the second round of the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships at Orlando, Fla.

Third-seeded Jim Courier beat wild-card qualifier Geoff Grant, 6-1, 6-2, avoiding the first-round upsets that sidelined Vince Spadea and Wayne Black.

Spadea, seeded fourth, was upset by Australia’s Andrew Ilie, 6-4, 6-2, and Black, seeded sixth, was ousted by American Jan-Michael Gambill, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.

Fourth-seeded Anne-Gaelle Sidot was upset by Gala Leon Garcia of Spain, 6-2, 6-1, in the first round of the $107,500 Budapest Lotto Ladies Open tournament in Hungary.

Miscellany

The U.S. Soccer Federation will receive about $380 million over 12 years from deals announced in New York with International Management Group and Nike. Combined with a $120-million apparel contract with Nike announced in October, the USSF will have at least $500 million in funding.

Delayed because some members had to be in federal court in Kansas City earlier, the NCAA’s board of directors wound up postponing by one day a decision on whether to let scholarship athletes hold part-time jobs.

Calling himself an “outsider,” Tim Smith, an attorney whose sports marketing background is in professional golf and tennis, was introduced in New York as the chief executive officer and commissioner of the National Thoroughbred Racing Assn.

Jenna Daniels of Arizona shot a four-under-par 68 to set a women’s course record and widen her lead in the Pacific-10 women’s golf championship at Rancho Santa Margarita.

The University of Denver accepted an invitation to move up to the Division I Sun Belt Conference, effective July 1, 1999.