LSU Admits Violations, Denies Coach Paid Player

Louisiana State University admits violating some NCAA rules when it recruited basketball player Lester Earl but denies former assistant coach Johnny Jones gave him more than $6,000.

The university also denies that Jones, now an assistant at Memphis, arranged for an LSU booster to pay Earl another $4,000.

“There is absolutely no evidence, other than the testimony of Lester Earl, that Johnny Jones ever provided cash payments to Lester Earl,” the school said in a 150-page response to NCAA allegations released Monday.

Earl played for LSU in the 1996-97 season and then transferred to Kansas.

The infractions allegedly took place between 1993 and 1996 when Dale Brown was the head coach.

LSU recommended self-imposed sanctions, including the reduction of scholarships by five over a three-year period and forfeiture of all games in which Earl participated. He was in 11 games that season and LSU lost six of them.

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Jerome Moiso, a 6-foot-10 center from France, has received an NCAA-qualifying SAT score and will be eligible to play for UCLA this upcoming season.

Jurisprudence

Defense lawyers for boxing promoter Don King opened what is expected to be a brief defense at New York against insurance fraud charges after prosecutors claimed King was unfairly communicating with jurors through grimaces and gestures.

A “chain of failures” by designers and builders led to the collapse of a footbridge during the opening ceremony of Israel’s Maccabiah Games and the deaths of four Australian athletes, an engineer testified at Tel Aviv, Israel. The bridge buckled as about 100 Australian athletes crossed on their way to the opening ceremony of the games last July 14.

Florida State quarterback Dan Kendra will not face legal charges at Tallahassee, Fla., for concocting a chemical device that exploded in his apartment and left him with cuts on his nose, chest and stomach.

Miscellany

Michigan football Coach Lloyd Carr, who in January led the Wolverines to their first national title since 1948, has signed a new contract that will run through the 2004 season.

The plans of New Jersey businessman J. Bruce Llewellyn to bid for the Minnesota Vikings received cool initial reactions from several team owners.

Llewellyn said his offer would retain a number of the team’s 10 current owners and keep the team in Minnesota.

Brian Burke, who spent the last five years as head of NHL hockey operations, returned to the Vancouver Canucks as general manager. He succeeds Pat Quinn, who was fired last November.

Janice Braxton scored 17 points and the Cleveland Rockers (4-1) took the lead for good during a 16-0 run and defeated the Utah Starzz (2-4), 88-72, before 7,405 at Cleveland.

Jane Couch was granted a license to fight in Britain, ending a three-year fight for recognition by the British Boxing Board of Control.