Brown, Karl Latest to Say No to North Carolina Job

Larry Brown and George Karl pulled out of consideration for the North Carolina basketballcoaching job Monday, two more high-profile coaches not interested in taking over one of the most famous programs in college basketball.

Kansas Coach Roy Williams, an assistant under Smith for 10 years, announced Friday that he would not take the job.

Brown, the Philadelphia 76er coach who played under Dean Smith at North Carolina, announced his decision after meeting with North Carolina officials over the weekend.

“I have decided to continue my efforts and fulfill my dream of helping to bring a championship to Philadelphia,” Brown said.

Karl, the Milwaukee Bucks’ coach who also played for Smith, said he was flattered to have been approached.

“Right now, however, I also have a loyalty to an organization that has treated me very well, an owner who has shown a great deal of faith in me and team that’s on the verge of something special,” he said.

Bill Guthridge retired June 30 but is acting as the interim coach until his replacement is found.

Other former Tar Heels under consideration are Notre Dame’s Matt Doherty, Middle Tennessee State’s Randy Wiel and Tennessee Tech’s Jeff Lebo.

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Pepperdine, which knocked out Indiana in the first round of the NCAA tournament last spring, will open 2000-01 against the Hoosiers in the preseason NIT. The Waves will play Indiana on Nov. 14 at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind.

Motor Racing

New Hampshire International Speedway is investigating its second death in two months, and one critic said NASCAR should consider suspending races there.

Driver Kenny Irwin was killed Friday when his car crashed in Turn 3 while he was practicing for Sunday’s New England 300. Driver Adam Petty died in a similar accident at almost the same spot while practicing on the 1.058-mile track May 12.

“There’s obviously something wrong with that corner,” Lauren Fix, a race driver and director of a performance driving school at Watkins Glen, N.Y., said. Fix said she was surprised racing wasn’t suspended after Petty’s death.

The track’s owner, some drivers and a top NASCAR official disagree, noting the deaths were the first in NASCAR-sanctioned events at the speedway since it opened in 1990.

Kevin Triplett, NASCAR’s director of operations, called the deaths a “tragic coincidence.”

Irwin’s crash has prompted a NASCAR investigation, but Triplett said the cause of the crash may not be known for months--if ever.

Soccer

Soccer’s governing body upheld the contentious vote for the 2006 World Cup that was won by Germany.

Charles Dempsey of New Zealand, a member of FIFA’s executive committee, has said threats from “influential European interests” gave him no alternative but to abstain from the final balloting in which South Africa lost by one vote.

“For legal reasons, the vote is over, it’s final,” FIFA spokesman Andreas Herren said.

Dempsey, 78, announced his retirement as president of the Oceania Football Confederation, on Sunday.

Major League Soccer’s New England Revolution signed Spanish striker Jose Luis Morales, a product of famed Spanish club Real Madrid’s youth system. Morales, 26, played with Salamanca in the Second Division of the Spanish league last season.

Tennis

Paul Goldstein defeated Goichi Motomura, Japan’s top-ranked player, 6-4, 6-3, on the opening day of the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships at Newport, R.I.

In other first-round matches, fourth-seeded Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden overcame a sluggish start to defeat Germany’s Axel Pretzsch, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2; sixth-seeded David Prinosil of Germany held off Israel’s Harel Levy, 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-3 and Australian Wayne Arthurs, seeded seventh, defeated countryman James Sekulov, 6-2, 6-2.

Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia defeated fourth-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina, 6-2, 6-4, with rain interrupting play on the first day of the $375,000 Swedish Open at Bastad. Jiri Vanek of the Czech Republic defeated Galo Blanco of Spain, 6-3, 6-2. . . . Heavy rain washed out the opening day of the $350,000 Swiss Open at Gstaad.

Miscellany

J.K. McKay, attorney and former USC football player, is expected to be named vice president and general manager of Los Angeles’ new XFL franchise later this week.

McKay has been working the past year in a lead role with Ed Roski to bring the NFL back to Los Angeles.

Former UCLA basketball coach Gene Bartow retired as Alabama Birmingham’s athletic director, fighting back tears as he announced his decision at the basketball arena named after him.

The 69-year-old Bartow built UAB’s program from scratch in 1977 after having coached at Memphis State and following John Wooden at UCLA.

Vince Nicastro, Villanova’s associate athletic director for administration, was promoted to athletic director, replacing Tim Hofferth.

A bond hearing in federal court in Columbia, S.C., for sports agent William “Tank” Black was postponed a week. Black, who has said through his lawyer that he is innocent, was indicted last week on money-laundering and drug charges by a grand jury in Detroit.

Golfers Justin Leonard and Davis Love III took the lead after the first round of the CVS Charity Classic at Rhode Island Country Club in Barrington. Playing a best-ball format, Leonard and Love combined for an 11-under-par 60. The team of Craig Stadler and Steve Elkington was second, three strokes behind.

Robert Hutchinson, a part owner of the old Longacres track and a former secretary-treasurer of the Washington Jockey Club, died in Seattle July 3 of complications from a fall. He was 73.