Tar Heels Face Date in Court

North Carolina basketball players Ed Cota and Terrence Newby are scheduled to appear in court in Chapel Hill, N.C., on Monday--the same day the Tar Heels could be playing for a national title in Indianapolis.

Cota and Newby face assault charges in District Court stemming from a Halloween night brawl. Their trial has been delayed three times.

That could pose a problem if the Tar Heels beat Florida on Saturday. That means they would play the Wisconsin-Michigan State winner in Monday night’s championship game.

“Hopefully, they will excuse them,” Coach Bill Guthridge said.

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In the latest accusation against Bob Knight, a former Indiana player claims the coach once punched star guard Steve Alford.

Alford, however, said comments by former Hoosier teammate Ricky Calloway are incorrect.

“Nothing along those lines ever happened,” Alford, now the coach at Iowa, said in a statement issued by the school’s sports information office.

Calloway told the Houston Chronicle he saw Knight punch Alford and slap forward Daryl Thomas during practices.

“We were all standing in a circle one day, and [Knight] just turned around and punched Steve right in the stomach, and for a minute and a half Steve couldn’t breathe,” Calloway said in Sunday’s Chronicle.

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Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo said that after Saturday’s victory over Iowa State, Morris Peterson was told that his grandmother, Clara Mae Spencer, 72, died earlier that day in Mississippi. Peterson’s family decided not to tell him until after the game. . . . Michigan State named Maine’s Joanne Palombo-McCallie as women’s coach. She succeeds Karen Langeland, who resigned to become an assistant athletic director.