O’Neill Leaves Northwestern to Become Knick Assistant

Northwestern basketball Coach Kevin O’Neill surprised university officials Friday by telling them he had accepted an assistant coaching job with the New York Knicks.

Knick Coach Jeff Van Gundy contacted O’Neill on Thursday night to offer him the position, Northwestern Athletic Director Rick Taylor said. At an early morning meeting, Taylor learned O’Neill already had cleaned out his office.

“The fact that he’s leaving for an NBA job doesn’t surprise me at all,” Taylor said. “The fact that he’s leaving Sept. 1 surprises me.”

O’Neill’s sudden resignation, after the third year of a five-year contract, probably will not affect the team’s makeup. Freshmen who signed a letter of intent are locked in for the season, and most teams have their starting squads firmed up.

O’Neill’s resignation follows a miserable 5-25 season for the Wildcats, who were winless in the Big Ten.

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Forward Rob Griffin, tied for second on Iowa in scoring last season, has been dismissed from the Hawkeyes for what Coach Steve Alford said was “repeated violations of team policy.” After playing two years at Southeastern Community College in Burlington, Iowa, Griffin averaged 12.2 points and 3.6 rebounds last year as a junior. . . . South Carolina basketball recruit Rolando Howell surrendered to police on charges of forgery and conspiracy. Prosecutors said Howell and two other defendants, Mary Jones and Penny M. Moore, cashed hundreds of dollars in bad money orders obtained from a Columbia grocery store. . . . Four basketball players might be suspended by the NCAA for playing in a summer tournament sponsored by Minnesota Timberwolves’ star Kevin Garnett. Ian Chadwick, Bishop Ravenel and Edvin Masic from Wofford College and James Griffin from the College of Charleston are expected to be suspended for the first three games of the 2000-01 season, the same number of games they played in the July tournament.

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Philadelphia 76er forward George Lynch might miss the start of training camp because of a stress fracture in his left foot. Lynch had his foot placed in a cast Friday. Lynch is listed as questionable for the start of training camp, which is scheduled to begin Oct. 3 at Penn State. . . . The Miami Heat re-signed forward Harold Jamison.

Motor Racing

Jeremy Mayfield’s season of mixed fortune took another upward turn when he mastered NASCAR’s most difficult track to win the pole for the Southern 500 at Darlington, S.C.

Mayfield, looking to win Sunday for the third time this year, managed to overcome a Darlington Raceway surface made more slippery by bright sunshine and heat to claim the fourth pole of his career.

“We were pretty fast off the truck,” Mayfield said after a qualifying lap of 169.444 mph. “The car adapted pretty well to the track.”

Mark Martin, driving his final Busch qualifying lap at Darlington on his series farewell tour, powered around the track to win his eighth Darlington pole in 164.965 mph.

“That was as fast as I could go,” said Martin, the Busch series record-holder with 44 career victories.

Dario Franchitti won the pole for the CART FedEx Series race in Vancouver, Canada. The 26-year-old Scot got around the twisting 1.78-mile circuit at the edge of downtown in 1 minute 1.067 seconds--an average of 104.993 mph. Gil de Ferran was close behind at 104.712, followed by Paul Tracy, Franchitti’s teammate, at 104.29. Helio Castroneves, de Ferran’s teammate, was next at 103.899.

Points leader Scott Dixon of New Zealand won the provisional pole in first-round qualifying for Sunday’s Dayton Indy Lights Championship race. Dixon averaged a track-record 93.332 mph around the street circuit in Vancouver.

Defending champion Cory McClenathan led top-fuel qualifying for the 46th U.S. Nationals, drag racing’s most prestigious event.

McClenathan had a quarter-mile run of 4.655 seconds at a top speed of 317.57 mph at Clermont, Ind.

Miscellany

Matt Lindland’s spot on the U.S. Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling team was confirmed when a federal appeals court threw out a rival’s claim to the same berth. A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago also rejected U.S. Olympic officials’ appeal of a judge’s order that Lindland be named in place of Keith Sieracki.

The New York Islanders announced they have re-signed defenseman Kenny Jonsson to a one-year deal. . . . The Vancouver Canucks re-signed restricted free-agent center Brendan Morrison.

Comcast Corp., the No. 3 U.S. cable-TV provider, reached an eight-year agreement with NBC for access to the 279 hours of Olympic coverage on CNBC and MSNBC, NBC said.

Hours after breaking the NCAA women’s volleyball record for consecutive victories, Central College fell to the previous record-holder.

Washington (Mo.) beat Central, 15-7, 13-15, 15-13, 15-8, on Friday night in the Central Invitational at Pella, Iowa, to end the Division III school’s winning streak at 60 matches. Washington won 59 in a row from 1991-93.