Report: Crum Retirement Package in Works

Louisville Athletic Director Tom Jurich has made a decision to pursue a forced negotiated retirement settlement with Hall of Fame Coach Denny Crum, according to ESPN.

Jurich reportedly has the support of university president John Shumaker and the board of trustees. Crum, 63 and in his 29th season at Louisville, was seeking a four-year contract.

If Crum declines a negotiated settlement, the university is reportedly prepared to fire him and pay a guaranteed $2 million buyout.

Louisville is 10-15 this season, 6-6 in Conference USA. Crum has a 673-291 record at Louisville, including national championships in 1980 and 1986.

Jurich, meanwhile, is a candidate for the Indiana athletic director position that will be vacated in June as Clarence Doninger has reached the mandatory age limit of 65.

*

Forward Luke Axtell will not play Saturday for No. 6-ranked Kansas against No. 7 Iowa State because of a bad back. Axtell is averaging 5.8 points and 2.8 rebounds per game. Kansas Coach Roy Williams also said that guard Mario Kinsey, a redshirt football player, is leaving the team to concentrate on academics. Kinsey was averaging 1.8 points per game. . . . The Southern Conference tournament will be played at the Bi-Lo Center in Greenville, S.C., despite a boycott effort by the NAACP. The NAACP has led a boycott of South Carolina since January 2000 because of the Confederate flag that flew atop the Statehouse dome in Columbia. That flag was removed in July and a similar one put up at the Confederate Soldier Monument on Capitol grounds. The NAACP has continued its boycott to get that flag removed, but lost much of its support for sanctions.