Prince to Stay With Wildcats

Tayshaun Prince, a former Compton Dominguez standout who last season was voted the Southeastern Conference player of the year, plans to return to the University of Kentucky for his senior season, passing up the NBA draft, his mother said Friday.

“He told me, ‘Mom, I’m going back to school,’ ” Diane Prince told the Lexington Herald-Leader. “He wants to finish his senior year.”

Guard Keith Bogans, Kentucky’s leading scorer, has not said whether he will return for his junior year.

Brandy Reed of the Phoenix Mercury was suspended indefinitely by the WNBA team for undisclosed reasons.

General Manager Seth Sulka said it was for “conduct detrimental to the team.”

Villanova forward Aaron Matthews, suspended indefinitely in February for an unspecified violation, will transfer. It was not immediately known where he will be going to school.

Olympics

LA2012, the group spearheading a bid to bring the 2012 Summer Games to Los Angeles, beat Friday’s deadline to return its revised application to the U.S. Olympic Committee by nearly a month.

Rich Perelman, director of the bid committee, said the document--839 pages in four volumes weighing 22 pounds--needed only minor revisions to answer logistical questions raised by USOC executives.

“We’re very satisfied we’ve given strong answers to all their questions,” he said. “Given our track record, I think our chances are good.”

Cincinnati, Dallas, Florida, Houston, New York, the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington also are vying for the Games.

The USOC will narrow the field to three or four by next spring and will choose a U.S. candidate by October 2002. The International Olympic Committee will select the host city in 2005.

An eight-member USOC delegation will begin visiting the eight U.S. hopefuls next week, touring proposed venues and evaluating the logistics of each bid. The L.A. visit will be the group’s last stop, Aug. 23-26.

Cuba will launch a bid to play host to the 2012 Olympics.

Vice President Jose Ramon Fernandez, head of Cuba’s Olympic Committee, told the Communist Party daily newspaper Granma that Cuba wants to show the world how a small country can efficiently organize the event without the commercialism that traditionally accompanies the games.

Two substances were added to the International Olympic Committee’s list of banned drugs--bupropion, a stimulant, and aromatase inhibitors, hormonal agents that inhibit production of certain enzymes.

The drug ban of Olympic wrestler Fritz Aanes of Norway was reduced from two years to 15 months.

Aanes tested positive for nandrolone after losing the 187-pound bronze-medal match at the Sydney Olympics. Aanes insists he did not know the performance-enhancing steroid was in a dietary supplement he used.

Tests of the product appeared to support Aanes’ claim because traces of nandrolone were found even though the substance was not included in the ingredients listed on the package. He can return to competition Dec. 26.

Hockey

The Mighty Ducks have dismissed Mike Greenlay, their color analyst on radio broadcasts, and eliminated his position as part of budget cuts mandated by Disney.

When possible, the Ducks plan to use injured players, television broadcasters and special guests to join play-by-play announcer Steve Carroll in the radio booth.

The Buffalo Sabres might have lost the rights to promising center Michael Zigomanis because of a technicality.

Citing questions regarding the proposed contract, the NHL rejected a deal the Sabres and Zigomanis’ agent had negotiated and filed before Friday’s deadline to sign 1999 draft picks.

Gordie Roberts was fired as director of player development of the Phoenix Coyotes. Roberts, 43, is the third person to leave the NHL team’s front office since Steve Ellman and Wayne Gretzky bought the team Feb. 15.

Miscellany

Hollywood Park will cut the money awarded to top finishers by 3.8% through July 16 because of the state’s energy crisis and a sluggish economy, it was announced.

The Inglewood racetrack’s decision to move its popular Friday night racing program to the afternoon to conserve energy has “caused a significant drop in business, both on-track and throughout the state,” track President Rick Baedeker said.

The 3.8% cut will remain in effect throughout Hollywood Park’s entire spring/summer meet, which runs through July 16.

The Florida Citrus Bowl has locked up its conference tie-ins for four more years and has increased its payout.

Under the new terms, the Southeastern Conference and Big Ten will send their runners-up or co-champions to the New Year’s Day game through the 2004 season.

Arizona’s Ricky Barnes remained in the lead as third-round play at the NCAA men’s golf championship at Durham, N.C., was suspended due to heavy rain

Gilberto Simoni of Italy took the overall lead in the Giro d’Italia cycling race at Passo Pordoi, Italy, after finishing second to Julio Perez Cuapio of Mexico in the 13th stage.

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck race at Dover Downs International Speedway at Dover, Del., was postponed by rain and rescheduled for today.

The race will precede the regularly scheduled Busch series event.