Duke’s Williams Unanimous Pick

Jason Williams, who led Duke to the national basketball championship last season, was a unanimous selection Tuesday to the Associated Press preseason All-American team, the first player named on every ballot since 1996.

The junior guard was joined on the team by two former Southland standouts, Stanford’s Casey Jacobsen (Glendora High), a returning first-team All-American, and Kentucky’s Tayshaun Prince (Compton Dominguez High). Rounding out the first five are Kareem Rush of Missouri and Frank Williams of Illinois.

Jason Williams was named on each of the 72 ballots cast by the national media panel that votes in the weekly college basketball poll, becoming the first unanimous preseason pick since Tim Duncan of Wake Forest five years ago.

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Connecticut, No. 1 in the final Associated Press women’s poll last season, is on top again overwhelmingly in the 2001-02 preseason poll.

Connecticut, 32-3 last season, received 31 of 45 first-place votes and had 1,102 points--70 more than No. 2 Tennessee.

Olympics

Salt Lake City’s chief Olympic organizer said he has been frustrated by IOC bureaucracy that prevents him from speaking directly with athletes about security for the Winter Games after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mitt Romney said the International Olympic Committee doesn’t allow him to speak with or send messages to foreign athletes or even their national Olympic committees. He has to go through the IOC, which relays his messages to the national committees that are supposed to inform athletes.

Jurisprudence

Todd Marinovich received a favorable progress report in his treatment program for felony heroin possession, and as a result the conditions were changed for part of his community service.

Marinovich, appearing in Los Angeles Superior Court before Judge Stephen Marcus, will perform 32 hours of community service by speaking to Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) classes at schools.

Marinovich, 32, who will attempt to play in the NFL next season, must fulfill his remaining 40 hours of community service through conventional means, such as working in a hospital, animal shelter or on a Caltrans unit.

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Former Dallas Cowboy lineman Nate Newton was arrested in St. Martinville, La., when police confiscated 213 pounds of marijuana from a van on a highway.

Newton and two others were charged Sunday with possession with intent to distribute marijuana, Trooper Willie Williams said. A fourth person, arrested in a separate vehicle with $18,000, was charged with conspiracy to possess narcotics.

All four were in the St. Martin Parish Jail on Tuesday with bail set at $200,000 each.

Boxing

Zab Judah will have to go before Nevada boxing regulators next week to explain going after referee Jay Nady and throwing a stool in the ring after losing in the 140-pound title unification fight to Kostya Tszyu if he wants to claim his $885,000 paycheck.

Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, said he wants a hearing within a week to decide on possible action against Judah.

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Former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis said he has ended his 12-year association with manager Frank Maloney.

Miscellany

Series champion Jack Sprague was fined $5,000 and competitor Scott Riggs was fined $2,500 for rear-ending each other other on pit road during last Sunday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck series race at California Speedway.

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C.M. Newton, a former coach at Alabama and Vanderbilt, and more recently Kentucky’s athletic director, was selected as chief executive officer of the World Basketball Championships, which will be held next summer in Indianapolis. The tournament Aug. 29-Sept. 8 will be making its U.S. debut.

Jackie Berube, the only American in the World Weightlifting Championships at Antalya, Turkey, finished fifth.

Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters, will donate $500,000 to the Tiger Woods Foundation.

The donation marks the first time that the exclusive Georgia club has given to the charity, established in 1996 by Woods, the world’s top-ranked golfer, and his father, Earl, partly as a way to promote golf in urban areas.