Vanderbilt Coach Quits Over Resume

A day after being hired, Tom Collen quit as women’s basketball coach at Vanderbilt on Thursday because of inaccuracies on his 1997 resume.

Vanderbilt gave the former Colorado State coach a choice--resign or be fired--after a newspaper published a portion of the old resume that incorrectly claimed he earned two master’s degrees.

“It was a deal breaker,” Vanderbilt Athletic Director Todd Turner said.

The case comes five months after George O’Leary, the former football coach at Georgia Tech, lost his job at Notre Dame within a week of his hiring. He falsely claimed on his resume that he had a master’s degree in education and had earned three letters as a New Hampshire football player. He attended New Hampshire only two years and didn’t play in any games.

On Monday, Vanderbilt checked Collen’s bio on Colorado State’s Web site, which credited him with master’s degrees in health education and recreational programming from Miami of Ohio.

When the university asked for verification, Collen gave officials transcripts, diplomas and a resume correctly showing one master’s degree in physical education and health education.

Despite the discrepancy, Vanderbilt hired him Wednesday. When it became clear Thursday that the mistake was on the 1997 resume Collen gave Colorado State--not only on the Web site--Vanderbilt changed its mind.

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Oregon’s Ernie Kent, the coach of the year in the Pacific 10 Conference last season, was selected by USA Basketball to lead the U.S. in qualifying for the Junior World Championships. The qualifying tournament will be held July 24-28 in Venezuela.

Tennis

Anna Kournikova, still seeking her first WTA tournament title, was ousted in the second round of the Croatian Bol Ladies Open by seventh-seeded Tina Pisnik of Slovenia, 6-7 (1), 6-3, 6-3.

Second-seeded Anne Kremer of Luxemburg was eliminated in the second round, losing to Mariana Diaz Oliva of Spain, 6-2, 7-5.

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Third-seeded Martina Hingis beat Cristina Torrens Valero, 6-1, 6-0, to advance to the quarterfinals of the Betty Barclay Cup at Hamburg, Germany. Second-seeded Kim Clijsters reached the quarterfinals when Barbara Rittner pulled a right hamstring in the second set with Clijsters leading, 6-3, 2-1.... Julien Boutter beat defending champion Jiri Novak, 6-2, 7-5, to reach the quarterfinals of the BMW Open at Munich, Germany. Second-seeded Tommy Haas defeated Andrei Pavel, 5-7, 7-6 (2), 6-2, to reach his second quarterfinal on clay this season.... Top-seeded Gustavo Kuerten beat Magnus Norman, 6-1, 5-7, 6-3, to reach the quarterfinals at the Mallorca Open in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.... Mary Pierce, who won the French Open in 2000, received a wild card into this year’s tournament. Another wild card went to 15-year-old Richard Gasquet of France.

Motor Racing

A torrential rainstorm that arrived with tornado warnings just as qualifying was to begin for Busch series drivers resulted in a cancellation that gave Jack Sprague the pole for the Hardee’s 250 at Richmond, Va. The second consecutive rainout of qualifying made points leader Sprague the polesitter for the second race in a row.

Miscellany

Mauricio Cienfuegos will return to the starting lineup, but fellow midfielder Gavin Glinton will miss the Galaxy’s game against Kansas City on Saturday. Cienfuegos had a sprained left ankle. Glinton, a rookie, replaced him in the lineup for last weekend’s loss to Colorado and injured a rib.

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This year’s UCLA-Washington State football game at the Rose Bowl has been changed to Dec. 7 from Nov. 16 so it can be televised nationally.... Three new bowl games--to be played in San Francisco, Honolulu and Charlotte, N.C.--were certified by the NCAA, bringing the number of Division I postseason football games to 28. The new bowl games will be the San Francisco Bowl, Hawaii Bowl and Queen City Bowl.

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Richard Park scored his third goal of the tournament and Ryan Miller made 34 saves as the United States beat Switzerland, 3-0, in the World Hockey Championship at Karlstad, Sweden.