McCants Leads North Carolina Over Penn State

North Carolina men’s basketball Coach Matt Doherty had reason to be nervous after last season’s 8-20 debacle. The Tar Heel freshmen weren’t the least bit jittery Monday night.

Rashad McCants scored 28 points to set the freshman scoring mark for an opening game and the Tar Heels rolled over Penn State, 85-55, at Chapel Hill, N.C., in the first round of the preseason NIT.

“It’s been a long off-season and my insides were bursting,” Doherty said. “I had no idea how we would do. I had no idea how Penn State would do. I probably need to go run a marathon before games so I can calm down a little bit.”

The Tar Heels, with only two seniors and no juniors on the roster, made 10 of their first 12 shots and scored on 12 of their first 15 possessions to go up by 20 points after eight minutes.

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In other preseason NIT games, Josh Childress scored 22 points and Stanford defeated Boston University, 61-57, at Stanford.... Romain Sato scored 23 points and No. 11 Xavier defeated St. Peter’s, 87-48, at Cincinnati.... Henry Domercant scored 36 points, including 15 from three-point range, to lead Eastern Illinois over Boise State, 73-59, at Boise, Idaho.... Jerome Coleman scored 18 points and Rutgers forced Columbia into 27 turnovers in a 60-36 victory at Piscataway, N.J.

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USC junior guard Desmon Farmer will sit out the next two days of practice to attend the funeral of his maternal grandmother, Viola Jackson, in Flint, Mich.

His absence, though excused, jeopardizes his place in the Trojans’ starting lineup Friday night at 7 in their season opener against UC Riverside at the Sports Arena.

Farmer was USC’s top scorer in two exhibition games, averaging 20.5 points.

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USC has signed six players for its 2003-04 women’s recruiting class, including 6-foot-2 forward Jamie Funn of Narbonne High, 6-1 center Markisha Lee of Riverside King and 5-11 forward Eshaya Murphy of Montclair Prep.

Also signing letters of intent were 6-3 center Chloe Kerr of Bolingbrook (Ill.) High, 5-11 guard Allison Jaskowiak of St. Louis (Mo.) Parkway West, and 6-0 forward Katie Henderson of Redmond (Wash.) High.

Golf

The New York Times suggested in an editorial Monday that Tiger Woods not participate in the Masters next year because of the all-male membership at Augusta National Golf Club.

Augusta National declined to comment.

In interviews this month, Augusta National Chairman Hootie Johnson was adamant that a woman would not be among the 300 members at Augusta by the Masters in April.

The U.S. Golf Assn. finalized the purchase of the Russian Tea Room, a Manhattan landmark soon to become a golf museum and history center.

The USGA, which bid $16 million for the building, wants to open the museum in time for the 2004 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.

Miscellany

UCLA, which won its first Pacific 10 Conference title in five years, was seeded third and will have a first-round bye in the NCAA men’s soccer playoffs.

The Bruins (13-3-3) were among 16 teams that drew a bye in the 48-team tournament. They will play host Nov. 27 to the winner of Saturday’s first-round game between Cal State Northridge (14-4-2) and Loyola Marymount (14-3-2).

Big West champion UC Santa Barbara (17-2-1) plays host to San Diego (14-5-0) in a first-round match. Wake Forest (14-1-4) is seeded No. 1.

NBC’s coverage of the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, where Tony Stewart wrapped up the Winston Cup championship, got a 4.5 overnight Nielsen rating, making NASCAR, as usual, one of the most-watched sporting events of the weekend.

In Los Angeles, the race drew a 3.0 rating, which is above the season average of 2.6 for NASCAR.

U.S. women’s basketball Coach Van Chancellor received USA Basketball’s national coach-of-the-year award.

Chancellor guided the U.S. to a 9-0 record and the gold medal at the World Championships in China in September. He also is coach of the WNBA’s Houston Comets.