Daniels Leaves Fullerton to Join Howland’s UCLA Staff

Donny Daniels resigned as men’s basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton Friday to become Ben Howland’s top assistant at UCLA.

Taking over a struggling program reeling from NCAA sanctions, Daniels, 48, was 20-64 at Fullerton in three seasons. The Titans were 10-19 last season despite a rash of injuries and the 11-game suspension of star forward Pape Sow.

Daniels is a former Fullerton player and assistant coach, but he said his relationship with Howland and the opportunity to coach at “the holy grail” of college basketball was too attractive to pass up.

“I’ve known Ben for a long time since we were in the Big West [Conference] together when I was an assistant at Fullerton and he was an assistant at [UC] Santa Barbara,” Daniels said. “He is obviously one of the premier coaches in college basketball. I’m excited about working with him.”

Daniels is a top recruiter who was largely responsible for bringing Andre Miller and Keith Van Horn to Utah during his 11 years on Rick Majerus’ staff.

Fullerton players met with Daniels Friday and were told of his decision, which came after two days of consideration.

“I care about these guys deeply and I really felt bad for them,” Daniels said. “I thought we really made some great strides in the conference.”

Brian Quinn, Fullerton’s athletic director, did not indicate his timetable for hiring a new coach.

At UCLA, Howland has one more staff hire to make. Chris Carlson, 33, director of basketball operations at Pittsburgh under Howland, was hired by UCLA in the same capacity, the school announced Friday.

-- Eric Stephens

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Tubby Smith signed an eight-year contract extension that would pay him $20.25 million if he coaches Kentucky through the 2010-11 season.

His base salary will be $200,000 a year, but bonuses, apparel endorsement and television and radio deals add millions. And if the Wildcats reach the Final Four during the rest of his tenure, the contract will be extended by two years at an additional $5 million.

Smith led Kentucky to the 1998 NCAA championship.

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Oregon’s Luke Ridnour will skip his senior season and make himself available for the NBA draft.

The 6-foot-2 guard was the Pacific 10 Conference player of the year and the most valuable player in the Pac-10 tournament, which Oregon won.

Ridnour said he hasn’t hired an agent, which gives him the option of returning to Oregon for his senior year.

He said he’ll make his final decision just before the June 19 withdrawal deadline. The draft is June 26.

He ranked second in the conference in scoring, averaging 19.7 points, and was first in assists with a 6.6 average.

Auto Racing

Dario Franchitti will sit out this year’s Indianapolis 500 and could be out for all June events in the Indy Racing League because of a broken bone in his lower back.

Franchitti was injured in a motorcycle crash in Scotland on April 4. He sat out Sunday’s race in Japan, but his team, Andretti-Green Racing, hoped Franchitti would return next month.

Those plans changed Friday after an Indianapolis doctor said Franchitti would need two more months to recover.

Team co-owner Kim Green said Franchitti could be out for up to four races after the Indy 500 on May 25.

Formula One champion Michael Schumacher set a track record on Ferrari’s home circuit in the first qualifying session for the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, Italy.

Schumacher covered the 3.065-mile circuit in 1 minute 20.628 seconds, beating his previous record of 1:21.091 set in qualifying for last year’s race on the Enzo and Dino Ferrari track.

Qualifying continues today.

Tennis

Feeling better than she has in months, second-seeded Lindsay Davenport needed only 45 minutes to beat seventh-seeded Patty Schnyder, 6-1, 6-1, to advance to the semifinals to play the Jennifer Capriati-Lisa Raymond winner in the Bausch & Lomb Championships at Amelia Island, Fla.

The fifth-ranked tennis player in the world, Davenport has lost only five games in three matches this week.

Top-seeded Justine Henin-Hardenne won her seventh straight match, beating sixth-seeded Monica Seles, 6-2, 6-4. Henin-Hardenne will play 10th-seeded Elena Dementieva in the semifinals after Dementieva routed fourth-seeded Daniela Hantuchova, 6-0, 6-1.

Vince Spadea eliminated Filippo Volandri of Italy, 6-1, 6-3, to reach the semifinals of the Monte Carlo Masters. Spadea next faces defending champion Juan Carlos Ferrero, who beat fellow Spaniard Alberto Martin, 6-0, 6-2.

Spadea is trying to become the first American to win on Monte Carlo’s slow, red clay since Jimmy Connors in 1981 -- though he actually shared the trophy with Guillermo Vilas after rain curtailed the final in the first set.

In the other semifinal, 1998 French Open champion Carlos Moya will face Guillermo Coria. Moya beat Julien Boutter, 7-6 (4), 6-2, and Coria ousted Juan Ignacio Chela, 6-1, 6-1.

Second-seeded Magui Serna of Spain beat Petra Mandula of Hungary, 6-1, 6-2, in the Budapest Grand Prix quarterfinals. Serna is trying to win a second straight title, after last week’s at the Estoril Open.

Football

D’Marco Farr, a former Pro Bowl defensive lineman, signed with San Francisco, after being out of the NFL for two seasons. Farr signed a one-year deal for the veteran minimum of $650,000.

Farr made the Pro Bowl in 1999 with St. Louis, but the Rams released him after the 2000 season, when he played only six games because of knee injuries. He has worked for Fox Sports since then.

The Washington Redskins submitted an offer sheet for restricted free agent defensive tackle Jermaine Haley, a reserve last season for Miami.

The Dolphins have a week days to match the offer or allow Haley to jump to the Redskins and accept a seventh-round draft pick as compensation.

University of Minnesota barred the younger sister of former kicker Dan Nystrom from trying out.

“It’s men’s college football, and it is not a coed sport,” assistant athletic director Tim Allen told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis.

Mary Nystrom, a junior, followed her brother as a kicker in high school and wanted to try to do the same in college after spotting the football team’s ad seeking a “quality kicker/punter.”

The Gophers aren’t obligated to give her a tryout because schools can prohibit women from participating in men’s contact sports.