Clarett Expects to Join Buckeyes

Maurice Clarett met with Ohio State Athletic Director Andy Geiger and NCAA officials on Monday, and the running back said he believed he would return to practice this week.

Clarett is being held out of practice with the defending national champions because of investigations by the NCAA and the university.

“I believe I’ll be able to start practicing back again this week,” Clarett said in an interview with ESPN. “Things seem like they went very well. I’m cooperating with the university, and the NCAA is cooperating with me and I think everyone is happy with things.”

A 10-member university committee is investigating a teaching assistant’s claim that Clarett walked out of a midterm exam last fall and later passed the course by taking an oral exam.

He is under investigation by the NCAA for using a car that was broken into while on overnight loan from a dealership.

In a police report, Clarett said he had lost more than $6,000 in clothing, cash and stereo equipment in the theft. He later acknowledged that he had exaggerated his losses to police.

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Maryland was put on one-year probation by the NCAA because former football assistant Rod Sharpless committed a “major” violation by giving cash in amounts of $5 to $200 to heralded high school player Victor Abiamiri to gain a recruiting edge.

Maryland forced Sharpless to resign and stopped recruiting Abiamiri.

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Miami receiver Roscoe Parrish had arthroscopic surgery to remove loose cartilage from his right knee and might have to sit out the Hurricanes’ season opener.

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Receiver Ryan Graves of Venice and defensive lineman Brigham Harwell of Hacienda Heights Los Altos have committed to UCLA.

Graves, 6 feet 2 and 185 pounds, led all players in Southern California with 106 receptions last fall as a junior at Pasadena Muir. He had 1,499 yards receiving and 16 touchdowns.

Harwell, 6-1 and 250 pounds, was an all-state selection last season.

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College Basketball

South Carolina senior center Rolando Howell was arrested Saturday at an apartment complex in Columbia, S.C., and charged with criminal domestic violence against his girlfriend, Richland County police said.

No booster was involved in paying Baylor basketball players, and the school has no “slush fund,” university President Robert Sloan said.

He would not elaborate on where two athletes got money for tuition, an NCAA violation that led to the resignations of coach Dave Bliss and athletic director Tom Stanton on Friday.

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Miscellany

Atlanta Thrasher goaltender Pasi Nurminen avoided arbitration and re-signed with the team for $1.1 million.

USC will open defense of its NCAA women’s volleyball championship as the nation’s No. 1 team in the preseason poll by the American Volleyball Coaches Assn.

Pepperdine is ranked fifth, UC Santa Barbara is ninth, UCLA is 13th and Long Beach State is 16th.

Cal State Northridge women’s soccer Coach Allison Lee has resigned after posting a 32-30-10 record in four seasons with the Matadors.

The Riverside rugby club defeated Olympic Club of San Francisco, 22-21, Sunday in Pittsburgh to win the USA Rugby men’s club sevens national championship. Riverside’s Luke Waikamakawa and Nelo Lui were named co-most valuable players of the tournament.

D’Arby Myers had two hits, including a home run, and scored twice to lead Los Angeles to a 3-2 victory over Houston in the championship game of the RBI Junior Boys (13-15) World Series at Minute Maid Park in Houston.

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Passings

Billy Rogell, a shortstop who helped the Detroit Tigers win the 1935 World Series, died of pneumonia Saturday in Sterling Heights, Mich. He was 98.