Tapes Reportedly Catch Bliss Planning Coverup

Secretly recorded tapes show former Baylor basketball coach Dave Bliss told his assistants and players to lie to investigators looking into program violations and say a slain player had paid tuition by dealing drugs, two newspapers reported Saturday.

Bliss, who resigned Aug. 8 after the investigation into Patrick Dennehy’s death, has admitted being involved in paying tuition and acknowledged the attempted coverup to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which obtained the tapes, and the Dallas Morning News.

“The bizarre circumstances painted me into a corner and I chose the wrong way to react,” Bliss told the Star-Telegram. Since resigning, he said, “I have cooperated completely and will continue to do so because I know I have disappointed a lot of people.”

The recordings were made by assistant coach Abar Rouse, who turned them over to Baylor and NCAA investigators on Friday.

“The tapes reveal a desperate man trying to figure out how to cover himself and to cover up” NCAA violations, said Kirk Watson, counsel for Baylor’s in-house investigations committee.

Bliss talked to two or three players about the scheme, although only one took the phony story to investigators and he has since recanted. Watson would not identify the player.

Neither Bliss nor any of his assistant coaches actually used the fake story with investigators, Watson said.

The review committee found no evidence Dennehy was involved in drug dealing.

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Golf

Jim Thorpe tied a PGA Champions Tour record with a 10-under-par 60 to take the lead after two rounds of the Long Island Classic at East Meadow, N.Y.

With 10 birdies, Thorpe matched the record held by Bruce Fleisher, Walter Morgan and Isao Aoki. He also broke his personal best of 62, shot on the PGA Tour in the 1985 Greater Milwaukee Open and on the senior tour in the Gold Rush Classic in 2000.

Thorpe’s two-round total of 12-under 128 left him two shots ahead of Bob Gilder, who shot a 66 to move to 10-under 130.

Se Ri Pak was eight under par for the day through 13 holes before play was suspended because of lightning and rain during the third round of the LPGA Jamie Farr Kroger Classic at Sylvania, Ohio.

An 18-foot birdie putt on No. 12 capped a streak of four consecutive birdies and put her at 14 under for the tournament. She has a two-shot lead over Laura Diaz.

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Tennis

Andy Roddick had to work hard to defeat unseeded Max Mirnyi, 7-6 (5), 6-4, to reach the final of the Cincinnati Masters at Mason, Ohio.

Roddick, seeded seventh, trailed, 5-1, in the tiebreaker before winning six consecutive points to take the first set.

Roddick, 19-1 on the American hard-court circuit this summer, will play unseeded Mardy Fish in today’s final. Fish beat eighth-seeded Rainer Schuettler, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (6).

Russian teenager Lina Krasnoroutskaya reached her first final at a top-tier WTA Tour event by beating Paola Suarez, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, in the Rogers AT&T; Cup at Toronto.

Krasnoroutskaya will meet French Open champion Justine Henin-Hardenne in today’s final. Henin-Hardenne beat Elena Dementieva, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-2.

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Motor Racing

Pit strategy and rain helped Kevin Harvick win the shortened NASCAR Busch Series Cabela’s 250 at Michigan International Speedway. The race was scheduled for 125 laps but was called after 110.

Winston Cup Series champion Tony Stewart, making his first Busch Series start since 1998, dominated most of the race in his Chevrolet, leading 82 of the first 100 laps.

Stewart gave up the lead to Harvick when he pitted on Lap 101. He came out of the pits in 17th place and worked his way to 11th by Lap 109, when the rain started.

NASCAR officials red-flagged the race at the end of the 110th lap and tried to dry the track, but more rain forced them to call it an official race about 40 minutes later.

Sam Hornish Jr. drove a lap of 219.614 mph in his Dallara-Chevrolet, earning the pole for today’s Belterra Casino Indy 300 to lead the closest starting field by time in Indy Racing League history.

The 20-car field at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta is separated by only 0.5367 seconds. The previous closest field was in 1999 in Atlanta, when a 25-car field was separated by 0.62 seconds

Tom Wood, 46, a driver on the Indy Racing League Infiniti Pro Series circuit, suffered multiple fractures during the Kentucky 100 at Kentucky Speedway when he crashed after his car touched Brandon Erwin’s car on the third turn on Lap 52 of the 67-lap race.

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Miscellany

The U.S. women -- led by individual gold medalist Jennifer Nichols of Cheyenne, Wyo., bronze medalist Stephanie Miller of Naperville, Ill., and Janet Dykman of El Monte -- won the team archery gold medal by defeating Mexico, 231-216, in the Pan American Games at Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Markus Beyer of Germany retained his WBC middleweight title when Danny Green of Australia was disqualified for a head butt in the fifth round at Nuerburgring, Germany.

T.J. Simers is on vacation.