McCants to Leave Tar Heels for the NBA
North Carolina guard Rashad McCants said Wednesday he would make himself eligible for the NBA draft, after helping the Tar Heels win their fourth national championship this season.
McCants, the team’s second-leading scorer at 16 points a game, said he was in the process of hiring an agent, a move that would prevent him from returning for his senior season. But he said he would continue working to earn his college degree.
McCants said he came back to school after his sophomore season to win a national championship.
“I felt like my whole reason for coming back last year was to get those goals accomplished,” McCants said at a news conference. “And I did.”
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Indiana guard Bracey Wright said he would pass up his senior year in favor of the NBA draft. Wright averaged 18.3 points last season.... Florida junior guards Anthony Roberson and Matt Walsh, the team’s leading scorers, have made themselves available for the NBA draft. Neither player has hired an agent and could return to school.... Forwards Justin Hawkins and Jake Schmidt and guard Jermaine Calvin are leaving the Utah men’s team, the school announced.... Former Tennessee coach Buzz Peterson has accepted the job as coach at Coastal Carolina.
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Soccer
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said that “drastic measures” may be needed to stem the rise of violence at Italian soccer stadiums, a day after a fan hit a goalkeeper with a flare in a European Champions League quarterfinal.
UEFA, soccer’s European governing body, said it would decide Friday on what punishment to impose on club Inter Milan.
In its first visit to Juventus since the 1985 Heysel Stadium tragedy, Liverpool played a 0-0 tie at Turin, Italy, and advanced to the semifinals of the European Champions League on a 2-1 aggregate score.
Fans hurled objects at one another during a pregame ceremony. At the Champions Cup final 20 years ago in Brussels, a riot caused by Liverpool fans led to 39 deaths.
PSV Eindhoven won Wednesday’s other quarterfinal, beating Lyon, 4-2, on penalty kicks following a 1-1 tie.
In the semifinals, Liverpool will play English rival Chelsea and PSV Eindhoven will play AC Milan.
Bolivian Joaquin Botero scored two goals and Mexico’s Pumas breezed past D.C. United, 5-0, at Mexico City to advance to the finals of the CONCACAF Champions’ Cup. The teams had tied 1-1 last week in Washington.
Chivas USA goalkeeper Martin Zuniga, who has been out since March 2 because of a knee injury, said that he is two weeks away from working out with the team at full speed.
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Tennis
Top-ranked Lindsay Davenport needed only 55 minutes to advance to the third round of the Family Circle Cup, beating Marie-Eve Pelletier, 6-2, 6-2, at Charleston, S.C.
Defending champion and fourth-seeded Venus Williams defeated Denisa Chladkova, 7-6 (1), 6-2, and French Open champion Anastasia Myskina, seeded third, lost to unseeded 15-year-old Nicole Vaidisova, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.
Unseeded Justine Henin-Hardenne, a former champion and former world No. 1, beat Shuai Peng, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
Roger Federer won his 24th consecutive match, beating Albert Montanes, 6-3, 6-4, in the second round of the Monte Carlo Masters in Monaco.
In the next round, Federer will play Fernando Gonzalez, who defeated Mario Ancic, 6-2, 7-6 (4).
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College Football
Northwestern defensive tackle Luis Castillo has admitted to taking steroids after the 2004 season.
A football source told Associated Press on condition of anonymity that Castillo tested positive for androstenedione, which is considered a steroid by the NFL. Castillo, considered a possible first-day draft pick, sent a letter to the 32 NFL teams alerting them of the situation.
Castillo failed the drug test at February’s NFL combine in Indianapolis. He said he took the drug to help his performance at the combine after he was slow to heal from an elbow injury.
A Knox County (Tenn.) judge refused to reduce a felony assault charge against University of Tennessee defensive tackle Tony McDaniel.
McDaniel, a 6-foot-7, 295-pound sophomore, was charged after a fight with a student during a pickup basketball game on campus in January.
The Heisman Trophy, homeless since the shuttering of New York’s Downtown Athletic Club after Sept. 11, 2001, will strike a permanent pose inside the planned National Sports Museum in lower Manhattan. The museum is planning a November 2006 opening.
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Miscellany
Olympic silver medalist Bernard Lagat has become an American citizen and plans to compete for the United States, becoming the latest Kenyan runner to change nationalities.
Lagat must wait before he represents the U.S. at any IAAF competition because of rules governing nationality switches. He is scheduled to compete Friday at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays.
Cyclist Adam Bergman was suspended for two years by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for testing positive during an out-of-competition screening for a hormone that increases aerobic power.
Former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe is challenging Tennessee boxing officials, who have refused to grant a license to a fighter they believe has brain damage. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
A public memorial for longtime Los Angeles Ram assistant equipment manager Heckle Lynn will be held Wednesday at 4 p.m. at DeLacey’s Club 41 restaurant in Pasadena.
