Son Will Succeed Knight as Coach at Texas Tech

Bob Knight’s son will become men’s basketball coach at Texas Tech when the Hall of Fame coach retires.

Knight, 64, is under contract through May 2009. Pat Knight, a Texas Tech assistant, signed a contract Friday in which he was appointed coach-designate, school basketball spokesman Randy Farley said Saturday.

“Pat has been instrumental in what we’ve done here so far and the most selfish thing for me is that I want to see what we’ve done placed in the hands of the most competent person, and that’s Pat,” Bob Knight told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. “No one would come close to being able to continue to build on what we’ve done here so far like he will.”

Athletic Director Gerald Myers said recruiting and continuity were the reasons behind the decision.

Bob Knight coached for 29 years at Indiana and won three NCAA titles until he was fired in 2000. Texas Tech lost in the regional semifinals of last year’s NCAA tournament.

“My job is to prolong his career,” Pat Knight told the Avalanche-Journal. “I hope he has a lot of good years left, especially with the recruits we have coming in.”

Golf

K.J. Choi shot a five-under-par 67 and D.J. Trahan shot 66 to tie for the lead after the third round of the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro, N.C. Jason Bohn and Shigeki Maruyama were at 15-under, one shot back.

R.W. Eaks moved a step closer to his first win on the Champions Tour, shooting a six-under 66 to take a one-stroke lead into the final round of the SAS Championship at Cary, N.C. Eaks is at 11 under for the tournament, one stroke ahead of Bob Gilder, who also shot 66.

Tennis

Defending champion Roger Federer of Switzerland defeated Jarkko Nieminem of Finland, 6-3, 6-4, and Andy Murray of Britain defeated seventh-seeded Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand, 6-7 (3) 7-5 6-2, in the semifinals of the Thailand Open at Bangkok.

Top-seeded Kim Clijsters of Belgium beat fourth-seeded Nathalie Dechy of France, 6-3, 6-1, and Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany beat seventh-seeded Dinara Safina of Russia, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, in the semifinals of the Fortis Championships at Luxembourg.

The Grand Slam for Children concert fundraiser at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas raised over $10.1 million for the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation, a nonprofit organization established in 1994 to assist at-risk youth.

Motor Racing

Crew chief Todd Berrier was suspended for today’s Nextel Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama after Kevin Harvick’s car failed inspection.

Harvick qualified second for the race, but his Chevrolet was disqualified after NASCAR found three violations in the trunk area.

It was not clear how long the suspension would last. Berrier sat out four races at the beginning of this season when he was caught rigging Harvick’s fuel tank. He was fined $25,000 and the team was docked points.

Hendrick Motorsports will pay more than $350,000 in back overtime wages to employees after an investigation found the racing company, which designs, builds and races cars in NASCAR, violated federal labor laws.

Germany’s Jurgen Kunzel rallied from a big deficit and won the AMA Supermoto Championship at Reno in front of an estimated crowd of 50,000 fans who lined the downtown streets.

Miscellany

Zbynek Michalek scored for Phoenix with 2:30 left in overtime, giving the host Coyotes a 4-3 victory over the Mighty Ducks in the final exhibition game for both teams. Joffrey Lupul and Scott Niedermayer each had a goal and an assist for the Mighty Ducks.

Allan Bristow, 52, resigned as general manager of the New Orleans Hornets, citing health concerns.

Bristow took over as the Hornets’ general manager in June, when Bob Bass retired. Bristow helped oversee the Hornets’ temporary move to Oklahoma City, which was prompted by Hurricane Katrina.

Marc-Andre Fleury, the No. 1 pick in the 2003 NHL draft and the Pittsburgh Penguins’ starting goalie at the beginning of that season, was assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.

Olympic champion swimmer Otylia Jedrzejczak, 22, of Poland was hospitalized in serious condition after a car crash about 40 miles from Warsaw in which her 19-year-brother Szymon was killed. Jedrzejczak, who won the women’s 200-meter butterfly at Athens, was driving with her brother when her car skidded off the road and hit a tree, law enforcement officials said.

Fabiano Joseph of Tanzania surged in the final strides at Edmonton, Canada, to win the men’s world half-marathon championship in 1 hour 1 minute 8 seconds.