Vinny Del Negro ousted as Bulls coach

The Chicago Bulls fired Coach Vinny Del Negro on Monday in a long-anticipated move that comes after a late-season altercation with executive vice president of basketball operations John Paxson and another first-round playoff exit.

General Manager Gar Forman is scheduled to discuss the firing at a news conference Tuesday morning. He did not return messages seeking comment, nor did Paxson or Del Negro.

The Bulls were 41-41 and made the postseason in each of their two seasons under Del Negro, losing to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games after pushing Boston to seven games last year.

Pat Riley said he has extended his deal to serve as the Miami Heat’s president of basketball operations. The Hall of Fame coach and team owner Micky Arison recently struck an agreement, but Riley would not reveal any details.

Riley, 65, retired as Miami’s coach after the 2007-08 season.

New Orleans Hornets majority owner George Shinn has reached a deal to sell his shares of the team to minority owner Gary Chouest, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.

Dwayne Polee, who since 2007 has been USC’s director of basketball operations, decided to resign last week, sources close to the situation confirmed to The Times.

The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because his resignation has not been officially announced. Reached by phone, Polee declined to comment further, but the sources said it was solely his decision to leave. His resignation is expected to be announced later this week.

Polee is the father of Westchester High star Dwayne Polee Jr., who is expected to announce his college choice soon among St. John’s, Oregon and Georgia, his father said last week.

—Baxter Holmes

TENNIS

Kuznetsova still in slump

Svetlana Kuznetsova extended her run of poor results with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 loss to fellow Russian Maria Kirilenko in the second round of the Italian Open at Rome.

The fifth-ranked Kuznetsova, a two-time runner-up at the Foro Italico, has not put together three consecutive wins since reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open.

Ivo Karlovic of Croatia and Igor Andreev of Russia were straight-set winners in the first round of the Serbia Open at Belgrade.

The fifth-seeded Karlovic was given a tough match by Serbian wild card Dusan Lajovic but won, 7-6 (4), 6-4. Andreev eased past Slovenia’s Blaz Kavcic, 6-3, 6-2.

ETC.

CSUN reaches Final Four

Cal State Northridge has been awarded the only at-large berth into the NCAA men’s volleyball Final Four, joining Stanford, Penn State and Ohio State.

The Matadors (23-9) are seeded second and will play third-seeded Penn State (23-7) at 6 p.m. Thursday in a national semifinal at Stanford’s Maples Pavilion. Top-seeded Stanford (22-6) will play fourth-seeded Ohio State (22-7) at 8 p.m. The national championship match will be played Saturday.

Stanford defeated Northridge in three games in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation title match Saturday at Palo Alto.

One day after Lorena Ochoa retired, there was a new No. 1 in women’s golf.

Jiyai Shin of South Korea moved to the top of the women’s world rankings Monday after winning on the Japan LPGA Tour. Ai Miyazato of Japan, who won the LPGA event in Mexico, is now at No. 3.

Ochoa had been No. 1 for 158 weeks since overtaking Annika Sorenstam in April 2007.

The Kings’ Ryan Smyth will represent Canada and teammate Alexander Frolov will play for Russia at the IIHF World Championship, which opens May 7 in Germany.

FedEx is ending its sponsorship of the

Orange Bowl after two decades.