Stanford’s David Shaw responds to claim

Stanford’s David Shaw is one of the most mild-mannered coaches in college football. He rarely shows emotion, and he rarely raises his voice.

Not Tuesday.

Speaking as passionately as he ever has, Shaw emphatically fired back at Steve Sarkisian after the Washington coach accused the Cardinal of faking injuries. Shaw opened his portion of the Pac-12 coaches’ teleconference with a carefully crafted statement, saying “we don’t fake injuries, we never have and we never will. I don’t condone it. I don’t teach it. I don’t allow it.”

Shaw also began his weekly news conference at Stanford shortly after referring to the same handwritten notes. He called Sarkisian’s allegations “unprofessional” and pointed out that the only defensive coach he knows of who has told players to fake injuries works on Washington’s staff.

Huskies defensive line coach Tosh Lupoi admitted to instructing players to fake injuries against Oregon while he was an assistant at California.

“That’s not calling anybody out. That’s just stating a fact. It’s been proven. It’s been admitted and we all have moved on,” Shaw said. Later he added, “We didn’t do it against Oregon, so why in the world would we do it against Washington?’”

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Injured South Carolina All-American Jadeveon Clowney made it clear that he plans to play a lot more college football before moving on to the NFL.

The 6-foot-6, 274-pound defensive end said he’s receiving treatment several times a day on the strained muscle near his rib cage so he might return in time to face Arkansas on Saturday.

“Am I fully committed? Always,” Clowney said. “I could’ve sat out. I’m not looking to sit out. I’m not that type of guy. I’m here for the team.”

He wasn’t there for them Saturday, raising questions about his commitment to the 14th-ranked Gamecocks.

Clowney said before Saturday’s game against Kentucky that he couldn’t play, saying he was in too much pain. The Gamecocks beat Kentucky, 35-28, without him.

ETC.

Lynx one win away from WNBA title

Seimone Augustus scored 20 points and Lindsay Whalen had 14 points and five assists to push the Minnesota Lynx to the brink of their second title in three seasons with an 88-63 victory over the Atlanta Dream in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals at Minneapolis.

Rebekkah Brunson had 12 points and 10 rebounds and Maya Moore chipped in 14 points and eight boards for the Lynx, who lead the best-of-five series, 2-0.

Angel McCoughtry scored 15 points for the Dream, but she made only five of 18 shots and was in foul trouble for most of the game.

Game 3 is Thursday at Atlanta.

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Galaxy defender Omar Gonzalez was forced to withdraw from the U.S. national team for its final two World Cup qualifiers because of a left hip strain suffered in Sunday’s Major League Soccer victory over Chivas USA. The U.S. has called up Orange County product Michael Orozco, currently playing for Puebla of Mexico’s Liga MX, to replace Gonzalez for games against Jamaica on Friday and at Panama next week.

The Americans, ranked No. 13 in the latest FIFA world rankings, have already qualified for next summer’s World Cup in Brazil. Gonzalez is the only player to have played the full 90 minutes in all of the first eight qualifiers for the U.S. But he came out of Sunday’s Galaxy game at halftime for what was later diagnosed as a hip strain.

—Kevin Baxter

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Ana Ivanovic began her bid for a third Generali Ladies title by defeating Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium, 6-2, 6-4, at Linz, Austria. Sloane Stephens overcame a slow start to beat Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia, 6-3, 6-1, in the first round.

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Richard Gasquet was dealt a setback in his bid to qualify for the season-ending ATP Finals, losing to Vasek Pospisil of Canada, 6-3, 6-4, in the first round of the Shanghai Masters.