Derek Smith, Former Basketball Player, Dead At 34
Derek Smith, a starting forward on Louisville's 1980 NCAA championship team who later played in the NBA, has died at age 34, apparently of a heart attack.
Smith, who was an assistant coach with the Washington Bullets last season, died Friday while on a cruise with his family, Louisville spokesman Kenny Klein said.
Smith averaged 14.8 points as a sophomore on the Cardinals' 1980 team and finished as the fourth-leading scorer in school history with 1,826 points.
Smith, from Hogansville, Ga., played nine seasons in the NBA with the San Diego and Los Angeles Clippers, Sacramento, Philadelphia and Boston.
-- Miami Heat Coach Pat Riley has conceded defeat in the attempt to sign Juwan Howard. In a terse, three-sentence statement issued yesterday, the team said it would not seek arbitration after the NBA declared Miami's contract with the forward invalid because the Heat was over its salary cap.
Tennis
Defending champion Andre Agassi ran down everything Thomas Muster got over the net and cruised to a 6-4, 6-1 victory in the semifinals of the ATP Championship in Mason, Ohio.
Today Agassi will play Michael Chang, who advanced to his fourth straight ATP Championship final by overcoming Thomas Enqvist 6-1, 2-6, 6-2.
-- Arantxa Sanchez Vicario reached the final of the $1.3 million du Maurier Open in Montreal, beating Kimberly Po 6-0, 6-4.
In the final, Sanchez Vicario will play top-seeded Monica Seles, who beat unseeded Yayuk Basuki of Indonesia 6-0, 6-3.
Motor sports
Dorsey Schroeder earned his fourth SCCA Trans-Am victory of the season and added to his narrow series lead over Tommy Kendall at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International.
Schroeder also will race on the 2.45-mile, 11-turn road course today in the Budweiser at the Glen NASCAR Winston Cup race. He will be subbing for Bill Elliott, who is still bothered by a leg injury.
Hockey
The New York Islanders and restricted free-agent center Jeremy Roenick of the Chicago Blackhawks have reached a tentative agreement on a five-year, $22 million contract, according to Newsday.
Winter sports
A body found in the trunk of a car abandoned in Vancouver, B.C., was that of Terrance Watts, a speed-skiing champion in the mid-1980s.
Watts, 41, a former Vancouver resident who apparently had moved to Venezuela, was reported missing Monday after failing to return from a business meeting.
Fishing
George Cochran of Hot Springs, Ark., won the BASS Masters Classic, the most important title in competitive fishing.
Cochran caught 31 pounds, 14 ounces of fish in three days on Lay Lake near Birmingham, Ala., to earn his second Classic championship. With it went $100,000 and up to $1 million in residual income from speaking engagements and product endorsements.