Alexander Leaves Virginia, Transfers To Fresno State
Courtney Alexander, who led Virginia's men's basketball team in scoring average last season, will transfer to Fresno State.
Alexander was convicted of assaulting his girlfriend and sentenced to four days in jail last month.
Last season, the 6-foot-6 forward led Virginia with a 14.8 scoring average. He will be eligible to play for FSU and Coach Jerry Tarkanian in 1998-99 and will have two years' eligibility remaining.
Alexander made the announcement with the victim of the assault, Joeil Coleman, 21, and their 4-month-old son at his side.
"The University of Virginia did not kick me out - they would've welcomed me back," Alexander said. "But I felt that wasn't the best place for myself, my little boy and Joeil."
Alexander was arrested July 18 after Coleman told police he hit, choked and kicked her at their Charlottesville, Va., apartment.
Virginia Coach Jeff Jones suspended Alexander indefinitely the next day, and on Aug. 21, Alexander said he was leaving the school.
-- Wesley Spears, the lawyer accused of trying to blackmail basketball player Marcus Camby into signing him as an agent, has reached an agreement that avoids a trial.
Spears earlier had pleaded innocent in Hartford, Conn., to charges of attempted first-degree larceny by extortion and promoting prostitution. He was accused of providing Camby, a former Massachusetts All-American, with gifts and sexual liaisons with prostitutes.
Camby left school after his junior year to enter the NBA draft. He now plays for the Toronto Raptors.
-- Ray Meyer has ended his 55-year affiliation with DePaul, deciding he no longer wants to be a fund-raiser for the school that forced out his son, Joey, as basketball coach five months ago. Ray Meyer, 83, coached the Blue Demons to a 724-354 record from 1942-84.
NBA
The Los Angeles Lakers have decided they won't re-sign small forward Jerome Kersey.
Kersey, 35, was willing to play for the league minimum for a second consecutive season.
-- The Vancouver Grizzlies bolstered their backcourt by signing free-agent guard Marcus Brown to a two-year contract. Brown, 23, played 21 games as a rookie last season for the Portland Trail Blazers.
-- A misdemeanor charge of domestic abuse filed last year against Sacramento Kings center Olden Polynice involving his then-fiancee was dismissed by the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office.
Golf
Todd Erwin of Des Moines shot a 4-under-par 68 to take a two-shot lead heading into the final round of the Northwest Open in Bend, Ore.
Erwin, who won the Washington Open in 1992 and 1993, missed only two greens on the 6,895-yard course at Awbrey Glen Golf Club to move to 7-under 137 for the tournament.
"I hit the ball well, but I'm still not playing the par-5s very well," said Erwin, who birdied only one of the par-5s.
A pair of former Nike Tour players were in second and third - Bill Porter of Quincy, who won the Oregon Open in June, carded a 69 and was at 5-under 139 and Jeff Coston of Blaine, who won the Rosauers Open in July and the Pacific Northwest Section Championship in August, both in Spokane, also shot a 69 and was at 140.
-- Larry Gilbert, winner of this year's Senior Players Championship and two other titles in his Senior PGA Tour career, has been sidelined by lung cancer. Gilbert, 54, said today he believes doctors detected the tumor at an early stage.
Auto racing
Champion driver Emerson Fittipaldi remained partially paralyzed today from a plane crash, but chances are "almost 100 percent" he'll be able to walk again after surgery, his doctors said.
A vertebra in Fittipaldi's lower spine was shattered Sunday when the ultralight plane he was piloting crashed near his home in Brazil. The two-time Indianapolis 500 winner was flown to Miami this morning. A team of 10 physicians plan spinal surgery tomorrow, reconstructing the shattered vertebra with a bone graft and titanium rods and screws.
Track and field
Derek Dueck of Calgary has been banned from competition for four years for testing positive for steroids, Athletics Canada said.
The governing body said tests on Dueck, who finished sixth in the 100 meters at the Canada Summer Games last month, showed excessive levels of testosterone and epitestosterone. He denied taking banned substances.
Soccer
Giovanni Savarese scored his 13th goal of the season and had an assist as the New York-New Jersey MetroStars beat New England 3-1 in East Rutherford, N.J., extending the Revolution's Major League Soccer-record losing streak to nine games.
-- The Argentine Football Association was ordered not to ban Diego Maradona from playing while charges of drug use by the soccer star are being investigated.
- Seattle Times news services