Sports in Brief: Barkley blasts Auburn hiring
Charles Barkley yesterday said that race played a role in Auburn's hiring of Gene Chizik as football coach. "I believe race had a factor. Of course I do," said Barkley, who starred at Auburn before joining the 76ers in 1983.
Charles Barkley
yesterday said that race played a role in Auburn's hiring of
Gene Chizik
as football coach.
"I believe race had a factor. Of course I do," said Barkley, who starred at Auburn before joining the 76ers in 1983.
"I look at things from a common-sense standpoint, how do you interview
Turner Gill
and pick Gene Chizik over Turner Gill?"
Athletic director
Jay Jacobs
denied race was a factor, saying he picked "the best fit for Auburn."
Chizik went 5-19 in two seasons at Iowa State after turns as defensive coordinator at Auburn and Texas. Gill, an African American, led Buffalo to a Mid-American Conference championship this season.
Barkley revealed he had served on Auburn's search committee for a basketball coach before the 2004-05 season, on the condition that the school hire a black candidate.
He pitched
Mike Davis, Mike Anderson
and
Jeff Capel
and said all three wanted the job. Auburn hired
Jeff Lebo.
"They said, 'We're ready to hire a black coach,' " Barkley said. "I figured out right away they were not going to hire a black coach.
"They kicked me off the committee the next day," he said.
Elsewhere:
Ball State football coach
Brady Hoke
has resigned to accept the same position at San Diego State. It is uncertain if Hoke will coach Ball State (12-1) in the GMAC Bowl on Jan. 6. . . . Senior quarterback
Mike Teel
was named the most valuable player at Rutgers' 70th annual awards banquet Sunday. . . .
Tailback
Donald Brown
of Connecticut, the nation's leading rusher with 1,822 yards, will return for his senior season.
Golf
Tiger Woods
said he was disappointed by his caddie's disparaging comments in New Zealand newspapers about
Phil Mickelson,
whom Woods referred to as a "player I respect."
Steve Williams
was quoted in the Taranki Daily News as saying he wouldn't call Mickelson a great player "because I think he's a [expletive]."
Williams later confirmed making the comment.
"I was disappointed to read the comments attributed to Steve Williams about Phil Mickelson, a player that I respect," Woods said in a statement. "It was inappropriate. The matter has been discussed and dealt with."
Williams began working with Woods in the spring of 1999 and has been on his bag for 13 of his 14 major titles.
Ireland's
Padraig Harrington
was voted player of the year by the Golf Writers Association of America, receiving 75 percent of the vote to end Woods' three-year run with the award.
Lorena Ochoa
was the overwhelming choice over
Paula Creamer
for female player of the year, and
Jay Haas
became the first golfer to win senior player-of-the-year honors three times in a row.
Noteworthy
U.S. women's soccer coach
Pia Sundhage
received a four-year contract extension through the 2012 Olympics after leading the Americans to the gold medal at this year's Beijing Games.
Hugh McCutcheon
was named the head coach of the U.S. women's volleyball team after guiding the men to an Olympic gold medal following the fatal stabbing of his father-in-law in Beijing.