Sports in Brief: Pistons coach Keuster is fired

The Detroit Pistons fired coach

John Kuester

on Sunday, four days after

Tom Gores

completed an agreement to buy the team from

Karen Davidson

.

Kuester was 57-107 over two seasons with Detroit.

He was an assistant coach with the 76ers from 1997-2003 under Larry Brown and returned once more in 2005-06. His daughter, Katie, played high school ball at the Academy of Notre Dame in Villanova and will be a senior guard at St. Joseph's next season.

The Pistons went 27-55 in 2009-10 and 30-52 last season. Empty seats were common at home games, and that, coupled with feuding between coaches and players, resulted in Kuester's downfall.

HORSE RACING: The rubber match is on: Preakness winner Shackleford is ready to take on Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom in Saturday's Belmont Stakes.

Shackleford passed his final test over the weekend with a Belmont Park workout.

It will be the first time the Derby and Preakness winners have met in the Belmont since 2005, when Afleet Alex beat Derby winner Giacomo, and the 22d time in the history of the Triple Crown races.

Shackleford had the lead at the Derby before finishing fourth; Animal Kingdom was second at the Preakness.

SOCCER: Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger says he has not yet made a firm commitment to become an adviser to soccer's world governing body. Newly reelected (and increasingly Nixonian) FIFA President Sepp Blatter said that the avid soccer fan had agreed to join a "committee of wise persons" to help investigate problems within the organization.

NFL: Plaxico Burress, the former New York Giants receiver is set to leave the Oneida Correctional Facility in New York on Monday after completing a 20-month term for carrying and firing a gun at a Manhattan nightclub.

TENNIS: Bjorn Fratangelo became the first American boy since John McEnroe in 1977 to win the junior title at the French Open in Paris by defeating Dominic Thiem of Austria, 3-6, 6-3, 8-6. Fratangelo, of Pittsburgh, was named after Bjorn Borg.

WNBA: Minnesota's Maya Moore, the No. 1 overall draft pick from Connecticut, scored 16 points in her home debut, and the Lynx defeated the Los Angeles Sparks, 86-69, in Minneapolis.

Sidney Spencer knocked down her lone shot of the game, tying it with 0.2 seconds left in regulation, and the visiting New York Liberty went on to beat the Atlanta Dream, 94-88, in overtime.

COLLEGES: Kelsey Bruder and Brittany Schutte hit back-to-back homers in the first inning, sending Florida to a 9-2 victory over Alabama and into the Women's College World Series softball finals against Arizona State. The teams will meet Monday night in Oklahoma City in Game 1 of a best-of-three series.

Patrick Reed closed out Augusta State's second straight NCAA golf title, beating Georgia's Harris English, 2 and 1, in the featured matchup between each team's top player in Stillwater, Okla.

- Inquirer wire services