Sports in Brief: Rutgers to interview Eddie Jordan, reports say

Rutgers has its sights set on hiring former 76ers coach Eddie Jordan soon for its vacant head coaching position and will interview the former Scarlet Knight this weekend, according to multiple reports.

Jordan, who helped lead Rutgers to the Final Four in 1976, told the Times of Trenton: "I believe it makes complete sense for me to be the next Rutgers coach."

The seven-year NBA player, now an assistant with the Los Angeles Lakers, coached the 76ers to a 27-55 record in 2009-10.

The long-awaited SEC network appears to be a step closer to reality. The Southeastern Conference and ESPN will formally announce the channel, which will launch in August 2014, at an event in Atlanta on Tuesday, according to SportsBusiness Journal.

The yet-to-be-named SEC network is slated to be a national channel, much like the Big Ten and Pac-12 networks.

St. Louis is removing the interim tag from Jim Crews' job description after a record-setting season, naming him head basketball coach. Crews led the Billikens to a 28-7 record, the most victories in school history, as interim coach in place of Rick Majerus, who died in December.

Brittney Griner of Baylor has won the women's John R. Wooden Award as college basketball's national player of the year for the second consecutive year. Griner is the fourth woman to win back-to-back awards. She averaged 23.8 points as a senior, and finished her career as the No. 2 scorer in NCAA history.

AUTO RACING: The Busch brothers will start on the front row for the second time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series after younger brother Kyle set a Texas Motor Speedway qualifying record with a lap of 196.299 m.p.h. Friday night in Fort Worth. That knocked Kurt off the pole, but not off the front row for Saturday night's race.

Kyle then hopped into his No. 54 Toyota and won the O'Reilly Auto Parts 300 Nationwide Series race. He led 91 of the 200 laps and ran away from Brad Keselowski on the last green-flag run.

- Inquirer wire services