5 Huskies highlight US women’s hoops Olympic team
5 Huskies highlight US women’s hoops Olympic team
DENVER — The U.S. women’s basketball team headed to the London Olympics this summer will have a familiar feel for coach Geno Auriemma.
Five former UConn Huskies — Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Swin Cash, Maya Moore and Tina Charles — are on the team announced Friday. And all five helped the U.S. qualify for the Olympics by playing on the 2010 world championship team that won the gold medal.
While Bird, Taurasi and Cash already have won Olympic gold medals, Charles and Moore are getting their first shot.
Auriemma gives a lot of input on whom he would like on the Olympic team, though a five-member selection committee has the final say. Still, it’s very rare to have so many players playing for their former coach. How unique is it? Since 1976, none of the Olympic coaches has had more than a few of their players on the squad.
Joining the UConn contingent on the team is two-time Olympic gold medalist Tamika Catchings. Also returning for a second straight Olympics are Candace Parker, Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles. Lindsay Whalen and Angel McCoughtry will be competing in the Olympics for the first time and trying to help the U.S. win a fifth straight gold medal. The Americans have won 33 straight Olympic games.
AP: AG lists Penn State perjury case statements
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Prosecutors on Friday filed a document listing 33 statements made by two Penn State administrators to support the perjury charges against the men, accused of lying to a grand jury investigating child sex abuse allegations against a former assistant football coach.
A second document defended the case and said a judge should not dismiss the charges.
The statements laid out by the state attorney general’s office are from January 2011, when athletic director Tim Curley and former vice president Gary Schultz appeared before a secret grand jury investigating Jerry Sandusky. Lawyers for Curley and Schultz said they would review the prosecution’s filings, which The Associated Press obtained late Friday.
Many of the statements downplay the seriousness of a report Curley and Schultz fielded from graduate assistant Mike McQueary, who said he saw Sandusky in the football team shower with a boy a decade ago.
Curley, 57, is quoted saying the report by McQueary was not sexual in nature, while Schultz, 62, is quoted saying he was not told anything more serious than perhaps that Sandusky grabbed the boy’s genitals.
Prosecutors wrote, in an answer to defense attorneys’ motion for more detail about the allegations, that the state “identifies these statements with the understanding that any or all of these statements will support the charge of perjury, and that it is not required to prove the falsity of every identified statement.”
Djokovic beats Monaco to reach
Key Biscayne final
KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. — A marathon second set was all even in a tiebreaker Friday night when Novak Djokovic found himself involved in yet another grueling point.
He hit 13 shots, all smacked aggressively from the backcourt, many landing within a foot or two of the baseline at the far end.
Finally Djokovic’s dogged opponent cracked. Juan Monaco sailed a weary forehand long, and moments later the top-ranked Djokovic clinched a berth in the final of the Sony Ericsson Open by winning 6-0, 7-6 (5).
The final will be Djokovic’s first since winning the Australian Open for his fifth Grand Slam title and third in a row. His opponent Sunday will be 2009 champion Andy Murray, who advanced with a walkover when Rafael Nadal withdrew hours before their semifinal because of a left knee injury that has bothered him in recent weeks.
Savchenko,
Szolkowy win pairs title at worlds
NICE, France —Defending champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany won the world figure skating pairs title for the fourth time Friday despite a soaring performance by Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov of Russia.
Savchenko and Szolkowy skated smoothly in the free skate to protect their lead from Wednesday’s short program, but they were pushed all the way. They again defeated their Russian rivals, winning 201.49 to 201.38. Volosozhar and Trankov, last year’s runner-up, surged from eighth place in the short program to finish with a silver medal.
Earlier, Patrick Chan of Canada overcame some wobbly footwork to capture the men’s short program. He is trying to become the first man to win back-to-back world titles since the now retired Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland in 2006.
By wire sources