Seven Kentucky players, Duke’s Okafor leaving early
A record seven players are leaving a Kentucky team after a season that fell two wins short of a championship. They can look forward to a possible reunion in a couple of months at the NBA draft.
The soon-to-be-former Wildcats gathered at their practice gym and said they will turn pro: 7-footers Willie Cauley-Stein and Dakari Johnson , twin guards Andrew and Aaron Harrison , freshman forwards Karl-Anthony Towns and Trey Lyles and freshman backup guard Devin Booker .
The exodus, which featured Kentucky’s top seven scorers, could have been even greater.
“If Alex Poythress doesn’t get hurt, it would’ve been eight,” Coach John Calipari said, referring to the junior forward who sustained a season-ending torn knee ligament in December.
Also going pro, as expected, is Duke freshman Jahlil Okafor , a 6-foot-11 All-American who could be the top pick in the draft.
Okafor averaged 17.3 points and 8.5 rebounds and shot 66% — all team bests — and became the first freshman in Atlantic Coast Conference history to be named league player of the year. He also led the team with a 15-point average during the NCAA tournament. Two of Okafor’s classmates — Justise Winslow and Tyus Jones , the most outstanding player at the Final Four — also are serious candidates to jump to the pros.
Arizona State has hired Bobby Hurley as its basketball coach. The 43-year-old Hurley spent the past two years as the head coach at Buffalo, where he led the Bulls to 23 wins and an NCAA tournament berth this past season. He replaces Herb Sendek , who was fired March 24 after nine seasons. ... Hawaii filled its head coaching vacancy with Eran Ganot ,a former assistant coach with the Rainbow Warriors and most recently the associate head coach at St. Mary’s. Ganot, 33, inherits a troubled program. The former coach, Gib Arnold , was fired in late October, just weeks before the season was set to start, amid NCAA allegations
Atlanta forward Thabo Sefolosha will miss the Hawks’ final four regular-season games and the postseason because of a fractured right fibula and ligament damage suffered when he and teammate Pero Antic were arrested early Wednesday in New York. Sefolosha’s attorney, Alex Spiro , said the forward was injured during the arrest, which followed the stabbings of Indiana Pacers forward Chris Copeland , his girlfriend and another woman on the street near a Manhattan nightclub.
Jack Sock upset second-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain, 6-4, 6-4, in the second round of the U.S. Clay Court championships at Houston. . . . Defending champion Andrea Petkovic kept up her perfect run at the Family Circle Cup, improving to 10-0 and advancing to the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over American Madison Brengle in Charleston, S.C. Past champion and No. 6 seed Jelena Jankovic withdrew with a right foot injury about two hours before she was scheduled to play for a spot in the quarterfinals. . . . Two-time major champion Amelie Mauresmo has announced that she is expecting her first child this summer. . . . Top-seeded Guillermo Garcia Lopez of Spain was upset by 313thranked wild card Lamine Ouahab of Morocco, 6-3, 6-3, in the second round of the Grand Prix Hassan II in Casablanca.
Noel Acciari and Mark Jankowski scored second-period goals and Providence defeated Nebraska Omaha, 4-1, in the Frozen Four in Boston to advance to hockey’s national championship game for the second time in school history. The Friars will face Boston University, which defeated North Dakota, 5-3.
Sophomore quarterback Luke Del Rio has decided to leave Oregon State. Del Rio, the son of Oakland Raiders Coach Jack Del Rio , threw for 141 yards last season, appearing in three games as backup to senior starter Sean Mannion .
The French soccer league’s disciplinary commission has handed a four-match suspension to Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic following his criticism of a referee last month.
Stan Hochman , a longtime sportswriter for the Philadelphia Daily News, died at 86 after a brief illness.