NCAA adopts basketball reforms for agents, draft

Ten months after federal prosecutors announced wide-ranging investigation into corruption in college basketball, the NCAA announced policy changes related to the sport, including allowing top players to sign with agents while in school and players who enter the NBA draft but are not chosen to retain their college eligibility.

The reforms also call for more transparency around amateur events and hold university presidents and chancellors accountable for noncompliance within the athletic department.

The changes are “in general aimed at eliminating some of the corrosive influences that we’ve seen in college basketball that the federal investigation highlighted,” NCAA president Mark Emmert said Wednesday.

In October 2017, the NCAA created a commission, led by Stanford professor Condoleezza Rice, to explore the issues surrounding college basketball. In April, Rice’s commission announced its finding and recommendations.

The changes include more flexibility for athletes deciding whether to pursue professional opportunities in the sport. Previously, athletes who declared for the NBA draft and attended the NBA combine could return to school only if they withdrew within 10 days following the combine. Now, players will be able to return to school if they are not drafted.

However, for these changes to take place, the NCAA is requiring the NBA and the NBA Players Association to agree to lower the eligibility age to enter the draft to 18 and to modify its rules around free agency if a player goes undrafted.

Golf

LI, NOH ADVANCE IN WOMEN’S AMATEUR >> Co-medalist Lucy Li of Redwood Shores won her first-round match at the U.S. Women’s Amateur. Li, 15, beat Adeena Shears 5 and 3 to advance to the round of 32. Concord’s Yealimi Noh advanced with a 2-up win over Allisen Corpuz. It takes six match wins to claim the championship. Danville’s Ty Akabane, San Jose’s Megan Yang and Stanford’s Albane Valenzuela were eliminated. AUSTRALIAN PRO DIES >> Australian golfer Jarrod Lyle has died after a long struggle with cancer. He was 36. Lyle, who won twice on the Nationwide Tour in 2008, was first diagnosed with leukemia as a teenager and suffered recurrences of the disease in 2012 and 2017. He returned to the U.S. PGA Tour in 2013 after apparently having beaten cancer for a second time. But the illness returned and Lyle last week announced his decision to forego further treatment and enter palliative care.

Soccer

QUAKES TRADE AMARIKWA FOR ODURO >> The San Jose Earthquakes announced they acquired forward Dominic Oduro from the Montreal Impact in exchange for forward Quincy Amarikwa. Oduro, 32, ranks top 40 in Major League Soccer history in games played (341 - 14th), shots (496 - 25th) and goals scored (63 - 36th) since entering the league in 2006. Quakes forwards Chris Wondolowski (140 1st) and Oduro (63 - 9th) are two of the 10 highestscoring players currently in MLS and have combined to record 203 career goals, most of any active teammates in the league.

Amarikwa, 30, joined the Earthquakes in 2015 for his second stint with the club (2009-10). Over the past 3 1/2 seasons, he tallied nine goals and nine assists.

NBA

OKAFOR TO JOIN PELICANS >> A person familiar with the situation says free-agent center Jahlil Okafor has agreed to join the New Orleans Pelicans. Okafor appeared in only two games with Philadelphia last season before being traded to Brooklyn, where he averaged 6.4 points a game as a reserve.