Wade is back on the job for LSU
BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU has reinstated recently suspended men’s basketball coach Will Wade, athletic director Joe Alleva announced Sunday night. The move came two days after Wade met with LSU and NCAA officials, during which Alleva said the second-year Tigers coach “answered all questions and denied any wrongdoing in connection with recently reported allegations of irregularities in college basketball recruiting.” LSU was having one of the better seasons in program history under the 36-year-old Wade, a former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach, when he was suspended indefinitely. His punishment came on the heels of a Yahoo report about leaked excerpts of an FBI wiretap that captured Wade speaking with a person convicted funneling illegal payments to the families of college basketball recruits. In transcripts of the phone call, Wade discussed presenting a “strong” offer to an apparent third-party who represented then-recruit Javonte Smart. It was not clear from the leaked transcripts whether Wade in fact violated NCAA rules or if Smart, a freshman who started 18 games this past season, knew about the offer. “Wade’s explanations and clarifications offered during the meeting, absent actual evidence of misconduct, satisfy his contractual obligation to LSU,” Alleva said. Friday’s meeting marked the first meaningful face-to-face communication between all parties since LSU suspended Wade for initially refusing to meet with school officials on March 8.
› COLUMBIA, S.C. — Wofford didn’t look far before hiring associate head coach Jay
McAuley to lead its men’s basketball program after longtime coach Mike Young left for Virginia Tech earlier this month. The school announced McAuley’s promotion Sunday, making him just its third head coach since 1985 in a program that prides itself on building from within. That’s how Young, hired by his former basketball boss-turned-athletic director Richard Johnson, got the job in 2002 before making five NCAA tournament appearances in a 17-year span. McAuley helped Young lead the Terriers to their most successful Division I season in program history by going 30-5 in 2018-19, including an 18-0 mark to win the Southern Conference. Wofford was ranked in the AP Top 25 for the first time ever and made more history in the NCAA tournament when it defeated Seton Hall — the Terriers’ first win in the Big Dance — before falling to Kentucky in the second round.
BASEBALL
› ATLANTA — Julio Teheran outpitched Jacob deGrom, Charlie Culberson, Josh Donaldson and Nick Markakis homered, and the Atlanta Braves beat the New York Mets 7-3 Sunday night. Teheran improved to 10-7 with a 2.35 ERA in 26 career games against the Mets. He gave up one run and six hits in six innings. Markakis went deep in the second inning and Donaldson added another solo shot in the fifth as the Braves won for the fifth time in their past seven games. Donaldson and Markakis also homered during Saturday’s 11-7 victory over New York. Culberson’s two-run drive made it 5-1 in the sixth. It was the former Calhoun High School standout’s fifth pinch-hit homer in his MLB career.