College hoops

The University of Maryland is raising a banner for former coach Lefty Driesell.

Maryland announced Wednesday that it will unveil a banner honoring former coach Lefty Driesell before a Feb. 11 game against Ohio State at Xfinity Center in College Park, Md.

The decoration comes 30 years after Driesell coached his final game in College Park, where he was a revered and polarizing figure in leading Maryland’s program to national prominence. Driesell won 786 games during his 41-year coaching career, which included 17 seasons at Maryland from 1969 to 1986. Driesell finished with a record of 348-159 in that span, which included an Atlantic Coast Conference title in 1984.

Driesell is credited with recruiting some of the best players in program history — Tom McMillen, Len Elmore, John Lucas, Albert King, and Len Bias — all of whom have had banners raised by the school.

Driesell, who will turn 85 later this month, is considered the forefather of “Midnight Madness,” an idea he introduced in 1970 that continues to mark the start of each season. But his tenure at the school ended in controversy after the 1986 death of Bias due to a cocaine overdose.

Driesell returned to coaching two years later, finishing his career with stints at James Madison and Georgia State. He’s the only coach in Division I history to win 100 or more games at four schools (Davidson, Maryland, James Madison, Georgia State).

Bragg charges dropped:

Authorities dismissed a battery charge against Kansas forward Carlton Bragg Jr. and charged the woman who accused him of shoving her into a stairwell.

Bragg, a 20-year-old sophomore, was suspended indefinitely from the Jayhawks after he was arrested Friday. The Douglas County district attorney’s office said that charge was dismissed after law enforcement in Lawrence, Kan., reviewed surveillance video.

That video showed that before a man shoved a woman away from him and caused her to fall backward into an ascending staircase, the woman shoved, slapped and struck the man and put her hands around his neck. The DA’s office says Saleeha Soofi faces one count of battery.