News+Notes:
UMKC, Chicago State men’s hoops not traveling due to virus,
Missouri-Kansas City has joined Chicago State in canceling a trip to Seattle for a regularly scheduled Western Athletic Conference men’s basketball game this week over concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, the conference announced on Wednesday.
UMKC was scheduled to play Seattle University on Saturday but the conference said the school has canceled that trip. Chicago State announced Tuesday night it was canceling its men’s basketball road trip to Seattle and Utah Valley, and said its women’s team would not host two games against those same schools.
The cancellations are believed to be the first by a major sport in the United States due to the virus.
The canceled games will be recorded as a “no-contest” per NCAA guidelines. MEMPHIS' CASE GOES TO INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION ARM >> Memphis’ NCAA case involving the recruitment of star basketball player James Wiseman will go through the association’s new independent investigation arm.
The NCAA announced the school’s request to have the infraction case resolved through the Independent Accountability Resolution Process had been granted. This will be the first known case to be handled by the IARP.
The NCAA suspended Wiseman 12 games early this season because the former five-star recruit’s family received $11,500 from former Memphis player and current Tigers coach Penny Hardaway to assist in a move from Nashville to Memphis in the summer of 2017.
Although Hardaway wasn’t Memphis’ coach at the time, the NCAA ruled the payment wasn’t allowed because he was a booster for the program. The former NBA All-Star gave $1 million in 2008 to his alma mater for the university’s sports hall of fame.
After the NCAA ruled
Wiseman had to sit out 12 games and donate $11,500 to charity to regain his college eligibility, he left Memphis in December.
The IARP was created last year to handle some high-profile cases involving potentially serious infractions. The process includes investigators, advocates and decision-makers with no direct ties to NCAA member schools.
Baseball
MAN CHARGED WITH THREATENING RAYS PLAYERS, OTHER ATHLETES >> A New York sports gambler is facing federal charges in Florida related to threatening social media messages sent to players with the Tampa Bay Rays and other teams, federal authorities said.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tampa announced a charge of transmitting threats in interstate or foreign commerce against Benjamin Tucker Patz, 23. He faces up to five years in federal prison.
Patz made numerous violent threats last year against athletes and their family members through anonymous Instagram accounts, according to a criminal complaint. In many messages, Patz threatened to enter the athletes’ homes and behead them or their family members, the FBI said. Some of Patz’s threats also contained derogatory terms and racial slurs, investigators said.
The Tampa Bay Rays lost a home baseball game last
July to the Chicago White Sox. An account linked to Patz later sent threatening Instagram messages to four players for the Rays and one player for the White Sox, according to authorities.
Patz, who resides in New York and California, goes by the moniker “Parlay Patz.” FBI investigators said they found online articles that claimed he had recently won more than $1 million by wagering on sports events.
Hockey
SENATORS FIRE CEO AFTER 2 MONTHS >> The Ottawa Senators fired CEO Jim Little less than two months after he took the job, saying his conduct was “inconsistent” with the core values of the team and the NHL.
The 55-year-old Little said in a statement that the reasons for his dismissal were simply the result of a heated disagreement with owner Eugene Melnyk.
“On Valentine’s Day, the owner and I had a personal disagreement over the approach that I had been pursuing,” Little said. “I am a strong-willed person, and the disagreement included me using some strong language with him over the phone, including some swearing, which he did not appreciate and for which I later apologized.
“It was these events, to my knowledge, which led to my dismissal. Any other inference from the statement is wrong.”
Motor sports
DAYTONA TWEAKS SPEEDWEEKS, MOVES CLASH ONTO ROAD COURSE >> NASCAR will hit the road for its first race in 2021, part of a schedule shakeup that starts at Daytona International Speedway.
The track announced several changes to the start of the annual racing season. They include running the exhibition Busch Clash on the 3.56-mile road course that winds through the Daytona infield and packing seven races as well as Daytona 500 pole qualifying into a six-day span.
Cycling
PORTAL, WHO HELPED GUIDE CHRIS FROOME AT TOUR, DIES AT 40 >> Nicolas Portal, a team official who helped guide four-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome to victory at the race, has died. He was 40.
His cycling team, Ineos, said the former rider turned sports director died suddenly at his home in Andorra on Tuesday. Media reports said he had a heart attack.