KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Ralph Sampson, a former 7-foot-4 Virginia center and three-time Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year, joined seven others Monday, including coaches Bob Knight and Eddie Sutton, as the newest members of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
“I will cherish this the rest of my life,” Sampson said. “It will go along with my college player of the year award at my mother’s house.”
Also in the 2011 class are players James Worthy of North Carolina, Cazzie Russell of Michigan and Chris Mullin of St. John’s as well as contributors Joe Vancisin and Eddie Einhorn.
Induction will take place Nov. 20.
• Louisville sophomore forward Rakeem Buckles, who is averaging 6.8 points and 6.1 rebounds per game, will miss the rest of the season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during Sunday’s 62-59 victory over Pittsburgh.
• DePaul freshman Cleveland Melvin will miss the rest of the season because of a sprained left thumb, leaving the Blue Demons without their leading scorer (14.3 ppg).
Women’s CWS gets some privacy
OKLAHOMA CITY — No longer will the nation’s top college softball teams have nowhere to get ready and nowhere to go when they’re done playing at the sport’s pinnacle.
A new multipurpose building that will house dressing rooms for the Women’s College World Series was dedicated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Hall of Fame Stadium.
The site has hosted college softball’s championship 20 of the past 21 years, but teams previously had to put their uniforms on at a hotel before going to the stadium. After games, they’d huddle up wherever they could find a spot or use tents that were put up to provide some sort of shelter.
“There’s been times where we’ve had rain delays that you didn’t have any place to go, and I think the big thing is after the games,” Arizona coach Mike Candrea said. “It’s always nice to have a secluded place that you can get your team in and talk. For some times, it’s a great celebration. After a loss, it’s nice to have some privacy to say what you need to say without having people hanging around waiting or hearing what you’ve got to say.”
Footnotes.
Lee Evans, who accepted a gold medal in the 1,600-meter relay in the 1968 Olympics wearing a black beret symbolic of the militant Black Panther Party, said he hopes to raise $250,000 from the sale of that medal and his 400 gold medal to help build a school in Liberia.
• Sam Querrey will miss the United States’ first-round Davis Cup matches against Chile beginning Friday because of a right rotator cuff injury.
• Auburn junior running back Eric Smith has been dismissed from the team for violating undisclosed team rules.
• World Cup overall champion Carlo Janka had surgery Wednesday to correct an irregular heartbeat and hopes to race Saturday in a World Cup giant slalom in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.
• Harvey Dorfman, a pioneering sports psychologist who was credited with helping Roy Halladay and Rick Ankiel among others, died in Asheville, N.C. He was 75.
