Rich Rodriguez turned the West Virginia football team into a national title contender before flaming out as Michigan’s coach under huge expectations.
Those three turbulent seasons with the Wolverines didn’t keep Arizona from hiring Rodriguez to overhaul a Pac-12 program that has been mired in me- diocrity for most of the past decade.
Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne posted on his Twitter account Monday a picture of himself with Rodriguez, wearing an Arizona baseball cap, the coach’s wife and two children. The tweet said “the new Arizona football coach and his family is . . .”
The 48-year-old Rodriguez will be introduced today during a news conference in Tucson.
Byrne fired coach Mike Stoops last month after Stoops went 41-50 in seven-plus seasons. The Wildcats haven’t won more than eight games in a season since 1998, when they were coached by Dick Tomey.
Rodriguez was fired by Michigan after last season, following three difficult years. He went 15-22 with the Wolverines and the Big Ten program was cited by the NCAA for rules violations during his tenure.
• Washington State quarterback Connor Halliday will miss the Cougars’ annual Apple Cup game against archrival Washington this weekend because of a lacerated liver suffered in a 30-27 overtime loss to Utah. Marshall Lobbestael will replace Halliday.
• Louisiana-Lafayette (8-3) will make its first bowl appearance in 41 years at the New Orleans Bowl.
• Massachusetts fired coach Kevin Morris, who went 16-17 in three seasons with the Minutemen.
OSU coaches mourned
STILLWATER, Okla. — Thousands of orange- and black-clad mourners gathered at Gallagher-Iba Arena to pay tribute to Oklahoma State women’s basketball coach Kurt Budke, assistant coach Miranda Serna and two other people who were killed Thursday when their small plane crashed in central Arkansas during a recruiting trip.
The bright orange blazer Budke wore for the Cowgirls’ biggest games sat draped over his customary seat on the bench as former players and school administrators spoke of the four who died, including alumnus Olin Branstetter and his wife, Paula, and tried to make sense of the tragic crash — the second in 10 years involving members of the OSU basketball department.
“We have always been reminded that we are family and that the girls you play with are your sisters,” said former OSU guard Taylor Hardeman, who played for Budke’s teams from 2005-09. “He was a father figure to us all while we were away from home.”
NBA players move their legal fight
NEW YORK — Locked-out NBA players filed an amended federal lawsuit against the league in Minnesota.
The players filed class-action antitrust lawsuits against the NBA last Tuesday in California and Minnesota. But the California complaint was withdrawn Monday and the cases put together in Minnesota.
The players’ lawyer, David Boies, said he believes the case will move more quickly in Minnesota.
NASCAR cuts races from truck schedule.
NASCAR eliminated three races from the 2012 Truck Series schedule. NASCAR added an inaugural event at Rockingham Speedway and a second race at Iowa Speedway, but the series lost two events when Nashville Superspeedway closed and won’t return to Lucas Oil Raceway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Darlington Raceway.
The Associated Press
