Sports briefs
Penguins’ Cullen retires from NHL
Matt Cullen retired from the NHL on Wednesday.
The 42-year-old forward played 21 seasons in the League, including last season with the Penguins when he had 20 points (seven goals, 13 assists) in 71 regular-season games and no points in four Stanley Cup Playoff games.
“It was an emotional time, but I knew it was coming,” Cullen told the Penguins website. “It just felt right and I was really at peace with everything when it was over.
“I felt like it was only right to retire in Pittsburgh with everything that the organization had given me and done for me. I’m so happy I came back and finished my last year in Pittsburgh. I wouldn’t trade that last year for anything.”
Cullen, who was the oldest player in the NHL last season, is 19th in NHL history in games with 1,516, second-most among United States-born players to Chris Chelios (1,651). Cullen won the Stanley Cup three times, with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006 and with the Penguins in 2016 and 2017.
Oklahoma picked
as favorite in Big 12
Oklahoma is the favorite to win another Big 12 football title, according to the conference’s preseason media poll released Wednesday.
The Sooners have won the league the last four years and 12 Big 12 championships overall. Oklahoma also made the College Football Playoff three of the past four seasons.
Texas was picked second by media covering the league. The top two teams will meet in the conference championship game on Dec. 7. The Longhorns lost to the Sooners in the title matchup in 2018.
Iowa State, TCU and Oklahoma State round out the top five picks.
The Big 12 will have four new head coaches in 2019 with Les Miles at Kansas, Chris Klieman at Kansas State, Matt Wells at Texas Tech and Neal Brown at West Virginia.
All-Star scoreboard has rough night
The only errors on the scoreboard at the All-Star Game were by the scoreboard.
At least one player noticed – and wasn’t too pleased.
The giant board at Progressive Field was filled with mistakes Tuesday night, including a couple of misspelled names, a wrong picture and a pair of incorrect team logos.
“They had what, two weeks to get ready for this? That can’t happen,” New York Mets sparkplug Jeff McNeil said.
McNeil is leading the majors with a .349 batting average, an impressive feat seeing how he made his major league debut less than a year ago.
A late sub, he came up for the National League in the eighth inning and noticed the headshot on the scoreboard wasn’t of him. Instead, it was of Mets teammate Jacob deGrom.
“That was tough, to see deGrom’s picture up there,” McNeil said. “I didn’t really like that.”
“I wanted to see my picture up there. I know my family did, too. What are you going to do? I guess, but I don’t think that should happen,” he said.
David Dahl didn’t fare any better. The Colorado outfielder batted right before McNeil and was listed on the scoreboard as “Davis Dahl.”
Same for Chicago Cubs catcher Willson Contreras. A starter, his first name was missing a letter and spelled “Wilson.”
NCAA hits N.C. State
with charges
The NCAA has charged North Carolina State with four violations, accusing a former assistant coach of providing payments and benefits connected to the recruitment of one-and-done basketball player Dennis Smith Jr.
The school said Wednesday that its notice of allegations was received Tuesday, and has 90 days to respond.
The notice includes four serious charges, with two that are potential top-level charges. The NCAA alleges that from 2014-17, former assistant Orlando Early provided Smith and his associates approximately $46,700 in impermissible inducements and benefits – including $40,000 that a government witness testified he delivered to Early intended for Smith’s family in 2015.