Sports briefs 8/9
WVU basketball to play North Carolina
It’s taken 61 years, but it appears North Carolina has finally gotten over Ron “Fritz” Williams and is set to play West Virginia once again.
The two schools announced Thursday they would meet this season, on Nov. 27, at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte. The game is part of the Dick Vitale Invitational.
ESPN will televise the game on one of its networks.
The last time the two schools met was in 1965, with Williams going for 25 points on 9 of 11 shooting and adding six assists in the Mountaineers’ 102-97 victory inside the Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, N.C.
UNC Hall of Fame coach Dean Smith was in just his fifth season with the Tar Heels at the time.
WVU confirmed this meeting is a one-game setup between the two schools. No future games are scheduled with the Tar Heels at this time.
WVU is 5-0 all-time against North Carolina, including a 75-64 victory in 1957, when the Tar Heels were ranked No. 1 in the country. Jerry West had 14 points and nine rebounds in that game, which was his sophomore season.
Boxing
Former world heavyweight champion Joseph Parker argued to British anti-doping authorities that his nutritionist’s cocaine use caused a positive drug test after his bout with Fabio Wardley last October.
Parker, who lost the Oct. 25 fight at O2 Arena in London, had been provisionally suspended after urine tests overseen by UK Anti-Doping showed traces of cocaine in his system.
UKAD said Thursday it imposed a three-month ban which was deemed served because the 34-year-old New Zealander had been suspended since late November.
NBA
A misdemeanor gun charge against All-Star Cleveland Cavaliers guard James Harden in Texas has been dismissed after he completed an alternative resolution program allowing him to avoid a criminal record, court records show.
Harris County Criminal Court Judge Alex Salgado in Houston dismissed the criminal charge at the request of the Harris County district attorney’s office following Harden’s completion of an alternative resolution program. Such programs allow defendants to avoid a criminal conviction by doing community service. Court documents don’t detail the terms of Harden’s agreement.
Harden was arrested June 13 in Houston after police found that he had a handgun in his vehicle. Texas law makes it a misdemeanor to have a gun “in plain view” in a vehicle without a license, punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $4,000.
College football
New Iowa State coach Jimmy Rogers is nothing if not confident.
The Cyclones are picked last in the Big 12 preseason media poll, return no starters and had 55 players transfer after Rogers was hired to replace Matt Campbell, who took 24 of the best with him to Penn State.
Rogers admitted to reporters this week that he was the one who picked the Cyclones, in an On3.com anonymous coaches poll, to make it to the Big 12 championship game in his first season.
“What would you think if I didn’t vote on us? You’d wonder why I’m the head coach at Iowa State,” Rogers said. “I was brought in to win. … We’re not signing up for second place.
“So I know that’s a bold statement, and they’ll print it everywhere. But the reality is this: the players have to believe in what you say, and you have to act on how you believe. I believe that we can win.”