THE COURIER-JOURNAL | TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 2012 | C3SPORTS | courier-journal.com/sportsKY

Morning Briefing

GIL THORP | NEAL RUBIN AND ROD WHIGHAM

AUTO RACINGIndyCar drivers insist theywill not boycott Texas race

SEBRING, Fla. — Several IndyCardrivers dismissed any notion of boycott-ing Texas Motor Speedway, and said theentire issue has been blown out of pro-portion.

“I want to stop all this nonsense dis-cussion about boycotting. It’s absurd, it’sridiculous and we are professionals andwill race there,” Helio Castroneves saidon Monday, following the first day ofspring training testing at Sebring Inter-national Raceway.

Texas track president Eddie Gossagereacted angrily last week to rumors thatIndyCar’s drivers had discussed skip-ping the June 9 race at Texas over con-cerns with how the fence is constructed.Gossage was bothered by a report twoweeks ago that indicated the drivers haddiscussed boycotting the race, buthadn’t come to that conclusion yet.

» Other news: The Indianapolis 500will pay tribute to the late Dan Wheldonby putting his image on this year’s racetickets. The Englishman won his second500 title last May and did much of thetesting in the new Indy cars, but waskilled in a crash at last season’s final In-dyCar race at Las Vegas.

FOOTBALLFormer Tech, Miami playerVick jailed for contempt

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Former Vir-ginia Tech and NFL player Marcus Vickwill spend at least 10 days in jail for ig-noring court orders, authorities saidMonday.

The younger brother of PhiladelphiaEagles quarterback Michael Vick re-ported to jail on Sunday, nearly a weekafter he was ordered to turn himself in,Newport News Sheriff’s spokeswomanKathleen Carey said. A judge on Mondayordered him to spend 10 days in jail forcontempt of court after failing to appearat two court dates for a charge of drivingon a suspended license.

Police charged Vick in January 2010with driving on a suspended license, hissecond such offense. Court recordsshow he failed to show up for two courtdates in 2010. He was in court last Augustto answer to the driving charges as wellas two counts of failure to appear. Ajudge had ordered him to report to jailby Feb. 27.

No new charges were issued Monday.

BASEBALLEx-minor league exec, majorleaguer Mincher dies

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Former South-ern League president and Major LeagueBaseball player Don Mincher has diedafter a long illness. He was 73.

Mincher spent 13 years in the majorleagues and was a two-time AmericanLeague All-Star. He played for the 1972World Series champion Oakland Athlet-ics after opening the season at first basefor the Texas Rangers in the first gamesthey played in Arlington.

8 more claim abuse by lateRed Sox clubhouse chief

BOSTON — Eight more men havecome forward to say they were abusedby a now-dead former Boston Red Soxclubhouse manager.

The men, including two former Balti-more Orioles bat boys, are in addition totwo former Red Sox clubhouse atten-dants who said in December to say theywere abused by Donald Fitzpatrick, whodied in 2005.

Lawyer Mitchell Garabedian saidMonday the statute of limitations for le-gal action has expired, so the men areseeking $5 million settlements from theRed Sox or Orioles. He’s exploring pos-sible legal action in two cases.

The Red Sox settled a lawsuit withseven Florida men claiming Fitzpatrickmolested them. He resigned from theRed Sox in 1991.

GYMNASTICSMazeika to coach US men

INDIANAPOLIS — The U.S. is notabout to mess with what’s worked, pick-ing Kevin Mazeika to coach the men’sgymnastics team at this summer’s Lon-don Olympics.

Mazeika was the U.S. coach for thelast two Summer Games, and the Amer-icans came away with team medals atboth. The silver in Athens and bronze inBeijing was the first time the U.S. menhave won medals at back-to-back Olym-pic Games. Mazeika was also the coachat the 2003 and 2001 worlds, when theU.S. won silver medals, and last fall,when the Americans won the bronze.

BOXINGAgent sends wrong manto fight featherweight champ

MANILA, Philippines — A Filipino pro-moter says he is filing a complaint to theMexican Boxing Commission against anagent who sent the wrong boxer to fightIBF international featherweight cham-pion Rey Bautista.

Bautista was expected to fight Gena-ro “Poblanito” Garcia, who has a 38-8record. Instead, a heavier boxer with apoorer record called Genaro “Panterita”Garcia turned up.

DIGESTFROM WIRE DISPATCHES

Louisville Kentucky Indiana Turfway

TUES6

BaseballIndiana, 3

BaseballTenn. Tech, 4

Baseballat Louisville, 3

WED7

M-bkbBig EastTournamentSHall/Prov.ESPN, 7

LacrosseN’western, 5

BaseballMarshall4 p.m.

Baseballat IndianaState3 p.m.

THU8

M-bkbBig TenTournamentPenn St.1:55 p.m.Big Ten

FRI9

M-bkbSEC Tourn.Ark./LSU1 p.m.WAVE-3

BaseballCanisius, 4

SoftballAlabama, 6

W-tennisPurdue, 1:30

First race5:30 p.m.

SAT10

SoftballSaint Louis,11 a.m.Michigan, 1

BaseballCanisius, 1

SoftballAlabama, 1

DivingNCAA ZoneMeet

First race1:10 p.m.

SUN11

SoftballSaint Louis3 p.m.

BaseballCanisius, 1

SoftballAlabama, 1

GymnasticsGWU/Ball St.2 p.m.

First race1:10 p.m.

MON12

SoftballIllinois StateNoon (DH)

TUESDAY ON TVMen’s college basketballNoon Big East: DePaul-Connecticut ESPN22 p.m. Big East: Pittsburgh-St. John’s ESPN27 p.m. Sun Belt championship ESPN27 p.m. Big East: Providence-Seton Hall ESPNU9 p.m. Horizon final: Detroit-Valparaiso ESPN9 p.m. Summit League championship ESPN29 p.m. Big East: Villanova-Rutgers ESPNU

Women’s college basketball2 p.m. Sun Belt final: Middle Tenn.-UALR ESPNU4 p.m. Summit final: UMKC-S. Dakota St. ESPNU7 p.m. Big East championship ESPN

European Champions League soccer2:30 p.m. Zenit St. Petersburg at Benfica Fox Ohio/South2:30 p.m. AC Milan at Arsenal Fox Soccer

Pro hockey7 p.m. Phoenix at Columbus Fox Ohio8 p.m. Los Angeles at Nashville Fox South9 p.m. Minnesota at Colorado NBC SN

TODAY ON RADIOCollege baseball3 p.m. Indiana at Louisville WNDA-1570

Men’s college basketball7 p.m. Sun Belt championship (if WKU plays) WKJK-1080

WEDNESDAY ON TVMen’s college basketballNoon Big East: DePaul-Connecticut

winner vs. West VirginiaESPN

2 p.m. Big East: Pittsburgh-St. John’swinner vs. Georgetown

ESPN

3 p.m. Pac-12: Washington St.-Oregon St. Fox Ohio/South5:30 p.m. Pac-12: UCLA-Southern Cal Fox Ohio/South7 p.m. Big East: Providence-Seton Hall

winner vs. LouisvilleESPN

7 p.m. Northeast final: R. Morris-Long Isl. ESPN27 p.m. Patriot final: Lehigh at Bucknell CBS SN9 p.m. Big East: Villanova-Rutgers winner

vs. South FloridaESPNU

9 p.m. Big Sky championship ESPN29 p.m. Pac-12: Stanford-Arizona St. Fox Ohio/South11:30 p.m. Pac-12: Colorado-Utah Fox Ohio/South

Soccer2:30 p.m. Bayer Leverkusen at Barcelona Fox Soccer8 p.m. Los Angeles at Toronto Fox Soccer10 p.m. Santos at Seattle Fox Soccer

Women’s lacrosse5 p.m. Towson at Johns Hopkins ESPNU

Pro hockey7:30 p.m. Toronto at Pittsburgh NBC SN

SEVEN-DAY PLANNER

The Indianapolis Colts an-swered one big question Monday —just not that one.

Less than 30 minutes after us-ing the franchise tag on Pro Bowldefensive end Robert Mathis, theteam confirmed it had agreed toterms on a new long-term deal withthe Pro Bowl defensive end —keeping one of the NFL’s mostfeared passing rushing tandemsintact.

The move comes three days be-fore the Colts must make an evenbigger decision about Peyton Man-ning’s future, but keeping Mathisand Dwight Freeney together in In-dy was, clearly, one of the team’soffseason priorities.

Pagano even referred to Free-ney and Mathis as game-wreckers.

But there are still questionsabout where the undersized pass-rushers will fit in Pagano’s new de-fense, which is likely to be a hybridof Pagano’s preferred 3-4 schemeand the Colts’ longtime 4-3 align-ment.

At 6-foot-2, 245 pounds, criticshave long argued he wasn’t stoutenough to hold up over timeagainst the run. And while therewas a time during Tony Dungy’stenure that Indy experimentedwith Mathis at linebacker, a spot hecould be tailor-made for in a 3-4 de-fense, he’s played well enough tomake three Pro Bowls.

Freeney holds the club recordfor sacks (102½), while Mathis sec-ond in franchise history (83½) andtheir propensity for stripping theball from quarterbacks has madethem a menace to opposing of-fenses for the past nine seasons.

That’s why Indy wanted themboth back.

An even bigger decision, onManning, is now on the clock.

If Indy pays Peyton Manning a$28 million bonus by Thursday, itwill trigger the final four years ofthe five-year, $90 million contractManning signed in July. If the Coltsdon’t pay up and can’t work out anew contract before March 13, theonly four-time MVP in league his-tory would become an unrestrictedfree agent for the first time in hisNFL career.

Welker, Bowe franchised

It pays to play a skill position inthe NFL, like New Orleans quarter-back Drew Brees, or receivers WesWelker and Dwayne Bowe.

It also pays to be a kicker, as fiveplacekickers and one punter weregiven franchise tags, protectingtheir current teams from losingthem without compensation.

The NFL’s deadline for applyingthe tags was Monday afternoon,and a late flurry saw 10 playersadded to the list. In all, 21 playerswere tagged.

Only Brees, the 2011 AP Offen-sive Player of the Year, was madean exclusive franchise player,meaning he is not free to sign withanother team. The Saints will con-tinue negotiations on a long-termcontract for the record-settingquarterback.

WR Johnson gets contractextension from Bills

After the Buffalo Bills took achance on Stevie Johnson, theflamboyant receiver decided to re-turn the favor.

The former Kentucky standoutsigned a five-year, $36.25 millioncontract extension on Monday withthe Bills, a week before he was setto become an unrestricted freeagent. He has 170 catches for 2,189yards and 19 touchdowns in 48games during his four-year career.

Foster agrees to 5-yeardeal with Texans

Arian Foster got what he want-ed from the Houston Texans,agreeing to a new five-year con-tract. Foster was the NFL’s leadingrusher in 2010 with 1,616 yards andran for 1,224 yards and 10 touch-downs last season.

NFL, bounty head meetCommissioner Roger Goodell

summoned former Saints defen-sive coordinator Gregg Williams tomeet with NFL investigators Mon-day to discuss whether he also of-fered bounties while working forother teams. Goodell was not at themeeting.

After the league made its inves-tigation public Friday, Williams ad-mitted to, and apologized for, run-ning a bounty pool of up to $50,000over the last three seasons, re-warding players for knocking tar-geted opponents out of games.

NFL

DE Robert Mathis has 83.5 career sacks for the Colts, who agreed to a dealwith the three-time Pro Bowler on Monday. ANDY LYONS/GETTY IMAGES

Colts, Mathisagree to dealDecision on QBManning loomsAssociated Press

SOFTBALL» University of Louisville

freshman shortstop/desig-nated player Whitney Arion(Delphi, Ind.) was named BigEast Player of the Week aftergoing 4-for-8 with two homeruns and five RBIs as theCardinals (15-0) won threegames.

» University of Kentuckyfreshman Griffin Joiner(Christian County) was named

Southeastern ConferenceFreshman of the Week afterhitting .571 (8-for-14) as UKwent 3-2 in the Ragin’ CajunInvitational.

BASKETBALLUniversity of the Cumber-

lands senior forward LaurenWombles (London, Ky.) wasnamed Mid-South ConferencePlayer of the Year. She led theMid-South in scoring at 19.4points per game.

KENTUCKIANA SPOTLIGHT

Time: 03-05-2012 21:28 User: rtaylor2 PubDate: 03-06-2012 Zone: KY Edition: 1 Page Name: C 3 Color: CyanMagentaYellowBlack