sports in brief

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Jul 26, 2008

Local & state: TGA two-manbest ball deadline is Friday

The deadline for the Topeka Golf Association's Two-Man Best Ball Championship is Friday. Cost is $140 per team for the tournament, which takes place Aug. 9-10 at Cypress Ridge Golf Course. Entry forms can be found at www.topekagolf.org.

Basketball: NBA files for rightsto six nicknames for Oklahoma City

The NBA has filed for trademark rights to six nicknames for the league's new Oklahoma City franchise: Barons, Bison, Energy, Marshalls, Thunder and Wind.

An attorney for the league made the filing Monday with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Marshal is usually spelled with one l. It isn't clear why the league used a variant spelling.

The filing is listed on the patent office's Web site.

The NBA and the team have refused to discuss possible new names for the team formerly known as the Seattle SuperSonics ahead of an official announcement, which hasn't yet been scheduled.

The Los Angeles Lakers and restricted free agent guard Sasha Vujacic agreed to a three-year, $15 million contract after emerging last season as a key member of the Western Conference champions.

"We felt Sasha made great progress in this past year, and our coach showed great confidence in playing him the second half of the season," Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said Friday in confirming the agreement, first reported by the Riverside Press- Enterprise. "Assuming he continues to work as hard during the offseason as he has in the past, I don't see any reason that trend wouldn't continue."

The 24-year-old Vujacic averaged a career-high 8.8 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 72 games this season, and 8.1 points 2.2 rebounds and 0.8 assists while playing in all 21 playoff games.

Vujacic drew national attention June 10, scoring a career playoff high 20 points including a crucial 3-pointer with a little under two minutes remaining in the Lakers' 87-81 victory over the Celtics in Game 3 of the NBA finals.

The Lakers had made Vujacic a $2.6 million qualifying offer, and he reportedly was considering playing in Europe. Kupchak said he didn't know if that sped up negotiations.

Elmer Martin Jr., who played on Arkansas' 1994 NCAA championship team, received a 15-year prison term after pleading guilty to drug charges.

Martin pleaded guilty Thursday to delivery of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, possession of drug paraphernalia and misdemeanor marijuana possession, deputy prosecutor David Harris said. Harris said the delivery charges involved cocaine, and the intent to deliver charges involved cocaine and Ecstasy.

The 36-year-old Martin was sentenced to 30 years with 15 suspended.

North Carolina has given women's coach Sylvia Hatchell a four- year contract extension through 2015.

Hatchell will make an average of $330,000 during the next seven years and receive supplemental income averaging more than $65,000.

She is entering her 23rd season at North Carolina and 34th as a college coach. Hatchell is 16 wins shy of 800 for her career.

She led the Tar Heels to the national championship in 1994. Her team went 33-3 last year and won the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament for the fourth consecutive season.

Football: AFL commissioner resigns two days before ArenaBowl

Arena Football League commissioner David Baker surprisingly resigned Friday, two days before the ArenaBowl championship game.

Baker ended his 12 years on the job by telling the league's board of directors that he was stepping down. The 55-year-old Baker, who received a contract extension last year, simply told the board he felt it was "time."

Under Baker's leadership, the AFL has become a profitable league, including part ownership by ESPN. Its attendance, TV ratings and merchandise sales all have increased this year.

Baker said that Ed Policy, his deputy commissioner, will assume the commissioner's role while a committee seeks his successor.

"I've been thinking about it for a while. I never thought I would do this for the rest of my life," Baker told The Associated Press. "The league has never been stronger ... it gives me the opportunity to look into doing other things."

Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer says a subpoena for his testimony in a lawsuit stemming from a decade-old Alabama recruiting scandal is aimed at distracting him from the upcoming season.

Fulmer was at the Southeastern Conference's football media days in Birmingham, Ala., on Thursday when he got the subpoena to provide testimony for former Crimson Tide booster Wendell Smith's lawsuit against the NCAA.

Fulmer chose not to attend the SEC's media days in 2004 after attorneys for another booster who had filed a similar lawsuit against the NCAA threatened to serve him with a subpoena.

Kentucky quarterback Curtis Pulley has gotten into trouble with the law twice in the last two months, including an arrest for multiple traffic violations this week.

WLEX-TV in Lexington first reported Friday that Pulley was charged last month in Louisville on a misdemeanor count of marijuana possession. Then this week, Pulley was arrested in Hardin County on traffic charges including speeding, driving on a suspended or revoked license and having expired or no plates or registration papers, according to court documents.