WACO, Texas - Baylor appointed a panel Friday to investigate whether coaches made improper payments to Patrick Dennehy, the basketball player who disappeared last month and is presumed dead.
The committee, composed of three Baylor Law School professors, hired former Austin Mayor Kirk Watson as an outside counsel to help determine if NCAA rules were broken.
Concerns over rules violations stem from reports a coach told Dennehy his education and living expenses would be paid if he gave up his scholarship.
Also, the Fort-Worth Star Telegram reported that Waco police called off the search for Dennehy, 21, until Carlton Dotson can return to Texas and lead them to the body. Dotson, Dennehy's former teammate and roommate, has been charged with murder.
Dotson's estranged wife, Melissa Kethley, told the Dallas Morning News there were other problems with the team.
She said Dotson told her he often got cash from his assistant coaches. She said she witnessed Dotson fake a drug test, and Dotson and Dennehy were among three players she drove to get tested at a Waco clinic after a team-ordered urine test came back positive for drug use.
UF-TENNESSEE GAME: The football game set for Sept.20 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium will kick off at noon on CBS.
ALABAMA: Tuscaloosa County Circuit Judge Charles Malone ruled former defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson cannot sue the university because state institutions are immune from lawsuits under the state constitution. Johnson, coach at Citadel, claims the university owes him money after his firing in December 2000. He might appeal.
FISHING: Lobster season nears
The two-day spiny lobster sport season begins Wednesday, the only chance to catch the crustaceans before the eight-month commercial season begins Aug.6. A recreational saltwater license and crawfish permit are needed. The bag limit is six lobsters per person each day in Monroe County and Biscayne National Park, or 12 per day in the rest of Florida.
TENNIS: Kournikova out of Open
Anna Kournikova decided not to enter next month's U.S. Open in New York because of a back injury that forced her to miss the French Open and Wimbledon. The 22-year-old, 77th in the world, and No.43 Tatiana Panova were the only top 100 players missing from the women's entry list.
ATP CHAMPIONS RACE: Juan Carlos Ferrero will regain the lead in the calendar-year points race despite losing 6-1, 6-4 to Mariano Zabaleta in the Generali Open quarterfinals in Kitzbuehel, Austria. Ferrero passed Wimbledon champion Roger Federer.
ET CETERA
BOXING: WBC and WBA welterweight champion Ricardo Mayorga, accused of hitting a woman, denied the accusation, saying he was not in Managua, Nicaragua, at the time. Martha del Socorro Solorzano filed a criminal complaint against Mayorga on Wednesday, saying he beat her when she tried to collect a $7,500 debt on July18. Mayorga said he had reached "an arrangement" with the woman through an attorney.
HORSES: Apprentice jockey Eddie Castro won five races at Calder for the second time in a week, one short of matching the track record. Castro has 64 winners for $1.09-million at the Calder meet, second to Manoel Cruz's 80 wins in the standings.
SOCCER: Kelly McDonald scored in the 66th minute, rallying the U.S. women's under-21 team to a 1-all tie against Norway in the eight-nation Open Nordic Cup in Randers, Denmark. The United States meets Sweden in the final Sunday. ... The United States faces Costa Rica in today's CONCACAF Gold Cup consolation game in Miami. Brazil meets Mexico in Sunday's final.
