Sports briefs
By NewsPress Now
Arizona hires
Desireé Reed-Francois
as athletic director
TUCSON, Ariz. | Arizona has hired former Missouri athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois to guide the athletics department through financial difficulties prior to the school’s move to the Big 12.
Reed-Francois agreed to terms Monday on a five-year contract that will start at $1 million per year, pending approval by the Arizona Board of Regents. She replaces Dave Heeke, who was fired after seven years last month, and will become the first female to hold the full-time AD job at Arizona when she takes the reigns on March 3.
“We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Desireé to the University of Arizona family, and we could not be more excited about the leadership experience and outstanding credentials she brings,” University President Robert C. Robbins said in a statement. “Respected nationally for her commitment to student-athletes, Desireé has a history of success everywhere she’s served and is exactly the right person we need to modernize our athletics operations and usher in an ongoing culture of success in all aspects of athletics.”
Reed-Francois spent the past three years as Missouri’s AD, helping stabilize a department that had operated at a deficit for five years. She previously served as UNLV’s athletic director from 2017-17 and had previous leadership positions at Virginia Tech, Cincinnati and Tennessee.
“The growth of our department has been tremendous,” Missouri coach Dennis Gates said. “You don’t look at the back of a person when they’re in transition from one job to the next. You look at the mark that they’ve left and she’s done a tremendous job.”
Reed-Francois takes over an Arizona athletics department that borrowed more than $80 million from the university in recent years. The school has its own financial issues following a $240 million miscalculation of projected cash on hand.
The financial difficulties, in part, led football coach Jedd Fisch to leave for Washington after resurrecting the program. He was replaced by former San Jose State coach Brent Brennan, hired by Heeke shortly before he was relieved of duties.
Reed-Francois is a graduate and former rower at UCLA, and earned a doctorate degree from Arizona’s law school in 1997.
“There are very few institutions that would entice me to leave an SEC athletics department with strong momentum,” Reed-Francois said. “The University of Arizona has tremendous potential and is an institution — and an athletics program — on the rise, and I want to be a part of shaping that future.”
Lawsuit: Nebraska’s response to relationship was inadequate
OMAHA, Neb. | A former Nebraska women’s basketball player alleges coach Amy Williams and athletic director Trev Alberts did not take appropriate action when her sexual relationship with an assistant coach became widely known.
Ashley Scoggin filed a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court describing how Chuck Love allegedly took a special interest in her and how the relationship turned sexual and caused Scoggin to fear retaliation if she refused to engage in it.
The lawsuit was filed Sunday and names the university’s Board of Regents and Love as defendants, in addition to Williams and Alberts. Scoggin seeks a jury trial in Lincoln and unspecified damages for the alleged violation of her civil rights.
“It’s a very troubling and serious subject of predatory coaches that pursue sexual relationships with student-athletes,” Scoggin attorney Maren Chaloupka said Monday. “There’s an enormous imbalance of power between the professional coach and student-athletes. This is something that was well known in 2022.
“Certainly Division I universities that operate at the top level are well aware of the harm that comes from this kind of a predatory situation, and there’s a strong onus on the university and on the coaches to prevent this from happening and, heaven forbid it does happen, to address is correctly.”
University spokesperson Melissa Lee said the school was made aware of the lawsuit Monday.
“While the University does not comment on the specifics of pending litigation, it does not agree with the allegations contained in the complaint and intends to vigorously defend this matter,” Lee said in a statement.
Williams declined to comment. Alberts and Love did not respond to text and emails from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Scoggin played two seasons for the Cornhuskers. She was dismissed from the team on the same day Love was suspended with pay in February 2022. Love resigned three months later. Scoggin now plays at UNLV.
Williams and Alberts are accused of not setting rules, training or policies prohibiting staff members from having sexual relationships with athletes, with the lawsuit alleging that the lack of safeguards “was so reckless that misconduct involving sexual misconduct by coaches was inevitable as of September 2021.”
According to the lawsuit:
Scoggin had an internship in the athletic department in the summer of 2021 and she expressed interest in becoming a coach someday. Love invited Scoggin to work at a small table in his office, and she accepted.
Love, who was married, asked Scoggin personal questions, including the type of alcohol she preferred, and Love began asking her to go out for drinks with him. Scoggin declined several invitations but eventually accepted one. A few days later, they met late at night in a Costco parking lot, where Love kissed her and asked, “Have you ever done anything with a coach before?”
The interaction left Scoggin feeling “confused and trapped” because “it was now undeniable that Love wanted a sexual relationship.” Once the relationship turned sexual, Love expected Scoggin to be “available and willing” whenever he wanted to have sex and included summoning her to his hotel room when the team traveled for away games.
On the night before a game at Penn State in February 2022, team members and practice players created a ruse to confirm and videotape Scoggin’s presence in Love’s hotel room. A male practice player falsely represented himself to the desk clerk as Love to obtain a duplicate room key. Two team members confronted Scoggin in Love’s room. They reported their findings and showed the video to Williams.
“Williams cast Ashley in the role of a seducer and a liar,” the lawsuit said. “She allowed the players to berate and accuse Ashley for hours. She did not redirect or counsel the players that what they had seen may be the result of an abuse of power by her associate head coach.”
Upon returning to Lincoln, Scoggin was not informed of her rights under Title IX and in a meeting with Williams and other members of the administration was told she was off the team, according to the complaint.
Scoggin’s dismissal and Love’s suspension were reported simultaneously by the media.
“NU, Williams and Alberts were motivated to avoid scandal and embarrassment to the Cornhuskers women’s basketball program instead of being motivated to protect its student-athlete, Ashley,” the lawsuit said.
“NU, Williams and Alberts allowed the speculation and perception to fester that Ashley was ‘equally to blame’ or otherwise had done something improper when they should have sent a clear message that it is always improper for a professional coach to pursue a sexual relationship with a student-athlete.”
Nets fire coach Jacque Vaughn with team in 11th
Jacque Vaughn’s strong work guiding the Brooklyn Nets earned him a contract extension at last season’s All-Star break.
Just a year later, the Nets fired Vaughn after a 50-point loss in his final game, their worst since moving to Brooklyn.
The Nets announced Vaughn’s departure Monday and said an interim coach would be named soon.
“This was an incredibly difficult decision, but one we feel is in the best interest of the team going forward,” general manager Sean Marks said in a statement. “Jacque has represented this organization with exemplary character and class for the past eight years. The consistent positivity and passion he poured into our team daily will remain with the players and staff he interacted with throughout his tenure.”
The Nets dropped five of their last six games before the break to fall to 21-33, putting them in 11th place in the Eastern Conference. Their 136-86 loss to the Celtics on Wednesday was their worst defeat since leaving New Jersey in 2012 and the second-worst in franchise history, and leading scorer Mikal Bridges seemed particularly frustrated in his postgame comments.
Vaughn finished 71-68 with the Nets, guiding them into the playoffs on two separate stints.
Vaughn replaced the fired Steve Nash on Nov. 1, 2022, and quickly led the Nets from a poor start toward the top of the East. Brooklyn went 12-1 that December and 43-32 the rest of the season, making the playoffs despite trading Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving during the season.
But Brooklyn’s lack of star power this season has been apparent, and Vaughn lamented last week the minutes restrictions that have kept Ben Simmons and some of his other top players from staying on the floor long enough to give the Nets a better chance to be competitive.
The Nets got off to a 15-15 start this season, but things began to turn when Vaughn made a curious decision to barely play or entirely rest all his top players during a 144-122 home loss to Milwaukee on Dec. 27. The NBA fined the Nets $100,000, the first time a team was sanctioned for violating the league’s player participation policy that went into effect this season.
Vaughn got his first chance to coach the Nets in March 2020 after Kenny Atkinson was fired just before the season was suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He led the Nets to a 7-3 record and into the playoffs in the restart “bubble” at Walt Disney World, but the Nets then opted to give the head coaching job to Nash, despite having no experience. Vaughn stayed on as an assistant.
It wasn’t long before he got another chance to run the team after Nash was fired during a turbulent start to the 2022-23 season. The Nets got as high as second in the East before Durant was injured and the Nets gave Vaughn a multiyear contract extension on Feb. 21, 2023, with Marks saying he looked forward to Vaughn leading the team “for years to come.”
Not quite one year, it turned out.
Without the shot-making that Durant and Irving provided, the Nets struggled at times when games were close in fourth quarters. Vaughn also faced a nearly season-long challenge to figure out his best lineup, with Simmons missing 38 games at one point because of a pinched nerve in his lower back and then was forced to miss some games or play limited minutes when he returned.
That meant the Nets played one way on the nights they had Simmons and another way when they didn’t, a problem Bridges pointed to after the loss in Boston. But a night earlier, Vaughn had looked at a team that was getting healthier and still believed a turnaround was possible.
“I’m just going to be simple and thankful that we’re getting guys back and hopefully we’ll get to a position where we are whole and we come out of the break ready to make a push,” Vaughn said.
Vaughn is 129-226 as an NBA coach, having gone 58-158 in his first opportunity with Orlando.
Pac-12 promotes Teresa Gould to replace Kliavkoff
SAN FRANCISCO | The Pac-12 has promoted Teresa Gould to commissioner as the conference tries to navigate a murky future.
Gould will succeed George Kliavkoff on March 1 after he was relieved of duties on Friday. She becomes the first female commissioner of an Autonomy Five conference.
“Teresa’s deep knowledge of collegiate athletics and unwavering commitment to student-athletes makes her uniquely qualified to help guide the Pac-12 Conference during this period of unprecedented change in college sports,” Washington State University President and Pac-12 Board of Directors chair Kirk Schulz said in a statement on Monday. “As the first female commissioner of an Autonomy Five conference, Teresa will be able to bring new perspectives and fresh ideas to the table as the industry works to find its way through this shifting landscape.”
Gould was hired by the Pac-12 in 2018 and served as deputy commissioner, overseeing all sports, championship events and other duties.
She takes over a conference that’s down to two members after a mass exodus last year.
UCLA and Southern California announced in 2022 a move from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten and eight more schools followed suit in a tumultuous summer after Kliavkoff couldn’t reach a new media rights deal that remaining members believed would keep them competitive with Power Five conference peers.
Washington State and Oregon State are the only remaining long-term members of the Pac-12, and currently the only members of the conference’s board of directors.
The Pacific Northwest schools plan to keep the conference up and running with only two schools for at least another year, or maybe two, as they try to rebuild the league.
Gould served as the interim athletics director at UC Davis from 2015-16 and also worked at California as deputy athletic director.
Washington Nationals |are no longer for sale
WASHINGTON | Major League Baseball’s Washington Nationals are no longer for sale, ending a search for a new owner after the team was on the market for nearly two years.
Principal owner Mark Lerner told The Washington Post on Monday during spring training in West Palm Beach, Florida, that his family “has determined that we are not going to sell the team.” A Nationals spokesperson confirmed the Post’s report.
The Lerner family, which has owned the team since buying it from MLB in 2006, began exploring a potential sale in April 2022. Mark Lerner assumed control from his father, Ted, in 2018, and Ted Lerner died in February 2023 at age 97.
The Lerners keeping the team comes weeks after businessman David Rubenstein reached an agreement to buy the nearby Baltimore Orioles for $1.725 billion. The sale is subject to a full vote of MLB ownership and must receive 75% approval.
As part of the deal to move the Montreal Expos to Washington in 2005, the Orioles own the Nationals’ local television rights — an issue that is still being litigated in court.
The Nationals have finished in last place in the NL East each of the past four seasons since winning the World Series in 2019, the organization’s first championship.
—From AP reports
