SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) A UC Santa Barbara fan who went on court and confronted Hawaii coach Gib Arnold during a game has been arrested.
UCSB athletic department spokesman Bill Mahoney said Friday the man was arrested after the incident in the first half of Thursday night's game. He provided no other details and a spokesman for the campus police didn't immediately return phone calls Friday.
Gauchos basketball coach Bob Williams apologized to Arnold for the incident in which the fan confronted Arnold while the coach was arguing a call that went against Hawaii. Two Hawaii players pushed the man away from the coach.
The school's athletic department said it issued apologies to Hawaii athletic director Ben Jay and Big West Conference Commissioner Dennis Farrell for what happened during UCSB's victory.
The department said the safety of student-athletes, staff and fans was important and it was reviewing the incident and "solidifying event protocol" in hopes of preventing a repeat in the future.
MSNBC.com | Sat, 08 Mar 2014 00:38:00 +0000
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Matt Cassel was one day away from hitting the free agent market and fielding offers from other suitors. Then the Minnesota Vikings swooped in at the last minute.
The Vikings agreed to terms with Cassel on Friday on a deal that will keep him in Minnesota, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press. The person requested anonymity because an official announcement had not been made. Terms of the deal, which was first reported by NFL Network, were not immediately available.
The move helps solidify the Vikings' shaky quarterback situation. The team used a musical chairs approach to the position last season, rotating Christian Ponder and Cassel, and even starting Josh Freeman for one game during a miserable 5-10-1 season. Cassel was by far the most effective of the three, going 3-3 in his six starts and being on the field at the end of all five of the team's victories.
He completed 60.2 percent of his passes for 1,807 yards with 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions after signing as a free agent from the Kansas City Chiefs. But he opted out of the final year of his two-year deal in February, and there was concern Cassel would choose to move to another team after he was forced to split time with the ineffective Ponder.
New head coach Mike Zimmer said Thursday he "would love to have Matt Cassel back if Matt Cassel wants to be back." But the coach was also bracing for the likelihood Cassel would at least test free agency before giving the Vikings an answer.
"He's got a bunch of pretty girls looking at him right now," Zimmer said then. "And he wants to explore and see what's best for him. I don't blame any of these guys. In free agency, I think that's why they have the rules is that they get a chance to go see what their market's worth. Then if they find a better situation than what they think is here, then I think that's everywhere."
It appears Cassel knew where he wanted to be all along.
Cassel's familiarity with the team's offensive players - Adrian Peterson, Greg Jennings, Cordarrelle Patterson and Kyle Rudolph among them - and the way the team responded to Cassel's leadership on the field were among the big reasons the Vikings wanted him back.
The agreement would appear to make Cassel the front-runner to be the starter when the 2014 season opens with new offensive coordinator Norv Turner calling the plays. Ponder is still on the roster, but his performance over his first three seasons has inspired little confidence among his teammates.
The Vikings have the eighth overall pick in the upcoming draft, and there remains a strong possibility they will select someone to be the team's quarterback of the future. But keeping Cassel in the fold will reduce the pressure on the team to start a rookie.
"It all depends, but what I want to do is play the best guy," Zimmer said. "I don't care if he's a rookie, if he's a veteran, if he's a returner. It doesn't matter to me who the quarterback is if he can win games, and that's really what it's about, winning football games and figuring out how to do that."
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AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org
MSNBC.com | Sat, 08 Mar 2014 02:42:00 +0000
ST. LOUIS (AP) Cleanthony Early and Ron Baker scored 17 points apiece and No. 2 Wichita State dominated on defense with Missouri Valley tournament-record 11 blocked shots, staying perfect for the season with an 80-58 romp over Evansville in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament on Friday.
D.J. Balentine had 31 points with seven 3-pointers for ninth-seeded Evansville (14-19), which lost twice by an average of 15 points to Wichita State (32-0) in the regular season.
Kadeem Coleby had six of the blocks for the Shockers, who are two wins shy of matching the NCAA record of 34 wins in a row by UNLV in 1990-91. UNLV was perfect before losing in the NCAA title game to Duke that season.
MSNBC.com | Fri, 07 Mar 2014 20:36:00 +0000
PRETORIA, South Africa -- Oscar Pistorius shook slightly, his hands covering his ears as a neighbor described in court Thursday how the famous athlete knelt next to his dead or dying girlfriend, praying as he tried to help Reeva Steenkamp breathe.
The testimony in high court in Pistorius' murder trial was riveting and was the first detailed public description of the immediate aftermath of the shooting of Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model, by the double-amputee Paralympic champion in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 14 -- Valentine's Day -- last year.
"It was obvious that she was mortally wounded," said Johan Stipp, a radiologist, as he described what he saw at Pistorius' villa. Stipp said he was one of the first there.
"At the bottom of the stairs ... there was a lady lying on her back on the floor," Stipp testified.
Sitting on a courtroom bench on Thursday, Pistorius bent forward and put his hand over his face, then moved them to cover both ears. He stayed that way for a while, even when one of his lawyers reached back to reassure him and touch him on the head.
"I went near her and as I bent down, I also noticed a man on the left kneeling by her side," Stipp said under questioning by prosecutor Gerrie Nel. "He had his left hand on her right groin, and his right hand, the second and third fingers in her mouth. I remember the first thing he said when I got there was 'I shot her. I thought she was a burglar. I shot her."
Stipp, who said he didn't know that man was Pistorius until later, said he tried to help, but that he knew it was probably no good because Steenkamp showed no signs of life. Stipp said he noticed a wound in her right thigh, in her upper arm and in the right side of the head, and there was brain tissue around the skull.
Pistorius is charged with shooting Steenkamp three times out of four shots through a toilet door in his home. Prosecutors said the athlete intentionally killed Steenkamp after an argument but Pistorius says it was a mistake.
"She had no pulse in the neck, she had no peripheral pulse. She had no breathing movements that she made," Stipp said. "Oscar was crying all the time," he said. "He was praying to God, 'Please let her live.'"
Oscar said he would dedicate "his life and her life to God" if she would live and not die that night, according to Stipp.
Pistorius, who ran at the 2012 Olympics on his prosthetic legs and who was known as the Blade Runner, is charged with murder with premeditation.
Pistorius' lead defense lawyer started the fourth day of the trial by cross-examining another neighbor and questioning whether the man heard a woman screaming and then gunshots on the night Steenkamp died.
The neighbor, Charl Johnson, said he also owned a gun, a 9mm pistol, and knew what gunfire sounded like.
"I can confidently say I heard gunshots," Johnson insisted on cross-examination by Barry Roux. Later, Johnson said: "I'm convinced that I heard a lady's voice."
Roux says the banging sounds were actually Pistorius hitting a toilet door with a cricket bat and the screaming was the distressed athlete calling for help -- and there were no sounds from Steenkamp who had been shot in the head.
Johnson said he "disputed" some of what Roux was saying and described in more detail what he heard on the night Pistorius shot his girlfriend to death. Johnson and his wife live around 177 meters from Pistorius' villa.
"The fear ... in the lady person's calls contrasted with a very monotone male voice," Johnson testified. "The man almost sounded embarrassed to be calling for help."
Johnson also said the timing of the bangs didn't match a repeated bat swing. He said it would have taken Pistorius more time to swing the bat repeatedly, and that the bangs he heard were closer together.
Roux did get Johnson to concede that he never heard what he thought was the woman's voice and the man's voice at the same time. Roux wants to show that it was the same person, Pistorius, screaming.
The sequence of events soon after 3 a.m. on the morning of Feb. 14 last year is a critical aspect of the case. Prosecutors say there was a loud argument between Pistorius and Steenkamp before the shooting. Pistorius says there was no argument and that he had thought Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model, was in bed when he fired through the locked toilet stall door.
MSNBC.com | Thu, 06 Mar 2014 14:01:13 +0000
DARTMOUTH, Mass. (AP) A Massachusetts sheriff is seeking a criminal complaint against former NFL star Aaron Hernandez after a recent jail scuffle with another inmate.
Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson told Boston's WHDH-TV Thursday the paperwork has been filed in district court. A clerk magistrate will review it.
Hodgson said last week neither inmate required medical attention after the Feb. 25 fight in the Bristol House of Correction. Hernandez is held there without bail after pleading not guilty to murder in the 2013 death of 27-year-old Odin Lloyd, a Boston man dating Hernandez's fiancee's sister.
Bristol County district attorney's spokesman Gregg Miliote said his office was aware a complaint was filed against the former New England Patriots tight end by the sheriff's department, but had no further comment.
Hodgson's spokesman and Hernandez's attorney didn't return messages Thursday night.
MSNBC.com | Fri, 07 Mar 2014 01:09:00 +0000