Basketball
WOMEN'S AWARDS: Ruth Riley and Muffet McGraw, who led Notre Dame to its first No. 1 ranking and second Final Four, won The Associated Press player and coach of the year awards in women's basketball.
Riley, a 6-foot-5 senior, edged Southwest Missouri State's Jackie Stiles for the player of the year award. She became the first player from a school other than Connecticut or Tennessee to receive the AP honor, which was started in 1995.
McGraw, in her 14th season at Notre Dame, was an overwhelming choice as the coach of the year. Both awards were determined in voting by AP member newspapers nationwide.
NEW WISCONSIN COACH: Bo Ryan was introduced as Wisconsin's next coach following a meeting of the Wisconsin Athletic Board's personnel committee.
Ryan, who won four NCAA Division III national championships in 15 years at Wisconsin-Platteville, stepped up to Division I with Wisconsin-Milwaukee two years ago.
NEW UNLV COACH: Rejected by Rick Pitino, UNLV turned to the 61-year-old Charlie Spoonhour to become the third coach of the Runnin' Rebels within the past four months.
Spoonhour, who took Saint Louis University to three NCAA tournament appearances in seven years, was lured out of retirement with a contract that will pay him about $400,000 a year — about a fourth of what was being offered Pitino to come to the desert.
Baseball
EVERETT FINED: Carl Everett was fined $97,222 by the Boston Red Sox and suspended for one spring training game after failing to ride the team bus for the second time this spring and then skipping a workout.
The players' association planned to file a grievance over the penalties, saying they were not allowed and were laughable.
MELUSKEY SIDELINED: Detroit Tigers catcher Mitch Meluskey, brought in to provide more offense from the position, will miss the season with a shoulder injury.
Golf
ARGENTINA OPEN: Paraguay's Angel Franco, the brother of PGA Tour winner Carlos Franco, shot a 6-under-par 64 to take the first-round lead in the Argentina Open.
BELLSOUTH CLASSIC: The final warmup for the Masters started out as a cold, soggy mess.
The first round of the BellSouth Classic was postponed Thursday because of drenching rain, prompting some golfers to consider dropping out to concentrate on Augusta National rather than endure a tedious weekend — and possibly beyond — of waiting out the weather.
Auto racing
EARNHARDT PHOTOS: Standing beside Dale Earnhardt's widow, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed a bill to keep autopsy photos closed to the public unless a judge approves their release.
The law sprang from an outcry over the Orlando Sentinel's request to see Earnhardt's autopsy photos. Teresa Earnhardt led the protests, saying she wanted to protect her family's privacy.
Tennis
ERICSSON OPEN: Venus Williams gambled by swinging all-out on shot after shot, and the strategy worked. She controlled the rallies, kept defending champion Martina Hingis on the defensive and won 6-3, 7-6 (6) in the semifinals at the Ericsson Open.
In Saturday's final, Williams will bid for her third Key Biscayne title against the winner of Friday's match between No. 4 Jennifer Capriati and No. 7 Elena Dementieva.
No. 8 Pat Rafter beat Roger Federer 6-3, 6-1 in 58 minutes and will next play the winner of the quarterfinal match to be completed Friday between No. 3 Andre Agassi and Ivan Ljubicic. It was suspended because of rain with Agassi trailing 3-1.
Speedskating
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Canadian Marc Gagnon and Yang Yang of China won the men's and women's 1,500-meter finals Friday at the World Short Track Speedskating Championships in Chonju, South Korea.
Gagnon, a four-time world champion, clocked in at 2 minutes, 20.325 seconds in the men's race. South Korea's Min Ryong and Japan's Satoru Terao were next, with identical times of 2:20.667.
Yang, the world No. 1, won in 2:40.448. Bulgaria's Evgenia Radanova, the women's 500-meter world record-holder, was in second at 2:40.625.
Correction
PHOTO CAPTION: BYU defender Derrus Wilson was misidentified in a Deseret News photo Thursday.