Fanfare 3/18

Briefly

Baseball

Mets star Mike Piazza and Los Angeles reliever Guillermo Mota each were suspended for five games and fined Monday for their roles in a bench-clearing brawl last week during an exhibition game. The suspensions will start on opening day unless they are appealed. Piazza was fined $3,000 and Mota was docked $1,500, while Mets outfielder Jeromy Burnitz was fined $500 by baseball disciplinarian Bob Watson.

Jose Canseco was released from jail and resentenced to two years of house arrest for his part in a 2001 nightclub brawl. The former major league star, wearing a jail-issue red jumpsuit, apologized to the court for failing to complete all his probation terms. His twin brother, Ozzie, was in the courtroom, as was his father and a priest.

Moving to keep two of their top young players, the Blue Jays agreed to five-year contracts with center fielder Vernon Wells and third baseman Eric Hinske. Hinske, the American League's Rookie of the Year last season, is guaranteed $14.75 million. Wells is guaranteed $14.7 million.

Basketball

Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich will remain overnight in a Houston hospital after undergoing tests for a bladder condition. Tomjanovich, 54, had a biopsy to determine if an abnormality that was found on his bladder last week is cancerous. He will miss Tuesday's game at Seattle, the first in a five-game road trip, but is expected to rejoin the Rockets during the stint.

Magic forward Grant Hill will have surgery on his left ankle for a fourth time today in hopes this operation will finally relieve his chronic leg problems. Hill, a six-time All-Star, will have his ankle realigned and his heel reshaped, team officials said. James Nunley, an orthopedic surgeon at Duke University Medical Center, will operate.

Colleges

Steve Lavin was fired as UCLA's basketball coach after the team's first losing season since 1948. Lavin, who took the Bruins to the final 16 of the NCAA tournament five times in six years, was told about the expected move in a meeting with first-year athletic director Dan Guerrero.

Jerry Dunn resigned as Penn State's basketball coach following two poor seasons, including a 7-21 finish this year. He spent eight years at Penn State, going 117-121 and 45-87 in the Big Ten. The Nittany Lions won just seven games each in his last two seasons.

The two Georgia basketball players dropped their case after suing for the right to play in the conference and NCAA tournaments. Starters Ezra Wlliams and Steven Thomas decided the lawsuit wasn't going anywhere after the NCAA selected its field of 65 teams Sunday night, their lawyers said. Neither Williams nor Thomas was accused of wrongdoing.

Motorsports

Todd Bodine lost control of his car -- but not his instincts -- after hitting Jamie McMurray during the final moments of their last-lap duel at Darlington Raceway. Bodine slid across the finish line Monday to win his first Busch race of the season at the rain-delayed DarlingtonRaceway.com 200 as McMurray's car spun toward the inside.

Skating

Russia's Irina Slutskaya will not defend her title at next week's World Figure Skating Championships, withdrawing because of her mother's kidney illness, a source close to the skater said. The Russian skating federation would make the official announcement later Monday or Tuesday, the source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press. The federation also will make a substitution for Slutskaya at that time.

Verbatim

NBC's Jay Leno, on dunks and diplomacy: "As you know we're all about to start March Madness. That's the NCAA college basketball tournament where we start with 64 teams and whittle them down to just one -- you know, kind of like our allies."

Sports business consultant David Carter, to the New York Daily News, on possible Ku Klux Klan members clashing with Burk's protesters at this year's Masters: "The event has become radioactive. It's like going to the Jerry Springer show, and a golf tournament breaks out."

On the air

College men's basketballNCAA tournament, opening round, UNC-Asheville vs. Texas Southern at Dayton, Ohio, 6 p.m., ESPN

NIT, Georgetown at Tennessee, 6 p.m., ESPN2

NIT, DePaul at North Carolina, 8 p.m., ESPN

College baseballLipscomb at Southeast (2), 1:45 p.m., KGIR-1220

NHLCanucks at Blues, 6:30 p.m., FOX-Midwest

SoccerChampions League, Deportivo La Coruna vs. Manchester United, at La Coruna, Spain, 1:30 p.m., ESPN2

n CHARTER CABLE KEY:CNBC (ch. 53), ESPN (42), ESPN2 (43), Lifetime (49)Fox-Midwest (45), Fox-Central (352), Fox-Pacific (353), Fox-Sunshine (351), Fox-World (350), FX(50), Golf Channel (46), KBSI (9), KFVS (7), MSNBC (55), Outdoors (38), Outdoor Life Network (74), Oxygen (75), Speed Channel (44), TNT (48), WDKA (17), WPSD (6), WQWQ (33), WSIL (3). Listings and times are provided by the networks and individual stations and are subject to change.

Area events

College baseball

Lipscomb at Southeast (2), 2 p.m.College women's tennis

Southeast vs. Wichita State, Hilton Head, S.C., 8 a.m.High school girls' swimming

Central at Poplar Bluff, 4 p.m.