Sports briefs 11/19/04

Baseball

• Roger Clemens' son signed a national letter of intent Wednesday to play baseball for the University of Texas.

Koby Clemens, a senior at Houston's Memorial High School, signed the papers at his Houston home.

Koby Clemens will start his career as a third baseman.

A federal judge refused to dismiss charges Thursday against a self-styled community activist accused of attempting to blackmail New York Yankees slugger Gary Sheffield and his wife with a purported sex videotape, and ordered him held in jail.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Morton Denlow brushed aside Derrick Mosley's claim that he just wanted to provide moral counseling to Sheffield's wife, gospel singer DeLeon Richards.

Colleges

• Kansas football coach Mark Mangino was publicly reprimanded and ordered to pay $5,000 for suggesting that officials deliberately tried to influence the outcome of his team's game against Texas.

"Coach Mangino's public statements called into question the integrity of the conference and its officials," Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg said in a statement. "To insinuate that games are called unfairly so that one member institution can prevail over another is irresponsible and completely baseless."

After Kansas fell 27-23 to Texas in the final seconds of Saturday's game, Mangino implied it would work out better for the BCS if the Longhorns won.

• Lou Henson is in a wheelchair and has no mobility in his right leg. Still, the New Mexico State men's basketball coach is optimistic he'll be back on the sideline this season.

"I'm hoping that sometime after the first of the year I can coach," Henson said Wednesday in a telephone interview from his home in Las Cruces. "I told the doctor I can coach in a wheelchair."

The 72-year-old Henson, who ranks seventh among Division I coaches with 775 career wins, is recovering at home from his latest health problem -- viral encephalitis.

"He was in a light coma for several days," his wife Mary said. "It was just a tough time."

Henson was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer, in the summer of 2003. He underwent months of chemotherapy at Texas' M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. He was hospitalized for viral encephalitis on Sept. 28.

• Southern Illinois chancellor Walter Wendler has a unique way to get students to attend football games -- free tickets.

The chancellor's office will use $3,000 in SIU Foundation money to buy 500 $6 tickets for the team's Division I-AA opening-round playoff game on Nov. 27. All students need to do is show their school ID to receive a voucher that they can trade in for a ticket.

"We want to make sure every seat in McAndrew Stadium is filled so we can give coach (Jerry) Kill and his players the support they deserve," Wendler said in a statement.

On Nov. 13, the Salukis completed the first 7-0 sweep of Gateway Conference teams in league history with a 59-10 win over Indiana State. A season-low 1,300 attended the game.

The Salukis first-round opponent will be determined Sunday, when the 16-team bracket is unveiled.

Hockey

• There won't be an NHL entry draft before a collective bargaining agreement is reached with the players' association, the director of the league's scouting department said.

The lockout has already wiped out over 240 games, plus the All-Star weekend, and it appears there won't be any NHL hockey before January - if at all this season. The sides haven't met since Sept. 9 and no negotiations have been scheduled.

If the season goes by the boards, next June's draft - scheduled for Ottawa - would be the next major event to be lost. The draft can't be legally held without a collective bargaining agreement.

Tennis

Andy Roddick came up with four aces in the second-set tiebreaker and defeated Marat Safin 7-6 (7), 7-6 (4) in a second round match of the ATP Masters Cup Championships on Thursday.

The second-seeded Roddick remained on course for a weekend meeting with No. 1 Roger Federer, already assured a semifinal berth in the round-robin format. Federer defeated Carlos Moya 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

In an earlier match, Tim Henman overwhelmed Guillermo Coria 6-2, 6-2. Henman evened his record at 1-1, while French Open finalist Coria, still recovering from shoulder surgery, dropped to 0-2.

-- From wire reports