Sports briefs 3/22/06

Colleges

• Northern Iowa coach Greg McDermott was hired Tuesday by Iowa State, jumping from the Missouri Valley Conference to the Big 12 after three straight NCAA tournament appearances with the Panthers.

McDermott, 41, was at Northern Iowa for five season. Before his arrival in 2001, Northern Iowa had made one appearance in the Division I NCAA tournament.

McDermott replaces Wayne Morgan, who was fired Friday after the Cyclones missed the postseason with a 16-14 record. The terms of McDermott's contract were not immediately available.

Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard interviewed two candidates: Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Rob Jeter and McDermott.

The Panthers went 90-63 under McDermott and finished 23-10 this season, losing to Georgetown on Friday in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

* Ben Hunt scored a career-high 34 points, including a 25-footer with 2 seconds left, and lifted unseeded Texas Wesleyan past Oklahoma City 67-65 Tuesday night in the championship game of the NAIA tournament.

* Connecticut's Rudy Gay, Adam Morrison of Gonzaga, Duke's J.J. Redick and Allan Ray of Villanova have been named finalists for the 2006 Naismith Trophy as the top college basketball player in the country, the Atlanta Tipoff Club said Tuesday. The club's board of selectors, composed of journalists, coaches and administrators, whittled a list of 30 prospective winners down to the final four.

Hockey

• A winning record wasn't enough for Andy Murray to keep his job as coach of the Los Angeles Kings (37-28-5) .

General manager Dave Taylor fired Murray on Tuesday night, saying the team wasn't playing with the same urgency and passion that marked the first half of the season.

Murray sensed it, too, after the Kings were beaten 5-0 by Colorado at home Monday night. The loss was the Kings' fifth defeat in seven games.

Tennis

• World number one Roger Federer and U.S. Open champion Kim Clijsters were named on Tuesday as professional tennis players of the year for 2005.

The 24-year-old Federer had a remarkable season, compiling an 81-4 record and capturing a circuit-leading 11 titles including Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

-- From wire reports