Sports digest 1/29/02

College

The Southeast Missouri State University women's tennis team opened its 2002 schedule by losing two indoor matches over the weekend, 7-0 at Missouri on Sunday and 6-1 at St. Louis on Saturday.

Southeast's lone victory was by sophomore Kay Ehlke, who defeated SLU's Rebecca Steer 6-2, 6-3. The Otahkians won no other sets the entire weekend.

Bob Knight's first season at Texas Tech has the Red Raiders where they haven't been in five years -- the Top 25.

The Red Raiders (15-3), who finished tied for last in the Big 12 last season with a 3-13 record, entered the AP college basketball poll at No. 20 following a seven-day period in which they beat two Top 10 teams -- Oklahoma State and Oklahoma.

The top six teams held their places from last week. Complete poll in Scoreboard.

Football

Marty Schottenheimer and the San Diego Chargers negotiated contract details on Monday, and a news conference introducing him as coach is expected today.

Schottenheimer has been the leading candidate since he was fired by the Washington Redskins on Jan. 13, opening the way for the Redskins to hire Steve Spurrier.

Hockey

Larry Robinson was fired as coach of the struggling New Jersey Devils on Monday despite leading them to the 2000 Stanley Cup and within a victory of another title last year.

He was replaced by former Pittsburgh Penguins coach Kevin Constantine.

Robinson's assistants, Slava Fetisov and Jay Leach, were also dismissed but will get other jobs with the Devils.

The Devils, perennially one of the NHL's strongest teams, are fourth in the Atlantic Division with a record of 21-20-7-3 and are 16 points behind first-place Philadelphia.

Detroit Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman will miss up to two weeks after having arthroscopic surgery on his right knee.

Yzerman expects to play at least a couple of games for the Red Wings before playing in Canada's first game in the Salt Lake City Olympics, against Sweden on Feb. 15.

-- From staff, wire reports