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SPORTS BRIEFS

Wednesday, Aug 06, 2008 - 12:07 AM

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COLLEGE BASKETBALL

UNC opens Maui event vs. Chaminade

LAHAINA, Hawaii - North Carolina, which returns national player of the year Tyler Hansbrough and its top five other scorers from last season's Final Four team, will open the 25th annual Maui Invitational against host Chaminade.

The pairings for the early season tournament, which will be held Nov. 24-26 at the Lahaina Civic Center, were announced yesterday.

The other first-round games will have Texas, a regional finalist last season, against Saint Joseph's, Indiana meeting Notre Dame, and Oregon facing Alabama.

The North Carolina-Chaminade and Oregon-Alabama games are on the same side of the bracket.

North Carolina, expected to be the runaway preseason No.1 in almost every poll, has Ty Lawson, Danny Green and Wayne Ellington - who all withdrew their names from the NBA draft - returning from the team that went 36-3. In addition, coach Roy Williams has one of the nation's top recruiting classes heading for Chapel Hill.

Chaminade, a Division II school from Honolulu, beat Princeton in last year's seventh-place game to improve its all-time record in the tournament to 5-65. The Silverswords pulled off one of college basketball's biggest upsets Dec. 23, 1982, when it beat then-No.1 Virginia and three-time national player of the year Ralph Sampson 77-72.

North Carolina won the Maui Invitational in 1999 and 2004. Duke holds the record with four Maui titles in as many appearances.

Indiana, the only other former champion in the field having won in 2002, comes in under new coach Tom Crean, who is trying to rebuild a program that has lost seven possible returning players from last year's team. Crean led Marquette to the title game last season where the Golden Eagles lost to Duke 77-73.

Saint Joseph's, Oregon and Alabama are all making their first appearances on Maui.

All the games will be televised live on one of ESPN's networks.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Kentucky quarterback Pulley off team

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Curtis Pulley's off-field problems never allowed him to live up to his on-field promise.

The talented but troubled Kentucky quarterback was dismissed from the team by coach Rich Brooks for a violation of team rules, a move that hands the starting quarterback job Pulley was vying for to sophomore Mike Hartline.

"I'm in the business of taking a young man and building him into a responsible young man, and obviously I feel like I've failed in this situation," Brooks said. "Sometimes for the better good of the whole, some parts have to be sacrificed."

The dismissal follows a turbulent offseason for Pulley, which included a pair of run-ins with police. Pulley was arrested on traffic charges in Hardin County on July 22 and pleaded guilty to speeding in district court last week. He received a citation for marijuana possession in Louisville in June.

Brooks said last week Pulley would miss playing time because of his legal troubles but still had a chance to win the starting job. The coach reconsidered after getting more details on Pulley's situation.

"There is basically a little more as I delved into it than I was aware of at the time," Brooks said.

In other news:

Miami running backs Damien Berry and Lee Chambers left practice early because of dehydration. Temperatures reached 87 degrees during the practice, which started at 7:50 a.m. and lasted more than 2½ hours.

TENNIS

Ancic pulls out of U.S. Open

NEW YORK - Croatia's Mario Ancic withdrew from the U.S. Open with a recurrence of mononucleosis, the second consecutive year the 25th-ranked player was forced to miss the tournament.

Ancic, a former Wimbledon semifinalist, was slowed throughout the 2007 season because of mononucleosis. He pulled out of the Open last year because of an injured right shoulder.

Ancic beat Roger Federer in the first round at Wimbledon in 2002. That had been Federer's most recent loss there until Rafael Nadal beat him in the final this year. ELSEWHERE

Arvin Kenti Edwards, the man accused of shooting three people outside a Las Vegas strip club after a melee involving NFL player Adam "Pacman" Jones, pleaded not guilty of attempted murder and other charges.

Outside the court, Edwards' lawyer, Jeffrey Segal, said, "Pacman Jones' story is completely fabricated." Segal said Jones refused to cooperate with investigators after the Feb. 19, 2007, shooting, then identified Edwards "after making a deal with the state where felony charges were dismissed so that he could get himself reinstated with the NFL."

Curlin is heading back to dirt for his next race - the Woodward Stakes at Saratoga - but his majority owner says that doesn't necessarily mean the turf experiment is over. Jess Jackson announced that the reigning horse of the year will next run in the $500,000 Grade I Woodward on Aug. 30. Curlin made his turf debut last month, finishing second in the Man o' War Handicap at Belmont Park. Jackson said he considered sending Curlin out on another grass track for his next race but decided to keep the horse closer to home and on a more familiar surface - at least for now. The 4-year-old colt trained by Steve Asmussen dominated on dirt, with nine victories in 12 starts, including the Preakness Stakes, the Dubai World Cup and the Breeders' Cup Classic.

Italian cyclist Emanuele Sella was suspended by his team after testing positive for the blood booster EPO. Sella, the top climber in this year's Giro d'Italia, failed an out-of-competition test the International Cycling Union ordered late last month, Italy's cycling federation said. He was immediately suspended by his team, CSF-Navigare. Sella, 27, won three tough legs at the Giro and took the green jersey given to the best climber, finishing sixth overall.