Morning roundup: Telfair suspended three games

From Wire Reports

Published: October 15, 2008

Minnesota Timberwolves point guard Sebastian Telfair was suspended on Tuesday for three games after pleading guilty to criminal possession of a weapon.

Telfair was sentenced last month to three years' probation. He was arrested in April 2007 when police found him carrying a loaded gun in his car while he was a member of the Boston Celtics. The Celtics traded him to Minnesota in the deal for Kevin Garnett, and Telfair had a solid and incident-free first season in Minnesota. He signed a three-year, $7.5 million deal this summer to remain with the Timberwolves. He is the top backup to starter Randy Foye.

New Nets arena delayed

Bruce Ratner's $4 billion dream for a new Brooklyn will have to wait, at least until next year. The New Jersey Nets owner and developer has been plagued by a string of problems that have delayed his plans for a new NBA arena, office towers and thousands of apartments in Brooklyn.

Ratner said a recent court ruling would delay the project by up to six months, meaning the Nets won't move in until least 2011. Groundbreaking has been pushed back until at least next year for the arena, which will cost more than three times what Ratner paid for the entire franchise. And the financial crisis has made it tougher to raise money, potentially jeopardizing a lucrative naming rights deal with Barclays Capital.

Graduation rates hit all-time high

College athletes are earning degrees at record rates, according to a NCAA report, and at higher percentages than the overall student body.

New NCAA figures that show 79 percent of all student-athletes who entered school in the fall of 2001 have graduated and 78 percent of those who entered college between 1998 and 2001 earned degrees within six years. Both are one-point increases over last year's report and all-time highs.

Challenges remain, as those who played men's basketball, football and baseball continue to lag behind student-athletes in other sports.

From 1998-2001 men's basketball players graduated at 62 percent, while baseball produced a rate of 68 percent. Football Bowl Subdivision teams had a grad rate of 67 percent, and the Football Championship Subdivision came in at 65 percent.

Investigator: Hockey player had heart problems

Alexei Cherepanov had heart problems and probably should not have been allowed to play in a game in which he collapsed and died, a regional investigator suggested.

Yulia Zhukova said Cherepanov, who died Monday playing for Avangard Omsk in a Continental Hockey League game outside of Moscow, apparently had chronic ischemia — a medical condition when not enough blood gets to the heart or other organs.

Cherepanov's agent, however, said NHL tests showed him to be healthy.

Curlin to defend title

Curlin is going to defend his title in the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Oct. 25.

Majority owner Jess Jackson announced the decision Tuesday, when an initial entry payment was due. A second and final entry payment for the Classic is due Oct. 21.

Curlin, the reigning Horse of the Year, is expected to take on undefeated Casino Drive of Japan and some of Europe's top horses in the first Breeders' Cup to be run on a synthetic track.

He won't be facing Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown, who was retired Monday after injuring his foot during a workout in New York.

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