Associated Press
The college basketball notebook …
MEMPHIS, Tenn. ó John Calipari was named Naismith National Coach of the Year by The Atlanta Tipoff Club on Wednesday.
The Memphis coach led the Tigers to the NCAA title game, where they lost 75-68 in overtime to Kansas.
It’s the second Naismith award for Calipari, who won in 1996 after leading Massachusetts to the Final Four.
Calipari is one of five coaches in NCAA Division I history to lead two different programs to a No. 1 national ranking. The others were Frank McGuire, Ralph Miller, Roy Williams and Eddie Sutton.
UCLALOS ANGELES ó UCLA All-American Kevin Love and teammate Darren Collison have not yet decided whether they will make themselves available for the NBA draft, coach Ben Howland said Wednesday.
He dismissed a report on the Los Angeles Times’ Web site that said the players had decided to leave and were expected to hire agents, which would prevent them from returning to the Bruins next season.
“It’s an erroneous report,” Howland said., adding that Love and Collison were very upset about the report.
College players have until April 27 to declare for the June draft.
LSUNEW ORLEANS ó LSU intends to hire Stanford’s Trent Johnson, who led the Cardinal to the round of 16 in this year’s NCAA tournament, as its new coach.
Several people at LSU familiar with the selection process said a formal announcement was expected by Thursday. The people asked to remain anonymous because the hiring was not yet official.
Stanford athletic director Bob Bowlsby said in an e-mail that Johnson was given permission to talk to LSU.
Johnson has been at Stanford for four seasons, compiling an 80-48 record. Stanford hired him in 2004 to replace Mike Montgomery.