Sports briefs 12/13/05

Baseball

• Instead of hiring a new general manager, the Boston Red Sox decided assistant general manager Jed Hoyer and director of player development Ben Cherington will share the job.

The GM job had been vacant since Theo Epstein's contract expired Oct. 31. There was no mention whether Epstein, who left after lengthy negotiations with Larry Lucchino, would return as a team adviser.

Basketball

• Ron Artest wants to be traded, and the Indiana Pacers will try to accommodate their unhappy star.

Artest, suspended most of last season for his role in one of the worst brawls in American sports, said over the weekend that he wants out, his past haunts him in Indianapolis and the team would be better off without him.

Pacers president and chief executive Donnie Walsh said Monday he didn't like Artest speaking to the media first, but would try to trade him. He added Artest's desire to move on wasn't the only factor involved.

"This is kind of the last straw of a lot of issues," Walsh said, "and it's at the point where we should look for a trade."

Artest leads the league in steals and is the Pacers' second-leading scorer at 19.4 points a game. The Pacers (12-7) have the second-best record in the Eastern Conference.

* Pat Riley is again the coach of the Miami Heat, replacing Stan Van Gundy following his resignation Monday for family reasons.

Riley, whom Van Gundy succeeded on the bench shortly before the 2003-04 season, will make his debut Tuesday night when Miami opens a four-game road trip in Chicago.

Riley coached the team from 1995-03 after winning four titles with the Los Angeles Lakers and a stint with the New York Knicks.

Van Gundy said he resigned voluntarily.

The team is in first place in the Southeast Division but with only an 11-10 record.

Colleges

• A state audit released Monday said the records of former Colorado football coach Gary Barnett's football camp were in such disarray that auditors couldn't be sure whether any laws were broken in more than $400,000 worth of transactions.

Auditors said they were unable to determine where $328,000 paid to Barnett's camps came from -- 44 percent of the total income between 2002 and 2004. Nearly $103,000 in expenses from that period lacked sufficient paperwork, the audit said.

Barnett stepped down under pressure last week after his teams lost their final three games of the regular season.

* A former basketball coach at Barton County Community College pleaded guilty Monday to helping student athletes get federal money they weren't entitled to receive and to sending a falsified transcript to another school for one of his players.

Ryan Wolf, 33, pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement from a student assistance program, two counts of theft of federal funds and one count of mail fraud.

-- From wire reports