Sports briefs 3/29/05

College

* Andrew Bogut couldn't pass up the opportunity to be the top pick in the NBA draft.

The Utah center announced Monday that he would forgo his final two years of eligibility to enter the draft, confirming what his coach, teammates and Utes fans have known was coming.

"I have no regrets and full-speed ahead," the 7-footer from Australia said at a news conference Monday.

Bogut, the leading vote-getter on the AP All-America team, averaged 20.4 points and 12.2 rebounds while leading the Utes to a 29-6 season, which ended with a loss to Kentucky in the regional semifinals of the NCAA tournament.

"I feel the time is right to move on to the next level of basketball," Bogut said.

Bogut has hired agent David Bauman of SFX Basketball, making him ineligible to play again in college.

Bogut is expected to be -- at the very least -- a lottery pick and possibly the first player chosen overall. He led Utah in scoring and rebounding and is an exceptional ball handler and passer for a big man.

* Bruce Pearl was introduced as Tennessee's basketball coach Monday after leading Wisconsin-Milwaukee on a surprising run through the NCAA tournament.

Pearl took 12th-seeded Wisconsin-Milwaukee to the round of 16 this year for the first time in the program's 109-year history.

Tennessee failed to make the NCAA tournament in four years under coach Buzz Peterson, who was fired March 13 after a 14-17 season. The Vols' last tournament appearance was 2001.

* Tyease Thompson, Jerry Gair and Nick Davidson have been dismissed from the Iowa State football program, coach Dan McCarney announced Monday.

McCarney declined to elaborate, but Thompson, 19, a freshman running back from Lakeland, Fla., and Gair, 20, a sophomore defensive back from La Place, La., are awaiting trial on attempted burglary charges.

ISU spokesman Tom Kroeschell said he could not comment on why Davidson, a defensive lineman from Hurst, Texas, who redshirted his freshman year, was being dismissed from the Cyclones.

* Kurt Budke wanted to get back home so badly that he left a national powerhouse to try to build one from the ground up at Oklahoma State.

Budke, 44, left Louisiana Tech and its 24 straight NCAA tournament appearances to join the Cowgirls on Monday as their new head coach. Oklahoma State hasn't made an NCAA tournament appearance since 1996, and its 8-40 record in Big 12 play is the worst in the conference over the past three years.

Budke, 44, has coached the Lady Techsters to an 80-16 record and three straight NCAA tournament appearances after replacing longtime coach Leon Barmore in 2002.

Football

* Jury selection was to continue Tuesday in the drunken-driving trial of St. Louis Rams defensive end Leonard Little.

Little, 30, was arrested April 24 on Interstate 64 in the St. Louis suburb of Ladue and charged with speeding and driving while intoxicated after allegedly failing three field sobriety tests.

No one was injured, and Little has pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Little was charged as a persistent offender because he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in a 1998 drunken-driving accident in downtown St. Louis that killed Susan Gutweiler of St. Louis County.

In that case, Little was sentenced to three months in jail, four years probation and 1,000 hours of community service. He also was suspended without pay for the first half of the 1999 season.

If convicted of the latest DWI charge, Little could face up to four years in prison along with another NFL suspension.

Don Schneider, a spokesman for St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch, has said jury selection could take a couple of days, and the trial could take a week.