Abdur-Rahim Changes Mind, Reportedly Won’t Go to NBA

California freshman forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim has changed his mind and will announce today that he is withdrawing his name from the NBA draft, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Abdur-Rahim, the Pac-10’s leading scorer and freshman of the year, announced May 7 that he would give up his final three years of college eligibility. He sobbed during the news conference and said he was merely keeping his options open and that he might return to Cal for his sophomore season.

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UCLA will play Tulsa in the first round of the Preseason NIT on Nov. 20 at Pauley Pavilion. It will be the teams’ first meeting since Tulsa eliminated the Bruins, 112-102, in the first round of the 1994 NCAA tournament.

Other first-round matchups have St. Joseph’s at Duke, St. Mary’s at Oklahoma State, Valparaiso at Vanderbilt, Princeton at Indiana, Arkansas Little Rock at St. Louis, Iona at Seton Hall and Drexel at Evansville.

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Long Beach State guard James Cotton, the Big West Conference’s leading scorer last season, has been invited to tryouts for the 22-and-under national basketball team May 31 through June 2 at Colorado Springs, Colo.

Jurisprudence

The judge in Michael Irvin’s drug case has ruled that Irvin confidant-turned-informant Dennis Pedini remains a witness in the case and thus is subject to a gag order.

State District Judge Manny Alvarez upheld a ruling he made after Pedini, who secretly recorded video of Irvin after two alleged cocaine buys, was paid $6,000 by a Dallas TV station for broadcast rights. Irvin’s attorney said if the gag order were lifted, he feared the Cowboy wide receiver’s reputation would be further sullied while Pedini made the talk-show rounds.

A federal judge in Houston has refused to hear A.J. Foyt’s lawsuit against Championship Auto Racing Teams. U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas’ ruling said the matter cannot be tried in Houston because of the court’s lack of jurisdiction. Foyt filed a $5-million lawsuit against CART in January, alleging the organization was using its position with Indy-car racing and racing sponsors to unfairly influence business decisions to monopolize Indy-car racing.

Pittsburgh Steeler running back Bam Morris, scheduled to stand trial on drug charges in July, won’t be invited to the team’s five-day mini-camp beginning Sunday.

A former University of Tennessee defensive back has been charged in a drug-related, fatal shooting of a man at his apartment complex in Knoxville. Roderick L. Lewis, 24, was charged with criminal homicide in the shooting of James Taylor Adams, 21, who was shot once in the head while reportedly trying to collect a drug debt from Lewis.

Track and Field

Tennessee senior Lawrence Johnson concluded his collegiate pole vault career at Eugene, Ore., by clearing a meet-record 19 feet 1 inch for his second consecutive NCAA title. The Louisiana State women, heavily favored to win a 10th consecutive national team title, had the second-fastest collegiate time ever in the 400-meter relay, at 42.76 seconds.

Kenya’s Christopher Koskei ran the fastest time in the world this year in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, 8 minutes 17.71 seconds, at a meet in Bratislava, Slovakia. Sam Shemkororia of Kenya set another best time this year in the 10,000 meters, 27:30.37.

College Golf

Arizona State’s Pat Perez tied the course record with a 68 to lead Stanford’s Tiger Woods by one shot, and the Sun Devils shot two-under par to take the first-day team lead in the NCAA golf championships at the Honors Course in Ooletwah, Tenn.

Miscellany

The Kings signed centers Jason Morgan and Chris Schmidt and free-agent goaltender Brad Guzda. . . . Mark DeMenna hit a three-run home run in the eighth inning to lead William Paterson to a 6-5 victory over Cal Lutheran in the NCAA Division III baseball championship game at Salem, Va. William Paterson finished 39-5-1, Cal Lutheran 34-14-1. . . . UCLA track Coach Bob Larsen, who led the Bruins to a 10-0 dual-meet record and the Pac-10 title, has been named the District VII men’s coach of the year. . . . Jeff Tisdel has been named football coach at Nevada, succeeding Chris Ault.