BASKETBALL
NBA: Utah Jazz General Manager Justin Zanik is set to have a kidney transplant Tuesday at the University of Utah hospital.
Zanik will receive a donor kidney after being diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease in October. Polycystic kidney disease is a genetic disorder that causes clusters of cysts to grow within kidneys.
The surgery is expected to take from 2 1/2 to three hours. Zanik is scheduled to be discharged three days after the surgery, barring complications. He will then be cleared to return to his job duties after three weeks and plans to resume a full-time workload in six weeks.
“I’m not out of the business,” Zanik said. “I’m basically taking a rest for about three to six weeks and then I’ll be back.”
• The San Antonio Spurs ruled two regular starters out for the season Monday, saying guard Devin Vassell and forward Jeremy Sochan will not return because of their injuries.
Vassell had an MRI on Monday, and it revealed a stress reaction to the third metatarsal head in his right foot. Sochan has a left ankle impingement that needs arthroscopic surgery. Vassell has averaged 19.5 points per game in 2023-24. He’s in his fourth season with San Antonio. Sochan, in his second season, has averaged 11.6 points.
HOCKEY
NHL: Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman has been suspended three games for throwing a stick on the ice from the bench after a game last weekend, the second time he has received supplemental discipline this season and the third over the past year.
The league said Hartman also verbally berated the officials around launching the stick following Minnesota’s overtime loss to Vegas on Saturday night and called his actions “intentional, deliberate and solely due to frustration.”
Officials agreed with Hartman that he wasn’t trying to hurt anyone but said the 29-year-old even acknowledged throwing the stick was unprofessional and unacceptable.
COLLEGES
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Tennessee fired Kellie Harper as the Lady Vols coach after five seasons with a 108-52 record, including 53-24 in Southeastern Conference play.
Athletic Director Danny White announced that Harper would not return, saying he told Harper that her alma mater was making a change after a “thorough review” of the women’s basketball program.
Harper was hired in 2019, replacing another former Lady Vols great in Holly Warlick. Warlick was fired after going 172-67 in seven seasons,
MEN’S BASKETBALL: Drake hired Ben McCollum as its basketball coach, entrusting the longtime and ultra-successful coach from Division II Northwest Missouri State with continuing the momentum the Bulldogs had under Darian DeVries.
DeVries was hired by West Virginia after leading Drake to three NCAA Tournament appearances in the last four years.
• Andy Enfield will lead SMU into the basketball-rich Atlantic Coast Conference after being named coach of the Mustangs.
Enfield was at Southern California the past 11 seasons, after he had taken No. 15 seed Florida Gulf Coast to the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2013.
• Steve Lutz was hired as the coach at Oklahoma State after one season at Western Kentucky, taking over for Mike Boynton, who had a 119-109 record in seven seasons.
The 51-year-old Lutz has a 69-35 career record and has led his teams to the NCAA Tournament in each of his three seasons as a head coach – this year at Western Kentucky and the previous two at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Before that, he was an assistant at Purdue and Creighton.
SOCCER
SERIE A: Inter Milan became the second team in Serie A history to score in the season’s first 30 games when it beat Empoli 2-0 and edged closer to the title.
Only Juventus in the 2013-14 campaign scored in its first 30 games. Inter extended its lead to 14 points on second-placed AC Milan. There are eight rounds left.
• Bologna beat lowly Salernitana 3-0 in Serie A and took another step toward Champions League football.
The eighth win in nine games for Thiago Motta’s side pushed it to within two points of third-placed Juventus. A fourth-place finish would ensure Bologna a spot in the Champions League for the first time.
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