Ex-Gophers assistant has his suit dismissed

A civil suit filed by former University of Minnesota assistant men's basketball coach Jimmy Williams against the school and Athletic Director Joel Maturi has been dismissed, according to Hennepin County court documents.

Williams, an assistant under Bill Musselman and Jim Dutcher, claimed he quit his job as an assistant coach at Oklahoma State last April after he and current Gophers coach Tubby Smith reached a contract agreement for Williams to join the Gophers' staff.

Williams claimed that Maturi subsequently overruled the hiring because of NCAA violations that occurred on the Musselman and Dutcher staffs during Williams' employment. Williams was an assistant at Minnesota from 1971 through 1987 and served as interim head coach after Dutcher resigned following an alleged sexual assault during the 1985-86 season.

The suit claimed that the standard practice is for Division I head basketball coaches to hire their own staffs. Williams was seeking to be re-instated to the assistant job he claimed was offered him, plus monetary damages, including a claim of defamation against university officials.

"It's a complete victory for Tubby, Joel and the university," said Mark Rotenberg, university general counsel. "The court said it's important to provide deference to the university's employment decisions of this type, and found that there was no defamation."

The ruling by Judge Regina M. Chu also noted that District Court was not the proper venue for the case, Rotenberg said. It recommended that Williams should have filed a grievance under the university's internal procedures, and if he was unhappy with that result he should have taken his case to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

Rotenberg said he was hopeful Chu's ruling "puts this case to rest," but acknowledged an appeal was possible.

The university acknowledged that Smith did interview Williams for an assistant position, but said the two never reached an agreement and that no one at Minnesota encouraged Williams to leave his position at Oklahoma State. The university maintained that the reason Williams did not receive a contract was because of the NCAA rules violations that took place during his previous employment at Minnesota.

High on Curry Lefty Driesell put little Davidson on the basketball map 40 years ago. The retired coach said he thinks the Wildcats' star sophomore can return the school to glory.

Stephen Curry's lightning-quick release and savvy play has Driesell, 76, so fired up he was thinking about making the trip for Davidson's opener against Gonzaga in the Midwest Regional.

"I told people the other day that I've seen a lot of guards play this year, and if I'm starting a team, I'd start Stephen Curry over all of them," Driesell said. "If George Mason went to the Final Four, I think they're just as good as they were a couple of years ago. I'm pulling for them."

With Curry averaging 25.1 points a game, Davidson (26-6) has overcome close losses early this season to powers North Carolina, Duke and UCLA to reel off nation's longest winning streak at 22 games.

Spartans clamp down Michigan State ruined any chance of Christmas having a big March. The Spartans held Dionte Christmas, Temple's leading scorer (20.2 average), to three points on 1-for-12 shooting in a 72-61 victory.

"They took away the 3, took away the drive," said Christmas That's probably the toughest defensive team I played all year, all my career."

Oh, that hurts It doesn't get much worse than this: Kent State scored 10 points in the first half in falling behind by 21 points in a 71-58 loss to UNLV. Winthrop scored 11 points against Washington State in the second half after being tied at halftime in a 71-40 loss. And Mississippi Valley State scored only 29 points in a 71-29 loss to UCLA.