Pitino completes Gophers basketball staff

Shaun Brown and Josh Adel will join Richard Pitino's Gophers men's basketball staff, the university announced on Thursday.

Adel worked under Pitino last season at Florida International and was on the staff at Florida for three seasons before that. He will be assistant director of basketball operations, while Brown, at Southern California the past three seasons, will be strength and conditioning coach.

Those hirings complete Pitino's staff, except for one assistant coach. Dan McHale, a Seton Hall assistant, will be named to that position soon.

AMELIA RAYNO

Former Gophers center Nick Bjugstad was among four Minnesotans named to the U.S. team for the IIHF World Championships on May 3-19 in Helsinki and Stockholm. Among the other first 15 players named to the U.S. team were forward Danny Kristo of Eden Prairie, and defensemen Justin Faulk of South St. Paul and Jamie McBain of Edina.

Bjugstad is playing for the Florida Panthers now. Kristo played for North Dakota this past season, then signed with the Montreal Canadiens and played for Hamilton, their AHL affiliate. Faulk and McBain are both with the Carolina Hurricanes.

Macalester's football program is joining the Midwest Conference in 2014. The Scots have been competing as an independent in football for the past 11 years since leaving the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 2001. Macalester will remain an MIAC member in all other sports that the conference sponsors.

• Lindsey Moore, the final first-round pick in the recent WNBA draft, has signed with the Lynx. She averaged 15.1 points and 5.7 assists for Nebraska last season and is expected to back up Lindsay Whalen at point guard.

• The Gophers defeated seventh-seeded Penn State 4-1 in the first round of the Big Ten women's tennis tournament in Bloomington, Ind. Minnesota, the No. 10 seed, won the doubles point and three of the bottom four singles matches. With the outcome decided, the matches in progress were stopped. Paula Rincon Otero won at No. 3 singles for the Gophers, Aria Lambert at No. 5 and Alexa Palen at No. 6, all in straight sets. Minnesota will face Nebraska, the second seed, in Friday's quarterfinals.