Off the wire

Lingmerth, others in Open

Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan watches his team during practice in this April 2014 file photo.
Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan watches his team during practice in this April 2014 file photo.

Francesco Molinari and Memorial winner David Lingmerth (Arkansas Razorbacks) are among six players who have been added to the field for the British Open. The six players were added when it became clear the Open would not fill all the spots from remaining qualifiers for the 156-man field at St. Andrews. The British Open will be played July 16-19. Molinari is No. 43 in the world, but he was outside the top 50 last month for the cutoff to qualify. Lingmerth beat a strong field at the Memorial, but the Swede did not move up high enough in the ranking to get into the U.S. Open. He will be making his British Open debut. The other four players are Matt Jones, Tim Clark, Harris English and PGA Tour rookie Daniel Berger.

BASKETBALL

Wisconsin Coach Bo Ryan said he plans to retire after next season, looking to pass the torch after molding the Badgers into a national power during his 14 seasons. Ryan, 67, made the surprising announcement Monday, and added that only some cajoling from Athletic Director Barry Alvarez kept him from calling it a career in April after Wisconsin lost to Duke in the national title game.

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AP

Nicklas Lidstrom

“I’ve always been told that is not a decision to be made right after a season is completed,” Ryan said in a statement issued by the school. “Barry thankfully encouraged me to take some time to think about it and I have done that.” Ryan said it is his hope that longtime Badgers assistant Greg Gard is chosen to succeed him. Whoever gets the job has some awfully big shoes to fill. In his 14 years, Ryan cemented himself as the face of Wisconsin basketball. Ryan is 357-125 as coach of the Badgers and has taken the program to the NCAA Tournament in every one of his seasons. The Badgers reached a crest over the past two seasons, topping last year’s Final Four run by beating undefeated Kentucky in the national semifinals this season before losing to Duke in the championship game. The Badgers have won four Big Ten titles and never finished lower than tied for fourth in the conference during his tenure. Before Ryan took the Wisconsin job, he spent 15 years at Wisconsin-Platteville and two seasons at Milwaukee. “I am looking forward to another year with our program, including our players, my terrific assistant coaches, our office staff and everyone who supports Wisconsin basketball here in Madison, around the state and across the country,” Ryan said.

• Dwyane Wade has decided to forgo a $16.1 million deal with the Miami Heat for next season and become a free agent. The threetime champion and 11-time All-Star announced his decision Monday through a spokesman. ESPN first reported decision. Wade hits the open market Wednesday and is likely to receive interest from several other teams, though the Heat have already said they want to keep him. Wade left a total of around $27 million on the table in contract negotiations with the Heat in 2010 and 2014. He wants some of that sacrifice rewarded in a three-year deal. But he’s turning 34 next season and has missed 25 percent of Miami’s regular-season games over the past four years, factors the Heat will surely take into account.

• The Chicago Bulls said guard Kirk Hinrich has exercised his player option and will return next season. Terms were not disclosed in Monday’s announcement. A 12-year NBA veteran, the 34-year old Hinrich has played in 833 regular-season games and averaged 11.4 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds and 1.15 steals per game. He also has played in 65 playoff games.

• The Golden State Warriors have exercised their $3.8 million team option on reserve big man Marreese Speights for next season, meaning a key member of the NBA champions’ second unit will return. Speights averaged a career-high 10.4 points and 4.3 rebounds in 15.9 minutes per game during the regular season. He averaged 3.7 points in just 10 playoff games due to a left hamstring injury and the Warriors’ move to a smaller lineup during the NBA Finals against Cleveland. But the 6-10, 245-pound Speights split time at forward and center throughout the year, often giving Golden State a spark off the bench. The Warriors had until today to exercise Speights’ option or he would have become a free agent.

• Tennessee Coach Rick Barnes said he doesn’t have reason to be concerned about a Texas investigation into allegations of academic misconduct in its men’s basketball program. Texas hired an outside investigator following a Chronicle of Higher Education report that mentioned potential allegations involving three former men’s basketball players. Barnes had coached Texas the last 17 seasons before getting fired in March. Texas officials have said the university “has no information that suggests” Barnes was aware of or involved in any academic improprieties. Texas Athletic Director Steve Patterson has said Barnes’ exit had “nothing to do with any academic issues.” Barnes said Monday there are “no legs” to the allegations in the report and added that “I think Texas has said everything that needed to be said.”

• Mike Krzyzewski, who has led Duke to five national championships and is the only Division I men’s coach with 1,000 victories, and women’s basketball pioneer Lucille Kyvallos of Queens College have won the Lapchick Character Award for 2015. The winners of the eighth annual award were announced Monday. The award is named for the Naismith Hall of Fame coach and is presented by a group that includes Joe Lapchick biographer and former player Gus Alfieri. Lapchick coached St. John’s and the New York Knicks. The awards will be presented Nov. 20 in New York. The recipients will be honored that night at the 2K Classic, benefiting the Wounded Warrior Project. Duke capped last season with Krzyzewski’s fifth national championship — second only to John Wooden’s 10 titles at UCLA. The Blue Devils featured three freshmen who became first-round NBA draft picks. The first of Krzyzewski’s titles came in 1991. When the Blue Devils repeated the next season, he became the first coach to win consecutive titles since Wooden. He has coached his teams to 12 Final Fours, tied for the most ever. Since 1985, Krzyzewski has a record 88 NCAA Tournament victories, 23 more than the next-closest active coach (North Carolina’s Roy Williams) during that time. Krzyzewski has won two Olympic gold medals as coach of the U.S. team and he will coach the team again in 2016. In 40 seasons, he has had 64 All-Atlantic Coast Conference academic team selections. He also has raised millions of dollars, bringing awareness to cancer research and literacy programs for young students. Kyvallos led Queens College to the top of women’s college basketball in its early years. She coached there in 1968-1979 and 1980-1981, compiling a 239-77 record. She led Queens to the 1973 AIAW national championship game, losing to Immaculata College in what many consider the game that drew national attention to the women’s game. A rivalry blossomed and in 1975 the schools played at Madison Square Garden before a crowd of about 12,000. Kyvallos also led the U.S. team to a silver medal at the World University Games in Bulgaria in 1977. She was inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000.

HOCKEY

Lidstrom leads HOF class

Stanley Cup winners Nicklas Lidstrom, Chris Pronger and Sergei Fedorov, and former NHL star Phil Housley are among the seven newcomers in the Hockey Hall of Fame. The Hall announced Monday that Angela Ruggiero, Bill Hay and Peter Karmanos Jr. also were voted into the shrine. Pronger, traded from Philadelphia to Arizona last weekend, hasn’t played since November 2011 because of post-concussion syndrome. He works for the league. The fearsome defenseman was eligible because of a bylaw that specifies a player’s final game must be three full seasons ago. Lidstrom earned seven Norris Trophies as the NHL’s top defenseman and won four Stanley Cups with Detroit. Fedorov was his longtime teammate. Housley has the most points of any American defenseman. Hay, a former president of Hockey Canada, and Karmanos, the owner of the Carolina Hurricanes, made it in the builder category. Ruggiero was a defenseman on four United States teams in the Olympics and was the fourth woman to be elected to the Hall of Fame.

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