Officer sues Auriemma for job discrimination
A female security official for the NBA said in a lawsuit Monday in New York that Connecticut women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma, who also coaches the U.S. Olympic women’s team, followed, grabbed and tried to forcibly kiss her at a hotel during an international tournament in Russia in 2009.
The security officer, Kelley Hardwick, said in the lawsuit, filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, that she pushed him away.
This year, the suit claims, Auriemma retaliated for her rebuff by successfully demanding that the NBA remove her as the top security official for the U.S. women’s team at the London Olympics. She served as a security official for the women’s team at the Olympics in Athens in 2004 and in Beijing in 2008.
In the suit, Hardwick, 46, a law school graduate and a former New York City undercover narcotics detective, accused Auriemma, the NBA and USA Basketball, which oversees the women’s Olympic team, of employment discrimination.
Auriemma, in an email statement Monday, said, “I was unaware of this lawsuit until hearing about it in media reports today and therefore will have no comment.”
ZAGS GET TRANSFER
Gerard Coleman, who averaged 13.2 points and 5.0 rebounds as a sophomore guard at Providence last season, is transferring to Gonzaga, according to multiple sources. He must sit out next season, and will have two years of eligibility at Gonzaga.
IT’S ON TO OMAHA
Jimmy Rider drove in the winning run with a shallow pop fly that landed just inside the left-field foul line in the bottom of the ninth, lifting Kent State to a 3-2 win over Oregon in Eugene, Ore., sending the Golden Flashes to their first College World Series.
It’s the first time since 1976 that a team from the Mid-American Athletic Conference has booked a trip to Omaha, Neb.
Others qualifying for the CWS were two-time defending champion South Carolina, which beat Oklahoma, 5-1; and Arkansas, a 1-0 winner over Baylor in 10 innings.
OWLS STAR ARRESTED
A Temple University basketball standout was one of 28 people arrested and charged as part of a two-day Atlantic City prostitution sweep.
Owls star Khalif Wyatt, who was celebrating his 21st birthday according to his Twitter feed, was arrested and charged with engaging in prostitution and resisting arrest.
EXTRA POINTS
The University of Montana will pay former football coach Robin Pflugrad an additional $78,000 to resolve all issues relating to his abrupt dismissal in March. … The Big East Conference sued TCU for failing to pay the $5 million exit fee after the school reneged on an agreement to become a member and chose to join the Big 12 Conference instead.
