IN BRIEF

BASKETBALL

Ferry resigns as GM of Cavs; assistant Grant to take over

Danny Ferry resigned as general manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers, a surprise decision that complicates the most important offseason in team history.

Ferry's departure Friday after five seasons occurred two weeks after the club fired coach Mike Brown following the team's second-round loss to the Boston Celtics in the NBA playoffs. It also comes as the team is making plans to try to re-sign two-time Most Valuable Player LeBron James, who becomes a free agent next month.

Ferry was in the final month of his contract. He said the decision not to renew his contract was a mutual one with owner Dan Gilbert.

The team said assistant GM Chris Grant will take over for Ferry, who played in Cleveland for 10 years and became the club's GM in 2005.

Also: Richard "Duke" Llewellyn, chairman and co-founder of the John R. Wooden Award that goes to college basketball's player of the year, died of congestive heart failure Friday at a retirement home in Boyle Heights, Calif. He was 93.

Working with Wooden, a friend for more than 60 years, Llewellyn founded the Wooden Award in 1976.

Wooden died Friday night of natural causes at 99.

MOTOR SPORTS

Kyle Busch, seeking first Cup victory at Pocono, claims pole

Kyle Busch turned a lap at 169.485 mph to win the pole for Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa.

Busch, who will be making the 200th start of his Cup career, has never won at Pocono. His best finish was fourth in 2005, and he hasn't finished higher than 16th in the last two years. The pole was his first ever at Pocono and his second of the season.

Clint Bowyer qualified second, Dale Earnhardt Jr. third and Kurt Busch fourth.

Also: Todd Bodine stayed in front for two late restarts, including a green-white-checkered finish, to post his sixth NASCAR Truck Series victory at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

Johnny Sauter finished second, and pole sitter Austin Dillon was third.

Ryan Briscoe won the pole for today's Firestone 550k IndyCar Series race at Texas Motor Speedway with a lap of 215.273 mph. Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti will start second.

Larry Dixon posted a 3.814-second run at 317.42 mph to lead Top Fuel qualifying for the NHRA 66 Nationals in Joliet, Ill. Robert Hight (4.067, 313.15) was the top qualifier in Funny Car, and Mike Edwards (6.660, 206.95) led in Pro Stock.

MISCELLANEOUS

Fowler ties 36-hole mark, leads by three shots; Tiger trails by 10

Rickie Fowler ran off three straight birdies late in his round for a 6-under-par 66 to tie the 36-hole record at the Memorial Tournament and take a three-shot lead over Justin Rose at soggy Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio. The 21-year-old Fowler was at 13-under 131, tying the tournament record set by Scott Hoch in 1987.

Phil Mickelson closed with two straight birdies for a 71 that put him at 6-under 138. Defending champion Tiger Woods birdied three of his first five holes, then ran off three straight birdies on his front nine to offset his few mistakes for a 69. He was at 3-under 141.

The second round was stopped twice by storms and rain for a total of one hour. Because of more bad weather in the forecast, the players will go off today in threesomes from both tees.

Also: Tommy Armour III, a former Bishop Gorman High School star, matched the course record with an 8-under 63 to take a three-stroke lead after the first round of the Principal Charity Classic in West Des Moines, Iowa.

Top-seeded Oklahoma State cruised to a 4-1 victory over Stanford to advance to the NCAA Division I men's golf semifinals in Ooltewah, Tenn. Other quarterfinal winners were Oregon, Florida State and Augusta State.

Hundreds of fans turned out on a humid afternoon to get a peek at what Yankee Stadium will look like when boxing makes its return tonight after more than three decades.

The fans were welcomed into the year-old stadium for the weigh-in of junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman and former three-time world champ Miguel Cotto, who both weighed under the 154-pound division limit. A crowd of about 25,000 is expected for the fight.

Yankee Stadium hasn't hosted a fight since Sept. 28, 1976, when Muhammad Ali defeated Ken Norton at the original ballpark across the street.

Manny Pacquiao, the pound-for-pound king and newly elected congressman from the Philippines, accepted his third Fighter of the Year award from the Boxing Writers Association of America. Pacquiao also accepted a special award as Fighter of the Decade during the ceremony in New York. His trainer, Freddie Roach, was honored for the fourth time, and the Juan Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz bout was named Fight of the Year.