In Brief

COLLEGE basketball

Duke wins recruiting battle
over Kansas, Carolina for Rivers

The son of Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers and one of the nation's most highly recruited players is heading to Duke.

Austin Rivers posted on his Twitter site Thursday: "World i have decided to go to duke! Let's go blue devils ha'." Rivers, who later made the announcement on ESPN, chose Duke over Kansas and North Carolina.

The 6-foot-4-inch guard from Winter Park, Fla., is considered a terrific athlete and prolific scorer. He orally committed to Florida in 2008 but reopened his search after the Gators struggled to sustain the success that won them back-to-back national titles.

Rivers led Winter Park High School to the Class 6A championship last season. He also played for the world champion USA Basketball 18-under team.

Also: Mississippi State point guard Dee Bost has been suspended nine games by the NCAA for mishandling his withdrawal from the NBA Draft.

The 6-2 junior is academically ineligible for the fall semester. He will begin serving his suspension in December if he is academically cleared for the spring.

Bost has started all 72 games at Mississippi State. He averaged 13.0 points a game last season.

GOLF

Former Rebel Lunde shares
first-round Viking Classic lead

Former UNLV player Bill Lunde, Arjun Atwal, Ken Duke, Brett Quigley and Bill Haas took advantage of great early conditions to share the lead at 6-under-par 66 after the first round of the Viking Classic at Madison, Miss.

"I've never played in conditions like this," said Atwal, who said he was a bit rusty after a five-week layoff since winning the Wyndham Championship. "I've always played when it's softer. But it's playing perfect, it's firm. It's just the way it's supposed to be played."

Quigley, 152nd on the money list, is one of the players working to lock up a PGA Tour exemption for 2011. The $3.6 million tournament will pay the winner $648,000. Quigley had six birdies in his final eight holes, matching his lowest score of the year.

Also: The PGA Tour lifted Doug Barron's suspension by granting the 40-year-old a Therapeutic Use Exemption for testosterone.

Barron was the first player to be suspended for violating the PGA Tour's anti-doping policy that went into effect July 3, 2008.

He was handed a one-year suspension last fall when he tested positive for anabolic steroid testosterone and propranolol, a beta-blocker that calms nerves. He tested positive at the PGA's St. Jude Classic in Memphis, Tenn., in June.

miscellaneous

Injured Penguins forward Stall
not close to skating, practicing

Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jordan Staal is wearing a protective boot on his injured right foot and is not close to being able to skate or practice, a setback for one of the NHL's best two-way forwards.

The Penguins' initial estimate that Staal could return by late October appears to be overly optimistic, and it might be well into the season before he is back. "There's been a lot of ups and downs, so I can't really put my finger on when I'll be back," Staal said.

Staal, a 2009-10 finalist for the Selke Trophy that is awarded to the league's best defensive forward, injured a tendon when Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban's skate cut through the top of his foot and sliced a tendon during the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs April 30.

Also: Lionel Messi has been presented with the Golden Boot award for being the top scorer in European domestic soccer leagues last season.

The Argentine forward received the prize after scoring 34 league goals to help Barcelona retain its Spanish La Liga title.

Messi joined Marco van Basten, Ronaldo and Cristiano Ronaldo as the only players to win the three major individual awards: the Golden Boot, FIFA Player of the Year and the Golden Ball, given to Europe's top player.

Aston Villa defender Eric Lichaj and Schalke midfielder Jermaine Jones have been selected for the 20-man roster for the United States' exhibitions against Poland and Colombia next month and could make their national team debuts.

Landon Donovan, Edson Buddle and Omar Gonzalez of the Los Angeles Galaxy were omitted because of their team's push to make the Major League Soccer playoffs, as were Jonathan Bornstein of Chivas USA and Robbie Findley of Real Salt Lake.

A judge has ruled that the captain of an English soccer club just isn't famous enough to be allowed to skip jury duty.

British media said that Carl Fletcher, who plays for Plymouth, and his celebrity status made him ineligible to serve on the jury.

Rising contender Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. will face Alfonso Gomez on Dec. 4 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., in an attempt to build a following in the United States.

The son of the great Julio Cesar Chavez settled on Gomez after junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto elected to take the rest of the year off.

The Team USA women posted a 6,267 six-game total and won the Pan American Bowling Confederation Women's Championship at Strike Zone Bowling Center in Henderson.