Newsmakers

Complained Speedway Motorsports Inc. owner Bruton Smith isn’t a fan of NASCAR’s insistence on ending the season in South Florida. Smith likened Homestead Miami Speedway to “North Cuba” on Saturday, arguing it is not the “proper place” for the Sprint Cup series to end the Chase for the championship. The longtime track owner says he’d prefer NASCAR to run its final Cup race at SMI-owned Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Despite his protests, SMI did not make a formal request for NASCAR to add a second Las Vegas race to the 2011 schedule. Smith said it’s because he doesn’t believe it would make a difference.

Hired The University of Maryland hired its new athletic director: Kevin Anderson, who performed the same job for 51/2 years at Army. Anderson will be in charge of Maryland’s 27 athletic teams. He takes over for Debbie Yow, who left Maryland for North Carolina State in July. Anderson became the first African-American athletic director at Army upon his hiring in December 2004.

Drowned A Massachusetts golf course groundskeeper drowned after driving a lawn mower into a water hazard and getting stuck. Authorities say Greg Misodoulakis was killed Friday after becoming trapped by the lawn mower in 5 feet of water at an 18-hole course in Lakeville, 40 miles north of Boston. A co-owner at the Back Nine Club said nobody saw the 18-year-old groundskeeper drive into the manmade hazard.

Signed The Milwaukee Bucks signed second-round draft pick Darington Hobson. The 6-foot-7, 210-pound junior was taken 37th overall out of New Mexico in this year’s draft. Terms were not disclosed. He was the Mountain West Conference’s player of the year last season and was a third-team Associated Press All-American.

Died Former Cincinnati women’s basketball coach J. Kelley Hall died at age 51 of a heart attack at his South Carolina home. Hall was fired from Cincinnati in 2009 after two losing seasons. Before that, he was head coach at Louisiana-Lafayette from 2002-2007 and was named 2005 Sun Belt Coach of the Year. Louisiana-Lafayette officials say he is the winningest coach in its program’s history. He accumulated more wins in five seasons (86) than the team won in all of the 1990s (45).