Coach K won’t be back with USA

Basketball: Mike Krzyzewski says again he doesn’t plan to return as U.S. men’s basketball coach after leading the Americans to two Olympic gold medals.

Saying “my stance hasn’t changed,” Krzyzewski tells ESPN Radio on Tuesday he expects USA Basketball to name a new coach this summer.

The Hall of Fame Duke coach said during and after last summer’s Olympics that he wasn’t planning to return to the position he’s held with the national team since 2005. However, he still hasn’t confirmed that decision with USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo, who has said they will talk after the college season.

Krzyzewski led the Americans to Olympic gold in 2008 and 2012, and a world basketball championship in 2010. He tells ESPN Radio that he’s “loved, loved, loved” holding the job.

Associated Press

Playfair legend Baze, 83, dies

Longtime trainer Carl Baze, a member of the Northwest’s most significant thoroughbred racing family and a former champion at Spokane’s defunct Playfair Race Course, died Saturday in Phoenix. He was 83.

Father of Northwest jockey star Gary Baze and grandfather of 2000 Eclipse Award-winning apprentice Tyler Baze, Carl Baze and his brother, Earl, who died in 2005, ranked with Playfair’s most successful conditioners for more than two decades. Their father, Bert, and their uncle, Bob, were prominent horse owners and trainers before and after World War II. Their brother, Joe, won championships at both Playfair and Longacres, the former Seattle-area track, and Joe’s son, Russell, remains active with the most career wins in U.S. history.

Carl Baze won the 1959 Playfair title. He placed fourth in 1971 and fifth in 1972. He served seven years (1989-91, 1994-97) as president of the Washington Horseman’s Benevolent & Protective Association (HBPA). In 1991, the national HBPA named him Man of the Year.

Jim Price