Cal Suspends Gardner, Fowlkes

Three California basketball players have been suspended for tonight’s critical home game against Washington for violating team rules, head coach Todd Bozeman announced.

Sophomore guard Jelani Gardner and sophomore forward Tremaine Fowlkes, starters in the last four games, and junior guard Prentice McGruder will miss the game with the Huskies, but will return for Saturday’s game with Washington State.

In addition, junior center Michael Stewart, who had started Cal’s first 22 games, is listed as probable as he recovers from a sprained right ankle.

Bozeman said the starting lineup tonight will be Anwar McQueen, Randy Duck and Ed Gray at guard and Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Tony Gonzalez at forward.

Two Clemson football players were released from jail in Clemson, S.C., and two others remained behind bars after a judge set their bonds at $20,000 on charges of raping a student on campus.

North Carolina-Charlotte basketball coach Jeff Mullins says he will retire at the end of this season, ending an 11-year run in which he became the winningest coach in the 49ers’ history.

Maryland basketball guard Duane Simpkins needed a loan from a former coach to begin paying off $8,242 worth of campus parking tickets.

Simpkins was given a three-game suspension last week by the NCAA for accepting a $2,000 loan from Donnie Gross, a former AAU coach. Simpkins borrowed $2,000 from Gross in order to make a down payment on the parking-ticket debt. If he had not arranged a payment plan, Simpkins would not have been allowed to enroll for the spring semester.

A source told the Washington Post Simpkins received more than 75 tickets that reportedly ranged from $15 for parking at an expired meter to $500 for illegal use of a state-issued disabled permit.