Fast Break

College football

Harris fired as Stanford coach

Stanford University fired football coach Walt Harris on Monday after only two seasons on the job.

“This has been a tough year,” athletic director Bob Bowlsby said. “In some measure this decision was not made as a result of being 1-11 as much as it was a result of not seeing the progress in some of the critical areas we would have hoped for after two years.”

Harris finished his two-year stint with a 6-17 record after losing 26-17 in the Big Game to California on Saturday.

The Cardinal finished with the most losses in school history and the worst record since an 0-10 mark in 1960.

Men’s basketball

Zags move up four spots

UCLA and Pittsburgh held onto Nos. 1 and 2 in the Associated Press’ college basketball poll. The following three spots, however, were reshuffled by upsets.

Ohio State, Florida and Kansas tumbled from their respective 3-4-5 slots following losses last week, while Oklahoma State and Xavier made their season debuts in the Top 25. North Carolina took over No. 3, Alabama moved into fourth and the Buckeyes slid to fifth.

Florida, which lost 70-66 to Florida State on Sunday, dropped from fourth into a tie for seventh with Duke.

Kansas, which knocked Florida out of the No. 1 spot two weeks ago, fell from fifth to 12th following a 64-57 loss at DePaul.

Gonzaga (8-1) moved up four spots to 18th, while unbeaten Washington (6-0) remained 13th.

Arena football

Shock add player

Andre Rector, who set receiving records as a senior at Northwest Missouri State in 2005, is the sixth player signed by the Spokane Shock for the 2007 arenafootball2 season.

A 6-foot, 180-pound wide receiver-defensive back, Rector caught 97 passes for 1,297 yards and 11 TDs his senior year. His career totals were 213 for 3,049 and 18 TDs. He did not play football in 2006.

“He’s a player I had at the top of my wish list,” coach Adam Shackleford said in a release. “The fans in Spokane are going to be very happy.”

SportsLink

Tressel’s turmoil: Cop out or valid?

Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel declined to vote in the USA Today coaches’ poll, saying he felt it wasn’t right for him to have a say in the Buckeyes’ opponent in the national championship game.

What a crock. Tressel knew whomever he voted for would cause him problems either in the championship game or in a game somewhere down the road. So he copped out.

What do you think? Did Tressel make the right choice? Should he have voted? Was he being truthful? Click onto SportsLink and let us know.