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The Spokesman-Review

College football

Davis hired by North Carolina

Former NFL coach Butch Davis will return to the sidelines as coach at North Carolina.

He will replace the fired John Bunting, the school said Monday. The hiring had been widely expected the past week after Davis’ name rose to the top of the list of candidates

Davis, who will turn 55 Friday, brings a reputation for orchestrating turnarounds – which is just what the struggling Tar Heels need.

Baseball

Ramirez, Verlander win

Hanley Ramirez of the Florida Marlins won a tight race for N.L. Rookie of the Year, and Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander took home the A.L. award.

Ramirez beat out Washington Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman by four points in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America – the closest N.L. vote since the current format was adopted 26 years ago. The speedy shortstop got 14 of 30 first-place votes and finished with 105 points. Zimmerman received 10 first-place votes and 101 points.

Verlander easily won the A.L. honor after his closest competitors in a race dominated by pitchers were sidelined late in the season because of injuries. The hard-throwing right-hander, who helped the surprising Tigers reach the World Series, was listed first on 26 of 28 ballots for a total of 133 points.

For complete voting results, see Scoreboard on C4.

College basketball

Ohio State moves up 2 spots in poll

Ohio State, waiting for heralded freshman Greg Oden to recover from surgery, moved up two spots in the first regular-season men’s college basketball poll by the Associated Press.

While Florida, North Carolina, Kansas and Pittsburgh held the top four spots from the preseason rankings Monday, the Buckeyes (3-0) jumped from seventh to fifth after winning the BCA Classic.

The Buckeyes’ home wins over VMI, Loyola of Chicago and Kent State were by an average of 24 points. Those performances vaulted them over two teams that didn’t play last week – UCLA, which stayed sixth, and LSU, which dropped from fifth to seventh.

Gonzaga fell 74 votes short of a spot in the Top 25.