Golf Channel suspends anchor Tilghman

Golf Channel suspended anchor Kelly Tilghman for two weeks on Wednesday for saying last week that young players who wanted to challenge Tiger Woods should “lynch him in a back alley.”

Tilghman was laughing during the exchange Friday with analyst Nick Faldo at the Mercedes-Benz Championship, and Woods’ agent at IMG said he didn’t think there was any ill intent.

But the comments became prevalent on news shows Wednesday, and the Rev. Al Sharpton joined the fray by demanding she be fired immediately.

“There is simply no place on our network for offensive language like this,” Golf Channel said in a statement.

Tilghman became golf’s first female anchor last year when the PGA Tour signed a 15-year deal in which Golf Channel broadcasts the first three events of the year, weekday coverage of all tour events, and full coverage of the Fall Series and opposite-field events. The suspension ends in time for the Buick Invitational on Jan. 24.

Football

Carroll coach honored

Carroll College coach Mike Van Diest has been named the 2007 NAIA coach of the year by the American Football Coaches Association.

Van Diest led the Saints to a 15-0 record in 2007, an eighth Frontier Conference championship and a fifth NAIA national championship in the past six years. Carroll has a 104-18 record over the past eight seasons.

•University of Washington coach Tyrone Willingham has been elected president of the American Football Coaches Association.

•Ryan Mallett has left the Michigan program, and the quarterback might be reunited with his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Tennessee.

Mallett may end up with the Volunteers, who are considering hiring former Michigan offensive coordinator Mike DeBord and quarterbacks coach Scott Loeffler.

•Clemson running back James Davis has decided to skip his senior season and enter the NFL draft.

•Tennessee linebacker Jerod Mayo will skip his senior year to enter the NFL draft.

•New Mexico plans to self-impose penalties, including the reduction of two scholarships for next season, in response to an NCAA investigation into academic fraud involving the school’s football team.

Basketball

Storm name coach

The WNBA’s Seattle Storm hired Brian Agler as their new head coach and director of player personnel, replacing Anne Donovan, who resigned Nov. 30.

Agler was an assistant with the San Antonio Silver Stars for the last three seasons.

Miscellany

Masback resigns

Craig Masback has resigned after a decade as head of USA Track & Field to take an executive position with Nike.

Masback informed the U.S. federation’s board of directors of his decision.

He will become director of business affairs for Nike’s Global Sports Marketing Division. Nike is a major sponsor of USA Track & Field.

•Prosecutors and defense lawyers told a federal judge in White Plains, N.Y., that former Olympic champion Marion Jones should not be sentenced to more than the six-month maximum they’ve already agreed upon.

U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia and defense attorney Henry DePippo told Judge Kenneth Karas that legal precedent argues against departing from the zero- to six-month range for Jones, who is to be sentenced Friday for lying about steroid use and a check-fraud scheme.

•Edward “Buddy” LeRoux, former part owner of the Boston Red Sox and real estate baron, has died in a Tuftonboro, N.H., hospital. He was 77.

•Reliever Brian Shouse and the Milwaukee Brewers agreed to a $2 million, one-year contract.

Shouse can make an addition $200,000 in performance bonuses.