Newsmakers
Signed Iowa men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery signed a new, seven-year deal with a raise on Tuesday. McCaffery will be paid at least $1.66 million a year with a base salary of $1.3 million starting next season. McCaffery, who said he’s “ecstatic” over the new deal, could make up to $1.86 million per season if the Hawkeyes reach the NCAA tournament, which they haven’t done since 2006. After a rough first season, his resurgent Hawkeyes won 18 games and reached the NIT in 2011-12. Home attendance also jumped more than 20 percent.
• The St. Louis Blues signed Jamie Langenbrunner to a one-year contract and traded another forward, B.J. Crombeen, to Tampa Bay for future draft picks. The 36-year-old Langenbrunner had six goals and 18 assists in 70 games last season. The 17-year veteran played in his 1,000th career game last season and has added leadership to a team that posted 109 points. Fired Fromer Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona has been fired as Al Wasl coach after he failed to win a title for the Dubai club. The board of directors issued a statement saying Maradona and his technical staff had been immediately “relieved” of their duties. Maradona, who was on vacation and not in Dubai, could not be reached for comment.
Died A member of three NCAA championship teams at UCLA, Kenny Heitz, has died following a long battle with cancer. He was 65. Heitz joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then Lew Alcindor), Lucius Allen and Lynn Shackelford on the 1965-66 freshman team that defeated the two-time defending national champion varsity in the first game played in Pauley Pavilion. The Bruins finished with an 88-2 record during Heitz’s career. Heitz, who was drafted by Milwaukee in 1969, graduated from Harvard Law School and went on to successful career in the Los Angeles area.
Announced A medical examiner says an enlarged heart probably caused the death of a former Stanford University basketball player who collapsed during an adult league recreational game in New York. Peter Sauer of Scarsdale, N.Y., died Sunday night in a park in White Plains, N.Y. The 35-year-old had been a captain of the Stanford team that reached the Final Four in 1998. He played in four NCAA tournaments.