Friday's Sports In Brief

PRO BASKETBALL

LOS ANGELES (AP) Mike Brown followed an 11-time NBA champion coach with the Los Angeles Lakers, taking charge of a roster packed with aging talent and a franchise anticipating more titles.

And after just 71 regular-season games, the Lakers decided Brown wasn't the man for a pressure-packed job. The Lakers fired their coach after a 1-4 start to his second season in charge, making one of the earliest coaching changes in NBA history.

Hours after general manager Mitch Kupchak announced the surprising move, the Lakers doubled their win total with a 101-77 victory over the Golden State Warriors.

The Lakers should find out soon whether Phil Jackson gets the chance to do the saving - again.

Former assistant Bernie Bickerstaff ran the Lakers as the interim coach, but the veteran NBA bench boss isn't likely to be a candidate for the full-time job. Kupchak is searching for a replacement, possibly making a selection before the Lakers' next game on Sunday against Sacramento.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

NEW YORK (AP) - The next time No. 4 Ohio State, No. 10 Florida, Georgetown and Marquette try to play aboard a ship, they may want to bring mops and buckets. A pair of big men's college basketball openers were called off when the makeshift courts became too wet because of condensation and the matchups were canceled.

Florida led Georgetown 27-23 at halftime in the Navy-Marine Corps Classic on the USS Bataan in Jacksonville, Fla., when it was stopped. The game will not count and will not be made up.

Ohio State and Marquette never got started aboard the USS Yorktown in Mount Pleasant, S.C. The tipoff was delayed for about a half-hour as coaches, players and officials waited for the conditions to improve. The weather didn't get better, and the teams are unlikely to reschedule the meeting this season.

Earlier in the day, the Yorktown hosted a women's game as No. 7 Notre Dame beat No. 19 Ohio State 57-51 without any problems on the court.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - No. 13 UCLA took a big loss less than two hours before its season began.

The NCAA ruled freshman Shabazz Muhammad is ineligible to play basketball after violating amateurism rules, leaving the Bruins without their highly touted recruit to start the season.

The school announced the NCAA's ruling in a statement from athletic director Dan Guerrero about 80 minutes before the Bruins' season opener against Indiana State, which was expected to be a celebration of the reopening of newly renovated Pauley Pavilion. UCLA won 86-59 with Muhammad watching from the bench dressed in a blue UCLA sweat suit.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) - Indiana athletic director Fred Glass opened the season with a grand announcement to the sold-out crowd: coach Tom Crean will be under contract for the rest of this decade.

The announcement came right after Indiana's starting lineup was introduced and just moments before tip-off on opening night. Fans stood and applauded and the two men who had worked out the deal walked over and shook hands.

Top top-ranked Hoosiers went on to a 97-54 win over Bryant.

Crean took over a team in turmoil in April 2008 and won only 28 games over his first three seasons. Last season, Indiana upset then No. 1 Kentucky in December and Ohio State, No. 2 Ohio State three weeks later and No. 5 Michigan State two months after that. It marked the first time in school history that the Hoosiers had ever beaten three top five teams in the same season.

HOCKEY

NEW YORK (AP) - The NHL put the course of ongoing labor negotiations back in the hands of the players' association, and left union head Donald Fehr with ``some things to consider.''

A bigger problem might be a wider gap between the sides than the players thought.

After three seemingly positive days of talks, things went a bit sour when negotiations ended for the day. The union was under the impression the numbers suggested they were closer to an agreement. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman disagreed.

There were vocal disagreements at the end of the session, and the union team went back to its office to hold a conference call with the executive board and other players.

GOLF

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) - Charlie Beljan had trouble breathing even before he teed off, called for paramedics when he made the turn and even told his caddie at one point that he thought he might die. With his job on the line at Disney, he kept right on playing until he had a remarkable 8-under 64 to build a three-shot lead going into the weekend.

Moments after signing his card, Beljan was loaded onto a stretcher and wheeled to an ambulance that took him to a hospital. Caddie Rick Adcox said paramedics told the 28-year-old Beljan on the 10th tee of the Palm Course that his blood pressure ``wasn't good.''

A few hours later, his agent sent a text to PGA Tour officials from Celebration Hospital that Beljan was waiting on tests, feeling better and hopeful of being discharged from the hospital. In a later text, agent Andy Dawson said even if Beljan remained in the hospital overnight, he still planned to play the third round.

Beljan was at 12-under 132, three shots clear of seven players, a group that included Henrik Stenson, 18-hole leader Charlie Wi, Harris English and Charles Howell III.

GUADALAJARA, Mexico (AP) - Angela Stanford shot a 5-under 67 to take a two-stroke lead over Inbee Park after the second round of the Lorena Ochoa Invitational.

The winner of the inaugural tournament in 2008, Stanford had an 11-under 133 total at Guadalajara Country Club. The Texan won the HSBC Women's Champions in Singapore in February for her fifth LPGA Tour victory.

Park, from South Korea, had a 68. Cristie Kerr was third at 8 under after a 69.

BASEBALL

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) - Lee MacPhail, the longtime baseball executive who ruled in the celebrated Pine Tar case and later became part of the only father-son Hall of Fame pairing, has died. He was 95.

He was the oldest Hall of Famer, and he died Thursday night at his home in Delray Beach, Fla., the shrine said.

MacPhail was the son of Larry MacPhail, a top executive with the Cincinnati Reds, Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees.

PRO FOOTBALL

PITTSBURGH (AP) - The NFL has levied $50,000 in fines to the Pittsburgh Steelers and wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders for faking an injury during an Oct. 21 game in Cincinnati.

Sanders was fined $15,000 and the organization $35,000. Sanders grabbed the back of his leg and collapsed to the ground during the fourth quarter of Pittsburgh's 24-17 win.