Briefs | Yow resumes chemotherapy

College basketball

Yow took 16-game leave last season: Kay Yow, North Carolina State women's coach, has resumed chemotherapy in her fight against breast cancer.

The 65-year-old Hall of Fame coach had stopped chemotherapy for about five months during the offseason in favor of less-demanding hormonal treatments.

Yow said she restarted chemotherapy a month ago but was bothered by side effects — she had trouble walking — and switched to a different drug last week.

"I don't know if my body is just getting used to it or handling it better," she said Tuesday during the Atlantic Coast Conference's annual media day. "I'm not sure. I'm not on as many drugs as I was last year."

Yow took a 16-game leave last season.

Yow is 708-324 in 36 seasons as a coach, with 32 in Raleigh. She coached the U.S. Olympic team to a gold medal in 1988, earned 20 NCAA tournament bids and was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2002.

Yow was diagnosed with cancer in 1987. It recurred during the 2004-05 season.

WNBA

Sparks win No. 1 pick in draft lottery: The Los Angeles Sparks won the draft lottery, giving them the top pick in the spring draft.

The lottery determined the order of the first six picks. Chicago chooses second, followed by Minnesota, expansion-team Atlanta, Houston and Washington.

New York has the seventh pick and the Storm selects eighth. The rest of the first round, in order: Connecticut, Sacramento, Detroit, Indiana, defending champion Phoenix and New York.

NHL

Bruins move game to avoid World Series conflict: The Boston Bruins moved up the start time of Saturday's home game against Philadelphia from 7 p.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern to avoid a conflict with Game 3 of the World Series between the Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies.

Kelly to head union: Paul Kelly will be introduced today as the new executive director of the National Hockey League Players' Association, union officials said.

Auto racing

McLaren appeals in effort to get Hamilton the title: McLaren filed an appeal in an effort to get four drivers disqualified from Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix and give the Formula One title to British rookie Lewis Hamilton.

The four drivers were investigated for fuel irregularities after Sunday's race, but governing body FIA said several hours later that there was not enough evidence to penalize them. Hamilton, who had been leading the drivers' standings before the final race of the season, finished seventh and wound up in second place overall, one point behind Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.

McLaren took its case to FIA's International Court of Appeal.

Edwards apologizes: Carl Edwards apologized for his confrontation with teammate Matt Kenseth after Sunday's Subway 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup race in Martinsville, Va., but also said there is a lack of "team spirit" among drivers at Roush Fenway Racing.

Driver dies after crash: Dirt-track racer Ryan Bard, 23, of Farmington, N.M., died at a hospital in Dallas, a day after a crash during qualifying Sunday at Abilene Speedway in Texas. Bard's car rolled over and caught on fire.

Doping

WADA joins cycling body in support of latest anti-doping plan: Cycling officials vowed in Paris to create medical profiles of riders as a way to deter cheats, part of their latest effort to clean up the doping-marred sport.

With cycling's survival possibly at stake, the World Anti-Doping Agency set aside a long-running war of words with the International Cycling Union (UCI) and gave its support to the "biological-passport" program.

WADA President Dick Pound, sharply critical of the UCI's handling of the doping crisis, hailed the latest effort.

"There has been a lot of harsh language back and forth about how cycling got to where it is today," Pound said. "This is a new day."

Cycling

Contador, Leipheimer sign with Astana: Tour de France champion Alberto Contador signed a two-year contract to ride with the Astana team. He won the Tour competing for the Discovery Channel team, but Discovery decided not to sponsor a team after 2007.

American Levi Leipheimer, third in the Tour, also is heading to Astana.

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