NCAA Tournament Selection Committee Chair and Michigan State AD MARK HOLLIS "cancelled his 12-day, 12-state trip to watch basketball games," choosing to stay in East Lansing to "focus on his obligations on campus." One of the issues Hollis is dealing with is last week's "announcement that three football players and a football staff member have been suspended indefinitely, pending criminal and Title IX investigations into an alleged sexual assault." None of the four people "involved in the investigation has been named" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 2/14).
LAW & ORDER: Allegations in a "securities fraud class action lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court for Maryland" claim that Under Armour and some of its officers "misrepresented the company's sales and growth in a drive to pursue competitors Nike, Reebok and Adidas" (Baltimore SUN, 2/14).
NAMES: Four-year-old VAUGHN BARRIER from Maryland had his wish to meet his favorite team, the Warriors, "granted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation." Barrier last week received "VIP status at the Warriors-Bulls game" for his entire family. Barrier has "hypomyelinating leukodystrophy 6, a brain disease so rare that he's one of only 32 known sufferers worldwide" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 2/14)....KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR has joined The Hollywood Reporter as "contributing editor." He will "pen a regular column and conduct select celebrity interviews." Abdul-Jabbar's first column on race and romance in "LA LA LAND" will "run in the Feb. 24 print issue and online" (HOLLYWOODREPORTER.com, 2/13)....Pacers VP/Basketball Operations PETER DINWIDDIE was named to the Indianapolis Business Journal’s “Forty Under 40” list (INDIANAPOLIS BUSINESS JOURNAL, 2/13 issue)....MARIO ANDRETTI will serve as an Honorary Race Official for the Daytona 500 (DIS)....DEREK JETER and his wife, HANNAH, are “expecting their first child, a girl” (N.Y. POST, 2/14).
