Off the wire

LITTLE ROCK — BASKETBALL Del Negro to return

Vinny Del Negro will be back as coach of the Los Angeles Clippers after guiding them to the highest winning percentage in franchise history during the lockout-shortened season. The team said Tuesday that it has exercised its option on him to return for a third season. Del Negro led the Clippers to a 40-26 record,a winning percentage of 60.6 and the second round of the playoffs, where they were swept by the San Antonio Spurs. Del Negro has a 72-76 record in two seasons with the team.

Iowa State Coach Fred Hoiberg’s successful second season landed him a new contract with a hefty raise. The school announced Tuesday that the former Cyclones star and longtime NBA player has agreed to an eight-year deal worth an average of $1.5 million a year that runs through 2021. Iowa State said terms of the contract will be released at a later date, but this deal will replace the five-year, $4.5 million deal Hoiberg signed when he took over for Greg McDermott in April 2010. The Cyclones won 23 games last season and reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005.

Los Angeles Sparks reserve center Nicky Anosike will undergo arthroscopic left knee surgery today and will miss about six weeks. Anosike played in all three exhibition games, but did not dress in the Sparks’ first four games of the season. She signed with the team in the offseason after playing three years with Minnesota and last year with Washington. She has averaged 9.6 points and 7.1 rebounds in her career.

FOOTBALL Owens out

Terrell Owens has been released by the Allen Wranglers and lost his ownership stake in the Indoor Football League team. The team said Owens didn’t plan to play in two road games with possible playoff implications. The six-time Pro Bowl receiver also was a noshow for a scheduled appearanceat a local children’s hospital with other players and coaches. Wranglers owner Jon Frankel said in a statement Tuesday that the team couldn’t keep a player like Owens when fans were noticing and commenting about a “lack of effort both on and off the field.” The 38-yearold Owens didn’t get any NFL offers to play last season after surgery on his left knee. He had 35 catches for 420 yards and 10 touchdowns while playing in eight of Allen’s 11 games.

A lawsuit filed against the NFL Players Association by retirees was dismissed Tuesday by a federal judge, who said she’s “empathetic to their concerns” but ruled they had no legal right to hundreds of millions of dollars in additionalpost-career benefits they claimed they lost during lockout talks last year. U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson issued her order from St. Paul, Minn. Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive end Carl Eller, a former Minnesota Vikings star, was the lead plaintiff in the complaint that argued current players and their attorneys had no right to bargain with NFL owners about retiree benefits because they weren’t legally a union last summer. Michael Hausfeld, the lead lawyer for the retired players, said his group plans to appeal Nelson’s decision.

The New England Patriots have released receiver Anthony Gonzalez less than three months after signing him as an unrestricted freeagent from Indianapolis. A firstround draft pick from Ohio State, he had 99 receptions for 1,307 yards and 7 touchdowns in five seasons for the Colts despite a rash of injuries. He has been active for only 11 games since the 2008 season.

The New York Jets signed offensive tackles Stephon Heyer and Ray Willis on Tuesday. Heyer started 33 games for Washington from 2007-10, then signed with Oakland as a free agent. He had two starts in 12 games for the Raiders last season. Willis spent six seasons with Seattle (2005-2010) after being drafted in the fourth round in 2005. He started 26 of 49 games, including all 16 in 2009. After missing 2010 on injured reserve, he spent two weeks with New Orleans last year.

The Miami Dolphins will appear on Hard Knocks this summer. HBO announced Tuesday that the Dolphins would be the newest subject of its popular reality series documenting NFL training camps. The seventh season premieres Aug. 7.

GOLF Couples, Price captains

Fred Couples returns for a third stint as U.S. captain for the Presidents Cup, with a different captain trying to beat him. Nick Price, a three-time major champion from Zimbabwe, has been selected to lead the International team in 2013. Greg Norman was the International team captain the last two times. Couples joins Jack Nicklaus as the only captains to serve in three matches. The Americans have won the Presidents Cup both times with Couples as the captain, including last year at Royal Melbourne. The Presidents Cup will be played Oct. 3-6 at Muirfield Village.

HOCKEY

Oduya, Mayers extended

The Chicago Blackhawks have agreed to a three-year contract extension with defenseman Johnny Oduya and a one-year extension for forward Jamal Mayers. Mayers had six goals and nine assists in 81 regular-season games in his first year with the Blackhawks and appeared in three playoff games when Chicago was ousted in the opening round by Phoenix. Oduya had three assists in six playoff games and a goal and four assists in 18 regular-season games. Chicago acquired him in February from the Winnipeg Jets.

BASEBALL Government rests case in Clemens trial

WASHINGTON - It took 24 witnesses over 19 days of testimony for prosecutors to make their case against Roger Clemens, with three jurors and two minor pieces of the indictment dismissed by the time they were done. With the overlong-running trial now in its seventh week and Clemens’ lawyers starting to take their turn, the case remains centered on the credibility of oneperson - Brian McNamee.

The government rested Tuesday in the perjury trial of the seven-time Cy Young Award winner, wrapping up with a witness from Wall Street and two from the FBI. Two invoked the name of McNamee, the longtime Clemens strengthcoach who says he injected the ex-pitcher with steroids in 1998, 2000 and 2001 and with human growth hormone in 2000.

The defense is expected to take about two weeks to call its witnesses. The trial has already exceeded the original estimate of four to six weeks stated by the judge at the start of jury selection.

Clemens is charged with two counts of perjury, three counts of making false statements and one count of obstruction of Congress. All relate to his testimony at a hearing in February2008 and his deposition that preceded it.

The heart of the case is the allegation that Clemens lied when he said he had never used steroids or HGH, but the obstruction count included 15 statements, or “acts,” in which Clemens is alleged to have misled Congress on a variety of issues. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton dismissed two of those acts Tuesday.

The first dismissed act dealt with Clemens’ claim that he had “no idea” that former Sen. George Mitchell wanted to talk with him in preparation for the 2007 Mitchell Report on drugs in baseball. The government couldn’t prove otherwise because some of its evidence was ruledinadmissible due to rules over attorney-client privilege.

The second dismissed act deals with Clemens’ statement in his 2008 deposition that: “I couldn’t tell you the first thing about [HGH].” The judge said that statement could be misinterpreted because it was asked in the context of whether Clemens had ever done any research into HGH.

Thirteen alleged misleading statements remain in the charges. The government only needs to prove one to gain a conviction for obstruction of Congress.