Jun 29, 2021 4 min read

WVU signs forward

West Virginia has signed forward Jamel King for the 2021-22 season.

Coach Bob Huggins announced King’s signing Monday. King originally signed with New Mexico, which underwent a coaching change.

The 6-7 forward averaged 23 points and six rebounds per game at Paul Bryant High in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, then 16 points and four rebounds the following season at Bella Vista Prep in Scottsdale, Arizona.

“We think Jamel is a guy with a really bright future,” Huggins said. “He has size, but he also has the agility and skill level of a smaller player on the court. We look forward to him getting to campus this summer.”

TCU basketball put on probation

The NCAA put the TCU men’s basketball program on three years’ probation Tuesday and punished a former assistant coach it accused of accepting $6,000 from an aspiring sports agent and then lying to the school about it.

The school avoided scholarship reductions and limits on recruiting imposed on other programs in a federal corruption case that has ensnared several big-name schools. TCU was fined $5,000 and 1% of its men’s basketball budget.

TCU placed assistant Corey Barker on administrative leave in March 2019 after he was accused in court documents of accepting the money in a Las Vegas hotel room two years earlier.

The NCAA said Barker denied any knowledge or involvement in arrests in the federal case to officials at TCU, which launched an internal investigation after the arrests in the federal case.

Barker was given a five-year show-cause penalty. Any school that hires him during that period must prove to the NCAA he can perform athletic-related duties.

Barker said during the NCAA’s investigation that he gave the money back to the aspiring agent almost immediately after the Las Vegas meeting that was caught on surveillance video. The NCAA said it found no evidence the money was returned.

In the NHL

Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid ran away in the voting to win his second Hart Trophy as NHL MVP on Tuesday, much like he blew away the competition while leading the league in points.

McDavid became just the second unanimous Hart selection – joining Wayne Gretzky in 1982 – in receiving all 100 first-place votes from members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association.

McDavid doubled up on honors by also winning his third Ted Lindsay Award as the league’s most outstanding player, which is voted on by NHL players.

Vegas’ Marc-Andre Fleury beat out Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy and Colorado’s Philipp Grubauer to win his first Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s goalie of the year. The Golden Knights tandem of Fleury and Robin Lehner already won the William M. Jennings Trophy, for combining to allow an NHL-low 124 goals this season.

New York Rangers’ Adam Fox won the Jack Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman. Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov won the Calder Memorial Trophy as rookie of the year.

• ESPN announcers and analysts for the upcoming NHL season were announced Tuesday.

The 24 announcers, analysts and reporters include a diverse set of backgrounds along with names that will be familiar to most hockey fans.

Sean McDonough will be the lead announcer and will call the Stanley Cup Finals. McDonough has previously called hockey on ESPN and is back in a prime spot on one of the network’s lead packages after he called “Monday Night Football” in 2016-17.

Network hockey stalwarts John Buccigross, Barry Melrose and Linda Cohn will have roles.