Coach Jim Larranaga Leaving George Mason for Miami

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — Jim Larranaga has taken the Miami Hurricanes' basketball job after 14 years at George Mason, including an improbable run to the Final Four in 2006.

Larranaga called George Mason athletic director Tom O'Connor on Friday morning to say he accepted Miami's offer. The Hurricanes scheduled an evening news conference to introduced their new coach, who replaces Frank Haith.

"Coach Larranaga is the real deal," Miami president Donna Shalala said in a statement. "He's a winner, an inspirational leader, and he cares deeply about his players and staff."

Larranaga, 61, led the Patriots to five NCAA tournament berths and went 273-164, setting a school record for victories. This season his team went 27-7 and reached the third round of the tournament before losing to overall No. 1 seed Ohio State. Larranaga helped the Patriots win three titles in the Colonial Athletic Association. Now he moves to the Atlantic Coast Conference, where the Hurricanes were 43-69 the past seven seasons under Haith.

"Jim can coach at any level," O'Connor said. "He could probably coach the Los Angeles Lakers if he wanted to."

Miami officials declined to comment. The hiring was made by Shawn Eichorst only nine days after he became the Hurricanes' athletic director. Haith left for Missouri after going 129-101 at Miami, including 21-15 this past season. Larranaga's contract at George Mason, which ran until 2016, had a base salary of $525,000. The school offered him a package including incentive bonuses would that have put him in the top five among mid-major coaches in compensation, O'Connor said, but even that deal couldn't compete with Miami's resources.

Unlike the Hurricanes, George Mason does not have a football program.

"In all honesty, the university can only go so far with finances," O'Connor said. "We think we put together a very, very attractive financial compensation package. We couldn't compete with an ACC school, a big football school with its budget."

A native New Yorker, Larranaga also coached at Bowling Green for 11 seasons and Division II American International for two seasons. The improbable NCAA tournament run by George Mason in 2006 was a triumph for all mid-major programs. The Patriots beat Michigan State, North Carolina and second-seeded Connecticut before losing to Florida in the national semifinals at Indianapolis.

Larranaga also led the Patriots to the tournament in 1999, 2001 and 2008. Miami made the tournament once under Haith, losing in the second round in 2008. Small crowds have been a chronic problem for the Hurricanes, who compete in a market that includes all four major professional sports. Average attendance at George Mason was 3,192 the season before Larranaga arrived but climbed to 6,834 the year after the Final Four appearance, and was 5,896 this past year.

O'Connor said George Mason's search for a replacement would start immediately.

"I'm confident we can attract a very strong basketball coach," O'Connor said.

Miami's hiring of Larranaga completes a revamping of the athletic department. Al Golden replaced Randy Shannon in December as football coach, and Eichorst replaced Kirby Hocutt, who became athletic director at Texas Tech.

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Westwood Moves to No. 1 as Donald Loses Playoff

Brandt Snedeker rallied from six shots behind and defeated Luke Donald on Sunday in a playoff at the Heritage on Hilton Head Island, S.C., denying Donald the top spot in the World Golf Rankings. Donald, of England, would have risen to the No. 1 ranking from No. 3 had he won. Instead, his countryman Lee Westwood moved to No. 1 from No. 2, replacing Martin Kaymer, after winning the Indonesian Masters earlier in the day.

Donald saved par from difficult spots on the 71st and 72nd holes to force the playoff, then did it again on the second extra hole. But his luck ran out on Harbour Town Golf Links’ closing lighthouse hole, No. 18, when his ball became partly buried in a front bunker. Donald blasted out about 15 feet from the flag, and his chip for par from just off the green hit the back edge of the cup and bounced away.

Snedeker finished with a seven-under 64 to match Donald at 12 under. Donald shot his second straight 70. Tommy Gainey finished a stroke back after a 68.

“It was going to be some big rewards if I won today,” Donald said. “But I’ll try and find the positives from this week and move on.”

The tournament figured to come down to a duel between the final-round pair of third-round leader Donald, the third-round leader, and the defending champion Jim Furyk, who was one stroke behind. But Snedeker, who started 10 groups before the leaders, pushed his way into contention with seven birdies in his first 12 holes. He rolled in a 12-footer for par on his 72nd hole and headed to the clubhouse to wait.

After Donald reached 12 under with an 18-foot birdie putt on the 13th, he missed putts for birdie on the 15th and 16th holes. Donald looked as if he would shoot himself out of it, sending his tee shot on the par-3 17th off the back, then landing his approach into the bunker in front of No. 18. Both times, Donald chipped within 4 feet to save par.

Snedeker and Donald traded birdies on the first extra hole, the 18th, and pars on the second one, the 17th. Snedeker hit the green on the last playoff hole and two-putted for par.

In Jakarta, Indonesia, Westwood shot a three-under-par 69 for 19-under 269, three shots ahead of Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand. Westwood opened with a birdie and a bogey, then made eight straight pars. A birdie on No. 11 was the turning point in his round.

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Rangers’ Exit Fits Their Story Line: Grit but Few Goals

WASHINGTON — Brian Boyle sat quietly in his stall at Verizon Center, moments after the Rangers were eliminated from the playoffs by the Washington Capitals, trying to express the way he felt.

“It’s a lot of things,” Boyle said. “It’s angry, it’s sad — the season’s over. We’re a close group. It’s a lot of games, it’s a grind, but it’s over. It went by too quick.

“It’s the worst feeling you could have,” he said.

The Rangers lost, 3-1, on Saturday, sent home after five games by the more talented yet equally gritty Capitals. Their final performance was the Rangers’ season in microcosm: a middling team working hard until the end, hanging in as long as it could because of its goalie and its shot-blocking, empowered yet hobbled by the fury of its coach, and ultimately undone by its inability to score.

Henrik Lundqvist was valiant in stopping 24 shots. Dan Girardi, Marc Staal and seven other Rangers blocked an additional 20. Girardi paid for it with a dislocated finger and a possible ankle injury, but he played until the end. Boyle, Brandon Prust and Sean Avery generated what few scoring chances the Rangers had amid their mucking and grappling. Marian Gaborik, the 42-goal sniper of 2010 gone cold in 2011, failed to make a difference.

The Rangers even scored a goal of honor, 32 seconds from the end, when Wojtek Wolski ended the shutout.

“I’m at a loss for words, I guess,” Brandon Dubinsky said. “We worked pretty hard all year long. To have it be over this quick is hard.”

So the Rangers went out, now having won the Stanley Cup once in 71 years, in that increasingly distant postseason of 1994. They made the playoffs on their final day of the regular season, a slight improvement over last year, when they missed the playoffs on the final day, but also a slight comedown from two years ago, when they lost to the Capitals in the first round in seven games. They have not advanced beyond the second round since Glen Sather became the general manager in 2000.

“We’re still in the process, so we just keep on going, trying to get better,” said John Tortorella, who took over as the Rangers’ coach during the 2008-9 season. “I don’t think our team has been built yet.”

For Washington, it was the second playoff victory over the Rangers in three years. The Capitals have played six other postseason series since 1998, and lost them all.

Mike Green, Alex Ovechkin and Alexander Semin scored Washington’s goals, one in each period, and the rookie goalie Michal Neuvirth stopped 26 shots.

The Rangers’ best stretch came in the first 30 seconds, when the Boyle-Prust-Avery line created real danger, and Boyle’s wraparound attempt was stopped by Neuvirth. It was one of five shots by Boyle, who wound up with a team-high 25 in the series but did not score a point. They missed the injured Ryan Callahan, and his 23 goals, throughout this series.

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Homering at Home, Wright Powers the Mets

David Wright certainly hit the baseball hard enough in his third at-bat Sunday, but he was sure it would curve foul. Wright, the Mets’ third baseman, has become the foremost expert on how many home runs Citi Field takes away, on how no one can start a home run trot early.

Somehow, this fly ball stayed straight as an arrow, and it dropped over the railing just inside the left-field foul pole for his second home run of the game.

“I don’t think you’re going to beat the park psychologically,” said Wright, who hit only 17 of his 39 home runs the last two years at Citi Field. “If you put a good swing on it, some days it’s going to go out of the park, and some days it’s not.”

Sunday was a glorious day, 75 degrees and sunny at first pitch, and Wright made it clear that it was going to be a good day for aerodynamics. He pummeled a two-run homer off Armando Galarraga in the first inning, then added a 340-foot shot in the fourth. Wright had his 16th multihomer game, tying Carlos Beltran and Dave Kingman for third on the Mets’ career list. (Mike Piazza had 17 such games, and Darryl Strawberry had 22.)

But that was of less significance to Wright, who snapped a career-worst 0-for-20 slide Thursday.

“I think he has come out of it,” Manager Terry Collins said of Wright, who has gone 6 for 14 with three home runs in the Mets’ last four games.

“Psychologically, he now knows he can hit the ball out of any part of this park.”

Wright helped make the day easier for Mets starter Jon Niese, who pitched seven effective innings for his first victory of the year. Niese, who was 0-3 with a 5.37 earned run average, allowed six hits and two earned runs Sunday. Collins said Dan Warthen, the Mets’ pitching coach, had worked with Niese on keeping a steady pace — not rushing his pitches. Niese struck out the first two batters he faced with pinpoint fastballs and did not scuffle until he gave up two hits in each of his last two innings.

“I think my fastball was good today,” Niese said. “My off-speed pitches need a little help, but I think my off-speed pitches helped with my fastball.”

The Mets gave Niese a lift by taking an 8-1 lead in the first four innings. Although Wright said starting pitching had been the key to the Mets’ latest success, the team has amassed 27 runs and 38 hits in the last four games. Jason Pridie, a 27-year-old center fielder recalled from Class AAA Buffalo on Friday to replace the injured Angel Pagan, walloped a three-run homer off Galarraga into the Mets’ bullpen in a four-run third inning. It was Pridie’s first big-league home run, after 137 at-bats.

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Barcelona-Real Madrid: Rating the Coming Clasicos

Saturday brings the start of three weeks of El Clásico overload, a series of four matchups between the bitter Spanish rivals Barcelona and Real Madrid that will help decide a season’s worth of competitions: the Spanish league, the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Champions League.

Each of the games has its own attraction and ramifications, and its own singular importance, but is any one bigger than the other? Or should they just be viewed as a soccerphile’s dream, a reason to plop down in front of the TV every few days and count one’s blessings?

Barcelona at Real Madrid, La Liga, Saturday: No less an authority than Johan Cruyff argues that the first matchup is the most critical.

“The most important thing is always the league, it’s a long-distance thing,” Cruyff said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Thursday. “You don’t need to be lucky; you have to play well the whole way,”

“In the Champions League, you can have injuries, a little luck, a little bad luck — so a lot of things can happen in a short competition. So, for me, the league is always very important.”

But with Barcelona eight points up in La Liga with only seven rounds to go, and with Real Madrid Manager José Mourinho having basically thrown in the towel in that race two weeks ago, Cruyff would say that, wouldn’t he?

But because the first Clásico will set the tone for the ones lined up behind it — and because Barcelona won the first meeting in La Liga, 5-0 — he may be on to something.

Barcelona vs. Real Madrid, Copa del Rey final at Valencia, April 20: It’s fair to say that the Copa del Rey trophy is the least prestigious of the three up for grabs between these teams before the end of May, but Barcelona certainly won’t turn up its nose: it is in a better position to win the treble than Real Madrid this season but can’t do it without first claiming this first prize.

This final will be the only one of the four matchups played on a neutral field, Only one in which two teams will walk in and only one will walk out with the silverware. So for pure winner-take-all, let’s-settle-this-tonight intensity, these 90 minutes have their own special appeal. Barcelona at Real Madrid, Champions League semifinals, first leg, April 27.

Mourinho more or less put all his eggs in the Champions League basket a few weeks ago, but he has won the tournament with Porto and Inter Milan and probably thinks he can do it again. And he might be right: while Real Madrid’s most dangerous players (Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, etc.) have been getting healthy over the past several weeks, a few of Barcelona’s key defenders have gone missing though injury (Carles Puyol) or illness (Eric Abidal). Having the first leg of the Champions League semifinal in Madrid could be a huge advantage for Mourinho, especially if his team can stake him to a healthy lead.

Real Madrid at Barcelona, Champions League semifinals, second leg, May 3: What will the mood be at the Nou Camp when Round 4 caps three weeks of Clásicos: Bouyant or panicked? Enraged or resigned? Will this final matchup be an crowning moment for Ronaldo or Lionel Messi, or a face-saving one in front of 100,000-plus fans? Messi, for one, seems to live for moments like this, to always rise to the occasion, at least when he’s wearing his Barcelona shirt. But if Real Madrid has built some momentum, will he and his game-wear, injury-plagued team have the strength to push back?

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Paul Shows Fans Way to Beat Lakers, and Other Teams Are Watching, Too

NEW ORLEANS — Chris Paul cupped his hand to his ear, as if he could not hear the thundering applause of the capacity New Orleans Arena crowd. The gesture, which came Sunday night in the waning seconds of the Hornets’ 93-88 playoff victory against the two-time defending N.B.A. champion Los Angeles Lakers, was as close as Paul gets to showboating.

“It was good to see the city with a smile on their face,” Paul said after New Orleans evened the first-round playoff series at two games apiece. “This city, this arena, deserved this win tonight.”

The Hornets’ postseason slogan is “I’m In,” but many wonder if Paul, the 25-year-old All-Star point guard, may be on his way out. He will be a free agent at the end of next season and will be coveted by any number of teams. That includes the just-eliminated Knicks, who are in sore need of someone who can go toe-to-toe with Boston’s Rajon Rondo.

But whether Paul will ever make it to free agency or be traded beforehand, and whether the Knicks will find a way to be involved, remains to be seen. Paul is close with the Knicks’ top players — Amar’e Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups — and before they were swept by the Celtics on Sunday, Paul said, he sent them text messages of support.

“I told them to keep fighting,” he said, adding: “Chauncey’s like a big brother to me. So is Melo.”

All those Knicks are now free to sit home and watch as Paul continues to try to torment the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant, who went scoreless on seven shots in the first half Sunday night while running himself ragged trying to guard Paul. Bryant, who finished with 17 points, turned his left ankle late in the game and conducted postgame interviews in the training room.

“When it’s all said and done, he’ll be one of the best that’s ever laced them up,” Bryant said of Paul. “That’s just a bad little dude, man.”

Paul seems genuinely modest, although if the spotlight intensifies next season, his disinclination to talk about himself will be tested. On Sunday, Paul collected 27 points, 15 assists and 13 rebounds for his first triple-double of the season, changed into a conservative suit and then, accompanied by his teammate Trevor Ariza, met with reporters.

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