SPORT DIGEST || YSU hires Pearson as running backs coach

YSU hires Pearson as running backs coach

YOUNGSTOWN

Former Ohio State running back Pepe Pearson will be the new running backs coach at Youngstown State.

Pearson has been at Ohio Dominican since 2004, coaching running backs and special teams. He replaces Ron Brown, who left for Liberty University after coaching the Penguins during spring practice.

A Euclid native, Pearson rushed for 3,121 yards in his four-year OSU career from 1994-1997.

Phantoms tryout camp begins today

Youngstown

The Youngstown Phantoms will host their annual tryout camp this week at the Ice Zone.

The camp will also feature a pair of all-star games on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. All events this weekend are free of charge and open to the public. On Friday and Saturday, teams of non-veteran junior players, United States Hockey League draft picks, and specially invited free agent players will compete for an undetermined number of spots on two teams that will play in the all-star games. In addition to these invited players, veteran players will be added to the rosters to round out the teams.

On Sunday afternoon, the Phantoms hockey operations staff will select the 2015-16 Youngstown Phantoms team that will compete in the upcoming USHL season.

Cavs-Warriors final draws big audience

NEW YORK

A strong start to the NBA Finals — at least from a television viewer’s standpoint — is working to ABC’s advantage.

The Cleveland Cavaliers’ series-tying win over the Golden State Warriors on Sunday reached more than 19 million viewers, easily the most-watched television event of the week. The Nielsen company said the series’ opening game earlier in the week drew 17.8 million TV viewers. Both games helped ABC to an easy victory in last week’s prime-time ratings competition.

The most-watched NBA Finals since 2001 was the seven-game series between Boston and the L.A. Lakers in 2010. If the current series stays competitive, it could match or beat that series.

Louisville signs Pitino through 2025-26 season

LOUISVILLE, Ky.

Louisville has extended coach Rick Pitino’s contract four years through the 2025-26 season.

The Cardinals are coming off their fifth NCAA Tournament regional final appearance in eight years, a stretch that has included the 2012 Final Four and the school’s third national championship the following year.

Pitino, 62, is the first coach to win NCAA titles at two schools, having previously won with Kentucky in 1996. He is 368-126 in 14 seasons at Louisville and 722-254 in 30 seasons overall.

Pitino said during a Tuesday news conference that “I never looked at this as a job; I looked at it as a privilege.”

The 2013 Hall of Fame inductee had seven years remaining on his current contract.

NASCAR penalty on Johnson overturned

CONCORD, N.C.

An appeals committee has overturned the penalty levied against Jimmie Johnson’s team for receiving two consecutive written warnings.

The P1 penalty of last choice in pit selection for the next race was removed by the three-person panel that heard the Hendrick Motorsports appeal Tuesday.

The No. 48 team was warned at the All-Star Race for illegal modifications to the side skirt, and at the Coca-Cola 600 for needing too many attempts to pass prequalifying inspection.

The appeals ruled there was a “preponderance of evidence presented that the side skirt violation . did occur.” But it found there was “conflicting evidence” about the inspection violation.

Johnson’s team has received at least four warnings this season, and failed prerace inspection three times Sunday at Pocono Raceway.

Staff/wire reports