Miami

John Rochford of Mainland High in Atlantic County, considered among the best high school linemen in the area, has made a verbal commitment to attend the University of Miami. The 6-foot-3, 290-pound Rochford told the Miami coaching staff of his decision late Saturday. During the spring, he had made unofficial visits to Miami and Penn State. Rochford said that he was also considering North Carolina, Maryland, Boston College, Iowa and Wisconsin. According to NCAA rules, a high school football recruit may not officially sign a letter of intent until Feb. 5. "I really liked the school and loved the coaching staff," Rochford said.

Dwayne Hendricks, the all-American defensive end from Millville High, has made an oral commitment to attend the University of Miami on a football scholarship, Millville coach Dave Heck said last night. The 6-foot-4, 250-pound Hendricks, The Inquirer's South Jersey defensive player of the year last fall, had narrowed his choices down to Miami or Virginia. He also visited Iowa and Michigan. Miami's defensive linemen are coached by Greg Mark, the former Pennsauken standout. "Dwayne's always gotten along well with Greg, and Miami is really the place he's always wanted to go," Heck said.

MIAMI - Once-woeful Miami won for the fourth time in its last five games on Sunday, beating Oakland 34-14. Reggie Bush ran for 100 yards and a touchdown, Matt Moore had a hand in two TDs and Kevin Burnett returned an interception 34 yards for Miami's final score. The surge came after the Dolphins (4-8) lost their first seven games. In the past five weeks they've outscored opponents 139-54, with the lone loss a one-point defeat at Dallas on Thanksgiving. "We've been on a wild ride here," Moore said.

Brooklawn has lost its opening game at the 68th American Legion World Series, in Boyertown. But coach Joe Barth and the New Jersey team's star pitcher, Jack Marcellus, say the young squad still has a solid shot at staying alive in the double- elimination tournament and winning the national title Tuesday at Bear Stadium. A strong and experienced Miami team used one big inning yesterday to slip past Brooklawn, 5-3, dropping Post 72 into the losers' bracket. Brooklawn was scheduled to play in the second game of a doubleheader this morning against Bedford, Va., which lost last night to Salem, Ore., 4-1. "We still have plenty of pitching, and that's what you need in the losers' bracket," Barth said.

Everything is happening in threes for the Villanova women's basketball team. The Wildcats, who live and die with the three-point shot, are hitting them with ease to stay among the leaders in the crowded Big East race. Well, actually, 'Nova remains in the logjam of teams fighting for second behind top-ranked and unbeaten Connecticut. Last night, junior Katie Davis became trey-happy and Villanova overwhelmed Miami, 80-52, at the Pavilion. Davis reached a career high in three-pointers made after she shot 7 for 11 from beyond the arc. Going 9 for 13 from the field, she finished with 27 points, her career high.

The University of Miami's executive committee of the board of trustees will meet today to discuss moving from the Big East to the Atlantic Coast Conference. The university also will host the first of three ACC site visits Friday, the next step in a likely relocation that could drastically change the landscape of college athletics. Miami's executive committee will eventually vote on whether to join the ACC, but university officials don't expect it before the site visit. Teams of ACC officials including an athletic director, faculty representative and conference office official will travel to Miami tomorrow and tour the school's facilities Friday, according to a university source.

For the final 42 seconds, Wally Szczerbiak had to stand and watch. When the buzzer sounded, he was back in the middle of things, just as he'd been all night. Szczerbiak scored 29 points and host Miami of Ohio withstood a late rally by seventh-ranked Xavier, holding on for an 80-72 victory last night. Hundreds of fans chanted "Overrated," stormed the court and surrounded Szczerbiak and his teammates after the RedHawks' first victory over a Top 10 team in 24 years. "I wanted this one so bad," said Szczerbiak, a junior forward who fouled out with 42 seconds left and Miami (5-1)

Defensive lineman Nate Robinson, one of the highest-rated recruits in the country last year, has decided not to enroll at the University of Miami and will instead play at Rutgers. Robinson, a 6-foot-5, 305-pound tackle from Irvington, N.J., signed with Rutgers on Wednesday, after Miami would not declare him academically eligible. Robinson's SAT score of 800 meets the NCAA minimum for high school students with a 3.0 grade point average but is 20 points shy of Miami's institutional standard.

The final visit for Pennsauken's Howard Clark made a lasting impression. Clark, an Inquirer first-team all-South Jersey linebacker, said yesterday that he had made an oral commitment to the University of Miami. Clark, a 6-foot-2, 218-pounder who can run a 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds, made his decision after returning from his recruiting visit to Miami on Sunday. It was the fifth and final visit for Clark, who also toured Nebraska, UCLA, Florida State and Wisconsin. According to NCAA rules, he may not sign a letter of intent until next Wednesday.

Miami used a superb pitching effort by Fernando Rodriguez and a balanced hitting attack to rout Chino (Calif.), 9-0, and claim the 68th American Legion World Series title last night in Boyertown. Rodriguez, a 19-year-old righthander who recently transferred to Florida International University from Alabama, did not allow an earned run in 32 innings through the Southeast Regional competition and the World Series. Last night, he struck out six, walked just one, and allowed five hits.

By now, most 76ers fans know Khalif Wyatt worked out on Saturday for the Sixers staff at PCOM. But he wasn't alone. The former Temple guard said he was joined by Shane Larkin, DeShaun Thomas and Glen Rice Jr. in the workout. The Inquirer orginially reported Wednesday that Wyatt was scheduled to participate in the workout. The Sixers have a first-round pick (11th overall) and two second-round selections (35th and 42d). Larkin, a former University of Miami point guard, is projected as a late first-round or early second-round draft pick.

NORTH BAY VILLAGE, Fla. - Investigators began examining a twisted pile of concrete, metal, and wood Friday to determine why a deck at a popular sports bar collapsed into shallow Biscayne Bay, injuring two dozen people gathered to cheer the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. Authorities estimated that 100 people were on the deck at Shuckers Bar & Grill when a support on one end apparently gave way, causing the deck to buckle in the middle and drop about eight feet into the bay. The scene Friday was a tangle of partly submerged green plastic chairs, tables, umbrellas, and even flip-flops and cellphones lost in the chaos of the night before.

SAN ANTONIO - LeBron James was better as promised. Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were the best they've been since the playoffs started. Riding big performances from their Big Three, the Miami Heat tied the NBA Finals with a 109-93 victory over the San Antonio Spurs last night in Game 4. James had 33 points and 11 rebounds after failing to break 20 points in any of the first three games of the series, and Wade scored 32 points, 11 more than...

MIAMI - Mitch Glazer and half a dozen of his buddies were sitting in a booth at Wolfie's Restaurant in Miami Beach one afternoon in the late 1960s, chattering and laughing and generally being teenage loudmouths, when a waitress walked over to ask them to keep it down. They did, for a moment, but soon the volume dialed back up. The waitress returned. Nodding to a white-haired man a few tables away, she amended her request: "Mr. Lansky would appreciate it if you could be a little quieter.

ALTHOUGH Marcell Ozuna's 16-game hitting streak was snapped on Saturday, Miami's 22-year-old rookie outfielder bounced back in a big way yesterday. Ozuna had three hits, including a double and a triple, and drove in four runs to help the Marlins complete a three-game sweep over the visiting New York Mets with an 11-6 win. "I'm feeling great," Ozuna said. "Everything is going good. Whenever I cross the [white] line, I am trying to help the team. " Greg Dobbs hit a three-run homer, and Ed Lucas and Chris Coghlan each had four hits and two RBI for the Marlins, who tied a season high with 16 hits and swept the Mets in Miami for the first time since May 28-30, 2004, outscoring the Mets by 24-8 in the series.

SEVERAL TIMES around the start of the playoffs, Miami coach Erik Spoelstra insisted that the postseason path his team would wind up navigating had the potential to be more challenging than the route they took to the NBA championship a year ago. He's apparently correct, probably to his own chagrin. The defending NBA champion Heat are in a bit of trouble. They can't get enough rebounds, can't get Dwyane Wade on track, can't get consistency out of Chris Bosh - and will likely see all those story lines either grow exponentially or basically disappear tonight, when they host the Indiana Pacers in Game 5 of a super-competitive Eastern Conference finals that are now knotted at two games apiece.

NCAA investigators are planning to interview Miami football player Dyron Dye next week to see whether there are discrepancies between what he told them previously and what he wrote in an affidavit in support of former assistant coach Aubrey Hill , the Associated Press reported Friday. The Hurricanes are being probed over ties between players, coaches, recruits, and administrators and former booster Nevin Shapiro , who is doing 20 years in federal prison for masterminding a $930 million Ponzi scheme.

LeBron James scored 27 points and the Miami Heat nearly matched a franchise record for points allowed in a playoff game, pounding the listless and short-handed Bulls, 88-65, on Monday night in Chicago to take a three-games-to-one lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The 65 points allowed were only two more than the all-time postseason low for a Miami opponent, and it was easily the worst offensive performance by a Chicago team. Never before had the Bulls scored fewer than 69 in a playoff game or 10 or fewer in a quarter during the postseason, but both those marks fell on a night when they were dominated on both ends of the floor.

Nate Robinson scored 27 points, Jimmy Butler added 21 points and 14 rebounds while playing every second for the third consecutive game, and the Chicago Bulls stunned the host Miami Heat, 93-86, on Monday night to take Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series. Trailing by 86-83 with two minutes to go, the Bulls scored the final 10 points of the game to beat the Heat. Joakim Noah added 13 points and Taj Gibson had 12 for Chicago, which snapped a 27-game Miami winning streak during the regular season and handed the Heat their first loss in their last 13 games in this one. Marco Bellinelli scored 10 points for the Bulls after being fined $15,000 by the NBA for making an obscene gesture in the fourth quarter of Saturday night's win at Brooklyn.

MIAMI - Dion Jordan is built like Udonis Haslem. He wants to play like Lawrence Taylor. Jordan, the Miami Dolphins' latest first-round selection, arrived in Miami to great fanfare Saturday. Flashbulbs, his general manager and a lucky season-ticket holder were among those welcoming him to town. But with a passing glance, one could easily confuse Jordan with an NBA small forward and not a budding NFL defensive lineman. He stands more than 6-foot-6, but weighs a mere 250 pounds.