Minnesota

Rick Zombo and Sergei Fedorov scored goals eight seconds apart in the third period as Detroit beat Minnesota, 8-6, last night, keeping the Red Wings unbeaten at home and the North Stars winless on the road. Detroit took 47 shots against goalie Kari Takko, recalled Monday from Kalamazoo (Mich.), where he was 4-0-1 with a 2.00 goals-against average.

AFTER FILING two separate antitrust lawsuits against the league in different states, NBA players are consolidating their efforts and have turned to the courts in Minnesota as their chosen venue. A group of named plaintiffs including Carmelo Anthony, Steve Nash and Kevin Durant filed an amended federal lawsuit against the league in Minnesota yesterday, hoping the courts there will be as favorable to them as they have been to NFL players in the past. The locked-out players filed class-action antitrust suits against the league last Tuesday in California and Minnesota.

Make that nine Top 25 teams to fall to unranked opponents. Ranked 21st in the nation, Villanova couldn't avoid joining the list of early-season upsets as Minnesota ran away from the Wildcats, 85-64, last night in the semifinals of the Great Alaska Shootout. The Wildcats (1-1) will try to rebound tonight against Louisville (1-1) in the consolation round. Minnesota (2-0) will play another surprise finalist, Brigham Young (2-0) for the Shootout title (midnight, ESPN). BYU beat Louisville in the other semifinal, 75-60.

Al Settembrino, Archbishop Ryan's most prolific rusher, has scheduled a news conference for Monday in which he is expected to announce that he will attend the University of Minnesota this fall on a football scholarship. Settembrino, a 5-foot-11, 180-pound halfback, chose Minnesota over such schools as Tulsa, Massachusetts, Syracuse, West Virginia, Boston College and Wake Forest. He made official visits to Minnesota, Massachusetts and Syracuse. "On my visits, I felt Minnesota had the best facilities, and I liked the coaching staff," said Settembrino, who said he would major in business.

Perhaps Brian Dozier summed up his friend Art Layton's dilemma best when he said, "I'm sure his brain will be rattling. " According to Layton, it did exactly that. But the rattling is over. Last night, Layton, a 6-foot, 2-inch, 260-pound Chester lineman, was to announce that he will attend the University of Minnesota in the fall. The decision came after a trip to the University of Maryland last weekend, a trip that Layton said had only confused matters for him. "Sunday night, it was getting on my nerves a little trying to figure out where I would go, but I want to go to Minnesota," Layton said.

Camden High senior Kevin Payton, a 6-foot-7 forward, has made an oral commitment to attend the University of Minnesota on a basketball scholarship, Camden athletic director Mark Pease confirmed yesterday. "He visited last week and really felt comfortable there," Pease said. "He said the academic program was top-notch. " Payton attends Camden's Creative and Performing Arts High School, a satellite of Camden High. Senior basketball players can sign binding letters of intent Nov. 10-17.

Lawrence Westbrook and Travis Busch each scored 10 points and No. 22 Minnesota rallied from a 13-point deficit then hung on to beat host Iowa, 52-49, last night. The Golden Gophers (14-1, 2-1 Big Ten) shot only 33.9 percent from the field and nearly let the game slip away in the closing seconds. Minnesota led 50-44 with 24.5 seconds left. Jake Kelly of Iowa (11-5, 1-2) scored and Al Nolen of Minnesota missed two free throws. Jeff Peterson buried an open 3 from the corner with 5.3 seconds left to make it a one-point game, but Westbrook hit two free throws.

Games against Minnesota and Kentucky, two participants in last year's NCAA Final Four, highlight the Villanova basketball schedule for 1997-98, announced yesterday. The Wildcats will have one of their earliest openers ever, playing Minnesota on Nov. 14 in the BCA Classic at the Target Center in Minneapolis. They also have road games Nov. 29 at Bradley and Dec. 3 at Georgetown before playing their home opener Dec. 6 against Seton Hall at The Pavilion. Villanova also will meet Kentucky, last year's NCAA runner-up, on Feb. 8 at the CoreStates Center.

Pat Wright, the starting quarterback at Valley Forge Military Academy, has announced that he will accept a full scholarship to play football at the University of Minnesota. He cannot officially accept the scholarship until Wednesday, but he committed orally Friday to play for the Gophers. "On Wednesday, I went to talk to Pat to see where he might be leaning to," said Trojans coach Jim Burner. "Before I even had a chance to ask him any questions, he told me that he was going to Minnesota.

MINNEAPOLIS - Erlana Larkins had 16 points and 15 rebounds, and the Indiana Fever stunned defending champion Minnesota with a 76-70 victory over the Lynx in Game 1 of the WNBA Finals on Sunday night. Tamika Catchings added 20 points for the Fever, who played without leading scorer Katie Douglas because of a sprained left ankle. Seimone Augustus scored 23 points and Rebekkah Brunson added 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Lynx, who are looking to become the WNBA's first repeat champion in 10 years.

MINNEAPOLIS - Ben Revere was greeted with handshakes and hugs yesterday afternoon at Target Field. After spending the first 6 years of his professional career in the Twins organization, Revere returned to Minnesota for the first time since the December trade that sent him to Philadelphia. Revere said the biggest adjustment was simply switching uniforms, adjusting to being in a new city with a new team. But no matter if its at a cavernous outfield in Minneapolis or the cozier confines of Citizens Bank Park, it would appear that Revere's more difficult adjustment has come on the field, and specifically, in centerfield.

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Six months after Minnesota voters turned back an effort to ban gay weddings, lawmakers are poised to make the state the first in the Midwest to pass a law allowing them. The shift comes amid a rapid evolution of public opinion nationally. But with Minnesota and possibly Illinois set to broaden the definition to include same-sex couples, coastal states may soon have some company. In November, voters unexpectedly defeated a measure that would have banned same-sex marriage in the Minnesota Constitution, even after more than two dozen states passed similar bans.

Here's a Monday score: Mother Nature 2, Major League Baseball 0. The game between the Atlanta Braves and the Colorado Rockies in Denver Monday night was postponed by a snowstorm - the third time in eight days that the white stuff has frozen out the summer pastime at Coors Field. In Minneapolis, the Minnesota Twins were proactive, preemptively postponing their game against the Miami Marlins seven hours before game time, while it was still 45 degrees and way before a single flake could fall at Target Field.

Minnesota has picked 30-year-old up-and-comer Richard Pitino, the son of Louisville head coach Rick Pitino, to take over for the fired Tubby Smith, the school announced Wednesday night. In his one season at Florida International, the younger Pitino led the Panthers to an 18-14 record, the school's first winning season in 13 years. At Florida International, Pitino inherited a program that was short on talent. The Panthers went 11-9 in the Sun Belt Conference, the most wins since joining the league in 1998-99.

MINNESOTA HAS chosen Richard Pitino, the son of Louisville coach Rick Pitino, to take over for Tubby Smith, the university announced Wednesday night. In his lone season at Florida International, Pitino led the Panthers to an 18-14 record, the school's first winning season in 13 years. He will turn 31 in September, fitting the profile of the young, up-and-comer that Minnesota athletic director Norwood Teague has preferred to hire in the past. Smith, who was fired last week after six seasons at Minnesota, was hired at Texas Tech on Monday.

MINNESOTA FIRED Tubby Smith on Monday, cutting ties with the veteran coach a day after the Golden Gophers lost to Florida in the NCAA Tournament. Athletics director Norwood Teague announced the decision Monday and said it was time for a "fresh set of eyes" on the program. Smith was 124-81 (.610) in six seasons at Minnesota, helping to bring the program back to respectability and ramping up expectations for a team hit hard by an academic cheating scandal. Smith won 20 games five times.

Rutgers-Camden's softball team swept Minnesota-Morris by scores of 8-0 and 3-1 in a doubleheader at the Snowbird Invitational in Myrtle Beach, S.C., on Wednesday. In the first game, Scarlet Raptors rightfielder Lexi Fair (GCIT) went 3 for 3 with a triple, two RBIs, two runs scored, and a stolen base. Ashleigh Johnson (Bordentown Regional) hurled a two-hitter in shutting out the Cougars, walking one and striking out three. In the second game, Brittany Sullivan (Gloucester Catholic)

INDIANA was starting to settle in again at No. 1 after weeks of shuffling at the top of the national rankings in this wildly unpredictable season of college basketball. Trevor Mbakwe put a stop to that. Mbakwe had 21 points and 12 rebounds to help host Minnesota take down No. 1 Indiana, 77-73, on Tuesday night, the seventh time the top-ranked team in the Associated Press' poll has lost a game this season. Andre Hollins added 16 points for the Gophers (19-9, 7-8 Big Ten)

MINNEAPOLIS - The 76ers brought one of their glaring problems from the first half of the season with them into the second. Too often before the all-star break, the Sixers began games as if they were sleepwalking, rallied, and then simply could not close the deal when it counted. That was the template they followed against a lowly Minnesota team in a 94-87 loss Wednesday night at the Target Center. The Sixers, playing with a lethargy that has been their trademark this season, fell behind by 19 points and never recovered.

MINNEAPOLIS - Dik Bolger is a lifelong Minnesota Democrat, a gray-bearded baby boomer with a braid down his back whose Minneapolis printing company's plant displays work by local artists and sculptors. He backed Mark Dayton for governor, but his take on the Democratic chief executive's plan for new business taxes could be the voice-over for a Republican campaign commercial. "We're screwed," Bolger said, if the tax goes through.  His 79-year-old company competes nationwide and overseas for work with major brands like Chanel.