Potter leaving Buckeyes
bbsketball program
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio State forward Micah Potter is transferring two days before Buckeyes’ season opener.
The university announced the decision Monday but did not say to what school the 6-foot-9 junior was going.
Potter dealt with ankle injuries his first two years and has not met expectations that he would become a dominant inside player.
Potter, of Mentor, Ohio, appeared in 59 games with 16 starts, averaging 4.1 points and 2.8 rebounds while shooting 46 percent.
The Buckeyes open Wednesday at Cincinnati.

Taylor, Douglas headline Black College HOF
ATLANTA (AP) — John Taylor from Delaware State and Hugh Douglas from Central State are among the seven new inductees to the Black College Football Hall of Fame.
Joining Taylor and Douglas in the 10th class are Emerson Boozer of Maryland Eastern Shore; Rich “Tombstone” Jackson from Southern; Frank Lewis from Grambling State; Timmy Newsome from Winston-Salem State; and Arnett “Ace” Mumford, who coached Southern to 11 Southwestern Athletic Conference championships.
Taylor scored 42 touchdowns for Delaware State from 1983-85 and went on to win three Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers. Douglas had 42 sacks in 32 games playing in NAIA before being a first-round draft pick by the New York Jets in 1995.
The induction ceremony is scheduled for Feb. 16 at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.

Calipari’s son plans to
redshirt this season
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky says junior guard Brad Calipari will redshirt this season.
The 6-foot, 179-pound Calipari, son of Wildcats coach John Calipari, will practice and travel with the team and have two seasons of eligibility remaining. He has 11 points and five rebounds in 27 career games with the No. 2 Wildcats, who open Tuesday against No. 4 Duke in Indianapolis.
Calipari, a two-time Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll member, is scheduled to graduate with a communications degree and plans to enter graduate school.
The player said in a release Monday that he thought about the decision for a while and it “just made the most sense” with his academic plans and basketball growth.”

Steinbrenner, Piniella
on baseball HOF ballot
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) — Late New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, former managers Lou Piniella, Davey Johnson and Charlie Manuel, and six players headed by Lee Smith are on the 10-man ballot for the baseball Hall of Fame’s Today’s Game Era committee to consider next month.
Harold Baines, Albert Belle, Will Clark, Orel Hershiser and Joe Carter also are on the ballot for the 16-man committee, which meets Dec. 9 at the winter meetings in Las Vegas. The committee considers candidates from 1998 to the present, and a candidate needs at least 75 percent of the vote to be elected.
Any candidate picked will be inducted July 21 along with any players elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America in a vote announced Jan. 22. Mariano Rivera and the late Roy Halladay join a ballot with top returnees Edgar Martinez and Mike Mussina.
When the Today’s Game Era committee last met two years ago, former baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and Atlanta Braves executive John Schuerholz were elected. Piniella received seven votes, while Baines, Belle, Clark, Hershiser, Johnson and Steinbrenner each received fewer than five. Mark McGwire also received fewer than five and was dropped from this year’s ballot.
“I believe that committee and the people who have the power of votes, it would be hard pressed not to acknowledge this was a transformative figure in all of sports, not just baseball,” Yankees general Brian Cashman said in defense of Steinbrenner at the general manager’s meetings in Carlsbad, California. “It’s very political at times … so there’s some powerful people that view it differently, I’m sure.”
Smith’s highest voting percentage during 15 years on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot was 50.6 percent in 2012. He received 34.2 percent in his 15th and final appearance in 2017.
Baines never received more than 6.1 percent and was dropped after his fifth appearance in 2011 for falling under the 5 percent threshold. Hershiser and Belle were dropped after their second appearances in 2007, and Carter (2004) and Clark (2006) after their first.
The Hall has four committees. Modern Baseball (1970-87) meets in December 2019 and Golden Days (1950-69) and Early Baseball (before 1950) in December 2020.
The 16 voters this year will be announced later.