EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Danton Cole won’t return as Michigan State hockey coach after a 58-101-12 record over five seasons.
“I believe a fresh start is what the program needs most,” athletic director Alan Haller said Tuesday.
The Spartans lost 15 of their last 16 games to finish the season at 12-23-1.
Cole was coach for the USA Hockey National Team Development Program before returning to MSU in 2017. He also was the head coach for three seasons at Alabama-Huntsville.
Cole played on MSU’s 1986 national championship team. He and Don McSween share the school record for most games played, 180.
“Danton Cole is a Spartan alum who put his heart into this job and we appreciate his efforts and dedication,” Haller said.
ALL-STAR GAME TO STAY IN UTAH
NEW YORK (AP) — The NBA plans to keep its next All-Star Game in Salt Lake City, despite its opposition to Utah’s ban on transgender youth athletes playing on girls teams.
The Utah Jazz are set to host the event next February but there was speculation the NBA could take it away because of what the team called “discriminatory legislation.”
But Commissioner Adam Silver said the event will stay put as planned.
The NBA pulled the 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte because of its opposition to a North Carolina law known as HB2 that limited anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay and transgender people.
The game was played in New Orleans before the league returned to Charlotte in 2019.
Silver said the circumstances are different this time, adding that the league didn’t want to be in a position where it risked having to keep moving its events as similar laws were becoming more common. When Utah’s GOP lawmakers pushed through their ban last month, it joined 11 other states with similar legislation.
POLL: FANS UPSET OVER STOPPAGE
NEW YORK (AP) — About 1 in 4 fans of Major League Baseball feel at least some anger toward the sport after its first work stoppage in a generation, according to a new poll, but the vast majority are still excited about the new season.
Only 27% of Americans say they are currently a fan of MLB, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
The poll also finds 32% of Americans 45 and older say they currently are fans, but only 22% of younger adults say they are, a trend MLB management says it is working to reverse.
Even among fans, few were very attuned to the 99-day lockout that delayed the start of the season from March 31 until Thursday or say that it had a major impact on their views of MLB.
