Summitt OK after run-in with raccoon

Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt didn't look too uncomfortable Friday, jumping up and down on the sideline in the Southeastern Conference tournament.

Not bad for someone who dislocated a shoulder in an encounter with a raccoon.

Summitt had taken her golden Labrador out for a walk Wednesday night when they came back to find the raccoon on the deck at her home.

"I momentarily lost it," Summitt told WBIR-TV in Knoxville. "The raccoon was about to attack. I just knocked it off the deck, and fortunately nothing happened but a dislocated shoulder, and it's back in place."

Summitt showed no sign of injury Friday in Nashville, and she told the TV station the shoulder wouldn't bother her at the SEC tournament. And she learned a lesson about dealing with raccoons.

"When I realized what could have happened, it almost brought me to tears," she said. "It wasn't very smart on my part."

ARKANSAS STATE AND RICHARDSON STILL TALKING: Nolan Richardson says he's still in talks with Arkansas State about the school's coaching vacancy after a quick visit to Jonesboro, where the school's campus is located.

"We had some conversations yesterday, and it went well," Richardson said Friday. "There's nothing that's been done or said or anything, other than to continue to work on whatever they need to work on -- and to show me what I needed to be able to accept."

Richardson said he went to Jonesboro on Thursday. On Friday, he was back in the Fayetteville area, where he lives. He said he hadn't been to the Jonesboro area in about 14 years.

"It's very progressive looking, and kind of reminds me of this area -- other than the fact that we're in northwest (Arkansas) and they're in northeast," Richardson, 66, said.

Richardson didn't go into details about his talks with Arkansas State but described them as ongoing.

Richardson has been out of college coaching since being fired by Arkansas in 2002. He led the Razorbacks to the 1994 national championship.

The Arkansas State job came open when Dickey Nutt resigned last month.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA RECRUIT ARRESTED: Maurice Simmons remained jailed Friday after being arrested in a robbery investigation. He was being held at the Los Angeles County jail on $50,000 bail.

The 18-year-old is a 6-foot-1, 210-pound linebacker from Dominguez High School in Compton. He signed a letter of intent last month to accept a football scholarship at Southern California this fall.

Simmons and 19-year-old Lamont Hall, of Compton, were stopped by police in a vehicle Simmons was driving and arrested for investigation of armed robbery, Whitmore said.

A handgun and the victim's stolen property were found in the car, he said.

RUTGERS' FRANCIS SUSPENDED: Rutgers defensive tackle Justin Francis was suspended Friday after being arrested a day earlier.

Francis, of Miramar, Fla., was arrested Thursday, said coach Greg Schiano, who refused to give any details about the arrest or whether the sophomore had been released.

SEATTLE INELIGIBLE: Seattle University has self-reported a secondary violation in its men's basketball program to the NCAA, making the Redhawks ineligible for this year's Division II tournament.