In Brief | Nation and World March 20

UNC guard’s father: Marshall recovering from surgery

The father of North Carolina point guard Kendall Marshall said Monday his son is recovering from surgery on his broken right wrist and it’s unclear if he’ll return for the NCAA regional games in St. Louis.

Dennis Marshall said the procedure done in Chapel Hill, N.C., to insert a screw into his son’s wrist lasted about 35 minutes.

He said when Kendall plays again would be based on “what would be best for Kendall in the long term” and that he didn’t know whether the sophomore would be ready to play in the round of 16 against Ohio on Friday.

“I don’t know because Kendall’s just coming out of his anesthesia, we haven’t talked and I don’t know how he’ll feel four days from now,” Dennis Marshall said. “We just don’t know.

“Is it impossible he plays this weekend? No, it’s not. Is it likely he plays next weekend? It definitely is. It’s something we just don’t know.”

The school also said Marshall’s status was unclear for Friday’s game in an update Monday afternoon. The Tar Heels (31-5) are the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Regional.

Mets’ future brightens with Madoff settlement

NEW YORK — The New York Mets’ owners scored an early season victory Monday, stabilizing the club’s financial future in a deal with a trustee for Bernard Madoff’s fraud victims that requires them to pay millions less than they might have — and lifts a dark cloud from a team whose dismal play seemed to mirror its misfortune in the owner’s box.

Mets CEO Fred Wilpon and team President Saul Katz, co-majority owners, emerged smiling from a Manhattan federal courthouse after a judge announced the agreement, which makes it likely they’ll pay much less than the agreed-upon $162 million, if any at all; guarantees they will owe nothing until the end of four years; and averts a high-profile civil trial.

In a lawsuit that demanded $1 billion from the Mets owners, Picard said Wilpon and Katz had meetings with Madoff in his office at least once a year, a privilege few investors enjoyed, and that Katz at times spoke directly with Madoff at least once a day.

Madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence after revealing in December 2008 that he cheated thousands of investors of roughly $20 billion for years.

Utley is doubtful
for opening day

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Chase Utley will likely start the season on the disabled list for the second straight year because of problems with both knees.

The five-time All-Star second baseman left camp to see a specialist, and it’s uncertain when he’ll be ready to play for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Utley was believed to have only an injured right knee, but general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. indicated Monday the left one may be causing more trouble.

Utley hasn’t played in a game this spring because of his condition, which forced him to miss all of last spring and the first 46 games of the regular season.

He was diagnosed last February with patellar tendinitis, bone inflammation and chondromalacia, which is pain due to irritation under the kneecap. Surgery didn’t guarantee a cure, so he opted for rehab instead and played through pain when he came back.

Teixeira resigns
from FIFA’s executive committee

SAO PAULO — Ricardo Teixeira, the former head of Brazilian soccer, is resigning from FIFA’s executive committee.

Teixeira has resigned from the post he held since 1994 in a letter sent to the South American football confederation on Monday.

The Brazilian said he is leaving the committee because of “personal reasons.”

The announcement comes exactly a week after Teixeira stood down as president of the Brazilian federation and the 2014 World Cup organizing committee.

His 23-year rule of Brazilian soccer was marked by success, but also by allegations of irregularities including claims that he took kickbacks from former FIFA marketing partner ISL in the 1990s.

By wire sources