Two former top executives of the New York Islanders have been arrested and charged with misappropriating more than $500 million in client investments, including millions that allegedly were spent on horses.

Newsday reports that Stephen Walsh, 64, and Paul Greenwood, 61, were among the top echelon of Islander executives in the 1990s. Newsday adds that court documents list Walsh as having served as co-chairman of the Islanders and as a member of the NHL board of governors from 1991-98.

The New York Daily News describes the two as part of the so-called "Gang of Four" ownership group that controlled the team much of the '90s.  The Islanders declined comment. (Photo of Walsh leaving court by J.B. Nicholas/Bloomberg News)

Investigators said the two surrendered to the FBI in Manhattan yesterday.  After a court appearance each was released on a $7-million bond and had his travel restricted. Their lawyers declined comment.

The allegations apparently were spurred by federal lawsuits filed by Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh to find out what happened to $80 million invested with Walsh and Greenwood's firms.

The Daily News says Greenwood raises horses a 300-acre farm he bought from the late actor Paul Newman in 1984, for $2.1 million.

Jim Calhoun's 800th career victory last night put him in a select group of coaches to hit that milestone: Bob Knight, Dean Smith, Adolph Rupp, Jim Phelan, Coach K and Eddie Sutton.

"I'm really happy to be in that company," Calhoun after beating Marquette.

But the Marquette fans also had their fun last night with the controversy that likely will dog UConn into the NCAA tournament.  (Photos by Jeff Hanisch/US Presswire)

Taunting the UConn coach about his Sunday dustup about not giving up any salary to help ease his state's financial crisis, the Marquette fans took up a chant.

Part one: "How much money?"

Part two was Calhoun's answer to that question, at Sunday's press conference: "Not a dime!"

"Greedy scumbag!" and "Greedy piece of trash!" also were words Calhoun heard, according to the Hartford Courant. And he has been chastised by Conn. Gov. M. Jodi Rell, with whom the coach said he had, "a nice conversation."

Maybe this will blow over, but UConn has one more road game in the Big East, at Pitt on March 7.

Good morning, and welcome to one of the NFL's cruelest days, when veterans get treated like dust bunnies as they are swept off rosters to make room for the start of free agency.

Rex Grossman is expected to feel the ax today, and David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune correctly states that Bears fans will miss him "like they miss frostbite."

Hough adds that even though Grossman is one of only two Bears quarterbacks to start a Super Bowl, he "has been getting offers to drive him to O'Hare since 2007." Ouch.

Said Grossman in a Sirius Radio interview yesterday, "Some of my home games felt like away games." (Photo by John Gress/Reuters)

I don't know.  I kind of miss Grossman, both his good-Rex and his bad-Rex sides, already.  Seeing Chicago fans react to him coming off the bench was like sensing the tension at Wrigley Field when the Cubs make a pitching change in October.

It takes a special person to inspire that kind of fear, and loathing. On his way out the door, Chicago needs to remember that the Bears won 19 of 31 games that Grossman started. Let's check back and see how that number looks say, next December.

Now then, let's all hope we finish the day on somebody's roster as we roll out today's game balls for recommended reading, conversation starters and significant fluff that may have developed while you were sleeping.

It's looking more and more like there will be a shakeup in the Washington Nationals' front office, because of the scandal over alleged skimming of Dominican prospects' bonuses.

No. 8 Marquette's defeat against UConn last night was nothing compared to losing Dominic James for the season to a broken foot that will require surgery. Marquette's best ball defender set a school record for all-time games played before leaving, then had to watch A.J. Price drill home 36 points against his replacements.

Nice encore for Devin Harris.  First he beats the 76ers with a halfcourt shot, then he cooks the Bulls with 42 points.  Playoff hopes live on in New Jersey.

Ozzie Guillen thinks that suffering cardiac arrest while walking to the mound to make a pitching change would be a dang fine way to die.

Having been tossed under the bus by a drug test that wasn't supposed to be released, A-Rod now must answer questions about why he was seen climbing into an SUV yesterday with the cousin who helped juice him up.

The Jets have cut Laveranues Coles mainly because he was cranky.  But that guy earned his bad moods, doing all the dirty work over the middle.

The Dodgers say they've made a fourth offer to Manny Ramirez, buy boy, those numbers sure look a lot like the ones in the first bid. Leftovers, anyone?

Tim Duncan has missed two straight games, and a third is possible.

Fox.com's Ian O'Connor predicts Stephon Marbury will poison the Celtics' team chemistry . . . But maybe Boston is entitled to be in panic mode, after losing to the wretched Clippers last night and also losing Paul Pierce to a dislocated thumb.

A sore back continues Kerry Wood's legacy, but is hardly the right way to get started in Cleveland.

Charles Barkley doesn't want your tears or sympathy as he prepares for jail. "I made a mistake and just have to take the beatdown," says Chuck.  "It is what it is. It's 100% my fault."

Basketball is not a contact sport.  Yeah, right. Before believing that, check out this Sacramento Bee story on concussions in the NBA.

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In South Carolina, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott took plenty of criticism while investigating Michael Phelps and the infamous bong-smoking photo.

Lott dropped that probe, but this week made a stab at getting the last laugh, as you can see in this You Tube video. (Please note that the headline attached to the video wasn't written by us.)  At a Monday meeting of the Columbia Rotary, Lott went to the podium and lashed back at his detractors.

He started his 10-minute speech by donning a bulletproof vest, just in case anyone wanted to take "pot shots" at him. The gray-haired Lott also donned a blonde wig, as a jab at Newsweek, for  getting his hair color wrong in an article.

"If I wanted 15 minutes of fame, I could have gotten about 35 hours," Lott said, adding that he turned down interview requests from Jay Leno, Geraldo Rivera, Diane Sawyer and Larry King.

"How could I just ignore this?" Lott asked the crowd.  "What kind of a message is that going to send to kids?"

16TH HOLE:

Match point.  Woods just dropped in a 4-foot putt to win the match, 3-and-2.

Woods teed off into a bunker on 184-yard par-3 16th, but recovered nicely.  The Golf Channel crew enthused at length about his shot out of the sand having that perfect "thump" sound.

Jones' tee shot was on the green, but he pushed a 15-footer about 4 feet past the hole and settled for pas.

"I thought I hit it good all day, except for a couple of loose irons," Woods said immediately afterward.

As for his rebuilt left knee, Woods said, "It felt good. I thought for sure it would be more stiff than it was."

Jones acknowledged that he fell too far behind, too early, because of Woods' fast start.

"I couldn't do much about his start, you know, a birdie-eagle start," Jones said.  "I'm not too disappointed. Losing 3-and-2 to Tiger Woods isn't too bad.

What ranks as the most compelling return to play in golf history will begin at 2:02 p.m. ET, when Tiger Woods takes on Australia's Brendan Jones at the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship. USA TODAY golf writer Steve DiMeglio will be walking the course and feeding us details, and we'll try to relay every stroke from the Golf Channel.  You can click here for in-progress scoring.

A pall was cast at the San Jose Sharks' practice rink this week, as two competitors in a recreational hockey league collapsed on the ice and died within about two hours of each other.

The deaths occurred at the Sharks Ice rink, which the San Jose Mercury News reports is home to the largest adult hockey league in the nation, with 3,000 registered players. But normally, the newspaper says, ambulances are called to the facility only about once every 18 months.

That wasn't the case Sunday night.  Brian Kobata, 38, had just scored a goal for his Mug Shots team when he collapsed, according to his wife, Heidi.  Teammates tried but failed to revive him with CPR and a defibrillator.

Just over two hours later Kelly Calabro, 41, who for 15 years had been captain of a team called Beer, fell on his back.  Efforts by teammates to revive him also failed.

Kobata's wife is expecting the couple's first child in June, and told the Mercury News her husband didn't have any health problems.

There has been a steady stream of gossip-column items linking Cuban model Yvette Prieto and Michael Jordan, including a wildfire rumor last year that the two were about to be married.

Look for all of that to get recycled.  The two were spotted together at the NBA All-Star Game, and the Palm Beach Post is reporting they now co-own a home in the Miami suburbs.

The Post says it's a relatively modest two-story villa that Prieto, 30, and Jordan, 46, purchased for $281,000, according to property appraiser records.

Let's take a moment to appreciate Jim Boeheim. There wasn't much drama last night as his Syracuse team roasted St. John's at Madison Square Garden, 87-58, but a significant milestone did fall.

The victory improved the Orange to 20-8, and also nudged Boeheim out of a tie with Dean Smith for the most 20-win seasons all-time, with 30 in his 32-year coaching career.

Boeheim told the Syracuse Post-Standard that when he started coaching he took note of Kentucky's Adolph Rupp holding the then-record of 876 coaching victories.

"I said that's like 20 wins a year for 40 years," Boeheim said. "I said I won't even last 10. At least I've lasted more than 10."

Predictably, Boeheim refused to get caught up in the moment, saying, "I never evaluate myself.  I'm not going to start now."

In the surest sign yet that the Michael Phelps smoking-bong saga has reached a hyperventilating phase of media overload, the real-life version of Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island has stepped up on behalf of the Olympic champ. (AP photo)

In 2008, long after her career as a S.S. Minnow castaway ended, Dawn Wells had a marijuana-related run-in with law enforcement.  The bulk of criminal charges she faced were dropped, but only after she endured the tabloid gauntlet.

So the pig-tailed woman who personified girl-next-door sweetness to the Boomer generation relates to Phelps who, as we told you yesterday, absorbed another image slap this week when he was dropped as a motivational speaker.

Mary Ann, er, Wells, who's now 70, assessed the bong photo furor with this comment during an interview with Retroality TV.com:

"Look at poor Michael Phelps, for God’s sake. I mean, is that important to his gold medals? Not at all. It’s not steroids. He wasn’t cheating through his competition at all . . . Nowadays, you can make pictures say anything . . . I don’t know the circumstance, whether (Phelps is) denying it. He could’ve been making fun of it! He could’ve been leaning over and saying, 'How do you use this damn thing?' How do you know what he was doing?"

Actually, Phelps has pretty much admitted he knew exactly what he was doing, but it's nice to see that Mary Ann still has her trademark touch of innocence. (Arrest mug shot by Teton County Sheriff's Department, Idaho, via AP)

The first indication of how much taunting Alex Rodriguez will have to endure during road games this season will come today.

Since making his confession about using performance-enhancers, Rodriguez's contact with fans has been limited to the largely friendly crowds at the Yankees' spring training complex in Tampa. But today the Yankees play their exhibition opener in Dunedin, against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Rodriguez yesterday told reporters he didn't know what to expect.

"No expectations," Rodriguez said.  "I'm just hoping to get three good at-bats, get some good running in, go home and have a nice dinner."

Said Yankees manager Joe Girardi to Newsday: "It'll be curious, I'm sure . . . It's something we haven't been through before. I'm sure there are going to be some people that are upset. I'm sure there are going to be people that are supportive. And there are going to be some people in between. For Alex, again, he's going to have to block out distractions and be able to play. And I expect him to be able to do that."

Two billion people are being told that David Beckham needs a pharmaceutical lift when he seeks to score somewhere other than on the soccer pitch.

Lax laws in China have made it possible for a company to dub in Beckham's voice in a television commercial where he "endorses" a Viagra-like product.

The voiceover references Beckham's Spice Girl wife, saying, "Want to know how I can keep being strong and running on the football field? USA Selikon capsules help me a lot. It's also the secret weapon with which I can satisfy Victoria."

This practice is hardly new in the world's knockoff capital.  Keanu Reeves and Sean Connery also have had treatment similar to Beckham, who last year had his image lifted by a company advertising condoms in China.

(Photo of Beckham leaving the field after a match this month by Ina Fassbender/Reuters)

The most powerful person in Connecticut and the highest-paid employee of that state are now officially at odds.

Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell says UConn basketball coach Jim Calhoun was out of line when he gave a snarky reply about taking a pay cut because of the failing economy.

"I think if coach Calhoun had the opportunity right now, he would welcome a do-over and not have that embarrassing display," Rell told reporters. Asked to specify what upset her, Gov. Rell said, "I just thought the whole tone, his whole tone."

Calhoun's remarks came during a postgame press conference Saturday, when Connecticut blogger and political activist Ken Krayeske asked if the coach was willing to give up part of his $1.6 million salary.

"Not a dime back," Calhoun said.  When the exchange continued and became contentious, Calhoun insinuated Krayeske was stupid and said, "My best advice to you: Shut up."

In response to Rell's comments, Calhoun last night told the Hartford Courant that, "I'm getting ready for a Marquette basketball game. Whatever people want to say and whatever they want to do, we have three really tough games coming up, and that's what I'm interested in."

To see a You Tube video of the Sunday press conference, click here.

(Photo by David Butler II/US Presswire)

Omar Vizquel has won 11 Gold Gloves and, as he makes what's likely his last stop as a player with the Texas Rangers, he's trying to position himself for a managing career.

If Vizquel gets that chance, we're guessing he'll be comfortable calling for the squeeze play, given his recent experience with an anaconda.

Vizquel told the San Francisco Chronicle he caught a lengthy one during the offseason, in his native Venezuela.

"This thing is 11 or 12 feet long," Vizquel said. "You've got to find the tail and pull it out of the water and bring it to safe territory. It is dangerous in and out of the water, but you have to maneuver yourself to stay behind it. Once you're behind it, you grab it by the back of the neck."

Added Vizquel: "It's a fun thing."

Let's see now.  Last season, the Boston Celtics put up a united front and won an NBA title.  This season, the conventional wisdom is that they're thinking that adding potential time bomb Stephon Marbury would be good for their chemistry.

After engineering his buyout from the Knicks, Marbury can sign with Boston as early as Friday morning, if he clears waivers.  He leaves behind a contentious legacy in New York, where he never won a playoff game in five years. (Photo from preseason game by Frank Franklin II/AP)

Marbury hasn't played in a regular-season game since Jan. 11, 2008, and he needed surgery for bone spurs that ended his 2007-08 season. If he hooks on in Boston, it will be as a backup.  Maybe this will work out for Boston the same way the Dodgers gained by taking a chance on Manny Ramirez.  But can Marbury's superstar ego handle coming off the bench?

In an e-mail to the Boston Globe, Marbury wrote that, "I'm blessed to be able to move on with my career . . . I'm excited about the new beginning." But should Celtics fans be excited?

Now then, let's roll out today's game balls for recommended reading, conversation starters and significant fluff that may have developed while you were sleeping.

Marvin Harrison was never welcoming to reporters, but Indianapolis Star columnist Bob Kravitz still bids him a kind adieu.

Listen up.  There's a company that says the way a prospect speaks can signal whether he'll be an off-field problem.

Yahoo's Michael Silver says it's time for someone to get in Michael Vick's corner, and that it should be the NFL Players Association that steps up.

Manny Ramirez is now officially a distraction for the Dodgers, writes Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke.

Greg Norman asserts that PGA golfers need to take a pay cut.  Think he would have made that case back when he was in his prime?

All-time good guy Fred Taylor deserves a new NFL home after getting cut by Jacksonville, and he might get it in New England.

Charles Barkley talked about his DUI with Dan Patrick, and wove in a story about stealing Dream Team jerseys from Michael Jordan and Larry Bird.

Anyone see if this guy's fingers were crossed? A former NHL referee assures the world that fighting will soon be a thing of the past in hockey.

SI.com's Tom Verducci puts on his accountant's hat and makes the case that Carlos Delgado is the guy whose numbers have been most obscured during baseball's steroid era.

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Perez Hilton.com is reporting that Michael Phelps has been dumped as a motivational speaker for two events scheduled the first week of March, in Canada.  No official word on the reason, but we're guessing this has something to do with the photo that caught the Olympic champ huffing on a bong.

Phelps was set to make an appearance on March 3 in Calgary with Bob Greene, aka Oprah's personal trainer, and on March 6 in Vancouver with Dr. Mehmet Oz, aka Oprah's personal health expert.

The motivational company, The Power Within, has decided to instead go with a former U.S. president and a former U.S. attorney general.  Well, not exactly.  Martin Sheen will fill in, and hey, he did play JFK and RFK in movies, even before getting his West Wing Oval Office gig.

Perez Hilton.com says people who signed up for the talks were sent e-mails informing them "the decision has been made to present the program without Mr. Phelps' participation."

Tiger Woods just wrapped up his press conference in advance of tomorrow's opening of the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship in Marana, Ariz.

We'll be doing our best to live blog his round tomorrow and will hope to post a hole-by-hole summary, starting at about 2 p.m. ET.  Here are a few of Woods' comments from today:

On his surgically repaired knee: "It's nice to make a swing and not have my bones move."

On rehab: "Don't go through it. It was not a lot of fun."

On whether he's looked back at his last tournament, the 2008 victory at the U.S. Open: "Yeah, as I watched the highlights, knowing what I went through, the struggle, each and every shot, it was a tough week . . . I hit a lot of good shots, some bad ones, but I putted great all week. I was very proud of that."

What it has been like to be stuck on the sidelines: "It was a blessing in disguise, to see (his daughter) Sam grow that much, that fast . . .  I was very lucky to be there."

On how will this week's match play differ from traditional stroke play: "You have to be on your game right away, as opposed to building . . .  You have to make sure you bring your intensity that first hole."

On whether he will be nervous: "Oh yeah. The day I'm not nervous is the day I quit. To me, nerves are great. They mean you care."

Maybe the "Hit Man" got hit too many times.

At any rate, Thomas Hearns is campaigning for one more fight.  At the age of 50.

"The more I think about it, the more I want to fight," Hearns told the Detroit Free Press this week. "It's always on my mind."

Hearns also said one of the motivating forces behind this quest is to have Emanuel Steward in his corner one more time, even though the boxing guru has said he wants no part of what would be Hearns' umpteenth comeback.

"If Manny doesn't agree with me, I'll go around and make it happen myself," Hearns said. "It's got to happen ... to complete my career ... have one final title fight. I respect what Manny thinks, but I have my thoughts. Everyone has a right to make a decision when he or she is finished."

Hearns is 61-5-1, with 48 knockouts, and an eight-time world champion in six weight classes.  He  hasn't fought since scoring a 10th-round TKO over Shannon Landberg in February 2006.

(Photo of Hearns working out in 2000, before the Uriah Grant bout that he said would be his last fight, by Carlos Orosio/AP)

Jerry Jones talked to the sports media at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis for more than an hour, and here are some of the Cowboys' owner's latest thoughts, thanks to the Dallas Morning News:

Why 2009 will be better:

"We'll get better quarterbacking . . . I think Tony (Romo) will be better. When you look at the games he played in, it'd surprise you as to how well he played compared to the year before."

Why he isn't worried about team chemistry:

"I think it's principally because I've experienced locker rooms that look dysfunctional on the face of it and (have) won world championships, OK?"

The Cowboys' top priority:

"I think being as Romo-friendly as our team can be . . . Romo-friendly means let's utilize his skills to the fullest and make sure everything we do maximizes his abilities."

Does Coach Cupcake, er, Wade Phillips, need to get tougher?

"Wade's style, I've seen that win championships . . . But I've seen him bite and bite good. It's a mistake for anybody to think that he won't and doesn't disagree with me."

Do players need to be held more accountable if they're late for meetings or treatments?:

"The answer is yes . . . Do they need to feel it more than they have in the past? I'm not agreeing to that . . . I think you have to have fines. I think you have to have an understanding you can't hold people up. I would hope that we can correct that perception."

Is it absolutely certain Pacman Jones won't be back?:

"I'm not going to go that far. That's pretty sweeping; it covers a lot. But he's better off, and we're better off him not being on our roster."

Jerry Jones naturally wants to see his team back in the Super Bowl, but regardless of the Cowboys' fortunes he plans on seeing Dallas host the most-attended title game in NFL history.

The Cowboys' new stadium -- which some are referring to as Jerry's World -- will have 80,000 seats in place when it opens in June.

But Jones tells the Dallas Morning News that when his stadium hosts Super Bowl XLV in 2011 he expects it to break the game's record attendance of 103,985, set at the Rose Bowl during SB XIV.

"Conceptually, I believe we'll sell 125,000 tickets for the Super Bowl," Jones said while in Indianapolis for the NFL scouting combine.

Jones said because the seats sit on rails, 10,000 spots can be added by removing the arm rests. The other seats, he said, would be provided by adding scaffolding in the open end zones and the club areas.

In his last three games, Marko Jaric of the Memphis Grizzlies has failed to score on the court, going 0-for-10 from the field.

What makes that interesting is that all three games have taken place since Jaric stepped up his game considerably off the court.

On Feb. 14, People magazine reports, Jaric slipped away to Wyoming and eloped with Brazilian supermodel Adriana Lima, who in 2007 was named "Hottest Girl on the Planet" at the first Spike TV Guys' Choice Awards.

"We are so excited about our future together," Lima told People.  "And we are really looking forward to a big romantic wedding this summer with all of our friends and family."

But that future might not include the NBA if Jaric can't find the hoop soon. We're not saying Lima has cost Jaric his game, but we will point out that she's also a Victoria's Secret Angel.

Overall, Memphis is 4-8 under new coach Lionel Hollins, and has lost four straight.(Photo by Rob Roberts/USA TODAY)