Former West Virginia University football coach Rich Rodriguez, saying that West Virginia officials may have "concocted" this story to deflect attention from an investigation that found the university retroactively awarded an MBA to Gov. Joe Manchin's daughter Heather Bresch, wants Larry Aschebrook to recant an affadavit that Rodriguez claimed to contain "20 lies."

Rodriguez last night said he asked one of his attorneys to send a letter to Wheeling, W.Va., lawyer Dean Hartley requesting that his client -- Aschebrook, the former Mountaineer Athletic Club director -- apologize and correct his testimony.

Rodriguez, now the Michigan coach, said he never requested that Aschebrook lie to the West Virginia office of Social Justice investigating accusations by ex-Mountaineers associate head coach Calvin Magee and never promised Aschebrook a job at Michigan.

Rodriguez said that, amid a 7 1/2-hour deposition this past Monday in Detroit with six university lawyers, he testified to "20 times in the affadavit [where Aschebrook] lied."

"Our last conversation, I implored him to tell the truth. He said, 'OK,' " Rodriguez said. "I told him I would help him. Meantime, he was calling other people for help" in finding a new job. Aschebrook left West Virginia to work with the Arizona State booster club.

"They concocted this whole affadavit to make it look like I'm the bad guy again," Rodriguez added. "To say it looked like we have some sort of collusion. ... is idiotic."

Hartley told The Associated Press yesterday that Aschebrook stands by his affadavit: "He signed it under oath."

Two Russian stars easily won their singles matches against a depleted U.S. team to take a 2-0 lead in the Fed Cup semifinal in Moscow. Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Ahsha Rolle, 6-2, 6-1, and Anna Chakvetadze defeated Vania King, 6-4, 7-5, on indoor clay. Kuznetsova is the 2004 U.S. Open champ and has reached two other Grand Slam finals, while Chakvetadze reached the U.S. Open semifinals last year. Neither Rolle nor King has advanced past the third round of a major tournament. The U.S. was without Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport.

Johnny Dawkins, a longtime assistant coach at Duke, has been hired as Stanford's new men's coach. Dawkins replaces Pac-10 Coach of the Year Trent Johnson, who left for LSU earlier this month, two people close to the situation said yesterday.

• Miao Lijie scored 26 points as host China upset the United States, 84-81, in the championship game of a pre-Olympic women's test tournament in Beijing. Katie Smith led the Americans -- the defending Olympic champions -- with 16 points.

Penn State's men's team won its 10th consecutive EIVA title with a three-game sweep of George Mason at Rec Hall. With the victory, the Nittany Lions advance to the NCAA semifinals Thursday at Irvine, Calif.

Paul Spadafora (41-0-1), The Pittsburgh Kid, won an eight round unanimous decision against Shad Howard (13-11-3) Friday night in Erie.

• In the Pennsylvania Golden Gloves championships in Erie, Amonte Everhardt of the 3rd Avenue Gym defeated Thomas LaManna at 145 pounds, Ben Kramer, Steel City Gym, defeated Marquise Cobb and Ben Maine of Ellwood City defeated Aaron Harris at 165.

Pittsburgh fell to Real Maryland, 2-0, in Boyd, Md. The Riverhounds dropped to 0-3. The team's home opener is Saturday at Chartiers Valley High School against the defending USL-2 champion Harrisburg City Islanders.

Aaron Janusey hit a two-run home run in the ninth inning as visiting Duquesne (17-22, 11-6) defeated first-place Charlotte (31-11, 12-5), 16-14, in the Atlantic 10.