Other Sports Capsules: Timberwolves interview Terry Porter

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Terry Porter spent 17 seasons in the NBA as a point guard, a two-time All-Star who helped Portland reach the NBA finals and was regarded as one of the smartest players at his position.

With helping Ricky Rubio make the transition from Spain to the United States one of David Kahn’s biggest priorities, it’s no wonder that Porter was the first person to get a formal interview for the Minnesota Timberwolves coaching vacancy.

A person with knowledge of the meeting told The Associated Press that Porter interviewed on Monday. The person requested anonymity because the team was not commenting publicly on the search process.

Porter’s previous experience as a head coach — in Milwaukee and Phoenix — and his background as a point guard could make him an ideal fit in Minnesota, which is coming off 32 total wins in two seasons under Kurt Rambis.

But Kahn has been adamant that he wants a coach with “up-tempo DNA,” which seems to contradict Porter’s hard-nosed, defensive mindset. Porter went 71-93 in two seasons with the Bucks and lasted just over half a season in Phoenix in 2008-09 when his slow-it-down style didn’t jibe with Steve Nash and the high-octane Suns.

“We are going to play — as I’ve said really since the first day I arrived — a very up-tempo, fast-breaking style on both ends of the floor,” Kahn said last week when he announced Rambis’s firing. “And I think that it’s very important as we go through the search process that we identify somebody who passionately believes in that and probably has a little bit of a track record in that respect and can help make this come to fruition.”

Of course, the Timberwolves may need more help on the defensive end than they do on offense. With offensive-minded players such as Kevin Love, Michael Beasley and Wes Johnson, the Wolves scored more than 101 points per game last season, good for 10th in the league.

But they gave up more points than any other team and consistently let leads slip away in the fourth quarter because of their inability to get stops.

Still, Kahn seems more concerned with finding a coach who wants to get the ball up and down the court quickly, a style that he thinks appeals to the players more than the grind-it-out, defensive game. With Rubio, Beasley, Love, Johnson and No. 2 overall draft pick Derrick Williams, Kahn thinks he has the talent to run, and that’s what he want to see happen.

Porter is the first to have a formal interview, but he won’t be the last. Kahn interviewed about a dozen candidates the first time he made a hire and promised a “voluminous” search this time around as well. Career wins leader Don Nelson, Trail Blazers assistant Bernie Bickerstaff and Memphis assistant Dave Joerger are among the others expected to get consideration.

“I think we’ll have a thorough search and we’ll try to find somebody who embraces the notion of wanting to coach an up-tempo style on both sides of the floor and somebody who really connects well with young players,” he said last week.

Porter has been a head coach twice before, in Milwaukee and Phoenix. He lasted just over half a season with the Suns in the 2008-09 season before being replaced by Alvin Gentry.

Porter spent three of his 17 NBA seasons playing in Minnesota. His background as a point guard could be attractive to the Timberwolves, who are looking for someone who can help Spanish import Ricky Rubio make the transition to the NBA.

The interview was first reported by the Star Tribune of Minneapolis.

Boylen completes Pacers’ coaching staff

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana Pacers have hired Jim Boylen as assistant coach, rounding out Frank Vogel’s staff.

The Pacers had previously introduced Brian Shaw as associate head coach and kept Dan Burke as an assistant.

Boylen was head coach at the University of Utah from 2007 to 2011. In the NBA, he earned two championship rings as an assistant for the Houston Rockets before stints as an assistant at Golden State and Milwaukee.

Shaw comes to the Pacers after being an assistant with the Los Angeles Lakers since 2004. He was part of five championship teams with the Lakers, three as a player and two as a coach.

Burke heads into his 15th season with the Pacers after joining Larry Bird’s coaching staff in 1997.

Golf

A very good night’ follows Clarke’s Open triumph

SANDWICH, England (AP) — Darren Clarke’s bleary, bloodshot eyes told it all.

The party began shortly after he walked off the 18th green at Royal St. George’s with the claret jug in hand. Beer and red wine flowed through the night, the revelry not letting up until Clarke had to return Monday morning for a few more interviews and some picture-taking at the spot where he tapped in the final putt to win the British Open.

“I have not been to bed yet,” Clarke said. “I probably won’t get any sleep until tomorrow at some stage. You have to enjoy it while you can.

“It’s been,” he added mischievously, “a very good night.”

Clarke sure earned it.

No one had ever gone more than 15 British Opens before winning. Clarke did it on his 20th try at 42, making him the oldest first-time major winner since Roberto de Vicenzo in 1967.

But that only tells part of the story. Clarke lost his wife, Heather, to cancer five years ago, leaving him to raise two young boys. Not surprisingly, his focus on the course wavered, which sent him plummeting out of the top 100 in the world. It had been a decade since he was a serious contender in a major — he didn’t even qualify for the three majors that preceded the Open.

“I definitely appreciate an awful lot more what I’ve achieved,” Clarke said. “Ten years ago, I did take an awful lot of things for granted.”

His parents and new love, fiancee Alison Campbell, were at Royal St. George’s to cheer him. Clarke’s two boys stayed home in Northern Ireland, but he phoned them shortly after his three-stroke victory over Americans Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson.

“Tyrone, my oldest one, was very pleased, very proud,” Clarke said. “He was going to tell everybody his dad was Open champion.”

And Conor, his youngest?

“He wanted to know what he could spend all the money on,” Clarke said, breaking into a grin.

That’s not surprising. Clarke has always been a guy who lived life to the fullest, so it’s only appropriate that he passed on that attitude to his children.

Then again, given all that’s happened, Clarke plans to handle the spoils of this triumph a bit more prudently than he would have, say, 10 years ago. His Open prize was nearly $1.5 million, and there will undoubtedly be a flood of new endorsement opportunities.

“I actually don’t have anything in mind because I’ve been there, done all that before,” Clarke said. “I’ve had the opportunity to buy whatever I want to buy and all that. This time, I’m a little bit older and a little bit more sensible. If I can put a little bit more aside for my boys’ future, then that’s what I’ll do, as opposed to looking after myself.”

Clarke has long been a stalwart of the European Ryder Cup team, and he’s made no secret of his desire to serve as captain one day. He may have to put off those ambitions for a few years.

Turns out, this guy can still play.

“Playing,” he said, “is much better than being a nonplaying captain.”

Clarke became the third golfer from tiny Northern Ireland to win in the last six majors, following U.S. Open champions Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell. The Americans haven’t won any during that span, their longest drought of the modern Grand Slam era, though they did have five of the top seven at Royal St. George’s.

Mickelson played the first 10 holes Sunday at 6 under and actually claimed a share of the lead at one point, only to fade down the stretch when his putter faltered. Johnson was in contention again at a major but made another huge blunder, knocking a shot out of bounds just five holes from the finish.

“Northern Ireland...... Golf capital of the world!!” McIlroy tweeted, and there will undoubtedly be a push to add that country’s Royal Portrush club to the rotation of nine courses that regularly host the British Open.

“We’re all very aware of the fact that three winners from Northern Ireland increases the interest level in this,” R&A chief Peter Dawson said Monday. “I have agreed to take a look.”

In 1951, Royal Portrush became the only course outside Scotland and England to hold the championship. But the Royal & Ancient is concerned that a lack of hotels and major roads would make it difficult to host such a big event in the modern era.

“The usual mixture of a great course and plenty of infrastructure combined with the prospect of commercial success is what’s needed,” Dawson said.

From Clarke’s point of view, the course at Royal Portrush is already worthy of a major. But he understands other factors must be considered.

“I would love to have it there,” he said. “It is every bit as good as any Open venue that’s on the rota right now.”

Even though he partied all night long, Clarke still hadn’t taken a swig of one of his favorite adult beverages from the oldest trophy in golf.

“I’m a little bit of a traditionalist,” he said. “I feel a bit funny about putting stuff in the claret jug that shouldn’t be in there, so I’m little bit more reserved as to what I should do. That may not be the case as the week goes by, but at the moment there’s been nothing in there.”

At some point, he’ll try to sort out all the messages he’s received since winning the Open, a victory that was popular with both local fans and his fellow players.

“I have 294 messages,” Clarke said, squinting as he looked down at his cell phone, “and the writing is far too small for me to look at them in this state.”

That will have to wait.

The party’s not over yet.

-- PAUL NEWBERRY

Auto Racing

Stewart-Haas turn 1-2 gem at New Hampshire

LOUDON, N.H. (AP) — Tony Stewart called New Hampshire a perfect weekend for his organization. And with good reason.

Ryan Newman’s first victory of the season from the pole and Stewart’s second-place finish gave Stewart-Haas Racing its first 1-2 start and finish.

Think Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon did that at Hendrick Motorsports? Nope. No set of teammates started 1-2 and finished 1-2 since the 1989 Daytona 500 when Darrell Waltrip and Ken Schrader pulled off the feat.

The last time teammates qualified 1-2 and finished first and second in the same order was in 1957 at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Fireball Roberts won from the pole while teammate Paul Goldsmith started second and finished second. In 1989, Waltrip won, but started second. Schrader started from the pole and finished second.

“For the organization to take the front row and get first and second, you couldn’t ask for a better weekend,” Stewart said.

With a rare off week ahead before heading to Indianapolis for the Brickyard 400, the celebration will be a long one. But once the glow wears off, Stewart-Haas Racing has two crucial questions to answer: Where were these kinds of runs all season? What must be done to crank it up and contend?

Newman has been a more consistent driver than his boss, Stewart. Newman’s win, his first since April 2010, was his sixth top-five this season. He finished fourth the previous race at Kentucky and showed flashes in other races of coming so close to taking the checkered flag.

“We’ve been really good for three-quarters of the race, then we’ll come home fourth, fifth, 10th, not maybe make the right call, strategy, whatever it is, to put ourselves in the box of top five to close out the race,” Newman said. “There have been times where we had failures, bad pit stops. All those things add up.”

Stewart, a two-time Cup champion, hasn’t had the kind of consistent up-front runs he demands of himself and his team and hadn’t had a top-five finish since the second race of the season in Las Vegas.

Stewart realized last month the season was falling short of the big expectations when he fired competition director Bobby Hutchens. Stewart said at New Hampshire that the job is open and the search continues.

It seems unlikely he’ll have a replacement by the time of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship on Sept. 18.

Will he have a spot in the Chase?

With seven races left until the field is frozen, both drivers have positioned themselves to be in the hunt for a spot. Newman solidified his place with the victory and is eighth in the standings.

The top-10 drivers automatically earn a spot. Two spots in the Chase will go to the winningest drivers ranked between 11 and 20.

Stewart knows a win would but all but guarantee him a place in the field. The standings bear that out. He’s 11th even though he has the same point total as 10th-place driver Denny Hamlin. But Hamlin has one win, leaving Dale Earnhardt Jr. the only driver in the top 10 without a victory.

Newman’s crew chief, Tony Gibson, said this may have been the best three days in the brief history of SHR, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the season is magically turned around. Whatever they hit on worked, and it’s up to every member of both teams to keep the momentum going into the Chase.

“We kind of got off track a little bit this year,” he said. “I think we’re just trying to make sure we head back in the right direction. Grab everybody by the arms, tug ‘em, bring ‘em in, head down that road instead of going down two roads. For us it’s not one guy is doing a bad job, it’s a matter of everybody doing a good job.”

Stewart is heading into one of his better tracks. Stewart has two Cup victories at Indy and a third and a fifth the last two years. Newman has only one career top 10 at Indy in 10 career starts.

Newman complained that New Hampshire wasn’t one of his favorite tracks. But he left Sunday with wins in the Cup series and on the Modified Tour on Saturday. So the time for Indy to become a favorite is only a race away.

Maybe the 1-2 double isn’t realistic. But more top fives sure are.

-- DAN GELSTON