Rex Ryan hired to coach Jets

Ravens defensive coordinator to replace Mangini

New York — The New York Jets reached an agreement with Rex Ryan to make the Baltimore defensive coordinator their head coach, a person with knowledge of the deal told the Associated Press on Monday.

The person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the four-year deal was not yet finalized, said it was expected to be done in the next few days.

The 46-year-old Ryan replaces the fired Eric Mangini. Ryan takes over a team that started last season 8-3, but missed the playoffs.

Texans hire Gibbs

Houston — The Houston Texans named David Gibbs as their defensive backs coach on Monday.

Gibbs, the son of Texans’ assistant head coach Alex Gibbs, spent the past three seasons coaching the defensive backs for the Kansas City Chiefs. Before that, Gibbs coached the secondary for the Denver Broncos from 2001-04.

David Gibbs was a defensive back for Colorado from 1987-90 and served as a graduate assistant at Oklahoma from 1991-92. He worked as an assistant at Colorado (1993-94), Kansas (1995-96) and Minnesota (1997-00).

Ravens’ McGahee home

Owings Mills, Md. — Ravens running back Willis McGahee is expected to make a “complete recovery” from a fierce helmet-to-helmet hit in the AFC championship game that saw him carted off the field.

McGahee returned to his Baltimore home Monday after spending the night in a Pittsburgh hospital.

Giants appoint Sheridan

East Rutherford, N.J. — Less than two days after Steve Spagnuolo left to become coach of the St. Louis Rams, Tom Coughlin promoted linebackers coach Bill Sheridan to replace him as the New York Giants’ defensive coordinator.

Packers hire Capers

Green Bay, Wis. — Mike McCarthy wants to take the Green Bay Packers defense in a new direction, and the coach believes Dom Capers is the right man for the renovation project.

McCarthy hired Capers as defensive coordinator Monday.

Baseball

Royals, Gobble agree

Kansas City, Mo. — Left-hander Jimmy Gobble agreed Monday to a $1.35 million, one-year contract with the Kansas City Royals, a slight raise from the $1,312,500 he earned last year.

Gobble was 0-2 with an 8.81 ERA and one save in 39 relief appearances for Kansas City last season. After giving up 10 runs in one inning against Detroit on July 21, he went on the disabled list until Sept. 2 because of a stiff lower back. When he returned, he didn’t allow a run in his final eight appearances and seven innings.

Kansas City has six players remaining in arbitration: right-handers Brian Bannister, Zack Greinke and Joel Peralta; outfielder Mark Teahen; catcher John Buck; and first baseman Mike Jacobs.

Markakis, Madson get deals

New York — Nick Markakis reached a preliminary agreement on a $66 million, six-year contract with the Baltimore Orioles, and Ryan Madson struck a $12 million, three-year deal with the Philadelphia Phillies as players and teams rushed Monday to settle salary arbitration cases.

A day before the scheduled exchange of proposed figures, teams announced contracts for 13 players, and six more reached deals that weren’t publicly confirmed by the clubs.

Four prominent closers agreed to one-year deals: Bobby Jenks of the Chicago White Sox ($5.6 million), Huston Street of Colorado ($4.5 million), Kevin Gregg of the Chicago Cubs ($4.2 million) and Mike Gonzalez of Atlanta ($3.45 million). Colorado didn’t immediately announce its deals with Street and left-hander Jorge de la Rosa ($2 million).

Seattle right-hander Felix Hernandez agreed to a $3.8 million, one-year contract.

St. Louis announced deals with right-hander Todd Wellemeyer ($4.05 million) and outfielder Chris Duncan ($825,000), and the New York Mets reached agreements with reliever Duaner Sanchez ($1,687,500) and outfielder Jeremy Reed ($925,000).

The Los Angeles Angels agreed with catcher Mike Napoli ($2 million), Toronto with right-hander Brandon League ($640,000), Houston with catcher Humberto Quintero ($610,000) and the Los Angeles Dodgers with outfielder Jason Repko ($500,000).

Jeter, Pedroia together?

New York — The thought of Derek Jeter and Dustin Pedroia turning double plays together is probably enough to make Yankees and Red Sox fans cringe.

World Baseball Classic, here they come.

Jimmy Rollins, Evan Longoria and Grady Sizemore also were among 43 players on the provisional U.S. roster.

College basketball

UConn women No. 1

Connecticut and North Carolina are at the top of the poll again, and it will stay that way for at least another week even after the Huskies and Tar Heels meet in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown.

Connecticut was the unanimous top choice in the Associated Press poll for the eighth straight week Monday. Oklahoma, Duke, and Baylor round out the first five.

College football

OSU’s Bryant has surgery

Stillwater, Okla. — Oklahoma State wide receiver Dez Bryant has undergone successful knee surgery.

University trainer Rob Hunt said Bryant underwent the surgery on Monday afternoon in Oklahoma City. Hunt said the surgery was done to repair damage from an injury the first-team All-America receiver sustained in the Cowboys’ 42-31 loss to Oregon in the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 30.

Cal TE to enter draft

Berkeley, Calif. — California tight end Cameron Morrah entered the NFL Draft on Monday, foregoing his senior season apparently against the advice of coach Jeff Tedford.

USC hires Broncos aide

Los Angeles — Denver Broncos assistant coach Jeremy Bates was named Southern California’s assistant head coach of the offense and quarterbacks coach on Monday.

NBA

Brand’s return on hold

Philadelphia — Elton Brand’s long-awaited return to the Philadelphia 76ers will be on hold until at least Saturday.

Brand dislocated his right shoulder Dec. 17 and worked out on the court before Monday’s game.

Tennis

Murray, Serena move on

Melbourne, Australia — Andy Murray’s first win at Rod Laver Arena lasted only 45 minutes. Lucky him.

With the temperature touching 104 degrees in Melbourne today, Serena Williams wanted her first-round match at the Australian Open to be over just as quickly.

The second-seeded Williams, who has an alternate-year pattern of titles here since 2003, had a 6-3, 6-2 victory over China’s Yuan Meng in 75 minutes in the following match on center court.

“Ooh! It’s a little hot out here,” Williams said.

Murray only needed to play 12 games to advance — Andrei Pavel retired with a back problem when he was down 6-2, 3-1 and 15-0.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever won a match on here,” he said. “You don’t want to win a match like that.”

Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva beat Germany’s Kristina Barrois, 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-1, and No. 13 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus also advanced.

No. 9 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland went down to Ukraine’s Kateryna Bondarenko, 7-6 (7), 4-6, 6-1. She was the highest of the seeded players to fall so far.

On the men’s side, No. 31 Jurgen Melzer of Austria overpowered 19-year-old Japanese player Kei Nishikori, 7-5, 6-2, 6-1, and Uzkbekistan’s Denis Istomin beat American Vince Spadea in straight sets.

Boxing

Ex-champ Torres dies

Ponce, Puerto Rico — Jose Torres, a former light heavyweight world champion and Olympic silver medalist, died Monday. He was 72.

He died of a heart attack at his home in Ponce, his wife, Ramonita Ortiz, told the Associated Press.

Torres won the light heavyweight title in 1965 by stopping Willie Pastrano at Madison Square Garden in New York. He made three title defenses before losing a close decision to Dick Tiger in 1966. He finished with a record of 41-3-1, with 29 knockouts.

The mayor of Ponce, on the island’s southern coast, declared three days of mourning and ordered flags be flown at half-staff.

“Puerto Rico has lost a great Puerto Rican, a very valiant person who aside from being a great athlete, was a great human being,” David Bernier, president of the U.S. territory’s Olympic committee, told radio station WKAQ.