Bibby, Marion get OK to play in replay

Shaquille O'Neal is no longer around, but Mike Bibby and Shawn Marion will be able to suit up for the NBA's first replay since 1982. The league set guidelines for Saturday's do-over between the Atlanta Hawks and Miami Heat, who must complete the final 51.9 seconds of their Dec. 19 overtime game. The Hawks left the court that night with a 117-111 victory, but commissioner David Stern struck it from the books after the home team's stat crew mistakenly ruled that O'Neal, then playing for Miami, had fouled out with less than a minute to go in overtime. O'Neal has since been traded to Phoenix, but the NBA said yesterday that both teams can fill out any openings on their 12-man active roster with players acquired since the disputed game . . . Rockets All-Star Yao Ming underwent surgery to repair a stress fracture in his left foot. Recovery time is expected to be about four months . . . Gilbert Arenas will return to practice today for the Wizards, the latest step in his long recovery from knee surgery in November . . . A knee injury will sideline the Heat's Dorell Wright for the remainder of the season . . . The Seattle Storm signed three-time WNBA MVP Sheryl Swoopes to a one-year contract.

Roger Federer is on a losing streak for the second time in four months. The top-ranked Federer, who won three Grand Slam titles last year but has struggled since the US Open, lost to Andy Murray, 6-7 (6-7), 6-3, 6-4, in the first round of the Dubai Tennis Championships. Federer was playing for the first time since losing to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open semifinals Jan. 25 . . . Defending ATP Tennis Channel Open champion Lleyton Hewitt made quick work of wild card entry Marat Safin, scoring a 6-2, 6-1, first-round victory in 58 minutes in Las Vegas.

North Carolina, which ran its record to 27-2 with a win over Boston College Saturday, is back at No. 1 again in the Associated Press men's poll, regaining the top spot it held for the first 10 weeks of the season. Memphis (28-1), which held the top spot for five weeks, stayed at No. 2. UCLA (26-3) moved up one spot to third while Tennessee (26-3) dropped three spots to No. 4 . . . Nolan Richardson said he is talking with Arkansas State officials about the school's coaching vacancy. Richardson has been out of college coaching since being fired by Arkansas in 2002 . . . The tiff between North Carolina coach Roy Williams and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski over injury reports was apparently just a misunderstanding. Adam Gold, the program director at Raleigh sports talk radio station WRBZ, said the station incorrectly attributed comments to Krzyzewski last month that upset Williams and led him to respond on his own radio show . . . Connecticut remained the top choice in the AP women's poll with 40 of the 50 first-place votes . . . Amherst (23-3) and UMass-Dartmouth (25-3) received first-round byes in the NCAA Division 3 men's tournament pairings announced yesterday. Complete pairings, D7.

Philadelphia first base coach Davey Lopes, 62, has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, and Phillies officials said he was expected to make a full recovery. The former Milwaukee Brewers manager will have surgery this month at the Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, Fla., and is expected to miss six weeks after that . . . Yankees broadcaster Bobby Murcer was resting in a Houston hospital after undergoing a brain biopsy. Results weren't expected until later in the week . . . Astros owner Drayton McLane told a crowd of baseball fans that it was "unfortunate" Congress chose to have hearings on the use of steroids in baseball. McLane was among those speaking at the President's Leadership Forum panel discussion on baseball at the Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas . . . The Braves renewed outfielder Jeff Francoeur's contract for the second year in a row after failing to agree on a long-term deal . . . Arizona righthander Micah Owings skipped a scheduled start because of a sore shoulder . . . Infielder Jerry Hairston Jr., whose name appeared in the Mitchell Report, signed a minor league contract with the Reds.

After tying and losing to Providence over the weekend, BC slipped two spots to No. 10 in the latest USCHO.com/CSTV Division 1 men's ice hockey poll, while the Friars moved up two spots to No. 17. New Hampshire remained third, receiving one first-place vote, Boston University held on to the No. 16 position, and Harvard climbed a spot to No. 19. North Dakota is No. 1 . . . Peter Forsberg worked out with the Colorado Avalanche for the first time since re-signing last week, but said he wasn't sure if he would make his season debut tonight against Northwest Division-rival Vancouver . . . Janne Happonen of Finland won a World Cup ski jump on his home hill at Kuopio for his first victory this season. Happonen totaled 142.6 points, with a jump of 135.4 meters . . . Mathieu Bozzetto of France and Svetlana Boldikova of Russia won parallel giant slalom titles on the final day of competition in the US Snowboarding Cup on Whiteface Mountain in Lake Placid, N.Y. Sudbury's Tyler Jewell finished second to Bozzetto . . . Roger Gill, a sprinter who competed for Guyana at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, was killed in a Brooklyn car crash. He was 35.