UCONN STAR EL-AMIN FACES A DRUG CHARGE

Khalid El-Amin, who last month helped Connecticut win its first
national basketball championship, was arrested yesterday and charged
with possession of marijuana.

The sophomore point guard was picked up on a Hartford street about
5:30 p.m. yesterday and charged with possession of less than four
ounces of marijuana, police said. El-Amin was hustled out of a police
substation in the city's North End shortly after 6 p.m. and taken to
the main station to be booked.

Star junior Richard Hamilton was with El-Amin when he was arrested,
police said. Hamilton, a first-team all-American from Coatesville
High, was not charged. But members of the Statewide Narcotics Task
Force, who made the arrest, impounded the late-model red Cadillac the
players were in. Police would not say to whom the car is registered.

Tim Tolokan, UConn's sports information director, said the school had
no knowledge of the arrest, and no comment.

El-Amin's arrest came one day after Minneapolis North High School in
Minnesota retired his jersey. El-Amin graduated from North in 1997
after leading the Polars to three consecutive state high school
championships.

Duke sophomore Elton Brand will announce at a news conference today
that he will leave college to enter the NBA draft, the Charlotte
Observer reported. He would be the first Duke player to leave early
for the draft.

St. John's announced that sophomore forward Ron Artest will forgo his
college eligibility to enter the NBA draft. Football The Dallas
Cowboys signed quarterback Troy Aikman to a six-year contract
extension that could keep him with the team through the 2007 season.

Financial terms weren't disclosed.

The extension, which will create salary cap room for the Cowboys,
comes as they signed five-time Pro Bowl center Mark Stepnoski, who
played for the Tennessee Oilers last season.

Aikman had three years left on a contract that was scheduled to pay
him a $6.75 million base salary this year. The extension allows the
Cowboys to move part of his base salary into other years, reducing the
amount that will count against the salary cap this year. That would
make room for other players.

Stepnoski, 32, was a third-round pick of the Cowboys in 1989 out of
the University of Pittsburgh. He was a three-time Pro Bowl selection
with Dallas, then signed with the Oilers as an unrestricted free agent
in 1995. The 6-foot-2, 269-pounder, a free agent after the 1998
season, made the Pro Bowl twice with that franchise.

The Miami Dolphins re-signed restricted free agents Karim
Abdul-Jabbar, Shane Burton and Stanley Pritchett to one-year
contracts, the team said.

Abdul-Jabbar, 24, led the Dolphins with 960 rushing yards and six
touchdowns on 270 attempts. He also caught 21 passes for 102 yards.

Financial terms weren't disclosed.

Maryland must pay former football coach Mark Duffner nearly $89,000, a
Prince George's County, Md., judge ruled. The money was owed under a
secondary contract covering radio and television income.

University lawyers had argued that since Maryland's obligation under
Duffner's coaching contract ended when he became the Cincinnati
Bengals' linebackers coach in February 1997, it no longer had to honor
the secondary contract.

Maryland fired Duffner in 1996 after his fifth season.