BRIEFLY : MILLER DENIES CHARGES BUT IS TAKEN OFF SERIES.

Sportscaster Gary Miller denied Tuesday that he urinated onto off-duty police officers from a dance club's second-story window.

Miller, 40, a host for ESPN's ``Baseball Tonight,'' pleaded innocent in Cleveland Municipal Court to misdemeanor charges of public indecency, aggravated disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

ESPN said Miller will not work the rest of the ALCS and future assignments have not been discussed.

Miller was arrested early Saturday at The Basement, a nightclub. Police said he was carrying drug paraphernalia when he was arrested, but tests on a spoon taken from his cigarette pack found no evidence of drugs, said a police spokesman. Five pills found on Miller turned out to be aspirin with caffeine.

MORE JURISPRUDENCE (GOLF DIV.): Professional golfer Frank Lickliter Jr. is accused of pulling a pocket knife on a man in a crowded sports bar earlier this month in Duluth, Ga. He was arrested and charged with aggravated assault, Gwinnett County police confirmed.

Lickliter brandished the knife at a 21-year-old Lawrenceville, Ga., man who accidentally bumped into Lickliter's girlfriend and then bumped the golfer's elbow, according to a police report.

BASKETBALL: Removing himself from the list of candidates for Michigan's head coaching job, California coach Ben Braun said he has signed an eight-year contract extension.

``I'm ready to call Cal my career,'' he said. ``This is it. I'm home now.''

Braun said he been contacted about replacing Steve Fisher, who was fired last Friday, as coach of the Wolverines, but said he didn't think it was fair to continue talks.

``Timing's a big issue and I just didn't feel that it was appropriate at this time to make that move,'' he said.

Ex-USC star Cynthia Cooper, who played professionally in Italy before joining the WNBA, scored 14 points to lead five players in double figures as a touring WNBA all-star team beat Italian champion SFT Como 93-73.

WOMEN'S SPORTS: Washington will be the site of the first two editions of the Women's Global Challenge, an international, five-day, multisport event debuting in the spring of 1999. The site of the biennial event, featuring top female athletes from around the world in sports such as figure skating, basketball and gymnastics, was announced by Benita Fitzgerald Mosley, president of the Women's Sports Foundation.