BRIEFLY : NEUHEISEL PENALTY APPROVED BY PAC-10.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

The Pacific-10 on Friday agreed to accept Washington's self-imposed penalties for football recruiting violations since Rick Neuheisel took over as head coach after leaving Colorado.

At issue were ``quiet period'' violations, contacts between Washington coaches and student athletes at another school without a written release and violation of the tryout rule.

Neuheisel will be limited to nine evaluation days, rather than the usual 29, during the 1999-2000 spring and fall evaluation periods. Washington will reduce the permissible number of football visits by six next year. No Colorado football player enrolled as of Jan. 11 will be permitted to transfer to Washington and compete on the school football team.

Athletic director Barbara Hedges said she was pleased with the Pac-10 decision. The conference commended the school for its ``meaningful and appropriate penalties.''

Harvey Williams, who rushed for 1,114 yards for the Raiders four seasons ago but was shuttled between tight end and fullback the past two years, was cut by Oakland as the team opened minicamp.

Williams, one of the few remaining players from the Raiders team that moved back to Oakland from Los Angeles in 1995, lost his starting job to Napoleon Kaufman three years ago.

Arizona released fullback Larry Centers, a two-time Pro Bowl selection and the first NFL running back to catch 100 passes in a season.

BASKETBALL: Alonzo Newby, the University of Minnesota basketball team's athletic counselor and a key figure in the academic-fraud investigation of the school, was fired for not helping with the inquiry.

Newby's testimony could have clarified what role coach Clem Haskins had in alleged improprieties in the basketball program.

GOLF: Se Ri Pak fired a tournament-record 63, Trish Johnson was a stroke back and Hall of Famer Betsy King carded a record-low 29 on the back nine after the first round of the ShopRite LPGA Classic in New Jersey.

TENNIS: Nathalie Tauziat, last year's Wimbledon runner-up, overcame a 5-1 deficit in the third set and beat Anna Kournikova 6-4, 4-6, 8-6 to reach the championship round of the Eastbourne grass court tournament in England.

In the final, Tauziat will face Natasha Zvereva, who defeated South Africa's Amanda Coetzer 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-4), 10-8 in one of the longest matches in the tournament's history, three hours and 20 minutes.

Wimbledon No. 2 seed Patrick Rafter became the favorite to win the Heineken Trophy grass court tournament after his main rival Richard Krajicek lost Friday.

The third-seeded Krajicek was beaten in the quarterfinals by Germany's Tommy Haas 7-6 (7-3), 1-6, 6-4. Rafter defeated unseeded Dane Kenneth Carlsen 6-3, 6-4.

Today's other men's semifinal will pit Romanian Andrei Pavel, who downed Sweden's Nicklas Kulti 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), against fourth-seeded Czech Karol Kucera, who topped another Swede, Jonas Bjorkman 6-2, 6-3.

In contrast to the men's division, the women's competition already had lost all its seeded players before the semifinals.

American Kristina Brandi, ranked 57th in the world, surprisingly reached today's final by defeating Magdalena Maleeva 6-7 (7-4), 6-3, 6-3 and will meet Croatian Silvija Talaja, who beat Miriam Oremans of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-2 in the other semifinal.