News Nuggets, 03.15.04
NOTES FROM ECU AND BEYOND...
Previous Day Nuggets...
Next Day Nuggets...
Compiled from staff reports
and electronic dispatches
NCAA,
NIT sweep up eight C-USA teams
PREVIOUS NUGGETS |
03.14.04: Bearcats
capture 4th tourney title... .. Cop charged after gun-shot
in tush at ACC tourney... .. NCAA Tournament selection
committee members... ..
More... |
03.13.04: C-USA
Tournament semifinals roundup... .. Hot action in Cincinnati
extends to band bus... .. Hanky-panky nets stiff discipline
for BYU players... .. Big 'D' ponies up to keep Red River
Shootout... ..
More... |
03.12.04: C-USA
Tournament quarterfinals roundup... .. 49ers legend stepping
down as Texas A&M coach... .. LSU to meet Sooners, seeks
2005 home foe... .. Games on aircraft carrier scratched... ..
More... |
03.11.04: C-USA
Tournament round one roundup... .. Burks, Anderson take home top
C-USA honors... .. Glantz-Culver Line for today's C-USA
games... .. C-USA TV schedule... .. Kentucky AD apologizes
to Gators... .. State's Sherrill doubtful for ACC Tournament... ..
More... |
03.10.04: ECU's
Cook grabs spot on All-Freshman team... .. Badianne among
strong contingent of C-USA shot swatters... .. Glantz-
Culver Line for today's games... .. C-USA Tournament TV
schedule... ..
More... |
03.09.04: Kelly
Tires C-USA Tournament schedule... .. AP Basketball Poll...
.. Baseball America & Collegiate Baseball Polls... ..
Cougars coach shifted to new job... ..
More... |
03.08.04: C-USA
final regular season standings, tourney pairings... .. Cards
ink Pitino, Petrino to long-term pacts... .. JMU coach steps
down after poor season... ..
More... |
03.07.04: Quarterback
killer Coleman hits jackpot with Falcons... .. Standing room
only at top of C-USA... .. Conference standings, scoreboard
& tournament seedings... .. Academic scandal costly for
Gardner-Webb... ..
More... |
03.06.04: Deliberations
continue on ECU chancellor candidates... .. Tourney bid
secure for ECU, courtesy of SLU... .. C-USA standings,
scoreboard & schedule... .. USM coach steps down on eve of
ECU game... ..
More... |
03.05.04: DePaul
ambushes Bearcats... .. C-USA standings, scoreboard &
schedule... .. Billikens star leaves team to be with ailing
Dad... ..
More... |
|
Conference USA will be sending an
all-time record number of teams to the NCAA Basketball Championship.
The league is joined by the ACC, SEC and Big East in producing six
tournament berths.
The five C-USA teams that tied for the
leagues regular season championship Charlotte, Cincinnati, DePaul,
Memphis and UAB will be joined by Louisville in this years 65-team field.
C-USA members Marquette which reached
last season's Final Four and Saint Louis also will have life in the
postseason. Both teams received bids to participate in the National
Invitation Tournament.
Charlotte (20-8) will be making its seventh
NCAA appearance in the last 10 years. The 49ers are the No. 9 seed in the
East region and will face eighth-seeded Texas Tech on Thursday in Buffalo,
NY.
Joining the 49ers in Buffalo will be the
DePaul Blue Demons, the No. 7 seed in the West Region. DePaul (21-9) will be
making its first NCAA appearance since 2000 and will battle No. 10 seed
Dayton in the opening round on Thursday.
Nationwide Arena in downtown Columbus, OH,
will be the opening round site for Cincinnati and UAB.
The C-USA Tournament champion Bearcats
(24-6) are the league's highest-seeded team at No. 4 and will battle No. 13
seed East Tennessee State on Friday in a South region contest.
UAB (20-9) is back in the NCAA Tournament
for the first time since 1999 as the No. 9 seed and will play No. 8 seed
Washington on Friday.
Louisville (20-8), which has made more
appearances than any other C-USA team, will make its 31st trip to the Big
Dance. The Cardinals will be the No. 10 seed in the South region and will
play No. 7 seeded Xavier, tournament champions of the Atlantic 10
Conference, in Orlando on Friday.
Memphis (21-7) is in the NCAA field for the
second straight season and 18th time overall. The Tigers are the No. 7 seed
in the East Region and will play No. 10 seed South Carolina in a rematch of
the 2002 NIT championship game which Memphis won, 72-62.
Marquette (17-11) will play the opening
game of the 2004 NIT when it hosts Toledo on Monday night in Milwaukee,
while Saint Louis (18-12) will battle Big Ten foe Iowa in St. Charles, Mo.
on Tuesday.
Atlantic Sun Conference champion Central
Florida, which will join C-USA in 2005-06, also received a postseason
invitation. UCF currently plays I-A football in the Mid-American Conference
but competes in the Atlantic Sun in other sports.
The Knights, slotted in the NCAA's East Rutherford Regional,
will face Pittsburgh at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee on Thursday.
NCAA conference-by-conference
selections
AMERICA EAST CONFERENCE (1)
Vermont
ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE (4) Dayton, Richmond, Saint Joseph's, Xavier
ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE (6) Duke, Georgia Tech, Maryland, UNC-CH, N.C.
State, Wake Forest
ATLANTIC SUN CONFERENCE (1) Central Florida
BIG EAST CONFERENCE (6) Boston College, UConn, Pitt, Providence, Seton
Hall, Syracuse
BIG SKY CONFERENCE (1) Eastern Washington
BIG SOUTH CONFERENCE (1) Liberty
BIG TEN CONFERENCE (3) Illinois, Michigan State, Wisconsin
BIG 12 CONFERENCE (4) Kansas, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas Tech
BIG WEST CONFERENCE (1) Pacific
COLONIAL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION (1) Virginia Commonwealth
CONFERENCE USA (6) Charlotte, Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Memphis, UAB
HORIZON LEAGUE (1) Illinois-Chicago
IVY LEAGUE (1) Princeton
METRO ATLANTIC ATHLETIC CONFERENCE (1) Manhattan
MID-AMERICAN CONFERENCE (1) Western Michigan
MID-CONTINENT CONFERENCE (1) Valparaiso
MID-EASTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE (1) Florida A&M
MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE (2) Northern Iowa, Southern Illinois
MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE (3) Air Force, Brigham Young, Utah
NORTHEAST CONFERENCE (1) Monmouth, N.J.
OHIO VALLEY CONFERENCE (1) Murray State
PACIFIC-10 CONFERENCE (3) Arizona, Stanford, Washington
PATRIOT LEAGUE (1) Lehigh
SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE (6) Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Miss. State, South
Carolina, Vanderbilt
SOUTHERN CONFERENCE (1) East Tennessee State
SOUTHLAND CONFERENCE (1) Texas-San Antonio
SOUTHWESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE (1) Alabama State
SUN BELT CONFERENCE (1) Louisiana-Lafayette
WEST COAST CONFERENCE (1) Gonzaga
WESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE (2) Nevada, Texas-El Paso
O'Leary, UCF seek redemption together
ORLANDO George O'Leary wanted another
chance. Central Florida was the perfect place to start over.
O'Leary was coach at Notre Dame for less than a week in 2001 before he was
fired for lying on his resume. Now, after two years as an assistant with the
Minnesota Vikings, O'Leary is ready to put all his mistakes behind him.
The 57-year-old O'Leary is focusing only on next Friday, when he can lead
his new team through spring practice.
The Golden Knights also are eager for the start of 15 days of drills, film
sessions, meetings and scrimmages. They, too, want a second chance after
last season's losses, lawlessness and apathy.
"He said, coming in, everybody's got a clean slate," defensive end Paul
Carrington said.
Including O'Leary. He landed his dream job in South Bend., Ind., after
seven-plus seasons guiding Georgia Tech.
But falsehoods on his resume were exposed: O'Leary said he was a three-time
letterman in college football and also earned a master's degree in
education. The man players and colleagues regarded as a straight arrow was,
to the rest of the nation, a liar.
So now it starts over for O'Leary at Central Florida -- where there is no
Touchdown Jesus, no "Play like a champion today" sign, no news conferences
televised nationally to a rabid fan base.
But O'Leary couldn't care less.
"That was a bad dream that didn't go away for a while," O'Leary said. "But
I've moved on."
UCF needs to do the same after a disastrous 2003 campaign.
One player was suspended after being charged with bringing a gun on campus;
seven others were suspended for violating team rules -- including the
quarterback, touted on the cover of the media guide as a Heisman hopeful.
Amid the turmoil, the Knights went 3-9, attendance lagged and coach Mike
Kruczek was fired.
So UCF athletic director Steve Orsini turned to O'Leary, whom he knew after
serving three years as Georgia Tech's senior associate athletic director.
O'Leary's record at Georgia Tech made it easy to see why Notre Dame hired
him. He went 52-33 overall with five straight bowl berths. He was ACC coach
of the year in 1998 and 2000, and received the Bobby Dodd National Coach of
the Year Award in 2000.
Orsini knew the real O'Leary -- and it wasn't the man a late-night comedian
labeled as "George O'Really?"
"Never would I ever describe George as someone who fabricated things,
embellished things," Orsini said. "He's not a liar."
O'Leary was in his second season coaching defense for the Vikings, a job he
took because he did not want to hide after the Notre Dame debacle. He talked
with Orsini and soon after met with UCF representatives.
At the meeting, O'Leary learned what the school had to offer. And the more
he heard -- a committed administration, a football-crazed state, a
world-class airport near campus to ease the recruiting process -- the more
he liked.
"The school has great potential," O'Leary said. "It's a sleeping giant."
On Dec. 8, O'Leary became the eighth coach in UCF history. His five-year
contract has a base annual salary of $700,000, but incentives could push the
yearly payout to more than $1 million.
After arriving on campus to stay in early January -- brushing off a New
Year's Eve heart attack -- O'Leary started evaluating his program.
"Last season, we had the athletes and we wanted to win, but we just didn't
know how to work to win," Carrington said.
O'Leary also started focusing on academics. Proving his point to a squad
with 16 of its 62 scholarship players on academic probation, he moved study
hall to the team's meeting room.
"Right under his nose," Orsini said.
Though O'Leary wants to move on from what happened, there are some
advantages to becoming so well known.
"That's what made recruiting in January a little bit easier -- I didn't have
to introduce myself," he said. "They pretty much knew who I was."
Now he wants everyone to know about UCF.
News Nuggets are
compiled periodically from staff, ECU, Conference USA and its member
schools, and from Associated Press and
other reports. Copyright 2004
Bonesville.net and other publishers. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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