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News Nuggets, 07.08.05
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Compiled from staff reports and electronic dispatches

Turnstiles spun at record rate for Heels' title win

INDIANAPOLIS — North Carolina's victory over Illinois in the NCAA championship game attracted a record crowd.

The title game in St. Louis was played before 47,262 fans, a record 98.4 percent capacity at the Edward Jones Dome. The crowd eclipsed the mark of 97.9 percent set in 1994, the Division I men's basketball committee said Thursday.

Ticket sales for the first and second round games in Indianapolis brought in a record $3.454 million.

The Syracuse Regional at the Carrier Dome earned $2.151 million, the third-highest for a domed stadium.

The first and second round games in Charlotte raised $2.742 million, a record for conventional arenas.

Convicted 'Bama booster denies 'buying' Means

BIRMINGHAM — Former Alabama football booster Logan Young denies ever buying a player for the Crimson Tide despite his conviction in federal court for bribing a high school coach to get a top recruit.

Young, a Memphis businessman, also told The Birmingham News that allegations by Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer that he had steered a number of prospects to Alabama in the 1990s were ``preposterous.''

Young, 64, was convicted of paying Memphis high school coach Lynn Lang to steer recruit Albert Means to Alabama. Means eventually was permitted by the NCAA to transfer to Memphis without having to sit out a year. He finished his career as a defensive tackle with the Tigers last season.

Lang testified that Young paid $150,000 to land Means. In June, Young was sentenced to six months in prison and six months home confinement to be served after his release from prison, followed by two years of supervised release.

Young, who remains free pending appeal, said he's pleased with the sentence but still maintains his innocence.

``I didn't do it, but what the jury said I did is all that matters,'' he told News columnist Kevin Scarbinsky in a story Wednesday. ``I was tickled pink with the sentence. That's the least it could have been.''

He also said he is confident he will be healthy enough to get a kidney transplant by the end of August.

Alabama cut its ties to Young as an NCAA investigation involving him led to sanctions against the Tide football program. But Young disputed former Alabama assistant coach and player Jeff Rouzie's statement that legendary Tide coach Bear Bryant once warned his coaches to keep their distance from Young. In a column last week, Scarbinsky said Rouzie confirmed that he made the statement to the NCAA in 2001.

``That's not true. That's a lie,'' Young said. ''... I know Coach Bryant didn't say it.''

The Memphis businessman said he had a ``special relationship'' with Bryant.

Young, who did not testify in his criminal trial in Memphis, denied some of the allegations Fulmer made to NCAA investigators and then-Southeastern Conference commissioner Roy Kramer, including claims that Young bought a truck for defensive linemen Michael Myers and a house for defensive lineman Kindal Moorehead or his mother.

``It makes Fulmer look like a bigger liar than he already is,'' Young said. ``He's over the edge. He threw everything on the wall and hoped some of it stuck.''

Fulmer's attorney, Jeff Hagood, did not immediately have a comment Wednesday.

The NCAA's findings against Alabama didn't include many of the allegations lodged by Fulmer, which have come to light in a defamation lawsuit filed by two former Tide assistants in Tuscaloosa against the NCAA and others. That trial is set to begin Monday.

News Nuggets are compiled periodically based on material supplied by staff members; data published by ECU, Conference USA and its member schools; and reports from Associated Press and other sources. Copyright 2005 Bonesville.net and other publishers. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Page Updated: 02/23/2007 12:26 PM