The Memphis Tigers made it 23 straight wins on
Friday by beating North Texas 73-58 in the first round of the NCAA
tournament.
Chris Douglas-Roberts had 16 points, Robert
Dozier had 11 points and seven rebounds, and Joey Dorsey had nine points
and 15 rebounds for the Tigers. Andre Allen added 14 points in the
victory.
Wolfpack advances in NIT with win at Reynolds
N.C. State jumped out to a big lead in the first
half, then held on through a second-half rally to advance to the
National Invitation Tournament quarterfinals by beating Marist, 69-62,
Friday night at raucous, sold-out Reynolds Coliseum.
Paced by a 15-1 scoring run midway through the
first half, State (20-15) jumped out to a 33-19 at the break.
The Wolfpack now advances for a rematch with
West Virginia, which beat coach Sidney Lowe’s squad 71-60 on Dec. 6 in
Charleston, WV, in State’s second game without injured senior point
guard Engin Atsur.
Tar Heels suspend RB Edwards indefinitely
North Carolina tailback Barrington Edwards has
been suspended indefinitely from the Tar Heel football team for
violating team rules and university policies, the school said Friday in
a news release.
Edwards will not participate in spring practice
but will remain on scholarship through the spring semester. Edwards
gained 330 yards rushing last season in a back-up role.
Pirate men's tennis upends Coastal Carolina
The East Carolina men's tennis team dropped just
one singles match on the way to a 6-1 non-conference upset win over
Coastal Carolina Thursday afternoon at the Billy Nichols Tennis Center
in Conway, SC.
The victory gave the Pirates their first
two-match win streak since the opening week of the 2007 season and
improved their overall record to 6-8. The Chanticleers, who had opened
the spring campaign with wins in 13 of their first 15 matches, dropped
to 13-3.
ECU will return to action next Thursday when it
travels to the Triad for a 2:00 p.m. match against UNC-Greensboro.
Fayetteville prep product lifts VCU over Duke
Eric Maynor calmly hit a jumper in the lane with
time running out to give Virginia Commonwealth a 79-77 upset victory
over sixth-seeded Duke Thursday evening.
A product of Fayetteville Westover High School,
Maynor performed his heroics with less than two seconds remaining in the
NCAA Tournament first round game in Buffalo, NY.
The Rams improve to 28-6 on the season and move
on to the second round of the tournament for the first time since 1985,
where they will face the winner of Thursday night's Pittsburgh-Wright
State contest.
Football powers horn in on March Madness
Twenty-one schools that played bowl games after
the 2006 season also earned spots into the NCAA Basketball Tournament,
which began Thursday night, according to a release from the College
Football Foundation.
Five BCS teams, including Florida and Ohio State
— who played for the national championship — received bids. The Gators
and the Buckeyes are both no. 1 seeds.
Other bowl schools in the 65-team hoops tourney
include Brigham Young, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Maryland, Notre Dame,
Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin.
Samford joins Southern Conference
The Southern Conference has approved Samford as
the league's 12th member. The Bulldogs, based in Birmingham, become the
first Southern Conference team from Alabama since Alabama and Auburn
withdrew in 1932.
ECU splits softball doubleheader with Coastal
After losing to Coastal Carolina in the first
game of the series on Monday, the East Carolina softball team bounced
back with a 7-1 win in the first game of the team's Tuesday doubleheader
before before dropping the second game 7-6.
East Carolina had a 6-3 lead heading into the
seventh inning in the nightcap but the Chanticleers battled back to
score four runs.
In the day first game, a three-run home run by
Kaui Tom capped a six-run second inning by the Pirates.
Pack returns to Reynolds for NIT 2nd round
Following Tuesday night's win at Drexel, the
N.C. State basketball team will continue its quest for the NIT
championship at home on Friday night. Coach Sidney Lowe and company will
play host to Marist in Reynolds Coliseum in a game that tips off at 9:30
p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPNU.
The sixth-seeded Wolfpack (19-15) upset the
third-seeded Dragons on Tuesday, while seventh-seeded Marist (25-8) won
at second-seed Oklahoma State. The winner will advance to play the
winner of the West Virginia-Massachusetts game on the road next week.
NCAA-bound Arizona disciplines reserve guard
Arizona reserve guard Daniel Dillon has been
suspended for an unspecified duration following his arrest for driving
under the influence.
The Wildcats play Purdue on Friday in New
Orleans in the NCAA Tournament. Dillon will not dress for the game,
according to Arizona officials.
Conference USA honors Pirates hurler Hose
East Carolina junior righthander T.J. Hose and
Southern Miss freshman righthander Todd McInnis share this week’s
Conference USA pitcher of the week honors.
Central Florida sophomore infielder Kiki Vazquez
earned hitter of the week recognition for the period ending Sunday,
March 11.
Hose had a career-best pitching performance
Friday night against No. 7 Cal State Fullerton, setting the tone for the
Pirates' three-game sweep of the Titans. He picked up his third
consecutive win in a 6-1 ECU victory, scattering three hits over seven
innings. Hose allowed one run while striking out six batters, four of
them looking, in seven innings of work.
Hose kept the Titans hitters in check with a
.143 average.
Texas women's coaching icon hangs up whistle
Texas women's basketball coach and Naismith Hall
of Hamer Jody Conradt has announced her retirement from coaching.
Conradt coached a total of 31 years at Texas, and 38 years overall in
the college ranks. She retires as the No. 2 all-time winningest coach in
collegiate men's or women's basketball history with a record of 900-307.
Texas, 18-14 this season, was not selected to
the 2007 NCAA Tournament.
Study shows Buckeyes losing in classroom
Ohio State may be No. 1, but that's in college
basketball, not in academic performance. Richard Lapchick, director of
Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports, has
determined that only 10 percent of the Buckeyes' basketball players
received degrees at the school, according to figures for freshman
classes entering from 1996-99.
Counting players who transferred or entered from
junior colleges and graduated late, 38 percent of Buckeyes basketball
players earned degrees during that period, according to Lapchick's
study.
Lady Pirates' opponent will be Scarlet Knights
The East Carolina women's basketball team will
take on No. 4 seed Rutgers in East Lansing, MI, in the first round of
the NCAA Tournament. The game, set for Sunday, March 18, at 9:30 p.m.,
will be televised by ESPN2 and ESPNU.
The winner of that contest will advance to take
on the winner of the fifth-seeded Michigan State versus No. 12 seed
Delaware matchup, which will be played at 7:00 p.m., prior to the
ECU-Rutgers game. The second round matchup is slated for Tuesday, March
20.
