Rice is mourning the loss of
Jonathan Bailey, a junior who was stabbed to death Thursday in College
Station, TX, where he had just celebrated his 22nd birthday with his
twin brother.
Jonathan was a walk-on member of
the Owls basketball team, and head coach Willis Wilson met with
Jonathan's mother and another brother in Houston the morning after the
incident.
"Obviously, we are shocked at
this tragedy," Wilson said in a Rice release. "Our thoughts and prayers
are with Jonathan's family. Every member of our athletics community is
grieving at the loss of a teammate and a friend."
Bailey transfered to Rice for
the start of the 2005-06 season from Texas State and redshirted. He
played in four games for the Owls this past season, playing a total of
10 minutes. He scored all of his four points in the opener against Paul
Quinn College.
Gillispie
departs Aggies to take reins at Kentucky
Kentucky has named Billy
Gillispie as its basketball coach, filling the void left by Tubby
Smith's departure to Minnesota and in quick response to Billy Donovan's
decision to remain at Florida after directing the Gators to a second
straight NCAA Tournament championship.
Gillispie agreed to a seven-year
contract with the Wildcats. Gillispie leaves Texas A&M after directing
the Aggies to a 27-7 record in 2007 and a berth in the NCAA Sweet 16.
K-State moves fast after Huggins goes to WVU
The Manhattan (Kansas) Mercury
has reported that Kansas State has promoted Frank Martin to basketball
coach, replacing Bob Huggins, who resigned Thursday to go to West
Virginia.
According to a release by
K-State athletic director Tim Weiser, Huggins assistant coach Dalonte
Hill has also been promoted and will remain with the Wildcat program as
associate head coach.
April
6, 2007
League tournament
shifted to Greenville
The 2007 Conference USA baseball
championship, originally scheduled for May 23-27 at Turchin Stadium in
New Orleans, will be held at East Carolina's Clark-LeClair Stadium.
Due to continuing renovations at
Turchin Stadium since Hurricane Katrina, the facility will not be
completed in time to host the eight-team, double-elimination tournament.
"We were disappointed to learn
that Turchin Stadium will not be ready to host the 2007 C-USA Baseball
Championship, since we expect it will be one of the finest college
baseball facilities in the country when it is completed," said
Commissioner Britton Banowsky.
East Carolina was originally
scheduled to host the 2008 championship. Tulane and ECU will now switch
years, with next year's event to be held at Turchin Stadium.
"We certainly appreciate East
Carolina stepping up and hosting the 2007 championship," said Banowsky.
"ECU has an outstanding baseball facility and enjoys tremendous fan
support. We know they will do a great job of hosting the championship
and we are certain that the Pirate Nation will turn out in large numbers
for this event."
The 2007 tickets will be priced
at $60 and may be ordered online at
www.ecupirates.com, beginning Monday, April 9. The ECU ticket office
will be open at 9 a.m. EDT on Monday to answer customer inquiries.
Individual session tickets, if available, will be priced at $10, and
will go on sale the week of the tournament.
Pirates take break
before Purple-Gold game
East Carolina closed out its
fifth week of spring drills a few days early by utilizing a split venue
for its 13th practice. The Pirates worked an hour on the artificial
surface of Hight Field within the Cliff Moore practice complex before
completing the final phase of the workout in full scrimmage mode on
Wednesday at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
East Carolina will be taking a
long weekend off in observance of Good Friday and Easter before resuming
its schedule April 11. That workout will mark the Pirates' final tune-up
in preparation for the Purple-Gold Game on April 14.
Coach Skip Holtz put a heavy
emphasis on the passing game during the scrimmage portion of Wednesday's
practice, which was highlighted by a pair of touchdown passes by
sophomores Rob Kass and Brett Clay.
Kass capped the opening
possession by connecting with Alex Taylor on a 14-yarder before Clay
closed the contest by finding Taylor in the back of the endzone with an
11-yard toss. Kass also hooked up with redshirt freshman Dwayne Harris
on a 35-yard non-scoring pass play during the scrimmage.
"We really wanted to focus our
attention on the passing game today," Holtz said. "We tried to get in as
much pass situational work as we could, emphasizing third-and-short,
third-and-medium and third-and-long in drop-back and ball control calls
with ones going against ones and No. 2s against No. 2s."
While the tone of the scrimmage
featured a strong aerial presence, the Pirate rushing attack also
continued to make an impact as junior Dominique Lindsay and redshirt
freshman Norman Whitley recorded runs of 74 and 83 yards, respectively.
Lindsay added a 17-yard touchdown dash, junior quarterback Patrick
Pinkney contributed a four-yard scoring rush and junior Brandon Simmons
had a long effort of 42 yards.
The scrimmage wasn't without
some big plays on defense as junior Zach Slate recovered the game's only
fumble and senior Travis Williams returned an interception 35 yards for
a touchdown late during the action.
"There have been a lot of
positives this spring," Holtz commented. "However, the one thing we
don't have at this point is a level of consistency."
After next Wednesday's full-pad
practice, East Carolina's coaching staff will conduct a player draft to
select roster positions for the Purple-Gold Game, which is scheduled for
a 3 p.m. kickoff.
Tickets, which are priced at
$5.00 for the contest or $10.00 with the addition of a plate of barbecue
from the Pigskin Pig-Out Party, can be purchased online at
www.ecupirates.com or by calling (252) 328-2300 or (800) DIAL-ECU
outside the Greenville area.
Grambling coaching
legend Robinson succumbs
The Grambling State University
family lost one of its biggest patriarchs and ambassadors to the world
late Tuesday night as legendary head football coach Eddie G. Robinson,
Sr., passed away at Northern Louisiana Medical Center in Ruston, LA$.
According to a Grambling
release, Robinson spent 57 seasons consistently fielding stellar
football teams and guiding his young charges to success both on and off
the gridiron. The second “winningest coach in the history of college
football” always remained humble, crediting his players, his family, his
loving wife Doris, the media and football fans from all over the world
for making the name “Eddie Robinson” synonymous with the best that
college football has to offer.
On October 7, 1995, Robinson
became the first college football coach to break the 400-win barrier, a
mark once thought to be unreachable until Grambling’s version of the
Energizer Bunny just kept on going and going and winning and winning.
The 42-6 win over Mississippi Valley State came before a national
television audience on ESPN2.
“Nobody has ever done or will
ever do what Eddie Robinson has done for this game,” Penn State coach
Joe Paterno said. “Our profession will never, ever be able to repay
Eddie Robinson for what he has done for this country and the profession
of football.”
ECU posts net
win over Division II power Barton
East Carolina used four singles
wins, three coming in convincing fashion, and the doubles point to post
a 5-2 non-conference men's tennis victory over Barton on Wednesday
evening at the ECU Tennis Complex.
The win improved the Pirates'
record to 8-11 while Barton, ranked No. 31 nationally at the NCAA
Division II level, fell to 11-4.
East Carolina opened the match
by sweeping doubles play and capturing the opening point. Matt Peeler
and Brian Walters defeated Nikola Andjelic and Robert Jenner 8-2 at the
No. 2 flight before Aleksey Kochetov and Stephen Whitwell handed Brent
Ching and Dan Mascall an 8-5 loss at No. 1 to seal the outcome.
The Pirates continued their
strong play in the singles competition, winning four of the six matches.
Kochetov rallied past Ching (4-6, 6-1, 6-0) at No. 1 and Whitwell
handled Andjelic (6-4, 6-1) at No. 3 before Bryan Oakley and Walters
added 6-1, 7-5 and 6-3, 6-4 victories over Chris Martel and Mascall at
Nos. 4 and 5, respectively.
The Pirates' match against
Gardner-Webb, scheduled to be completed earlier Wednesday as part of a
doubleheader, was canceled because of expected inclement weather and
potential travel difficulties.
East Carolina will close out its
three-match homestand when it welcomes UNC-Wilmington to Greenville on
Saturday at 1 p.m.
