East Carolina finished the
practice portion of its spring schedule in cool and damp conditions
Wednesday.
While the spirited full-pad
session completed the Pirates' weekday workout slate, it also served as
a final tune-up for the program's annual spring game that kicks off
Saturday at 3 p.m. at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
"There have been many positives
that have come out of the spring and I'm pleased with that," said ECU
Head Coach Skip Holtz. "We've made a lot of progress but understand that
we still have the summer workouts and fall camp ahead of us. There's a
lot of work left for us to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together
and get guys healthy before we can even entertain the idea of getting
ready to play."
Holtz and staff have spent the
last few days defining their current depth chart to identify the first
and second units and conducted a player draft Wednesday morning to
select roster positions for the Purple-Gold game.
Similar to last season, the two
teams will be divided up as "East Carolina" and "Pirates" and each will
feature either the No. 1 offense or the top defense in order to display
competition between equal units of the two-deep.
Holtz also indicated the format
of the scrimmage will resemble a true game as much as possible with the
utilization of a game clock throughout all four quarters with live
hitting permitted in all positions. The only exception to the norm will
be the elimination of kickoff, punting and return situations. The
scrimmage plans contemplate that the Pirates will attempt all
extra-point and field goal tries.
"As is the case every year,
we're all looking forward to Saturday," Holtz continued. "The
opportunity to have another scrimmage situation, lining up and playing
in a game-day environment is critical to our continued development
because of the inexperience we have in many key areas."
Along with the game and
festivities of the two-day Pirate Purple/Gold pigskin Pig-Out Party,
many former Pirate greats and current or retired National Football
League performers such as Earnest Byner, Reggie Branch, Tony Collins,
Brian Rimpf and Jody Shulz, along with former coach Ed Emory, will be in
Greenville this weekend and present at the game.
Charges dropped against Duke lacrosse players
The Durham Herald reported
Wednesday afternoon that state attorney general Roy Cooper is dropping
kidnapping and sexual assault charges in the Duke lacrosse case because
the three players are innocent and were the victims of a "tragic rush to
accuse and failure to verify" the allegations.
Cooper said the accuser in the
case, one of two women hired to perform a strip show for team members
during a party last spring, wanted to continue with the case. But her
accounts didn't match up with any evidence investigators have turned up,
or with the account offered by any other witness to what occurred at the
party.
Navy, Pitt resume series with ESPN matchup
Pittsburgh's first football game
with Navy in 18 years will be a national ESPN telecast on Wednesday,
Oct. 10.
Originally scheduled for
Saturday, Oct. 13, at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, the contest was moved
to Wednesday after ESPN officials expressed an interest in making the
Pitt-Navy game an exclusive national broadcast, kicking off four
consecutive days of college football programming by the network.
Kickoff is scheduled for 8 p.m.
The matchup will be the only college football telecast by the network
that evening.
LSU
lures WNBA coach to guide women's hoops
LSU named Van Chancellor as its
women's basketball coach on Wednesday. Chancellor, who will be inducted
into the Naismith Hall of Fame in September, resigned from the WNBA
Houston Comets in January after winning four WNBA titles with the team
from 1997-2000. Before that, he was Ole Miss coach from 1978-97 and took
the Lady Rebels to 14 NCAA Tournaments and four elite eight finishes.
Chancellor, 63, replaces Pokey
Chatman, who resigned following implications that she had an improper
relationship with a player.
April
11, 2007
Effort at ECU
earns Rice's Berry national honor
Rice freshman right-handed
pitcher Ryan Berry and Missouri sophomore right-handed pitcher Rick
Zagone were named national co-pitchers of the week by the National
Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.
Berry won his only start of the
week on the road at 22nd-ranked East Carolina on Apr. 6. The
right-hander from Humble, TX, allowed just four singles and one walk
while striking out a career-high 12 in seven shutout innings in a game
the Owls won 4-0.
He faced 24 ECU batters and held
the Pirates to a composite .167 batting average on his way to his fifth
victory of the season. Only three ECU hitters faced by Berry reached
scoring position.
South Carolina junior second
baseman Travis Jones was named hitter of the week.
Durant says adios to
Texas, hello to NBA
Texas swingman Kevin Durant intends to declare
himself eligible for the 2007 NBA Draft and will begin the process of
hiring an agent, he announced Tuesday.
The first freshman in NCAA history to earn
consensus national player of the year honors, Durant led the Big 12
Conference in scoring (25.8 ppg), rebounding (11.1 rpg) and blocked
shots (67). He was the only player to rank in the Top 10 nationally in
both scoring (fourth) and rebounding (fourth).
Durant is the first player in Texas history to
declare for the NBA draft following his freshman year. The 2007 NBA
draft is scheduled for Thursday, June 28 in New York City.
Turgeon taking
reigns of Texas A&M hoops
Former Wichita State coach Mark Turgeon has been
named basketball coach at Texas A&M.
In seven years as head coach at Wichita State
(2000-07), Turgeon built the Shockers into one of the premier teams in
the Missouri Valley Conference, culminating in a conference title and
NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearance in 2006.
In the 2006 NCAA Tournament, WSU knocked off Seton
Hall and Tennessee before falling to eventual Final Four participant
George Mason. Turgeon was named the 2006 MVC coach of the year.
He built a 128-89 record (.590) at WSU, third most
wins in school history. He posted a 104-56 record (.650) in his final
five seasons, an average of 20.8 victories per year. He led the Shockers
to three straight NITs from 2003-05 in addition to the 2006 NCAAs, the
first time WSU had four straight postseason appearances in 40 years.
April
10, 2007
Imus
apologizes but critics still want him axed
USA Today has reported that talk
show host Don Imus apologized again Monday for calling the Rutgers
women's basketball team a bunch of "nappy-headed hos" last week, but
critics continued to press for his firing.
And his two major outlets, CBS
Radio, which syndicates his morning show, and MSNBC, which simulcasts
it, said Monday they're suspending the shock jock for two weeks starting
April 16. NBC News said in a statement that Imus has professed "profound
regret" and said its future relationship with the entertainer would be
determined by his behavior.
The East Carolina women's
basketball team
was handily defeated by Rutgers in
the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Scarlet Knights went on to
advance to the tournament finals,
where they were beaten by
Tennessee.
ECU,
UNCW reschedule softball doubleheader
The non-conference softball
doubleheader between East Carolina and UNC-Wilmington has been postponed
from Wednesday, April 11, to Tuesday, April 17, in Wilmington due to
questionable weather and scheduling conflicts.
The first game of the
rescheduled doubleheader is slated for 4 p.m.
Former Spartan gridder charged with murder
Former Michigan State football
player Hubert D. Thompson, 28, once rated as a top pro prospect at
defensive end, is charged with murder for allegedly throwing a neighbor
to his death from a third-floor apartment balcony.
Thompson has said he thought the
man was trying to poison him, according to reports. Thompson told the
Chicago Tribune that he was being poisoned by James Malone, 66, who
resided in the same suburban Chicago apartment complex.
Friends and family said Thompson
suffers from mental illness.
