Having clinched the second seed
in the upcoming Conference USA softball tournament by virtue of Tulsa's
loss to Texas-El Paso on Saturday, the East Carolina softball team kept
momentum on its side on Sunday in Hattiesburg as it completed a
three-game sweep of Southern Miss 8-4.
The Pirates finish the regular
season with a 38-18 overall record and a 14-9 mark in conference play.
The conference tournament is
Thursday through Saturday in Orlando.
UAB, UNLV
lose football scholarships
The NCAA has released its
three-year Academic Progress Rate (APR) data, in which only 112 of 6,100
Division I sports teams lost scholarships or were publicly sanctioned
for failing to meet acceptable standards. But officials warned that
significantly more teams in the major sports could be in trouble next
year, according to sportsillustrated.com.
According to the data, 44
percent of men's basketball teams, 40 percent of football teams and 35
percent of baseball teams had three-year APR scores below the 925 cut
under which schools can be penalized. Many avoided sanctions due to
"squad-size adjustments," the NCAA's margin-of-error factor.
Beginning next year, when the
NCAA will for the first time have four years of data for each school,
squad-size adjustments will be eliminated, putting any team below 925 in
danger.
Among 12 Division I-A football
schools receiving sanctions, UAB, from Conference USA, lost one
scholarship and UNLV, where former East Carolina athletic director Mike
Hamrick is AD, lost three.
Prosser heading to Kuwait for USO operation
Wake Forest basketball coach
Skip Prosser, is heading to Kuwait May 22 as part of Operation Hardwood
IV. Prosser and some of his colleagues will be on a military base for
six days coaching teams of service members.
The tour is sponsored by the USO
and Armed Forces Entertainment (AFE). Equipment and uniforms for the
tour are being provided by Nike.
Joining Prosser on the trip will
be Mike Brey (Notre Dame), Ed Conroy (The Citadel), Jim Crews (Army),
Dennis Felton (Georgia), Fran Fraschilla (ESPN analyst and former St.
John's head coach), Mike Lonergan (Vermont) and Reggie Minton (NABC).
May 6, 2007
Duke bows out
of hosting state title grid games
The Fayetteville Observer has
reported a change in the rotation of the state NCHSAA championship
football sites with Duke bowing out of hosting any of the games.
Wake Forest requested that it
host two games each year while N.C. State and the North Carolina will
fill the void left by Duke and host three games each.
The schedule for 2007 calls for
the 3-AA, 3-A and 1-AA games to be played at Kenan Stadium in Chapel
Hill. The 2-AA, 2-A and 1-AA games will be at Carter-Finley Stadium in
Raleigh.
Groves Stadium in Winston-Salem
will host the 4-AA and 4-A games.
Pirate basketball
under the gun in academics
The NCAA has released 2006
Academic Progress Rate (APR) figures and 18 of East Carolina's 19
intercollegiate sports programs are currently in compliance with the
association's guidelines.
The ECU men's basketball team
fell below the mandated "cutoff" mark of 925 with a multi-year score of
849, thus receiving a public warning from the NCAA which could result in
future scholarship reductions and other recruiting and practice time
penalties.
To avoid future penalties for
the program, East Carolina must record yearly APR scores above 925 and
maintain progress towards a four-year composite of 925.
Graduation exercises include 43 ECU athletes
East Carolina announced that 43
current and former student-athletes participated in commencement
exercises on Saturday morning.
The football team led all other
teams with 12 graduates this spring. Women’s soccer, women’s swimming
and diving and men’s track and field and cross country will each
graduate four student-athletes.
May 5, 2007
Virginia,
Southern Cal to collide on Aug. 30
Virginia will open its 2008
football season at home against Southern California on Aug. 30. The
second game in the series will be during the 2010 season at The Los
Angeles Coliseum on Sept. 11.
The 2008 match-up will be the
first meeting between the Cavaliers and Trojans in football.
Louisville re-signs Pitino through 2013
Louisville has extended the
contract of basketball coach Rick Pitino three years — through the
2012-13 season.
The only coach in NCAA history
to take three different teams to the Final Four, Pitino had three years
remaining on his current contract, through the 2009-10 season.
The new agreement will take
Pitino into the first three years of the new downtown arena being
constructed on the Louisville riverfront. The new facility is scheduled
to open for the 2010-11 season.
Three
from C-USA on Rimington watch list
A trio of Conference USA
standouts appears on the preliminary 2007 watch list of candidates for
the Rimington Award, which honors the top center in college football.
Marshall senior Doug Legursky, Rice junior Austin Wilkinson and Texas-El
Paso junior Robby Felix are on the 46-player preseason watch list.
May 4, 2007
Lewellen
leaving East Carolina for Virginia post
Kim Lewellen has been named
women's golf coach at Virginia. She succeeds Jan Mann who announced her
retirement in February.
Mann directed Virginia's program
for its first four seasons, producing berths in the NCAA regional
championships the past three years and a 13th-place finish at the 2005
NCAA championships.
Lewellen comes to Virginia after
spending the past two seasons as the women's coach at East Carolina. She
led the Pirates to the program's first ever Conference USA Championship
in 2006 and a runner-up finish this season. Her 2006 squad qualified for
the NCAA East Regional, the third time a team from ECU had reached NCAA
postseason play.
Lewellen was a contestant on the
Big Break program on the Golf Channel during her stint at ECU.
Marshall women get berth in preseason WNIT
Marshall women's basketball
coach Royce Chadwick has announced that the Thundering Herd has accepted
an invitation to participate in the 2007 Preseason Women's National
Invitation Tournament (WNIT).
Marshall's appearance in the
2007 Preseason WNIT will be the Herd's first ever berth in either a
preseason or postseason WNIT. The 16-team tournament, which guarantees
at least three games per school, will be played entirely on campuses
around the country.
Three-point shot getting a foot longer for men
The NCAA men’s basketball rules
committee has voted to recommend extending the three-point line by one
foot to 20 feet, 9 inches starting with the 2008-09 season. The
dimensions of the lane will remain unchanged.
Women’s basketball rules will
maintain the current three-point line, which is 19 feet, 9 inches from
the basket.
