Qualified performers from East
Carolina's men's and women's track teams will compete in the NCAA
Division I East regional championships today and Saturday in
Gainesville, FL.
Six individuals from ECU and two
Pirate relay teams will be competing to advance to the NCAA national
championships to be held June 6-9 in Sacramento, CA.
For the ECU women, Camelia
Morman will compete in the triple jump while Chelsea Salisbury will
represent the Pirates in the hammer throw.
For the men, Brandon Small and
Chris Richardson will run in the 400 meter dash, while Terrence Myers
and Eric Frasure will compete in the hammer throw.
East Carolina's 4x100 relay team
of Aidan Sanderson, Jarek Hewett, David Rucker and Kevin Thompson is
also in the regionals, as is the the 4x400 relay team of Small,
Sanderson, Bryson Bowling and Richardson.
Two gridders planning to leave Virginia Tech
Tailback George Bell and wide
receiver Brandon Barden have indicated they will leave the football
program at Virginia Tech.
Bell, who starred at Jack Britt
High in Fayetteville, is headed to Division II Catawba, where he hopes
to play more. Barden, a freshman who arrived in January and went through
spring practice, was shaken by the April shootings on the Blacksburg
campus that left 33 dead. He is looking at the possibility of
transferring to Vanderbilt.
East Carolina opens its 2007
football season at Virginia Tech on Sept. 1.
Rolle through as role player in hoops for LSU
LSU basketball coach John Brady
has announced that forward Magnum Rolle, by mutual agreement, will be
given the opportunity to pursue other interests as it relates to his
basketball career.
The 6-foot-10 Rolle may transfer
or sit out next season and prepare for the 2008 NBA draft.
"Despite the development of
several players who have had the patience and made it to the next level
in our program at his position, sometimes the parties involved do not
agree on a developmental process of the player as it relates to the
team," Brady said. "When that happens, other options may be explored. We
wish Magnum well with his future in basketball and his pursuit of his
education."
Rolle played in 60 games in two
seasons at LSU with nine starts. He averaged 2.8 points per game and 3.2
rebounds.
May 24, 2007
Slain Miami
lineman's parents to get $2 million
Though the Bryan Pata murder
case remains unsolved, his family received financial relief Tuesday when
the insurance companies of the apartment where the Miami Hurricanes
defensive lineman lived agreed to pay a $2 million settlement to his
parents, Jeanette and Pierre, according to a Miami Herald report.
The apartment complex had
advertised 24-hour security, which apparently was not in force when Pata
was shot and killed on Nov. 7.
Georgetown hoops duo announces future plans
Two Georgetown basketball
standouts have announced their plans for the future. Power forward Jeff
Green, the Big East player of the year, plans to forego his senior
season to enter the NBA draft, while seven-footer Roy Hibbert announced
that he will remove his name from the draft and return to the Hoyas for
his senior season.
Green, a 6-foot-9, 235-pounder,
averaged 14.3 points and was second in both rebounding (6.4) and assists
(3.2). Hibbert (7-2, 278) was the Hoyas' leading rebounder (6.9) and
shot blocker (90) and second leading scorer on the team (12.9).
Heels' stumbles persist in ACC baseball tourney
Georgia Tech's David Duncan
scattered five hits and three runs over eight innings as the
seventh-seeded Yellow Jackets surprised No. 2 seed UNC-Chapel Hill, 8-4,
Wednesday in the second game of the Atlantic Coast Conference baseball
tournament in Jacksonville, FL.
The Tar Heels (45-12, 21-9) lost
their opening game as a No. 2 seed for the second year in a row and have
now dropped six consecutive ACC tournament games since 2004.
May 23, 2007
C-USA
baseball session tickets available for $10
Individual session tickets for
the Conference USA baseball tournament, which begins today at East
Carolina's Clark-LeClair Stadium, will be available for $10 each at the
stadium box office. Tournament passes are $60 each.
ECU opens play at 7:30 p.m.
tonight against Tulane. Tournament play continues through Sunday when
the championship game is scheduled for 1 p.m. [VIEW
C-USA BASEBALL TOURNAMENT BRACKETS]
League
honors go to six Pirate baseball players
Six East Carolina baseball
players received recognition from Conference USA on the eve of the
league tournament. Outfielder Harrison Eldridge and right-handed closer
Shane Mathews of the Pirates were first-team all-conference selections.
Infielder Dale Mollenhauer,
outfielder Ryan Tousley, and right-handed pitcher T.J. Hose of ECU were
second-team All-Conference USA. Designated hitter Kyle Roller was named
to the All-Freshmen team.
Paper: Villanova legend beaten, near death
Howard Porter was close to death
Monday in a Twin Cities hospital, according to a Minneapolis-St. Pauls
Star-Tribune report.
The former college basketball
superstar traveled a rough road through addiction and rehabilitation
that eventually led to a job as a Ramsey County probation and parole
officer, where he was responsible for keeping others from many of the
mistakes he made.
Porter's badly beaten body was
found about 5:30 a.m. Saturday in an alley in north Minneapolis.
Porter had no identification on
him, and he was unable to speak to officers, according to police
reports. Sources close to the 58-year-old Porter said Monday that the
former Villanova star had suffered severe brain injury and was close to
death.
May 22, 2007
Aggies close out
Houston's softball season
Seventh-ranked Texas A&M jumped
out to a pair of early leads and never looked back claiming 13-2 and 5-0
softball victories over Houston during the NCAA College Station regional
at Texas A&M.
Houston finished 44-18 while
Texas A&M (44-11) advances to the NCAA super regionals against No. 19
Florida next weekend. The 44 wins by the Cougars is a program record.
C-USA
weekly honors go to Belanger, Luna
After setting the tone for a
three-game sweep at Houston with a brilliant performance on Thursday
night, Southern Miss senior righthander Ryan Belanger has been named
Conference USA pitcher of the week.
Hitter of the week honors went
to Rice sophomore outfielder/designated hitter Aaron Luna, who had an
outstanding weekend at the plate as the Owls increased their winning
streak to 18 games with a three-game sweep of Memphis and a
non-conference win over Baylor.
Belanger pitched the first
complete-game of his two-year Southern Miss career and limited Houston
to four hits, one walk and struck out eight batters to lead Southern
Miss to a 6-0 victory over the Cougars in game one of the series at
Cougar Field on Thursday night. This is the second time this season that
Belanger has been named C-USA pitcher of the week.
Luna batted .500 (7-of-14) with
three multiple hit games, drove in a team-high six runs and shared the
team lead with five runs scored to help the Owls go 4-0 on the week.
Luna slugged a double and a home run for a .786 slugging percentage.
This is Luna's second C-USA hitter of the week honor this year.
Duke plows
through Heels to lacrosse Final Four
Top-seeded Duke rallied from a
6-1 deficit to defeat eighth-seeded North Carolina, 19-11, in the NCAA
men’s lacrosse tournament quarterfinals as 10,438 fans watched at
Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, MD.
The second-ranked Blue Devils
improve to 16-2 on the year and will meet fourth-seeded and top-ranked
Cornell in the national semifinals next Saturday at M&T Bank Stadium in
Baltimore. The national semifinal berth will be the third for Duke,
which made previous appearances in 1997 and 2005. North Carolina ends
the season at 10-6.
Zack Greer posted seven goals
and three assists while Matt Danowski chipped in four goals and six
assists as the pair combined for 20 total points for the Blue Devils.
May 21, 2007
Tulsa takes NCAA
regional golf championship
The 17th-ranked Tulsa men's golf
team will head into the NCAA championships (May 30-June 2) with plenty
of momentum after posting a three-round total of 895 to hold on for the
NCAA Central Regional title at the par-72 Rich Harvest Farms Golf Course
in Sugar Grove, IL.
After building a seven-stroke
lead over Louisville at the end of day two, TU carded a 310 for the
final round to hold off third-ranked Alabama, which finished second with
a three round total of 898. Rounding out the top-five were No. 23
Louisville (899), No. 7 Lamar (900) and No. 14 Tennessee (904).
Purdue plans $82 million expansion of arena
Purdue has announced plans for
an $82 million renovation of its basketball home, Mackey Arena, which
would include building practice facilities, expanding space for sports
medicine and a larger weight training and conditioning area.
An architectural firm has been
approved for expanding the 40-year old arena. The project cost is about
one-third that of building a new arena and separate facilities for other
uses.
Criminal
activity in program leads to coach's exit
Mike Kramer's seven-year tenure
at Montana State as football coach is over.
"Looking at the football program
as a whole and in light of the recent criminal activities of former
student-athletes connected to it," athletic director Peter Fields said,
"I believe there is something broken with our football program, and we
need to take decisive steps to fix it."
Kramer compiled a 40-43 record
at Montana State. He led the Bobcats to three of Big Sky championships
(2002, 2003, 2005), and three NCAA playoff appearances. The 2006 Bobcats
recorded the school's first post-season win in 22 years, and finished
the season ranked 10th in the NCAA football championship subdivision
(Division I-AA).
MSU has dealt with a series of
criminal events related to its football program in recent years,
beginning with the arrest of assistant coach Joe O’Brien on drug-related
charges in 2003.
