All of Saturday’s baseball games
in the NCAA Columbia (SC) regional were postponed to Sunday because of
inclement weather.
While it was only drizzling
early in the afternoon, the area was expected to get heavy rains from
the remnants of Tropical Storm Barry, prompting NCAA officials to make
the decision to wait another day to get started.
Second-seeded N.C. State will
play Wofford at 11 a.m. today at Sarge Frye Stadium on the South
Carolina campus, followed by a 3 p.m. contest between top-seeded South
Carolina and third-seeded Charlotte. The winner of the first game will
play the loser of the second game at 7 p.m.
The final games of the regional
will be played Monday at a time that will be determined after Sunday’s
game.
Mailman
delivers for alma mater, Louisiana Tech
Louisiana Tech Bulldog
basketball coach Kerry Rupp has finalized his staff with the addition of
Karl Malone as director of basketball promotions and Cody Fueger as
director of basketball operations.
Malone, who donated $350,000 to
Tech's athletic department in conjunction with his hiring, and Fueger
join associate head coach Nikita Johnson and assistants Rennie Bailey
and Curtis Condie on the Bulldogs staff.
SEC won't push
for Division I-A football playoff
Florida president Bernie Machen
has abandoned his call for a Division I-A football national championship
playoff, according to a report by David Climer of the Nashville
Tennessean.
Machen said he was "done" after
the 12 presidents of Southeastern Conference schools discussed the
current Bowl Championship Series and Machen's playoff proposal for one
hour on the final day of the SEC spring meeting in Destin, FL.
Machen, whose Gators won the
national championship by beating Ohio State in the BCS title game in
January, had spent the last five months crusading for change in the BCS
system.
He left Friday's meeting
convinced that the SEC will pursue tweaks in the system when the current
BCS contract expires in 2010.
June 2, 2007
Hargreaves joins
East Carolina football staff
Vernon Hargreaves has been named
defensive ends coach and special teams coordinator at East Carolina, ECU
head coach Skip Holtz announced Friday.
Hargreaves’ appointment with the
Pirates will mark a reunion with Holtz as the pair worked together for
four seasons at Connecticut (1994-97) when Holtz was was the Huskies
head coach. Hargreaves left UConn in 1997 to accept a position on the
Miami (FL) staff.
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Vernon
Hargreaves
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(ECU SID) |
Hargreaves’ assignment to handle
ECU’s ends, coupled with Donnie Thompson’s recent departure, has enabled
Holtz to realign other staff positions on the defensive side of the
ball.
Former outside linebackers coach
Rock Roggeman will take over responsibility for the defensive tackles
while defensive coordinator Greg Hudson, who handled middle linebacking
play in 2006, will now guide all three linebacker slots.
Holtz also announced the
promotion of secondary coach Rick Smith to the assistant head coaching
position.
In addition to his defensive
duties, Hargreaves will also assume the special teams coordinator’s role
formerly held by Don Yanowsky.
Paper: Grant in
the mix for Gators hoops job
Miami native Anthony Grant, a
former Florida assistant under Billy Donovan whose Virginia Commonwealth
team upset Duke in the NCAA Tournament in March, is a likely contender
for the Gators job, according to the Miami Herald. Larry Shyatt,
Donovan's lead assistant last season, is a former head coach at Clemson.
Tulsa's
Korbe shares Byron Nelson honor
The Golf Coaches Association of
America has announced that Tulsa golfer Sam Korbe and Roberto Castro of
Georgia Tech are recipients of the 2007 Byron Nelson Award.
Candidates for the award are
graduating seniors who exemplify outstanding performance throughout
their career in academics and golf.
Korbe recently received his
undergraduate degree and is planning on furthering his education by
attending medical school at the University of Oklahoma. He completed his
career at Tulsa with a 3.74 grade point average in biochemistry.
On the golf course, Korbe has
maintained a 72.6 stroke average and has placed among the top-20 in
eight tournaments this season, including five top-5 performances.
He was a second-team
all-Conference USA selection and was one of three Tulsa golfers selected
to the five-member C-USA All-Academic team.
June 1, 2007
Kragthorpe boots
pair from Louisville program
First-year Louisville football
coach Steve Kragthorpe announced the dismissal of cornerback Lamar
Alston and defensive end Jonathan Holston from the program for
undisclosed reasons, according to a Louisville Courier-Journal report.
Kragthorpe succeeded Bobby
Petrino as head coach of the Cardinals after a four-year stint at
Conference USA member Tulsa that included a league championship and
three bowl appearances.
Duke's Danowski is lacrosse player of year
Duke attackman Matt Danowski has
been named the recipient of the 2007 Tewaaraton Trophy, an honor
presented annually to the top men's lacrosse player in the nation.
Danowski received the award Wednesday night at a banquet at the National
Geographic Society in Washington, DC.
Dollars lure Donovan to NBA's Orlando Magic
Florida basketball coach Billy
Donovan is expected to bolt the school for a lucrative offer from the
NBA Orlando Magic, according to multiple national media reports.
Fresh off leading the Gators to
their second consecutive NCAA championship, Donovan reportedly was close
to signing a contract extension with Florida that would pay him $2.5
million per year, according to the Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville.
The Magic swooped in with an
offer of $6 million per year that swayed Donovan to replace the fired
Brian Hill, The Orlando Sentinel and ESPN.com reported.
May 31, 2007
Two Pirates on
All-State softball team
East Carolina sophomore Jessica
Johnson and freshman Toni Paisley were named to the 2007 North Carolina
Collegiate Sports Information Association (NCCSIA) University Division
All-State softball team released Tuesday.
The fourth-annual team consists
of 11 student-athletes, representing eight different schools from North
Carolina colleges and universities.
North Carolina sports
information professionals submitted the nominees. The all-state team
consists of two pitchers, one catcher, four infielders, three
outfielders and a designated player.
One of three all-state rookies,
Paisley won second-team All-Conference USA recognition and was named the
league's freshman of the year. She threw a perfect game against
Binghamton and no-hit UNC Greensboro. The Lakewood, CA, resident posted
a 21-5 record with 20 complete games, 10 shutouts, 211 strikeouts. She
had the Pirates' third-highest winning percentage (.808) and the
fourth-highest strikeout total in school history.
Johnson earned first-team
all-conference honors as she paced the Pirates with a .357 batting
average, 17 home runs, 53 RBI and 314 putouts. Her 17 homers rank as the
second highest single-season total in school history. She placed second
on the team with 168 at bats, 60 hits, 22 walks and a .732 slugging
percentage. Johnson finished among the Conference USA leaders in home
runs (1st), slugging percentage (2nd), RBI's (2nd) and batting average
(5th). She was also named to the league's all-academic and
all-tournament teams.
Panel will study academic performance in hoops
The NCAA on Tuesday introduced a
27-member panel, including seven coaches, to be charged with developing
strategies to enhance academic performance and graduation rates in
Division I men's basketball, according to a USA Today report by Jack
Carey.
The panel will be chaired by
UCLA athletics director Dan Guerrero.
When the NCAA's Academic
Progress Rate (APR) data was released this month, men's basketball
dipped for a second year in a row and was last among 29 men's and
women's sports with at least 30 teams competing in Division I.
The APR measures teams' success
in keeping scholarship athletes in school, keeping them eligible and
graduating them. The NCAA has set a benchmark score of 925 and says that
projects to about a 60% graduation rate. However, almost 44% of the 326
Division I men's hoops teams posted three-year APR averages lower than
that and could be subject to penalties, including a reduction in
scholarships, if improvement is not made.
Coaches on the panel include Jim
Boeheim (Syracuse), Paul Hewitt (Georgia Tech), Bo Ryan (Wisconsin),
Herb Sendek (Arizona State), Phil Martelli (Saint Joseph's), Cy
Alexander (Tennessee State) and Ron Hunter (IUPUI).
Five
from C-USA named academic All-America
Five baseball players from
Conference USA have been named to the 2007 ESPN The Magazine Academic
All-America team. For the second straight year, two student-athletes
have earned first team recognition for their classroom work from
Southern Miss — senior reliever Patrick Ezell and senior first baseman
Trey Sutton.
Rice pitcher Ryne Tacker, the
2007 Conference USA pitcher of the year, is joined by Houston first
baseman Josh Stirneman on the second team.
Rice junior shortstop Brian
Friday was named as a third team Academic All-American.
