From Bonesville.net staff reports
Bonesville.net's "News Nuggets,"
a truncated daily digest of selected articles "From ECU and
Beyond," was discontinued effective Sunday as a part of the site's
transition to increased accessibility to its
Web Headlines Roundup.
Changes involving the News Nuggets and Roundup
sections will have no effect on the schedule or frequency of
columns or news articles by the site's regular writers.
The recent placement on
Bonesville.net's
front page of a more prominent "Roundup"
box — containing scrollable, regularly updated teaser headlines — has
resulted in a substantial increase in reader traffic to Linkmeister Greg
Vacek's daily compilation of links to articles of interest around the
World Wide Web.
Though the
Roundup has been a staple of
Bonesville.net since the site's founding in 2001, the site's internal
reporting indicates that the recent embedding
on the front page of the more visible gateway to the
Roundup has drawn heightened
attention from a segment of regular visitors who in the past had only sporadically
clicked through to the Roundup section.
The Roundup and News Nuggets sections were
increasingly seen by Bonesville.net staff members as requiring
unnecessary duplication of effort in providing essentially overlapping
functions.
Prodded off the ground
in August of 2001 by East Carolina University alums Vacek and David
McFadyen, the
Roundup features daily
headlines and links to articles of interest from newspapers, magazines
and other online journalistic publications. Headlines are gleaned with a
focus on topics related to ECU and other colleges in North Carolina and
surrounding states and Conference USA member schools.
Vacek is a Charlotte-based banker and McFadyen, who
attended law school after departing Bonesville.net several years ago, is
a New Bern-based attorney.
An
extensive archive section,
containing headlines and links dating back almost six years, is linked
from the Roundup's main page.
Bonesville.net will also
continue to maintain an archive of the estimated 6,000 briefs and
articles in its discontinued News Nuggets section. The section will be
linked initially from Bonesville.net's front page and eventually from
the site's forthcoming "Archives Central" page.
The News Nuggets section can
also be searched effectively via
Google using the search terms: "news nuggets"
bonesville xxx, where "xxx" is the specific target of the search. Google
search examples:
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"news nuggets" bonesville
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godwin"
Bonesville.net publisher and editor Danny Whitford
contributed to this story.
June 30, 2007
C-USA baseball
reaped laundry list of booty
For the third straight year,
Conference USA produced a College World Series representative, with Rice
winning a pair of games in Omaha for the second straight year.
The Owls were joined in the NCAA
Championship by East Carolina, Memphis and Southern Miss, marking the
sixth straight season that C-USA has produced at least four NCAA teams.
The Conference also produced six All-Americans, the National Freshman
Pitcher of the Year and a record five Academic All-Americans.
A look at some of the league's
2007 baseball accomplishments, as reported on
conferenceusa.com:
-
Conference USA was the No. 5
ranked conference in college baseball, trailing only the ACC, SEC,
Big 12 and Pac-10.
-
Rice advanced to its sixth
College World Series since 1997. The Owls won a pair of games in
Omaha for the second straight season. It was the third consecutive
year that C-USA placed a team in the CWS. Tulane made the field in
2005.
-
C-USA placed four teams in
the 2007 NCAA Tournament (East Carolina, Memphis, Rice and Southern
Miss). It was the sixth straight year that C-USA produced at least
four NCAA teams.
-
For the seventh time in the
last eight years, a C-USA team hosted an NCAA Regional, as Rice
welcomed Texas Christian, Baylor and Prairie View to the Houston
Regional. The Owls also hosted a Super Regional against Texas A&M,
marking the eighth straight season a league team has advanced to
Super Regional play.
-
Rice (56-14) had the
second-highest win total in college baseball. The 54 wins by the
Owls prior to the World Series marked the fourth year in a row that
C-USA has produced the team with either the most total wins heading
into the CWS or the best regular season record in Division I. Rice
in 2006, Tulane in 2005 and East Carolina in 2004 established the
trend.
-
The Owls were the No. 1
ranked team in the nation several weeks of the season, the third
year in a row that C-USA produced the top-ranked team in multiple
weeks of the season. Rice in 2006 and Tulane in 2005 had extended
stays atop the rankings.
-
East Carolina, Houston,
Southern Miss and Tulane were each nationally-ranked at some point
in the season, giving the league five ranked schools in 2007.
-
Seven of the nine C-USA
teams won at least one game against a nationally-ranked,
non-conference opponent.
-
C-USA teams posted a total
of 27 wins over nationally-ranked, non-conference opponents during
the regular season, including 10 against Top 10 foes.
-
Among the NCAA teams that
C-USA defeated in 2007 were: North Carolina (Rice), Texas (Rice),
Clemson (Memphis), Mississippi (Southern Miss), Texas A&M (Rice),
Cal State Fullerton (East Carolina and Rice), Pepperdine (East
Carolina), Long Beach State (Rice), TCU (Rice and Central Florida),
Missouri (Memphis), Nebraska (Rice), Florida (UCF), LSU (Tulane and
UCF), Louisiana-Lafayette (Southern Miss), Michigan (East Carolina
and UCF), Louisville (Rice and Southern Miss) and Baylor (Houston
and Rice).
-
Six different Conference USA
players were honored as All-Americans, including consensus first
team All-American Joe Savery of Rice.
-
Three C-USA players earned
Freshman All-American honors, including Collegiate Baseball's
National Freshman Pitcher of the Year Ryan Berry of Rice.
-
C-USA had three players that
earned National Player of the Week honors.
-
A record five C-USA players
earned recognition as 2007 ESPN the Magazine Academic All-Americans,
including two first team selections from Southern Miss (Patrick
Ezell and Trey Sutton). Two additional players earned Academic
All-District honors.
-
Conference USA
had 29 players chosen in the
June Major League Baseball Draft, the second-highest total in league
history. Rice's Joe Savery was the first of an NCAA record-tying 14
selections from Rice. Savery's selection marked the third straight
year that C-USA has produced a first round pick.
-
Fourteen players from C-USA
schools appeared on the opening day rosters of Major League Baseball
teams, with seven schools represented.
From Conference USA
June 29, 2007
Rice's Almond
goes to Utah Jazz in first round
Rice University's Morris Almond,
a 6-foot-6 guard out of Powder Springs, GA, heard his name called by NBA
Commissioner David Stern on Thursday night in the first round of the NBA
Draft as the 25th pick by the Utah Jazz.
"I kinda had a hunch that I
would go to Utah," said Almond shortly after getting selected. "The Jazz
fit my style and I just think it's a perfect fit. It feels good to have
the speculation over and now it's time to move forward. All of the years
of practice and hard work since I left high school and entered Rice have
led me to this point."
The last time Almond was in Salt
Lake City, he scored 42 points by sinking 13 of his 16 field goal
attempts, 12 of 14 from the free throw line and four of six three-point
bombs against the University of Utah.
He becomes the first Rice player
to be selected in the first round since Ricky Pierce was the 18th
overall pick in the 1982 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons. Almond is
also the first Owl to be selected in the NBA Draft since Kenny Austin
was a fifth-round pick, also by the Detroit Pistons, in 1983.
During his 2007 senior season,
Almond was third in the nation in scoring by averaging a Conference USA
record 26.4 points per game. For his efforts, he was named the 2007
C-USA Player of the Year and earned AP All-America honorable mention
accolades.
From Conference USA
June 28, 2007
ESPN GameDay will
set stage in Blacksburg
The season debut of College
GameDay – set for Saturday, Sept. 1
at 10 a.m. – will originate from
Blacksburg, VA, prior to the season-opening East Carolina at Virginia
Tech football game, which will be televised on ESPN at noon.
Chris Fowler will host the
program for the 18th season and will be joined by analysts Lee Corso,
who has been affiliated with the show since its first year, Kirk
Herbstreit, who joined in 1996, and Desmond Howard, who is entering his
third year.
The telecast will be called by
Mike Tirico with Todd Blackledge and Bill Curry as analysts.
ESPNU will conduct
prep all-star grid game
The ESPNU High School All-American Game, an all-star
football game for the nation's top high school seniors, will make its
debut Jan. 5, 2008, at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando,
according to a Cincinnati Enquirer report.
National recruiting analysts and talent evaluators
from ESPN Scouts, Inc., will select players for both teams from The ESPN
150, a nationwide ranking of top prep football prospects.
About 80 players will be invited to the game and a
skills competition.
Officials have stated that more than 40 players have
accepted invitations to participate in the 2008 game, including running
back Jermie Calhoun of Van (TX) High School and quarterback E.J. Manuel
of Bayside High School in Virginia Beach, VA.
Two Owls women cagers
on Canadian team
Rice women's basketball players Kadie Riverin and
Tara Watts have been selected to play for Canada's under-21 women's
national team. This team will represent Canada at world championships
beginning Friday in Moscow.
Samford gridder
arrested for bank robbery
A Samford football player was arrested and jailed on
federal bank robbery charges for allegedly holding up an AmSouth Bank in
Hoover, AL.
Michael Sherrod Hall, a 20-year-old defensive end,
was arrested in Douglas County, GA. Authorities said they found about
$18,200 during a search of the vehicle.
Hall transferred to the Birmingham, AL, school from
Arkansas in 2006 after being redshirted as a freshman. He is a native of
Decatur, GA. Samford coach Pat Sullivan suspended Hall, who started nine
games for the Division I-AA Bulldogs last season, from the program.
June 27, 2007
Hokie Weaver is
British amateur champion
Virginia Tech golfer Drew Weaver
defeated Tim Stewart of Australia, 2 and 1, to capture the 2007 British
amateur championship, played at Royal Lytham & St. Annes in Lancashire,
England.
Weaver, a rising junior from
High Point, led by two strokes after the morning 18 holes in the 36-hole
final. He eventually led by as many as six holes with six remaining
before winning with the final margin. Stewart is the 2006 Australian
amateur champion.
Owls third baseman Seastrunk on All-CWS team
For an outstanding series of
games last week in Omaha, Rice freshman Diego Seastrunk was named the
third baseman on the 2007 All-College World Series team. Seastrunk
batted .316 in the Owls' four CWS games, hitting safely in 6-of-19 at
bats with five RBI's, four runs scored and a double.
Blue Devils
name Vincent golf coach
O.D. Vincent, who has coached
UCLA's golf program to two Pac-10 championships and four top-10 NCAA
finishes over the past five years, has been named men’s golf coach at
Duke.
He follows Rod Myers, who died
in March after guiding the Blue Devil program for 34 seasons.
June 26, 2007
C-USA athletes
turn in top 20 track finishes
Houston's Jason Perez, Memphis'
Gail Lee and Central Florida's LaKendra Thames finished among the top 20
in their respective events at the USA track and field championships in
Indianapolis over the weekend.
Perez, a freshman, finished
third in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 50.92. He earned the right
to race in the final after finishing third in the preliminaries on
Friday. For his performance he was named a USATF Junior All-American.
Lee, a senior, staked her claim
as one of the nation's best in the women's shot put with a top-10
finish. She took home a ninth-place showing after recording a throw of
53-03. The weekend was the final meet of a decorated collegiate career
that included two All-American honors and four NCAA Championship
appearances.
Thames, a freshman, finished
among the top 20 athletes in the discus throw. The last thrower in the
second of two flights, Thames posted toss of 137-11 to place 19th
overall.
Perez was one of five Cougars to
earn junior All-American status at the meet. The others, also freshmen,
were Wesley Bray (decathlon), Quin'shundolyn McPherson (long jump,
triple jump), Hyleta Young (long jump) and Brittani Williams (hepthathlon).
Bray finished second in the
decathlon on Thursday and qualified for the Pan Am Junior Nationals in
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 13-29, 2007. He will compete as a member
of the USA junior team.
Former Gamecock gets call-up to Oakland A's
Former South Carolina infielder
Kevin Melillo has been called up to the major leagues, joining the
Oakland Athletics as the team headed to New York for a weekend series
with the Mets beginning on Friday night.
Melillo is now one of five
former Gamecocks currently in major league baseball along with shortstop
Adam Everett (Houston Astros), second baseman Brian Roberts (Baltimore
Orioles) and pitchers Jon Coutlangus (Cincinnati Reds) and Marcus McBeth
(Cincinnati Reds).
Melillo had been playing for the
Sacramento River Cats in Triple-A with the A's organization. In 67
games, Melillo had a .267 batting average (73-for-273) with seven home
runs, 40 RBI's, 21 doubles and 49 runs scored.
A three-year letter-winner for
the Gamecocks, Melillo was a member of three consecutive College World
Series teams from 2002-04. He was a captain on the 2004 squad, which
topped East Carolina in a super regional
in Columbia.
Future Gamecock recovering from stab wounds
South Carolina football recruit
Quentin Richardson, 18, was stabbed early Sunday morning after an
argument at an apartment complex in suburban Columbia, SC, according to
reports.
The offensive lineman underwent
successful surgery Sunday afternoon and was expected to be released from
the hospital in a few days. Richardson missed most of his senior season
at Spring Valley High School due to a knee injury.
June 25, 2007
UNC-Chapel Hill
repeats... as CWS runner-up
Oregon State became the first
team in a decade to repeat as College World Series champion, completing
a dominant run through the tournament with a 9-3 victory over UNC-Chapel
Hill on Sunday night.
The Beavers (49-18) won all five
of their CWS games, including a sweep of the Tar Heels in the
best-of-three finals, and trailed for only one of 45 innings they played
in Omaha.
UNC-Chapel Hill was runner-up
for the second straight year after the first CWS finals rematch since
Arizona State and Southern Cal met in 1973. Oregon State is the first
back-to-back champion since LSU in 1996-97 and the fifth overall.
Darwin Barney's two-run homer
gave the Beavers the lead in the second inning of the decisive game.
Jordan Lennerton hit his second homer in two nights, a two-run shot in
the eighth.
The Tar Heels (57-16) didn't get
much going against Oregon State's steady pitching and solid defense, and
were shut down whenever they appeared on the verge of a big inning.
June 24, 2007
Vols coach Summitt
released from hospital
Tennessee women's basketball
coach Pat Summitt has been released from the hospital. She is at home
and will be resuming normal activities, according to a statement on the
Lady Vols website.
On Thursday, June 21, Summitt
was admitted to the hospital because of dehydration. She was treated and
kept under observation overnight.
Munson
may just call Georgia's home games
Larry Munson, the legendary
84-year old radio play-by-play voice of the Georgia Bulldogs, may limit
his descriptions to home games during the 2007 season because of
declining health, according to reports.
Analyst Scott Howard likely
would call the Dawgs' road games in Munson's absence.
SMU
names Longbotham women's tennis coach
Lauren Longbotham has been named
women's tennis coach at Southern Methodist. Longbotham served as interim
head coach during the 2006-07 season. The Mustangs finished 19-5 under
her guidance, their highest winning percentage since 1977.
June 23, 2007
Season tix going,
going, almost gone at ECU
For the first time in school
history, East Carolina is nearing a sellout of its entire football
season ticket allotment.
With more than 18,000 season
tickets already ordered, ECU now has less than 4,000 season tickets
available with over two months remaining prior to the Pirates' home
opener against UNC-Chapel Hill on Sept. 8.
ECU set an all-time high of
16,318 purchases last year in Skip Holtz' second season guiding the
Pirates, surpassing the previous standard of 16,173 established in 2000.
Tickets may be purchased online
at
www.ecupirates.com or by calling
the ECU ticket office at 1-800-DIAL-ECU.
Rice gets hoops transfer from Texas A&M
Bryan Beasley has left the Texas
A&M basketball team and has transferred to Rice to become a member of
the Owls basketball program. The six-foot guard was redshirted as a
freshman during the 2006-07 season and did not see action.
A 2006 graduate from
Pflugerville High School with a 4.3 GPA, Beasley was the Central Texas
player of the year as he averaged 17.4 points per game. The all-state
selection also played for Team USA at the 2006 Global Games in Dallas.
Coming out of high school
Rivals.com rated Beasley as the state of Texas' top-ranked point guard
and top-150 nationally. Additionally, Texas Hoops ranked him as the
state's ninth-best overall prospect.
Southern
Miss's Reed on Jones Cup team
Southern Miss junior
guard/forward Kendra Reed (Bay St. Louis, MS) has been selected to
represent the United States as a member of the U.S. William Jones Cup
Team which will compete, July 11-17, in Taipei, Taiwan.
Reed will be joined by an
all-star collegiate cast comprised of Rachel Allison and Jhasmin Player
of Baylor, Heather Ezell of Iowa State, Briann January of Arizona State,
Sarah-Jo Lawrence of George Washington, Jackie McFarland of Colorado,
Angie Nelp of Colorado State, La Toya Micheaux of Texas A&M, Leah Rush
of Oklahoma, Brittanie Taylor-James of North Carolina A&T and Katie
Vieth of Kentucky.
Seven members of the 12-player
roster participated in this year's NCAA Tournament.
Last season, Reed averaged 15.3
points and 3.8 rebounds per game.
