News Nuggets, 01.11.04
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Compiled from staff reports and electronic dispatches

Punishment looming for Hawaii Bowl brawl

HONOLULU — Suspensions will be handed out to Hawaii and Houston players for a free-for-all that broke out after the Hawaii Bowl, Hawaii athletic director Herman Frazier said Friday.

Western Athletic Conference Commissioner Karl Benson and Conference USA Commissioner Britton Banowski have acknowledged that suspensions for both teams are in order, Frazier said.

Benson and Banowski, who are at the NCAA convention in Tennessee, were to meet Saturday to finalize an agreement on the players involved in the fight, he said.

"Hopefully, we can come to an agreement soon," Frazier said. "It looks like this will take until the middle of next week to complete."

The donnybrook at Aloha Stadium erupted just seconds after Hawaii beat Houston 54-48 in triple-overtime to win the Christmas Day game.

Houston athletic director Dave Maggard has said he has no doubts that the brawl was started by Hawaii players.

"Now, the retaliation should not have occurred, but I do know how it started," he said.

Saban assistant takes over UCF defense

BATON ROUGE — Lance Thompson, an assistant coach with co-national champion LSU for the past two seasons, has been hired as defensive coordinator at Central Florida.

Thompson was tight ends coach in 2003 and defensive line coach in 2002 for the Tigers.

"Lance really wanted to be a defensive coordinator and I'm happy that he's getting this opportunity," said LSU coach Nick Saban.

Prior to his stint with the Tigers, Thompson served as an assistant coach under new Central Florida coach George O'Leary at Georgia Tech for four seasons.

Hundreds bitten by bogus Sugar Bowl tickets

NEW ORLEANS — About 700 counterfeit tickets to the 2004 Nokia Sugar Bowl — a record number of fake tickets to a Superdome event — were confiscated by authorities before the game, an official said.

LSU won the game, which paired the Tigers against Oklahoma for the Bowl Championship Series' so-called national title.

Superdome General manager Doug Thornton said ticket holders with bogus tickets were turned away, some in tears.

"It's the most (bogus tickets) I've ever seen here for any event. It topped the Super Bowl," he said.

The Dome has hosted seven Super Bowls, including the 2002 game.

Thornton said one man spent $4,200 for four Sugar Bowl tickets that turned out to be bogus. The man tearfully begged Superdome officials to let him and his companions into the game, he said, but there were simply no empty seats.

"We had nowhere to put them," Thornton said.

In the past, Thornton said, the Dome would keep "trouble seats" that could be sold to fans whose tickets were refused.

"In this particular case, every legitimate ticket was sold," he said.

Thornton said there is nothing the Superdome can do for fans whose tickets were deemed bogus.

"Most of them were just victims," he said. "We feel badly for those people."

The 2004 Sugar Bowl had a record crowd of 79,342 that saw LSU beat Oklahoma 21-14 for the national championship.

Thornton and Superdome public relations director Bill Curl said Sugar Bowl ticket holders, particularly those who obtained tickets from anywhere other than official sources, were forewarned the day before the game via a Superdome press release that was publicized by media outlets.

The advice given to ticket holders was "buyer beware," Curl said.

"A lot of these people bought tickets on the street the day of the game," Thornton said, adding that many of the bogus tickets were purchased just hours before kickoff.

Sugar Bowl tickets had bar codes that eliminated nearly every possibility of bogus tickets passing through the gates, Curl said. An electronic bar code scanner simply spit out the bogus tickets, he said.

"It is virtually foolproof," Thornton said, adding that most of the bogus tickets were "pretty poor."

Redick one shot away from new record

Duke sophomore J.J. Redick can set a new Atlantic Coast Conference record by converting his first free throw attempt in the Blue Devils' game against Virginia today.

He goes into the game against the Cavaliers having made 48 consecutive free throws, tying the Atlantic Coast Conference mark set by Virginia's own Jeff Lamp in 1979-80.

Redick needs to make 37 more without a miss to match the NCAA Division I record set last season by Butler's Darnell Archey.

News Nuggets are compiled periodically from staff, ECU, Conference USA and its member schools, and from Associated Press and other reports. Copyright 2004 Bonesville.net and other publishers. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Page Updated: 02/23/2007