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News Nuggets, 05.14.04
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Compiled from staff reports and electronic dispatches

R.J., T-Law contend for major national award

East Carolina’s Ryan Jones and Trevor Lawhorn headline a quartet of Conference USA standouts named as semifinalists for the 2004 Dick Howser Trophy, given to the nation’s top collegiate baseball player.

Jones and Lawhorn, offensive linchpins for the 5th-ranked and C-USA-leading Pirates, are joined by Ryan Frith and Jarrett Hoffpauir of Southern Miss in receiving National Player of the Year consideration.

The Dick Howser Trophy, given in memory of the former Florida State University All-America shortstop and major league player and manager, is regarded by many as college baseball's most prestigious award. Criteria for consideration for the trophy include performance on the field, leadership, moral character and courage, qualities that were exemplified by Dick Howser's life.

Howser died of brain cancer in 1987.

The membership of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) will choose the Dick Howser Trophy based on three rounds of voting. The 2004 winner will be announced at the College World Series in Omaha on Friday, June 18 at 9:30 a.m. CDT.

Jones has led the nation in slugging percentage nearly all season long. He leads C-USA in batting (.418), on-base percentage (.512), and total bases (153), while tying with teammate Ryan Norwood for the league in doubles with a school-record-tying 22. Jones, who has twice been named C-USA Hitter of the Week this season, is tied with Frith for second in the league to ECU's Lawhorn in home runs (18) and is second in RBI's (63).

In his first season at ECU, Lawhorn has followed in his brother Darryl’s footsteps as a hard-hitting home run threat. He leads C-USA with 20 home runs and his per game average of 0.43 home runs leads the nation. He ranks third in C-USA in RBI's with 58 and is tied for seventh in doubles with 15. Lawhorn is batting .310 and currently has a .685 slugging percentage.

Frith has emerged as one of the league’s top hitters after playing sparingly in 2003. He is tied for second in the league in home runs with 18 and currently places sixth in RBI's with 54. Frith has 12 doubles and is currently batting .323. On March 8, he earned C-USA and national Hitter of the Week honors.

Hoffpauir ranks among the top 10 in C-USA in six different offensive categories. He leads the league in hits (83) and RBI's (68), while tying for second in batting average (.401). Hoffpauir has hit a team-high 20 doubles and scored 48 runs, while adding a league-leading 11 sacrifice flies. He was named C-USA Hitter of the Week on March 29.

Syracuse ditches Orangemen monicker

SYRACUSE — Say goodbye to the Orangemen — and the Orangewomen.

From now on, Syracuse University's athletic teams will be known simply as the Orange and have the same logo, an interlocking SU.

Otto and Co. have a fresh-squeezed nickname: The Orange.

"We are the only school in the country that has orange as its primary color. We want to accentuate that fact," director of athletics Jake Crouthamel said earlier this week at a press conference. He noted that Texas and Tennessee have a substantial amount of white to go with the orange in their uniforms.

The announcement came after two years of consultations with Nike, which supplies uniforms for men's and women's basketball, men's lacrosse, and football. All 21 of Syracuse's athletic teams will use the new mark.

"It standardizes what we do," Crouthamel said. "We don't have to order 14 different logos. We've had somewhere in the neighborhood of 19 or 20 logos that we've used on athletic apparel. Where's the consistency?"

The new logo will incorporate a consistent color palette, using a brighter orange than the current version and a darker blue. The school's colors have been orange and blue since 1890.

"We looked through media guides, and we found that the university has not had one single athletic logo since 1870, when it was founded," said Sue Edson, director of athletic communications. "It's pretty important to us."

Nike also has done similar work for the University of Oregon, the University of Washington, Miami, and Kentucky.

ACC adopts new scheduling, tourney formulas

AMELIA ISLAND, FL — The expanded Atlantic Coast Conference voted to stay with a 16-game conference schedule in men's basketball through 2007-08.

Television executives had asked the league to consider an 18-game conference slate starting next year, when Boston College will join the conference and push it to 12 teams. But coaches said that would limit their ability to schedule nonconference games and the league voted Wednesday for a 16-game slate.

In recent years, with nine teams in the conference, the ACC has played a 16-game schedule in which each school plays every other school twice. That will change starting next season, when Miami and Virginia Tech join the conference.

Once the league hits a dozen in 2005, teams will play a three-year rotating schedule under which some conference opponents will face each other once, and others twice. Under that format, teams will have two "primary partners" -- rivals it is guaranteed to play twice each season.

That guarantees rivalries like Duke-North Carolina, Duke-Maryland, and North Carolina-North Carolina State will be played twice each season.

Also Wednesday at the conference's annual meeting, the ACC formalized adjustments to its conference tournament schedules for men's and women's basketball.

In 2005, with 11 teams, the bottom six teams will play each other on the first day of the tournament, while the top five get byes into the second round.

Starting in 2006, the tournaments will open with four games between the bottom eight teams in the standings. Winners of those games will advance to face the top four seeds, who will get first-round byes.

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.

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