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News Nuggets, 03.11.06
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Compiled from staff reports and electronic dispatches

Special days designated for football season

Southern Methodist will be East Carolina's homecoming opponent on Oct. 21, according to a release of ECU's football game-day designations on Friday.

The Pirates will play the first of five consecutive home games Sept. 16 against Memphis to highlight Family Weekend festivities.

A pair of non-league contests against three-time defending Big East champion West Virginia and Atlantic Coast Conference member Virginia will follow on Sept. 23 and Oct. 7, respectively.

ECU will observe Pirate Club Weekend when facing the Mountaineers in a nationally-televised matchup. Hall of Fame and Letterwinners Weekend will be the occasion when the Cavaliers make their first-ever visit two weeks later.

ECU's popular High School Band Day and Academic Success Day will make a return to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium when the Pirates meet 2005 Conference USA champion Tulsa on Oct. 14.

East Carolina will close out the home portion of its schedule and celebrate Military Appreciation Day and Senior Day when it welcomes Marshall to Greenville Nov. 11.

View East Carolina's complete 2006 football schedule. Game times will be announced at a later date after all television scheduling needs have been determined.

2006 EAST CAROLINA HOME FOOTBALL GAME DESIGNATIONS

09/16 - Memphis (Family Weekend)
09/23 - West Virginia (Pirate Club Weekend)
10/07 - Virginia (Hall of Fame/Letterwinners Weekend)
10/14 - Tulsa, (HS Band, Academic Success Day)
10/21 - Southern Methodist, (Homecoming)
11/11 - Marshall (Military Appreciation, Senior Day)

Tulsa scrimmages under Thursday night lights

The Tulsa football team had its first major scrimmage of the spring on Thursday night under the lights of Skelly Stadium to complete its first seven days of spring drills before taking a week off for spring break, according to the school's athletic web site.

The Hurricane, defending Conference USA champions, finished the 80 play scrimmage at 11:10 Thursday night. Tulsa has conducted most of its spring practices in the late evening under the lights.

In a scrimmage that saw the offense start from its own 35-yard line six times, the 50-yard line four times, the 20-yard line five times, and twice from the four-yard line, the offense scored four touchdowns, two rushing and two passing, and converted 3 of 4 field goal attempts.

The Hurricane defense forced four turnovers, including three fumbles and one interception. The defensive unit also had nine stops for lost yardage, including three sacks. Junior end Kinny Spotwood had two of the sacks covering 19 yards in lost yardage.

"I thought the scrimmage went very good. We had good tempo. We saw a lot of good things for just being out on the field for seven days," said coach Steve Kragthorpe. "The defense performed well. They did a good job of pressuring the quarterback as well as doing a good job in third down situations."

The offense marched 64 yards downfield on the first possession as a Paul Smith 16-yard pass to senior Idris Moss and runs of 11 yards by Smith and 19 yards by sophomore Tarrion Adams were the big plays in the drive. However, the defense stopped the offense on third and goal at the one-yard line to force the first of three Jarod Tracy field goals.

The Tulsa defense then held the offense to three-and-out on five of the next six possessions, including stopping one drive with a forced fumble and recovery.

The offense broke that unproductive string by traveling 48 yards on the next possession, settling on a Tracy 19-yard field goal. Moss had a highlight reel run that gained 25 yards for the Hurricane offense on the drive. On the next two possessions, senior Bobby Blackshire intercepted a Smith pass to end one offensive drive and a fumble ended another offensive possession.

The offensive unit scored three TD's while starting from the defenses 20-yard line, and one on goal line offense from the four-yard line. The first of those TD's came on a four-yard run by sophomore Aaron Johnson, followed by a 29-yard pass to red-shirt freshman Jesse Meyer, a six-yard toss from sophomore David Johnson to junior Ted Curtis and a one-yard run by senior Brandon Diles.

Tracy's field goals covered 18, 19 and 33 yards.

For the game, the offense completed 13-of-25 passes for 114 yards, two TD's and one interception, while rushing for 159 yards and two TD's for a 3.7-yard average per carry. Smith completed 7-of-17 passes for 76 yards and one TD, while Johnson threw for 38 yards and one TD on 6-of-8 passing. Meyer led the receiving corps with three catches for 44 yards and one touchdown, and Diles had a high game of 40 yards rushing and one TD on six carries.

Tulsa will be back on the practice field on Tuesday, March 21 after taking off next week during the school's spring break.

Tigers' Carney, Calipari sweep C-USA honors

Memphis senior forward Rodney Carney has been named the Conference USA player of the year, while Tiger head coach John Calipari has been named the coach of the year for the first time in his C-USA career.

Carney and Calipari can sweeten their awards with a win over UAB in Saturday's C-USA Tournament championship game. The Tigers reached the final with a 68-54 victory over Houston in a semifinal matchup on Friday, while the Blazers pulled out a 63-60 squeaker over Texas-El Paso to advance to the title game .

Carney, who was picked in preseason voting to win the award, was second in the league in scoring at 17.9 ppg and led the conference with a school-record 88 three-pointers in the regular season. Carney will end his career as the all-time leader in three-pointers at Memphis. He entered this week's C-USA Tournament with 273 treys, the fourth-highest total in C-USA history.

In addition to being named First Team All-Conference USA this season, Carney has been named one of 10 finalists the Oscar Robertson Award and was named to the Wooden and Naismith Awards Midseason Top 30 Lists. Earlier this week, he was named a second-team All-American by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and ESPN.com. Carney was named C-USA Player of the Week on three different occasions this season and earned All-Tournament honors at the NIT Season Tip-Off.

Calipari wins his award for the first time after leading Memphis to its first outright regular season title since winning the Great Midwest Conference championship during the 1994-95 season. The Tigers finished the regular season with a 13-1 record in league play.

In his sixth season at the helm of the Tiger program, Calipari has produced a record of 142-58 (.710), including 49 wins over the last two seasons.

This marks only the third time in C-USA history that the Coach of the Year and the Player of the Year came from the same team. In 2003, Marquette's Tom Crean and Dwyane Wade earned the honors. In 2000, Cincinnati's Bob Huggins and Kenyon Martin gained C-USA's top individual accolades.

C-USA Scoreboard & Tournament Schedule

News Nuggets are compiled periodically based on material supplied by staff members; data published by ECU, Conference USA and its member schools; and reports from other sources. Copyright 2006 Bonesville.net and other publishers. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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