News and Notes from East Carolina, Conference USA and Beyond

PREVIOUS NUGGETS

07.27.06: ECU recruiting thumbnail: Devon Wallace ... USM soph on Mackey watch list ... Scribes pick Miami to win ACC title ... New post-college football league in the works

07.26.06: "Meet the Pirates" shin-dig set for Aug. 19 ... Leukemia claims former UAB football star ... ACC honors Dukie Redick, Terp Infante

07.25.06: ECU last in poll; Allison, Graham get respect ... Former Pirate Ward joins Bulls baseball staff ... NCAA's impact lucrative for Indianapolis

07.24.06: Miami football player shot at off-campus residence ... 'Star-crossed' defensive back leaving Auburn ... Admission denied for Gamecock hoops signee

07.23.06: Accident claims life of Georgia hoops player ...
Ex-Navy quarterback Owens spared jail time ... Former Gamecock suing university

07.22.06: Blue Devils name new lacrosse coach ... Former Duke back issues $1 million challenge ... Current Duke back Harris gets tube time

07.21.06: Hoops recruiting thumbnail: Jontae Sherrod ... Tiger recruit says Irish used negative tactics ... Duke football hit by suspension, dismissals ... UK to report self over Internet shenanigans

07.20.06: ECU to hold public "celebration" of LeClair's life ... LeClair rites to be broadcast and live-streamed ... Future Pirate Fields tallies 8 points in East loss ... C-USA announces staff additions, promotions ... UCF uses buyout; Vols host Wolfpack in 2008

07.19.06: Irish fill baseball coaching vacancy ... Fork Union, Oak Hill getting review by NCAA ... Alabama cager denied fifth year of eligibility

07.18.06: ECU's Krog, Hauser recognized for academics ... UCF golfer fires record round of 60 ... Rutgers drops six sports to trim athletic budget

07.17.06: LSU paying baseball coach $450K per year ... Kruger uses rule change to play for dad ... MAAC adopts new hoops tourney format

07.16.06: UTEP track athletes achieve in classroom ... Former George Mason cager gives up on NFL ... Jury hears tape of Navy quarterback's call

07.15.06: GMAC Bowl in Mobile moves to January ... Louisville ponies up to lock down Petrino ... Tulsa names McCombs women's golf coach

07.14.06: N.C. prep hoops star re-routes to Memphis ... ECU's Flye, Ray land in CPL All-Star Game ... UNC-CH's Miller receives Clemens Award

07.13.06: Logan to have daily show on "The Bull" ... Marshall hires former Blue Devil as hoops aide ... Redick 'backs' out of Team USA workouts

07.12.06: C-USA unveils 2005-06 athletes of the year ... Rape trial underway for former Navy QB ... Clemson gridder on jet ski that killed coach

07.11.06: ECU recruiting thumbnail: D.J. McFadden ... Uggla poised to make history in All-Star game ... COSIDA recognizes former president Ford ... Houston associate AD Sparks succumbs

07.10.06: ECU alum Godwin to wear LSU's purple & gold ... Tulane resumes baseball stadium renovation ... Kelly rejoins O'Leary at Central Florida

07.09.06: Fitzgerald takes bittersweet promotion ... Paper defuses report on Mayo to USC ... More national acclaim for Houston's Lincoln ... SMU golfer wins Greater Cincy title

07.08.06: Former ECU slugger Hastings joins BC staff ... Tar Heel baseball stars transition to pros ... Rice's Britton packing to play in Philippines

07.07.06: Report: No. 1 prep hoops star choosing USC ... Motorcycle wreck claims Georgia Southern star ... NBA exhibition games coming to Dean Dome

07.06.06: Owls' St. Clair chosen for Team USA baseball ... Houston, Rice rookies make all-frosh team ... Case-era Pack hoops legend Dickey passes

07.05.06: National honors piling up for Houston's Lincoln ... Wade's wallet now packs a wallop ... Duke gets QB from prestigious prep program

07.04.06: Howard joins ECU media relations staff ... Bertman leads college baseball hall's first class ... Temple gets prized hometown grid recruit

07.03.06: Paper: C of C and Cremins come to agreement ... Four depart Oregon in search of playing time ... Gator recruit wins national prep QB award

07.02.06: College of Charleston hires Bobby Cremins ... Duke gets pair of football commitments ... Georgia Tech baseball coach gets extra year ... Big Sky Conference expands by one

07.01.06: SI.com columnist rates O'Leary among best ... Bogdan, Floyd get top awards in C-USA track ... Northwestern mourns passing of Walker

06.30.06: NCAA gives new life to Houston bowl game ... Memphis duo makes school history in NBA draft ... LSU selects Mainieri to direct baseball program ... Marshall backpedals back to Winthrop

06.29.06: BCS to tweak timing of weekly poll ... Louisville to push two players for Heisman ... Redick fares well in draft despite impediments

06.28.06: Postgraduate scholarship goes to ECU's Davenport ... UCF center foregoes final year of eligibility ... Sinclair named women's athlete of the year

06.27.06: Beavers beat Heels to win College World Series ... Irish baseball coach to interview for LSU job ... Cal quarterback suspended after assault charge

06.26.06: Mustangs lead
C-USA teams in Director's Cup ... Tulane AD receives prestigious service award ... Calipari racking up some broadcast work

06.25.06: Coal industry to sponsor Marshall-WVU series ... Mountaineers extend Rodriguez deal to 2012 ... Vols add non-league challenges

06.24.06: Del Conte takes reins as AD at Rice ... Contact at combine means fine for Emory ... UNCW aligns with adidas for shoes, uniforms

06.23.06: Witter starts professional ball with a flourish ... Big Ben's little sister commits to Sooners ... Wake Forest football recruit faces felony charges

06.22.06: Big Ten scores momentous television deals ... Former ECU diver Derr to coach at JMU ... Grizzlies turn to Tinkle on hardwood

06.21.06: Troth returns to the fold as ECU assistant ... College of Charleston, Herrion settle on buyout ... Another national award for Houston's Lincoln

06.20.06: ECU announces long-term pact with Nike ... Pirates release women's soccer schedule ... Three C-USA linemen on Outland Trophy list

Tickets for East Carolina's season-opening contest at Navy at 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 2 are now on sale to all members of the Pirate Club, with a limit of four.

The priority deadline for members is August 11 before remaining tickets will go on sale to the public on a first-come, first-serve basis beginning August 12.

Tickets to the game, at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, MD, are priced at $28 and can be purchased at ecupirates.com or by calling the ECU athletic ticket office at 1-800-DIAL-ECU. To order online, purchasers must first sign in before the ordering process begins. Tickets will be mailed out in the middle of August.

Travel can be booked through Premiere Sports Travel, the official travel agency of the Pirate Club, by ordering online at ecupirateclubtravel.com.

A limited number of tickets to the Pirates-Midshipmen clash will be available to ECU students beginning August 16. Students with a valid ID card can purchase up to two tickets for the game, also set at a cost of $28 each, and pick those up at the ECU athletic ticket office located on the south side of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

The East Carolina board of trustees approved a two-year contract extension and a $15,000 annual raise for Sharon Baldwin-Tener, coach of the ECU women's basketball team, according to a university athletic media relations release.

The contract modification extends Baldwin-Tener's contract until April 1, 2010, and increases her salary to $115,000 a year.

"Coach Baldwin-Tener has made remarkable progress in re-building our women's basketball program as evidenced by the best record in 14 years during the 2005-06 season," East Carolina Athletics Director Terry Holland said. "The 17-12 record last season also included a number of close losses that will become wins as this young team matures.

"To give you an idea of how young this team was — freshmen played over 60 percent of the minutes last season and four of the five leading scorers were freshmen," Holland added. "This contract extension reflects the confidence that everyone feels about the future of our program under Coach Baldwin-Tener both on and off the court. Her teams play an exciting brand of basketball and represent ECU well in everything they
do."

Baldwin-Tener is entering her fifth season at the helm of the women's basketball program after taking over the top position in April of 2002. She is currently the longest-tenured coach since Pat Pierson guided the Lady Pirates for five seasons beginning in 1987.

Baldwin-Tener has resurrected the women's basketball program in her four years as head coach, taking a team that had won only six games the season prior to her arrival to four straight Conference USA Tournaments.

Last season, she led the Lady Pirates to a 17-12 record, the team's best finish since the 1991-92 campaign. She also coached ECU to the school's first-ever Conference USA Tournament win with its 47-46 victory over UAB.

During her four-year tenure, she has compiled a 53-60 record at East Carolina and has built a 122-87 mark in eight years as a collegiate head coach.

With an invitation from the New Orleans Bowl, eight head coaches from Conference USA football teams visited the recovering city on Tuesday and Wednesday to tour areas affected by Hurricane Katrina last August.

The trip was also a unified effort to assist bowl officials in the production of a series of public service announcements to air throughout the football season, according to an announcement on the league website.

Assisting in the effort, and making the two-day trip, were: Phil Bennett (Southern Methodist), Art Briles (Houston), Jeff Bower (Southern Mississippi), Todd Graham (Rice), George O'Leary (Central Florida), Mike Price (Texas-El Paso), Chris Scelfo (Tulane) and Tommy West (Memphis).

"With every site visit we have hosted since the storm, we continue to notice that the true impact on our area can only be fully understood by seeing it first hand," said New Orleans Bowl executive Director Billy Ferrante. "At the suggestion of Tulane head coach Chris Scelfo, we quickly agreed that educating the coaches on our recent past, present progress, and future potential would be an important first step in keeping people involved in our process."

Public service announcements featuring the four Conference USA Coaches that were not able to visit New Orleans due to prior commitments, including East Carolina's Skip Holtz, will be shot next week at C-USA's Football Media Blitz in Dallas.

The Louisiana Superdome is scheduled to re-open in late September, and will serve once again as the site of the 2006 New Orleans Bowl, as well as the home field for the Tulane Green Wave. Tulane is scheduled to play its first home game since 2004 on September 30 against SMU in a game that will be nationally-televised by CSTV.

CSTV Networks will broadcast "Conference USA Football Media Blitz," a live special presentation from the 2006 Conference USA Football Media Day.

The 2½-hour show will air live on CSTV and online via the official Web sites of CSTV (cstv.com) and Conference USA (conferenceusa.com) on Tuesday, Aug. 1, beginning at 11 a.m. EDT, according to an announcement on the league website.

This special presentation will offer fans an inside look at C-USA football. All 12 of the league's head football coaches, two players from each school and conference commissioner Britton Banowsky will all appear live to preview the 2006 football season and answer questions submitted by fans online at conferenceusa.com.

Held in Irving, TX, at the Sheraton Grand, the Conference USA Football Media Blitz will be hosted by CSTV's Tom Hart and Adam Zucker. This will be the second year in a row that C-USA's Football Media Day will have live national television coverage.

"The live national coverage of our Football Media Day event will provide tremendous exposure for our coaches, players and our football programs," said Banowsky. "This event signals the beginning of another exciting season of Conference USA Football and we're pleased that our fans across the nation will be able to be a part of it."

Conference USA is in its second year of a six-year agreement to televise football on CSTV. The agreement is comprehensive in nature and includes significant national and regional exposure for football, men's and women's basketball, baseball and other C-USA sports. The CSTV agreement also encompasses:

The league's 2006 football season will kick off on Thursday, Aug. 31, when Texas-El Paso visits San Diego State in a game that will air live on CSTV. Two days later, on Saturday, Sept. 2, CSTV will broadcast the first C-USA league game of the season when cross-town rivals Houston and Rice meet.

More information on the C-USA Football Media Blitz can be found by clicking this link.

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.