Seventh-ranked Texas A&M jumped
out to a pair of early leads and never looked back claiming 13-2 and 5-0
softball victories over Houston during the NCAA College Station regional
at Texas A&M.
Houston finished 44-18 while
Texas A&M (44-11) advances to the NCAA super regionals against No. 19
Florida next weekend. The 44 wins by the Cougars is a program record.
C-USA
weekly honors go to Belanger, Luna
After setting the tone for a
three-game sweep at Houston with a brilliant performance on Thursday
night, Southern Miss senior righthander Ryan Belanger has been named
Conference USA pitcher of the week.
Hitter of the week honors went
to Rice sophomore outfielder/designated hitter Aaron Luna, who had an
outstanding weekend at the plate as the Owls increased their winning
streak to 18 games with a three-game sweep of Memphis and a
non-conference win over Baylor.
Belanger pitched the first
complete-game of his two-year Southern Miss career and limited Houston
to four hits, one walk and struck out eight batters to lead Southern
Miss to a 6-0 victory over the Cougars in game one of the series at
Cougar Field on Thursday night. This is the second time this season that
Belanger has been named C-USA pitcher of the week.
Luna batted .500 (7-of-14) with
three multiple hit games, drove in a team-high six runs and shared the
team lead with five runs scored to help the Owls go 4-0 on the week.
Luna slugged a double and a home run for a .786 slugging percentage.
This is Luna's second C-USA hitter of the week honor this year.
Duke plows
through Heels to lacrosse Final Four
Top-seeded Duke rallied from a
6-1 deficit to defeat eighth-seeded North Carolina, 19-11, in the NCAA
men’s lacrosse tournament quarterfinals as 10,438 fans watched at
Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, MD.
The second-ranked Blue Devils
improve to 16-2 on the year and will meet fourth-seeded and top-ranked
Cornell in the national semifinals next Saturday at M&T Bank Stadium in
Baltimore. The national semifinal berth will be the third for Duke,
which made previous appearances in 1997 and 2005. North Carolina ends
the season at 10-6.
Zack Greer posted seven goals
and three assists while Matt Danowski chipped in four goals and six
assists as the pair combined for 20 total points for the Blue Devils.
May 21, 2007
Tulsa takes NCAA
regional golf championship
The 17th-ranked Tulsa men's golf
team will head into the NCAA championships (May 30-June 2) with plenty
of momentum after posting a three-round total of 895 to hold on for the
NCAA Central Regional title at the par-72 Rich Harvest Farms Golf Course
in Sugar Grove, IL.
After building a seven-stroke
lead over Louisville at the end of day two, TU carded a 310 for the
final round to hold off third-ranked Alabama, which finished second with
a three round total of 898. Rounding out the top-five were No. 23
Louisville (899), No. 7 Lamar (900) and No. 14 Tennessee (904).
Purdue plans $82 million expansion of arena
Purdue has announced plans for
an $82 million renovation of its basketball home, Mackey Arena, which
would include building practice facilities, expanding space for sports
medicine and a larger weight training and conditioning area.
An architectural firm has been
approved for expanding the 40-year old arena. The project cost is about
one-third that of building a new arena and separate facilities for other
uses.
Criminal
activity in program leads to coach's exit
Mike Kramer's seven-year tenure
at Montana State as football coach is over.
"Looking at the football program
as a whole and in light of the recent criminal activities of former
student-athletes connected to it," athletic director Peter Fields said,
"I believe there is something broken with our football program, and we
need to take decisive steps to fix it."
Kramer compiled a 40-43 record
at Montana State. He led the Bobcats to three of Big Sky championships
(2002, 2003, 2005), and three NCAA playoff appearances. The 2006 Bobcats
recorded the school's first post-season win in 22 years, and finished
the season ranked 10th in the NCAA football championship subdivision
(Division I-AA).
MSU has dealt with a series of
criminal events related to its football program in recent years,
beginning with the arrest of assistant coach Joe O’Brien on drug-related
charges in 2003.
May 20, 2007
C-USA baseball
pairings set, ECU faces Tulane
After winning the regular season
Conference USA championship for the second straight season, top-ranked
Rice (45-11, 22-2 C-USA) will be the No.1 seed at the 2007 Conference
USA Tournament, which begins Wednesday at Clark-LeClair Stadium in
Greenville.
The Owls will face Central
Florida (26-30, 7-17) in the second game of the tournament on Wednesday
at 12:30 p.m. The Knights punched their ticket to the tournament with a
dramatic comeback victory on Friday night over Marshall.
The tournament will get underway
at 9 a.m. on Wednesday when No. 5 seed Memphis (33-23, 12-12) takes on
No. 4 seed Houston (28-26, 12-12).
Red-hot Southern Miss,
winners of 10 in a row, earned the No. 3 seed and opens its tourney
play against No. 6 seed UAB at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.
Tulane (32-24, 9-15) earned the
No. 7 seed and will face No. 2 seed and tournament host East Carolina
(36-20, 14-9) in the final game of the first day at 7:30 p.m. on
Wednesday.
The championship game of the
tournament on Sunday, May 27 will be televised on a same-day tape delay
basis by CSTV. The title game will air on CSTV at 9:30 p.m.
The tournament champion receives
an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Southern Miss' Eustachy gets raise, extension
Southern Miss basketball coach
Larry Eustachy has received a four-year extension of his contract which
will run through the 2010-11 season.
Eustachy, who has coached the
Golden Eagles for three seasons, will get a raise of $5,000 in his base
salary to $135,000 annually.
Other considerations push the
contract's potential value up to $380,000 annually. Southern Miss is
coming off of a 20-11 season, bringing Eustachy's record at USM to
41-49. His career mark is 301-194.
Houston slams Aggies in NCAA regional softball
Laura Durham ripped a grand slam
with two out to cap a six-run fourth inning as Houston's softball team
captured an 8-1 victory over No. 7 Texas A&M in a winner's bracket game
at the NCAA College Station regional on Saturday afternoon at Texas A&M.
May 19, 2007
C-USA moves toward 6th
bowl partnership
Conference USA has concluded its
annual spring meetings in Destin, FL, during which a favorable view was
expressed about a potential new bowl partner.
A number of recommendations
adopted at the meetings will be forwarded to the board of directors
during their meetings next month for final approval.
Recommendations included:
-
Adding the Texas Bowl in
2007 as one of the league's bowl partners, giving C-USA six
contracted bowls.
-
Holding the 2008 C-USA
women's basketball championship in Orlando, with games to be held at
the new $113-million UCF Convocation Center.
-
Awarding 12 postgraduate
scholarships to C-USA student-athletes.
-
Implementing new academic
improvement initiatives.
Heels extend Williams' contract through 2015
The Winston-Salem Journal has
reported that UNC-Chapel Hill has signed Roy Williams to a four-year
contract extension that will keep him as the school's basketball coach
through the 2015 college basketball season.
Williams will earn a base salary
of $325,000 under the new contract terms and have a $30,000 expense
fund. He will receive supplemental income from the school that will pay
him $1.2 million to $1.5 million each year.
Rice's Savery
semifinalist for Dick Howser honor
Rice junior pitcher/first
baseman Joe Savery has been named to the list of 16 semifinalists for
the 2007 Dick Howser Trophy, given to the nation's top collegiate
baseball player.
Houston's Brad Lincoln won the
Dick Howser Trophy last season, becoming Conference USA's first
recipient of the award.
Savery, an Owl star as both a
hitter and a pitcher, was the preseason Conference USA player of the
year and is a two-time All-American. He currently ranks fourth in the
league in hits (72), sixth doubles (15) and seventh in total bases
(100). The Houston native is batting a team-best .353 with three home
runs, two triples and 43 RBI. On the mound, Savery has a 2.38 ERA and
owns a 7-1 record in 14 starts. In 68.0 innings pitched, he has struck
out 44 and held opponents to a composite .237 batting average.
