Rush to meet Tougaloo in GCAC tourney at 2 p.m. Friday

GCAC Tournament website

NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana men's basketball will take another shot at Tougaloo in the opening round of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Tournament. Tip-off will be 2 p.m. Friday at Dillard's Dent Hall.
    
The GCAC announced the schedule Sunday. The GCAC Tournament offers free admission at all games for students of GCAC schools with a valid school ID. All other tickets will cost $5. This is the third consecutive year that New Orleans plays host to the GCAC Tournament.
    
The Gold Rush (19-11) tied for third place in the regular-season standings at 6-6 but are seeded fourth. Tougaloo (13-11, 5-7) is seeded fifth.
    
Xavier won its last 10 meetings against Tougaloo, two this season, and shot 50 percent or better from the floor in each of the last six meetings. The Gold Rush defeated the Bulldogs 83-75 at Xavier Jan. 18, then got a 3-pointer at the buzzer from Seth Jackson in an 84-81 victory at Tougaloo this past Monday.
    
Xavier defeated Tougaloo 85-72 in the 2015 GCAC Tournament semifinals.
    
All three Friday men's games will be played at Dillard. Third-seeded Philander Smith will play sixth-seeded Edward Waters at noon, and second-seeded Dillard will play seventh-seeded SUNO at 5 p.m.
    
All women's and men's tournament games Saturday and Sunday will be played at XU's Convocation Center. The Xavier-Tougaloo winner will meet top-seeded Talladega, which has a first-round bye, at 2 p.m. Saturday in the semifinals. The championship game will start at 4:15 p.m. Sunday.
    
The tournament winner will earn an automatic berth to the Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I National Championship March 16-22 at Kansas City, Mo. Talladega defeated Xavier 76-58 in the 2015 GCAC tourney final at Xavier.
    
The Gold Rush qualified for nationals each of the past five seasons.



Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
XULAgold.com
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA 
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Nuggets, DU will lead off GCAC tourney at noon Friday

NEW ORLEANS — The women's basketball teams of Xavier University of Louisiana and city rival Dillard will lead off the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Tournament with a noon game Friday at SUNO's facility, The Castle. The GCAC announced the schedule Sunday.
    
The Gold Nuggets (19-11) tied for second place in the regular-season standings at 7-5 but are seeded third. Dillard (9-16, 4-8) is seeded sixth.
    
The GCAC Tournament offers free admission at all games for students of GCAC schools with a valid school ID. All other tickets will cost $5. This is the third consecutive year that New Orleans plays host to the GCAC Tournament.
    
The visiting team won both XU-Dillard matchups this season. Dillard won 57-52 at Xavier Feb. 6, and Xavier won 63-57 Saturday at Dillard. Bo Browder, in his 17th season as coach of the Gold Nuggets, is 6-0 against Dillard in the GCAC Tournament. The most recent victory was 60-47 in the 2014 quarterfinals at Dillard.
    
All three Friday women's games will be played at SUNO's gym. Fourth-seeded Philander Smith will play the defending champion, fifth-seeded SUNO, at 2 p.m., and second-seeded Edward Waters will play seveth-seeded Tougaloo at 5 p.m.
    
All women's and men's tournament games Saturday and Sunday will be played at XU's Convocation Center. The Xavier-Dillard winner will meet the Edward Waters-Tougaloo winner at 5 p.m. Saturday in the semifinals. The championship game will start at 2 p.m. Sunday.
    
The tournament winner will earn an automatic berth to the NAIA Division I National Championship March 16-22 at Independence, Mo. SUNO defeated Xavier 55-47 in the 2015 GCAC tourney final at Xavier.
    
The Gold Nuggets qualified for nationals 18 of the past 21 seasons but did not in 2015.

GCAC Tournament website




Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
XULAgold.com
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA 
twitter.com/xulagold
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New coach Massey feels at home at WSSU

WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina -- Robert Massey looks around at the facilities, sees the amount of scholarship space available and the winning tradition at Winston-Salem State, and he can’t help but smile.

“It’s the total package,” said Massey, who was hired recently to be an assistant football coach with the Rams. “I’m just happy to now be a part of Winston-Salem State, and the best part is I don’t have to go against them anymore.”

Massey, 50, was fired at Shaw as the head coach after a 1-9 season in 2015, but it didn’t take long for him to land on his feet.

Kienus Boulware, who completed his second season as head coach of the Rams with a CIAA title, didn’t have to venture too far down his list of contacts to find Massey. The two have worked together before as assistants at N.C. Central and Shaw.

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Syracuse Football: Scouting Delaware State Transfer DE Gabe Sherrod

SYRACUSE, New York -- Yesterday provided a huge bit of welcome news for Syracuse Orange football fans. Down to just three defensive ends in spring practice, the situation was looking dire for the team to make an addition to ease fears around an overly inexperienced group taking the field this fall.

Luckily, help came in the form of a verbal commitment from Delaware State defensive end transfer Gabe Sherrod. As a graduate student, he'll be able to play right away at SU, and likely shoots to the top of the depth chart, especially given the team's depth issues there. He'd be slated alongside some combination of redshirt freshman Jake Pickard to start with, one would think. while getting ample contributions from Trey Dunkelberger and Kenneth Ruff (both of whom are on campus this spring), and the three incoming freshmen.

But what are we getting from Sherrod, other than starting snaps? Ends up, quite a bit.

 

This season, the big (6-foot-4) end was a force for Delaware State, racking up the second-most tackles for loss in all of the FCS with 25 (!!!). As a converted wideout, Sherrod's used that speed and his hands to quickly get after ball-carriers and get in the way of the football even when the sack fails. Obviously FCS competition is a step down in many cases (especially from a power conference), but his production didn't really dip as opponents ranged from the MEAC to the Big South and even the MAC last year in Kent State. His production and ability to get into the backfield quickly has already come up in conversations for the 2017 NFL Draft. It's worth a quick look at his video below for more.

 

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Blue Hose overcome 6 match points, beat Gold Rush 4-3

LAFAYETTE, Louisiana — Presbyterian's Brandon Mills overcame six match points Sunday in a 2-6, 7-6 (13-11), 6-1 victory against Tushar Mandlekar, giving the Blue Hose a 4-3 men's tennis victory against NAIA No. 4 Xavier University of Louisiana.
    
Presbyterian (4-10) snapped the five-dual win streak of the Gold Rush (5-3). Xavier sought its third victory of the season against an NCAA Division I opponent and its third in a row.
    
Mills won at No. 5 singles. "That was a hard-fought match," XU coach A;an Green said. "Mills played big in that tiebreaker, so credit goes to him in that situation. We will learn from this as we move along this season. We could have played better in doubles, which would have made the final match moot."
    
For the third consecutive time against NCAA DIs, Xavier got singles victories from Karan Salwan, Thomas Setodji and Adam Albrecht. Karan Salwan defeated Alexander Lykou 6-1, 6-1 at the top flight, Thomas Setodji beat Alejandro Bejar 6-2, 6-3 at No. 2, and Adam Albrecht defeated Ben Kelley 6-2, 7-5.
    
Presbyterian clinched the doubles point when Mills and Lykou beat Setodji and Kevin Chaouat 6-4.
    
Xavier's men and women will travel to Hattiesburg, Miss., to play NAIA-ranked William Carey at 3 p.m. Friday. There will be duals at XU Tennis Center next weekend; the Gold Nuggets will play NAIA No. 22 LSU-Alexandria at noon Saturday, and the Nuggets and Rush will play William Woods at 11 a.m. Sunday. Admission is free to all XU home duals.

Results


Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
XULAgold.com
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA 
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SWAC rivals Jackson State, Southern set to collide at MGM Park

BILOXI, Mississippi -- Division I college baseball arrives at MGM Park this week.

A match-up between SWAC rivals Jackson State and Southern University starts at 7:05 p.m. Tuesday, marking the beginning of a seven-game series of D1 college games at the new stadium.

Southern Miss-South Alabama will serve as the second and final college game of the week at MGM Park when the two teams play at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday in a long-running regional rivalry.

"This was, in my mind, one of the main reasons we built this stadium," Biloxi Shuckers minority owner Tim Bennett said. "A very close second to minor league baseball was college athletics."

There will also be a high school baseball game at MGM Park at 7 p.m. Thursday when Biloxi and D'Iberville face off.

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Montgomery native Tarvaris Jackson talks Lanier, ASU football

MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- Tarvaris Jackson has played the last three NFL seasons across the country in Seattle, but still follows and supports his high school and college back home.

The Montgomery native talked Monday about Sidney Lanier High and Alabama State University, two places he made his mark before having a 10-year NFL career. Currently a free agent quarterback, Jackson said he was “surprised” C.J. Harris was fired at Lanier after leading the Poets to the AHSAA Class 5A football playoffs.

“He had been building,” said Jackson about Harris. “They had a good season this year. Made the playoffs. Had everything going in the right direction. Just the timing of it.”

Lanier principal Antonio Williams announced the firing in a statement Feb. 1. Jackson said he didn’t know “everything” that went into the firing, but has spoken to Williams about the situation.

“It’s a sensitive subject, a lot of he say, she say type stuff,” Jackson said. “I just wanted (Williams) to know that I support whoever because it’s my school. They’ve had guys over there that I didn’t know anything about or never heard of before but I supported the school because that’s my school. I always want to see them do well.”

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