New athletic director Jason Horn couldn't be happier at Xavier

JASON HORN
ATHLETIC DIRECTOR
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
Photo Courtesy: XU Athletics

NEW ORLEANS  --  New Xavier athletic director Jason Horn has bounced around the college world at schools both large and small.

Horn, who started on Monday, said he enjoys smaller athletic departments. Xavier is his smallest college athletic department yet and he couldn’t be happier.

 

“I remember talking to the last athletic director at Arizona State and he had about 225 employees,” Horn said. “How do you get to know 225 employees? It’s just a big moving machine.” 

 

And how many employees does Xavier have in its athletic department? Horn pulled out a small piece of paper with names and telephone numbers and quickly counted them up.

 

“About 20,” he said.

 

CONTINUE READING

Tennessee State Dominates Boston/Moon Relays

NASHVILLE, Tennessee  --  The Tennessee State track and field teams recorded 13 first-place finishes during the two-day Boston/Moon Relays in the sole home outdoor meet of the season.

Amber Hughes started the day with a win in the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 13.92 and Oetia Prince continued the trend by clocking a 13:44.83 in the 3000 meter steeplechase.

In the field events, Brittani Logan recorded the longest throw in the shot put with a toss of 13.59 while Angel Davis placed first in the discus (39.90).

 Hughes, Ashontae Jackson, Quanisha Sales and Clairwin Dameus came in first in both the 4x100 (45.75) and 4x400 (3:52.30) in two of the final relays of the day.

Jerome Henderson took home titles in the 100 (10.73) and 200 meters (21.20) and Quamel Prince followed suit in the 800 meter (1:53.64).

The Flying Tigers were tops in the 400-meter events, too, as Michael Johnson won the dash (48.43) and Jaleel Michael bested everyone in the hurdles (53.48).

Prince, Johnson, Michael and Emmanuel Thornton easily won the 4x400 meter relay with a time of 3:15.31 and Tyler Anderson rounded out the winners with a leap of 7.39 meters in the long jump.

TSU will next travel to Lexington for the Kentucky Relays on April 18 as a final preparation before the OVC Outdoor Championship on May 2.

Results (,pdf)

COURTESY TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION 

Just Sayin': UMES choice of Collins safe, unimaginative and wrong

PRINCESS ANNE, Maryland --  Well, they did it again.

I almost can’t bring myself to talk about it, but the University of Maryland Eastern Shore has once again managed to take an opportunity to set off a boom across the Shore and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference that would cause people to take notice.

Instead they went with a great big plop — and everyone shrugged in indifference.
See, I’ve gone through this for a decade.

Ten years.

It feels like longer ...

Larry Lessett, Meredith Smith and Frankie Allen combined for a 59-242 record since my arrival on the Shore, leading me to think that good basketball and UMES would never mix.

CONTINUE READING 

Maryland-Eastern Shore hires WSSU's Bobby Collins as head coach

COACH BOBBY COLLINS
Photo Courtesy: WSSU Athletics

PRINCESS ANNE, Maryland  -- (April 8, 2014) – Bobby Collins, who leads men’s college basketball teams to conference championships and national tournament appearances, will be the next head coach at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

Collins, 48, comes to Princess Anne from Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina, where he was named head coach in 2006. His last four Ram teams averaged nearly 20 wins per season and qualified for the NCAA Division II tournament in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

“It feels like I’m coming home, professionally,” Collins said. “I’m looking forward to the challenge of re-engaging with some of my old friends and rivals in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.”

Collins is no stranger to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. Before taking the Winston-Salem State job, he was head coach for four years at Hampton (Va.) University, where he was MEAC’s 2005 coach of the year. His team won the conference tournament the following season, earning an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

“The university has an opportunity to hire an outstanding coach. He’s an even finer person,” UMES athletics director Keith Davidson said. “He has a proven record of success at his previous institutions.”

Collins was Hampton’s assistant head coach in 2001 when the 15^th-seeded Pirates pulled off one of the most memorable upsets in NCAA tournament history, defeating the 2^nd-seeded Iowa State Cyclones. Two years later, he was promoted to the head coaching position at Hampton and established a school record for most wins by a first-year coach.

“He’s had great coaching experiences where he’s worked previously,” Davidson said. “He’s an excellent recruiter who has great relationships with players and we believe he’s the right person for our program.”

The university and Collins agreed to a four-year contract with a base salary of $135,000.

Collins teaches an offense that puts a high value on fast-break scoring and he believes in employing man-to-man defense roughly two thirds of the time.

He told the UMES search committee he expects his players to be “the hardest working team in the country,” and to follow a strict code of conduct off the court, including taking caps off when indoors and when traveling.

“We are excited that Coach Collins has accepted the opportunity to lead our men’s basketball program,” President Juliette B. Bell said. “He has demonstrated that he is a proven winner and a role model when it comes to guiding student-athletes on and off the court. The University of Maryland Eastern Shore and its Hawk Nation welcome him to our ‘nest.’”

In his 12 years as a head coach at two universities, Collins has compiled a 181-171 record, including his first three years at Winston-Salem State when he was trying to position the basketball program to compete at the Division 1 level. He scheduled road games against the likes of Georgetown, Notre Dame, Kansas and cross-town neighbor, Wake Forest of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Collins graduated from Eastern Kentucky University in 1991 with a bachelor's degree in business administration and management, and was a four-year letterman on the Colonels’ basketball team. He was selected to the Ohio Valley Conference All-Freshmen team and was Honorable Mention All-Conference as a senior. After college, he played in the Helsinki, Finland Classic (tournament), earning MVP honors.

Collins was as an admissions counselor at his alma mater from 1992 to 1994 before joining the Old Dominion University basketball program as a restricted earnings coach.

He was on the Monarchs’ bench in 1995 when the Colonial Athletic Association champions shocked Villanova University during a first-round win in the NCAA basketball tournament.

Collins, the youngest of 10 siblings, is the son of two non-denominational ministers. He grew up in Southern Pines, N.C., where he graduated from Pinecrest High School and helped his team to 18-5 and 20-4 records during his junior and senior years. In 1984, he earned All-State honors and was conference Player of the Year.

COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND EASTERN SHORE SPORTS INFORMATION

XU's Wright receives All-Louisiana honorable mention

MORRIS WRIGHT

NEW ORLEANS -- Xavier University of Louisiana's Morris Wright received honorable mention on the All-Louisiana collegiate men's basketball team announced late Saturday.

A Louisiana Sports Writers Association panel selected the team.

Wright -- a 5-foot-10 sophomore point guard from Zachary, La., a graduate of Zachary High School and a former Baton Rouge Community College standout -- is the only player in Xavier history to lead the team in scoring, assists, steals and 3-point accuracy in the same season. He's the third player in XU history -- the first in 23 seasons -- to reach 400 points, 40 made 3-pointers, 100 rebounds and 50 steals in the same season.

Wright averaged 13.5 points, 3.4 rebounds, three assists and 1.7 steals per game in 2013-14. He shot 47.9 percent from the floor, 43.5 percent from 3-point range (47-of-108) and 79.5 percent from the line. He was All-Gulf Coast Athletic Conference.

Xavier finished 23-9 and won its third consecutive GCAC regular-season championship. The Gold Rush qualified for a fourth consecutive Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I National Championship and tied for 16th in the NAIA Division I coaches postseason poll.

2013-14 All-Louisiana Men's Basketball Team

FIRST TEAM
Jonathan Blount, senior, Centenary
Shawn Long, sophomore, Louisiana-Lafayette
Johnny O'Bryant, junior, LSU
Elfrid Payton, junior, Louisiana-Lafayette
Jalan West, sophomore, Northwestern State

SECOND TEAM
Louis Dabney, sophomore, Tulane
Brandon Davis, senior, LSU-Shreveport
Ledrick Eackles, senior, McNeese State
Jordan Mickey, freshman, LSU
Kenneth Smith, junior, Louisiana Tech

THIRD TEAM
Calvin Godfrey, junior, Southern
Alex Hamilton, sophomore, Louisiana Tech
Will Nelson, senior, LSU-Shreveport
Tylor Ongwae, junior, Louisiana-Monroe
McCall Tomeny, junior, Loyola

PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Elfrid Payton, Louisiana-Lafayette
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR: Will Nelson, LSU-Shreveport
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR: Jordan Mickey, LSU
COACH OF THE YEAR: Bob Marlin, Louisiana-Lafayette

HONORABLE MENTION
DeQuan Hicks, senior, Northwestern State
Dantrell Thomas, senior, Nicholls State
Morris Wright, sophomore, Xavier

Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
XULAATHLETICS
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
https://twitter.com/xulagold
https://www.facebook.com/xulagold 

New-look Lane expects to keep improving

JACKSON, Tennessee --  The alarm clock doesn’t bother Lane quarterback T.J. Ayers.

Lane’s football team used to practice at 3:45 p.m., after classes, but this spring interim coach Malik Hoskins started conducting practices at 5:30 a.m.

Hoskins sees a positive sign in his players’ reception of the change, and Ayers participates willingly as he thinks about pushing toward a conference title and getting the city of Jackson more involved with the team.

“Honestly we feel like everybody in the SIAC is not up at 5:30 a.m.,” Ayers said.

After a 6-4 season last year, Lane
football closed its spring practices Saturday with a scrimmage at Lane Field. Approximately 100-150 supporters attended.

CONTINUE READING

Celtics' Robinson set to show he's up for Howard Bison college challenge

OCALA, Florida  -- All Alizah Robinson wants is a chance.  A chance to show he has the goods to succeed at the next level.

The Trinity Catholic defensive back knows he is undersized. But the confident senior also knows that what he lacks in height, he more than makes up for with speed, agility and instinct.

 

That much was evident on the football field last fall when Robinson earned a starting spot right out of the gate in his only year at Trinity.

The transfer from Lecanto put together enough solid game film to send away to colleges, and when Howard University came calling with a spot on its team, Robinson jumped.

 

"This opportunity has eliminated (the size issue) with me," the 5-foot-8, 150 pounder said. "I've never had my talent questioned. As long as I keep getting bigger, I know I have what it takes to perform at the college level."

 

CONTINUE READING