Gold Rush in NAIA top 25 for the 14th consecutive time

NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana fell three places to 16th Tuesday in the NAIA Division I Men's Basketball Coaches' Top 25 Poll. But despite the drop, the Gold Rush are in the top 25 for the 14th consecutive time — the program's longest streak since the start of the 1999-2000 season.

Xavier is in the top 25 for the 27th time in 28 polls.
    
This is the third poll of 2012-13 and the second of the regular season. The next poll will be announced Jan. 8.
    
The Gold Rush lost 77-67 at home to city rival Loyola in the only XU game of the past week. Xavier will play Martin Methodist at 5 p.m. Friday and Voorhees at 3 p.m. Saturday in the Spring Hill Classic at Mobile, Ala.
    
This is the third time in as many polls this season that the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference has a pair of top-25 teams. Joining GCAC member Xavier in the rankings is city rival SUNO, which fell four places to 25th.
    
Oklahoma Baptist received 8-of-11 first-place votes and is No. 1 for the second consecutive week.

NAIA Division I Men's Basketball Coaches' Top 25 Poll (first-place votes in parentheses — records through Sunday, Dec. 9) Rank Team Record Points Last 1 Oklahoma Baptist (8) 10-1 279 1 2 Cumberlands (3) 12-0 274 2 3 Lee (Tenn.) 11-0 263 3 4 Pikeville 11-1 250 tie-4 5 Westmont 7-1 242 NR 6 Columbia (Mo.) 9-0 235 6 7 Westminster (Utah) 9-1 228 7 8 Lindsey Wilson 12-1 219 8 9 Rogers State 10-2 215 tie-4 10 William Carey 9-1 183 15 11 Lewis-Clark State 12-0 181 10 12 Texas Wesleyan 8-1 180 11 13 MidAmerica Nazarene 10-2 174 12 14 Science & Arts 7-1 162 14 15 Cal State San Marcos 8-4 160 9 16 Xavier 9-2 140 13 17 Bethel (Tenn.) 12-1 132 24 18 Evangel 9-3 130 16 19 Concordia (Calif.) 6-3 119 NR 20 Campbellsville 8-3 92 tie-18 21 Faulkner 10-2 90 17 22-tie Oklahoma City 6-1 89 22 22-tie Montana State Northern 11-2 89 23 24 Texas College 9-1 83 RV 25 SUNO 4-1 79 21 Others receiving votes: John Brown 68, Biola 37, Southwestern Assemblies of God 29, Georgetown (Ky.) 25, Loyola 11, Montana Western 10, Mid-Continent 5, Culver-Stockton 5, Wiley 4.

By Ed Cassiere, SID
XULAATHLETICS
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA

XU achieves highest pre-Christmas rank of Browder era

NEW ORLEANS — For the second consecutive week, Xavier University of Louisiana climbed one spot in the NAIA Division I Women's Basketball Coaches' Top 25 Poll. The Gold Nuggets are ninth, their highest pre-Christmas ranking in Bo Browder's 14 seasons as head coach.
    
This is the third poll of 2012-13 and the second of the regular season. The next poll will be announced Jan. 8.
    
The Gold Nuggets (7-1) defeated city rival Loyola 54-44 at the Convocation Center on Wednesday in their only game between polls. Xavier's next game will start at 6 p.m. Friday at William Carey, where the Nuggets lost each of the last two seasons.
    
Xavier is in the top 25 for the 34th consecutive time dating to January 2010. That matches the longest streak of the Browder era. The back-to-back top-10 appearances are the first since the Nuggets did it in five consecutive polls from Jan. 11-Feb. 8, 2005.
    
William Carey will be Xavier's final opponent before Christmas. Then the Nuggets will play Dec. 28 against Belhaven and Dec. 29 against 24th-ranked Faulkner in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic at Montgomery, Ala. The Nuggets' next home opponent will be No. 12 Bethel (Tenn.), starting at 2 p.m. on Jan. 2 in the new Convocation Center.

NAIA Division I Women's Basketball Coaches' Top 25 Poll (first-place votes in parentheses — records through Sunday, Dec. 9) Rank Team Record Points Last 1 Lubbock Christian (10) 12-0 281 1 2 Freed-Hardeman (1) 11-0 272 2 3 Vanguard 5-0 263 3 4 Westmont 7-1 254 5 5 Westminster (Utah) 8-2 245 4 6 Lee (Tenn.) 8-1 233 6 7 Cumberland 9-0 227 7 8 Oklahoma City 5-2 221 8 9 Xavier 7-1 209 10 10 Campbellsville 8-2 195 11 11 MidAmerica Nazarene 10-1 188 9 12 Bethel (Tenn.) 10-1 187 13 13 The Master's 7-0 175 14 14 Rogers State 9-2 161 15 15 Shawnee State 8-3 156 12 16 Cumberlands 8-2 148 16 17 LSU-Shreveport 8-1 138 17 18 William Woods 7-1 121 19 19 Our Lady of the Lake 9-0 114 tie-20 20 Auburn Montgomery 10-1 101 tie-20 21 Georgetown (Ky.) 4-3 93 18 22 Benedictine (Kan.) 11-1 90 RV 23 Lyon 7-1 88 23 24 Faulkner 9-2 72 25 25 Central Methodist (Mo.) 11-1 67 RV Others receiving votes: Carroll (Mont.) 52, Southern Poly 39, Oklahoma Baptist 35, Biola 33, Wiley 23, Robert Morris (Chicago) 7, Columbia (Mo.) 3, San Diego Christian 3.

By Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director

VISIT: XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
VISIT: XULAATHLETICS

SU coaching search is down to Spady and Odums

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana  --  Southern University’s search for a new football coach is down to two.

And the two remaining finalists have already interviewed for the job.

Brian Jenkins, the Bethune-Cookman coach who had perhaps the strongest résumé of the three finalists, is no longer in the running. SU Athletic Director William Broussard confirmed Wednesday night that Jenkins will not come to campus Thursday for is face-to-face interview as originally scheduled.

That leaves two finalists: James Spady, the offensive tackles and tight ends coach at Nevada and a former offensive coordinator at Grambling; and Dawson Odums, the interim head coach at SU, the man who led the Jaguars to a 4-5 record in their final nine games this season.

Broussard said he still intends to present his final choice to the SU System Board of Supervisors at their meeting Friday.

“Thursday, in lieu of the interview, we now give ourselves a few hours’ head start, instead of going into what would be very late night. ... We’re going to take more time Thursday to evaluate,” Broussard said.

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Wetumpka's Riley among stars picked for classic

MONTGOMERY, Alabama — Officials with the new Raycom College Football All-Star Classic are still assembling their “Stars” and “Stripes” teams from invitations sent to players, but executive director Johnny Williams confirmed two of the invitations to the game went to Alabama State All-Americans Kejuan Riley and Terren Jones.

“I would feel guilty (not inviting local athletes to the game),” Williams said. “They were recommended to us and we hope to offer them an opportunity to go to the NFL.”

Both Riley and Jones, along with junior teammate Bobby Wenzig, were honored earlier in the week with their selection to the American Football Coaches Association All-America team. Both players acknowledged they had received invitations to play in the inaugural all-star game and planned to participate.

“The head man with the game called me and told me about it and said he was very interested in me playing in it,” Riley said. “I just thank God for it. I get another chance to play in front of my fans.”

Riley, a 6-foot-2, 208-pound senior who played at Wetumpka High, started for the past three seasons at ...

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B-CU's Jenkins scheduled to interview at Southern on Thursday

Coach Brian Jenkins

DAYTONA BEACH, Florida  --  Brian Jenkins might have an advantage over the other two finalists for the Southern University head football coaching job.

Jenkins, Bethune-Cookman's head coach, is scheduled to make an extensive presentation to Southern's seven-member search committee Thursday in Baton Rouge, La., Jaguars athletic director William Broussard said.

With Jenkins' interview fresh in their minds, the committee members will discuss the three finalists, and then Broussard will seek further feedback from other staff members before making a final decision by the end of the day.

“I will make a decision Thursday evening and hammer out the contract details,'' Boussard said in a phone interview Tuesday night.

Broussard plans to submit his selection Friday to the Southern University System Board of Supervisors at its scheduled meeting.

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