Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Prairie View welcomes Robinson as new athletic director

PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas  --  Ashley Robinson's appointment as the Prairie View A&M athletic director on Tuesday served as a homecoming.

Most recently the athletic director at fellow Southwestern Athletic Conference school Mississippi Valley State, Robinson now has been hired by Prairie View twice in the last four years.

It's his work for Prairie View before he was hired the first time, however, that played a major role in his rise to his new job.

In 2010 Robinson worked in compliance, academics and championships for the SWAC office. Prairie View president Dr. George Wright said the school's compliance officer quit at a time when it was trying to get off of NCAA probation.

Wright called Robinson, 33, and asked for his help in the process, which included improving the school's Academic Progress Rate.

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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Pigskin Preview: Fort Valley State



FORT VALLEY, Georgia -- Last year saw Fort Valley State reach the SIAC Championship game and the Division II playoffs while finishing at 8-4. The Wildcats are hoping to build on that success in 2013.

FVSU will be leaning on its defense this year, which returns seven starters, not including players like linebacker Stephon Harper who saw significant playing time as a back-up.

The offense must rebuild without the All-SIAC duo of quarterback Antonio Henton and wide receiver Chris Slaughter, who played together at Peach County.

Coach Donald Pittmann says this year's team motto is: "One team, one mission: Division II National Championship."

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Whatever happened to ... NBA star Bob Dandridge (from NSU)?

NORFOLK, Virginia  --  In 13 years in the NBA, Bob Dandridge displayed a unique talent both for blending in and standing out.

Early in his career, he played an essential role for the championship Milwaukee Bucks, a team led by all-time greats Lew Alcindor and Oscar Robertson. Later in the '70s, he started alongside Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes during the Washington Bullets' title run.

"I take pride in being able to play with two superstars on two different teams," Dandridge said, "and still being an integral part of both those teams."

Integral? You could say that. As a 6-foot-6 small forward, he averaged 18.5 points per game over his career, but bumped that up to 20 in the playoffs.



"I knew how to find a shot," he said, "even though I may have been the third option in the offense."

He learned at Norfolk State, where as a senior playing for Ernie Fears in 1969, he set a CIAA tournament record by scoring 50 points in a game.

Today, Dandridge lives a few miles from his alma mater, residing in ...

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BSU's Bryan Wilson and The LU's Brittney Waters Receives Victory Scholarship Award

Brittney Waters
(Courtesy: The Lincoln University Athletics)

Bryan Wilson
(Courtesy: Bowie State University Athletics)
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania  -- Typically being a student-athlete ends after your senior season in college, but this isn't the case for Bowie State University's Bryan Wilson and The Lincoln University's Brittney Waters.

Wilson started 14 games for the CIAA Champion Bulldogs of Bowie State, The Upper Marlboro, MD native averaged 7.9 points, 2.9 rebounds and was the third leading 3-point shooter on the team making 32.3 % of his attempts behind the arc.

Waters and Wilson have been selected to receive the Victory Scholarship Award by Sport Changes Life (SCL). SCL awards student-athlete recipients the opportunity to study for their master's degree while continuing their career in sports. Victory Scholars provide its recipients with full tuition fees for graduate school, accommodation expenses, subsistence expenses, and an opportunity to continue their athletic career.

"I am delighted and feel blessed to be one of the Victory Scholarship recipients," said Waters. "This is an opportunity of a lifetime and certainly a dream come true for me."

A native of Capitol Heights, MD, Waters averaged 5.7 points and 2.5 rebounds per game for the Lady Lions. Her experience at the University was enriched and filled with the joy of meeting new people and playing basketball.

Majoring in Accounting and a minor in Entrepreneurship has opened up plenty of doors for Waters.

“Professor Robert Allen gave me the idea of studying abroad in Ireland,” Waters said. Professor Allen was Waters major advisor and mentor during her four years at Lincoln.

Finding the balance between academics and athletics is not easy for most students; however, this was not an issue for Waters.  She was on the Dean's List and graduated with academic honors. Her transition from undergrad to graduate school shouldn't be overwhelming for Waters.

“While at Lincoln, I've always been a student first and an athlete second,” Waters proclaims. “I can truly say that Lincoln has prepared me for my future, athletically and academically.”

Lincoln Director of Athletics Dianthia Ford-Kee echoed those sentiments.

“We are very proud of Brittney,” Ford-Kee said. “I have been a part of Brittney's entire career at Lincoln and she has always been a model student-athlete. She is the first Lincoln student-athlete to receive this award with Sport Changes Life. We know she will represent our University at the highest level and will be a change agent for the students she touches in Ireland.”

Waters and Wilson are scheduled to attend the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland. Waters will play for the Belfast Rockets, a professional team in the Irish Women's Superleague. In addition both players will coach and work with at-risk youths as part of the Sport Changes Life program.

COURTESY THE LINCOLN UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION and BOWIE STATE UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION 

UAH To Meet Alabama A&M In Men’s Basketball

Huntsville, Alabama - The University of Alabama in Huntsville and Alabama A&M University held a joint press conference on Monday afternoon at the Von Braun Center in downtown Huntsville to announce that the two institutions will meet on the basketball floor inside Propst Arena on Thursday, Nov. 14 at 7 p.m.

The contest will mark the first meeting between the cross-town foes since Nov. 18, 1998, and it will mark the 24th all-time showdown between the Chargers and the Bulldogs. Holding the upper hand in the series is A&M who has won 18 of the previous 23 games including the last seven. UAH last defeated the Bulldogs when it won 98-88 in the 1991-92 season.

Head Coach Lennie Acuff was on the Charger sideline the last two times the teams met, while A&M’s Willie Hayes was an assistant for the Bulldogs for the last four meetings.

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Academics: Alabama State failure symbolic of HBCU struggles

MONTGOMERY, Alabama  --  The NCAA’s Academic Performance Program revamped the Academic Progress Rate (APR) data in 2011, wary of the struggles historic black colleges and universities were facing in their compilation and submission of data each year.

New rules that went into place with the 2012-13 academic year don’t seem to have helped the situation, however.

Of the 36 programs facing APR penalties from the NCAA, 28 are located at HBCU programs within the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC).


APR is only a temporary set-back; no failures here on ASU campus... and diamond, track and fields. Go Hornets!

Of the 17 colleges and universities whose athletic programs face penalties, 11 are MEAC and SWAC programs.

“The Southwestern Athletic Conference remains committed to assisting our member institutions in meeting academic progress and the metric for a successful Academic Progress Rate,” said SWAC commissioner Duer Sharp. “The SWAC will continue to work closely with the NCAA, president Mark Emmert, Committee on Academic Performance (CAP) chair Walter Harrison and the Limited Resource Institutions advisory group. We are also proud of our student-athletes who have achieved academic success by graduating and performing at the highest level during competition.”

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ECSU's Angelo Sharpless in pre-draft workout with N.Y. Knicks

NEW YORK --  Louisville center Gorgui Dieng headlines a group of NBA hopefuls who will participate in the Knicks' pre-draft workout on Tuesday. But while the defensive foundation of Rick Pitino's national championship team will be the biggest name, he might not have the best chance of being chosen by general manager Glen Grunwald with the 24th overall selection.

EXCERPT:

Angelo Sharpless, G, 6-4, 190, Elizabeth City, Senior—A star at Elizabeth and on YouTube, Sharpless might be the best dunker in the country. The CIAA Player of the Year will likely have opportunities overseasons, and if can play well there, there's always a chance he comes to the NBA.



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