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Thursday, March 19, 2009

Been There: Cage-Bibbs has experience in tournament, even if N.C. A&T players don't

Patricia Cage-Bibbs, who took over at N.C. A&T four seasons ago, has a 423-244 career coaching record. The Lady Aggies will battle a talented Florida State Seminoles team that may be the region's favorite to advance.

One of the luxuries that N.C. A&T will have in the NCAA Women's Tournament is the experience of Coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs. Cage-Bibbs has taken two other programs to the tournament (Grambling and Hampton) and knows about all of the hype surrounding the postseason. "You don't get caught up in all of that," she said. "What I'm going to do is just tell them it's a great opportunity, and you just play and execute, and if we do that we'll be trouble for some teams."

The Aggies, regular-season and tournament champions in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, are the 14th seed in the Trenton Regional and will play No. 3 Florida State at 2:30 Saturday in Duluth, Ga. "A 14th seed just shows the kind of respect these young ladies have earned over the last two seasons," said Cage-Bibbs, whose Aggies have the highest seed ever for a MEAC team. "We are excited, but we are not just happy to be there. We're going to come ready to play."

Lady Aggies junior guard Ta'Wuana "Tweet" Cook, Fayetteville, N.C. Seventy-First H.S., is ready to play the FSU Seminoles.

This will be A&T's first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 1994, but the Aggies gained some postseason experience last season in the WNIT, where they lost to South Carolina 102-74. Cage-Bibbs, who has had just four losing seasons in her 23-year career, took over at A&T four seasons ago and has turned her program into one of the MEAC's best.

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Redemption: Bozeman back in the Dance with Morgan State

Morgan State coach Todd Bozeman is back in the NCAA tournament after a 13-year absence after he was dismissed at California for NCAA violations. "I wanted to show I could do it again and I could do it right and it really was an aberration," he says. "It was a decision I made that was costly, and I use it with my children, with my players. There are consequences for your actions, and you have to think carefully before you do things.

VIEW FREE --MORGAN ST. VS. OU GAME LIVE @ 9:55 ET ON CBS: http://mmod.ncaa.com/

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Todd Bozeman still aches. Once one of college basketball's most promising young coaches, then an admitted cheat, he has spent more than a decade in recovery. Three years ago, he found work again at Morgan State. Today, in his first NCAA tournament game since 1996, Bozeman and the Bears will try to engineer a first-round upset of No. 2-seeded Oklahoma. "To me," he says, "it begins and ends with the fact that I'm coaching. All the other stuff is gravy."

The sins of his past were egregious, however. Bozeman, then at California, doled out cash to a coveted recruit even as the school and the NCAA were finishing up an earlier case involving secondary violations by the program. Perhaps justly, his healing can never be complete. Bozeman was exiled by the NCAA for eight years and untouchable — all but unhirable —- for awhile after that. His father remained his staunchest ally, preaching patience, assuring his son that everyone makes mistakes and new opportunities inevitably arrive. But less than four months before one finally did at Morgan State, Ira Bozeman was diagnosed with lung cancer. A month later, he died at 67.

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MSU Bears All-MEAC guard Reggie Holmes, 6-4/180 Junior, Baltimore, MD, St. Frances HS.

Totally Unbelievable! Morgan State and Coach Todd Bozeman articles are dominating the newspapers and Internet today---from USA Today, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, Baltimore Sun....147 articles... Coach Bozeman and Morgan State is hot, hot, hot!!! GO BEARS!!!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Morehead States Defeats Alabama State In Play-In Game

ASU and the SWAC suffered another embarrassing loss with the 7-foot Chief ending his Hornet career scoring 0 points and 2 rebounds against Morehead State. A record crowd of 11,346 at the Dayton Arena and a national television audience watched the "not made for TV" affair.

Morehead State didn't need a Chief on the boards to get its first NCAA victory in a 25 years. Center Kenneth Faried got the better of his bigger and more syllabic counterpart Tuesday night, and the Eagles never trailed during a 58-43 victory over Alabama State that opened the NCAA Tournament and ended a quarter-century of futility for Morehead State.

Morehead State (20-15) played its way into a first-round rematch Friday with top-seeded Louisville in the Midwest Regional. Alabama State (22-10) hoped to set the tone defensively behind shot-blocker Grlenntys Chief Kickingstallionsims Jr., a 7-foot-1 center whose reach is as long as his name. He swatted away three shots, but wasn't much help where he was needed most — on the boards.

Faried, the Ohio Valley Conference's defensive player of the year, had 14 points and 21 rebounds. The Eagles dominated the boards, 50-27. Andrew Hayles scored 14 for Alabama State. Morehead State hadn't made the tournament since 1984. The Eagles beat North Carolina A&T in an opening game that featured the first TV replay used to settle a tournament dispute.

Box Score » Watch Replay » Play‑By‑Play »
Photos »

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Another confirmation that Alabama State and SWAC Basketball sucks! Should the NCAA take away the SWAC's automatic bid and move to a 64 game format? Who can debate the results--0 and whatever! Nobody remembers the last time the SWAC won a NCAA tournament game. How can you not be prepared and competitive with a 19-15 OVC team that should be a member of the SWAC?

-beepbeep

Prairie View women to face OU in NCAA tourney

PVAMU Coach Cynthia Cooper Dyke says the major difference this year will be confidence because the seven freshmen from two years ago are now seasoned juniors.

Prairie View guard Shondria Combs could hardly contain herself as the Lady Panthers waited for their NCAA Tournament first-round opponent to be revealed Monday night. It seemed like an eternity had passed. But moments into the NCAA Tournament Selection Show’s second segment, Prairie View’s name and its daunting task were revealed. The 16th-seeded Lady Panthers, making their second NCAA Tournament appearance in three years, drew Oklahoma City Regional No.1 seed Oklahoma in Sunday’s opening round in Iowa City, Iowa.

The Lady Panthers and the crowd in Buffalo Wild Wings erupted despite the obstacle ahead. “I was excited about whoever we were going to play,” said Combs, a junior. “Just being here is exciting because everybody doesn’t get to make it here so getting there is exciting.” But that’s about as far as the gracious talk went Monday night. The Panthers, led by fourth-year coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, said just being happy to be going to the Big Show was for the first time when they lost to North Carolina in the first round.

This time the Panthers (23-10) are thinking about advancing even as they face one of the most dominant players in college basketball in powerful OU senior post Courtney Paris, who is a 6-foot-4 menace in the paint.

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Tuesday, March 17, 2009

14th Seed North Carolina A&T to face Florida State

Excerpts:

N.C. A&T celebrated its first bid to the tournament since 1994 and the highest seed ever for a MEAC team after winning the conference tournament Saturday. The Aggies (26-6) are seeded 14th in the Trenton Regional and will face third-seeded Florida State (25-7) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Duluth, Ga. The game will be televised on ESPN2 at 2 p.m.

"A fourteenth seed just shows the kind of respect these young ladies have earned over the last two seasons," A&T coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs said after watching the selection show with her team and fans Monday night at the student union. "We are excited, but we are not just happy to be there. We're going to come ready to play."

For the Seminoles (25-7, 12-2 ACC), it was exactly what they wanted: A neutral setting close to home. The No. 3 seed was just an added touch of sweetness. "We started getting a little restless," FSU forward Jacinta Monroe said. "I guess we thought they forgot to put our names up there. The seed and the region we're in, there are going to be tough teams, but it's definitely a region we can take."

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Monday, March 16, 2009

Morgan State Preview & Thoughts On The Tournament

Excerpt:

Tournament Brackets

What: First Round NCAA Tournament Game
Who: Oklahoma (27-5, Big 12) vs. Morgan State (23-11, MEAC)
Where: Kansas City, Missouri
When: Thursday, March 19th at 8:40PM CT

Morgan State Starters
G Jermaine Bolden (#3) 5'9" 175 Senior
G Rogers Barnes (#21) 6'2" 190 Senior
G Reggie Holmes (#11) 6'4" 180 Junior
G/F Marquise Kately (#32) 6'5" 220 Senior
F/C Kevin Thompson (#33) 6'8" 240 Sophomore

Their starters account for about 80% of the minutes on the team, which is about 11% above the Division I average. They have 3 seniors in their starting lineup, and one junior, so their starters will be well seasoned, but their bench players aren't used to playing big minutes, especially in big games. Getting them in foul trouble could help us build a lead quickly.

Keep an eye on Reggie Holmes. He has made more 3-pointers than the rest of the team combined this year. In fact, he has attempted 55 more 3's than 2's (234 to 179) and shoots the 3 at a 37% clip. He is the best free throw shooter on the team (73.5%) and turns the ball over the least. By far, he is the best offensive weapon that they have. Marquise Kately is probably the second best shooter, but he has almost no range. Kevin Thompson shoots an incredibly low percentage for being their post player (43.5%) and can't hit a free throw to save his life (misses about 1 out of every 2). Bolden and Barnes have 3-point shooting ability but don't take as many shots as the other three. Bolden is pretty much a true PG, and seems to be a facilitator.

More good stuff after the jump...

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Sunday, March 15, 2009

Alabama State gains NCAA play-in game

MONTGOMERY — Alabama State will have to earn a chance to play No. 1 overall seed Louisville in the NCAA tournament. The Hornets will face Ohio Valley Conference tournament champion Morehead State in the play-in game. The winner faces Louisville in the Midwest Regional in Dayton, Ohio, on Friday. Alabama State beat Jackson State in the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship game.

It’s their first NCAA tournament since losing to Duke in 2004 and their third overall. They are 22-9 and have won 13 of their last 14 games. Alabama State had an impressive turnaround after starting 1-6 against a tough early schedule. The Hornets will try to do something no SWAC team has done since Alcorn State in 1980: win an NCAA tournament game.

Along with Louisville, Pittsburgh, North Carolina and Connecticut are the top seeds in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The Cardinals are the top seed in the entire tournament, as well the Midwest, while Pittsburgh is No. 1 in the East, Carolina in the South and Connecticut in the West.

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