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Thursday, March 26, 2009

Former star Moton becomes NCCU's coach

DURHAM -- LeVelle Moton described the past month as a bit "overwhelming." Two weeks ago, his wife gave birth to their first child and on Wednesday officials at N.C. Central appointed him as the Eagles' 17th basketball coach -- his first NCAA Division I head-coaching position.

"I really have to pinch myself," said Moton, the former Enloe High standout who later was a star guard for the Eagles. "March 2009 will be a month and year I will always remember. With the birth of my firstborn and just the opportunity to come back home and be the coach of my alma mater. ... This university was my father, it's a culture, it raised me. ... I owe this university an awful lot."

Moton, who is third on the Eagles' career scoring list (1,714 points), was a shooting guard from 1992 to 1996. He helped the team win an NCAA Division II South Atlantic Regional title in 1993.

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Wednesday, March 25, 2009

SU’s Chatman getting reps at strong safety

Gary Chatman is nobody’s bum. At 6-foot-3 and a shade under 220 pounds, he looks more like a smooth-sailing missile than a rumbling, rolling fire hydrant. He is the kind of rare athlete who’s well-suited to not only play the drop linebacker position at Southern, but excel at it. Chatman had 57 tackles last year, 11 of them behind the line of scrimmage in playing one of the most important positions.

Yet as the Jaguars wrapped up their second week of spring football practice, Chatman ran with the second-team defense. On purpose. Spring practice is often a time for experiments, grand and small — and for now, Chatman is practicing as a strong safety. “I’m still trying to get the feel for it,” he said. “But it’s coming along all right.”

From the first day of this offseason, SU coach Pete Richardson said he wanted to look at Chatman in a different role. And as Richardson noted, there really aren’t many differences between Southern’s strong safety and drop linebacker. “He’s struggling with the instincts of playing two different positions, even if they’re similar,” Richardson said. “The more he goes through it, the better he’ll get at it.”
The move is something of a risk, but it’s not really a risk.

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SSU starts spring drills down one

Offensive coordinator Alan Hall accepts post at Winston-Salem State

Savannah State's football team began spring practice Tuesday without an offensive coordinator. Alan Hall resigned Monday after one season to take the same position at Winston-Salem (N.C.) State, a historically black college and member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. "It's tough when you get close to your kids, but that's the business side of it," Hall said Tuesday night via cell phone as he drove to Winston-Salem, N.C. "It's a move I felt I needed to make, professionally. I'm looking to be a head coach, and I need to put myself in a position to make that happen.

"(WSSU) is where Savannah State is working to be at in the coming years. (WSSU) is in its infancy in the MEAC, but they're a larger school with twice as many students, so they've got a larger revenue stream." Hall, who turned 36 last Tuesday, also served as SSU's quarterbacks coach. He came to SSU from East Mississippi Community College, where he served as offensive coordinator for two years.

WSSU offensive coordinator, Alan Hall

"Your window in coaching doesn't stay open very long," said Hall, a member of the Miami Hurricanes' 1991 national championship team and a backup to Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Gino Torretta. "It was a tough decision. I got the call (from WSSU) Sunday night. It was so close to the start of spring (practice) that I felt bad about the timing. But you don't get that call very often, and it was the time to strike."

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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Delaware State Bowling Team Takes MEAC Title

Dover, DE-- The Delaware State bowling team is the new Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) champion. The Hornets defeated surprising Florida A&M four-games-to-none to capture the first MEAC title in team history this afternoon at Gate City Lanes in Greensboro, N.C., outscoring the Rattlers 792-to-706 in the four games.

DSU was undefeated in four Baker matches the last two days to claim the title. Florida A&M upset Maryland-Eastern Shore (UMES) this morning to advance to the championship round. UMES, the defending NCAA champion, had won the previous three conference titles. "This is a great achievement for our team and the university," said Delaware State second-year head coach Kim Terrell-Kearney. "Our girls have worked so hard all season, and its great to be rewarded with a conference championship. The MEAC is well respected in women's bowling, so winning the championship means so much to our program. Winning the conference and earning a NCAA Tournament bid were among our top goals this season."

Although there are no automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament, the Hornets are among the favorites to reach the eight-team tourney for the first time is team history. The NCAA will announce its tournament selections on Wednesday (Mar. 25) at 5:00 pm. The 2009 NCAA Women's Bowling Tournament is set for April 8-11 in Detroit, Michigan.

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Paris, OU too much for Prairie View A&M

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Simply put, Courtney Paris is a force of nature. Paris scored 11 points, grabbed 16 rebounds and blocked four shots to help the Oklahoma Sooners blow past Prairie View A&M 76-47 in the opening round of the women’s NCAA Tournament on Sunday night. “Courtney Paris proved tonight that she’s the anchor of her team,” Prairie View coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke said. But Paris did not have to carry the load alone.

The top-seeded Sooners (29-4) have a treasure trove of talent and put it all on display in an ESPN-televised game. Starters Danielle Robinson and Ashley Paris combined for 29 points, and Oklahoma’s bench outscored the Lady Panthers’ 20-3. The Lady Panthers (23-11) planned to play an up-tempo style to throw the Sooners off-balance. It was Oklahoma, however, that largely dictated the pace of play.

PVAMU Panthers athletic director Fred Washington

The Sooners went on a 20-8 run midway through the first 20 minutes, but Prairie View managed to hang around. Dominique Smith, who matched Gaati Werema as the Panthers’ leading scorer, scored 13 of her 15 points in the first half, and Prairie View trailed just 38-28 heading into intermission. Prairie View struggled in the second half, shooting just 18.2 percent (6-for-33) from the floor

Stats Notes View gallery

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Saturday, March 21, 2009

A&T embraces challenge: Coach and two stars have been here before

DULUTH, Ga. -- The NCAA women's basketball tournament selection committee finally gave the MEAC a little respect Monday night, designating N.C. A&T as a No. 14 seed rather than the usual No. 16. That doesn't mean the Aggies won't have a major first-round challenge when they face third-seeded Florida State at 2:30 p.m. today in the Arena at Gwinnett Center. The Seminoles (25-7) are ranked No. 12 nationally and shared first place in the ACC with Maryland during the regular season. The Terps got a No. 1 seed for the tournament, as did Duke, the team that knocked off FSU in a semifinal of the ACC tournament.

A MEAC team has never won a women's NCAA tournament game in the event's 28-year history. N.C. A&T, though, showed what it is capable of with a victory over A-10 champion Charlotte this season, and the Aggies (26-6) have a couple other things in their favor. Although this is N.C. A&T's first NCAA trip since 1994, coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs joins senior standouts Amber Bland and Brittanie Taylor-James with March Madness experience.

This is the seventh tournament for Cage-Bibbs, who previously guided Grambling and Hampton to the tournament. Bland played on a NCAA team as a freshman at Penn State, while Taylor-James did the same at UC-Santa Barbara. "Our kids deserve to be here and they are going to do their very best," Cage-Bibbs said.

GAME TIME: 2:30 P.M. EDT TODAY--ESPN2

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All-MEAC Brittanie Taylor-James, 6-0 senior forward from Evanston, IL makes a return to the NCAA Tournament.

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AGGIES HAVE GEORGIA ON THEIR MINDS

Friday, March 20, 2009

OU Griffin overwhelming vs. Morgan State Bears

Post Game: The Sooners dominated in just about every way, outrebounding the Bears 45-36, shooting 60 percent while holding Morgan State to 29 percent and drawing only 11 fouls to Morgan State's 24.

Game Photo Gallery

KANSAS CITY, Mo. Morgan State's first visit to the NCAA tournament lasted only as long as likely national player of the year Blake Griffin wished for the Bears to linger around. The 15th-seeded Bears quickly learned a lesson that the bruised Big 12 absorbed all season: Griffin is one of the few players in the country capable of eviscerating an opponent on his own. The sophomore forward scored 28 points and added 13 rebounds while shooting 11-for-12 from the floor as second-seeded Oklahoma cruised to an 82-54 victory in a South Region first-round game at Sprint Center before 17,398.

With little hope of containing Griffin, the Bears resorted to tactics usually reserved for the realm of professional wrestling. Morgan State's Ameer Ali got tangled with Griffin chasing a rebound, then reached behind and slammed Griffin to the ground to earn an immediate ejection with 7:41 remaining. The Sooners (28-5) advanced to a second-round meeting with 10th-seeded Michigan (21-13) on Saturday.

Reggie Holmes scored 14 points to lead the Bears (23-12), the MEAC champions whose first NCAA appearance coincided with coach Todd Bozeman's return. He was just a few years removed from a decade in exile from the college game after incurring a show-cause penalty for infractions committed at California.

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