Auburn assistant picked to coach TSU men's team

After having a positive impact on one group of Tigers this season, John Cooper hopes to carry that over. The longtime Auburn men's basketball assistant was announced Friday as the new head coach at Tennessee State. Cooper, 40, replaces Cy Alexander — who was fired in February after five-plus seasons at the TSU helm — and Mark Pittman, who guided the Ohio Valley Conference program on an interim basis following Alexander's departure.

"First of all, it is a lifelong dream and a lifelong journey," Cooper said in a statement. As associate head coach under Jeff Lebo, the Kansas City, Mo., native helped Auburn to an NIT quarterfinals berth and a 24-12 record, tying for the second-most single-season victories in the program's history.

"I am really enthusiastic and excited about the opportunity," he said. "My goal is to obviously be successful, but also to put a product on the court that Tennessee State University is proud of, and one that is successful both on and off the court. In the future, we want to be able to say that we competed for championships in the OVC and hopefully say that we have won championships." Prior to his arrival at Auburn in 2004, Cooper served as an assistant at Oregon, South Carolina and Fayetteville (N.C.) State. Cooper inherits a program that has not posted a winning season since the 1996-97 team was 15-13.

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Taylor seeking reliable tight end for FAMU

Photo Gallery: FAMU football practice

As a tight end, the role might call for blocking on one play and making a catch on another. FAMU football coach Joe Taylor just wants to find the right player who could execute both roles well enough. If that player steps up during spring, he could very well end up with a significant role in the Rattlers' offensive scheme. Taj Jenkines proved himself to be the right fit in his final season last year, but it's a wide-open position with at least three candidates making a push.

"It takes a special kind of guy to get down there and do that three-point stance," Taylor said Thursday, following the third day of spring practice in soggy conditions. Max Purcell and Tobias Lee are the two leading candidates, but freshman Brandon Hepburn might make a case if he could mature fast enough. Fullback Mykel Benson could also be considered, Taylor said.

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Grambling's Greg Dillon enjoying solid spring after remarkable year

Photo Gallery: Grambling season wrap-up

At first, as Dillon and a retooled line gelled, he let his athleticism guide the offense. There were, for a while, as many eye-popping broken-play dashes by this gifted runner as there were forehead-slapping miscues. But Grambling kept winning, as Dillon matured. “Greg made everybody better on offense,” Broadway said. “When you have that double threat like that, it makes everybody look good.” He grew in confidence with every week, peaking along with his superlative defenders, as the campaign concluded.

Grambling earned its first three victories, before the quarterback question was settled, by an average of 10 points. The Tigers closed out the season whipping opponents by an average of three touchdowns. “Knowing I didn’t have to do it all helped me, knowing that people had my back — on offense and defense,” said Dillon, projecting a cool confidence. “Toward the end of the year, we were able to go out there and just play."

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Three-man battle could be highlight of spring

DOVER -- It is just the type of spring football camp that Delaware State University coach Al Lavan looks forward to most -- one with a bevy of competition for starting positions. The Hornets began this year's camp at Alumni Stadium on Wednesday night, ready to put in the kind of work they hope will lead them back to the top of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference this fall.
Delaware State returns 12 starters and 41 letter winners from last year's team, which finished 5-6 overall and 5-3 in the MEAC. "This camp is quite different than most of the other ones that we've had here at DSU, in that there is competition for a couple of positions that we haven't had before," said Lavan, who started his sixth spring camp at DSU. "We have a variety of experience and inexperience. Since I've been here, we've not quite had this type of team that needed to be developed."

Nowhere are those questions more evident than at quarterback. Four-year starter Vashon Winton is gone, along with his 33-14 record. There promises to be a three-man race to fill the void.

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HU Pirates, coach again adjusting

This week, the Daily Press takes a look at a few spring questions facing local and state football programs. Today, Hampton University.

1Will new coach Donovan Rose improve on predecessor Jerry Holmes' 6-5 record?

On paper, it's possible. The Pirates have plenty of experience back on both sides of the ball and get 2008 MEAC champion South Carolina State at home. But HU got off to a quick 5-1 start in Holmes' only season as head coach before losing four of its last five games in a head-scratching implosion.

2How is Rose adjusting to his new job?

Rose, the Pirates' defensive coordinator last season after 17 years as their secondary coach, ascended abruptly to the top job when Holmes and Hampton parted ways in January. A week into spring practice, he's focusing on more details than ever before, monitoring players' on- and off-field actions. "You put in a lot of time and you want to make sure that everything is right," Rose said. "When you're in this position and you see it — I don't think, as a whole, coaches get enough credit, because they're the ones that do all the work."

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UMES and DSU makes NCAA 2009 National Collegiate Bowling Championship Field

A Historic First: Two MEAC teams in NCAA Women Championship Bowling Field of Eight

INDIANAPOLIS - The eight-team field competing for the 2009 National Collegiate Women's Bowling Championship was announced today by the NCAA Women's Bowling Committee. The field includes the following teams, all selected at large:

Arkansas State University
University of Central Missouri
Delaware State University
Fairleigh Dickinson University
University of Maryland, Eastern Shore
University of Nebraska, Lincoln
New Jersey City University
Vanderbilt University

Competition begins with a qualifying round in which each team bowls four five-person regular team games and five four-game Baker matches. Total pinfall during the qualifying round determines each team's seed in bracket play. In the Baker format, each of the five team members, in order, bowls a complete frame until a complete (10-frame) game is bowled. The fifth Baker match serves as the position round. The pinfall from the position round serves as a tiebreaker, if necessary.

Based on the qualifying round, teams are placed in two four-team double-elimination brackets. Teams compete against each other in a best-of-seven games Baker match. Ties within a Baker game will be decided by another full Baker game. During bracket play, the higher seed receives starting lane preference for the first game of the match, the seventh game of the match and any tie-breaker game that must be played.

The Detroit Metro Sports Commission and the University of Detroit Mercy will host the championship, which will be held April 9-11 at Super Bowl Lanes in Canton, Michigan. Tickets can be purchased by calling 734/459-6070 prior to the championship.

The University of Maryland, Eastern Shore sport a 115-39 record, the second best in the country. The Lady Hawks defeated Arkansas State University, 4-2, to capture the 2008 NCAA National Collegiate Women's Bowling Championship at Thunder Alley in Omaha, Nebraska. The win marked Maryland-Eastern Shore's first women's bowling national championship and first NCAA national title in any sport in the institution's history. The victory also made Lady Hawks' head coach Sharon Brummell the first woman and first African-American to lead a team to the title since the NCAA established the championship in 2004.

This is DSU's first trip while UMES, Nebraska, Central Missouri and New Jersey City are all making their sixth trip. Delaware State is ranked 4th in the country and have earned a bid for the first time in the 10-year history of the team.

“This is such a thrill for the team and the university,” said Delaware State second-year head coach Kim Terrell-Kearney, who has led the Hornets to a 117-36 overall record this season. The Hornets are 25-18 this season versus the other tournament teams with wins over No. 1 Vanderbilt and No. 2 Nebraska.

For more information about the National Collegiate Women's Bowling Championship, log on to http://www.ncaa.com/ .

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ASU football: Players, new coaches coming together, Barlow says

Spring practices at Alabama State so far have been an odd sort of meet-and-greet. For the third straight year, sweeping coaching changes in the off-season have left the players and coaches using the early portions of spring camp as a time to get acquainted with one another. This year, new faces in the Hornets' camp include two coordinators, an offensive line coach, a running backs coach, a receivers coach and a linebackers coach. All of the new personalities and new coaching styles made the first practices a little clunky.

But head coach Reggie Barlow feels like things are moving along. "It's been different -- lot of new guys out there -- and it's taking some time for everyone to get used to one another," Barlow said. "But I think the guys are responding well to the new coaches. It's going pretty good, actually."

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