Thursday, April 26, 2012
Alabama A&M Assistant Ben Blacknall Has Passed Away
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - The Alabama A&M family was saddened today when they learn that defensive line coach Benjamin Blacknall passed away.
Coach Blacknall had been a part of the Bulldog football coaching staff for six seasons and served as the recruiting coordinator. Blacknall spent four seasons as the head coach at Delaware State from 2000-2003.
He was no stranger to head coach Anthony Jones. Jones and Blacknall have shared numerous other coaching destinations. Blacknall’s coaching stops include North Carolina A&T (1972-76), South Carolina State (1977-78; 1989-98), Wichita State (1979-83), Howard (1984-88), and Morehouse (1999).
While the head coach at Delaware State, he led the Hornets to a 20-25 record before leaving coaching for the business world. In 2000, he was named MEAC Coach of the Year.
“My condolences go out to his family, the team and the coaching staff,” said head coach Anthony Jones. “I lost a good friend today and the university lost a good man. His services at the university were greatly appreciated. He will be missed.”
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Alabama A&M: Football assistant Blacknall found dead
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - Alabama A&M football coach Anthony Jones got more than he ever imagined when he decided to go to college football at Wichita State. Not only did he get a quality education, but he met a quality friend in Shockers assistant coach Ben Blacknall.
In fact, Jones and Blacknall became best friends and that relationship spanned more than three decades.
Unfortunately, that relationship ended Wednesday when Blacknall, a long-time diabetic, passed away due to a diabetic coma.
"I lost a good friend, the university lost a good coach and the world lost a good man," Jones said. "He's going to be missed."
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Blue-collar Piston Ben Wallace plays hard till end
AUBURN HILLS, Michigan — He's among Detroit's sports icons, a group with different backgrounds, motivations and triumphs. But for Ben Wallace — the most unlikely of a collection that includes Stevie Y, Isiah and Barry — he's cut more in the mold of Joe Louis or Thomas Hearns.
As he prepares to suit up tonight for what might be his final NBA game, it's almost as if Wallace is looking for another fight. What other reason could there be for a three-hour workout with a handful of hours left in his career? "We still have one game left," he said.
Wallace will sit down with Pistons management and his family and won't rush himself to make a decision: retire or return for his 17th season. It's at this precise moment where Wallace reveals his biggest battle: with himself, admitting he has lost that cerebral tussle before.
He has conquered essentially every challenge he has encountered, but the prospect of walking away from basketball has Wallace grappling with his life away from the game that defined him.
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Ben Wallace, #6 Detroit Pistons, Virginia Union University (1994-96), Cuyahoga Community College (Ohio)(1992-94), Central High School (Hayneville, Alabama).
As season's end nears, Pistons' Ben Wallace is still at work and isn't sure he will punch his time card for the last time
AUBURN HILLS, Michigan - He spots a Pistons pocket calendar on the table and, for a moment, gives it his full attention. His team's schedule is burned in his memory, but it looks different on paper -- those red-and-blue colored squares counting down the remaining home and away games of the season.
"Not many left," Ben Wallace says.
He knows what he has said in the past, including statements he reiterated two months ago: On Feb. 13, the day after the 37-year-old Pistons veteran tied Avery Johnson for most games by an undrafted player (since the 1976-77 NBA-ABA merger), Wallace told reporters that this season, his 16th, would definitely be his last.
But now here it is, a recent Monday -- the afternoon after a night game in Chicago -- and Wallace is sitting in an empty room at the Pistons' practice facility smiling as he wipes streams of sweat from his face and neck with a towel. He talks about how he couldn't get to Auburn Hills fast enough that morning to work on his game and be with the guys.
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As he prepares to suit up tonight for what might be his final NBA game, it's almost as if Wallace is looking for another fight. What other reason could there be for a three-hour workout with a handful of hours left in his career? "We still have one game left," he said.
Wallace will sit down with Pistons management and his family and won't rush himself to make a decision: retire or return for his 17th season. It's at this precise moment where Wallace reveals his biggest battle: with himself, admitting he has lost that cerebral tussle before.
He has conquered essentially every challenge he has encountered, but the prospect of walking away from basketball has Wallace grappling with his life away from the game that defined him.
READ MORE
Ben Wallace, #6 Detroit Pistons, Virginia Union University (1994-96), Cuyahoga Community College (Ohio)(1992-94), Central High School (Hayneville, Alabama).
As season's end nears, Pistons' Ben Wallace is still at work and isn't sure he will punch his time card for the last time
AUBURN HILLS, Michigan - He spots a Pistons pocket calendar on the table and, for a moment, gives it his full attention. His team's schedule is burned in his memory, but it looks different on paper -- those red-and-blue colored squares counting down the remaining home and away games of the season.
"Not many left," Ben Wallace says.
He knows what he has said in the past, including statements he reiterated two months ago: On Feb. 13, the day after the 37-year-old Pistons veteran tied Avery Johnson for most games by an undrafted player (since the 1976-77 NBA-ABA merger), Wallace told reporters that this season, his 16th, would definitely be his last.
But now here it is, a recent Monday -- the afternoon after a night game in Chicago -- and Wallace is sitting in an empty room at the Pistons' practice facility smiling as he wipes streams of sweat from his face and neck with a towel. He talks about how he couldn't get to Auburn Hills fast enough that morning to work on his game and be with the guys.
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SIAC baseball tournament gets underway today in Ozark
OZARK, Alabama - Stillman College enters the eight-team Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference baseball tournament as No. 1 seed in the West after finishing with a 21-0 record in the SIAC, 24-16 overall. The tournament will be played in Ozark, Alabama at historic Eagle Stadium. The Tigers will face Benedict College, the No. 4 seed in the East, in the first round today at 3 p.m.
Claflin is the No. 1 seed in the East. The Panthers play Tuskegee, the No. 4 seed in the West, today at 9 a.m.
Other first-round games today include Miles vs. Albany State at noon and Paine vs. Kentucky State at 6 p.m.
It’s understandable the setting of Eagle Stadium in Ozark would feel like home for Stillman College coach Donny Crawford.
Crawford grew up in Rehobeth, where he was a standout athlete for the Rebels in the early 1970s. He later played two years of baseball at Wallace College in Dothan before finishing his athletic career at Southern Mississippi.
Among his early coaching stops was a two-year stint at Cottonwood as the head baseball coach, and he also coached three years at L.B. Wallace junior college in Andalusia.
While Crawford has called Tuscaloosa home for a number of years now, the close ties with the Wiregrass helped Crawford believe Eagle Stadium would be the perfect setting for the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference baseball tournament.
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Rush seeded first, Nuggets second for NAIA qualifiers
NEW ORLEANS — The tennis teams of Xavier University of Louisiana are seeded first in the men's division and second in the women's division of an NAIA unaffiliated group qualifying tournament.
The dual-match event — to be played at Racquet Club of the South in Norcross, Ga., an Atlanta suburb, on Friday and Saturday — is for schools from the Gulf Coast Athletic, TranSouth Athletic and Appalachian Athletic conferences, which do not field sufficient teams to compete for automatic berths to next month's NAIA National Championships. Also competing will be independent SCAD Atlanta, the host school. The men's and women's champions of the unaffiliated group tournament will receive automatic berths to nationals.
The Gold Rush (14-7) are one of three NAIA-ranked men's teams in the qualifier. Xavier is eighth — matching the Gold Rush's highest rank ever — Cumberland (15-1) is 16th and Martin Methodist (7-5) is 19th. Xavier beat Martin Methodist 5-2 in last year's unaffiliated group final.
Martin Methodist (8-3), ranked 17th, is the only top-25 women's team in the event. Xavier (4-21) and Milligan (10-7) received votes in the most recent national poll, with the Gold Nuggets ranking 26th. The XU women lost 5-0 to Milligan in the semifinals a year ago.
Both XU teams will have first-round byes and play in the quarterfinals at 12:30 p.m. EDT Friday. The Gold Rush will play eighth-seeded Milligan or ninth-seeded Bluefield, and the Gold Nuggets will play seventh-seeded Bethel (Tenn.) or 10th-seeded Reinhardt. Semifinals and championship matches will be played Saturday.
The XU men seek their fourth consecutive berth in the national tournament. The Gold Nuggets, who did not qualify a year ago, seek their fourth berth in five years and their sixth in eight seasons.
Xavier has six singles players and one doubles team on the national list of the Campbell's-Intercollegiate Tennis Association NAIA rankings of April 16. In men's singles Loic Didavi is eighth, Zach Taylor 19th, Viktor Svoboda 41st and Steffen Giles-Osborn 47th. In women's singles Kourtney Howell is 27th and Amanda Materre 38th. Didavi and Taylor are No. 4 in men's doubles.
In the ITA NAIA South rankings, Didavi is fourth, Taylor ninth, Svoboda 14th and Giles-Osborn 16th in men's singles. Howell is 12th and Materre 16th in women's singles. In men's doubles Didavi and Taylor are second, and Giles-Osborn and Sean Richardson are ninth.NAIA Unaffiliated Group Tournament MEN Racquet Club of the South, Norcross, Ga. All times Eastern First Round — Friday, April 27 #8 Milligan vs. #9 Bluefield, 8 a.m. Quarterfinals — Friday, April 27 #4 Bethel vs. #5 Tennessee Wesleyan, 10 a.m. #3 Martin Methodist vs. #6 SCAD Atlanta, 10 a.m. #1 Xavier vs. Milligan-Bluefield winner, 12:30 p.m. #2 Cumberland vs. #7 Reinhardt, 12:30 p.m. Semifinals — Saturday, April 28 Xavier-Milligan-Bluefield winner vs Bethel-Tennessee Wesleyan winner, 8:30 a.m. Cumberland-Reinhardt winner vs. Martin Methodist-SCAD Atlanta winner, 8:30 a.m. Championship — Saturday, April 28 Semifinal winners meet at noon |
NAIA Unaffiliated Group Tournament WOMEN Racquet Club of the South, Norcross, Ga. All times Eastern First Round — Friday, April 27 #7 Bethel vs. #10 Reinhardt, 8 a.m. #8 Columbia (S.C.) vs. #9 Bluefield, 8 a.m. Quarterfinals — Friday, April 27 #3 Milligan vs. #6 Tennessee Wesleyan, 10 a.m. #4 SCAD Atlanta vs. #5 Cumberland, 10 a.m. #1 Martin Methodist vs. Columbia-Bluefield winner, 12:30 p.m. #2 Xavier vs. Bethel-Reinhardt winner, 12:30 p.m. Semifinals — Saturday, April 28 Martin Methodist-Columbia-Bluefield winner vs. SCAD Atlanta-Cumberland winner, 8:30 a.m. Xavier-Bethel-Reinhardt winner vs. Milligan-Tennessee Wesleyan winner, 8:30 a.m. Championship — Saturday, April 28 Semifinal winners meet at noon |
By Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
VISIT: XULAATHLETICS
WSSU, Shaw women to play in NCAA tennis tourney
WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina - The Winston-Salem State women's tennis team will play at California (Pa.) in the first round of the NCAA Division II women's tennis tournament on Saturday.WSSU, the No. 8 seed in the Atlantic Regional, will be making its second consecutive NCAA appearance. WSSU is coming off a loss to Shaw in the CIAA championship last Saturday. Shaw, the fourth seed in the Atlantic Region, will take on fifth-seeded West Virginia State on Saturday.
The California-WSSU winner will play the Shaw-West Virginia State winner Sunday for the regional title. The winner of that matchup will advance to the national tournament to be held in Louisville, Kentucky.
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Tennessee State hosts 2012 Ohio Valley Conference Men's Golf Championship
NASHVILLE, Tennessee - The Tennessee State University men's golf team will serve as host to the 2012 Ohio Valley Conference Men's Golf Championship from April 26-28 at the GreyStone Golf Club in Dickson, Tennessee.The 54-hole, three day tournament will consist of three rounds with round one set to begin on Wednesday, April 26. The third and final round is slated for Saturday (4/28) and will close with the team trophy presentation.
Designed by PGA Tour pro Mark McCumber, GreyStone is a public course that has hosted numerous high profile events. It has served as home of the 2002 PGA Tour First Round Qualifying, Men's and Women's Tennessee State Opens 1999 through 2003, the 2000 PGA Tour First Round Qualifying and the Monday Qualifying for the BellSouth Senior PGA Tour event.
This marks the third year in a row that GreyStone, a par-72, 6,858-yard layout, has hosted the OVC Men's Championship.
Sharing the field with Tennessee State will include: Eastern Illinois, Morehead State, Eastern Kentucky, Austin Peay, Tennessee Tech, Jacksonville State, UT Martin, Murray State.
Jacksonville State claimed the team title last year with a 561 after inclement weather shortened the tournament to just two rounds. JSU won by 18 shots ahead of second-place finisher UT Martin. It was the Gamecocks third overall championship.
Andres Schonbaum (Jacksonville State), Johan Eriksson (Eastern Kentucky) and Matthew Wallace (Jacksonville State) won the individual title last year carding a 139 with a one-shot lead over the fourth place fininisher.
Although injury has limited him to 14 rounds this season, Scitern leads the Tigers, finishing in the top 20 on four occasions in five tournaments played this year. He has finished in the top ten four times which includes four finishes in the top five. He currently holds a team best 72.1 stroke average.
Ryan Pierson is second on the team with an 74.0 stroke average while registering three finishes in the top 20 and three in the top ten this season. James Stepp follows with a stroke average of 75.5 finishing in the top 20 twice in eight events played.
Andrew Warner (76.1), Tyler Hendrickson (76.2), Dallas Hill (77.3), Codie Welborn (79.2) and Matthew Campbell (82.3) round out the team averages with the Tigers currently shooting a combined 299.8 team average.
Practice round will begin on Wednesday before the opening round starts on Thursday at 8:30 a.m.The annual awards banquets will be held following Thursday's first-round play honoring the All-OVC first-team and second-team members as well as All-Newcomer Team and Freshman of the Year.
The champion of the tournament will represent the OVC in NCAA Regional Play.
Hole-by-hole live results from each day of the championship can be accessed through links at OVCSports.com.
California juco standout is Gold Nuggets' second signee
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| ANDRAQUAY QUINNINE |
Quinnine, a 5-foot-9 guard, is the Gold Nuggets' second signee for 2012-13. Guard Whitney Gathright of New Orleans signed a week ago.
Quinnine averaged 14.5 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.3 steals in 29 games for Consumes River College of Sacramento, Calif., this past season and was a California Community College Athletic Association second-team selection in the northern half of the state. Quinnine scored 40 points, including six 3-pointers and 10-of-11 free throws, in the Hawks' 72-64 victory at Diablo Valley on Feb. 7.
As a freshman at Consumnes River in 2010-11, Quinnine averaged 13.3 points in 26 games. In two seasons at the junior college she made 35.8 percent of her 3-pointers (108-of-302) and 80.7 percent of her free throws (130-of-161).
Quinnine is a 2010 graduate of Franklin High School in Elk Grove and helped the Wildcats reach the semifinals of the CIF Sac-Joaquin Division I section playoffs each of her final two seasons.
Quinnine will be a junior on the Nuggets' roster next season.
Xavier was 26-9 in 2011-12, won Gulf Coast Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament championships and, for the second consecutive year, reached the second round of the NAIA Division I National Championship. The GCAC Tournament title was the Nuggets' third in a row.
note: name pronounced ON-druh-kway KWY-nineBy Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
VISIT: XULAATHLETICS.COM
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