Auburn hires UTEP's Barbee as basketball coach
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) -Auburn hired Tony Barbee as basketball coach Wednesday night after he led UTEP to the regular-season Conference USA title and the NCAA tournament.
Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs announced that Barbee will replace Jeff Lebo, fired the day after a first-round SEC tournament loss. Lebo failed to make the NCAA field during his six seasons.
Barbee led UTEP to three consecutive winning records in four seasons. The Miners were 26-7 this past season but lost 77-59 to Butler in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
"Coach Barbee has a vision of competing for championships at Auburn, and the passion to get us there," Jacobs said. "He is a phenomenal coach, an outstanding recruiter and a fierce competitor.
"Coach Barbee also shares Auburn values and is the right man to lead our team and represent Auburn University and the Auburn family. The bottom line is Tony Barbee is a winner."
Auburn will introduce the 38-year-old Barbee at a news conference Thursday afternoon. The Tigers, who haven't been to the NCAA tournament since 2003, move into $92 million Auburn Arena next season.
Barbee was an assistant for John Calipari at Memphis from 2000-06 when the program averaged nearly 25 wins a season.
"We have challenges in front of us, but we also have great opportunities with everything Auburn has to offer - a great university, outstanding community, tremendous fan support, and a terrific new arena and practice facility," Barbee said. "The time is now to take Auburn basketball to new heights."
Barbee is the school's first black head coach in men's or women's basketball. Auburn was criticized by some a year ago when the football program hired Gene Chizik - a white coach who had a losing record at Iowa State - instead of black candidate Turner Gill, now leading the Kansas program.
Barbee also played for Calipari at UMass on teams that reached the round of 16 in the 1992 NCAA tournament and the NIT Final Four the previous year.
He played professionally in Spain and France after leaving UMass, where he had two stints as an assistant coach sandwiched around a season with Wyoming.
Barbee also had recruiting successes that included helping land six straight top-10 classes at Memphis, including a 2001 group that was rated No. 1 nationally.
Four of his former players are in the NBA: Rodney Carney (Philadelphia 76ers), Joey Dorsey (Sacramento Kings), Chris Douglas-Roberts (New Jersey Nets) and Marcus Camby (Portland Trail Blazers).
Copyright 2010 by STATS LLC and The Associated Press.
UNC 80, William & Mary 72
It's safe to say Carmichael Auditorium hasn't seen a lot of three-pointers. The NCAA didn't adopt it until after the Heels had moved to the Smith Center, and although the ACC had adopted it for conference games a few years earlier, it wasn't as if Dean Smith teams were going to start shooting wildly. So it's safe to say Carmichael had never seen anything like William & Mary.
The Tribe's first seven shots were all threes. 21 of the 28 shots they took in the first half were from behind the arc. In the end, 43 of William & Mary's 62 shot were threes, and all but two of the rest were dunks or layups. They only made 16 of those threes, but that was enough to hold a lead as late as 2:34 remaining, and almost good enough to end Carolina's season.
Happily, UNC rediscovered their shot in the shooter-friendly gym as well, making the most shots since the first N.C. State game, led by seniors Thompson and Ginyard, who finished with 20 and 12 points. But what really made the difference was the way Carolina preyed on the Tribe's passing lanes. Six Tar Heel players combined for eleven steals, and although they only resulted in twelve points, that was more than enough to disrupt William & Mary's offense. (It was also good for the spectacle of seeing big men Tyler Zeller and Thompson swipe the ball from the top of the key and lumber down the court for baskets.)
Carolina also baited William & Mary into pushing the tempo along side the Heels, which not only saved UNC on a couple of rushed Tribe shots, but left them pretty beat and missing shots by the end of the game. Fouling out their leading rebounder Marcus Kitts helped there as well. UNC also made their free throws down the stretch – 11 of the last 15 points the Heels scored came from the charity stripe – and took care of the ball. In doing so, they upheld the Carmichael tradition (UNC only has 4 nonconference losses there) and kept their season alive. They travel to Starksville to meet Mississippi State on Saturday for a noon game.
Huskies have home court, Holiday against Arizona
SEATTLE Defending Pac-10 champion Washington got routed in games at Arizona and Arizona State last month, the Huskies' first dual losses in the desert in seven years.
In key return games this weekend, Washington (14-7, 4-5 Pac-10) has two huge differences going for it as it tries to preserve its conference title and postseason hopes.
The Huskies will be enjoying home court, on which they are 32-2 the last two seasons.
They will also have defensive stopper Justin Holiday this time. Holiday missed that Arizona trip because of academic technicalities, but he will start Thursday night's game against conference co-leader Arizona (11-9, 6-3).
"I'm ready for it. We need these wins, of course. And not being able to play last time, hopefully I can put my mark on this game," Holiday said.
The Huskies are counting on it.
The 6-foot-6 junior has the long arms and the tenacity to prevent a repeat of Washington's 87-70 loss at Arizona on Jan. 10. The Wildcats' Jamelle Horne stunned the Huskies with career highs of 22 points, including five 3-pointers. Washington's characteristic, in-your-chest defense was nonexistent as Arizona shot 47 percent on 3s and 50 percent overall from the field.
At Arizona State two days before that, the Sun Devils' Rihards Kuksiks also fired away at will. He was 5 for 8 on 3s and had a career-high tying 27 points in a 68-51 win over Washington.
It was so bad for Holiday watching the games back in Seattle, he almost turned off the TV.
"Seeing Kuksiks and Jamelle go off like that, I felt like I could've helped," he said.
Holiday returned from the academic issue the following weekend. Coach Lorenzo Romar immediately inserted him into the starting lineup for the first time in his career, because Romar said Holiday has an endless supply of the two things his team lacked most: energy and defense.
Washington has won four of six since then, the only losses a last-second one at UCLA and a corresponding dud at Southern California.
Quincy Pondexter is Washington's leading scorer at 20.3 points per game. But the team's only senior says Holiday is the most important player.
"Oh, he provides so much energy for this team on the defensive end," Pondexter said. "He gets us going. He gives the ability to contest long-range shooters that we were lacking in Arizona.
"It all starts with defense. And he's really the key for us."
With Holiday starting and swarming opponents, the Huskies have been vibrant and attacking, a contrast from the team that slogged through a post-Christmas lull that left them in a season-jeopardizing hole.
"With the exception of the USC game, we've played with quite a bit of energy with him in there," Romar said of Holiday, emphasizing how his value goes far beyond his five points and three rebounds per game.
Jumping out to stop the opponent's long-range shooters are Holiday's specialty. He did it in his first game back following his Arizona hiatus, throttling Stanford's leading scorer leading scorer Landry Fields to 5 of 12 shooting. Washington won by 33, its largest win over the Cardinal.
Last weekend, Romar put Holiday on Washington State's Klay Thompson, who came in sixth in the nation in scoring at 22.3 points per game. Thompson left humbled by 2 for 15 shooting, tying his season low of seven points while Holiday's Huskies romped 92-64.
Now comes this chance to get back at Arizona and into the Pac-10 title race.
The Wildcats are 16-15 against the Huskies in Seattle. UCLA is the only other team to enter raucous Hec Edmundson Pavilion more than three times and emerge with a winning record.
"They beat us by 17, so it's definitely a payback game," said Huskies guard Venoy Overton, another defensive pest. "They're coming into our home, so we've got to defend that too.
"It's a big game."
(c) CharlotteObserver.
NCAA gives Final Four tickets to coach after prank goes awry
The NCAA announced Thursday that it is giving high school girls' basketball coach Joel Branstrom tickets to the Final Four after he sank a half-court shot blindfolder during an attempted prank by his students at Olathe (Kan.) Northwest High School.
Branstrom figured he was about to be the butt of some kind of joke when he was blindfolded at a pep rally and told he would win tickets to the NCAA's Final Four if he could hit a half-court shot.
But the popular girls basketball coach played along and sent the high school gym into a frenzy Friday by hitting the improbable shot.
"I've been around long enough and done these kinds of practical jokes," said Branstrom, who also teaches biology at the suburban Kansas City school. "I figured they were trying to punk me."
Before launching the shot, Branstrom figured he was about to be hit in the face with a pie, so he held the ball up as protection for a few seconds.
"I knew they would cheer regardless to make me think I hit it," Branstrom said. "I let it go, they cheered, I heard laughter. I seriously didn't know I made it for a while."
"If it wasn't on tape, I probably still wouldn't believe it,? he said.
The shot, which was recorded on video by the school's multimedia department, made it onto the Internet over the weekend, and by Monday the former University of Kansas basketball walk-on was something of a celebrity.
Branstrom was a senior on the Kansas basketball team in 1997 when the Jayhawks got beat by Arizona 85-82 in the regional semifinals of the NCAA tournament. Final Four time is his favorite of the year -- other than his children's birthdays and holidays such as Christmas, of course. This year's NCAA semifinals and finals are being played in Indianapolis.
"I would love a chance to go there," he said.
On Wednesday, Branstrom said he had received tickets, but wouldn't reveal the secret donor.
Thursday, the NCAA sent out a release saying that the Association was the donor.
?This is a unique circumstance - Coach Branstrom is an educator, former student-athlete, head women's basketball coach, and apparently, a pretty good outside shot. When we first got word of Coach's shot, this was a ?no-brainer. He'll be in Indianapolis as a guest of the Association,? said Greg Shaheen, the NCAA's senior vice president for basketball and business strategies. ?The fact that he took the prank in good stride speaks volumes about his character. We're excited to have Joel and his family at the Final Four as guests of the NCAA.?
?Even though I was part of a great team at the University of Kansas, we didn't make it to the Final Four when I played,? Branstrom said. ?I am excited for the opportunity to participate in the greatest weekend of basketball at the 2010 Final Four.?
(c) 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Huskers head to Mizzou looking for 1st Big 12 win
LINCOLN, Neb. --- One of Nebraska coach Doc Sadler's preseason goals was to make the NCAA tournament, and he's sticking to it even though the Cornhuskers are the only team in the Big 12 without a conference win.
"If you look at the history of this league, and especially lately, you see teams that were 3-6 or 2-5 come back and be in the NCAA tournament," Sadler said. "This thing is a long, long way from being a panic situation, and I don't know that we'll be in that situation no matter what happens Saturday. I know I won't be. Patience is going to be a critical thing with this basketball team, and that's going to start with me."
The Huskers (12-6, 0-3) visit Missouri on Saturday and travel to Colorado on Wednesday before playing five of six games against Top 25 opponents.
Nebraska had leads against Big 12 foes Texas A&M, Kansas and Iowa State. But long second-half scoring droughts doomed the Huskers.
"We have to show a sense of urgency to win games and finish down the stretch in the second half," senior guard Sek Henry said. "That's our problem. We're playing good first halves but second halves aren't going well at all."
The Huskers squandered a chance at home last Saturday against Iowa State, making just two field goals and two free throws in the final 10 1/2 minutes of a 56-53 loss.
"We should have won that game," Henry said. "I know I missed about five free throws I should have made. Our post players could have played more aggressively in the post and scored some more baskets for us. We had an off night the second half. We can't live by what happened that day."
Nebraska might have gotten a couple more late possessions against ISU if it had managed the clock and foul situation better. Sadler admitted to losing track of how many team fouls the Huskers had committed. Nebraska had only five fouls in the last seconds, so when the Huskers fouled out of desperation, Iowa State was able to inbound the ball rather than shoot a one-and-one.
Sadler said his blunder was bigger than any mistake a Nebraska player had made in his four years as coach.
The Huskers also lost track of fouls in the previous game, mistakenly thinking it had one to give when fouling Kansas' Sherron Collins in the final seconds of the first half. Collins went to the line and made two free throws.
After a soft nonconference schedule, the margin for error has narrowed significantly for the Huskers, who have played in the NIT four of the last six years and haven't made the NCAA tournament since 1998.
"I don't think there is anyone playing any harder than we are," Sadler said. "There are guys making some shots that we're not making. There are guys getting to the free-throw line more than we are and they're making free throws. I'm not happy we're 0-3, but I see a lot of positives with this basketball team."
The Huskers are allowing only 68 points in conference play, best in the Big 12, but are scoring a league-low 59.3.
They're shooting just 38.8 percent from the field and 60.5 percent from the line, and they're 11th in rebounding margin.
Lance Jeter has an impressive 2.3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio as the Huskers' first-year point guard, newcomer Christian Standhardinger has given the Huskers quality minutes at forward and guard Brandon Richardson turned in a couple gutty performances last week despite battling flu and a thigh injury.
"Any time you play with great effort, you have a chance of winning," Richardson said. "If you can execute as well as having the effort, you end up on the better side of the stick."
(c) The Associated Press.
Ashland's Phillips twins in key roles for their college basketball teams too
Mark and Kyle Phillips captained the boys' basketball team as seniors at Ashland High. As college seniors, the twins are starring for their respective Division 3 college programs, once again as captains, Mark at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and Kyle at Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y.
Both are starting centers, the focal points of their team's offensive attacks, tough on the boards - and their stats are strikingly similar.
At 6 feet 8 inches and 260 pounds, Mark was averaging 14.9 points and 6.6 rebounds per game while shooting 64 percent from the field and 81 percent from the free throw line. Kyle (6-foot-7, 250) was averaging 14.4 points and 6.4 rebounds, while hitting 56 percent of his field goal tries and 80 percent of his foul shots. He was also averaging 1.6 blocks per game.
The brothers thought about going to the same college ''for about 10 seconds before we decided to establish our own identities,'' said Kyle. Both were recruited by Hartwick's head coach, Todd McGuinness, when he was coaching at Vassar.
Mark, a Tri-Valley League All-Star in high school, was leading Bowdoin in scoring for the second consecutive season. He led all Polar Bears scorers in the team's last three games, and in two of them also led the squad in rebounds.
''Our offense goes through Mark. He's our first option,'' said Bowdoin head coach Tim Gilbride, whose team is 7-3 going into its New England Small College Athletic Conference opener Saturday against Colby College. ''Mark has gotten better every year and he was already a good player as a freshman. He's a great person, a great player and a great center, one of the best centers in our conference.''
He also hasn't missed a game in college. He led Bowdoin in scoring, rebounding, and blocks as a junior, and had a 14-point game as a sophomore against top-seed Amherst College to help the Polar Bears reach the conference tournament final and advance to the NCAA tournament.
The brothers worked out together last summer and played on a team at the Longfellow Sports Club in Natick.
''I definitely got stronger since last year,'' said Mark. ''I'm a low-post player. I see the ball a lot, but I'm also very aware of keeping our offense balanced. Kyle and I stay as close as possible during the season. We text each other and once in a while we catch webcasts of our games. I got to see one of his games last year at Vassar, and he saw me play during our run two years ago to the NCAAs.''
McGuinness said Kyle, a strong low-post player with enough touch to hit the 18-footer, has developed into the best center in Hartwick's Empire-8 Conference.
''He had three left-handed dunks in a recent game against Elmira, which is pretty impressive,'' said McGuinness, whose young Hawks team is 5-9 overall heading into its game Saturday against Utica.
Kyle said he benefited from some tough workouts last year against his predecessor at starting center, and he's enjoying playing a major role in his final season.
Meanwhile, their folks, Stan and Marietta, have a challenge in keeping up with them, he added.
''It's a 3 1/2-hour drive to Hartwick and 2 1/2 hours to Bowdoin'' from Ashland, noted Kyle, ''so we both appreciate our parents, who travel a long way to see us play.''
Gaquin honored for work in golf
As a youngster growing up in Newton, Jim Gaquin (inset) caddied at Woodland Golf Club during the Great Depression. ''If you made a dollar, it was a very good day,'' he recalls.
A 1940 graduate of Newton High who went on to an early career as a sportswriter with the Waltham News Tribune and Worcester Telegram, Gaquin was presented with the Frank H. Sellman Distinguished Service Award by the Massachusetts Golf Association at its Salute to Champions Dinner last Thursday.
''It came as a surprise and it's most gratifying to be remembered,'' said the 87-year-old Gaquin, a longtime member of the MGA's rules committee and a former executive committee member who is director of both the Cape Cod Open and Cape Cod Senior Open.
During the 1960s and '70s, Gaquin was press secretary for the PGA Tour, the PGA's Tournament Bureau manager, executive director of the Royal Canadian Golf Association, and tournament relations manager for the US Golf Association.
Gaquin met his wife, Lois, when she worked in public relations with Wilson Sporting Goods in Chicago.
''I always tell Jim that I knew Sam Snead and Arnold Palmer before he did,'' she said.
The West Yarmouth residents, who celebrated their 50th anniversary last month, have teamed up to organize many prestigious tournaments, and also ran the Cape Cod Pro-Am League from 1985 to 1998.
The Sellman Award is named for the longtime member of Newton's Brae Burn Country Club who served as the MGA's secretary-treasurer in the 1960s.
''We don't give out the award every year,'' said selection committee chairman Robert G. ''Sandy'' Dowling, ''but Jim was most deserving. He has made a lot of impressive stops along the way, and his loyalty and service to the MGA has been noticed and appreciated by many.''
In November, Gaquin was inducted into the Newton North/Newton High Athletic Hall of Fame in honor of his years covering teams for the News Tribune.
Concord's Bergman making her points
Concord's Nora Bergman (inset), a junior forward on the Middlebury College women's ice hockey team, is playing at a better than a-point-a-game clip this season, with two goals and a team-best 10 assists in nine games for the Panthers. The team was 6-3 overall (5-1 NESCAC) going into Tuesday's game against UMass-Boston.
Bergman was a two-time Independent School League all-star back at Buckingham, Browne & Nichols, where she was named best all-around athlete in her senior year.
''Nora is off to a great start,'' said Middlebury's head coach, Bill Mandigo. ''She's second on the team in scoring, and is quarterbacking the first power play as well as logging significant minutes killing penalties. She's had a significant impact on our season.''
(c) Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.
UF basketball looking strong entering conference schedule, but haven't we heard that before?
GAINESVILLE --- This season's script produced by the Florida Gators' basketball team seems awfully familiar.
Yet again, the Gators (11-3) enter their SEC opener today, at Vanderbilt, with a solid record and a few surprise victories to their name (see Michigan State, Florida State and Rutgers).
But the Gators have been down this road before -- twice in fact. Last year they started 13-2 with clutch victories over Washington and N.C. State before fading in SEC play and missing the NCAA Tournament. In 2007-08, they did the same, beginning 13-2 with a win over Rutgers but finishing the season in the NIT.
The Gators have not been selected for March Madness since winning back-to-back titles and having to start over with a new mix of players.
This year, the players say, will finally be the year.
"We feel like we deserve it," said sophomore point guard Erving Walker, whose team plays Vanderbilt at noon in Nashville. "Our team chemistry, we're working hard, and just seeing the other teams out there, I feel like we can compete with anybody."
The difference this time is a defense-first attitude and a growth in maturity by several key players, according to junior forward Chandler Parsons.
Parsons and forward Alex Tyus are in their third seasons, Walker and transfer Vernon Macklin are a year older and Dan Werner provides leadership as a four-year player.
And the stats back Parsons' claim: The Gators are ranked No. 23 out of 334 Division I teams in scoring defense (59.3 points per game) and No. 15 in three-point defense (27.7 percent).
"I understand what it takes to be on the court -- defense, rebounding," Parsons said. "And then whatever comes on offense, I'm just trying to be patient and take the best shot for our team."
The Gators started this season unranked before reaching No. 10 in the AP Top 25 poll in the season's fourth week. But they have since fallen out of the Top 25.
Still, after two straight seasons ending in the NIT, they say they aren't saddled by pressure or expectations this year.
"We're going out there and having fun. We're playing with no pressure," Parsons said. "We obviously don't want to go down the same road we did last year. Our guys' main focus is on the defensive end, and we've proven that in some games even if the shots aren't falling, we can still win."
That was no more evident than last Sunday, when the Gators escaped Raleigh, N.C. with a miracle 62-61 win over N.C. State on Parsons' 75-foot game-winning buzzer-beater.
Before Parsons' shot -- and before Kenny Boynton's three-pointer 10 seconds earlier -- the Gators had shot 1-for-21 from the three-point line.
"I was really pleased that we did struggle so much to shoot the ball in the N.C. State game, and our guys just kept hanging in there and battling and it didn't really affect us on the defensive end of the floor," coach Billy Donovan said. "And I thought that was a sign of maturity and growth."
But for the Gators to get back to the Big Dance, they must improve their outside shooting. Saturday's game against N.C. State was not the first time the Gators had a horrific three-point shooting day. They were 1-for-13 against Stetson, 2-for-16 against Georgia Southern, 5-of-24 against Michigan State and 3-of-22 against South Alabama.
Freshman guard Kenny Boynton is shooting just 25.5 percent from the arc this season, while Walker is 29.1 percent. As a team, the Gators are shooting just 29.3 percent from behind the line, ranked No. 261 out of 334 Division I teams.
"We've had some what I would call horrific shooting games," Donovan said. "As a coach, if we all had the answers for how to put the ball in the hole for guys, it would make things a lot easier. But it's important that I continue to give them confidence."
(c) 2010 The Palm Beach Post. All rights reserved.
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