|
|||||||||||||
by Hal Lamar SIAC Hoop Tournament returns to AtlantaINSIDE has learned that the SIAC brass (namely the Council of Presidents) and Commissioner Greg Moore have decided to return the conference’s annual basketball tournament to Atlanta. In the past several years, the tournament has domiciled in Birmingham, Alabama.It almost died there too with poor crowds, security overkill and non-existent media coverage. Over the years since the tourney was pulled out of its historic roots in Tuskegee Alabama, the conference has tried on a number of other cities which were all busts. Atlanta is the best possible place for the tournament. If they are ever able to touch the hem of the garment of the ultra-successful CIAA tourney, they will have to anchor it right here. The tourney is scheduled to be held at Morehouse’s Frank Forbes arena…. -0- I wonder why Lane forbade Albany State’s broadcast team from working their October 3 game from Jackson, Tennessee? A release from ASU Sports Information Director Edythe Bradley’s office indicated Lane hierarchy claimed NCAA sanctions prohibited the broadcast of any of Lane’s contests. But Bradley did some homework and found out that the sanctions didn’t address radio broadcasts. “Lane’s decision to deny the radio broadcasts was a self imposed penalty”,wrote Sistah Eddy.. But why punish Albany State, their fans and football listeners for mistakes Lane made? If you ask me, I think those “self imposed” sanctions against radio was to insure that few would hear the expected creaming the winless Dragons were expecting from the Ram juggernaut. ASU won the game 20-0… -0- Clark-AU’s homecoming turned into a home-going Saturday, October 3 at the hands of Kentucky State University 31-13 with Thorobred interim head coach Wayne Dickens delivering a eulogy to his cheering athletes out of earshod of CAU’s players..
“This will be the last time they invite us to homecoming,” he bellowed to the players. Even KSU’s President Mary Sias joined the team for post-game celebrating. “You showed up and showed out,” she said to yells and whoops. Observers of CAU football said it’s hard to remember when a Panther team has played so badly. Head Coach Ted Bahhur agreed. “We didn’t play well,” he sighed to INSIDE. Bahhur was forced to utilize first string quarterback Mark Wright who was injured more than two weeks ago in the loss to Tuskegee after backup freshman QB TJ Smith was injured in the first half . Bahhur fears he might have broke his hand. “Wright wasn’t cleared to play until the second half by the doctors. He wasn’t 100% but we had to put him in. We were out of quarterbacks.” KSU, a pre season pick to finish last in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, improved to 3-3 overall with the CAU victory and captured their second conference win.
CAU took a 7-0 lead in the first period when Smith punched across from the one yard line. But KSU came back in the second with two scores led by sophomore quarterback Jerrell Noland. He finished the game with 222 passing yards ,three passing touchdowns and one rushing score. “Clark-AU played hard but our goal now is to win the next six straight ,”said Noland. We got five more to go.” “Jerrell is a solid young man,” added Dickens. “We made a few mistakes but overall we executed well. When you can do that, you’ll win the game.” Despite the loss, CAU’s celebrated running back Winston Thompson again achieved another 100-plus yard rushing performance. He is the leading rusher in the SIAC with 692 yards, averaging 138.4 yards per game. He is also ranked 5th nationally among NCAA Division II rushers, the highest among all HBCU D-2 schools. “This was actually a winnable ballgame for us,” said Bahhur. We’ll have to do an all-around look at ourselves for the next two weeks (CAU is off the weekend of October 10) and go from there.” Editor's note: Bahhur was fired on Tuesday, October 6 MOREHOUSE WINS SECOND STRAIGHT OVER STILLMAN Morehouse College jumped out to 23-0 lead in the first quarter of their game with Stillman but had to fight off a relentless comeback attempt from the Tigers to win it 40-27. It was Morehouse’s second straight victory and upped the Maroon Tigers to 4-1 and third place in the SIAC behind Albany State and Tuskegee. Head Coach Richard Freeman, a man who is seldom surprised, was pleasantly astonished with the performance of junior quarterback DeJuan Thigpen. “Some of those passing routes we’ve had open all season , he hit them. That made our offense look the best it has all year.” Thigpen came on in the second quarter to relieve injured starter William Brack and, made an immediate impact, completing 4 of his first 5 passing attempts for 97 yards and two touchdowns. He completed the evening passing for 162 yards and one other fourth quarter score.
Stillman didn’t allow a 23 point first half deficit to deflate their game plan. The Tigers, led by junior quarterback Desmond Holloway, threw for two touchdown strikes in the 3rd and 4th periods and engineered two drives topped off by runs of 4 and 16 yards by senior rusher Quinn Porter who rushed 10 times for 94 yards. “We had a lot of bad breaks at the beginning of the football game,” said head coach LC Cole in his first year at Stillman. “We got some good athletes but we just got to keep fighting. We got a lot of young kids and you can see the mistakes. As a coach, you just keep pushing them.” Stillman faces Fort Valley October 10 while Morehouse journeys to Columbus Georgia to face Tuskegee in the 74th Columbus Classic. AROUND THE SIAC: Miles got a great performance from their starting quarterback Carlton Hill who is still nursing a shoulder injury from the Bears’ game with Samford but it wasn’t enough to overcome Fort Valley's 36-12 win to spoil Miles’ homecoming……Alabama A&M overcame a 15-0 first half deficit to score 35 unanswered points and win the Circle City Classic in Indianapolis 35-15. There is some speculation now over whether the two teams will be invited back to the classic for 2010…In Georgia, Savannah State dropped their fourth straight to the Charleston Southern Buccaneers 47-10…And Concordia College of Selma Alabama which has made noises about applying for admission into the SIAC, won its second straight by demolishing the University of New Orleans 78-14. INSIDE’s SIAC Picks this week PS: I can’t understand the sudden move by FAMU to kick their 30 year sports information director Alvin Hollins to the curb. Just two weeks before, Al and I had a long and pleasant conversation at the Atlanta Football Classic.I joked with him about when he expected to retire. I’m sure he wasn’t ready for what was to come. It was real classy of him to send a letter to this web site explaining his own feelings. He said he had hundreds of hours of unused sick leave and vacation time which indicates to me that he dedicated himself to his job. It will be hard in these days and times to find someone who will do that. Got an item or comment?
|
|
||||||||||||
