By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
June 3, 2007
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Here is this weekend’s West Virginia University sports news and notes:
RUSS LOPEZ, a football and baseball letterman, died Monday, May 28, at Ruby Memorial Hospital. He was 84. The Clarksburg native, who attended St. Mary’s High School in St. Mary’s, W.Va., earned four letters from 1943-47 and served as team captain in 1944. He was drafted in the 17th round by the Pittsburgh Steelers but chose instead to sign a professional baseball contract with the New York Giants organization as a pitcher. He also pitched in the Cincinnati Reds and Brooklyn Dodgers organizations before his career ended due to injury. Lopez was later a longtime teacher and coach in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
A celebration of Lopez’s life will take place at Mountaineer Golf Course at 4 pm on Saturday, June 9.
All three Big East baseball teams are still alive in NCAA tournament play with St. John’s taking on VCU Sunday morning, Louisville playing Miami Sunday afternoon and Rutgers battling defending national champion Oregon State Sunday afternoon.
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Rich Rodriguez |
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West Virginia’s Mountaineer Caravan state-wide tour made its stop in Huntington last week and more than 200 showed up to catch a glimpse of coaches RICH RODRIGUEZ and BOB HUGGINS.
“We didn't do this at Cincinnati," Huggins told the Huntington Herald-Dispatch. “There really wasn't any need to do it, because we were very provincial. At Kansas State we did this and I went to a bunch of places and didn't know a soul.
“Everywhere I go (in West Virginia) I know someone.”
A couple of former RICH RODRIGUEZ players are trying to make teams in the Canadian Football League. Record-setting running back AVON COBOURNE is returning for a second year with the Montreal Alouettes after spending last year as a backup running back and special teams player. Cobourne carried seven times for 21 yards and caught a pair of passes for 14 years. He led all Alouette players in special teams tackles and also returned a missed field goal for a league-best 95 yards. Montreal training camp opens Sunday.
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Lance Frazier |
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Defensive back LANCE FRAZIER was signed by Saskatchewan last October appearing in one game for the Roughriders last year. Frazier played in eight games for the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys in 2004 and spent the 2005 season on the Cowboys’ practice roster. Last year, Frazier attended training camp with the Seattle Seahawks before being released.
JERRY WEST is a wanted man. Star guard Kobe Bryant isn’t a happy man and he wants West back in Los Angeles to fix things. West’s contract as director of basketball operations with the Memphis Grizzlies will expire on July 1.
“I haven't thought about it at all until Kobe brought it up today. My main priority is to [Grizzlies owner] Mike Heisley and to finish up with the Memphis Grizzlies," West told ESPN's Jim Gray last Sunday night. "I am fiercely loyal to Mike, as I am to Mitch Kupchak. Having said that, I'm a lifelong Laker and we will see what happens.”
Sports Information Director SHELLY POE informs me that WVU football trainer DAVE KERNS has been recognized by Who’s Who Among American Teachers.
Despite having one of the nation’s top-drawing women’s basketball conference post-season tournaments, the Big East is mulling a move from the Hartford Civic Center to Mohegan Sun Casino. The Big East has an agreement with the Hartford Civic Center through 2009, but declining attendance has precipitated discussions of a move. Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma, who owns a restaurant at the casino, sees no problem having a basketball tournament at a gambling casino noting that the Mountain West Conference has its conference tournament in Las Vegas.
Can you guess which unemployed football coach fits this profile: national championship, averaged 10 wins for six seasons, sent dozens of players to the NFL and improved his program’s graduation rate? The answer is at the bottom.
A version of West Virginia’s new gold football jersey has already been circulating on web sites. The Mountaineers are planning an official unveiling of the nine different uniform combinations later this summer when all of them arrive.
Here are the Big East’s bowl tie-ins for 2007: BCS, Gator/Sun, Meineke Car Care Bowl, PapaJohns.com and International Bowl. After a one-year trade for the Meineke Bowl in 2006, the Texas Bowl will return to the Big East docket in 2008.
DAN BURT, once a member of ALEXIS BASIL’S West Virginia women’s staff, has joined Suzie McConnell-Serio’s coaching staff at Duquesne. Most recently Burt was at Bucknell after spending three years as an assistant at UNC Wilmington.
Former West Virginia University pitcher DUSTIN NIPPERT is one of six Tucson Sidewinder players being profiled in a new reality television show called “The Show” that airs Wednesdays at 10 pm on MOJO, a new 100 percent high-definition channel being offered on Comcast, Time Warner, Cox Communications, Bright House Networks, Cablevision, Mediacom and Patriot cable systems.
West Virginia hit a snag in its new surface installation at Milan Puskar Stadium when Associate Athletic Director RUSS SHARP noticed the company installing the turf was using the wrong color of blue in the end zones. A solution has been worked out, according to Sharp, and work is still expected to be completed in time for West Virginia’s first football camp on June 15.
According to Doug Doughty of the Roanoke Times, Virginia is looking at the possibility of reviving a football series with West Virginia. The two last played in the inaugural Continental Tire Bowl in 2002.
With Billy Donovan leaving Florida to coach the Orlando Magic, isn’t it nice to sit back and see what unfolds with the Gators instead of worrying about whether or not our basketball coach has thrown his name into the hat for consideration?
According to the Gainesville Sun, the leading candidate to replace Donovan is Virginia Commonwealth coach Anthony Grant, who spent 10 years with Donovan at Florida before guiding the Rams to a 28-7 record and an NCAA tournament appearance last year.
The Sun also speculated that if Florida chooses to open up its search the Gators could next target Villanova coach Jay Wright.
Answer: Larry Coker.
Have a great week!
