UNO shocks Wichita State

WICHITA, KAN. -- Talk about your shockers.

UNO pulled off its biggest in a long time Friday, rallying for three runs in the top of the ninth to knock off top-seed Wichita State, 7-6, in the Wichita Regional before 7,084 fans in Eck Stadium.

"It would have been very easy for us to roll over," said senior centerfielder Brandon Bowser, whose one-out single in the ninth brought in the winning runs. "Nobody expected us to win this game. We weren't even supposed to be here. But you can't tell a single guy on this team that."

The Privateers are assured of being here at least until Sunday. UNO (38-24) will face Arizona, a 4-3 winner against Oral Roberts in Friday's first game, at 7 tonight. The winner is assured of playing Sunday night for a trip to the super regional.

Wichita State (49-16) plays Oral Roberts in the 1 p.m. elimination game. The winner of that game will meet the UNO-Arizona loser on Sunday afternoon.

And not long after Friday's celebration, the Privateers already were thinking about the Wildcats.

"This is a good win, but we have to turn our focus to the next one," Bowser said. "We have Arizona tomorrow, and that's what's on our minds now.

"Anything's possible."

It didn't seem possible that UNO would be in this position going into Friday.

The Privateers, who were in the NCAA Tournament only because they won last week's Sun Belt Conference Tournament, were playing the nation's No. 15 team before a packed house in its home stadium. And even after they jumped to an early 4-0 lead, Wichita State came back, tying the score in the sixth and taking a 6-4 lead in the bottom of the seventh.

Going into the ninth, UNO had had three hits since the third, with one runner getting as far as second. When Josh Tarnow struck out to begin the ninth, and Nick Schwaner swung and missed at strike three, the end seemed near. But the third strike on Schwaner was a wild pitch, and he reached first base.
Drew Anderson followed with a single, as did freshman pinch hitter Ryan Eden, bringing in Schwaner.

That brought up Bowser, who was 0-for-4 for the game.

"The coaches always tell me to be patient when you come up in a big spot," he said. "I guess I was due."
Anderson and Eden pulled off a double steal to put runners on second and third.
Bowser then lined a 1-1 pitch up the middle from Noah Booth, the last of five Shockers pitchers, giving the Privateers the lead.

"Everything fell right for us," UNO Coach Tom Walter said. "These guys are not afraid of winning."
There still was work to be done, and the Shockers threatened when leadoff man Damon Sublett singled off closer Adam Campbell. But Privateers catcher Josh Tarnow threw out pinch runner Ryan Jones on a botched hit-and-run, and Campbell struck out Matt Brown before getting Connor Gillaspie on a fly to Bowser to end it.

"That's my job," Campbell said. "There's a lot of pressure because this is a regional, but I wasn't nervous so much as I was excited. Josh's throw was absolutely beautiful and after that, all I had to do was focus on the hitters."

UNO built its early lead by playing smart at the plate and on the base paths.

Johnny Giavotella started things in the second by drawing a walk, and Greg Wolfe and Tarnow followed with singles, the latter bringing in Giavotella. Schwaner grounded out to bring in Wolfe, and Tarnow advanced to third on a fly to center by Drew Anderson.

Ware walked to keep the inning going, which signaled the end for Wichita State starter Travis Banwart. It was the shortest outing of the season for Banwart, who is a member of the All-Missouri Valley Conference first team. The Privateers got to reliever Anthony Capra by adding a third run via a double steal. Tarnow scored when the throw to second went wide.

In the third, the Privateers added to their lead when Giavotella's bloop to center scored T.J. Baxter.
The Shockers got to starter Bryan Cryer for two runs in the bottom of the third, and scored another in the fourth, and tied the score in the sixth.

But the Privateers fought back against Noah Krol, who has 11 saves this season, in the ninth.

"No words can describe what these kids accomplished tonight," Walter said. "They were playing one of the best teams in the country in one of the toughest venues in the country in the NCAA Tournament with one of the best closers in the country on the mound. But you put these guys in a position to win, they'll do it. They didn't come here just to play two and go home."

http://www.nola.com/sports/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-31/118077196622650.xml&coll=1&thispage=1

Bowser Named to Academic All-District Team

NEW ORLEANS – University of New Orleans outfielder Brandon Bowser and second baseman Johnny Giavotella have been named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District VI team, it was announced on Thursday.

Bowser was a first-team district pick, making him eligible for the Academic All-America team, while Giavotella was a second-team selection.
Bowser, a senior out of Roaring Spring, Pa., is a mechanical engineering major and sports a 3.86 GPA. On the field, Bowser is hitting .300 with five home runs and 31 RBIs. He has started 45 games and is third on the team with 50 runs scored.

Giavotella, meanwhile, has a 3.5 GPA while majoring in accounting. He is one of the top hitters in the Sun Belt Conference, hitting .376 with 11 home runs and 52 RBIs. Earlier this season, the Jesuit graduate was named the top sophomore second baseman in the country according to Baseball America.

“There is a reason these guys are two of our three captains,” said UNO head coach Tom Walter. “They both serve as incredible leaders for this team and are about as good of representatives of the University of New Orleans as you will find.”

The duo is two of six players from the Sun Belt named to an All-District team.

To be nominated, the student-athlete must be a starter or important reserve with at least a 3.20 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) for his career. No athlete is eligible until he has reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at his current institution (thus, true freshmen, red-shirt freshmen and ineligible transfers are not eligible).

The Altoona Curve Experience

May 5, Cinco de Mayo, was my first chance to be part of the Curve experience in 2007. It didn’t take long to realize that the game against the Akron Aeros was just a part of that experience. The Curve, winners of the 2006 John H. Johnson President’s Trophy for Minor League Baseball’s top franchise, had a full slate of activities for the 5,124 fans in attendance.

Erik Estrada, Ponch from the hit show CHiPs, made a celebrity appearance for the second straight year on Cinco de Mayo. The Curve endearingly titled the evening “Cinco de Estrada”. Estrada was the epitome of class as he spent hours last year signing autographs and having his picture taken with hundreds of fans long after the game had ended.

Estrada enthusiastically shared his views on last year’s appearance.

“It takes 15-20 seconds to sign an autograph, say hi to someone on a phone, or give a hug. Why not do that? Fifteen seconds is nothing when it can make their day. It really chaps me when celebrities complain about that.”

Next to former player Adam Hyzdu, Estrada may be one of the most appreciated celebrities to grace Blair County Ballpark.

“I think I learned that (attitude) from my grandfather helping him sell sno-cones on the streets of Harlem when I was five years old.”

The game featured a highly touted pitching match-up. The Aeros sent #22 prospect Aaron Laffey from Cumberland, MD to the mound against Yoslan Herrera. Herrera is a Cuban defector and the #4 prospect for the Pirates according to Baseball America.

The Curve also have three other top six prospects on their roster – Andrew McCutchen (#1), Neil Walker (#2), and Steven Pearce (#6). Now is definitely the time to visit Altoona. It’s rare to have this many top prospects at one level of minor league baseball and they all may not be here together for too long.

Unfortunately, the Curve fell to the Aeros 5-1 and dropped to below the .500 mark for the season, 12-13.

Traveling Violations: A coach's coach

ST. LOUIS – He’s been telling it like it is for 42 years as a coach, always unflinchingly honest and direct, a breath of fresh air. So, no, there was no reason to expect anything to change now that Royce Waltman’s bumbled dismissal was humiliatingly public.

Waltman has been fired as the head coach of Indiana State and that probably means little to most college hoops fans. It should mean more.

This is a coach’s coach, the kind of guy you’d send your kid to play for and learn from in a heartbeat, just the way parents in Indiana had for decades. This is the kind of leader college basketball likes to pretend all of their coaches are like, when in truth, so few are.

He had been a high school coach, a Bob Knight assistant at IU, a small college champion and finally the guy who resurrected Indiana State from its depressing post-Larry Bird era and returned the Sycamores to a couple of NCAA tournaments earlier this decade.

But as the Missouri Valley grew, ISU stumbled and that, Waltman said, was on him. No excuses, not now, not ever.

“We failed,” Waltman said after a 59-38 loss to Creighton ended ISU’s season at 13-18. “There’s no one to blame for that except myself.”

Indiana State had fallen off in recent years, so the school had little choice. But make no mistake, college basketball is a poorer place without this guy, the grandfatherly teacher. The way the school’s Board of Trustees decided to fire him a week ago and then let it become the worst kept secret in Terre Haute was an unfortunate way to end it.

“Well, don’t take this as a bitter comment because I am not one bit bitter but the administration handled this with the deft touch of a 20-mule team,” Waltman laughed.

Waltman was disappointed Friday and worried about the future. For over four decades he’s had a team to concern himself with; a group of young men to teach and now, well, who knows? He can’t imagine a winter without a team. But now, at 65, and coming off this disappointment, he knows he might be done – no matter his 599 career victories at the college and high school level.

“I can’t get a head coaching job,” Waltman said. “You gotta understand, if you get fired for cheating, you get hired right back again. If you get fired for losing, it’s like you’ve got leprosy; so young coaches need to bear that in mind. Cheating and not graduating players will not get you in trouble, but that damn losing …”

That’s always been Waltman’s way, take no prisoners. Don’t get the idea that this press conference was a final rant against an unfair system. Waltman spent as much time cracking jokes as anything.

When initially asked to comment on the accuracy of a report in the Terre Haute paper that he was done, he deadpanned, “Well, I would say it’s very accurate.”

College hoops can only hope he hooks on somewhere as an assistant. He was a victim of his own success in many ways. When he took over in 1997, the Sycamores had suffered through 17 consecutive non-winning seasons. He immediately got them to 16-11 and then into the 2000 and 2001 NCAA tournaments. But he couldn’t maintain it and Waltman says that’s on him.

“We had some great teams and then we made some recruiting errors and some mistakes and we found ourselves in a position where we didn’t build as we should have,” he said. “I’m embarrassed by that.”

ISU will go younger, for sure, and will probably find a more polished, supposedly more exciting coach.

“Whatever they choose to do is their decision,” said Creighton coach Dana Altman. “But they’ll have a hard time finding a better coach and a better man than Royce Waltman.”

http://p17.sports.scd.yahoo.com/ncaab/news?slug=dw-violations030207&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Dennis Johnson dead at 52

Dennis Johnson, the star NBA guard who was part of three championship teams and combined with Larry Bird in one of the great postseason plays, died Thursday after collapsing at the end of practice while coaching an NBA developmental team. He was 52.

Johnson, coach of the Austin Toros, was unconscious and in cardiac arrest when paramedics arrived at Austin Convention Center, said Warren Hassinger, spokesman for Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services.

Paramedics tried to resuscitate him for 23 minutes before he was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, Hassinger added. Mayra Freeman, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office, said there will be an autopsy.

The Toros postponed home games Friday and Saturday nights, the NBA Development League said.

Johnson, a five-time NBA All-Star and one of the league's top defensive guards, was part of the last Boston Celtics dynasty. He spent 14 seasons in the league and retired after the 1989-90 season. He played on title teams with the Celtics in 1984 and 1986 and with the Seattle SuperSonics in 1979, when he was MVP of the NBA Finals.

"Whether he was leading his teams to NBA championships or teaching young men the meaning of professionalism, Dennis Johnson's contributions to the game went far beyond the basketball court," said NBA commissioner David Stern. "Dennis was a man of extraordinary character with a tremendous passion for the game."

Johnson was a favorite teammate of Bird's, and the two were part of one of the most memorable plays in Celtics history.

During the fifth game of the 1987 Eastern Conference finals against Detroit, Bird stole Isiah Thomas' inbounds pass under Boston's basket and fed Johnson, who drove in for the winning layup. Boston won the series in seven games but lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals.

"Dennis was a great player, one of the best teammates I ever had, and a wonderful person," said Bird, now president of the Indiana Pacers. "My thoughts and condolences are with his family at this difficult time."

Bill Laimbeer, the center on that Pistons team, remembered Johnson as a "great player on a great ballclub."
"He played with passion and grit," Laimbeer said. "It was fun to play games like that. You always enjoyed it. It made for not only great games but great entertainment."

In the 1984 Finals, Johnson guarded Magic Johnson effectively in the last four games. In 1985, he hit a last-second jumper against Los Angeles which won the fourth game. In 1986, he was part of a team that featured four Hall of Famers — Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish and Bill Walton.

Johnson had a reputation for delivering in big games.

"I hate to lose," he once said. "I accept it when it comes, but I still hate it. That's the way I am."

He averaged 14.1 points and 5.0 assists for his career. When he retired, he was the 11th player in NBA history to total 15,000 points and 5,000 assists. Johnson made one all-NBA first team and one second team. Six times he made the all-defensive first team, including five consecutive seasons (1979-83).

Johnson was born Sept. 18, 1954, in Compton, Calif. He played in college at Pepperdine and was drafted by Seattle in 1976. Johnson was traded to Phoenix in 1980 and Boston in 1983.