By Antonya English, Times Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
GAINESVILLE — Over the past two weeks, Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan lost his entire assistant coaching staff. On Tuesday, he replaced two of the three vacant positions with coaches who have a combined 19 years' head coaching experience.
Former Florida assistant John Pelphrey will return to the position he held from 1996-2002. Donovan also added former St. John's coach Norm Roberts. They replace Richard Pitino, who is rejoining his father's staff at Louisville, and Rob Lanier, who is rejoining his former coach Rick Barnes at Texas.
"Having John back will be a great addition to our program,'' Donovan said. "Obviously, he has a level of familiarity with me and with the University of Florida and that makes this a great fit."
Pelphrey was fired last month after four seasons as coach at Arkansas. Roberts was fired last season at St. John's, where he went after serving as an assistant under Bill Self at four schools.
Donovan has one vacant position remaining — that of former associate head coach Larry Shyatt, who left this month to become coach at Wyoming.
ex-gator werner charged: Former UF basketball player Dan Werner was charged with DUI early Tuesday in Gainesville though his blood alcohol level was below when a driver is presumed drunk. Werner, 23, acknowledged participating in a drinking game, beer pong, and said he was driving because his girlfriend was intoxicated. Police said he performed poorly on sobriety tests.
MORE BASKETBALL: Guard Kemba Walker, who led Connecticut to the national title this month, confirmed he is leaving for the NBA draft. He said he has not hired an agent, but has been talking to them. … UCLA guard Malcolm Lee is leaving school to enter the NBA draft and plans to hire an agent.
Sister of ex-USF DB Raymond found dead
Myslene Gabriel, the sister of former USF defensive back Mistral Raymond, was found dead in her Bradenton apartment Monday. She was 25. Raymond, who completed his senior season in December, has been working out for NFL teams in the hopes of being drafted this month. According to police Bryan Stanford, a former boyfriend of Gabriel's, was arrested on a domestic violence charge related to Gabriel, who had two young children.
Miami hires AD
Miami hired Wisconsin deputy athletic director Shawn Eichorst as its AD, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported. Eichorst, 44, will take over UM's search for a men's basketball coach, which acting AD Tony Hernandez had led. Hernandez was told Monday that he would not keep the position. Eichorst replaces Kirby Hocutt, who left in late February to be Texas Tech's AD. Eichorst had worked at Wisconsin under AD Barry Alvarez, who was the Badgers' football coach when Miami president Donna Shalala was chancellor in Madison.
SOCCER: USF signed three players from two-time national champion Tyler Junior College, including Dom Dwyer, the national junior college player of the year after scoring 37 goals in 21 games last fall. Dwyer, from London, chose the Bulls as did his best friend and teammate since childhood, midfielder Kyle Nicholls, and All-America defender Brenton Griffiths of Jamaica. Together, those three went 41-0-1 in two seasons at the Texas college, winning two national titles.
FOOTBALL: Mississippi junior linebacker D.T. Shackelford will miss six to eight months with a torn ACL in his right knee.
BASEBALL: Junior right-hander Hunter Scantling had seven shutout innings and gave up three hits as host Florida State, ranked 11th in Baseball America's poll, defeated No. 4 Florida 3-1.
Times staff writer Greg Auman contributed to this report, which used information from Times wires.