Times wires
Thursday, March 3, 2011
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Middle Tennessee will compete in the Sun Belt women's basketball tournament despite the stabbing death of guard Tina Stewart, the team said Thursday.
"We know Tina would want us to go out and play," senior guard Anne Marie Lanning said. "We just talked about it, and we all just kind of looked at each other, 'Yeah, that's what we want to do.'
"We want to make sure to collectively decide. Not five saying yes, five saying no. We're going to go out there and play for Tina and give it our all."
Middle Tennessee is the East Division's top seed for the tournament, being played in Hot Springs, Ark., and has a bye into Sunday's quarterfinals.
Stewart, 21, a key reserve, died Wednesday night. Her roommate, Shanterrica Madden, 18, has been charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bond. Madden's attorney, Joe Brandon, said his client used Stewart's knife in self-defense during a fight. He did not elaborate.
Murfreesboro police said possible drug use by the accused inside the apartment is part of the investigation but also did not elaborate.
A pretrial hearing is scheduled for March 11.
Stewart's boyfriend, junior forward KC Anuna, hasn't decided if he will play in the conference tournament. The men's team is the East Division's No. 2 seed for the tournament, also being played in Hot Springs, and also has a bye into Sunday's quarterfinals.
Men's basketball
Baylor: A grand jury in Waco, Texas, declined to indict star guard LaceDarius Dunn for an alleged assault that led to a three-game suspension at the start of this season. He was accused of breaking his girlfriend's jaw in September. The woman (and mother of Dunn's son) disputed police accounts and had asked the charges be dropped.
Connecticut: Star junior guard Kemba Walker will be honored during Saturday's senior day, an indication he plans to declare for the draft. The school said only Walker is scheduled to finish his degree in the summer.
Football: Oregon tied to recruiting services
Yahoo and ESPN.com have obtained financial documents showing Oregon paid for recruiting services. At issue is if Complete Scouting Services ($25,000) or New Level Athletics ($3,745) steered players under their direction to the Ducks.
"Most programs purchase recruiting services," coach Chip Kelly told ESPN.com. "Our compliance office is aware of it."
College sports get solid diversity grades
ORLANDO — A new study gave college sports solid grades in racial and gender hiring practices although it noted "troubling" trends regarding conference commissioners and athletic directors.
The 2010 College Racial and Gender Report Card was released by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida. This is the first time it has issued grades for college sports since 2008.
The 2009 report didn't include grades because there was not enough new data.
College sports received a B for overall racial hiring practices and B for gender hiring. The grades include an increase from six African-American Division I-A football coaches to 13 but a decrease of 21 percent in African-American Division I men's basketball coaches.
The other major notes were all conference commissioners are white males and only 8.3 percent of Division I athletic directors are women. It's why college sports received their only F's in those categories.
Grades were determined on a points system devised using federal affirmative action race and gender policies that say the workplace should reflect the percentage of people for their corresponding groups in the general population.
Miami AD: The school named deputy athletic director Tony Hernandez acting athletic director until a hire is made, which it hopes to do by the start of the fall semester. He fills the spot of Kirby Hocutt, who took the same position at Texas Tech.