The holidays are upon us and while the offices of Bienville Hall are
quiet for now as the university is closed until the new year, there is still some work to be done as we prepare for
upcoming events. These days out of the office represent a rare little
period to recharge the batteries a bit, before business picks up with
conference basketball and come February, baseball.
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Bo McCalebb is doing well for himself with Mersin Büyükşehir Belediyesi in the Turkey Basketball League. If you need help with the pronunciation, I apologize in advance for not being able to help you. The TBL did not send along a pronunciation guide and to date, there are no student-athletes from Turkey in our midst.
The leading scorer in Privateer history currently ranks fourth in the TBL in points scored with 19.36 through 11 games. McCalebb has only gone below 16 points once on the season, a 10-point effort in a 73-69 loss to Fenerbahce Ulker. His season high, 28 came in an OT loss to Banvitspor. As has been mentioned before, other American players on the squad include Chris Lofton (Tennessee), Eddie Basden (Charlotte) and Brandon Wallace (South Carolina). Fans interested in keeping tabs on the New Orleans native can visit http://www.tblstat.net/pd.asp?p=1472 with information on his team available at http://www.tblstat.net/td.asp?t=29
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Not sure how many of you were still in Lakefront Arena following the completion of the men's game against North Texas on Monday night by the time the players finished their media commitments. If you had already headed for the exits, you missed the excitement on the faces of a local scout troop on the floor of the arena.
Why were they excited? Well, I am sure like the rest of us in attendance, they enjoyed what my wife said was "one of the most exciting games" she had attended as of late. More importantly, for these youngsters, they got a chance to not only take pictures, but to meet and high-five Privateer players Kyndall Dykes and T.J. Worley. The two UNO seniors provided plenty of highlights for those in atendance. Dykes scored a career-high 25 points while Worley added 16 points and seven rebounds in a victory over a good Mean Green team.
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Jada Frazier had one of the bigger weeks we've seen from a Lady Privateer in recent memory. Frazier was named one of 30 nominees for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award, which is a prestigious honor combining on the court efforts with off the court accolades.
The Albany, Ga. native then added the Louisiana Sports Writers Association Player of the Week to her growing resume, the first member of the squad to earn the nod since Le'Della English in Jan. 2006. Frazier's play on the court the last few games has been very encouraging and reminiscent of a run last December in which she had a similar streak of success. I compared some numbers between these three games and the similar stretch from last year for our game notes. The numbers are actually almost a carbon-copy in most regards, including the fact Frazier started two of the three games both years.
Her greatest performance? In the year and a half that I have seen all of her games, it may have come at North Texas last Saturday. Everything was working against the UNO women in Denton. When her team needed it most, there was Frazier.
The game was on the road, which had not been the most friendly place over the previous nine games which had resulted in losses. Ashley Alexander was back in New Orleans due to graduation. Ty Felder was relegated to the bench late in the first half after fouling out and Candice McGee was not too far behind her. Brittany Helm's status was not so certain before she came back to have a strong second half. We were down to seven players with Helm being a possible eighth. Frazier's stat line was 11 of 14 from the field, including 4 of 4 from beyond the arc for a career-high 29 points in 37 minutes of play. To that point, no UNO player had even scored 20 points on the season.
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I am in the process of gathering the final notes on the volleyball team and consulting with head coach Jozsef Forman to make sure that all bases are covered, so there can be a proper recap of the 2008 season to look back on. In the last week, we found out that we had two players named to the All-Louisiana squad with Dobrilla Kovacevic (first-team) and Lindsey Loyd (second-team) adding more to their resume. We also learned that our final RPI was 60, which should resonate clear as day that we were still about 20 spots out of real consideration for the NCAA.
Coach Forman is working hard on two fronts - a) recruiting and b) scheduling - which will be very critical to getting into the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history. A schedule will not be available until late spring, if not at some point in the summer. A fall 2009 roster should be available in August once camp opens up. Once information regarding the spring slate is available, we'll share it with you on the web site. The biggest question heading into next year will be at the setter position, where coach Forman will look for a player to join Cassidy Asebroek in the roster. The offense was pretty strong though we do need someone to fill the shoes of Kovacevic.
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The swimming and diving team was back at Delta State this past weekend for the second time in about a month. While there, they set 18 school records over three days of the DSU Christmas Invitational. While not swimming in their "fast suits", the team still lowered the times in the record book on many fronts. Sometime in the next few days, look for an announcement regarding the updated rankings in the mid-major poll.
The toughest thing that I have had to do in my role as the swimming and diving contact is keeping up with all these records! While I expected it on the men's side, since many of the records were 15 to 20 years old, I truly did not expect the records to fall at such a rapid pace on the women's side as well. It's a testament to the recruiting job of the coaching staff, in addition to the work ethic of the returnees. Both teams will start the 2009 calendar year with winter training in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. While in Florida, they will also compete in the Bob Mowerson Spring Meet on Jan. 6.
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Hope everyone is enjoying their holidays. We'll see you Sunday at the hoops doubleheader. Men at 4 p.m. against transitional Division I program South Dakota and the women following at 7 p.m. against a Kent State team that is off to the best start in their history at 9-1.
Inside the Athletic Department Index
