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Jake Boss has experienced an interesting first season as head coach of Eastern Michigan University’s baseball team.
Boss started his head coaching career by losing his first 17 games. The Eagles (25-32) have enjoyed one of the biggest turnarounds in college baseball history since then, culminating with the Mid-American Conference tournament championship Saturday with a 12-4 victory over Kent State to earn a spot in the NCAA tournament.
“Outstanding job by Jake Boss,” praised Michigan coach Rich Maloney. “To keep things together after an 0-17 start is incredible. It could have crumbled for him after that (start).”
Boss was an assistant coach at Michigan under Maloney for 3 years before taking over EMU’s program.
Boss became the second coach in MAC history to lead his team to a championship in his first year as head coach. Jon Pavlisko led Miami to the championship 25 years ago in his first season.
The Eagles went 4-0 in the MAC tournament, hitting 10 home runs and averaging 10 runs a game. They hit three homers in the title game, including Zack Leonard’s solo shot in the second inning for a 1-0 lead, Josh Ivan’s solo homer in the fourth for a 2-1 lead, and Michael Boyd’s three-run homer in the fifth for a 7-1 lead.
Leonard was named Tournament MVP after his 3-for-6 performance in the title game to lead EMU’s 17-hit attack. Leonard hit .400 for the tournament (8-for-20) with two homers and 11 RBI.
Ivan, Steve Bradshaw and Sean Hoffman also earned spots on the All-Tournament Team.
Hoffman earned the win in the championship game, allowing four runs and eight hits in six innings to improve to 5-2.
The Eagles will find out who they play in the NCAA tournament pairings show Monday afternoon.

detnews.com

Despite threatening skies that loomed most of the day last Friday at Belle Meade Country Club near Thomson, this year’s 16th Annual Ray Guy Golf Classic to benefit the McDuffie Regional Medical Center Foundation was another big success, according to Debbie Jones, golf tournament director.
“The weather held out for us and the golf course was so very well maintained,” said Mrs. Jones, who also handles public relations and marketing at McDuffie Regional Medical Center in Thomson. “Everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves very much.”
More than $33,000 was raised from this year’s golf tournament for the McDuffie Regional Medical Center Foundation. The foundation’s board of directors includes: Babs Davis, Mary Etna Dudley, David Jopling, Carolyn Langford, Jean Lazenby, Rusty Lovelace, O.B. McCorkle, Hazel Mobley, Donald Newsome, Anne and Sonny Poss, Billie Thomas, Wanda Willis, Clois Witt, Doug Keir, CEO of the local hospital; Debbie Jones, foundation director; and Lucie Wills, chairwoman.
Proceeds from the golf classic allows the foundation to create and promote health education programs and expand health care services available to the communities served by the McDuffie Regional Medical Center.
A number of the participants said they plan to play in The Ray Guy Golf Classic again next year, said Mrs. Jones.
A total of 92 golfers broke off into teams of four to play the cours. -one of the CSRA’s most popular golf courses during the week of The Masters. The golfers came from Thomson, Marietta, Augusta, Washington, Wrens and Louisville.
The tournament is named for Ray Guy, one of Thomson’s most famous residents ever. Mr. Guy was unable to attend this year’s golf classic, but sent his regrets. Several months ago, he accepted a job with Southern Mississippi University and as a result, he had commitments that would not permit him to participate this year, said Doug Keir, chief executive officer of McDuffie Regional Medical Center.

mirror.augusta.com

BOSTON: Freshman John Muse made 29 saves to help defending champion Boston College beat Vermont 4-0 on Saturday night for its record eighth Hockey East tournament title.
After making a career-high 45 saves Friday night in a triple-overtime win over regular-season champion New Hampshire, Muse blanked Vermont for his third shutout of the season and the second in the 24-year history of the tournament championship game.
Ben Smith, Tim Kunes, Brian Gibbons and Nathan Gerbe scored for Boston College ((21-11-8), which earned an automatic berth in the 16-team NCAA tournament field. Joe Fallon made 24 saves for Vermont (17-5-7).
Taiwan elected its first president who had campaigned for closer economic relations with Beijing, paving the way for a considerable lessening of tensions in one of Asia's oldest flashpoints. Ma Ying-jeou, a Harvard-educated lawyer and former Taipei mayor from the Nationalist Party, won by a convincing margin.

iht.com

After Xavier squandered a double-digit lead in the second half against Ohio State in the N.C.A.A. tournament last season, Lavender wanted to issue a statement that it would not happen again.
Lavender’s message proved prescient in the third-seeded Musketeers’ 73-61 victory against No. 14 Georgia on Thursday in the first round of the N.C.A.A. tournament. On Saturday, they will face No. 6 Purdue, which is seeded sixth in the West Region, after the Boilermakers beat Baylor, 90-79.
Xavier’s comeback from an 11-point deficit in the second half will long leave Georgia fans pointing at the referees more than the Musketeers. Xavier shot 29 free throws in the second half compared with only 5 for Georgia. That disparity and the clock stoppages that go with it allowed the Musketeers to come back and outlast the Bulldogs.
“Clearly,” Georgia Coach Dennis Felton said, “that was the difference in the game.”
Look no further than the line of Xavier’s leading scorer, Josh Duncan, for evidence. He scored 20 points, making 4 of 9 shots from the field and 11 of 14 from the free-throw line. Xavier went 27 of 33 from the line over all; Georgia was 3 of 5.
The Musketeers managed to score 47 second-half points and erase a 9-point halftime deficit despite making only 10 baskets in the second half.
“It’s hard to compete with that,” Georgia guard Billy Humphrey said. “They’re taking wide-open shots at the free-throw line, and they’re doing it five times as much as we are, almost six times as much.”
Georgia became one of the season’s heartwarming stories when it ran through the Southeastern Conference tournament after finishing in last place in the East division. Making its story closer to impossible than unlikely, Georgia had to win three games in two days after a tornado hit the Georgia Dome and forced them to play two games in one day.

nytimes.com

When the NBA began to exclude recent high school graduates from its draft, people wondered whether those who played college ball for just one year would make an impact. That mystery was cleared up last year, when Greg Oden and Kevin Durant topped the NCAA talent pool.
But what would happen when they left?
Not to worry. There may not be anyone with the overwhelming games of those two — although Michael Beasley may have something to say about that — but there can be no disputing the depth of this year’s freshman crop. As the NCAA Tournament dawns, rookies will play huge roles on teams with legitimate title hopes, along with helping others in their quests to make deep runs.
Everybody knew guard O.J. Mayo was going to make an impression at USC. He was the top-rated newcomer on many “experts’” lists. What is so interesting is just how much company he has among his classmates. Kansas State’s Beasley, many people’s choice for player of the year, Memphis guard Derrick Rose, UCLA center Kevin Love, Indiana guard Eric Gordon, Arizona point man Jerryd Bayless, Oklahoma power forward Blake Griffin and Vanderbilt big man A.J. Ogilvy will all be front and center as their teams head into the tourney.
Yes, Oden and Durant were conspicuous last year, but their class didn’t have the depth of the 2007-08 group. Should you want any further evidence, just wait until June when freshmen will be all over the top 15 picks in the NBA draft.
Hoop fans everywhere knew about Mayo, he of the highlight-packed high school career and college choice designed to enhance his NBA marketability. What they didn’t know was that the superbly talented guard had a midseason revelation. Instead of trying to score all of the time, Mayo learned the importance of playing a team game. That became a big reason the Trojans won five of their last six regular-season games and positioned themselves for a spot in the NCAA tourney. By season’s end, the freshman’s potential and performance had met to create a full-fledged star.

seattlepi.nwsource.com

Sasikaran downs Ganguly in PSPB chess
Udhagamandalam: Super GM Krishnan Sasikaran (ONGC), the tournament’s top seed, outplayed GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly (IOCL) to top the table with five points from as many rounds in the 19th Petroleum Sports Promotion Board inter-unit chess tournament at the Hotel Monarch here on Tuesday.
The nine-round event saw all the players, who had figured in the team event, testing their skills in the rapid-fire format. Players were allowed 25 minutes with an increment of five seconds per move.
On the top board, Sasikaran, playing with the white pieces, chose an off-beat line in the d4 opening and went for an early kill. Preferring not to castle, the ONGC star converted his decisive advantage by going into queen, rook versus rook and bishop and knight ending to steal a point with perfect play in the final seconds.
The second board encounter between IM Sundararajan Kidambi and GM Koneru Humpy was played in a similar opening as in the team event. Kidambi, who messed up a winning chance earlier, played cautiously this time around, to draw the game with perpetual checks.
GM Abhijit Kunte is in the second spot with 4.5 points followed by eight others in the third position with four points apiece.

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Florida’s first-round exit from the Southeastern Conference tournament left the Gators with a four-game losing streak, shaky NCAA Tournament credentials, and a gloomy prediction from their coach.
Mykal Riley and Alabama built a big first-half lead and beat the Gators, 80-69, last night to end Florida’s three-year run as SEC tournament champions.
The fall from the top of the SEC seemed to be the least of Florida coach Billy Donovan’s worries. The two-time defending national champion Gators (21-11) may be left out of this year’s NCAA field, and Donovan says changes must come if his young team can return to prominence.
Florida started two freshmen and two sophomores, and three of the team’s top four reserves are freshmen. Donovan didn’t sound encouraged by what normally would be an encouraging sign for the future.
“It’s hard for me to be excited going forward because I don’t see things getting fixed,” Donovan said. “It’s in front of our guys, what it takes to win. For whatever reason, I haven’t brought it out in them. They’re not committed to it . . . I’m not really excited about seeing this group of guys being sophomores.”
The Crimson Tide (17-15) had a 28-point lead shrink to 6 before recovering to beat Florida.

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CHARLOTTE — There is this unmistakable buzz that follows the ACC Tournament wherever it goes. You feel it in the street, in the hotel, in the arena. It penetrates all the other noise of the city. It makes you pay attention.
Unlike a hundred other wannabe sporting events, this is still the real deal. To disregard it as a relic of the past is to misunderstand its underlying passion.
Especially when the Atlantic Coast Conference comes back to its roots here in North Carolina.
Say what you will about what expansion has done to this tobacco-stained league, it’s still a rite of passage to people in these parts.
You can see it in the faces of grandfathers and fathers and sons as they walk up to the building where basketball is played between ageless foes like North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest and N.C. State, the four schools that laid the original cornerstones of this conference.
You can hear it when pep bands face off across the court, trading fight songs across a hundred feet of hardwood.
You can feel it when blue-clad cheerleaders raise a pointed finger toward the rafters and Tar Heel fans respond in kind. When Wahoo and Wolfpack fans prance proudly to their assigned seats, wiggling in next to Yellow Jackets and Terps who still think their chances are as good as any.

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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hey, Mike is going to have a football blog today, and I’ll have something after tonight’s ACC tournament game.
Quickly, Tech coach Paul Hewitt decided a few days ago that since the Jackets don’t play until 7 p.m. (rather than noon, which looked possible until last week) to travel to Charlotte Wednesday rather than late Tuesday.
A couple primary reasons beyond the obvious, which is they play later:
— This allows student-athletes to stay on campus that much longer, and some apparently have some substantial tests to take. I know Anthony Morrow had a big one yesterday before leaving.
— Hewitt wanted to make this as much like a regular road trip (always depart the day before game, not two). Last year, the Jackets practiced in Tampa (site of last year’s tournament) very hard the day before a night game against Wake Forest, and lost in double overtime.
The net result meant that the Jackets were not in Charlotte for the open practice, meaning some fans who thought they might get to watch did not.
Until tonight …
I really expect them to take care of UVA tonight. They are a much better team especially if they can control Singletary, which they have shown they can do. If they win, a win tomorrow night against Duke is not out of the question. Morrow and Smith can leave a much better legacy if they can win at least two in this tournament. If they lose tonight it just solidifies what we already know, that this bunch are underachievers!

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