Several Conference USA basketball players had impressive showings this summer at the FIBA U-19 World Championships in Auckland, New Zealand.
Texas-El Paso forward Arnett Moultrie helped Team USA win its first gold medal since 1991, saving his best performance of the tournament for the championship game.
He scored 10 points and led the Americans with nine rebounds in the 88-80 victory over Greece. He also logged 21 minutes, a personal high for the tournament, shot 4-for-4 and chipped in two assists.
Moultrie also led the U.S. in rebounding for the tournament, averaging 6.1 boards per game.
Team USA finished with a 9-0 record and will look to defend its title when the tournament returns in 2011.
Rice forward Arsalan Kazemi, who served as Iran’s captain, led the team in scoring and rebounding with 16.6 points and 12.2 rebounds per game.
He also finished second on the team in assists with three per game, marking one of the few bright spots for an Iranian squad that finished 1-4 in tournament play.
Central Florida guard Isaac Sosa cooled off after his torrid start to the tournament, helping Puerto Rico place sixth out of 16 teams. After averaging 19 points in his first two games, Sosa finished as the team’s third-leading scorer with 9.6 points per contest.
He also connected on 18 of 39 3-pointers during the tournament (46.2 percent), finishing 10th-best among all competitors.
On the women’s front, Marshall’s Chantelle Handy assisted Great Britain to a sixth-place finish at the 25th World University Games in Belgrade, Serbia.
Handy ended the tournament with a 17 point-per-game average on 85 percent shooting. She also averaged 7.8 rebounds and two assists per contest.
Golfers qualify for national tourney
East Carolina golfers Jake Colley and David Watkins, Rice’s Robert Burrow and Southern Methodist’s Max Buckley, Marc Sambol and Aaron Stewart qualified for the 109th U.S. Amateur Championships.
Each golfer won a sectional qualifier tournament this summer to join the 312-member field. Past champions include three-time winner Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson and Bobby Jones.
The U.S. Amateur Championships began play Monday and concludes Saturday at the Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla.
Marshall names AD
Marshall hired Mike Hamrick to replace the recently retired Bob Marcum as athletic director on July 20.
Hamrick, a 1980 graduate of Marshall, spent the last six years serving as the athletic director at Nevada-Las Vegas.
Hamrick has also served as athletic director at East Carolina and Arkansas-Little Rock.
Coach makes Hall of Fame
Long-time Marshall head football coach Jim Donnan became the university’s first member of the College Football Hall of Fame.
Donnan, who posted a 64-21 record from 1990 to 1995, led the Thundering Herd to four Division I-AA national championship games.
In 1992, he guided Marshall to the Division I-AA national title and was named the Division I-AA Coach of the Year in 1992 and 1995.
C-USA quarterbacks receive national recognition
ECU’s Patrick Pinkney and Alabama Birmingham’s Joe Webb were named preseason candidates for the 2009 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. The Golden Arm honors the nation’s most outstanding senior quarterback, leaving UH junior quarterback Case
Keenum out of the discussion.
The award, handed out annually since 1987, takes candidates’ entire collegiate careers into consideration.
Off-the-field values, such as good character, citizenship, scholastic achievement and strong leadership, are also examined.
UTEP freshman brings home bronze
Texas-El Paso Anna Wessman took home the bronze medal in the women’s javelin at the European Athletics U-23 Championships in Kaunas, Lithuania.She posted a personal best of 55.91 meters (183 feet, 5 inches) en route to the third-place finish.
Conference names top athletes of 2008-09
Conference USA announced its Athletes of the Year for 2008-2009, with Rice pole-vaulter Jason Colwick winning on the men’s side.
Tulane volleyball player Sara Radosevic and East Carolina pitcher Toni Paisley shared the women’s honor. This marks the first time that there have been co-recipients on the women’s side and ends a two-year run of UH women receiving the award.
Colewick is the first C-USA track and field athlete to win national titles in the pole vault at the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships.
Paisley was the C-USA Softball Pitcher of the Year and tied Southern Miss’ Courtney Blades’ record for Pitcher of the Week awards in a season with seven.
Radosevic led the Green Wave to its first C-USA Volleyball Championship and was named MVP of the conference tournament.
Pair of C-USA stars selected in NBA Draft
Central Florida’s Jermaine Taylor and UAB’s Robert Vaden were selected in the second round of the NBA Draft, 32nd and 54th overall, respectively.
Taylor, a selection of the Washington Wizards who was traded to the Houston Rockets, became the second player in school history to be taken in the NBA Draft.
The Charlotte Bobcats picked Vaden and shipped him to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
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