Brian Pracht has worked at Wichita State, the Southland Conference and Long Beach State.
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BATON ROUGE – The Bengal Belles has generously provided the Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes with the necessary funds for a Communications Lab which will feature a studio and media training area for LSU's student-athletes.
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Florida wide receiver Frankie Hammond, charged with a DUI earlier this month, could resolve his case well before his Aug. 23 court appearance, says Hammond’s attorney, Huntley Johnson.

“I expect we will enter a plea that will resolve it,” Johnson said.

Florida WR Frankie Hammond

Hammond, who entered a written plea of not guilty on June 15, has an uncertain future with the Gators after the June 13 incident in which Hammond allegedly swerved through campus in a tan Mercury with two bottles of Crown Royal in the car.

Johnson said there are no additional details to glean from the incident other than what’s been reported.

“If there’s ever a kid who got the message, it’s Frankie,” said Johnson about the aftermath of the incident.

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I’m at Great American Ballpark today for Reds vs. Phillies. While watching game, will post updates, observations, etc., concerning this titanic tilt, as Marty likes to say.

• Cincinnati 6th: Joey Votto leads off inning with 18th homer of the year. Then Scott Rolen strokes a single. But Halladay fans the side after that, including called third strikes on both Bruce and Stubbs. Neither were happy. Phillies lead now 3-1.

• Philadelphia 6th: Phillies get a couple of singles, but nothing else. This time, with two on and two out, Sardinha hits a can of corn to center to end inning. Harang has given up seven hits and three runs through six innings. Philadelphia up 3-0.

• Cincinnati 5th: Reds go harmlessly in the inning. Halladay has allowed five hits through five. Phillies up 3-0.

• Philadelphia 5th: Harang bounces back to get Philadelphia in order in the fifth. Phillies still lead 3-0.

• Cincinnati 4th: Runners at first and third, Halladay fanned Drew Stubbs on three pitches for second out. Then Hernandez popped out to end inning. Gomes had a soft double just past Ryan Howard, and Jay Bruce a solid single to right to forge the threat. Phillies still up 3-0.

• Philadelphia 4th: Rolling along, until the wheels rolled off. Harang had been splendid through first three, then gave up singles to Werth and Valdez. Two outs, no problem. Dane Sardinha, former Reds’ farmhand, at the plate for the Phillies. The catcher is hitting .167. First pitch, Sardinha hits a three-run jack off Harang into the left field seats. Philadelphia 3, Cincinnati 0.

• Cincinnati 3rd: Halladay retires Reds 1-2-3, striking out Cabrera and Votto. He’s thrown just 33 pitches through the first three innings. No score.

• Philadelphia 3rd: Harang gives up two-out walk to Greg Dobbs, then gets Rollins to foul out to Rolen to end inning. The Cincinnati starter has given up just two hits through three innings. The hits came from the first two batters Harang faced. He’s retired nine of 10 since. No score.

• Cincinnati 2nd: Reds get two-out singles from Drew Stubbs and Ramon Hernandez. But on first pitch, Harang bounces weakly to Wilson Valdez at second base. Reds do have three hits off Halladay in two innings. No score.

• Philadelphia 2nd: Couple of sparkling defensive plays. Phillips barehands ball at second base bag and throws out Wilson Valdez for second out. Then Jay Bruce runs down Dane Sardinha’s liner in right field for third out. Harang has three strike outs, two called, in first two innings. No score.

• Cincinnati 1st: Brandon Phillips leads off with single, but Reds go quietly against Halladay after that. After his single, Phillips appeared to have second base stolen, but Orlando Cabrera reached out and popped up ball to second base. Phillips was forced to hustle back to first. No score.

• Philadelphia 1st: First two Phillies reach, but then Harang gets Jimmy Rollins on a controversial called strike three. Rollins was halfway to first base with what he thought was a walk. Then after Ryan Howard grounded out, moving the runners up, Harang fanned a swinging Jayson Werth on a 3-2 pitch. No score.

• A pleasant 73 degrees at first pitch.

• Roy Halladay vs. Aaron Harang is the pitching matchup. Harang brings a 5.07 ERA into this afternoon’s contest. Halladay is 9-6 with a 2.29 ERA.

Junior left-hander Drew Pomeranz has been named a first team All-South Region selection by the American Baseball Coaches Association, the ABCA announced on Wednesday.
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The University of Kentucky Athletics Department official website, UKathletics.com, including UK Athletics’ official blog Cat Scratches, will be undergoing maintenance and be unable to be updated for a brief amount of time starting Friday, July 2 at 3:01 a.m. ET and running through Sunday, July 4. Although the website will not be able to be updated, certain components will still be visible to all users.
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The University of Kentucky Athletics Department official website, UKathletics.com, including UK Athletics’ official blog Cat Scratches, will be undergoing maintenance and be unable to be updated for a brief amount of time starting Friday, July 2 at 3:01 a.m. ET and running through Sunday, July 4. Although the website will not be able to be updated, certain components will still be visible to all users.
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Content provided by The Slophouse.

Three players from Arkansas’ 2010 roster are officially professionals after signing contracts with pro teams.
Arkansas outfielder/pitcher Brett Eibner, a second round selection by the Kansas City Royals, remains unsigned at the moment and a contract agreement could take some time, according to the Kansas City Star.
“There’s a lot of time left,” Eibner said in the [...]

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This is the initial installment of a new weekly feature here at Arkansas Expats. Each Wednesday, we’ll take a look back at a memorable and/or important (to us, anyway) Razorback game. So, sit back, relax and let the memories (or, in some cases, the heartache and angst) flow. 

At the end of this post is a great YouTube find: footage from the 1979 NCAA Midwest Regional Final between Sidney Moncrief’s Razorbacks and Larry Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores. The action itself is not terribly memorable – it’s of the first few minutes of the game, but it’s still pretty amazing to see a clip from this historic – and heartbreaking – contest.

To set the stage: Indiana State was undefeated and ranked number one in the country heading into the game. The Hogs, of course, had been to the Final Four the year before but considering the losses of Ron Brewer, Marvin Delph and Jimmy Counce – two-thirds of the 1978 team’s starting lineup – expectations for the 1979 team weren’t very high. In fact, Arkansas entered the season unranked.

However, the pundits overlooked one very important factor: Sidney Moncrief was a total bad-ass.

Super Sid led the team in scoring, averaging 22 points per game, and rebounding, hauling in 9.6 boards a game. (Amazingly, the 6’4″ Moncrief led the team in rebounding in each of his four seasons in Fayetteville.) U.S. Reed wasn’t half-bad either, and Steve Schall, Scott Hastings and Alan Zahn formed a very solid frontcourt for the Hogs.

The Hogs stumbled a bit in the middle of the season, losing four of five games, but they then peeled off a 14-game winning streak that carried them to the Midwest Regional Final of the NCAA Tournament, one win away from a repeat trip to the Final Four. The game itself, of course, was a nailbiting heartbreaker: with the score tied with just more than a minute to play, a controversial walking call on U.S. Reed gave the Sycamores the ball, and Indiana State held it for the rest of the game. Moncrief’s defense prevented Bird from getting the ball for a last shot, but the immortal Bob Heaton took an off-balance, left-handed jumper that rolled around the rim and dropped through at the last second to give Indiana State the win. 

In our 2009 Q&A with U.S. Reed, he had this to say about the game and the traveling call:

That was one of those games – we knew we could win that game. We felt pretty good about it. I had the ball at the end of the game. I was dribbling the ball, and Carl Nicks came up and just stuck his foot out there and tripped me. It was pretty evident.

The crazy thing about it is, I lost control of the ball, so it’s anybody’s ball then. I went over and picked the ball up – and the ref called traveling.

The big deal wasn’t the trip. It was the fact that I lost the ball – it got away from me – and then I went over and picked it up. I didn’t dribble or anything, and he called traveling.

So, it was like, “What are you calling?” Everybody was pretty upset.

And then they go down and throw up a left-hand shot with one second left. It goes in, and that’s the end of the game.

That probably was the worst loss of my career. We were on the way to the Final Four.

The comments thread on YouTube is definitely worth checking out. But I wanted to highlight this remark by ttlms, one that powerfully and succinctly summarizes the way I think we all feel about that tragic Saturday in Cincinnati: “This game still makes me puke 31 years later.”

Amen, brother.

On with the show:

Content provided by Kentucky Wildcat sports beat.

Qua Huzzie is about to embark on his second freshman season as a Kentucky football player. He’s…