ECU 4/11/24

CULTURE FEST MAKES A RETURN ON THE LAWN A4

eEast

Carolinian

The Nancy W. Darden Child Development Center's Preschool-4 class held a lemonade stand on Wednesday, April 3. The catch being instead of selling cups of lemonade, participants could exchange a food item to donate.

Stankija Purvis, also known as Ms. Kiki, a member of the Preschool-4 team, said that the children's goal was to accumulate as many food items as possible to donate to the Purple Pantry on April 10.

According to East Carolina University's website, the Purple Pantry was designed to decrease food insecurity among students on campus. Purple Pantry provides a range of food and hygiene items students may need. Anyone can donate and ensure their classmates have a nutritious meal.

The children set up their freshly squeezed lemonade in the development center's lobby area on a homemade stand. Kiki said the children have been working on their lemonade recipe to prepare for the big day. They decorated the walls with handcrafted signs that the preschoolers wrote and planned all by themselves. To prepare for the event, the preschoolers have been checking out books about lemonade at Joyner Library, as said by Shannon Hall, another member of the Preschool-4 class.

"That's always a big thing I like to stress with the preschoolers. How fortunate they are and that we can help others,” said Tawni Mosley, the Development Center director.

WNBA draft time

WBB gaurd Danae McNeal anticipates the WNBA draft after three break out seasons with the Pirates

East Carolina University graduate student and guard for the women's basketball team, Danae McNeal entered her name into the WNBA draft to be selected on Monday. The 2023-2024 season was her last as a collegiate athlete as she has ran out of eligibility.

She finished her historic year as a Pirate being ranked ninth in ECU’s history in points (1,385) and sixth in steals (228) among others. According to ECUPirates, McNeal scored 30 or more points seven times in her career tied for fourth in Pirate history and is among four other players to have 1,000 points, 200 rebounds and 200 steals.

Last year, she was named to the first team All-American Athletic Conference and the conference's Defensive Player of the Year, the American’s Most Improved Player and earned the conference's Player of the Week award three times.

In her three year run as a Pirate the team went to the American Championship twice and made the NCAA tournament during the 20222023 season.

This writer can be contacted at sports@theeastcarolinian.com.

Tawni added that the teachers plan on making the lemonade stand a yearly tradition so that future preschoolers can learn about the importance of giving back. "I love community service, and that, to me, should be a passion in a preschool," said Tawni Mosley.

"Throughout the last couple of months, all of the things that they've been teaching them, this is such a good culminating project," Mosley said. The Preschool-4 class has been learning about the marketing side of selling a product and giving to their community for the past couple of months.

Shannon Hall, member of the Preschool-4 team, expressed how excited she was for the children to see all their hard work come to fruition and that they did. The children worked as a team and collected enough donations to help the community and give back to those in need.

East Carolina University's softball team (29-11, 6-9 American Athletic Conference) has found success in their last few games, winning eight of their last 11 games.

The Pirates have turned it up as of late, winning eight of their last 11 games they’ve played. In those 11 games, the Pirates have outscored their opponents 58-42. ECU is on a four game winning streak after sweeping the University of Texas at San Antonio (12-29, 3-12 AAC) in a three game series and then taking down Campbell University (21-17-1, 11-4 Big South Conference) by a score of 3-1.

The three wins over UTSA gave the Pirates a much needed boost to their conference record, as before, they were sitting at 3-9. While the Pirates are still near the bottom of the AAC standings, they still have 12 conference games remaining. Three of the games are against Tulsa University (25-12, 10-5 AAC), who is No. 2 in the AAC.

The offense for the Pirates on the year has been excellent statistically in a couple of areas. ECU is ranked No. 21 in batting average, No. 41 in runs per game with 5.8 runs and have batted in 211 runs so far in 40 games.

ECU sophomore outfielder Emma Jackson is top 50 in batting average in the nation, hitting a .421 average which ranks No. 48 best.

ECU utility players senior Taylor Woodring and graduate student Morgan Johnson have also been seeing success behind the plate. Woodring is currently batting

at a .409 average, while Johnson has a batting average of .389 and has 38 Run Batter In’s (RBI) this season, second to only Jackson on the team.

Pirate graduate student catcher Annie Kate Dalton, who transferred from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (24-13, 6-9 Atlantic Coast Conference) this year is third in RBI’s with 24 while recording 31 hits on the year.

For pitching, there’s been a bounce back after the rough patch the Pirates suffered in the series against Florida Atlantic University (32-9, 12-3 AAC). In that series, the Pirates gave up 20 runs in three games. Since then, ECU has only given up more than three runs once, in the final game against UTSA.

ECU freshman Taylor Apple had a solid two game series against UTSA, where she struck out ten batters and gave up only five hits. Against Campbell, a combined effort from Apple and ECU pitchers senior Addy Bullis and junior Taylor Hatch, held Campbell to one run and three total hits.

is

with 2.66.

Trevon McGlone TEC STAFF

Guard Danae McNeal adds another name to the already power-filled draft.

Giuliana Barberio FOR THE EAST CAROLINIAN

On Tuesday April 9, Student Body President Javier Limón sent out his final President’s Parley memo before the end of his term. Limón wrote that the 8th session of the Student Assembly passed over 40 pieces of legislation, the highest in any year. Limón also shared information on several upcoming events around campus and Greenville, such as the 2024 Commencement Ceremony on May 3 and Doggie Jams featuring Shaquille O’Neal on April 12.

SGA to host Safety Night Walk

On Tuesday, April 16 the SGA Student Safety Committee will hold a Safety Night Walk event with a dinner at 7 p.m. at the Main Campus Student Center and the walk at 8 p.m. Students can join in to learn about important safety measures they can take on campus.

Biden proposes new student-debt relief plan

After months of hearings and negotiations, the Biden administration announced its latest plans Monday for student debt relief, proposing changes that would save about 30 million borrowers billions of dollars in total.

The plans aren't as sweeping as the acrossthe-board loan forgiveness of up to $20,000 per borrower that Biden ordered in 2022, a measure the Supreme Court threw out last year. But they go further than what the administration proposed in the wake of the justices' ruling, offering to cancel all or part of the debt for borrowers for whom the loans pose a hardship.

The hardship proposal emerged in February, after a strong push from advocates of student-loan borrowers, said Natalia Abrams, president and founder of the Student Debt Crisis Center.

At this point, the administration's plans are just that — the Education Department is expected to propose the new rules in the coming months, followed by a public comment period — before it can put the rules into effect. That's when the legal challenges will probably begin, Abrams said, noting that the administration's major efforts to ease student-loan debt have been challenged by conservatives.

That includes Biden's Saving on a Valuable Education plan, which slashes the long-term cost of federal student loans for borrowers of limited means. Eleven Republican state attorneys general sued to block the plan in March, saying the administration did not have the legal authority to offer it.

On Monday the administration released an outline of its plans. The main features are:

Debt cancellation for borrowers who'd been repaying their undergraduate loans for at least 20 years, or their graduate school loans for at least 25 years.

Balance reductions for about 25 million borrowers whose debt grew because of unpaid interest. The plan would wipe out up to $20,000 in interest-related debt for all borrowers. Those who enrolled in income-driven repayment plans and saw their debt grow even if they made their required monthly payments would have all interest-related debt canceled automatically.

Debt cancellation for borrowers eligible for loan forgiveness, but who had not applied. This group includes people enrolled in certain income-driven repayment plans and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

Debt cancellation for students at schools or programs that were declared ineligible for federal student aid programs because they "cheated or took advantage of students," the Education Department said. Debt relief would also be available for students at schools or programs that closed and "failed to provide sufficient value — for example, that leave graduates with unaffordable loan payments or earnings no better than what someone with a high school diploma earns." The outline released Monday offered no details on how eligibility would be determined.

Partial or full debt cancellation for borrowers experiencing hardship in repaying their loans. A preliminary version of this proposal said it would apply not just to recipients of loans made directly by the federal government, but also to

all Federal Family Education Loan recipients, including parents who took out Federal PLUS Loans through private lenders.

The rationale behind most of these proposals is that student loan programs were poorly managed and administered, causing borrowers to amass far more debt than they should have.

For example, the Education Department argues that many borrowers who were having trouble making payments were steered into forbearance, which increased their debt, rather than income-based plans that could ultimately reduce their burden.

“Many of these people, these borrowers, did pay [back] what they borrowed,” Abrams said. “What they're dealing with is compound capitalized interest”

— additional debt beyond the initial loans caused when unpaid interest is folded back into the loan balance. Essentially, borrowers pay interest on the interest. That happened even to borrowers enrolled in programs that tied their payments to their income, when monthly payments were not large enough to cover their interest charges.

Once people understand how often these loan programs made matters worse for borrowers, Abrams said, they at least agree that the extra interest burdens should be wiped out. That's what the administration's new rule would do.

Tufts professor to host exercise science seminar on campus

On Friday at 11 a.m., in Ward 236B, a presentation will be given featuring guest speaker Dr. Perrie O'Tierney-Ginn, the executive director of the Mother Infant Research Institute at Tufts Medical Center, a prestigious academic medical center in Massachusetts.

Dr. O'Tierney-Ginn's research focuses on understanding how placental function is influenced by the maternal environment and its impact on fetal growth and fat deposition. This vital area of study explores the mechanisms through which fetal development in utero, including organ development, fat accumulation, and lean tissue growth, can shape metabolism, cardiovascular health, neurological development, and the risk of future diseases.

Dr. O’Tierney-Ginn said she will be sharing her work on the impact of the maternal milieu – diet, body composition, metabolism – on placental nutrient handling and fetal growth. But, the big picture story will focus on the communication between mom and placenta throughout pregnancy and how this crosstalk drives metabolic adaptations to pregnancy

that are critical for normal fetal growth and potentially future health outcomes.

“I got involved in perinatal research during my postdoctoral fellowship in Kent Thornburg’s lab at Oregon Health & Science University,” said Dr. O'Tierney-Ginn. “As a graduate student I discovered that the size of the offspring’s kidneys in our genetic mouse model of hypertension depended on the maternal hypertensive phenotype, independent of the offspring’s genotype. That blew me away – I started to ask whether the maternal environment could impact the phenotype of the offspring, such a naïve question, looking back. And once I started reading about the developmental origins of disease, I was hooked.”

During the seminar, Dr. O’Tierney-Ginn said she would discuss both clinical and lifestyle implications of the research. This would include changes one could make to positively impact fetal development.

-Perrie O'Tierney-Ginn „ “

at blew me away - I started to ask whether the meternal enviroment could impact the phenotype of the o spring...and once I started reading about the development origons of disease, I was hooked.

OUR VIEW

Unfortunately, it’s the time of year again where sickness is prevalent both inside and outside of the classroom. In a university environment where there are thousands of students and staff, germs can spread easily and quickly.

We, the editorial staff of The East Carolinian, believe students, staff and faculty should be prioritizing their health. Individuals who are feeling sick should not come to class or work, and communicate with their professors or staff to inform them of their latest health condition.

Staff and faculty should be understanding of students who may uncontrollably become ill during the semester and cannot attend class, potentially turn in assignments or perform other tasks that are asked of them due to an illness.

For more minor illnesses, such as the common cold, students can be prepared by stocking up on cold medicine and any other medical supplies they may need to reduce symptoms such as fever, chills, etc.

Students should keep in mind that staying at home when you are feeling sick can prevent others from also becoming ill. While it’s important to be aware of your own health, it’s also crucial to consider the health of others.

If students are feeling sick, we highly encourage students to be checked out at their local doctor’s office or visiting ECU Student Health Services on Main Campus. There is also a free, 24 hour nurse line service that students can utilize to speak with a medical professional. For emergencies, individuals should always dial 911.

PIRATE RANTS

I have found that the best time to go to the Chick-Fil-A on campus is later in the afternoon. It is extremely busy around lunch time. I’ve even waived 30 minutes or more just to wait for my food to be prepared.

The frats really need to stop putting roofies in the punch.

The parking on campus is really getting OUT of control. I can’t deal with it anymore!

The drivers in Greenville are INSANE… someone is always getting in an accident and holding me up! I got places to be!!

Being gay at ECU is really hard… I’m tired of all the microaggressions I get just because I’m different! Campus seems to be extremely busy lately. I think it may be due to the large number of families that have been touring the university. Almost everyday I am on campus I see many groups walking around for tours. There are so many fun events coming up. Doggie Jams, Barefoot on the Mall and plenty of pool parties. I’m so excited!

I’m not sure why but it seems like it is always so warm inside Joyner East, regardless of the weather outside. The elevators around ECU could really use some upgrading. I’m pretty happy with the selection of Parmalee as this year’s artist for Barefoot on the Mall. It’s going to be a lot of fun!

From a very young age, I was always fascinated by education and all that it entailed. Growing up, I always enjoyed going to school.

In fact, I loved almost every aspect of it (besides for the tests and pop quizzes, of course). However, there were still some aspects that I didn’t favor too much. To this day, I can’t say that methods of evaluation such as knowledge tests are my favorite.

Oftentimes, when you ask someone why they’re in school, many will say it’s because they have to be. In many cases, it may be due to pressure from family to pursue a degree from a university or enrolling in classes you aren’t really interested in because you’re unsure of your career path. Overall, most don’t have a clear answer.

When I first began my undergraduate studies at East Carolina University back in 2021, I had no idea what career I was

interested in whatsoever.

After much contemplation and switching majors twice, I finally landed on my interest in communication in undergraduate school. I ended up sticking with this major for the rest of my studies and graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Communication and concentration in Public Relations.

As a graduate student at ECU, I can say I’ve been in that position and that I’m currently a lot more confident and aware of the career path I would like to pursue.

Although I was unsure of my career path for a while, I became more familiar with my interests and potential career paths as I continued my education. In fact, I’m very interested in teaching or in a career in the field of education.

Even when I was unsure of my educational pathway, it was always clear and very important to me that I received a higher education beyond high school.

I think it’s important that all individuals have some source of motivation or personal reasonings as to why they pursue a higher education.

My family always encouraged me to go to college too, so that was also a big influence on my decision to attend a university. Although I was unsure of a career choice, I knew that obtaining a college degree would be a great start.

Receiving a higher education is very important for many reasons, and educators serve an important role in passing on knowledge to the next generation – and the ones after that.

Many people, even college students, undermine the true importance of receiving an education. In most careers, an individual would not be prepared for the workforce without receiving a proper education.

Therefore, it’s important that students do their best while they are still in school to learn as much knowledge and skills as possible in order to prepare them for their future.

All in all, knowledge is a very powerful tool that should not be underestimated.

The Wake Stone Corp. quarry on the property it has leased from RaleighDurham International Airport is 500-feet deep.

The company is good at digging.

But so is Natalie Lew.

Wake Stone digs for granite, but Lew – an opponent of the company’s plan to open a second pit on the property adjacent to William B. Umstead State Park – digs through records.

Now Lew thinks her mining has struck gold. She found old records that she says show the proposed pit would intrude onto land that actually belongs to the park. She contends that a 1970s survey improperly gave the airport 14 acres beyond the 69 acres the airport authority thought it was buying for a runway it never built.

Lew did her research on behalf of The Umstead Coalition, a group of park supporters who have long opposed the quarry expansion as disruptive to the park, but has been unable to block it. Now maybe it can.

“Everyone needs to step back and put a pause on this and reevaluate it based on the truth,” Lew said.

Tim Walton, director of the State Property Office, responded to Lew’s findings in a letter to the state Division of Parks and Recreation. Walton said there may be various differences between maps, but not to a significant extent.

While the Division of Parks and Recreation is free to request a new measurement of the boundaries, Walton wrote, “It is the opinion of our office that the expense of a new survey of the boundary line in question is not warranted.”

Jean Spooner, who heads The Umstead Coalition, said her group is asking the state for a new survey. If the state won’t do it, The Umstead Coalition will pay for one.

At a news conference last week, Spooner said the apparent border line discrepancy needs to be addressed. “We need to correct this oversight and ensure that the land given to our state to preserve and protect is preserved and protected,” she said.

Lew, a 58-year-old Raleigh resident, is an independent contractor who does research related to clinical trials. She stands by her findings.

What matters, Lew said, isn’t what later surveys show. It is what the first maps show. The 1937 park purchase deed, she said, “is the Bible for the Umstead State Park property boundary.”

Over the last couple of years, Lew carved out time to pore over documents in federal archives in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., related to the park’s creation in the 1930s.

“What better place to find that truth than in the original records?” she said..

When she compared an original park map and more recent documents defining the park’s property lines, she noticed what appears to be a discrepancy that gives the airport land that was within the park’s original borders.

“I said, ‘Wait a minute, that can’t be right,’ ” she said. She checked again and the gap in the maps remained clear. “That was a big eureka! moment when you could say: I’m 110 percent certain.”

The difference, she said, would mean that Wake Stone has put 14 acres of park land into its mining plan.

“Why can Wake Stone and the airport come in and take parkland basically because of an error?” Lew asked. “It’s public parkland. We can’t just give it up to a private company.”

The dispute between The Umstead Coalition and Wake Stone has dragged on for years. Court cases are pending regarding how long the company’s original permit allows for excavating rock at the site..

EVENTS

Culture Fest makes its return to the lawn

Staff Report

The 17th annual Culture Fest happened on the Main Campus Student Center lawn on April 9.

At the festival, there were a variety of cultural organizations and clubs there with information tables set up around the perimeter of the lawn.

The tabling offered information to students about what the organization is and how to join.

There were also cuisines from around the world ranging from Baklava in the Middle East and empanadas in Mexico.

J. Cole’s latest drop “7 Minute Drill” unleashed bars of scathing digs at alleged rap rival Kendrick Lamar. Days after dropping the diss track, Cole said the song is some of his “lamest, goofiest” work.

SATURDAY

The two-time Grammy winner — real name Jermaine Lamarr Cole — apologized to Lamar on Sunday evening, during a headlining set at Dreamville Festival in North Carolina. Speaking to his audience, Cole said dropping “7 Minute Drill,” the final track on his latest album “Might Delete Later,” was a move that he felt was “spiritually bad on me.”

“I tried to jab (Lamar) back, and I try to keep it friendly, but at the end of the day when I listen to it, and when it comes out and I see the talk, that...don’t sit right with my spirit,” he continued.

“That...disrupts my...peace.”

During his aside, which went viral on social media, the 39-year-old “No Role Modelz” rapper said he regrets challenging Lamar’s “catalogue”

and his “greatness” and declared the “To Pimp a Butterfly” artist as “one of the greatest [rappers] to touch a...microphone.”

“Dreamville, y’all love Kendrick Lamar, correct?” Cole asks his cheering crowd, before admitting, “as do I.” Cole released his 3 1⁄2-minute diss track Thursday evening in response to Lamar’s feature on Future and Metro Boomin’s album, “We Don’t Trust You,” which dropped in March. In “Like That,” the 17-time Grammy winner Lamar joins the duo to diss Cole for a line in Drake’s “First Person Shooter.” Lamar seemingly took issue with a lyric placing Cole, Drake and Lamar on the same level.

“Yeah get up with me,...sneak dissing ‘First Person Shooter,’ I hope they came with three switches,” Lamar, 36, raps before adding “...the big three...it’s just big me.”

In “7 Minute Drill,” Cole takes shots at Lamar’s career — including his release timing (“Four albums in 12 years”); his height (“Your arms might be too short to box with the god”);

and his relevancy. “If he wasn’t dissin’, then we wouldn’t be discussin’ him,” Cole says in his song.

On Sunday, Cole explained that the diss came out of pressure from his inner circle and the rap community to respond to Lamar’s shots and that he was conflicted on whether to release the song in the first place. He told his Sunday crowd, bashing Lamar reminded him of “10 years ago when I was moving incorrectly.”

In his apology, Cole also said he hopes that God will “align me back on my purpose and on my path.”

“(The) past two days felt terrible. It let me know how good I’ve been sleeping for the past 10 years,” he added, before segueing into a performance of his song “Love Yourz.”

FOR RENT

Now Leasing Cypress Gardens - 1 and 2 bedroom, 1 bath located on East 10th Street. Walking distance to ECU. Water and sewer included. $730-$850 per month.

College Park - 1 and 2 bedroom, 1 bath located on East 10th Street. Walking distance to ECU. Water and sewer included. Washer and drying included in some units. $665-$795 per month.

Cedar Creek - 1 bedroom, 1 bath located near Brody School of Medicine/ECU Health Medical Center. Water, sewer, washer, and dryer included.

HOROSCOPES

Aries (March 21-April 19) —

Today is an 8 — Follow your inspiration. You’re making interesting connections. You can see what’s missing. Not everything is as it seems. Maintain open communications. Share your discoveries.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) — — Today is a 9 — Bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan. Don’t get pushy. Reinforce the basics. Grab lucrative opportunities. Develop prospects naturally.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) — Today is a 9 — Talk about what you love to discover new connections. What you need can be found in your networks. Imagine the possibilities. Develop and grow.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Today is a 6 — Get quiet enough to listen to your muses. Make plans to realize a dream close to your heart. Outline the steps. Reinforce support structures.

COMICS

Pets allowed with a non-refundable fee. (Breed restrictions apply). $700-$710 per month.

Park West - 1 bedroom, 1 bath located near Brody School of Medicine/ECU Health Medical Center. Water, sewer, washer, and dryer included.

Pets allowed with a non-refundable fee. (Breed restrictions apply). $700-$730 per month.

Wainright Property Management. 252-7566209. www.RentInGreenville.com

1103 East 4th Street

2 bedroom, 1.5 bath with a loft. Close to ECU.

Contact Wainright Property Management 252756-6209

Leo (July 23-Aug. 22)

Today is an 8 — Share support with friends, teammates and colleagues. Collaboration flowers with communication. Discuss potential adaptations around a challenge. Pull together to lighten the load.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) —

— Today is an 8 — Put your heart into your work to grow. It could get chaotic. Distractions and illusions abound. Focus on the details that you love.

Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

— Today is an 8 — Follow your heart down interesting avenues. Spontaneous detours can reveal hidden treasure. Let go of expectations. Reality may not match fantasy. Explore possibilities.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)— Today is a 9 — Coordinate for lucrative benefits. Collaborate to bring home a healthy harvest. Keep family expenses paid and everyone fed. Contribute for growth. Conserve resources together.

BREWSTER ROCKIT

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)— Today is a 9 — You and your partner are in sync. Talk about shared passions and strategies for advancement. Strengthen foundational structures. Reinforce the basics. Love is fundamental.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

— Today is a 7 — Watch where you’re going. Slow for tricky sections. Pitfalls line the path. Physical action gets satisfying results. Score extra points for reconnecting with nature.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) — Today is a 7 — Follow your heart, despite complications. Love, fun and romance take priority. Distractions abound. Simplify expectations. Fantasies don’t match reality. Keep an open mind.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)

— Today is a 7 — Relax and have fun with family. Cook up something delicious. Things may not go as planned. Stay flexible and amplify the love part.

WHERE’S PEEDEE?

BLISS

TEC spertZ'

The East Carolinian Sports experts predict this week’s events

Nick Bailey Sports Editor

Charlotte VS. ECU

Score Predictions?

ECU 2-1

Why? I feel really good about this year’s baseball team, more then years past. We’re winning road games, winning weekday matchups and have only lost one weekend series all year. ECU shouldn’t have a difficult time sweeping Charlotte, with their subpar pitching rotation and no real standout batter. The 49ers conference record of 4-5 speaks for itself, as the American is not the strongest when it comes to baseball.

Trevon McGlone

Sports Reporter

Charlotte VS. ECU

Score Predictions?

3-0 ECU

Why? I’m fairly confident in ECU to sweep Charlotte. Charlotte bats a .254 batting average with a slugging percentage below .450 and the pitching as a whole has an ERA of six. While some games might be close, I still think ECU’s an overall better team. They win all three.

Eli Baine Managing Editor

Charlotte VS. ECU

Score Predictions?

ECU

3-0

Why? Despite the Pirates’ relatively close series against FAU last weekend, I believe they will pull off the sweep against Charlotte. This ECU team has shown some great promise this season, and this series could be the start of another winning streak.

Tristen Newton to First Team All-American

HARTFORD, Conn. — A former Pirate, Tristen Newton has earned himself a spot on the wall, even before the team won back to back national titles on April 8.

The UConn point guard was named a First Team All-American by the Associated Press on March 19, becoming the first UConn player on the AP’s First Team list since Shabazz Napier in 2014. He will be the 12th player whose banner hangs on the All-American wall in UConn’s Werth practice facility.

Newton, in his graduate year, guided the Huskies (31-3) to Big East regular-season and tournament championships and the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament while leading the team in points (15.2) and assists (6.0) per game. He is also UConn’s second-leading rebounder with 7.0 per game.

“The beautiful thing for Tristen is this is exactly what we talked about when he had to make the decision. Last year he was at the combine, he had to decide what he wanted to

do and it was: Come back to school, become a first-teamer or player of the year in the league and improve your position with the NBA,” Head Coach Dan Hurley said during the Big East Tournament.

“It’s just great when you push a kid to make a decision to return and it plays out like this. But he’s one of the best guards in the country, he’s obviously a First Team All-American.” That, he is.

The 6-foot-6 guard from El Paso, Texas, was unanimously voted First Team All-Big East at the end of the conference season and earned First Team All-America honors from the Sporting News, the Field of 68 and 247Sports, in addition to his AP Big East Player of the Year award.

Newton was also named a national semifinalist for the Naismith Player of the Year and a top 40 candidate for the Oscar Robertson Trophy, which goes to the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Player of the Year.

Newton has recorded two triple-doubles and 10 double-doubles this season. In the Big East title game on Saturday he became the first player in UConn men’s basketball history to record at least 500 points, 200 assists and 200 rebounds in the same season.

Newton controls the ball against St. John’s Daniss Jenkins in the second half during the semifinals of the Big East Tournament March 15.

COURTESY OF ECU PIRATES

Newton spent his freshman and sophomore years at ECU until he trasnferred to the University of Connecticut. He now averages 15 points.

Tristen Newton

COURTESY OF ECU PIRATES Newton averaged 8.7 ppg in his last ECU year.

Kiarra Crayton TEC STAFF Joe Arruda HARTFORD COURANT | TNS