Sports Editor: Kristen Coppola Assistant Sports Editor: Haley Markle Thursday, April 4, 2013
The Arkansas Traveler Newspaper
Page 7
BASEBALL
Hogs Travel to Bama for SEC Road Test
BASKETBALL
Favorite Out in 3rd Round Liz Beadle Staff Writer
Trey Killian pitches at the Arkansas v San Diego State baseball game, Saturday, March 9.
Cameron McCauley Staff Writer The Diamond Hogs square off against Alabama in a threegame series beginning tonight at 7 p.m. The Crimson Tide sit at 1911 on the season with an 11-4 home record and have won six
of their last seven in Southeastern Conference play. The Razorbacks come in at 21-8 and have risen to No. 12 in the USA Today Coaches Poll after winning eight of their last 10 games. The expected starters for Alabama will be righty Charley Sullivan Thursday, southpaw Jon Keller Friday and right-
hander Spencer Turnbull Saturday. Sullivan, the staff ’s ace, went eight strong innings against instate rival Auburn last week, striking out seven and only allowing one earned run, and now boasts a 2.60 ERA on the season. Turnbull also threw a complete game, 2-0, shutout against
fourth best in the SEC. Fellow outfielder Matt Vinson and shortstop Brian Anderson have also been hot at the plate, each batting above .320 on the season. After strong performances against Mississippi State last weekend, the Diamond Hogs’
This year’s NCAA Final Four includes Louisville, Connecticut, Notre Dame and Cal. No, you didn’t misread that and no, it wasn’t a typo. The women’s basketball teams of these four universities have made it to the highly revered Women’s Final Four which will take place Sunday in New Orleans. The women’s tournament this year has had a significant amount less drama than the men’s tournament when it comes to upsets. The only thing resembling a Cinderella story was 12-seed Kansas’s run to the Sweet Sixteen which was ended by the Fighting Irish who are representing the Norfolk region in the Final Four. The Southeastern Conference was much better represented in the women’s tournament than in the men’s. Seven SEC teams made the tournament this year and all won at least one game. Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee all ended their tournament runs in the Elite Eight. This year’s Final Four includes two No. 1 seeds (Notre Dame and Connecticut), a No. 2 seed (Cal) and a No.
see BAMA page 8
ROUND page 8
Logan Webster Staff Photographer
the Tigers Sunday, only giving up four hits in the process. The Tide will have SEC Freshman of the Week Tyler Spoon to look forward to at the plate, who was the third Razorback this season to earn the award after batting 5 for 12 over the weekend against Mississippi State. Spoon has 34 RBIs this season, good for
TENNIS
Final 3 Matches for Razorbacks Ben Enyart Staff Writer
The Arkansas men’s tennis team will compete against Tennessee, Georgia and St. Louis this weekend as the season comes to a close. The Hogs will stay in Fayetteville for these matches, and will face Tennessee Friday starting at 1 p.m., Georgia Sunday at 1 p.m. and St. Louis Sunday at 6 p.m. With an 11-12 overall record this season and 0-9 in the Southeastern Conference, the Hogs are looking to improve during these matches in an attempt to ready themselves for the postseason that will start April 16 in Oxford, Miss., at the SEC Championships. The Hogs will be going up against tough competition this weekend, as Tennessee is ranked No.6 in the nation and Georgia is No. 4. Tennessee is 17-5 overall, 5-3 in conference. Their top singles player is sophomore Mikelis Libietis who is ranked
No. 3 in the nation with a career record of 51-18 and a season record of 9-1. Hunter Reece is ranked No. 31 in the nation with a singles record of 5-1. These two athletes are ranked together at No. 7 nationally for doubles. Georgia has a season record of 15-14 overall, 10-1 in conference. Their top singles player is senior KU Singh, who is ranked No. 11 in the country. They also have No. 53 sophomore Nathan Pasha with a singles record of 3-6. Georgia also has the nationally ranked No. 6 doubles team of Hernus Pieters and Ben Wagland, along with the No. 41 doubles team of Pasha and Garrett Brasseaux. St. Louis has an overall record of 5-9 and are 1-4 in road games this season. Arkansas is coming off of a four-game losing streak and has lost nine of their last 10 matches. Out of those 10 matches, all have been against
Photo Courtesy of Athletic Media Relations
see FINAL page 8 Mike Nott returns the ball at the Arkansas v Florida tennis match, Sunday, March 31.
COMMENTARY
Media Spill: Comments on 2 Recent Coach Stories
Kristen Coppola Sports Editor Every day, I consume sports. When I’m home doing homework, making dinner or relaxing, I’ve got ESPN on the
TV. In the car, I’m tuned in to 92.1 The Ticket. This week I’ve heard two stories almost everywhere I go. At home, I was inundated with the ESPN Outside the Lines report about Rutgers basketball coach Mike Rice abusing his players at practice. I watched the report three times, and each time I was bothered more. I was especially disturbed by the Rutgers athletic director defending his decision not to fire Rice. ESPN obtained film of Rice kicking, shoving and throwing basketballs at his players. He also berated them and ha-
rassed them with homophobic slurs. You should be able to see why I was disturbed at the clip of the athletic director defending the choice to keep him on staff. Rutgers must have received a lot of backlash on that subject, because Wednesday around noon, I got a notification that Rice was fired. To that I say, good job, Rutgers. Coaches have been fired for less offensive behavior. Also, after the OTL report, Rutgers recruiting would have dropped. Parents wouldn’t want to send their sons to
play under a coach who berates them and pushes them around. A person should not remain in a position of authority if he does not respect and honor his subordinates. That was what I saw on TV. Now, let’s move to the radio. The big topic of conversation on 92.1 this week was a comment by head coach Bret Bielema at a Razorback Club meeting. “You can take Saban’s record when he was at Michigan State and when he was a coach in the Big Ten and put it against mine, and he can’t
compare,” Bielema said. Apparently, this caused such a ruckus that Bielema even tweeted about it Monday. I don’t think this is something that should’ve riled people up or something that deserved even half of the airtime it received. I equate Bielema’s comment to encouraging the fans at the meeting. He was just trying to give them something to be excited about and repeat what he said during his first press conference as Arkansas head coach. He wants to bring a Southeastern Conference Champi-
onship to Arkansas. Bielema wants to do that just as much as LeBron James wanted to bring an NBA Championship to South Beach, Fla. People who think Bielema was being haughty can thank their lucky stars that he didn’t say he was going to bring “not one, not two, not three, not four...” Kristen Coppola is the sports editor for the Arkansas Traveler. Her column appears every Thursday. Follow the sports section on Twitter @ UATravSports.