College basketball preview: Breaking things down in the MEAC

NORFOLK, Virginia -- With only five teams above .500 in conference, the MEAC might not be the conference that sports the most awe-inspiring brand of basketball. But it was home to the leading scorer in the nation. Back to that in a bit.

Hampton took regular-season and conference tournament titles to punch the team’s ticket to the Big Dance. In the tournament, the Pirates ran into a buzzsaw in Virginia, though.

The Pirates will look to make it three straight trips to the NCAA tournament this year, but that task will be significantly more difficult in the 2016-17 season — especially given the departure of the team’s top three scorers. That's the same issue facing the Spartans of Norfolk State who came in third in the MEAC, so the top tier of the conference is likely to see some different schools in the mix come season's end.

Teams like South Carolina State (tops in assists per game in the MEAC) and Bethune-Cookman (tops in blocks per game) might be licking their chops at that prospect, but there's a lot of basketball that needs to be played first. Both teams have their respective leading scorers returning — guard Eric Eaves (17.6 ppg) and guard Jordan Potts (16.0 ppg, 4.3 apg) — but a lot can happen between now and March.

Best player

How does 27.1 points a contest sound? Sounds like you’re talking about the leading scorer in the country. And if so, that means you’re talking about James Daniel III.

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Despite attempts to fire him, Fort Worth coach Johnnie Cole remains on the job

FORT WORTH, Texas -- This report contains graphic descriptions.

Where Johnnie Cole goes, trouble often follows.

Two years after being fired as football coach at Texas Southern University over accusations that he violated NCAA rules — not his first run-in with the NCAA — Cole was hired as a teacher and assistant coach at Eastern Hills High School in Fort Worth.

Walter Dansby, Fort Worth’s superintendent in 2013, said he didn’t want to hire Cole but faced pressure from some school board members to find the embattled coach a job.

Cole’s connection-laden path to Fort Worth started in controversy and could have ended months ago after he was accused of having an improper relationship with an Eastern Hills student during the 2014-15 school year. An internal report by the school district’s Office of Professional Standards said the student told an investigator that Cole had sex with her, had friends threaten her with retaliation and suggested that she work as a prostitute.

It’s a felony for an educator to engage in sexual contact with a student of the same school or district, including those who are 18.

But the student, now in her second year at a community college ...

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HBCU Football Judgment Day Schedule Week 9

The PVAMU Marching Storm was invited to the 2016 United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. The band did a parade through the race track and performed for several crowds ending with the opening ceremony of The Roots and Usher concert!

The Prairie View A&M University Marching Storm is under the direction of Dr. Tim Zachery.

Saturday, October 29, 2016

OVC
Tennessee State at Murray State, 4 PM

MEAC
South Carolina State at Hmpton 1 PM
Florida A&M at North Carolina A&T 1 PM
Howard at Savannah State 2 PM
Morgan State at Norfolk State 2 PM
Delaware State at Bethune-Cookman 4 PM

SWAC
Arkansas Pine Bluff at Grambling State 3 PM
Southern at Alcorn State 3 PM
Prairie View at Jackson State 3 PM
Alabama A&M vs. Alabama State at Birmingham 4 PM  ESPN3
Texas Southern at Sam Houston State 7 PM ESPN3

OTHER HBCUs
Millersville at Cheyney  12 Noon
UNC Pembroke at West Virginia State 1 PM
McKendree at Lincoln (Mo) 3 PM
Langston at Texas College 3 PM
Ava Marie at Edward Waters 7 PM

CIAA
Saint Augustine's at Johnson C. Smith 1 PM
Winston-Salem State at Shaw 1 PM
Livingstone at Fayetteville State 1:30 PM
Virginian Union at Elizabeth City State 1:30 PM
Chowan at Virginia State 2 PM
Bowie State at Lincoln (Pa) 6 PM

SIAC
Tuskegee at Central State (Ohio) 1PM
Lane at Kentucky State, 1:30 PM
Albany State at Benedict 2 PM
Fort Valley State at Morehouse 2 PM
Miles at Clark Atlanta 2 PM



ALL GAME TIMES IN EASTERN TIME ZONE

Jackson State University vs Prairie View BOTB - Homecoming 2016

Must-win Tuskegee seeks waiver, additional game for NCAA D-II playoffs

TUSKEGEE, Alabama -- Tuskegee needs to handle its business on the field to make the NCAA Division II playoffs and its athletic director must do the same on his end to ensure the Golden Tigers meet the criteria to do so.

After last week’s 10-9 upset loss to Kentucky State on homecoming, Curtis Campbell requested a waiver Monday morning to qualify for the playoffs with having just nine games on the schedule. Teams must play 10 games to automatically qualify for the playoffs.

In the 2016-17 NCAA Division II football pre-championship manual, it reads teams must “play at least 10 opponents during the regular season. An institution may submit a waiver request to the football committee for its consideration if a given institution is not able to satisfy this requirement” under qualifying standards for playoffs.

“You can play nine games and get a waiver from the NCAA,” Campbell said Friday afternoon. “We have requested a waiver and we can also play an additional game on Nov. 12. If we could find a D-II opponent to play, that would help our bid for the playoffs and help our seeding as long as we win the two games we’ve got remaining, and if we add an additional game – and if we win that.”

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Savannah State hoping to tame the Howard Bison, for once

SAVANNAH, Georgia -- You’ve heard of misdirection running plays? Howard University comes to T.A. Wright Stadium today with a misdirection record.

The Savannah State Tigers have bitten on the bait before — most recently a year ago.

“I’m sure (the Tigers) felt last year like ‘Hey, Howard hasn’t won a game, we can beat these guys,’ and then they got beat by 46 points,” said SSU’s first-head football head coach Erik Raeburn.

So the Tigers’ 2 p.m. game today with the deceptive Bison comes with all the trappings. First, it’s Savannah State’s homecoming. And Howard’s coming to the party with a 1-7 record.

SSU hasn’t been a pillar of success in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, but the Bison, despite just one winning season since the Tigers began play in the league in 2011, have captured the five meetings between the teams by an average of more than 34 points a game.

Last year, Howard beat SSU 55-9 for its only win of the season. In 2011, the Bison came to Savannah with a 29-game conference losing streak — they hadn’t won a MEAC game since 2007 — and beat the Tigers 34-14.

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Tarik Cohen soaking up senior season at N.C. A&T

GREENSBORO, North Carolina — It’s the last homecoming game for the best running back the MEAC has ever seen.

But if N.C. A&T senior Tarik Cohen is feeling wistful, it doesn’t show.

“I’m feeling old, that’s how I’m feeling,” says Cohen, who turned 21 in July. “I don’t think about it ending. It will probably hit me on senior day (Nov. 5 against S.C. State). When we have to go on the field and take pictures with family before the game. That ceremony, that’s when it will really hit me.”

In the meantime, Cohen is soaking up his senior season.

He heads into homecoming on Saturday against Florida A&M as the MEAC’s all-time leading rusher with 5,054 yards, A&T’s all-time touchdown leader with 52 (49 rushing, three receiving) and just the 10th FCS player with four 1,000-yard rushing seasons.

Every week, another record falls.

Not bad for an overlooked guy from little Bunn — population 354 — who received exactly one football scholarship offer coming out of high school. Only A&T took a chance on the 5-foot-6, 160-pound sprinter.



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