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Cowboy Corral

By ALEX HICKEY

Kiss Of Death?

Posted March 9, 2010 at 9:32 pm
Filed Under Central Arkansas, Coaching Rumors, McNeese State, Men's Basketball, ULL | Leave a Comment

If you are a college basketball coach sitting on the employment hot seat, it apparently does not behoove you to put McNeese State on the schedule.

Of the 11 coaches who have been canned so far this year, three faced the Cowboys this season: Central Arkansas’ Rand Chappell, Hawaii’s Bob Nash and Louisiana-Lafayette’s Robert Lee, who was shown the door by the Cajuns on Tuesday morning. (In case you’re wondering, those teams went a combined 2-2 against McNeese this year).

Of most interest to McNeese fans is who will fill the jobs at conference rival UCA and regional rival ULL.

Reports out of Conway, Ark. are that the top candidates for the UCA gig are Russ Pennell and James Dickey. Dickey was the head coach at Texas Tech from 1991-2001 and led the Red Raiders to a pair of NCAA tournament appearances, though the program did end up on probation. He was an assistant at UCA before joining the staff of Eddie Sutton at Arkansas and then Kentucky. He also coached with Sutton at Oklahoma State after getting fired by Texas Tech.

Pennell is a former UCA player that currently coaches at Division II Grand Canyon University. He is best known for taking over as Arizona’s interim coach when Lute Olsen left the program due to health issues at the start of the 2008-09 season. Pennell led the Wildcats to the Sweet 16 but did not get the permanent job.

From here, it seems like Pennell is the logical choice. He’s younger, has a natural tie to the program and the experience of coaching a historically powerful program, even if for just under a season.

The reports out of Lafayette aren’t as specific — right now, everything is based in rumor. Current Hornets assistant and well-traveled college and NBA coach Tim Floyd’s name has been bandied about, as well as the names of former LSU and current Oklahoma State assistant Butch Pierre and current Murray State head coach Billy Kennedy.

Most Cowboy fans would probably classify a couple of those names as “typical ULL delusions of grandeur.” Kennedy may be a New Orleans native, but he’s got a very successful program at Murray State and if he leaves it figures to be for something greater than a gig in the Sun Belt.

The thought of Floyd might not be as crazy as it sounds, provided that he wants to get back into the college game after the murky circumstances under which he left Southern California. There’s already another failed NBA coach in the Sun Belt in the form of Florida International’s Isiah Thomas, and former St. John’s and George Washington coach Mike Jarvis is currently at Florida Atlantic.

Out of the three names mentioned by the Lafayette paper, it would seem that the smart money is on Pierre, but there’s no telling who has shown interest in the gig yet.

As is the case whenever a coaching opening comes up, there’s also the possibility of a darkhorse candidate coming through at UCA or ULL.

By the end of the month, we should know what is happening on both counts.

Good Dumars Video

Posted March 2, 2010 at 10:12 pm
Filed Under Former Cowboys, McNeese State, Men's Basketball | Leave a Comment

This video from NBA TV via YouTube gives a pretty good look at the playing career of Joe Dumars. And you can catch current McNeese assistant coach David Dumars in the background of one of the photos.

Also, the fan reaction when his name is called at the NBA Draft is pretty priceless — it’s almost as if you can see the thought bubble of the crowd going “Who? McNeese what?”

Frisco Gets Title Game

Posted February 26, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Filed Under FCS Football, Southland Conference | 1 Comment

Frisco, Texas will be the host of Football Championship Subdivision title game for the next three years, the NCAA announced on Friday. The game had been hosted by Chattanooga, Tenn. since 1997.

The Southland Conference will serve as the official host of the championship game, which will be played at Pizza Hut Park. The stadium is the home of FC Dallas of Major League Soccer.

Next season’s title game will be played on Jan. 7, 2011. The championship game has been pushed back because starting next year the FCS playoffs will be expanded to include 20 teams.

Rzepka finishes 6th

Posted February 25, 2010 at 4:53 pm
Filed Under Former Cowboys, Olympics | Leave a Comment

Former McNeese pole vaulter and assistant track coach Mickie Rzepka finished in sixth place in the women’s bobsled competition at the Vancouver Games.

Rzepka and pilot Shauna Rohbock completed their four runs down the track in a final time of 3 minutes, 34.06 seconds.

Just how fast is this sport? The winning Canadian team of Kallie Humphries and Heather Moyse finished just 1.78 seconds ahead of Rohbock and Rzepka. Talk about precise.

LSU Beats McNeese 2-1

Posted February 24, 2010 at 7:14 pm
Filed Under Baseball, McNeese State | Leave a Comment

BATON ROUGE — A potential go-ahead ninth inning hit by McNeese’s Bryn Thompson was grabbed at the wall by LSU left fielder Trey Watkins, wrapping up a 2-1 win for No. 1 LSU at Alex Box Stadium.

The Tigers took the lead on a solo homer by catcher Micah Gibbs in the bottom of the eighth.

See tomorrow’s American Press for more details.

Rzepka’s sled in 6th

Posted February 24, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Filed Under Former Cowboys, Olympics | Leave a Comment

After the first two runs of the women’s bobsled competition in Vancouver, former McNeese pole vaulter Michelle Rzepka and teammate Shauna Rohbock are in sixth place.

There are two more heats to go in the competition, with medal winners to be crowned today. Rzepka is a Novi, Mich. native attended Michigan State before coming to McNeese as a grad student and pole vaulting for the Cowgirls for one season. She serves as the brakewoman for Rohbock. The two were expected to compete for a medal, but got off to a slower than anticipated start as their first run down the hill put them in seventh place.

McNeese Makes ESPN.com

Posted February 16, 2010 at 6:44 pm
Filed Under McNeese State, Men's Basketball, Southland Conference | Leave a Comment

McNeese basketball was highlighted by ESPN.com national basketball columnist Pat Forde this week, but not in the way most Cowboy fans would like to see.

MSU’s December win over Tulane was featured as one of Conference USA’s “worst losses” of the 2009-10 season. As you can see from Forde’s list, there’s not much love for the Southland.

Bad nonconference losses: UTEP to New Mexico State; Memphis to Massachusetts; Houston to San Diego and Texas-San Antonio; Southern Mississippi to Canisius and North Florida; SMU to Texas Christian and Texas State; Tulane to New Orleans, McNeese State and Lamar; Rice to Lamar, LSU and TCU.

You know it’s been a rough season for LSU when the Tigers are considered a bad loss for Rice. Rice!

Of course, LSU’s last win came against McNeese on Jan. 4 — and by the time next season rolls around, there’s a chance the Cowboys will still be the last team the Tigers beat.

Texas State Hires Nagle

Posted February 5, 2010 at 6:30 pm
Filed Under FCS Football, Southland Conference | Leave a Comment

Stop if you’ve heard this one before: former McNeese player/coach gets coaching job in Southland Conference.

Former Cowboys quarterback Slade Nagle became the latest to become part of the MSU extended coaching tree, getting hired by Texas State as quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator on Friday. Nagle had previously been offensive coordinator under Scott Stoker at Northwestern State, and spent last season as an administrative intern at LSU.

UTSA Football Bypassing SLC

Posted January 31, 2010 at 7:47 pm
Filed Under FCS Football, Southland Conference | Leave a Comment

It looks like McNeese won’t have another new conference football opponent after all.

Texas-San Antonio has decided its fledgling football program won’t be joining the Southland Conference, which it is a member of in all other sports. The Roadrunners will play their first game in 2011, and were originally scheduled to become SLC football members in 2013.

Now, UTSA athletic director Lynn Hickey (no relation) said the school will compete as an FCS Independent with the goal of attaining Bowl Subdivision status by 2015.

Lamar, which begins play next year, will become the league’s ninth football member in 2011.

What remains to be seen is how the other Southland members react to UTSA’s move. As Sunday’s piece from the San Antonio Express News indicates, fellow conference administrators aren’t so pleased with the prospect of UTSA being a Southland member while hunting for something bigger. The best-known model that exists is Notre Dame being a football Independent while holding Big East membership in all other sports — a fact that raises the ire of many in the Big East community.

The other question is what direction the Southland will move in when UTSA does leave the conference in all sports, which is bound to happen once the football program finally latches on somewhere. There will be a need to add a 12th school in that event, and there aren’t too many obvious choices to fill that void.

However, one would have to suspect that Texas-Pan American and Houston Baptist — members of the brand-new Great West Conference, a league that extends from Utah Valley to New Jersey Tech — would logically be on the list of potential UTSA replacements. (Neither program plays football).

Conference presidents will be meeting in Galveston on June 4, when it’s likely that the topic will be delved into in greater detail.

No Auburn Game in 2012

Posted January 29, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Filed Under Football, McNeese State | Leave a Comment

Contrary to a report published in the Decatur (Ga.) Daily, McNeese State athletic director Tommy McClelland said that the Cowboys will not be playing Auburn in 2012. The game had been scheduled in 2008 but was nullified last year when a conference game against Nicholls State was moved into the originally scheduled open date.

McClelland said that McNeese will not owe Auburn any money for a buyout.

Check tomorrow’s American Press for more details.

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