Chappell’s comments

Well, for those of us without an ADG subscription and who haven’t seen this yet, Coach Chappell was re-quoted by a Springfield newspaper:

“I feel like they made a bad decision, an unnecessary decision,” Chappell told the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. “For the past four years, this has been a bottom-30 job — because of the limitation of no postseason play.

“The second the buzzer sounded (following the final game) it became a great job. Just for somebody else,” Chappell added.

If you read the full ADG article and want to recap anything of importance, leave it in the comments…

Football Spring Practice Begins Monday

12 practices, 2 scrimmages, 1 spring game and 1 week off for spring break. That’s the schedule for the upcoming spring for the youthful Bears football squad.

UCA returns 40 lettermen and 10 starters, with another 12 players who have started at least one game during their career. . .
The Bears will have two quarterbacks battling to replace the graduated Robbie Park (Nathan Dick and Wynrick Smothers. . .
Sophomore quarterback Trae Cook has been suspended for spring practice.

PRACTICE DATES (3:40 p.m.)
March 15, 16, 18, 19, 31
April 2, 5, 7, 9, 12, 14, 15

SCRIMMAGES (3 p.m.)
April 3, 10

SPRING GAME (6 p.m.)
April 16

The UCASports story also touches on a list of players that are out for the spring due to surgeries and who coach is looking to as the leaders after losing so many seniors off last year’s team.

Also, a quick look at the updated roster shows a lot of new names with no numbers. If I counted correctly, there are 78 guys listed, 15 of those are numberless.

SB Bball offseason begins

It’s been just three days since the end of the season, but DMc is already shedding some light on the future of Sugar Bear basketball.

Daniel said he plans to sign one to three new recruits, including a junior college transfer or two to “add some maturity to our roster.” He will add one assistant coach and possibly two.

Signee Courtney Duever was spotted at the game Saturday along with what appeared to be one or two other possible additions to the roster next season. And, for the record, she does have some pink hair.

Others thoughts on Chappell

I don’t know who these people are, but Google has alerted me to their thoughts on the dismissal of Rand Chappell and his staff. (Please disregard the poor grammar/spelling.)

Central Arkansas fired their coach Rand Chappell after completing their transition to D1. Coach Chappell took the team to their first D2 tournament before they decided to go D1. Seems to rough to fire the dude after he endured the transition. LINK

Ouch. Rand Chappell lost his job after seven years at the helm, with three years left on his contract. . .
Thanks for your service, coach. By the way: It’s a business. The press release announcing the firing noted that the rest of Chappell’s contract would be paid from “private funds.” LINK

Be sure to also notice the comment at the bottom of that second link.

Herbert somehow NOT POTY

So, it wasn’t all that unexpected, but it still doesn’t mean that it makes sense. Somehow Megan Herbert was passed over for player of the year. Let’s just see what the numbers say, shall we?

Things to remember:

• Herbert is a freshman. Plumley is a junior.
• Herbert played one fewer game this season.
• Herbert is a 5-11 forward. Plumley is a 5-4 guard.
• Lamar is elligible to compete in conference tournament and won the West Division. The Sugar Bears are obviously not elligible and came in second in the East.

Baseball Weekend

We’re just minutes from the first pitch this weekend. It’s up to the baseball team to kick the streak of losses from earlier in the week. Softball lost. Baseball lost. Women’s basketball lost. Men’s basketball lost. And to make it even worse, all of those were very close games with losses coming in extra innings and the last second.

So, now the baseball team (3-4) is the first to head back onto the field, and they have traveled to 5-3 Nevada for the three-game series.

The Bears scored 12+ runs and coasted in two of the wins and lost two games by just a single run.

A quick look at the team:
Pitchers —
7 Bears have pitched more than three innings with only Friday’s starter, Michael Wild, reaching double figures in innings. Wild has been solid so far, and so has Bobby Pritchet who’s currently struck out 13 in only 8.2 innings. The problem with the staff isn’t allowing opponents to hit the ball – just a .266 average for opposing hitters. It’s the number of free passes courtesy of being hit by pitches. The Bears have hit 21 batters in only 7 games. Getting that under control and hoping for Reese Cross and Logan Ariola to break out of their early-season funk is going to be key.

Batters —
Leading returner, Tye Throneberry, has been in a funk of his own. He had a decent day against ORU, going 1-for-2 with a double and two sac bunts. But it looks like he’s going to be on the bench to start Friday’s game. Blake Roberts has certainly picked up the slack so far, improving on his .271 average from a year ago to sit currently at .478. Quickly making a name for himself is freshman Ethan Harris (.438 avg). He’s started every game so far (one of only two players to do that) and leads the team in hits (14), rbi (7) and is just behind Roberts in runs scored (7). Four more Bears (Fuller, Noble, Washington and Pair) are hitting over .300. And all but Roberts are newcomers to the team.

It could be a good year if some of the expected guys step up and pitch/hit like they did last year. It’s hard to gauge how good this Nevada team is or how much will learn from the series this early in the season. They have two starters with sub-.100 eras. They have four guys hitting .400 or better. But, it’s looks like if we can get to their bullpen, we might be able to do some damage.