During Furlough Friday, I heard a reiteration of what's long been suspected/murmured about the FIU coaching search: Butch Davis still the No. 1 choice, Florida State offensive coordinator James Coley No. 2 with the announcement to come after January 1 as the nation's college football media hits South Florida for the Notre Dame vs. Alabama Who Does South Florida Hate More? national championship game.
For what it's worth...
BASKETBALL JONES
FIU's women took out preseason Sun Belt favorite Middle Tennessee State Thursday, 58-51, extending their winning streak to four and ending Middle's winning streaks at home (14 wins) and in The Belt (17 wins).
Jerica Coley got hers as usual, 23 points. But Finda Mansare, Zsofia Labady and Marita Davydova combined for 21 rebounds and FIU held Middle to 32.8 shooting from the field.
The men's team bounced back from the expected drubbing by Louisville to beat Texas Southern, 48-45. Last week, coach Richard Pitino qualified his compliment of FIU's offense by saying the defense wasn't good enough for those nights when the offense would get shut down. Saturday, FIU made up for shooting only 36.0 from the field by holding Texas Southern to 29.1 percent.
Freshman Jerome Frink put up 14 points and redshirt sophomore Marco Porcher Jimenez put up 12. After a couple of days for holiday break, FIU goes to Western Kentucky for a Thursday game.
RECORDS
Slogging through what FIU e-mailed me Friday from Pete Garcia's file and Mario Cristobal's file. Fun Saturday night reading...
