FIU Panthers Prowl

Pitino one-and-done; football day change

Another major conference men's basketball program has reached to a surprising Florida mid-major to get its next coach. Word out of Minnesota and the FIU athlete community is the Gophers have snagged FIU's Richard Pitino. 

Word out of FIU is, officially, silence. Pitino hasn't answered calls, texts or messages and, in fact, his voice mail box is full. FIU athletic director Pete Garcia has gone underground similarly the last few days, but will address the media Thursday morning. President Mark Rosenberg's voice mailbox is full. 

Pitino coached FIU to its first winning record in 13 years and the final of the Sun Belt Conference tournament. He accomplished this despite only six players left over from the previous season. Of those, only forward Tola Akamolafe could be called a major contributor and then for only part of the 2011-12 season before he became academically ineligible. 

Following this remarkable coaching job would've been tough, both because FIU will be moving to Conference USA next season and there might be some punishment coming from the NCAA once the 2011-12 APR comes out. Now, it'll be interesting to see which players, if any, go with Pitino to Minnesota. 

FOOTBALL

The FIU game at FAU has been moved to Nov. 29, a Friday night. Blame TV.

Stuff like (this and) that...

On vaca, so my recently sporadic updates from weeks of Doral-nursing-a-dying laptop will seem like breathless Tweets from the front for the next week. Unless they fire or lose a high profile coach, which is what happened at the end of my daughter's 2012 Spring Break.

So, here's some stuff for you to masticate for the next few days...

SWIMMING

Johanna Gustafsdottir finished 49th in the 100 backstroke and Sonia Perez came in 39th in the 400 individual medley Friday at the NCAA championships. Gustafsdottir swam 54.92, well off her seed time of 53.94, and Perez swam 4:16.25, also slower than her seed time of 4:10.54. Judging from times up and down the prelims, the IU Natatorium pool in Indianapolis is part sludge this year.

Both will be in the 200 back this morning. Last year, only Gustafsdottir qualified for the NCAAs among FIU's swimmers, which qualify by time and not conference position. (Sabrina Beaupre qualified as a diver, but opted for ankle surgery instead of the NCAAs).

TRACK

Freshman Marcus Ghent won the long jump with a jump of 23 feet, 8 3/4 inches at the UCF Invitational Friday.

SAND VOLLEYBALL

The new laptop doesn't have the formatting to fully use The Herald's CCI system yet. So, instead of attaching this minute-in-the-life-of video to today's sand volleyball story (http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/23/3301608/fiu-sand-volleyball-team-hopes.html), I put it here.

 

Also, here are some other vids from FIU's earlier matches this season.

 

 

 

BASKETBALL COURT

Can upload video, but not photos. Crud.

Anyway, as for the new court. I like it. It's funky and unique. Reminds of this...

 

Now, go in peace...

 

FIU women fall to Florida, 75-68

Despite Jerica Coley's 37 points and setting a school record in going 18 of 18 from the line, the women's basketball team lost 75-68 to Florida in the first round of the Women's NIT at The Branch. FIU ends the season 19-13.

Sidney Moss had 28 points for the Gators on 13 of 23 shooting. Marita Davydova had a game-high 12 rebounds for FIU.

First day of (football) spring; Gators at FIU, women's hoop, 7 p.m. Thursday

The headline tells you the time of Thursday's Women's NIT game at The Branch. Now on to Tuesday morning at La Cage.

Attendance: On the first spring football roster, but not present were quarterbacks Loranzo Hammonds Jr. and Favian Upshaw, wide receiver Nick England, wide receiver Johnnie Durante, linebacker Leroy Owens and offensive tackle Prince Matt. Hammonds and Matt were going into their redshirt sophomore seasons. The others were part of the 2012 recruiting class. Head coach Ron Turner said the status of some absentees is undecided. 

Defensive tackle Isame Faciane's still rehabilitating the shoulder on which he had offseason surgery, so he didn't participate.

Alignments: Quarterbacks lined up under center for the most part in two-back and one-back, double-tight-end sets. Occasionally, they lined up in three-wide receiver spread sets.

Defensively, they went with a 4-3.

Position changes: Without a true fullback on the roster, FIU coaches decided defensive tackle Jericco Lee seemed to have a fullback's body and gave him a shot. In the absence of Hammonds and Upshaw, Akil Dan-Fodio's back at quarterback for at least the spring.

First team offense: Quarterback redshirt junior Jake Medlock; running back senior Kedrick Rhodes; fullback sophomore Lemarq Caldwell (when a fullback is used); wide receivers Willis Wright and Glenn Coleman; left tackle redshirt sophomore Aaron Nielsen; left guard redshirt junior David Delsoin; center redshirt junior Donald Senat; redshirt freshman Trenson Saunders at right guard; redshirt sophomore Yousif Khoury at right tackle; and tight end redshirt sophomore Ya'keem Griner.

First team defense: defensive tackles sophomore Darrian Dyson and senior Greg Hickman; defensive ends junior Giovani Francois and senior Paul Crawford; linebackers redshirt sophomore Luis Rosado, sophomore Patrick Jean and sophomore Davison Colimon; cornerbacks junior Richard Leonard and senior Sam Miller; safeties redshirt junior Justin Halley and redshirt junior Mitch Wozniak.

Personnel: Turner said FIU has a lot of wide receivers and not enough offensive linemen and he'd like to correct that imbalance.

As for how they looked...it's the first day of practice, folks. Precision's a rare commodity. Redshirt senior Derrick Jones and redshirt freshman Deonte Wilson made interceptions in drills. Aside from Dan-Fodio's three-snap run of two fumbles and a bobble, the snaps went well from under center.

 

Florida at FIU, Women's NIT, Thursday

FIU's 19-12 women's team got an at-large bid to its second consecutive Women's National Invitational Tournament, the WNIT announced Monday night, and will host Florida Thursday.

Florida's 18-14, but went 6-10 in the SEC during the regular season and lost in the second round of the conference tournament to Tennessee 82-73. Interestingly, the Gators roster includes only three players born in Florida, three players who went to high school in Florida, and zero from the 305, 954 or 561 (or 786 or 754). Their rotation goes nine deep. Guard Jaterra Bonds leads the Gators in scoring at 12.7 points per game. Senior Jennifer George averages 11.5 and 8.0 rebounds per game. Sydney Moss, a 5-11 swingwoman, averages 3.84 assists per game and 10.6 points.

Of course, FIU counters with Jerica Coley, who leads the nation in scoring (25.9 points per game) and FIU in blocked shots, steals, free throw percentage, field goal percentage.

Last season, FIU pounded Stetson 75-47 at The Branch in the first round before losing 77-61 to South Florida at USF's Campus Recreation Center gym.

Rocky lost

Western Kentucky doesn't exactly fit the Apollo Creed role. FIU was the higher seed and had split with Western this year. The Hillpeople slogged through four games in four days and "slog" fits the fourth game, Monday's Sun Belt Championship game with FIU. Nobody gave up much cheap. You had to work for your bargains.

But FIU's the coagulation that came together during the season, that was picked 10th in the Sun Belt, that knocked off a Middle Tennessee State team with a 17-game winning streak. And it was FIU that kept getting knocked down Monday night only to drag themselves off the canvas with plays as tough as Cameron Bell's driving scoop reverse layup among the trees or Malik Smith's catch-and-shoot from NBA three-point range. FIU's the team with the walk-on point guard operating the FIU offense like the option quarterback he'd been at South Miami High. Somebody needs to show Deric Hill some scholarship love next season.

It seemed like it was to be, too. When Jerome Frink hit a three or got the roll on the 16-footer to get FIU within striking range. When two questionable late calls, the invisible foul Bell drew and the offensive foul Hill drew on the next possession, went FIU's way instead of going toward the Sun Belt team that'll be a Sun Belt team next year. 

And when the clock zeroed out the ball hurled in the air and Western up 65-63, I was reminded of how I felt as a 9-year-old at Lafayette Square Cinema hearing the announcer say Rocky Balboa lost by split decision in the original Rocky.

Dang, man. Just...dang.

Panthers vs. Hilltoppers -- again

How many FIU sports seasons over the last two years have ended or pivoted on games against Western Kentucky? None of those games stand larger than Monday night’s win-and-you’re-in game for the Sun Belt men’s basketball title and automatic NCAA tournament bid.

Appropriately, FIU split with Western this season. 

The first game, a 76-63 FIU loss, turned on Western’s bench points, where the Hillpeople had a 37-10 advantage. Also, during the decisive second half run that took Western’s lead from one to 11, the Hilltoppers’ seven to four rebounding advantage led to eight free throws and two three-pointers while FIU managed only four free throws, two of which came off a technical foul.

In FIU’s 87-82 win, both teams burned up the nets in the first half – 62.5 percent for FIU, 60.0 for Western – but Western cooled off more than FIU did in the second half. FIU took a four-point lead out to 11 in the first 7:27 of the second half as Western went one for four from three-point range and missed two layups while the Panthers came up with a couple of steals. In that FIU run, the Panthers got three-pointers from Jerome Frink and Tola Akomolafe. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – three-point shots by either of those guys, especially Akomolafe, are so low percentage that they’re bad shots even if they drop. FIU eventually led by 15 in the second half.

This also matches a team leaving the Sun Belt after this year against a Sun Belt overall athletic power that’s staying. I’m not saying that’s an automatic disadvantage for FIU. The conveniently questionable Sun Belt officiating I saw during FIU’s football season generally didn’t have a parallel in men’s basketball games I covered. And sometimes zebra bias isn’t conscious. But as a possible factor in what should be a close game, it can’t be discounted.

No matter the outcome, I'm feeling pretty vindicated in my vote for Richard Pitino as Sun Belt Coach of the Year.

FIU vs. Middle, today -- twice

The women get their shot at No. 1 seeded Middle Tennessee State right now. The men get it at 7:30 this evening. 

Middle's women worked hard to get past No. 9 seeded Louisiana-Monroe, 59-56, so they couldn't coast and rest regulars. Look at the rebounding in this game. If Marita Davydova, Diamond Ashmore and Finda Mansare have big days on the boards, I think FIU wins. That'll mean fewer second shot gimmes for Middle, fewer fouls on FIU and more putback attempts for FIU. Junior guard Jerica Coley's going to get hers. Others on FIU need to bring some and if it comes from inside that'll neutralize Middle's area of advantage.

For the men, they can't let Middle three-point shooter Raymond Cintron go completely off. Also, if both teams are on their games, it could be a game of runs. The simple edict FIU should remember: keep playing, don't get crazy looking for the knockout, just keep punching, no matter the score. Middle's got more raw talent, but when FIU plays it's pressure defensive system well, the Panthers keep you from getting in a rhythm. 

Pitino finalist for a national rookie Coach of the Year award

CollegeInsider.com's 10 finalists for its Joe B. Hall Award, presented to its top first-year Division I men's basketball head coach, includes FIU's Richard Pitino.

Pitino's up against Rider's Kevin Baggett; Mount S. Mary's Jamion Christian; Brown's Mike Martin; Wagner's Bashir mason; Illinois State's Dan Muller; UConn's Kevin Ollie; Long Island University-Brooklyn's Jack Perri; Southern Utah's Nick Robinson; and Tennessee State's Travis Williams.

The winner will be announced April 5 at the CollegeInsider.com awards banquet. I don't know how to handicap this award. I don't know who the favorite should be. I don't know if any of those other guys had to take the bottom of the roster of an eight-win team, mix that in with guys you were able to recruit at the last minute and coach up the whole thing into a 16-win gholaush.

Those who know of Joe B. Hall can probably appreciate the irony. Hall was a University of Kentucky graduate, played on Kentucky's 1949 national champions and coached Kentucky's 1978 national champions. While Pitino's father helped return Kentucky to prominence, Pitino senior and junior have much stronger ties to Louisville, Kentucky's hated in-state rival.

 

All-Sun Belt hoops, XXs & XYs: Coley, Player of the Year, Murphy makes First Team

As expected, junior guard Jerica Coley repeated as Sun Belt Player of the Year. Coley's 26.1 points per game leads the nation in scoring. She's also third in the conference in blocked shots (1.76 per game, 60th nationally) and free throw percentage (83.8, 44th nationally). She also leads FIU in assists (3.4 per game) and steals (2.2 per game).

The best statistic to demonstrate Coley's worth to FIU: she accounts for 42.6 percent of the Panthers' scoring.

Forward Marita Davydova was voted to Third Team All-Sun Belt after averaging 10.2 points per game and 8.6 rebounds per game.

On the men's side, FIU junior forward Tymell Murphy made First Team All-Sun Belt as voted on by 11 media members (yes, I was one) and 11 conference coaches.

Murphy's team high 15.1 points per game was pedestrian compared to his No. 8 in the nation field goal percentage (58.8 percent from the field). There's no statistic for measuring the timing of Murphy's points. Malik Smith seemed to come up with the end-of-game baskets. Murphy came up with the ones that halted opponent's runs and calmed FIU down. Also, Murphy pulled down a team-high 6.9 rebounds and was 95th in the nation (second on FIU behind Deric Hill) with 1.79 steals for the nation's seventh best team of thieves. 

I'm not exactly sure how a team that's get a No. 4 seed and a bye in the conference tournament gets voted only one all-conference player among three teams. And I thought Richard Pitino was an easy Coach of the Year call. I might be on the island there as Middle Tennessee State's Kermit Davis received that honor.

Conference competition on the court, in the pool

First, the setup for the Sun Belt basketball tournaments next week in Hot Springs, Arkansas ("Sal-loot!").

The men and women of Middle Tennessee State monopolize the No. 1 seeds. FIU's women have the No. 5 seed and will face No. 4 seed Arkansas State Saturday at 11:30 a.m. The winner faces the winner of Middle vs. FAU or Louisiana-Monroe. Which is to say, if FIU wins, it faces Middle Tennessee on March 10 in the Sun Belt semifinal.

That's not a lock for Middle. With Diamond Ashmore, Finda Mansare and Kamika Idom, FIU dealt Middle the first of its three conference losses and did so at Murfreesboro. Those three were missing in the rematch at The Branch, when FIU hung in until the lack of defense and rebounding down low sunk the Panthers. Idom should be back from her knee injury for the tournament, giving FIU another true outside shooting threat besides Jerica Coley.

The men go in as a No. 4 seed, playing Saturday at 6 p.m. against Arkansas-Little Rock. FIU split with UALR, losing by 12 there and winning by 13 at home. In the first game, FIU had nine steals and 14 points off turnovers while UALR used their size advantage for a 42-14 points in the paint differential. In the sequel, the Panthers came up with 14 seteals and 25 points off turnovers and UALR's advantage from the lane was only 35-30.

The winner plays Middle Tennessee, which smacked FIU by 17 near Nashville then needed a last second shot by local native Sean Jones to beat FIU at the buzzer after trailing by 20 at one point.

The second Arkansas-Little Rock game was the last game before a pre-practice locker room blistering -- audible all the way across the hall behind the locker room -- Pitino gave the team last Tuesday.

"I think they've been slipping a little bit from what got us here," Pitino said after Saturday night's 77-60 slashing by FAU. "I haven't loved the way they've been practicing. I think it's tough this time of year because I think they're just looking for the games. We've been doing this so long, the practices get a little monotonous. I think they're kind of worn down from that."

But, Pitino said, "We've got a whole week now to get better."

Speaking of getting better, Cameron Bell hopes that'll be what happens with his back soon. While driving to the hoop Saturday night, Bell got hammered to the floor and landed on his lower back or posterior (hard to tell which at that angle). He left with an ice pack on his lower back.

SWIMMING & DIVING 

FIU took down a few more school records and tied a Sun Belt record in the last event of the Sun Belt Swimming & Diving Championships, the 400 freestyle relay.

Johanna Gustafsdottir motored through the first leg in 50.10, thus regaining her school record in the 100 free that Klara Andersson had taken earlier in the Saturday night session. That gave FIU an almost full second lead on FAU, which eventually fell back to third behind North Texas. Andersson lost a teeny bit of the lead, which was quickly restored by Dani Albright. Marina Ribi brought home FIU in 3:21.67, which tied the Sun Belt record set by Denver in 2009 and beat the school record set at last year's Sun Belt meet when Andersson and Gustafsdottir sandwiching Kelly Grace and Kayla Derr.

That gave Gustafsdottir two individual wins and three relay wins, each of which she led off. In two, she led off with school record swims and the third she merely gave FIU a lead it maintained until the end. Yet Sun Belt coaches still voted FAU's Eszter Bucz, who also had two individual titles, Most Outstanding Swimmer. If they say so...I just note it was Bucz's third leg that took FAU out of contention in the 400 free relay. Her 52.0 swim took FAU from less than a second behind leader FIU to 2.1 seconds off the lead and in third place (North Texas steamed past).

Gustafsdottir in the 200 IM and Sonia Perez in the 400 IM qualified for the NCAAs. Last year, only Gustafsdottir among the swimmers made the NCAAs. Diver Sabrina Beaupre came into the Sun Belt meet long ago having already qualified, but will have ankle surgery Thursday to fix an almost year old problem.

Earning First Team All-Conference were Gustafsdottir, Andersson, Albright, Jessica Chadwick, Sonia Perez, Marinia Ribi, diver Sabrina Beaupre. Valeriia Popova and Courtney Vanderschaaf made the Third Team.

For more from tonight's sessions, see earlier blog linked to below.

Related articles

Gustafsdottir wins 200 back, FIU leads FAU at half

Quick hits: men's hoop gets rolled, swimming results

FIU started a blowout and FAU finished it, slamming the Panthers 77-60 Saturday night. I'll have more from this later including a rant I heard earlier in the week that might've been a hint that this was coming.

Also, I'll have more detail from the last day of the Sun Belt Swimming & Diving Championships. Sabrina Beaupre now has a hat trick of Diver of the Year awards from The Belt. Beaupre's coach, Rio Ramirez, got the Diving Coach of the Year award. FAU's Eszter Bucz, who upset last yea'r Swimmer of the Year Johanna Gustafsdottir in the 200 individual medley, got Swimmer of the Year over Gustafsdottir, who still had another fantastic conference meet.

Gustafsdottir, Beaupre, Klara Andersson, Dani Albright, Jessica Chadwick, Sonia Perez and Marina Ribi made First Team All-Conference for FIU.

Gustafsdottir wins 200 back, FIU leads FAU at half

Up on The Campus with The Klink, FIU leads FAU 31-30 after dominating the game early. FAU, 1 of 11 from three-point range, has blown a number of open looks, which is the worrisome part for FIU -- the Owls shouldn't continue shooting this badly. Of course, FIU shouldn't waste as many possessions as they did in the first half.

Meanwhile, in Texas, FIU got a win and a school record in the first two Saturday night events at the Sun Belt Swimming Championships.

The win came from last year's Swimmer of the Year, Johanna Gustafsdottir, in the 200 backstroke. Gustafsdottir won by 1.44 seconds, in 1:54.50, a tenth of a second off her school record time ste at last year's Sun Belt meet. Gustafsdottir now has two individual titles this year, part of two relay wins and a second place in the 200 individual medley.

Sonia Perez didn't win the 1650 freestyle, finishing third in 16:35.87, but did break the oldest FIU record, Claudia Barsi's 16:45.98 at the 2004 Sun Belt Championships.

Klara Andersson and Dani Albright finished fourth and fifth in the 100 free, but Andersson got Gustafsdottir's school record with a 50.90. 

Women getting it done on a Saturday

How's this for a shocker -- FIU's women beat FAU 68-65 Saturday afternoon and Jerica Coley did NOT make the pivotal plays. At least, not all of them.

FIU did go on a 7-0 run to end the game and Coley had six of those points. But in the midst of all that, Marita Davydova grabbed a defensive rebound, got fouled and hit one of two free throws to put FIU up 66-65 with 32.0 seconds left. Then, Carmen Miloglav picked Chenise Miller clean and handed the loot to Coley, forcing FAU to foul Coley with 17.3 seconds left. Coley's two free throws required FAU to go for a three to tie and Kimberly Smith's desperation try bounced away. 

Say this for FAU -- their arena looks like an outdated 1971 office building from the outside, not the equal of my middle school's gym on the inside. They played the women's game four hours before the men's game instead of the usual two because the joint doesn't have enough locker rooms. But they got a few folks in there for a 3 p.m. women's game. And FAU doesn't have the nation's leading scorer. Maybe FIU should consider Saturday afternoon starts.

Before the FIU and FAU women put on a show worthy of the main event, here's what happened at the day session before the last night of the Sun Belt Swimming & Diving Championships:

Johanna Gustafsdottir put up the fastest prelim time in the 200 backstroke, 1:57.45. Freshman Becky Wilde also will be in the top eight after a 2:02.86 that was almost three seconds better than her previous best this year.

In the 100 freestyle, 50 free winner Klara Andersson and freshman Dani Albright qualified third and fourth, respectively, for tonight's final with times of 51.15 and 51.27. Freshman Jessica Chadwick (2:17.45) and senior Krissy Metka (2:18.56) each bettered her previous best time by almost five seconds in making the 200 breaststroke's top eight.

Marina Ribi, second in the 100 fly Friday, was third in the 200 fly, 2:00.65 She'll be in the final with Sarah D'Antoni (2:02.85). The final event of the night is the 400 free relay, in which FIU has the second best seed time behind North Texas.

Winning with good junk

FIU's men's basketball team won Thursday night at Lousiana-Monroe to clinch its first winning season in 13 years. For a historically moribund program that 11 months ago hired a 29-year-old coach as it lost transfers, recruits and some players after firing the previous coach, what this team has done thus far equates to putting together a Nationwide Series car out of visits to Monster Joe's and Sanford & Son Salvage.

Understand, there's a difference between trash and junk. Trash leaves on the garbage truck. Trash gets incinerated. No use remains. The junkyard's full of usable parts that maybe just need to be polished up, loved up, adjusted a little and they'll work just fine for what you need. It's how junkyard's turn a profit. FIU coach Richard Pitino found those usable parts outside the program, found ways to use those underused parts inside the program and saw what he had: quickness, athleticism, a couple of shooters, no size, but a number of guys who could go hard for enough minutes.

Statistically, if you're looking for a difference between the 2011-12 eight-win Panthers and the 2012-13 16-win Panthers, it's in two numbers produced by FIU's pressure style. Last year, FIU had 424 turnovers and opponents had 406. This year, FIU's got 428 turnovers, but in a much greater number of possessions as they've helped opponents to 506 turnovers. And with Saturday's regular season closer against FAU and the Sun Belt tournament to go, they've come up with 270 steals against 216 for all of last year.

FIU will have better teams under Pitino. But none that have done as much in such a tough situation as this one.

 

 

Ishmar, Pierre get points in the put; Wright up; baseball tied 7-7

Sophomore Raqurra Ishmar and freshman Miriam Pierre finished third and sixth, respectively, in the Sun Belt Conference Indoor Championships shot put. Ishmar's fifth put went 48 feet and a half inch. Pierre's last put sailed 44-3 1/2 inches.

Former FIU guard DeJuan Wright won the dunk contest at the Dutch League All-Star Game.

A Zach Sweety home run after Oscar Aguirre's single tied Sunday's game 7-7 in the seventh, FIU making the comeback from down 7-3 in the fourth.

More Housecleaning...

I apologize. It's been a wacky, hectic few days in the South Beach real world. So here's a few items I meant to post or wax on (wax off) earlier, but am now cramming them in before the 836 Wedding Procession to Camp Mitch for baseball.

Spring Football: All 15 practices from Mar. 19 through April 20 will be open to the public, in contrast to last year. What? Installing a new offense and they're not going into Langley Lockdown? Don't they know the secrets that can leak even though there are about four offensive styles split among 120 or so FBS schools? Where's the paranoia?

They are saying no pictures, video or breathless social media commentary. In practice, if enough of you show up, they'll be able to police that flow of information about as well as our government polices the flow of really good drugs across state and national borders.

Practices will be from 9-11:30 a.m. Mar. 19; Mar. 21; Mar. 23; Mar. 26; Mar. 28; Mar. 30; Apr. 2; Apr. 6; Apr. 8; Apr. 10; Apr. 12; Apr. 16; Apr. 18; and Apr. 20. Friday, April 5's session will be from 3:30-6 p.m. Obviously somebody has a very good or very perverse idea of how to best spend Friday Happy Hours.

Coaching staff: Jason Brooks is FIU's defensive backs coach. Brooks spent the last four years as an offensive assistant -- quality control, assistant to the offense -- with Baltimore. Further back, 2007-08, Brooks was a Dolphins scouting assistant. He's no stranger to grunt work.

God only knows...: The women's hoop team managed only 47 points Thursday night against Arkansas-Little Rock. Junior guard Jerica Coley scored 28 of those 47 points. Coley's up to 48.2 percent of FIU's scoring over the last 12 games.

 

 

Last dance

Tonight's doubleheader against Arkansas-Little Rock Senior Night at The Branch, the last home game for the men and last for the women unless they get into the Women's NIT again and host a game or two.

The women's team says sayonara to three seniors: guard Carmen Miloglav, sometime point guard; forward Diamond Ashmore, whose worth could be measured by how flat and defensively vulnerable FIU looked played without her in home losses to Middle Tennessee and Louisiana-Monroe; and forward Finda Mansare, who started 64 of 65 games as a sophomore and junior and has been depended upon this season for a mid-range jumper to keep the opposing hounds off Jerica Coley.

As for Coley, in the last 11 games, FIU's scored 696 points. Coley's scored 330 of those, a 33.0 points per game average and 47.4 percent of FIU's scoring.

Defending The Branch for the final time on the men's side are guard Cameron Bell, who has started five of 14 games since coming off shoulder injury this year; forward Tola Akomolafe, who can be a barometer for FIU -- if he's into it and rebounding well early, it usually means a good night for FIU; Gaby Belardo, a transfer who began the year as the starting point guard and has been coming off the bench to spell Deric Hill; and Manny Nunez, who has made five appearances this season, to much glee from the Pi Kappa Alphas at the FAU game.

With a win, the men's team clinches at least a .500 record with road games against ULM and FAU remaining before the Sun Belt tournament. That's maybe not as remarkable as the other college basketball story in town. But it's darn close.

The Departed: Cristobal and Cyprien; Coley Player of the Week (again)

Well, that was a busy hour.

After my cell phone battery drained waiting to ask NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock about what safety Johnathan Cyprien has done to move up his draft board to the No. 3 safety, I saw I had a text message from a source that former FIU coach Mario Cristobal was bouncing from his still-new University of Miami job to Nick Saban's Alabama staff to be offensive line coach.

I know Cristobal considered it a tough decision as he pondered late last week whether or not to make this move. Not so much on football and resources, obviously, but leaving South Florida for Tuscaloosa.

As for Cyprien, Mayock said he's part of the deepest draft for safeties in the last three or four years and thought he made great sense for Washington to draft.

"He could start immediately for the Washington Redskins," Mayock said. "He can play both (free and strong safety) but I like him at free."

And Washington's probably got a broader mind toward Sun Belt talent than most organizations. They have to deal with Dallas' DeMarcus Ware (Troy) twice a year and just got a sixth-round steal in FAU running back Alfred Morris.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

Junior guard Jerica Coley put in 63 points in wins over Troy and Western Kentucky, shot 54.8 percent from the field in doing so, pulled in 14 rebounds and added six -- assists, steals and blocks, each. So the Sun Belt named her Player of the Week for the fourth time this season.

More (mostly baseball) stuff from A Great Day at Camp Mitch

 While Friday’s rain made for some long Saturdays for FIU athletes, coaches and staff, it did set up a pretty impressive Don Larsen Day for FIU: 6-0 across four teams playing at Camp Mitch Saturday, 2-0 at each venue.

Softball reversed its fortunes after a tough start last weekend with wins over UConn (3-2) and Binghamton (4-3) in the Blue/Gold Felsberg Memorial. Inside The Branch, a lot of defense and Jerica gave the women’s basketball team a 72-53 blowout of Western Kentucky. And the men’s basketball team finished the double spanking of the Hilltoppers with an 87-82 win.

Baseball took out Stony Brook 10-4 in the postponed season opener and 3-0, a game that started late but FIU pitching further delayed Stony Brook’s bats from making an appearance.

Most of this blog focuses on baseball, as that’s where I spent an hour Friday (after spending an hour and a half getting there in Friday traffic) and all day Saturday.

The baseball field’s left field lights held a lights out strike early in Game 2. Turtle Thomas, Stony Brook coach Matt Senk and the umpires got together before the third inning to discuss the matter. FIU had just cranked two deep flyouts to that increasingly dark part of the park. The lights to the adjoining soccer field got turned on as a help, an amusing idea considering the limited effect the soccer field’s lights have on darkness taking over the soccer field.

All agreed to play on. Thomas said if Senk had wanted the game halted, FIU would’ve stopped.

“Because they’re our guests.” Thomas said.

Four new pitchers did a masterful job for FIU Saturday. Stony Brook roughed up Game 1 starter Mike Ellis a bit with only four hits, but four runs, all earned, in four innings.  Junior college transfer Ty Sullivan tamed the rowdy Stony Brook bats for four innings before freshman Dillion Maya finished the show. In Game 2, FIU brooked no rowdiness from The Brook as Tyler Alexander gave up four hits in six innings and Mitchell Davis allowed two baserunners while striking out three in two innings. Senior Mike Gomez put the bow on the game, easily.

Here’s three of the new guys on their night.

Alexander:  “I do the chart (for the first game’s pitchers), so I was ready for whatever. I knew that if I came hard and live off my change up a little bit, then I could come back in with the hard stuff. It seemed to work.

“I feel like they struggled with the fastball. They were sitting on speed. They waited on the first pitch strike. They made you throw that first strike.”

Sullivan:  “All through those four innings, I noticed they were an aggressive team, but at the same time, they were patient. They were picking and choosing pitches. I could see why they were a College World Series team. They didn’t lay off anything that was off the plate. When I went out there, my goal was just pound it, pound it. Especially with guys on base in big situations, throw that off speed stuff for strikes. “

“They were really patient hitters, but when they got their pitch, they were really aggressive on it. So if it was in the strike zone, they were attacking it. In first two or three innings for me, they were looking for that fastball up, but I threw a couple of changeups and sliders that would break late. They swing over the top of a lot of those, so that started to work well.”

Mitchell Davis: “I had a live fastball today. A lot of off speed, my slider, my go-to pitch was on. Can’t complain on that. Changeup was a little off. Figured it out. Got that working and once I had all three working, it was no shot for the other team.”

If Davis sounds confident, well, yeah. Facing his first batter with the game scoreless, he fielded a grounder, then launch a shoulder missile wide and far of first. The runner got sacrificed to third.

“I knew I could get out of that and keep us tied up so we could get the lead next inning,” Davis said.

He got Anthony Italiano to fly out to second, walked leadoff hitter Cole Peragine, then struck out Steven Goldstein. The next inning, FIU took a 1-0 lead.

Davis, who went to Grayson County College, then Northeast Texas Junior College before coming to FIU, made the National Honor Society in high school.

(Hearing “National Honor Society” always reminds me of this piece of Dolphins trivia: the Dolphins only playoff team of the last decade, 2008, had a Rhodes Scholar candidate at quarterback, Chad Pennington, and three former National Honor Society members. Two you could predict: son of an Stanford professor Greg Camarillo and Donald Thomas, a UConn graduate raised in the shadow of Yale. The third? Channing Crowder.)

Anyway, someone with the intellect and/or work ethic to be a National Honor Society member going to a junior college is akin to someone with four-star recruit physical ability playing Division II.

“It was a pretty difficult decision,” Davis said. “I decided it was a good opportunity. I got injured my senior year. So, juco was my route because I didn’t get offered to big time D-1s like I wanted to. I knew I needed to get my name out there.”

Davis said the academic scholarships he could get didn’t cover as much as the academic-athletic or the athletics-only scholarships baseball might bring.

“(He and his family) just get by so I needed as much help as I could get,” the Fort Worth native said.

Another new pitcher from Texas, Corpus Christi’s Mike Franco, got penciled in as the Sunday starter earlier this week. When Franco whistled a 95 to 96 mph fastball in preseason training, it rated not on the Wow Factor scale, but on the Say What? Factor scale.

“It was one of those days,” Franco said. “There’s adrenaline going, first time being out of the mound in a couple of months, coming back from my injury and I just felt good.”

Franco’s coming off Tommy John surgery last April after tearing ligaments in his elbow. That he’s pitching at all speaks to persistence.

“Truthfully, a lot of people were (wondering) if I would even come back by this season,” Franco said. “Coach Thomas didn’t think I was going to come back for this season. I was determined to throw this year. I couldn’t sit out another year.”

Even should Franco start later today, he’ll be on a pitch count that increases by five each weekend. Still, that kind of fastball injects some anticipation into Sunday afternoon’s series closer.