Saturday, April 30, 2011
Appalachian State had three players chosen in the NFL Draft today, marking a first in program history.
Safety Mark LeGree was selected by the Seattle Seahawks in the fifth round, guard Daniel Kilgore was a fifth-round pick of the San Francisco 49ers and linebacker D.J. Smith was taken in the sixth round by the Green Bay Packers.
ASU has had two players selected in the same draft – in 1990 (Derrick Graham and Keith Collins), 1992 (Gary Dandridge and Mark Frier) and 2008 (Dexter Jackson and Corey Lynch) but never three.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
As of today, nine members of Appalachian State’s men’s and women’s track and field teams would qualify for NCAA regional competition scheduled for May 26-28 at Bloomington, Indiana.
The top 48 individuals and top 24 relay teams from each of two regions will advance to regional preliminaries. Qualifiers from those two meets will advance to the NCAA championship meet June 8-11 at Des Moines, Iowa.
ASU has two regular-season meets remaining before the regionals, at UNC and North Florida.
Among the top 48 in the East Region from ASU are:
Men – junior Dennis Moore, 100 meters (ranked 17th) and 200 meters (18th); junior Sean Soderman, steeplechase (17th); junior Darius Purcell, high jump (18th); senior Malcolm Styers, hammer throw (30th); sophomore Landon Powell, 100 meters (33rd); senior Jerod Gardner, shot put (35th); and 4x100 relay team (10th).
Women – senior Rebecca Hazeltine, high jump (12th); freshman Cassie Crawford, pole vault (30th); freshman Shaquiela Robinson, high jump (48th).
Friday, April 08, 2011
Four former Appalachian State baseball players will begin the season on rosters of minor-league teams.
Relief pitcher Zach Quate is with the Montgomery Biscuits, the Class AA Southern League affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays.
Right fielder David Rubinstein is playing for the Bradenton Marauders, a Pittsburgh Pirates affiliate, in the Class A Advanced Florida State League.
Reliever Josh Dowdy is with the Frederick Keys, the Class A Advanced Carolina League affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles.
Outfielder Rand Smith will begin the season with the Greensboro Grasshoppers, a Florida Marlins’ affiliate in the Class A South Atlantic League. He is on the seven-day disabled list after injuring a hand in spring training.
Rubinstein opened the season Thursday night going 2 for 4 against the Charlotte Stone Crabs. Quate and the Biscuits have an opening weekend series with Birmingham. Greensboro and Frederick begin their seasons tonight.
Rubinstein is in his fourth professional season. Dowdy, Quate and Smith are beginning their third seasons.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Jason Blalock, a former Appalachian State defensive lineman who now coaches the defensive front, wasn’t sold at first on the idea of switching to a 3-4 defense – he honed his skills in the 4-3 – but he has become a believer.
“You start looking at everything you can do with it,” Blalock said. “You can bring a lot of pressure, you dictate to the offense what they’re going to do, how they’ve got to block everything. You get more solo blocks (less double-teaming) on the defensive lineman…. There’s a lot we can do out of it. You can really keep the offense guessing.”
And, he said, it’s a good fit for the personnel he has up front, and an effort to recruit more size a couple of years ago is paying off. The Mountaineers top three down linemen this spring – nose tackle Dan Wylie (6-1, 285) and ends Gordy Witte (6-6, 290) and Will Corbin (6-6, 290) – all have offer size with athleticism.
Lanston Tanyi (6-2, 250), an outstanding pass rusher who sat out last season recovering from a toe injury, will fit at end or outside linebacker and John Rizor (6-2, 235), a defensive end in the four-man front, will play at outside linebacker.
Chris Aiken (6-1, 310) will fit into the rotation on the defensive line, and former offensive lineman Chris Marshall (6-4, 300), Anthony Wilson (6-1, 290) and Derrick Shuemake (6-4, 285) will add depth up front.
Wylie, a senior, is expected to play a key role in the middle.
“He’s one of the most explosive guys off the ball,” Blalock said. “That’s what we saw when we watched him at Georgia Military, how quickly he was off the ball and into that center.”
The transition to a 3-4 hasn’t been difficult for Wylie, who was a nose tackle in a three-man front at Georgia Military College.
“I’m very comfortable with it, because that’s what I did at GMC,” Wylie said. “I really like what we do out of this defense.”
Read more on ASU spring football, and the move of Michael Frazier from defense to offense, in Friday’s Winston-Salem Journal
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Houston Fancher laughed at the suggestion that he might have had the quickest ladder-climb in NCAA history, going from graduate assistant to interim head coach in just two years.
“That is unique,” said Fancher, who, for the time being, is Tennessee’s coach. He has replaced Bruce Pearl, who was fired Monday.
It is different, and the interim label most likely won’t transition into anything permanent in terms of the principal job. But perhaps it could lead to an assistant’s position, an upgrade from his previous status as director of video scouting, and it certainly won’t look bad on a resume.
But that’s not why Fancher is doing it. He says he’s doing it for the players.
“The kids might want to talk to somebody that’s been in the pit with them,” Fancher said. “And they know I’ve been in it with them every step of the way and I think they trust me and we’ll get through this process.”
Fancher was in the pit a couple of years ago, when he was fired as Appalachian State’s coach.
He said he’ll never forget the visit he got from ASU football coach Jerry Moore the day he lost his job.
“Coach left spring practice and came to my house and visited with me and my wife,” Fancher said. “We visited, talked, cried, prayed.
“When Coach Moore walked out the door, he turned back and said, ‘I can’t wait to see what will happen to you next, what God’s plan is.’ I’ll never forget that. And you know what, neither can I. I have trust and faith that it will all work out.”
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Friday, March 18, 2011
Daniel Kilgore, Mark LeGree and D.J. Smith – the three Appalachian State players who were invited and showcased their talent for NFL personnel earlier this month in the NFL Combine at Indianapolis – went through more workouts Thursday during ASU’s first of two pro days.
Nine ASU players worked out in front of scouts for the Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, Jacksonville Jaguars, New Orleans Saints, San Diego Chargers and Tennessee Titans. Another workout is set for next Thursday, with representatives from the Indianapolis Colts, Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers scheduled to attend.
Offensive lineman Kilgore and safety LeGree limited their work to position-specific drills Thursday, being satisfied with numbers they posted in Indianapolis, and linebacker Smith plans to be timed in the 40-yard dash next Thursday.
Kilgore, a 303-pound lineman who is being projected as a center and possibly guard, said that he has been working on his snapping ability, including long-snapping to increase his options, before the scheduled NFL Draft in April.
Kilgore and LeGree said their participation in the televised NFL Combine was a great experience.
“At times you had a surreal moment, because you’d see somebody walk by that you see on TV all the time,” Kilgore said.
“It was awesome to speak to multiple teams and different coaches and be brought in for formal interviews, and to just see all those star athletes you see on TV,” LeGree said. “It was tough not to be star-struck but I kept my composure and my whole mentality there was that it was a business trip.”
Both did well, by most accounts, and both felt they held their own against elite competition.
“I didn’t run as well as I wanted to in Indianapolis but it was good enough,” said Kilgore, whose average 40 time was 5.2 seconds “That’s just me being true to myself knowing I can run faster. Overall, I think my performance at the Combine was pretty good.”
“I was extremely pleased with my results,” said LeGree, who was among top performers in some categories, and was pleased with his 4.56 time in the 40. “They were pretty accurate in terms of doing what I was training for in Florida. I did really well in the position drills and that’s what I wanted to show, that I could look just as smooth and fluid as the other guys.”
Both have reason to expect to be drafted, but will most certainly wind up in an NFL team camp if they aren’t.
Asked what he’s been hearing, LeGree laughed and said: “Anywhere from the No. 1 pick to Mr. Irrelevant. So you can’t go in with expectations. I just want a chance.”
Kilgore said he is tuning out all speculation.
“If you had asked me a year ago that I would have been sitting here, I would have laughed,” Kilgore said. “I’m just happy to be here. If they call my name (draft day), so be it. I probably won’t know until that moment.”
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Neither Appalachian State nor Samford had their best game Monday in the Southern Conference championship game.
But, in the end, the team that had been there before cut down the nets and picked up the trophy.
Samford, still stinging from a five-point loss to Chattanooga in the SoCon final a year earlier, found a way to win this time.
Coach Darcie Vincent’s Appalachian State program, which hadn’t played in a game with an NCAA Tournament berth on the line since 1999, couldn’t get over the hump and didn’t find a way.
“Something I truly believe in is sometimes you’ve got to play in a game to learn how to win it,” Vincent said.
The Mountaineers failed to score in the final 2:35, going 0 for 3 from the field and 0 for 2 from the free-throw line. They led by as many as nine points, but lost by three.
Vincent recalled a game with a similar outcome when she was coach at California (Pa.) and her team was in the Division II Final Four for the first time.
“We blew it the same way,” Vincent said. “We had probably six open looks at layups, down by a point, we held them and then we couldn’t score six times. We saw that tonight. We had a ton of opportunities to win it, even free throws at the end, and we couldn’t pull it out.
“Hopefully, this is a feeling and experience that these kids will hold onto.”
For the record, Vincent’s California team came back the next season and won a national title.
“Samford has had a couple of years of being in this game and that experience,” Vincent said. “(Emily) London and (Savannah) Hill are very seasoned players…and when things needed to get done, they got it done.”
Hill said that last year’s loss – knowing how it felt to come so close and lose – helped Samford win this time.
“We didn’t want to feel that again,” Hill said. “We said at halftime we didn’t want to feel that again. We didn’t want to have to go through that. So we left it all out on the floor, played our hearts out, and came out with the win.”
Coach Mike Morris of Samford said: “I think we’ve been good enough to win (a title) for five or six years maybe…but I do think you’ve almost got to get here, to the finals, and then come back and I think that experience really paid off.”
ASU, a team with only one senior, will enter next season with a sense of something left undone.
“These kids can go out of this season – and I know we still have a game left, hopefully two or three (in the WNIT) – being satisfied with what we’ve accomplished or they can go and realize, ‘Hey, we worked hard but we were four points shy of winning this whole thing and being in the NCAA Tournament,’” Vincent said. “That’s going to define our team right now.
“That was our national championship team (at California). We won that national championship starting 11 months and 29 days before, from the day we lost that Final Four game, because that’s when those kids began to realize that one thing, that extra thing they needed, that extra hard work, that extra mentality that you bring to the court.
“With such a young team, it’s going to be how long does it sit in the pit of their stomach, how long does it stay in their mind. Are they going to say, ‘We thought we worked hard, but we still wound up short?’ or are they going to sit back and say, ‘Hey, this is good enough, winning the regular-season title, having 20-plus wins again.’ If that happens, I won’t be a happy person next season. But I don’t think that’s the character of these young ladies.”
Until the next NCAA Tournament opportunity comes, a team that went from nine wins two years ago to 23 and a Women’s Basketball Invitational title last season, will continue to build with an opportunity in the WNIT.
“The groundwork we’ve laid with these kids and the quick movement up, you can’t lose sight of that,” Vincent said. “It’s been amazing. It’s hard to imagine that you go from nothing to what we did last year to ‘Boom, you’re in the NCAA Tournament.’
“Now it’s going to come down to if they’re satisified or not, and how they deal with this thing (heading into next year’s SoCon Tournament). If they want it, it’s going to be theirs for the taking. If they don’t, they’re going to have a lot more disappointment.”
Monday, March 07, 2011
Now that Appalachian State’s women have made it to the Southern Conference championship game, coach Darcie Vincent says there is pressure to win it.
No longer the underdog – as regular-season champions – the Mountaineers’ turnaround from 9-22 two years ago is nearly complete. A SoCon title is a remaining prize.
“I kind of joked with the kids about the fact that we were so honored and blessed to have the awards that we had going into the postseason,” Vincent said. “We’re sitting here with player of the year, defensive player of the year, staff (coach) of the year. That puts a lot more pressure on you – hey, you better go out and win this sucker.
“For us to be there for the first time in a very long time, and the fact that we have put our program back at that level… it’s going to be a great taste for us and hopefully it’s just the first time in many years to come.”
The Mountaineers, in the final for the first time since 1999, blew past Elon 72-48 in the SoCon Tournament semifinals Sunday, improving to 25-5 and setting a program record for most wins in a season.
They’ll face Samford at 4 p.m. Monday in the title game at McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Samford (24-7) is in the final for the second straight year. The Bulldogs lost to Chattanooga in last season’s championship game, after dispatching ASU in the semifinals. Sunday, the Bulldogs knocked off perennial champion and hometown favorite Chattanooga 68-66 in overtime to advance to the title game.
Both are relatively young teams. The Mountaineers have one senior; the Bulldogs have two.
“We have to go in and play App basketball for 40 minutes and hopefully we’ll be OK,” Vincent said.
After winning 23 games and the inaugural Womens’ Basketball Invitational last season, there is no goal other than winning a SoCon title and advancing to the NCAA Tournament.
“We’ve done a lot this year winning the regular season, that’s great,” forward Anna Freeman said. “But if we had lost today we wouldn’t have really done much more than we did last year. So making it to the final is kind of that next step of what we needed to do and what we were brought here to do.
“I think it’s definitely a milestone for us to reach the final but that’s not the end of the road for what we were brought here to do.”
Forward Ashlen Dewart said: “Winning this tournament would be huge for us. I know we can do it. It’s just up to us and it’s going to be a huge statement of who we are and what we’ve become.”
Saturday, March 05, 2011
Appalachian State’s season most likely ended today with a loss to defending champion Wofford in the Southern Conference Tournament.
It was a season that marked the beginning of a head-coaching career for Jason Capel, and the end of a collegiate career for prolific Donald Sims.
Sims, the Mountaineers’ all-time leading scorer with 2,185 points, walked off the court at McKenzie Arena without a SoCon title but with a stellar career.
“It’s been a blessing,” Sims said. “The guys I played with, the coaches I played for, you couldn’t ask for anything more.”
The Mountaineers can hope to keep playing – and did express interest in one of the off-brand post-season tournaments in the event they didn’t win the SoCon – but it doesn’t appear likely.
Capel, in his first season as a head coach, did an admirable job getting the Mountaineers to 16-15. That feat required seven wins in eight games in February.
The Mountaineers were expected to contend for this year’s SoCon title with key returnees from last season’s runner-up team and the addition of Omar Carter, but were dealt a blow when big center Ike Butts injured a knee and wound up red-shirting.
Capel, who was promoted to head coach after one season as an assistant to replace Buzz Peterson, who left for a more lucrative job at UNC Wilmington, had to endure challenges with suspensions, injuries and a road-heavy schedule for much of the season.
“We were dealt some tough hands this year, but we stuck together, we persevered,” Capel said. “Any adversity that came out way we didn’t drop our heads. We offered no excuses. We just kept plugging away and figured out a way to make things happen, to make things work.
“We left some wins off the board we should have had, but we had to piece this team together at times and we did that. We fought and hung in there. And we’ll get better.”
The Mountaineers will lose Sims, and veteran guard Jeremi Booth. But Butts is expected back next season, and point guard G.J. Vilarino, who sat out this season after playing a year at Gonzaga is among the additions that will join a group of returning players that includes Carter and five other players who were regular parts of the rotation.
Thursday, March 03, 2011
Appalachian State injury update: Starting guard Jeremi Booth, who missed the regular-season finale after breaking a bone in his left hand, is questionable for Friday’s first-round game against Georgia Southern and is considered day-to-day for the tournament. Mitch Woods, backup point guard, is probable after missing the last two games with a nagging hip injury.
Team records in SoCon Tournament games in Chattanooga (includes first-round games played there in 1981 and 1982): Chattanooga 8-0, College of Charleston 3-2, Samford 2-1, Appalachian 3-3, Davidson 2-2, Elon 2-2, UNC Greensboro 2-2, Georgia Southern 1-2, The Citadel 0-2, Furman 0-2, Western Carolina 0-2, Wofford 0-2.
Most recent SoCon title: Wofford 2010, Chattanooga 2009, Davidson 2008, UNC Greensboro 2001, Appalachian 2000, College of Charleston 1999, Western Carolina 1996, Furman 1980. The Citadel, Elon, Georgia Southern and Samford have never won a SoCon Tournament championship.
SoCon titles per team: Chattanooga 10, Davidson 9, Furman 6, Appalachian 2, College of Charleston 1, UNC Greensboro 1, Western Carolina 1, Wofford 1.
Current players who have been named to All-SoCon Tournament team: Noah Dahlman, Wofford (first team 2010); Jamar Diggs, Wofford (first team 2010); Andrew Goudelock (first team 2010, second team 2009); Donald Sims, Appalachian (first team 2010, second team 2009); Tim Johnson, Wofford (second team 2010); Harouna Mutombo, Western Carolina (second team 2010); Cameron Rundles, Wofford (second team, 2010).
Top single-game performances 2010-11: Points – Ricky Taylor (Chattanooga) 41 vs. UNC Greensboro; Rebounds – 16, Mike Groselle (Citadel) 16 vs. Wofford; Assists – 13, Keegan Bell (Chattanooga) 13 vs. Appalachian.
Team category leaders 2010-11:
Scoring – College of Charleston, 76.8 points a game
Fewest points allowed – Furman, 65.0
Rebound margin – Davidson, plus 4.7
Steals – Western Carolina, 9.0
Assist/turnover ratio – Wofford, 1.2
Individual category leaders 2010-11:
Scoring – Andrew Goudelock, College of Charleston, 23.0 points a game
Rebounding – Tim Johnson, Wofford, 8.8
Assists – Keegan Bell, Chattanooga and Chris Long, Elon, 5.8
Steals – Jelani Hewitt, Georgia Southern and Mike Williams, Western Carolina, 2.0
Field-goal percentage – Noah Dahlman, Wofford, .623
3-point field-goal percentage – Noah States, Furman, .482
3-pointers per game – Goudelock, 3.4
Free-throw percentage – Nik Cochran, Davidson, .882
Assist/turnover ratio – Long, 2.6
Blocked shots – Lucas Troutman, Elon, 1.6
Minutes played – Donald Sims, Appalachian, 37.8
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