Roccaforte wins recruiting battle for point guard

[KFDM COOP]

Roccaforte wins recruiting battle for point guard

Bob West column for Sunday, May 13

The Port Arthur News

Look for an announcement any day that Lamar University basketball coach Steve Roccaforte has won a tough recruiting battle for Arizona Western point guard Kenny Dawkins, the player who could be the final piece in a championship puzzle for the Cardinals. Dawkins, 5-11, 175, was on the radar of Gonzaga at one time, took visits to Utah State and Boise State and turned down trips to St. Louis, San Diego and Wichita State. On the way to being named the Arizona Junior College Player of the Year, as well as a second team JC All-America selection, he averaged 17 points, 4.5 assists and 2.5 steals while shooting 42 percent on 3-pointers and 85 percent at the foul line. Some tipping points in Lamar’s favor were that he played high school ball with another LU recruit, Justin Nabors, in Holly Springs, Miss., had current Cardinal Currye Todd’s mother as one of his teachers and was recruited hard by LU assistant Don Skelton when Skelton was at Northwest Mississippi JC . . . Dawkins will round out a 4-man recruiting class that, among other things, figures to dramatically upgrade Lamar’s wretched free throw shooting. In addition to Dawkins' 85 percent average, Brandon McThay shot freebies at an 80 percent clip, Ashton Hall was at 79 and Nabors at 78. As poorly as so many college and NBA players shoot free throws, it’s impossible to overemphasize the importance of having guys who can convert what should be one of the easiest acts in all of sports. It never ceases to amaze me that athletes with such mind-blowing skills can’t make an unguarded shot from 15 feet. Golden State, of course, is the latest example of how missed free throw cost you games. When the Warriors missed 3 of 4 in the final minute in Game 2 at Utah they threw literally threw away a victory. It may well cost them the series.

In addition to paying Roger Clemens $18.5 million to pitch five or six innings every fifth day for the season’s final four months, his contract is costing the Yankees $7.5 million in luxury tax to be distributed among MLB’s teams which don’t operate with monopoly money. The Yankees, by the way, are on the hook for his entire salary, should Clemens be injured at some point and miss the rest of the season. As such, they are scrambling to find an insurance policy to hedge their ridiculous bet. Such a policy will reportedly cost in the $2 million range . . . Clemens, incidentally, was ticked off when Astros manager Phil Garner hinted on ESPN’s Mike & Mike Show that the Rocket was taking advantage of his “family waiver†by playing in golf tournaments during the baseball season. He called out Garner in print and the Astros manager went back on Mike & Mike to make it clear he didn’t think there was any team resentment over Clemens not being with the team on a regular basis. God forbid that somebody in the Astros organization ruffle his feathers. He might punish them by backing out of that 10-year personal services contract . . . Both Clemens and the Yankees are taking a lot of flak over the fact his contract gives him an out from being with the team while not pitching. While nobody made much of a deal about it when he was playing in Houston, sensible folks are rightfully pointing out that a Pandora’s box has been opened. Agents for other aging stars will be angling for special considerations. Other players have been quoted as saying they would never ask for such an out because they feel it’s important to be there to support teammates. It’s an issue that isn’t going away and the surly Clemens is certain to get hammered with it every where he goes. Watching his blood boil will be fun.

Many NFL quarterbacks are good golfers and the Cowboys Tony Romo is no exception. Romo, whose off-season playing time has been seriously cut back while he works with Jason Garrett on learning a new playbook, made an impressive showing in U.S. Open local qualifying at Hackberry Creek in Irving. Despite missing four birdie putts and two eagle opportunities inside 20 feet, Romo shot a 1-over-par 72. He missed advancing to the regional stage of Open qualifying by four strokes. His next major golf opportunity will be in July at the Celebrity Golf Association American Century Championship in Reno. He’ll be competing against the likes of John Elway, Michael Jordan, Rick Rhoden and Emmitt Smith . . . Even when Tiger Woods has a bad round it seems like a remarkable statistic comes out of it. Woods, on the way to shooting an opening round 75 in the Players Championship, failed to make a birdie for only the fifth time since joining the PGA Tour in 1996. It was the first time without a birdie since the 2003 Masters and the first time outside a major championships. That’s truly amazing . . . The NFL is about to make a major change in its regular season. Plans are well along to eliminate one of four preseason games and add a 17th regular season game to be played outside the United States. Every NFL team would play one such game, with the likely venues London, Berlin, Mexico City and probably somewhere in Canada. It could happen as early as the 2009 season.

Memorial ex Jamaal Charles will be out to defend his 100 meters title in the Big 12 Championships Sunday afternoon in Lincoln, Neb. The UT flash ran the fastest time in Saturday’s prelims, a 10.34. Charles, as a freshman, won the 100 meters in a smoking 10.23 seconds. It was the third best time in Big 12 history behind only the 10.19 stepped off by Texas A&M’s Billy Fobbs in 1997 and the 10.21 of UT’s Lawrence Armstrong in 2000 . . . One of the things I really like about Yao Ming is that, despite averaging 25 points and 9rebounds, he clearly understands he needs to get better. As such, he was saying in the aftermath of Houston’s disappointing round 1 playoff loss to Utah that he’s trying to make arrangements to spend time working with Hakeem Olajuwon this summer. Too bad the Rockets didn’t arrange for that to happen sooner. Or take Moses Malone up on his offer to tutor Yao. Either one would have been so much better for Yao’s development than Patrick Ewing . . . Houstonian Barry Warner, who turns up periodically on my Sportsrap radio show, had a funny story concerning Olajuwon and over-the-top NBA official Joey Crawford. Crawford, during Olajuwon’s rookie season, thought the Rockets’ star had cussed him in Nigerian. He walked into the Houston huddle and told coach Bill Fitch “to get that big African under control.†Fitch told Crawford to get out of his huddle, whereupon, Crawford ejected Olajuwon. Warner, doing color on the Rockets’ telecast, told him booting Olajuwon was BS and that his father — baseball umpire Shag Crawford — would be embarrassed at his actions. Crawford then spun around and threatened to toss Warner.

Jayson Stark, the MLB insider for ESPN.com, came up with an interesting concept to get a feel for the game’s best pitchers. Stark surveyed 20 general managers, assistant GMs and scouts, asking them the question, “Who would you pay to watch pitch?†The 5 starters drawing the most votes, in order, were Minnesota’s Johan Santana, Seattle’s Felix Hernandez, Boston’s Dice-K Matsuzaka, the Yankees Roger Clemens and the Astros Roy Oswalt. Former Astro Billy Wagner was the choice as a closer with the most votes. One AL GM labeled Oswalt as the best starter in the NL, which would get little argument in Houston . . . It was nice to see the NCAA has certified the same 32 bowl games for 2007 that were sanctioned in 2006. That means a lot of teams will be able to call 6-6 seasons successful and several coaches will be able to add another meaningless bowl game to their resume. Ho hum. Can anybody name the opponents in five bowl games last year ? ? ? Nebraska, which has always been front and center when it comes to bringing cupcake opponents into Lincoln, has added mighty Western Michigan for 2008. Guess the Cornhuskers must have gotten shook up when they saw Texas was down to scheduling the likes of Arkansas State . . . The 15th annual Ed Peveto Crawfish Boil to benefit Orangefield student-athletes is set for 1 p.m. May 26 at the Jewell Cormier Community Center on Hwy 1442 in Orangefield. The late Peveto was a long time AD/head football coach/track coach at Orangefield. Scholarships are given annually in his name to a top male and female student athlete from Orangefield.

[Guest WBFan09]

DANG big recruit for Lamar...cant wait to see what this kids got!!!

[KFDM COOP]

Heading in the right direction!

[UNLV]

Heading in the right direction!

Heading??? Already there. Nobody in SLC play will be able to stop

a starting line-up of

Dawkins

Hopkins

Hall

Sanders

Davis

off the bench

Todd, Nabors, 6'10" Custer, N'wevo...These players would be starters on any other SLC team. This team would be 2nd or 3rd in Conference USA.

[DenisGScott]

lets try being 2nd or 3rd in the SLC before touting our horns of being 2nd or 3rd in C-USA

[UNLV]

2nd or 3rd in the SLC is an insult to this team. SLC is ranked near bottom of all conferences.

[Gtj007]

Why is 2nd or 3rd in the SLC an insult to Lamar???  When is the last time they finished 2nd or 3rd in ANY conference????  I would love for Lamar to win the SLC regular season, win the SLC conference tournament and then win a first rd. NCAA game.  BUT, come on guys!!!  Do some of you not remember ALL the pre-season hype last year????  Lamar finished the season with a losing record and was tied for the 5th best record in the SLC at 8-8.

Do I think they will be an improved team form last year.  You bet!!  But do I think they are a lock for winning the SLC, NO WAY!!!  So, in my eyes, finishing 2nd or 3rd would be a good thing!!!  An improvement!!!

[JMay]

Lots of hype last year..even I few preseason picks to finish 1st or 2nd in the SLC East were projected.  I think the Cards ended last year on a strong note winning the Quarterfinal game against SHSU.  I good group and a solid returning core should make them a league favorite, but lets not get ahead of ourselves.  I do think this program has made a great choice in their coach, and he will lead them to be a top SLC program year in and year out.

[UNLV]

Many of you obvious have not studied the other teams. All the teams ahead of LU last year lost 3 or more starters. These teams are rebuilding. LU got all 5 starters back on a senior heavy team. Do the math.

[Gtj007]

Who won the SLC East Div this year???  NW State, right.  And they lost all but one of their starters from the previous year (the year they won an NCAA game).  Two years ago Lamar had 4 or 5 staters back and there was talk about how we would win the SLC hand down.  What happened????  Again, I hope we win it all next year, but you can't just go by how many players you have coming back.

[JMay]

There are definately some studs in the barn for next season, but The Roc will have to have them firing on all cylinders to win it.  It is theirs for the taking.