The Dig: Happy Memorial Day Edition

The Rush wants to wish everyone a Happy Memorial Day- Thank You to all the veterans and servicemen out there! Congrats to the UTEP ROTC squad that won the Light Division Championship at the Bataan Memorial Death March (an insane 26.2 mile marathon through the mountain ranges near White Sands, while wearing & carrying military gear).  For more on the Miner win and the incredible event, click here.  This time:  Former NMSU guard Jahmar Young was tased by Las Cruces Police; DC's schedule fills up, a cameo from a former good lookin' Miner b-ball player, and Rice humiliates Houston only to fall in the C-USA Baseball Final.  In The Dig. 

The UTEP Miners

The Derrick Caracter Show:  Chalk up the Sacramento Bee as another newspaper that has touched on the "Character Issues" thing.

Caracter, 22, has worked feverishly to getin shape. But he knows only time will repair the negative perceptions. "It's something I'm going to tell you," Caracter said. "And whether you believe it or not, I know it's something I've got to prove. It's not going to happen overnight."

The Wiz:  DC has a May 31st date to work out for the Washington Wizards.

The Wolf:  DC is also working out for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

These Are Good Off-Season Headlines:  Miner football player Adam Ayala was featured in his hometown paper (Huntsville, TX) for his hard work over the summer. 

Adam Ayala was back in the weight room at Huntsville High School. A redshirt freshman at UTEP, Ayala came back home after he finished his last final exam. While he’s here, Ayala is running and lifting weights, staying in shape for the upcoming college football season.

Top Model:  Former Miner woman's basketball player Claudia Porras (right in picture) is now a Bolivian supermodel.  The El Paso Times is hosting a chat with the former star on Monday at noon.

She completed her degree in Business Administration from UTEP in 2008. Porras played pro basketball in Denmark before returning to her native Bolivia. She is a well-known model in South America and she also coaches children's basketball in Bolivia.

via UTEP.edu

The Inc:  El Paso, Inc. deserves a ton of credit for their sports reporting lately.  Today, they examine the details of the city's financial proposal that secured the 2011 C-USA Tournaments.

El Paso’s $1 million guarantee is backed by the sports commission, which kicked in $50,000 as the tournament’s first sponsor and agreed to cover the first $50,000 in potential losses. The city and county governments promise to split any further loss.

All the money behind the guarantee is revenue from the 15.5-percent hotel occupancy tax. The tax generated $17 million last year from guests staying in El Paso’s hotels and motels. Seven percent of those revenues go to the city, 6 percent to the state and 2.5 percent to the county.

Southern Miss. Golden Eagles

Burned Rice:  The USM Golden Eagles stunned Rice in the C-USA Tournament Championship and punched their ticket to the national tournament.  Rice is still a sure bet for an at-large berth.

Southern Mississippi needed to win the Conference USA tournament to get a bid thanks to a weak RPI, and the Golden Eagles did just that. USM beat Rice 7-4 in the CUSA title game behind 4 1/3 hitless innings of relief from Scott Copeland. Copeland and Todd McInnis (who gave up four runs in 4 2/3 in the start) give the Eagles a formidable 1-2 punch and make them dangerous in regionals. USM's victory means Conference USA gets two bids instead of one as expected (since Rice is an at-large team), which means one fewer spot for another bubble team.

Houston Cougars

Oh Dear Lord is Right:  Before Rice was burned by Southern Miss, they Owls absolutely destroyed their crosstown rivals.  They crushed the Coogs 24-3. Yes, that's a baseball score.  The guys at Scott & Holman were disgusted.

By that standard, it wasn’t a bad evening. Unfortunately, there was a game on. In said game, the Houston Cougar baseball team lost to the Rice Owl baseball team, 24-3. At baseball. Yes, that score happened with two teams playing baseball. Well, at least one team was playing baseball.

Speaking of S&L:  College Football Zealots asked Dustin from Scott & Holman some questions in their Houston Preview.   Dustin thinks the Coog's first test is in Week 2 against UTEP.

UTEP, in the second game of the year, because they did beat us last year after all. I don't expect the Miners to break Houston's 15 game winning streak at Robertson Stadium, but they always do seem to have a potent offense, and the game will be an excellent test for the Stewart defense.

 

The Rice Owls

Outside the Lines:  The famed ESPN show did a nice story on Rice forward Arsalan Kazemi, the first Iranian born player to play Division 1 basketball.

The Marshall Thundering Herd

Quarterback:  The Clarion Ledger has a nice feature on new Marshall head basketball coach Tom Herrion. 

He comes to a school with national name recognition, a solid basketball past and little in the way of recent success. Roadblocked in part by Memphis' domination in Conference USA, the Thundering Herd are in the midst of a 23-year NCAA tournament drought. This past season, Marshall put together its best season in a decade and only its third winning season since 2001 and promptly lost its coach (Donnie Jones went to Central Florida) and its best player (Hassan Whiteside declared for the NBA draft).

 

Southern Methodist Mustangs

Pony Fever:  The SMU Mustang faithful are finally interested in SMU football again- a bowl win will do that for a program.  ESPN is reporting that the Pony's have sold out their boxes and club seats for all of next season.

So great is the enthusiasm for this team that for the first time since the stadium was built in 2000 -- and probably the first time since the Pony Express took the field in the early 80s -- SMU has sold out all of its premium seating for the 2010 season. That’s right. All 29 suites and 731 club seats in Gerald J. Ford Stadium are gone for the entire year.

 

A Glance Up 1-10

Don't Tase Me Bro:  Former NMSU guard Jahmar Young has officially been indicted for two crimes stemming from his latest brush with the law.  If you recall, he was charged with felony battery of a police officer after he was disruptive at a Las Cruces area convenience store.  Apparently, Young is now suing the Las Cruces Police Department, whose officer's tased him during the arrest, for police brutality. 

Police used a Taser on Young several times during the incident, according to Young's attorney Joe Coronado of Las Cruces. Coronado, who sent a tort claim notice to the city in April, signaling intent to file a lawsuit against the Las Cruces Police Department, called the officers' actions "unnecessary or excessive."