Archive for April, 2011

Georgia State men’s basketball coach Ron Hunter announced his coach staff today.

Joining Hunter as assistants are Darryl LaBarrie, Everick Sullivan and Claude Pardue. Tony Bollier is the Director of Basketball Operations.

LaBarrie, an assistant at Georgia Tech the previous two seasons, joined Hunter just after he was hired last month. He is a native of Decatur.

Sullivan spent the previous three seasons as an associate head coach at Eastern Kentucky. He is a native of Simpsonville, S.C. and played at Louisville. He played in three NCAA tournaments for Denny Crum and is among the Cardinals’ all-time leaders in assists (ninth), three-point percentage (10th) and scoring (15th).

Pardue, a graduate of Emory, spent last season as program coordinator at UTEP after two seasons as a graduate assistant at Georgia State. He is a native of Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Bollier spent the previous four years in the NBA office in New York.

Continue reading Ron Hunter names basketball staff »

Georgia State will have home and away conference games in men’s basketball for the next three seasons against Delaware, Wilmington, Northeastern, Virginia Commonwealth and William and Mary in the new basketball schedule format announced by the Colonial Athletic Association on Tuesday.

The partners in women’s basketball are Hofstra, UNCW, Northeastern, Old Dominion and VCU.

The format includes 18 conference games and is similar to the recently completed six-year schedule that was adopted before the 2005-06 season. Each team was assigned five permanent partners that they play home and away during each season. The remaining six conference games include two opponents at home, two opponents away and two opponents home and away.

The schedule, with dates, will be released in early September.

Each school submitted a list of five preferred permanent partners in rank order to the conference, with only the top choice guaranteed. Each school received a minimum of three of its five …

Continue reading CAA announces new hoops format »

Georgia State announced its spring football award winners today. But there’s a notable catch. For the first time in its short history, the team has named permanent captains. They are Arthur Williams, Christo Bilukidi and Akeen Felder. In the past, the team just named captains for the games.

Coach Bill Curry said he tabbed the trio because “all those guys are really outstanding leaders.”

Bilukidi, who will be a senior and is a defensive tackle, is the team’s defensive captain.

Felder, who will be a redshirt junior, is the special teams captain.

Williams, who will be a senior and tight end, is the offensive captain.

Curry said leadership is the area the team improved most in during the spring. I’ll have more on that later.

Here are the award winners, with a few thoughts from Curry:

Most Improved

Offense: Ramell Davis, OL. He came in as a string bean. Now he’s got a little bit of heft and has improved his technique.

Defense: Allen McKay, OLB. He reached a whole new level.

Hustle …

Continue reading Georgia State names captains and award winners »

At Georgia State’s spring scrimmage Thursday, fans received t-shirts with the 2011 schedule printed on the back. Consider them collector’s items.

The school scheduled to play its season opener Sept. 1 against Clark Atlanta at the Georgia Dome. The Falcons, though, have also claimed that date for their final preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens, assuming the lockout is over. If you’re guessing that the winner of this fight is the football team that’s been a dome tenant since 1992 and last year was valued at $831 million, you’re getting warm.

The Falcons have a licensing agreement with the dome that gives them first option on every date, Thursday through Monday, from the end of July through the end of January, dome general manager Carl Adkins said Friday. When Georgia State arranged to use the dome Sept. 1, it was merely placing a hold on it in the event the Falcons didn’t want it.

“We deal with that on a regular basis with all our regular customers, as well,” Adkins …

Continue reading Falcons conflict has GSU looking for new date »

Greetings-

Three thoughts – perhaps 2 1/2 – from the Thursday scrimmage.

1. Kelton Hill looks a lot like Georgia State’s starting quarterback for the first four games of the season and perhaps beyond. You’ll remember Hill was something of a change-up for the Panthers last fall, taking a handful of series in nearly every game to mostly run a wildcat package. He was not much of a passing threat, throwing just 15 times, five of those passes coming in the Alabama game.

He looked far better throwing the ball Thursday night, completing 19 of 32 passes. A lot of it was quick stuff behind the line of scrimmage, but he had some nice downfield passes mixed in. He’s not the passing equal of Drew Little, who’ll be out those first four games, but he’s got some time to work and he also offers a running element that Little does not.

“I’m not sure you really want to rush the guy a whole lot,” offensive coordinator John Bond said. “When he gets loose out of the pocket, that’s a definite …

Continue reading Hill breaking through »

Greetings, all-

Hope you’re looking forward to the Blue-White game at the Georgia Dome Thursday. A few notes gleaned from my visit to 188 MLK Drive (also known as the Georgia State practice facility) Wednesday morning.

1) There was something of a goof with the scheduling of the scrimmage. It turns out that several players have Thursday classes, and NCAA rules (as well as Bill Curry rules) say you can’t miss a class for a practice (which is what the scrimmage is). In the end, it won’t be a disaster. The start of the scrimmage has been pushed back an hour from 6:30 to 7:30, although the whole event begins at 6:30, still. (Though that’s a little like saying a football game that’s scheduled for a noon kickoff actually begins at 11 a.m., because that’s when the teams take the field for warm-ups.)

As I wrote in the story for Thursday’s paper, center Ben Jacoby and guard Joseph Gilbert won’t participate because they have class until 10 p.m. Jacoby and Gilbert, of course, happen to be …

Continue reading GSU spring scrimmage preview »