Afternoon Headlines for March 10th

In LCU news University Chancellor Dr. Ken Jones and Athletic Director Paul Hise welcomed in Todd Duncan today as the news head coach of the Chaparrals men’s basketball team. Duncan joins LCU after 15 seasons as the athletic director and head boy’s basketball coach at the Lubbock based Trinity Christian High-School, where he has been since the spring 1996.  At Trinity Christian, Duncan led the Lions to eight Final Four appearances in the TAPPS State Tournament, including this past season, where the 4^th ranked Lions finished the season with a 32-4 record.  Duncan completed his tenure at TCHS with just under 400 career wins, and claimed a State Championship back in 1999. Duncan now becomes the seventh head coach in Lubbock Christian University history, as he replaces John Copeland, who spent 31 seasons at the helm of the program.

In other LCU news the Lubbock Christian University women’s basketball team is going to the NAIA national tournament for the eighth year in a row, which also marks the first eight trips in the programs history. The Lady Chaps will square off against Columbia in the first game of their eight-team bracket next Thursday the 17^th with a 9 am tip-off time. This will be the first meeting between the 21 and 9 Chaps and Columbia who sits at 28 and 5.  The NAIA tournament is a 32-team, single-elimination playoff contest stretched out over seven days from one location — The Oman Arena in Jackson, Tenn.

The Phillips 66 Big 12 men’s basketball championship continues today from Kansas City, Missouri. The Top ranked Kansas Jayhawks barely escaped their contest against the Oklahoma State Cowboys this morning winning by a final score of 63 to 62.

Kansas will now play the Colorado Buffaloes tomorrow at 6, as the Buff’s were able to rally in the second half against the Kansas State Wildcats to come back and win 87 to 75. Other games still being played today will feature the Texas Longhorns squaring off against the Oklahoma Sooners at six. Meanwhile the Texas A&M Aggies will battle the Missouri Tigers in the final game of the day with-tip-off scheduled for 8:30. You can watch that game live on ESPN 2.

The Women’s Big 12 Championship will resume tomorrow with the semi-final’s as the Baylor Bears and Kansas State Wildcats are set to do battle at noon, with the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas A&M Aggies scheduled to square off at 2:30. All the remaining games of the women’s Big 12 Championship will be televised live on FSN.

The 8 and 5 Texas Tech Red Raider baseball team will wrap up their 18 game homestand this weekend against Iowa and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi as the Red Raiders host the Texas Tech Invitational March 11 through the 15^th.  Tech will play Iowa twice and A&M-Corpus Christi three times from Friday-to-Tuesday, beginning Friday afternoon at 5 against Iowa. Tomorrows contest will feature a battle of south paws as Tech’s Daniel Coulombe is scheduled to take the mound opposite of Iowa’s Jarred Hippen.

Continuing on the diamond the 19^th ranked and undefeated Texas Tech softball team will close out their 25 game homestand this weekend as well, as they host the Masked Rider Invitational, with Alcorn State and Evansville coming to town for the three day event that begins Friday from Rocky Johnson Field. Texas Tech will play double headers on each day beginning at 1 o’clock tomorrow against Alcorn State with Evansville to follow the conclusion of that game.

The 23^rd ranked Lady Raiders and 25^th ranked Red Raiders track teams will compete in the NCAA Indoor Championships being held in College Station, from the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium this Fri., and Sat., The women's distance medley relay will be after their second-straight All-America honor, as they set a school record of 11:07.18 at the Alex Wilson Invitational this past weekend. It is the seventh-fastest time heading into the meet. Bryce Lamb is after his second All-America honor in the long jump, as He placed fifth last season, and His teammate Darrell Roddick will be pulling double duty by competing in both the triple jump and high jump. The NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships will start this Friday at 4 p.m. with the women's weight throw.

In the NBA there are three games on the schedule for tonight, beginning with the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers on the road facing the Miami Heat with tip-off set for 6 o’clock. The Dallas Mavericks will be in action tonight from the American Airlines when tip-off gets underway at 8:30 against the New York Knicks. Both of those games can be seen nationally on TNT as part of their NBA double header. And the last game on the schedule will feature the Denver Nuggets on the road against the Phoenix Suns with tip-off scheduled for 9:30.

In other NCAA basketball news Southern Methodist University announced today that the NCAA has accepted the University’s self-imposed sanctions for “inadvertent violations” involving text messaging by the men’s basketball program. The SMU basketball staff self-reported the violations after learning that the text messages were impermissible based on an NCAA rules clarification adding parents to the list of impermissible text recipients.

The three officials whose errors marred the end of the St. John’s – Rutgers Big East tournament game have voluntarily withdrawn from the rest of the tournament. The three officials were criticized for failing to officiate until the final buzzer of the second round game from Madison Square Garden- That Saw St. John’s beat Rutgers 65 to 63 on Wednesday, However; Rutgers should have had another possession as the Red Storms Justin Brownlee, traveled while celebrating and stepped out of bounds with 1.7 seconds remaining in the game.