Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
For the second straight season Texas stands above other institutions as the model of excellence.
For the second consecutive year, The University of Texas has won the Director’s Cup. The Director’s Cup is awarded to the Athletic Department that performs best across all sports. Continue reading “Texas clinches consecutive Director’s Cup Championships”
Former University of Texas men’s tennis coach Michael Center has been sentenced to six months of prison.
Former University of Texas men’s tennis coach Michael Center is the first college coach to receive a prison sentence amidst the national college admissions scandal.
Center accepted $100,000 in bribes to try and get a student admitted to the prestigious university by falsely tagging the applicant as a recruit. Shortly after the student arrived on campus, he quickly withdrew from the tennis team.
Former University of Texas tennis coach gets 6 months in college admissions scam. https://t.co/cQJr8aa48q
— AP Top 25 (@AP_Top25) February 25, 2020
Prior to being fired by in March, Center had quite an established and successful tenure with the Longhorns. He spent 18 seasons at Texas and was named the 2007 U.S. Professional Tennis Association National College Coach of the Year. Center was also awarded the Big 12 Coach of the Year in five different seasons.
Center held a 523-205 (.718) career record and never failed to lead the Longhorns to appearances in the NCAA Championship.
Unfortunately the success with Center was abruptly halted when he pleaded guilty last April to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. A very apologetic, sobbing Center felt it was the worst mistake of his life and vows to never anything like this again.
Center is to report to prison on April 6, 2020.
The Ohio State Buckeyes showed they are an elite tennis program with wins over Top 5 opponents by both the men’s and women’s teams.
The Ohio State Buckeyes continued to show off their elite tennis programs this weekend, as the men’s and women’s teams each scored Top 5 wins.
On Friday, the women’s team continued its strong start to the season with a win over No. 5 Duke. The Buckeyes started the season at the tail end of the Top 25, but quickly showed the error of that with two ranked wins last week, including a tight one over then-No. 10 Oklahoma State. An even stronger win over Duke, though, shows that the sky is the limit for these Buckeyes.
Shiori Fukuda showed that her national individual ranking of No. 11 might have been too low with a clear straight-sets victory over No. 10 Kelly Chen. Danielle Wolf and Kathleen Jones also picked up wins for the Buckeyes, to give Ohio State a 4-2 victory after winning the doubles point.
The women will next compete at the ITA National Indoors Championships next weekend, against some of the other top teams in the country.
The men’s team had a tough act to follow on Saturday, and they took full advantage of that opportunity against No. 1 Texas. Ohio State took the doubles point and only lost one singles match–a very respectable loss to No. 2 Yuya Ito. (Justin Boulais did also retire in his match against Eliot Spizzirri, so the final total team score was 4-2.)
Kyle Seelig, James Trotter, and Robert Cash all picked up singles wins for the Buckeyes, who are now 8-0 on the season.
The tests continue for Ohio State, who will face two more Top 10 teams–USC and Texas A&M–next Sunday and Tuesday, respectively. After that, it’s the men’s National Indoors Championships, which the Buckeyes won last year.
