It may have looked worse at first, but former Razorback Tyson Gay crumpled to the track in Eugene, Ore., earlier this afternoon during the 200-meter quarterfinal heat in the U.S. Olympic trials.

Here’s more from ESPN.com and the Associated Press:

Running in the seventh lane, Gay was speeding to the lead in the first turn, but on his 14th stride, something went wrong. He went airborne, fell, then laid on the ground in pain, grabbing his left thigh and grimacing.

After he was taken off the track, Gay told ESPN The Magazine’s Luke Cyphers that he had a cramp in his hamstring, not a pull.

About an hour after the injury, officials from USA Track and Field also said Gay appeared to have pulled up with a severe cramp, but he was still being evaluated.

Gay set the American record in the 100 meters (9.77 seconds) last week and then set a would-be world record with a 9.68 second run in the finals but the record did not count because of wind aiding his run.

Here’s more from AP:

The injury potentially would open up another spot in the 200, where Gay, Wallace Spearmon, Xavier Carter, Shawn Crawford and Walter Dix were considered among the top runners going for only three spots.

Spearmon is a former Fayetteville High and Arkansas sprinter.

UPDATE (Sunday, 12:50 p.m.): Gay has a mild muscle sprain in the back of his leg and has been advised by doctors after an MRI to limit himself to light physical activity for the next two weeks. Gay is scheduled to run the 200 meters at the Olympics in Beijing on Aug. 15.

Spearmon advanced to the finals Saturday with a second place showing in his heat and third overall with a time of 20.05. He’s now one step away from the Olympic games.

– Brandon Marcello 

Filed under: Other U of A Sports, Uncategorized by Brandon Marcello. Posted on: July 5, 2008 at 2:25 pm
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Former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, who was once opposed to the 1964 Civil Rights Act and later teamed with U2 star Bono in the fight against AIDS, died Friday at the age of 86. The man was a polarizing figure in the South for six terms in the senate and his presence may have even affected the relationship between former Razorbacks football coach Lou Holtz and athletic director Frank Broyles.

South Bend Tribune columnist Jeff Carroll touches on the long-time relationship between Helms and Holtz, which grew too close, perhaps, for Broyles’ comfort.

Before leaving the New York Jets during the season to coach Arkansas (Hey, Bobby Petrino wasn’t the first, folks), Holtz coached at North Carolina State for four years. While there, Holtz and Helms became friends.

Carroll has the rundown with excerpts from the late, great Orville Henry book, “The Razorbacks: A History of Arkansas Football” and Holtz’ autobiography:

A few years later, after Holtz had left for Arkansas, Helms looked to trade in on the favor, and asked Holtz to appear in a television campaign advertisement for his re-election to the U.S. Senate.

Here’s how Holtz explains it in his autobiography, “Wins, Losses and Lessons”:

“When he ran for the U.S. Senate … Jesse asked me to do an ad for him. I did, but when I got home, I felt uncomfortable. The politics of football is tough enough; injecting myself into a Senate race didn’t seem to make a lot of sense. So I called Jesse and told him how uncomfortable I felt. He understood, and the ad never aired.”

According to authors Orville Henry and Jim Bailey, who wrote the book “The Razorbacks: A Story of Arkansas Football,” Holtz’ support of Helms didn’t sit well at a Deep South school like Arkansas, still struggling to move past southern college football’s dark legacy of racism.

“Lou’s old friend Jesse,” they explain, “was conducting a one-man filibuster against the establishment of Martin Luther King Day while the Arkansas staff was calling black mothers trying to recruit their sons.”

Soon afterward, Arkansas athletic director Frank Broyles called Holtz into his office and fired him. Holtz claims he wasn’t given a clear reason, but speculates in his autobiography that his filming of a Helms campaign ad factored strongly into the decision.

Regardless, the firing changed the entire trajectory of Holtz’s career. Before that, as he tells it in his autobiography, he was beginning to consider spending the rest of his career at Arkansas, finding himself daydreaming about living his retirement years in the same house he occupied while coaching there.

Instead, he took the vacant job at the University of Minnesota shortly after, and had a “Notre Dame clause” written into his new contract.

Politics is a dangerous and unforgiving creature. Holtz would later say in an interview last year:

“[Frank Broyles] tells you that he wants you to resign and doesn’t give you a reason and that was a great experience because of this: My wife said to me, “We’re just going to move on.” Two years later when Notre Dame was looking for a football coach, and they called Frank Broyles, he said, “Go hire Lou Holtz.” What I am saying is ‘That was a great experience. I ended up at Notre Dame because of Frank Broyles.’ And I ended up in Minnesota which was a marvelous experience as well. Whether you are talking about good things that happen to you or bad things that happen to you, you can’t control what happens to you, but you can control how you react to it.”

– Brandon Marcello

Filed under: Arkansas Football, Uncategorized by Brandon Marcello. Posted on: July 5, 2008 at 11:32 am
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UA freshman guard Levan Patsatsia is expected to transfer from Arkansas, according to an assistant coach at Pensacola (Fla.) Junior College.

Pirates assistant coach Elijah Warren confirmed in a phone interview earlier today that Patsatsia is expected to be on the PJC campus next season.

UPDATE (2:01 p.m.): UA associate sports information director Robby Edwards confirmed this afternoon that Patsatsia would not be with the Razorbacks next fall. Arkansas head coach John Pelphrey would not comment on the situation, Edwards said.

Patsatsia (6-6), who averaged 2.1 minutes a game in nine appearances last season at Arkansas, is a native of the country of Georgia. He was named the country’s national team player and the 18-and-under Georgian player of the year.

If Patsatsia transfers to PJC, he’ll join a roster with two other country of Georgia natives on the team. In fact, both, like Patsatsia, hail from Tbilisi, Georgia.

Guard Nate Rakestraw left the Razorbacks, who must also replace six seniors, in March.

– Brandon Marcello

Filed under: Arkansas Basketball by Brandon Marcello. Posted on: July 3, 2008 at 10:12 am
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Arkansas forward Darian Townes will get his shot at making an NBA roster next week with the Sacramento Kings.

Townes (6-10, 250) went undrafted in last week’s NBA draft but will get five chances starting July 12 to earn a roster spot with the Kings. Sacramento released its summer league roster Wednesday:

 2008 NBA SUMMER LEAGUE SACRAMENTO KINGS ROSTER
No. / Player / Pos. / Ht./ Wt./ From /Yrs. Pro
8 / Quincy Douby / G / 6-3 / 175 / Rutgers / 2
16 / Zabian Dowdell / G / 6-3 / 190 / Virginia Tech / R
0 / Patrick Ewing Jr. / F / 6-8 / 240 / Georgetown / R
43 / Noel Felix / F / 6-9 / 225 / Fresno State / 1 (SEA, 05-06)
31 / Spencer Hawes / C / 7-0 / 245 / Washington / 1
20 / Justin Hawkins / F / 6-7 / 204 / New Mexico State / R
24 / David Johnson / G / 5-10 / 170 / Napa CC / R
18 / Darnell Jones / G / 6-4 / 210 / Mesa College / R
25 / Marcus Malone / G / 6-5 / 215 / Houston / R
10 / Bo McCalebb / G / 6-0 / 180 / New Orleans / R
41 /Juan Palacios / F / 6-8 /245 / Louisville / R
35 / Patrick Sanders / F / 6-6 / 205 / UC Irvine / R
7 / Sean Singletary / G / 6-0 / 185 / Virginia / R
34 / Jason Thompson / F / 6-11 / 250 / Rider / R
40 / Darian Townes / F-C / 6-10 / 250 / Arkansas / R
30 / Matt Walsh / F / 6-6 / 190/ Florida / R
22 / Shelden Williams / F / 6-9 / 250 / Duke / 2

During his senior campaign, Townes set career highs in four categories at Arkansas. He averaged 12.1 points and 5.5 rebounds a game to go along with a 60.2 percent field goal percentage. He also scored in double digits in 15 of the last 16 games of the season.

The Kings summer roster will travel to UNLV on July 12 to start the summer league campaign. The squad will play five games in nine days and all the games will be available on NBA.com, according to Melody Gutierrez of the Sacramento Bee’s Kings Blog.

July 12: Kings vs. Raptors, 3 p.m. CDT - Available on webcast
July 15: Kings vs. Blazers, 9 p.m. CDT - Available on NBATV/webcast
July 16: Kings vs. Mavericks, 5 p.m. CDT - Available on NBATV/webcast
July 18: Kings vs. Warriors, 9 p.m. CDT - Available on NBATV/webcast
July 20: Kings vs. Rockets, 7:30 p.m. CDT - Available on webcast

Arkansas center Steven Hill was picked up last week by the Portland Trailblazers’ summer league team. Sonny Weems, drafted in the second round by the Bulls only to be traded to Denver, will also be participating in the summer league for the Nuggets.

We’ll get a schedule of games out to you soon.

– Brandon Marcello

Filed under: Arkansas Basketball by Brandon Marcello. Posted on: July 3, 2008 at 8:00 am
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We hinted yesterday that the altercation between UA linebacker Wendel Davis and Onyebychi Chukwunonso Odunukwe on Maple Street at the UA campus may have had an interesting background story to it.

Before we get to that, we can tell you that Odunukwe has been charged with felony aggravated assault and misdemeanor terroristic threatening. Davis, as we reported yesterday, was arrested in connection with first degree criminal mischief, a felony.

Well, here’s what we’ve learned about this interesting story through Razorbacks beat writer Nate Allen. We’ll go with a timeline here to keep things as clear as possible:

- In a police report released to the Northwest Arkansas Times, Davis states that a woman came to his residence in the early hours of June 28. This woman, come to find out, is the alleged girlfriend of Odunukwe. Davis says the woman started to come on to him and that he “kissed her.”

- At an unspecified time after this encounter with the woman, Davis began to receive threatening messages from Odunukwe.

- At 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, a fight between Davis and Odunukwe occurred near Razorback Stadium. The fight was shortly broken up by athletic staff, according to the report.

- Shortly after at 12:30 p.m., the two had another altercation at the Pat Walker Health Center. At some point, the alleged girlfriend of Odunukwe coaxed the two to stop fighting.

- Then, at 1:11 p.m., Davis reported that he was at a stoplight at the corner of Maple and Garland when he heard “screeching tires.” The tires belonged to Odunukwe and his Nissan Altima, which struck Davis’ scooter.

Additionally, Davis reported that Odunukwe traveled southbond on a northbound, one-way street from Lot 29 to reach Maple Street and Davis.

Davis reported that he “feared for his life and jumped off his scooter to approach the vehicle” and that Odunukwe “tried to run him over.”

What ensued was Davis pounding Odunukewe’s car with his hands and feet. Davis reported that Odunkwe then “put the car in reverse trying to hit him again and struck
another vehicle.”

Davis’ account of the altercation on Maple Street was confirmed by “three non-biased witnesses,” according to UAPD.

Allen managed to reach Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino this afternoon during a Pro-Am in connection with the LPGA Northwest Arkansas Championship at the Pinnacle Golf Course in Rogers. Petrino addressed the Davis arrest, in addition to the linebacker troubles of Freddie Fairchild (arrested, kicked off team) and Freddy Burton (DWI arrest).

“We’ve had some things going on that we’re not proud of,” Petrino said, “and we’re certainly going to work to have those not happen again. One of the incidents was real unfortunate and the other one’s really uncalled for.”
Regarding any disciplinary action about either Burton or Davis, Petrino, who already has dismissed junior starting linebacker Freddie Fairchild from the team for disciplinary reasons,  replied, “I always like to take my time. We’ll let things play out for a little while. Certainly they’ll be dealt with and hopefully we can get everything straightened out the right way. Whether there’s some suspensions involved or not I don’t know. I think we’ve got to wait and see.”

Petrino was asked the extent of Davis’ hand injury.

“I don’t think it’s a serious injury,” Petrino said. “It’s something that should not have happened. We all take a hit when something like hat happens.”

A junior 2-year letterman from Sweeny, Texas, Davis has been a special-teamer and reserve linebacker the last two years under former Arkansas coach Houston Nutt.

He missed spring drills under new coach Petrino after tearing  his anterior cruciate ligament during a winter conditioning workout.

Rehabbing from surgery, Davis has been expected to participate in preseason drills after the Razorbacks report Aug. 3.

Make sure and pick up a copy of the Northwest Arkansas Times tomorrow for more on this story.

– Brandon Marcello

Filed under: Arkansas Football by Brandon Marcello. Posted on: July 2, 2008 at 7:11 pm
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Could there be a history between UA linebacker Wendel Davis and Onyebychi Chukwunonso Odunukwe, the driver of the car that bumped into Davis on Tuesday afternoon?

A statement issued by Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino seems to suggest that.

“I’m aware,” Petrino said Tuesday evening through the UA Sports Information Department, “of matters involving Wendel Davis and the other individual involved in the incident. At this point, I am attempting to gather all of the facts regarding the situation. Once those facts have been gathered, we will move forward in an appropriate way.”

Filed under: Arkansas Football, Uncategorized by Joe West. Posted on: July 1, 2008 at 6:27 pm
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A Razorback Football player could face criminal charges for initiating a road rage incident on campus Tuesday afternoon.

Kate Ward of the Northwest Arkansas Times reports that University of Arkansas police responded to the intersection of Garland and Maple at about 12:30 p.m.

According to police records, the driver of a gray 2005 Nissan Altima, later identified as Onyebychi Chukwunonso Odunukwe, 20, was approaching a stoplight on Maple, just west of Garland, when he reportedly bumped into a scooter in front of him. The driver of the scooter, later identified as 19-year-old Wendel Davis, reportedly approached the Altima and began beating on the car and windows.

“He did do damage to the car,” said UAPD Lt. Gary Crain. “I believe he broke the windshield and dented the side of the door.”

As Davis continued beating the vehicle with his fists, Crain said the driver of the Altima locked his doors, shifted his car into reverse and struck a 1998 Ford Explorer behind him.

Davis was transported to the Washington Regional Medical Center, where he was treated for injuries to his hand.

“It’s still confusing as to why all this occurred,” Crain said. “We’re still trying to figure some things out.”

He added that UAPD officers are considering what charges will be filed.

Odunukwe would face a traffic violation for following too closely, while Davis could face charges for criminal mischief.

Filed under: Arkansas Football by Joe West. Posted on: July 1, 2008 at 4:22 pm
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Former Razorbacks Marcus Harrison and Marcus Monk have signed or agreed to terms to contracts with the Chicago Bears, according to a report today.

Monk, who was sideline most of last season because of a knee injury, reportedly agreed to terms recently. Harrison, drafted in the third round of the NFL Draft as a defensive tackle, signed a four-year contract today, according to the Bears’ official Web site.

UPDATE: The Chicago Tribune reports Harrison will receive a $700,000 signing bonus.

Here’s more:

Harrison is a first-round talent who dropped in the draft because of durability and character concerns. The 6-3, 310-pounder tore his left ACL last spring, but rebounded to register 76 tackles, 6½ tackles-for-loss and 1½ sacks while starting 10 games at Arkansas. He also batted down 10 passes and forced one fumble.

“He’s got some talent and some ability and some strength,” said defensive line coach Brick Haley. “There are a lot of things that we like about him.”

Monk was drafted in the seventh and final round in April.

Former Hog running back Peyton Hillis, who plowed the way for two-time Heisman runner-up Darren McFadden, will reportedly receive about $51,000 in a signing bonus with the Denver Broncos. Hillis, like Monk, was selected in the seventh round.

 – Brandon Marcello

Filed under: Arkansas Football by Brandon Marcello. Posted on: July 1, 2008 at 2:37 pm
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The Georgia Bulldog mascot, Uga VI, passed away Friday and his funeral was definitely outside the norm for even the closest of family pets.

Here’s what the University of Georgia did for the four-legged Sanford Stadium symbol Monday, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

The body of the dog, whose registered name was Uga V’s Whatchagot Loran, was flown to Athens from Savannah along with his master’s family in the university plane. It entered Sanford Stadium from the northeast corner and was carried inside his famous kennel on the back of a golf cart across the field. His entry was accompanied by the song, “The Battle Hymn of the Bulldog Nation,” which is played before Georgia football games.

Pallbearers Charles Seiler, his main handler, and Waldo Terrell, UGA’s chief groundskeeper, removed the kennel and placed it at the foot of a granite and marble mausoleum where Uga’s five predecessors are buried. Charles Seiler draped Uga’s jersey and collar over the kennel.

University of Arkansas mascot “Tusk” sent flowers and a card that you can see here. Yep, a Razorback does have a heart for those in the state of the Falcons.

Here’s some more on the burial:

Dignitaries included UGA president Michael Adams, who made opening remarks, members of the UGA athletics board, athletics department employees and friends of the Seiler family.

“There are probably some who think it odd to pay this much attention to an animal, a puppy, a dog,” Adams told the gathering of two dozen or so. “But we recognize Uga VI in a way that is very special to the University of Georgia. I would suggest to you that Uga is a very powerful symbol, symbolism of the tenacity and strength of the university, Uga VI, particularly. … I personally think this dog has exemplified that strength and tenacity very well.

The dog was loved much in the state of Georgia. I think his mother/father might be the most remembered, however, for attacking an Auburn player on the sidelines in 1996. You can see that video of Uga V along with a few clips of Uga VI from the Auburn-Georgia game this season below.

 – Brandon Marcello

Filed under: Other U of A Sports, SEC Football, Arkansas Football by Brandon Marcello. Posted on: July 1, 2008 at 1:39 pm
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University of Northern Iowa head track and field coach Chris Bucknam will take over the Arkansas track and field, and cross country programs, according to the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.

Bucknam will replace longtime UA coach John McDonnell, who retired after the outdoors season.

Here’s more:

This morning, The Courier received a copy of an e-mail sent to student-athletes in the Panther track and field program.

“The reason I’m writing is to inform you that I am resigning as the UNI head coach and accepting the men’s head coaching position at the University of Arkansas,” Bucknam wrote in the e-mail. “I interviewed on Monday and was offered and accepted the position (Thursday) at noon.”

The University of Arkansas announced a press conference today for 3:30 p.m. for a major announcement concerning the track and field, and cross country teams.

The timing is key here. Longtime Arkansas assistant Dick Booth, who had been recommended to Long by his athletes and McDonnell, traveled to Eugene, Ore., on Wednesday to help Nkosinza Balumbu in the U.S. Olympic Trials.

UPDATE (10 a.m.): Booth, we just learned, will stay at Arkansas as field events coach.

 – Brandon Marcello

Filed under: Other U of A Sports by Brandon Marcello. Posted on: June 27, 2008 at 8:22 am
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