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- LSU closed its final homestand at Alex Box Stadium by polishing off a sweep of Mississippi State.
- Scott Bittle of Ole Miss was named one of three finalists for the 2008 Cellular South Ferriss Trophy, presented to the state's top college baseball player.
- Mississippi State won its final non-SEC baseball game of the season, beating Memphis 4-1.
- One of Ed Orgeron's heralded Ole Miss football recruits, former South Panola Mr. Football Chris Strong, withdrew from school.
- There was better news in Starkville, as MSU athletes posted a school-record GPA of 2.98 in the spring, with team-record bests in football (2.72) and women's basketball (3.26).
- Scott Bittle of Ole Miss and Joshua Fields of Georgia were on the list of 10 finalists for the Roger Clemens Award for the best pitcher in college baseball.
- Even on the brink of retirement, Ron Polk is not irrelevant. MSU's back-to-back wins against Arkansas in his final SEC series would prove, on Saturday, to be enough to keep the Razorbacks out of the SEC tournament field.
- The Ole Miss men's tennis team advances to Sunday's Elite Eight, beating North Carolina 4-2 in Tulsa, Okla.
- MSU's junior Marrissa Harris wins the SEC heptathlon title after finishing fourth a year ago.
Saturday: Rebels make it
- The chase for the SEC baseball tourney goes down to the final day. Ole Miss wins at Kentucky in extra innings to make the field as the No. 8 seed.
- Ole Miss standouts Brittany Reese (long jump) and Barnabas Kirui (3,000 meters) successfully defended their SEC outdoor titles at Auburn.
- In Hawaii, Aloha means hello and goodbye. MSU's softball team was greeted at NCAA tourney play with a 9-7 loss to Hawaii on Friday and eliminated with a 7-4 defeat the next day.

djournal.com

AUSTIN — Hanks High School players Tye Bell and Devin Miertschin didn’t have bad scores during the opening round of the UIL Class 5A State Golf Championships on Thursday at Jimmy Clay Golf Course.
The problem was, the majority of the leaders shot much better.
Beall, a sophomore, shot a 3-over-par 75, and Miertschin, a senior, carded an uncharacteristic 6-over-par 78. Beall is tied for 18th place going into today’s second and final round, while Miertschin is tied for 35th.
Ryan Dagerman from Plano West leads the tournament after shooting a 2-under-par 70. Two players are tied for second at 72, seven are tied for fourth at 73 and seven others are tied for 11th at 74.

elpasotimes.com

Selection Sunday has come and gone, and the Madness is nigh.
For the NCAA tournament selection committee, that madness began early: Sunday’s five conference games had bracket implications, and the 65-team bracket wasn’t done until 20 minutes before CBS began its broadcast. (The biggest drama of the day: Georgia — which otherwise would have gone home — completed its unlikely run through the SEC tournament, beating Arkansas for an automatic bid.)
The bracket was refreshingly free of cries of “Injustice!” Top seed North Carolina is widely regarded as deserving of that honor, and among the other No. 1s — UCLA, Memphis and Kansas — only the Jayhawks came with caveats. (Coulda been Tennessee or Texas.) For the first time since 1980, last year’s finalists will be left out of the tournament. But while Ohio State was a possibility for an at-large spot, defending-champion Florida deserved its trip to the NIT.
The Buckeyes can fuss, at least minimally. So can Virginia Tech, Virginia Commonwealth and Illinois State. The team with the biggest cause for complaint? Arizona State: The Sun Devils beat their archrivals at Arizona twice and then saw the Wildcats grab a No. 10 seed. Still, all in all there were few howls and whines when the bracket was complete.
Maybe that’s because the 2008 field is fairly mediocre, Bob Ryan writes in the Boston Globe, offering sympathy for the selection committee.
• Put down those brackets. If you think you can nail down this year’s Cinderellas and opening-round upsets in the men’s basketball tournament, then take a shot at the Daily Fix NCAA quiz. One entry per person. Entries may be quoted by name. Send your picks to dailyfix@wsj.com by tipoff Thursday, shortly after 12 p.m. ET. (Entries accepted by email only, not in the comments.) The winners get glory, a special Fix prize and a seat in the new annex wing of the Fix Skybox of Champions.
Choose only one answer for each of the first eight questions, as in the case of a tie, any correct answer counts. Correct answers are worth 10 points each unless otherwise noted:
1. Which will be the team with the highest seed number (16 is higher than 1) to win in the first round? (Please respond with a team name, and not a seed number.)
2. Which No. 1 seed will win by the fewest points in the first round?

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By KATE HAIROPOULOS / The Dallas Morning News
A wild final weekend of conference tournaments left the NCAA Tournament selection committee juggling eight contingency plans. The group finished the much-awaited bracket – the one that might dictate much of your life over the next three weeks – just 20 minutes before it was revealed on national television Sunday afternoon.
"This weekend was just a crazy weekend in a lot of ways," said Tom O’Connor, chairman of the 10-person selection committee, during a conference call following the bracket’s unveiling.
But for six Big 12 teams – and even an area team – the bracket held their tickets to the best Madness of the year. It all culminates April 5 and 7 at the Final Four in San Antonio.
UT-Arlington earned its first tournament berth by beating Northwestern State in the Southland Conference tournament final Sunday afternoon. Second-year coach Scott Cross has the Mavericks in just 10 years after he was a player at UTA. But here’s the reality: As a No. 16 seed, the Mavericks face a brutal first-round game against No. 1 seed Memphis.
Texas was in contention for a No. 1 seed, but despite losing it and the Big 12 final to Kansas, the Longhorns are in a desirable position as a No. 2 seed. If Texas, which meets Austin Peay in the first round, advances to the Sweet Sixteen, it will play in front of a sure-to-be-friendly Houston crowd.

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Providence, RI (Sports Network) - Providence College has fired men's head basketball coach Tim Welsh on the heels of the school's third losing season in the past four years.
The Friars were 15-16 this past season, Welsh's 10th at the helm. Providence earned just two NCAA Tournament appearances and won exactly one Big East Tournament game during his tenure.
“I appreciate all the hard work and dedication that Tim has put into this program over the last 10 years,” said athletic director Bob Driscoll. “He represented the college with dignity and class. However, I felt that it was in the best interest of the program and Providence College to make a change in leadership.”
Welsh was named the 13th head coach of the Providence program on April 2, 1998. He led the Friars to an overall mark of 160-143 with a 72-92 record in Big East regular-season play. The team was just 1-9 in Big East Tournament action, including a loss to West Virginia in the first round of this year's tourney.

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