The Morning Dish – Wednesday, May 28th:
Big-Time Hoops: Well they’re at it again. Michigan State, who 19 months ago brought us college hockey under the stars in a football stadium, now wants to have a Spartan basketball game in the new Ford Field, home of the NFL’s Detroit Lions. The goal, of course, is to break the attendance record for a college basketball game, set 13 years ago with 68,112 spectators in the New Orleans Superdome watching LSU versus Notre Dame. Ford Field holds 65,000 for football, but several thousand seats could be added to the floor. No date or opponent has been set as of yet, however one would wonder why MSU isn’t considering the Pontiac Silverdome, the NFL Lions former home, which is vacant and can accommodate over 80,000, and wouldn’t collide with a potential football game conflict. MSU holds the attendance record for hockey with 74,554 fans that witnessed a 3-3 tie with Michigan in October 2001, played on a special rink brought onto the Spartan Stadium football field.
New Assistant Bronc: Rider has named Lackawanna College (Scranton, Pennsylvania) head coach Tommy Dempsey as an assistant to Don Harnum’s staff. Dempsey, who has an 88-12 record in three seasons as a JuCo coach, led Lackawanna to the NCJAA D-2 Finals this season, and was named Region 19 Coach of the Year. Dempsey replaces Jim Engles on Harnum’s staff, as Engles left after six seasons at Rider to take a similar position on Columbia’s staff under new coach Joe Jones. Prior to last season, Dempsey was a coach at Keystone College (La Plume, Pennsylvania), where his squads went 27-0 at home, and he won three more Coach of the Year awards, and was a finalist for National Coach of the Year. For what it’s worth, head coach Don Harnum was MAAC Coach of the Year. Lots of hardware in Lawrenceville.
Ex-Hokie Hospitalized: Former Virginia Tech head coach Bobby Hussey was hospitalized over the weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina, with a blood clot in his brain. Hussey, who led the Hokies from 1997 to 1999, and later was an assistant for Clemson under Larry Shyatt, had complained of headaches earlier in the week. Following tests Friday, he was hospitalized. Hussey was not retained by new Clemson head coach Oliver Purnell last month, but was scheduled to run two Charlotte-area basketball camps this summer.
SWAC On The Air: The Major Broadcasting Cable Network (MBC) announced an exclusive deal with the Southwestern Athletic Conference for five years of football and basketball telecasts, starting this fall. The Atlanta-based MBC, a minority 0&O 24-hour cable network in the south, is scheduled to air over 100 SWAC football and basketball games this upcoming season. Present at the press conference were notables such as Evander Holyfield and Cecil Fielder (both MBC Vice Chairmen), Grambling State’s football coach Doug Williams, and Jackson State’s golf coach Eddie Payton.
Huggins Mother Passes On: The mother of Cincinnati head coach Bob Huggins passed away over the weekend. Norma Mae Huggins, 68, passed away in Canton, Ohio from colon cancer. By vocation she was a cook at her husband Charlie’s basketball camp for over thirty years. Funeral services will be private.
