The Morning Dish – Tuesday, July 1st
Dennehy Shot: Reports out of Texas and the East Coast are looking grim. Court documents obtained by media sources state that a police informant has told authorities that missing Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy was shot in the head by a former teammate after the two had an argument. Carlton Dotson, who was also a roommate of Dennehy, allegedly went shooting at a Waco-area range with Dennehy the morning of June 11th, and the two got in an argument. During the exchange, Dennehy apparently pointed his gun at Dotson, who allegedly then shot Dennehy in the head with a 9mm handgun. Dotson then told his cousin, who told the informant, that he drove to his home in Maryland in Dennehy’s vehicle, and disposed of the guns along the way. At this time, no body has been found and no arrests have been made. Dotson played at Paris (Texas) Junior College for two seasons before coming to Baylor. A 6-7 forward, he averaged 4.6 points and 2.5 boards as a reserve last season.
Miami Makes it Official: Miami has accepted the ACC’s invitation to join the conference, effective the 2004-05 school year. Miami, who joins Virginia Tech as the defectors from the Big East, immediately boost the ACC football offering, while slightly diluting the basketball, though the addition of Syracuse would have helped in that regard. The move knocks the Big East down to 12 teams, but the conference’s top two football schools are gone. Word on the street that the Big East will not only go after Louisville and Marshall for football, but Xavier and potentially Marquette as well to form a 16-team conference with 8 football schools. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese threw some barbs at ACC commish John Swofford by promising that he wouldn’t go behind anyone’s back (hint, hint) when recruiting for expansion, and would go through proper conference channels before contacting schools.
Phoenix and Keydets Swap: Today marks the first day in 82 years that the Virginia Military Institute is not in the Southern Conference. VMI, a founding member in the SoCon back in 1921, switches affiliation today with Elon University, formerly a member of the Big South Conference. Elon, which has participated in athletics for 23 years, but has only been in Division I since 1997, starts its SoCon membership with a conference football game against Furman on August 30th. The Phoenix basketball team will compete in the SoCon North Division.
New Jacket Contract: Georgia Tech head coach Paul Hewitt has signed a contract extension that will keep him in Atlanta through the 2007-08 season. Hewitt, who just completed his third season at the helm of the Yellow Jackets, has a 48-44 record, and was head coach of Siena in the late 1990s. The new contract also bumps Hewitt’s base salary from $150,000 per year to $250,000, plus the usual incentives, appearances and television and radio programs.
