Stan Beck

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2011 SPORTSSECTION B

Sports Editor Kyle Troutman501-268-8621

[email protected] Citizen

The

Basketball RoundupSearcy 8th, 9th grade boys win

Searcy’s eighth grade boys basketball team improved to 4-0 Thursday night with a 36-34 win over Russellville East.

Jeremiah Tipton led the Cubs with 10 points.Searcy’s ninth grade boys basketball team also picked up

a win over Russellville East Thursday night, 34-24. James Wade led the scoring for the Cubs with 14 points.

The eighth and ninth grade boys host Greenbrier Monday with games starting at 4 p.m.

 Ramblers stay undefeated with tourney win

Rose Bud’s varsity boys basketball team, 5-0, kept its win streak alive Thursday afternoon with a 60-49 win over Shir-ley in the Nemo Vista Tournament.

Head Coach Rob Welch said the Ramblers were down after the first quarter, but went on a run before halftime to take a 32-24 lead, which they extended to 52-37 by the end of the third quarter. Welch said the second-half play was key in Rose Bud’s win.

Dillon Reesnes led the Ramblers with 19 points. Tyler Mer-cer put up 12 in the contest and Nick Cartwright added 10.

Rose Bud’s travels to Mount Vernon tonight with games starting at 5:30.

 Pangburn girls reach tourney final

Pangburn’s varsity girls basketball team reached the final of the White County Invitational Tournament with a 52-30 win over Concord Thursday night.

Head Coach Christi Rolland said the Lady Tigers were only up 22-21 at halftime, and made some defensive adjust-ments in the second half that paid off. She said the team’s clampdown on defense led to easy baskets and, ultimately, the win.

Morgan Gregg led Pangburn with 12 points, and Windy Watts put up 11 points.

Pangburn will play Buffalo Island Central in the White County Invitational championship game Saturday at 6 p.m.

 Riverview girls fall to Newport, 48-36

Riverview’s varsity girls basketball team, 0-4, fell to New-port Thursday afternoon in the Newport Tournament, 48-36.

Head Coach Ryan Smith said the Lady Raiders were down by seven points at halftime, and an 8-0 run by Newport in the beginning of the second half was too much to overcome. Smith also said Riverview did well shooting from the free throw line, and has been cutting down on turnovers.

Dymond Smith led the Lady Raiders with 13 points, while Meg Meachum and Aryana Watson each recorded 8 points.

Riverview’s next regular season matchup will be Dec. 9 at Lonoke with games starting at 4 p.m.

 Rose Bud varsity girls fall to Wonderview, 51-47

Rose Bud’s varsity girls basketball team, 6-1, fell for the first time this season to Wonderview, 51-47, in the Nemo Vista Tournament Thursday afternoon.

Head Coach Mandy Goodwin said the Lady Ramblers had a tough shooting night, and Wonderview shot well from the free-throw line while Rose Bud did not.

Sara Sartin and Tori Lemieux led the Lady Ramblers with 10 points each.

Rose Bud’s travels to Mount Vernon tonight with games starting at 5:30.

FAYETTEVILLE — Steve Hogan, the chief executive of-fi cer of Florida Citrus Sports, said the Capital One Bowl is in an unusual position this week.

The Orlando-based game has long been fi rst in the Southeastern Conference’s bowl pecking order outside of Bowl Championship Se-ries. So getting a team with an impressive resume to play in its bowl game is normal. But the prospects of choosing between three 10-win teams from the SEC in Arkansas, South Carolina and Georgia is different.

“This year is a little unique,” Hogan said Wednesday. “It’s pretty crazy. But there has been a lot of success in the SEC this year for sure.”

The numerous possibilities has left the SEC bowl picture — at least at the top — a little fuzzy as the fi nal full weekend of the season nears.

Arkansas does know this: it will land in either the Capital One Bowl or Cotton Bowl.

But Hogan said the Capital One Bowl won’t be ready to announce its SEC representa-tive until after LSU and Geor-gia play in the SEC Champi-onship Game on Saturday. If

the Bulldogs win, Georgia will secure a spot in a BCS game.

“Some of those years you almost have a little bit clearer picture at this point,” Ho-gan said. “It’s a decisive type thing. But this year it just feels like it’s a little unique. Everybody’s got plusses and minuses, whether it’s the way they closed out their season or how they played in rivalry games or somebody is a divi-sion winner or the overall re-cords are similar or head-to-head wins.”

Arkansas hasn’t played in the Capital One Bowl since the 2006 season, when it lost to Wisconsin 17-14. Michigan beat Arkansas 45-31 in Jan. 1999, the Razorbacks’ only other Orlando appearance.

South Carolina and Geor-gia, if it loses to LSU, wouldn’t have to travel as far to play in Orlando. But Hogan stressed the bowl has “no allegiances”

Hogs waiting for bowl invitation

BY ROBBIE NEISWANGERArkansas News Bureau

From the parachuted game ball at the Army football games, to Taylor University’s silent night to the Williams College homecoming win head-shaving, author Stan Beck has a taste for tradition.

A graduate of the University

of Georgia who earned a mas-ter’s degree from Harvard, Beck has been a sports fan for 40 years and has attended thousands of major and mi-nor sporting events across the world.

Thursday night, Beck was excited to attend one of his favorite college traditions —

Harding University’s a capella singing of the national an-them at the fi rst Bisons home game.

“Harding’s a capella nation-al anthem is one of my favor-ite traditions so far,” he said. “The patriotism affects me,

BY KYLE [email protected]

Stan Beck to includea capella anthem in book

AUTHOR TAKES IN HARDING TRADITION

Please see HOGS | 3B

Kyle Troutman/[email protected]

Searcy freshman bowler Jed Stracenor un-leashes a spinning ball during the Lions’ match-up against Riverview at Super Bowl Thursday afternoon. Stracenor shot a 189 and a 168, leading Searcy’s scorers, but the Lions fell to the Raiders, 7-6.

Kyle Troutman/[email protected]

Riverview sophomore bowler Sarah Thompson takes a shot during the Lady Raiders’ matchup against Searcy at Super Bowl Thursday after-noon. The Lady Raiders fell to the Lady Lions, 13-0. Leading scorers for Searcy included Katherine Jimerson with a 185 and Brittany Bailey with a 181.

Searcy boys fall at home, girls winPlease see BECK | 3B

Ashel Parsons/Special to The Daily Citizen

Georgia author Stan Beck speaks to Harding University Sports Information Director Scott Goode for a radio interview at halftime of the Bisons’ contest against Champion Baptist Thursday evening. Beck attended the game to observe Harding’s tradition of the a capella National Anthem and plans to write about it in an upcoming book.

The Daily Citizen Friday, December 2, 2011 • Page 3B

SPORTS

to the SEC East and is simply looking for the “right fi t” and the “best team” for its game.

Arkansas, which is No. 8 in the BCS, should fi n-ish higher than South Carolina (No. 12) and Georgia (No. 14). The Capital One Bowl has hosted an SEC West team in fi ve of the past seven years.

“We’re very high on Arkansas and always have been,” Hogan said. “We’ve been lucky enough to host them here in Orlando a couple of times in the recent era and have always been very impressed with them and their fans. They’re a fantastic brand and they’ve had a great season.”

There’s no doubt the Cotton Bowl would be an easier trip for Arkansas fans.

It’s a familiar one, too, considering Arkansas has played Texas A&M in Cowboys Stadium in each of the past three seasons. The Razorbacks have played in the Cot-ton Bowl 11 times. The last appearance was a 38-7 loss to Missouri in Jan. 2008.

A lot has changed with the bowl since then. The game has moved from the Cotton Bowl into Cowboys Stadium, eliminating the threat of a cold-weather game. It also has moved out of its New Year’s Day morning time slot and into prime-time.

This season’s game is set for Jan. 6 at 7 p.m.

“It’s really in the spot-light of college football because there is nobody else playing college football on that day,” said Rick Baker, the president of the Cotton Bowl.

Baker said the Razor-backs are “like family” and the bowl would be thrilled to have them again.

But, like Hogan, Baker said the Cotton Bowl has the three 10-win teams on its radar. If Georgia does lose to LSU, the three teams will be di-vided among the Capital One, Cotton and Out-back bowls.

“All of us are going to turn out pretty good,” Baker said. “The SEC tends to be like that. They always have some pretty good teams at the top.”

The Cotton Bowl is likely invite Oklahoma State (10-1), Oklahoma

(9-2) or Kansas State (9-2), depending on the BCS selections, as its Big 12 representative. It means the game could have its fi rst matchup between 10-win teams since 1994.

The Capital One Bowl is in a similar position with Michigan State (10-2), Wisconsin (10-2) and Michigan (10-2) in con-sideration. Nebraska, which is 9-3, is also on the Capital One Bowl’s radar.

So Hogan and Baker are confi dent the Razor-backs, whether they land in Orlando or Arlington for the holidays, will be part of intriguing match-ups.

“You’re either playing the No. 1 pick post-BCS in the Big 12 or the No. 1 pick post-BCS in the Big Ten,” Hogan said. “A lot of cases it’s a whale of a game and a top paying, very prestigious game.”

Mark Buffalo/Arkansas News Bureau

Arkansas running back Dennis Johnson explodespast the block of teammate Joe Adams during theRazorbacks’ 41-17 loss to LSU on Friday at TigeStadium.

CONTINUED FROM 1B

HOGS: Cotton Bowl would be easier trip for fans

and the thing about Har-ding’s a capella anthem is that it comes from the heart.”

Harding Sports Infor-mation Director Scott Goode said Beck’s pres-ence is exciting.

“Obviously, we love the publicity,” Goode said, “But we’re very excited to have Stan here and we want to show our tradi-tion, but be as normal as possible. We want to do it the same as we have every other night.”

Although the tradition has fl ourished in recent years, Goode said there is a controversy over how it offi cially started.

“In 2003, we were play-ing the anthem over the PA and we had some tech-nical diffi culties, but the students began singing the anthem and it spread around the arena,” Goode said. “Others believe the tradition began in the fall of 2005, when Dee Car-son and Kay Gowen were asked to sing the national anthem. They were terri-fi ed and Carson asked ev-eryone to “sing along with us,” and by the end, you couldn’t even tell Dee and Kay were leading. I think 2003 was the fi rst time it happened, and then 2005 was a continuation of the new tradition.”

Deciding last year to write a book about college sports traditions, Beck has since been taking in traditions at schools across the nation, “from the largest of the large to the smallest of the small,” he said.

“The motto for this book is: Every school, every sport, every tra-dition,” Beck said. “I’m more fascinated with the unique traditions that have continued for 50-100 years. There’s a quote that, ‘tradition without heart is just a habit,’ and I enjoy traditions schools do because it is are the

right thing to do.”Beck said his favor-

ite tradition is the Army and Navy football game, where the Army para-chutes in the game ball, but his book will describe traditions during each part of a sporting event, such as pregame tradi-tions, cool entrances, af-ter-each-score traditions, during-the-game tradi-tions and postgame tradi-tions.

“I’ll be at Taylor College in Indiana next week for silent night,” Beck said. “All the students and fans wear their pajamas to the game, and nobody says a word through the beginning of the game or after the fi rst points are scored. But, when Taylor scores its 10th point, the place goes nuts. You’d think they won the Su-per Bowl. Then, after the game, the students all go to the cafeteria for snacks and [refreshments], and the president and his wife read ‘A Christmas Story’ to all the students.”

Another tradition Beck is fond of occurs at Wil-liams College in Massa-chusetts.

“When Williams beats its homecoming oppo-nent, they have what’s called the Williams Walk,” he said. “All the students and fans walk to the barbershop and shave their heads.”

Beck has also witnessed a number of traditions re-volving around food, such as Brigham Young Uni-versity and Hawaii.

“If the team score 100 points and wins,” Beck said, “All the people at the game get free ice cream. Opposing coaches are aware of the tradition, too, and will hold the ball while the fans chant, ‘Ice cream, ice cream.’ What’s fasci-nating is by the time they get close to 100 points they have the scrubs in, so it always comes down to a second or third string player on the free-throw line under pressure. If he makes it, he’ll be the hero for the week.”

Beck said the tradi-tions speak volumes of a school’s culture.

“When you think about tradition and move up a level, they really refl ect the culture of an institu-tion,” Beck said. “The cul-tural aspects refl ect life, and you can tell the uni-versity has good values.”

Beck is a member of the Sport Marketing Associa-tion, the North American Society for Sport Manage-ment, the Atlanta Sports Council, and is a contrib-utor to the NAIA’s Cham-pions of Character Pro-gram. He has attended sporting events across the world and plans to pub-lish his book in the fall of 2012.

BECK: Many traditions have sparked fond memories

CONTINUED FROM 1B

DALLAS — Just last week, the lockout was sapping Jason Terry’s usual optimism.

This was the fi rst fall since he was in fi fth grade, more than 20 years ago, that he wasn’t part of a basketball team. It was especially agoniz-ing because it was his most anticipated season yet. Months after winning his fi rst NBA champion-ship, and the fi rst for the

Dallas Mavericks, he was supposed to be on the court with Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd, trying to defend their title.

As the Mavs’ player representative, Terry had been part of several high-level meetings. So he knew just how dire things were. When his brother went to play in Japan two weeks ago, Terry was so distraught that he considered join-ing him.

Standing on the Mav-ericks’ practice courtThursday morning,Terry was sure glad hedidn’t. A deal is so closeto being done that teamswere allowed to let play-ers return to the facility,and the smiling shootingguard was the fi rst onethrough the door.

“I’m glad my cardworked so I can get intothe gym,” he said. “I wasa little nervous out thereat the front gate.”

Mavs ready to defend NBA titleAssociated Press

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Re-signing center Marc Gasol is the Memphis Grizzlies’ top priority right now as the franchise attempts to maintain the momentum created during last sea-son’s playoff run, general manager Chris Wallace said Thursday.

Wallace told report-ers at the FedExForum that he has spoken with Gasol’s agent Arn Tellem about securing the 7-foot center and keeping intact a nucleus that carried the Grizzlies to being within one win from the Western Conference fi nals.

The players and the NBA reached a tentative agree-

ment on the framework of a new collective bargaining agreement last weekend, but the lockout is techni-cally not over. Teams can’t sign players yet, but the league is allowing teams to open their arenas for voluntary player workouts ahead of training camps starting Dec. 9. The regular season is expected to begin Dec. 25.

Gasol is a restricted free agent, and the Griz-zlies would have a chance to match any offer Ga-sol receives. He averaged 11.7 points and seven re-bounds per game last sea-son and could command an annual salary of $10 million or more.

During the playoffs, Ga-

sol’s averages increased to 15 points and 11 re-bounds. Memphis lost to Oklahoma City in the 7th game of the second round of the Western Confer-ence playoffs.

Gasol’s return would cement a starting lineup that is expected to include forward Zach Randolph, point guard Mike Conley and forward Rudy Gay — all of whom have long term deals.

“That certainly is prior-ity number one for our or-ganization at this point,” Wallace said about sign-ing Gasol.

Wallace also said he has contacted the agents for forward Shane Battier and center Hamed Haddadi.

Grizzlies eager to sign Gasol BY ADRIAN SAINZ

Associated Press

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