Articles written by Alex Scarborough-Anderson

Auburn able to get by South Carolina in quarterfinals, lose to No. 1 ranked Florida Gators

Fani Chifchieva: returns a serve at the Yarborough Tennis Center courts Saturday against Florida. Anthony Hall / AUBURN UNIVERSITY

Auburn couldn’t find a way to get out of the quarterfinals of the SEC Women’s Tennis Tournament Saturday, losing to the Florida Gators 4-0.

The Tigers advanced to the quarterfinals beating South Carolina 4-0 Friday.

SEC Athlete of the Year, Auburn’s Fani Chifchieva, defeated the Gamecock’s Gira Schofield 6-4, 6-3 in their match Friday at the Yarborough Tennis Center.

A sophomore from Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Chifchieva finished the regular season 21-2 in singles matches along the way to winning SEC Athlete of the Year.

“It was a great effort today against a very solid South Carolina team,” said Auburn head coach Tim Gray. “The team took care of business.”

Whitney Chappell clinched the victory against South Carolina, beating Suzanne Mansour 6-3, 6-3.

Freshman left fielder Trent Mummey: slides into third base against South Carolina. The No. 10-ranked Gamecocks came into Plainsman Park and took all three games from Auburn. Auburn had a three game winning streak coming into the weekend series. Kyle Cooper / ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR

South Carolina came into Plainsman Park last weekend with its bats in tow.

The No. 10 ranked Gamecocks (8-6, 24-10) lineup tore up Auburn (6-8, 22-14) pitching scoring a combined 22 runs in the three game sweep of the Tigers.

The Gamecocks were led by big bopper Justin Smoak who set the South Carolina record for career home runs Friday night off Grant Dayton, the 49th for the junior first baseman.

Smoak and the rest of the Gamecock lineup had Auburn’s outfielders reversing their field and racing toward the outfield fence most of the weekend.

“Credit South Carolina. Every time we made a mistake on the mound they hammered it,” coach Tom Slater said. “Any time we made a mistake defensively, they took advantage of it.”

South Carolina came into the weekend leading the SEC in home runs and only padded its lead, going yard seven times — four of which came Saturday night as Auburn and South Carolina combined for six home runs in the 8-6 defeat.

While Auburn pitching couldn’t hold the Gamecocks’ offense down, Auburn’s offense didn’t back down, scoring six runs in each game of the series.

If I hear the words “super delegate” one more time I’m going to snap.

I’ll find a tall building and see if I can fly.

But before I take the big leap, I’m going to send Ted Turner and the good folks at CNN my death note just so I can get the last word in. It will read as follows:
“Dear Ted et al,
It is all your fault.”

I have gone insane and can no longer watch the news without becoming violently ill.

My thirst for knowledge is gone and with that my desire to live on.

It was a bit of an off weekend for me.

Maybe it was bad going into the break knowing football’s spring practice was over and no one knows who the starting quarterback will be, or maybe it was just one of those weekends I wish I could have back.

(Definitely not a Weekend at Bernie’s.)

It’s was a sad couple of days for me, despite the Braves season getting into full swing.

Or maybe that was the start of it.

I’ve been a tomahawk chopper my whole life.

One month and 64 games later, Kansas comes out on top of the madness in overtime victory over No. 1 seed Memphis

In a battle of number one seeds, the Kansas Jayhawks was the only team left with the distinction of being number one after a thrilling overtime 75-68 win over the Memphis Tigers.

Kansas overcame a nine-point deficit with 2:12 remaining in the fourth quarter to tie it up on a Mario Chalmers three pointer with seconds left.

Kodi Burns, Chris Todd battle for starting quarterback role as Tigers air it out in annual A-Day scrimmage

Kodi Burns: showcases his abilities as quarterback during the A-Day game on Saturday. He and junior transfer Chris Todd are competing for the quarterback starting position for the 2008 season. Pete Riley / PHOTO EDITOR

The 2008 version of A-Day was all about the quarterbacks.

Not since the Jason Campbell - Daniel Cobb quarterback debate of 2002 has Auburn seen as intense a battle as the one between sophomore Kodi Burns and junior transfer Chris Todd.

All eyes were on Burns and Todd throughout the 48- minute scrimmage, even teammates who were looking to catch a glimpse at who could be the future starter.

Burns led the Blue Team on the field first, but that shouldn’t serve as any indication of who’s ahead in the race for number one on the depth chart.

“Everyone knows those are going to be the two fighting for the job,” said running back Ben Tate. “So, I’m just watching, trying to figure out what’s going on. I’m ready for them to finally pick a guy who’s going to be the leader.”

Burns and Todd both avoided interceptions and threw the ball well on the day. Burns went 14-21 for 142 yards, while Todd improved on his poor first-half performance to finish 18-27 for 190 yards.

Both threw touchdowns to wide receiver Robert Dunn and caught the eye of head coach Tommy Tuberville.

“I thought our quarterbacks did an admirable job of reading coverages and getting the ball off,” Tuberville said. “Kodi’s got to learn to get the ball off a little quicker and learn a little bit more touch. Chris Todd got better as the game went along. You can tell his arm’s getting a little stronger. That’s what Chris has a little bit over Kodi in terms of throwing a strike, throw it hard and throw it with a little touch. There’s going to be a little competition there.”

New offensive coordinator Tony Franklin was much more critical of the quarterbacks’ play.

“Chris’ arm was better in the second half than the first half,” Franklin said. “The first half he had nothing on the ball at all. Nothing. He came back out in the second half and didn’t take a warm-up throw and threw the ball with a lot more velocity. Kodi, I thought, threw the ball really good in the first half. I thought he moved around well and all that.”

Franklin was glad to see Burns and Todd get the ball in the end zone, but wouldn’t extend his praise much further saying, “Neither one of them is ready to go out and win an SEC Championship. They’ve both got a long way to go and a lot of competition left.”

There are too many different T-shirts worn by Auburn students to try to keep up with.

In fact it’s quite dizzying the number of Auburn related apparel worn around campus.

Just considering all the Auburn Greek apparel is enough to shake your head at.

(Really, why do they feel it’s necessary to make a shirt for every party they’ve ever thrown? It makes about as much sense as me saving all the beer cans and liquor bottles I’ve ever finished … oh wait I think that’s caught on too.)

Head coach Jeff Lebo: unhappy with his team’s play against South Carolina Saturday night. Pete Riley / PHOTO EDITOR

The Tigers’ sloppy play and poor outside shooting proved too much to overcome in its 69-63 loss to South Carolina (13-15, 5-9) at home Saturday night.

Auburn (14-13, 4-10) fourth-year head coach Jeff Lebo told reporters he saw the loss coming, pointing out the mood in the locker room before tipoff.

“I knew it was coming,” Lebo said. “I told them before the game. I saw it coming, and we just weren’t mature enough as a team. These are the ones you need to handle. I know what players think and I thought maybe we could gut this one out, but we shot the ball so poorly.”

Quantez Robertson and Frank Tolbert didn’t agree with the coach’s assessment after the game, but shooting under 40 percent from the field and 15 turnovers spoke for itself.

“We know that we couldn’t come in lackadaisical, but at some point in the game, we fell off a little bit,” Tolbert said.

Despite 11 turnovers in the first half, Auburn was able to hold the lead heading into the third quarter after South Carolina came out cold, shooting 1-10 from beyond the arc in the first half.

The Gamecocks’ poor shooting improved in the second half as they shot more than 50 percent from the field.

This Sunday I did something I’ve never done.

I plopped down on the couch with a cold drink and a frozen pizza to watch the 50th running of the Daytona 500.

Not once in my 20 years on this planet have I ever watched NASCAR, and, considering the Daytona 500 is the Super Bowl of racing events, I decided to give it a shot.

So, I sat down with my food and drink and watched. And watched, and watched, and fell asleep, and woke up and watched and mercifully saw the end as Ryan Newman held up an oversized trophy.

Luke Greinke: strolls into home plate as freshman Hunter Morris celebrates during Saturday’s 12-1 win over East Tennessee State. Kyle Cooper / ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR

Auburn baseball’s 2008 season began in dominating fashion Friday night and carried throughout the weekend, outscoring East Tennessee State University 42-10 over the four game series.