Monday, June 24, 2019   
 
Critz Campbell to lead Mississippi State's Department of Art
A longtime faculty member and coordinator of sculpture at Mississippi State is the university's new head of the Department of Art. Effective July 1, Associate Professor Critz Campbell will lead the College of Architecture, Art and Design department, home of the state's largest undergraduate studio art program. Campbell said he wants "to ensure that students receive a world-class education that prepares them to contribute to the conversations and concepts of contemporary art and design while growing our creative economy." Teaching in the department since 2005, the West Point native was hired into the university's first tenure-track position for sculpture. "Mississippi is my home, and working at Mississippi State has become the greatest gift of my career," Campbell said. "The opportunity to prepare students for creative lives and to expand the expectations of what that means is deeply gratifying and important to our department and Mississippi's future. This is especially true in the rapidly changing world of visual communication."
 
Mississippi State's Grant historians contribute to Journal of Mississippi History's latest issue
Articles by Mississippi State's top researchers on Ulysses S. Grant are featured in the latest issue of the Journal of Mississippi History. With the theme "Grant and Mississippi," the JMH spring/summer publication, Vol. LXXX, includes the writings of John F. Marszalek, the issue's managing editor and special projects coordinator of MSU Libraries' Ulysses S. Grant Collection. Marszalek also is executive director and managing editor of the Ulysses S. Grant Association. Marszalek said MSU and MDAH's partnership on the new JMH issue "bodes well for the future of history within our state." The issue, he said, is being sent to Mississippi Historical Society members throughout the state and is reaching history scholars in the nation's leading academic institutions. "Americans can now have a different view of the Magnolia State, realizing that this center of the Confederacy has now become the place to study the most important historical event of the national past," he said.
 
Starkville considering downtown parking meters
The city of Starkville plans to look at parking meters as a possible solution to parking issues downtown and in the Cotton District. Mayor Lynn Spruill said the board of aldermen will hear presentations from two parking meter companies -- SP+ Parking Management Group and IPS Group -- at its next two work sessions on June 28 and July 12 about potentially installing meters. "We get lots of complaints from restaurants about people hogging parking spaces," she said. "They're not paying and not eating in the restaurants or allowing turnover. This is just one way to potentially address that." Should the city look at parking meters, Spruill said they may initially be deployed in the Cotton District and midtown areas. "I say that because those are the areas that have the greatest parking dilemma -- shortages of parking and people staying overnight," she said. "That would give us a chance to roll that out in that area and see how it works and where it would be impactful."
 
Plans forming for fields at Starkville's Cornerstone Park
Preliminary plans for Starkville's Cornerstone Park are taking shape after city officials met with designers from Dalhoff-Thomas on Thursday. Cornerstone Park, which the city will build southwest of the intersection of highways 12 and 25 in west Starkville, will be a baseball and softball-focused recreation facility with an emphasis on hosting tournaments. The board of aldermen held a work session on Thursday morning to discuss plans for the park with Dalhoff-Thomas, a Memphis-based architecture firm that created the master plan for the new facility. Items included in the first phase are projected to cost $17.5 million, according to a bid list presented at Thursday's work session. The total includes a 20-percent contingency for about $2.7 million. The new park is projected to be completed by spring or summer 2021. Dean Thomas, a principal landscape architect with Dalhoff-Thomas, said the contingency is high, partially in the hopes of accounting for increases in the costs of some construction materials, such as steel.
 
Reeves differs with foes, Republicans and Democrats, on key issues facing Mississippi
Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves spoke in rosier terms about the condition of Mississippi than did other candidates Friday morning at the annual convention of the Mississippi Press Association. But even Reeves, campaigning to win the Republican nomination for governor this August on the position Mississippi is thriving in part because of his leadership, conceded there is room for improvement in the state. "I know there is always a lot of different stats that y'all can find to push back and say things aren't perfect," Reeves said to the room full of journalists. "I got to tell you I agree. Things aren't perfect. I wouldn't be running for governor if I believed conditions in this state were perfect. I would probably be down here in Biloxi going to the beach everyday. But we are making progress in Mississippi."
 
Bill Waller Jr., emboldened by critiques of Tate Reeves, sharpens focus on GOP frontrunner
You wouldn't have known it was 5:30 a.m. by Bill Waller Jr.'s swagger as he walked into a Hattiesburg Hardee's for his first campaign stop in a recent 17-hour campaign day. He made his presence known that morning with a booming, "How y'all doing," and the 15 or so men who meet here for breakfast six days a week turned to face him. As a campaign staffer ordered Waller a coffee and smoked sausage biscuit, Waller made sure to shake everyone's hands before sitting down at their table. By the time the biscuit found its way to his seat, Waller had already fielded two criticisms about one of his Republican primary opponents, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves. "I'm supporting Bill Waller because he has a vision for a better Mississippi," Willis Lott, former president of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, told a reporter as the breakfast group listened. "Tate Reeves, in his years as lieutenant governor, has not shown that he has a vision. Plus he's arrogant, and a lot of people know it."
 
State Treasurer candidate David McRae visits Oxford
With a little over a month before primaries, the campaign trails are heating up for all state and local races. On Wednesday, one of the Republican candidates stopped in Oxford to speak with potential voters. David McRae is running for the office of State Treasurer for the second time, and held a meet-and-greet event at Southern Table Bar and Grill on Wednesday afternoon. It was not a large rally, but McRae said he embraces those events where one-on-on interactions occur and maximizes his time with a voter to its fullest potential. The current State Treasurer, Lynn Fitch, is vacating the seat and not running for re-election. Instead, Fitch is running for the Attorney General's office that will be vacant with current attorney general, Jim Hood, running for Governor. McRae ran against Fitch in the 2015 Republican primary, but lost by a margin of just over 36,000 votes. This year McRae will be facing another formidable opponent in the August primaries. Longtime state Senator Eugene 'Buck' Clarke qualified for the state treasurer's race in December. Clarke is also the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
 
Curtis Flowers Supreme Court ruling: Emotions high on both sides
"How would you feel if it was your wife?" That was Benny Rigby's response Friday after learning the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Curtis Giovanni Flowers. Rigby's wife, Carmen, was one of four killed in 1996 when they were shot at Tardy Furniture Store in Winona, and Rigby has no doubt that Flowers killed his wife and the other victims. "There is no justice," Rigby said. "If he was white, he would have been executed by now." Flowers' oldest brother, Archie Flowers Jr. of Grenada, said his first reaction when he heard the news Friday was simple: "Thank God." "But I think they should have let him go period," Archie Flowers said. "There is no doubt in our minds he is innocent and God proved that today." He said his dad was overwhelmed with the news. They thought they would hear about a Supreme Court ruling on Thursday, but when that didn't happen, they were surprised with Friday's ruling. Ray Charles Carter, one of Flowers' attorneys in his last trial in 2010, said Friday he is ecstatic that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Flowers' conviction and death sentence.
 
Agriculture Department buries studies showing dangers of climate change
The Trump administration has refused to publicize dozens of government-funded studies that carry warnings about the effects of climate change, defying a longstanding practice of touting such findings by the Agriculture Department's acclaimed in-house scientists. The studies range from a groundbreaking discovery that rice loses vitamins in a carbon-rich environment -- a potentially serious health concern for the 600 million people world-wide whose diet consists mostly of rice -- to a finding that climate change could exacerbate allergy seasons to a warning to farmers about the reduction in quality of grasses important for raising cattle. All of these studies were peer-reviewed by scientists and cleared through the non-partisan Agricultural Research Service, one of the world's leading sources of scientific information for farmers and consumers. None of the studies were focused on the causes of global warming -- an often politically charged issue.
 
Supreme Court rules against newspaper over information request, giving confidentiality win to businesses
The Supreme Court on Monday ruled 6-3 against a newspaper seeking records under the Freedom of Information Act on stores' financial data, finding that sharing the business data could harm the companies. The Argus Leader in South Dakota had filed a FOIA request with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, asking for stores' redemption data on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. USDA fulfilled part of the paper's FOIA request by giving them the names and addresses of the stores, but declined to provide the SNAP data under Exemption 4 of FOIA, which blocks agencies from handing over "trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential." The newspaper sued to obtain the records and originally secured rulings in its favor. But the Supreme Court found that the data is confidential. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Elena Kagan and Brett Kavanaugh signed onto Gorsuch's majority opinion.
 
Young people's acceptance of LGBTQ people is slipping. Is 'social crisis in discrimination' next?
Young people are growing less tolerant of LGBTQ individuals, a jarring turn for a generation traditionally considered embracing and open, a survey released Monday shows. The number of Americans 18 to 34 who are comfortable interacting with LGBTQ people slipped from 53% in 2017 to 45% in 2018 -- the only age group to show a decline, according to the annual Accelerating Acceptance report. And that is down from 63% in 2016. Driving the dilution of acceptance are young women whose overall comfort levels plunged from 64% in 2017 to 52% in 2018, says the survey conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD. "We count on the narrative that young people are more progressive and tolerant," John Gerzema, CEO of The Harris Poll, told USA TODAY. "These numbers are very alarming and signal a looming social crisis in discrimination."
 
North Mississippi prides reflect on their history, impact of Stonewall
Fifty years ago in Greenwich, New York, a group of LGBT bar attendees turned into activists as they decided to fight back against police harassment. Those initial Stonewall riots on June 28, 1969 sparked the gay rights movement, and Pride movements sprang up across the country. To mark that anniversary, three groups of north Mississippi LGBT activists spoke recently about the challenges they have encountered while navigating a space influenced both by the history of Stonewall and their own state's history. "(Like Stonewall), the LGBTQ+ community in Mississippi is also refusing to be silenced and claiming their space," said Jaime Harker, director at Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies at the University of Mississippi.
 
USM's Dean of Students Eddie Holloway retiring after 40 years
Eddie Holloway faced a challenge when he prepared to attend the University of Southern Mississippi as a freshman in the fall of 1970. The school's assistant vice president for student affairs and dean of students had never been in an integrated education setting before. "I had one Caucasian instructor in high school, so my views of people were from a fairly narrow perspective," he said. "Coming to the university afforded me to meet people of diverse backgrounds and views and histories." Holloway, 66, is now preparing to retire after 40 years employed at the university. As a student, he earned four degrees -- one bachelor, two masters and a doctorate. As an employee, he rose through the ranks from counselor in 1979 to dean of students in 1998 and assistant vice president for student affairs in 2015 -- the first African American at the school to hold those two positions. He will retire June 30.
 
What to know about every U. of Alabama construction project happening this summer
You might have noticed a few orange construction cones around Tuscaloosa, many of them spread across the University of Alabama campus, signifying future growth and another busy summer. Construction takes up a huge chunk of the summertime, with UA intentionally doing as much work throughout the season as possible to minimize impact on students and faculty during fall and spring semesters. UA's associate vice president for construction Tim Leopard updated us on every construction project happening on campus in summer 2019, along with other projects that will begin soon, collectively costing more than $400 million. These include the Aquatic Center renovation, sorority and fraternity house upgrades, the brand new Hewson Hall and, of course, the Crimson Standard campaign to improve UA's sports venues. "The contractors doing a fantastic job. We greatly appreciate the hard work they do," Leopard said. "I can't say how important they are to the University of Alabama, the men and women working the jobs. They don't get enough credit for what they do."
 
Auburn's Board Was Assessing the President. Now He's Gone.
After two years as Auburn University's president, Steven Leath is out. The decision, which was announced in a news release late on Friday night, followed "extensive discussions about the university's leadership" between Leath and a presidential assessment working group of the Board of Trustees, the release stated. University officials and members of the board did not immediately respond to requests on Saturday for more information about the reasons for Leath's sudden departure. The board's executive committee is slated to meet via conference call on Sunday to consider a "resolution regarding presidential actions." Michael Baginski, president of Auburn's Faculty Senate, said the decision caught the campus off guard. "President Leath was very well liked by everyone I know and he did so much in so little time," Baginski, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, said in an email to The Chronicle. "He's done everything very well and everyone I know is surprised."
 
Auburn University board executive committee recommends Jay Gogue for interim president
Jay Gogue may be returning to Samford Hall on an interim basis. The executive committee for Auburn University's board of trustees met via conference call Sunday afternoon and voted to recommend appointing Gogue as interim president of the university. Members of the full board of trustees will consider the committee's recommendation during a specially called meeting on July 8. Gogue was Auburn University's 18th president from 2007 until Steven Leath was hired in the summer of 2017. The committee also voted Sunday to approve the resignation of Leath as president, effective June 21. A resolution from the executive committee also recommends retired Lt. Gen. Ron Burgess, Auburn's chief operating officer, be appointed executive vice president of the university. In that role, he would be "instructed to oversee the business and administrative affairs of the university until such time as an interim president is appointed by the full board of trustees."
 
Four university presidents depart institutions within days of one another
Within days of each other, four university presidents left their respective institutions with little warning. At each institution, administrators offered only minimal, and sometimes no, explanation for their departure. On Wednesday, Marist College President David Yellen announced his departure after three years in office and was immediately replaced by an interim president. The same day, Muhlenberg College announced John I. Williams Jr. would be replaced by an interim president after four years as president. Friday saw the departure of Phyllis Worthy Dawkins after serving three years as Bennett College president and, finally, President Steven Leath of Auburn University announced a mutual decision to part ways with the university. Leath had been with Auburn since 2017. In addition to the obvious similarities in the timing and nature of these departures, one other factor tied them together: an immediate departure, rather than the usual transitional time period.
 
'He had such a bright future': Examining fatal overdoses at LSU and the rise of prescription drugs
Garry and Mary Ellen Jordan were planning an unannounced visit to LSU. They would show up and tell their son he had no choice but to withdraw from school. He needed help and he wasn't getting it there. The couple attended Sunday morning Mass at their church in Covington and were getting ready to leave their house when local police arrived and delivered the news: Graham Jordan had been found unresponsive in his dorm room a few hours earlier. "He went to bed and woke up -- well, he didn't wake up. He was dead," Garry Jordan said. "It seems to me that LSU has a surprising number of kids dying there, between the drug overdoses and the hazing." At least three LSU students died from accidental drug overdoses in 2017 alone, according to coroner's reports and LSU records obtained by The Advocate. Two of the students -- Graham Jordan and his close friend -- were members of the now-shuttered Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.
 
U. of Tennessee approves tuition increases, creation of Oak Ridge Institute
Tuition at each of the University of Tennessee campuses will increase next academic year. The Board of Trustees approved a 2% tuition increase at the Knoxville campus and a 2.5% increase at the Chattanooga and Martin campuses at its quarterly meeting on Friday. These are some of the lowest tuition increases in the university's history. The board also approved the $2.5 billion operating budget for 2019-2020, as well as voted to combine the UT Institute of Agriculture with the UT-Knoxville campus and to create the Oak Ridge Institute to further the university's partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Interim System President Randy Boyd called the Oak Ridge Institute and combining UTIA with UT-Knoxville leadership historic. "In combination, not only do they transform who we are today, but they transform us for years to come," Boyd said.
 
Georgia has cut higher ed money more than most states
Georgia's state government reduced funding for higher education more than all but five other states between 2001 and 2017, according to a new report from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Adjusted for inflation, the state reduced funding for Georgia public colleges and universities by about $4,000 per full-time student, according to the working paper, "Public Universities: The Supply Side of Building a Skilled Workforce." Public colleges all across the nation saw funding cut in the first two decades, generally beginning well before the recession of 2008, although eight states actually increased funding during the period, according to authors John Bound, Breno Braga, Gaurav Khanna and Sarah Turner. At the University of Georgia, state funding accounted for 42.2 percent of revenues in 2001, while student tuition and fees made up 13.4 percent, according to the UGA Fact Book. In the 2018 fiscal year, the state contributed 27.3 percent, while student tuition and fees made up 31.0 percent; triple the percent in 2001.
 
U.S. News and World Report: Texas A&M ranks first in Fortune 500 CEOs
Four Texas A&M University graduates are chief executives of companies in the top 100 of the Fortune 500 list of corporations, more than any other university, according to a recent survey by U.S. News and World Report. The four A&M former students on the list are Bruce Broussard, a class of 1984 graduate who now leads Humana; Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods, a member of the class of 1987; David Cordani, the Cigna leader who graduated from A&M in 1988; and class of 1980 member and Phillips 66 CEO Greg Garland. Texas A&M University President Michael K. Young praised the news in a university release. "We are proud that our students are so highly regarded and our graduates are ascending to the top of the Fortune 500 list of CEOs," Young said. "These senior executives on the list today and those for years to come fulfill the mission of Texas A&M of graduating leaders who serve, wherever their chosen pathways take them."
 
U. of Missouri launches research center construction
Morning thunderstorms pushed the "groundbreaking" of the 265,000-square-foot NextGen Precision Health Institute inside Memorial Union Friday, but did not dampen the party. The University of Missouri precision health initiative will focus research efforts on personalized medicine. Early construction work moving utility lines already started on the building's site near Hospital Drive and College Avenue. The $220.8 million complex, known until its official name was unveiled as the Translational Precision Medicine Complex, is expected to open in October 2021 and will be the first research facility opened on campus since the Bond Life Sciences Center opened in 2004. UM System President Mun Choi said the center will be used to predict, prevent and cure cancer, neurological and vascular diseases. The university will use existing resources like the MU Research Reactor, the Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans' Hospital and the National Swine Resource and Research Center to collaborate with researchers at the new institute.
 
Sanders to propose canceling entire $1.6 trillion in U.S. student loan debt, escalating Democratic policy battle
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will propose on Monday eliminating all $1.6 trillion of student debt held in the United States, a significant escalation of the policy fight in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary two days before the candidates' first debate in Miami. Sanders is proposing the federal government pay to wipe clean the student debt held by 45 million Americans -- including all private and graduate school debt -- as part of a package that also would make public universities, community colleges and trade schools tuition-free. Sanders is proposing to pay for these plans with a tax on Wall Street his campaign says will raise more than $2 trillion over 10 years, though some tax experts give lower revenue estimates. Sanders will be joined Monday by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who will introduce legislation in the House to eliminate all student debt in the United States, as well as Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who has championed legislation to make public universities tuition-free.
 
Critics blast U. of Oklahoma's handling of sexual assault allegations against its former president
When the University of Oklahoma announced this month that its popular former president was cutting all ties to the institution, its administrators strongly indicated -- without directly saying so -- that ending the relationship effectively released the university from any responsibility for continuing to investigate, or for acting on sexual misconduct allegations against former president David Boren. The university leaders' response was surprising given the seriousness of the accusations against Boren, a former U.S. senator and Oklahoma governor who led OU for 24 years, until June 2018, and who has been one of the most powerful political figures in the state. Six former male students and staff have alleged that Boren and another senior university official sexually harassed or assaulted them. Leaked copies of a report by a law firm hired by the university to investigate the accusers' claims said their complaints were credible.
 
Gone Missing
In March of 1980 a researcher named Margaret Ann Hardin went to the Erskine Ramsay Archaeological Repository at the Moundville Archaeological Park in Alabama to look at some ancient ceramics she'd been asked to study. But she couldn't find them. So she called Vin Steponaitis, then a University of Michigan graduate student who had sorted through the collections the year before and in the process set aside about seventy or eighty boxes of Moundville pottery. "I had no idea of what was going on, and when I got down there a day or two later I realized that the boxes that she had wanted to look at were missing," he said. "I had the inventory, so I knew exactly which boxes were missing and which pots were missing." More than two dozen boxes of artifacts -- nearly a quarter of Moundville's vessels -- had disappeared, including some of the collection's most cherished items. The heist got a modest write-up in a scholarly journal, which included about thirty photos of some of the more prominent items, and word of it spread among insiders in the archaeological community.
 
There's a movement for better scientific posters. But are they really better?
Hey science, your posters stink. Mike Morrison, a Ph.D. candidate in organizational psychology at Michigan State University, is way too polite to say it that way. But that's the implicit message behind his #betterposter campaign for less cluttered, more user-friendly scientific conference posters. If you've ever been to the poster hall at an academic conference (typically in the bowels of some big city chain hotel), you know what Morrison's talking about: rows and rows of giant boards alerting passers-by to the newest research in the field. These posters are supposed to serve as jumping-off points for scientists to discuss their work and -- as Morrison tells it -- efficiently convey new insights to someone navigating the hall in an hour or less.
 
The Chinese in the Delta is a story of struggle and opportunity
The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal's Dennis Seid writes: Last week, Dr. Sherman Hong from Hattiesburg had a fascinating talk at First United Methodist Church in Tupelo about the Delta Chinese in the 20th century Mississippi and their struggle to find a place in society. The son of Chinese immigrants like myself, Hong was born in Greenville and shared stories many of which I was familiar. Hong is a few years older than me, having had a 40-year teaching career at USM and a retired professor of music. But his stories were ones I had heard in my family for years -- Chinese families' struggle to find a place in a historically segregated society that was slow to change. For those who don't know, the Delta, from the early to late 20th century, held a large contingent of Chinese families. Most ran grocery stores or restaurants. As I've written before, Vicksburg had some two dozen Chinese-owned stores at the zenith, with my parents and uncle and aunts among them. The last of those stores closed last year.
 
Charter school suit exposes state overreach
Syndicated columnist Bill Crawford of Meridian writes: "People, not the government, know best how to take care of their own money," is one of Gov. Phil Bryant's favorite themes. You can see it reflected in his consistent opposition to federal government laws and regulations attempting to dictate public policy to Mississippians -- on abortion, healthcare, gun rights, school standards, EPA rules, and more. It was there in his published piece supporting Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination, praising the judge's opinions rejecting "agency overreach." It has its roots in Thomas Jefferson's perspective that "The will of the people... is the only legitimate foundation of any government." And, by that, he meant the will of the majority. It is a corollary to longtime Republican public policy -- dating back to Barry Goldwater -- that "The government closest to the people serves the people best." In other words, since state government is closer to the people, it will serve them better than the federal government.
 
Governor endorsing contested primary races, but not picking sides in the GOP attorney general campaign
Bobby Harrison writes for Mississippi Today: Bobby Morgan, a spokesperson for Gov. Phil Bryant, said the governor will not endorse a candidate in the Republican primary for attorney general. Morgan said the "governor will endorse after the primary" where Treasurer Lynn Fitch, state Rep. Mark Baker and former Madison County supervisor Andy Taggart are vying to win the nomination and be on the November ballot to replace outgoing Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood. It is notable that Bryant is not picking sides in what could be a hotly contested Republican primary for attorney general because that is not the case in other contested primary elections. ... It is of interest, though, that Josh Gregory, Bryant's longtime political consultant, is working on the Waller campaign, who was a late entry into the governor's election this year. And it also is of interest that Gregory is working on the Watson campaign for secretary of state. Bryant, of course, has strongly endorsed Watson.
 
Our View: Mississippi State baseball's spirits remain unbroken
The Dispatch editorializes: For the 11th time, Mississippi State reached the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, the Holy Grail of college baseball. Also, for the 11th time, the Bulldogs are coming home without that elusive national championship. The sting of that unfulfilled dream was likely made shaper by the manner in which MSU made its premature exit: losing a one-run lead in the bottom of the ninth inning to fall to Louisville, 4-3, Thursday night. For Bulldog coaches, players and fans, the disappointment lingers today, but should quickly pass. When the full measure of what this team has achieved is taken into account, the disappointing turn of events in Omaha will be viewed in their proper perspective. ... The team, while again falling short of its ultimate goal, will be remembered among MSU's greatest teams. Naturally, the attention will soon turn to next year. The hunger for a championship remains unsated.


SPORTS
 
College World Series: Mississippi State baseball believes it will be back in 2020
In the middle of his post-game interview inside a locker room at TD Ameritrade Park, Jake Mangum had a conversation with Ethan Small. "You remember that night, in Rice (Hall)?" Mangum asked. "Oh, no. You weren't there were you?" "Rice Hall? Yeah I was," Small said. "Oh yeah, you were," Mangum said. "In Rice Hall, we made a promise we were going to bring a national championship. We fell short, brother, but we fought like hell doing it." "We came twice, though," Small said. "Came to Omaha twice, just couldn't..." "Couldn't finish it," Small said. Mississippi State has made it to the College World Series 11 times. Mangum was a part of two of those trips. He will not be a part of any future ones, but he thinks they're coming. So do the players who have been through so much with him.
 
Next year's Bulldogs will boast deep junior class
Jordan Westburg sat at his locker and stared into space. Just minutes after the Mississippi State baseball team fell to Louisville 4-3 in Thursday's College World Series elimination game, the sophomore shortstop's face bore a ghostly look as if trying to reconcile what had transpired over the final two innings of the contest. But the generally mild-mannered yet confident Westburg made one thing clear -- MSU will be back. Following the loss, the college careers of seniors Jake Mangum, Elijah MacNamee and Cole Gordon have concluded. Underclassmen like junior reliever Colby White are headed off to the professional ranks. Junior catcher Dustin Skelton could soon follow. But for what MSU loses in attrition, it will return more than enough to make a splash in 2020. This year's sophomores -- Westburg, first baseman Tanner Allen, second baseman Justin Foscue and outfielders Rowdey Jordan and Josh Hatcher -- will all return next spring after playing meaningful innings this year.
 
Thank you, Jake Mangum
"Thank y'all and Hail State." Those were the final words said by Mississippi State center fielder Jake Mangum before stepping down from the press conference dais on Thursday night following a 4-3 loss to Louisville that ended the Bulldogs' season and marked the final chapter in Mangum's storied career in maroon and white. Chances are, there are thousands upon thousands of MSU fans who would happily line up to tell Mangum "thank you" for the last four years as well. The fans love Mangum for all the hits, the stolen bases and the diving catches but, more importantly, for who he is and the passion in which he plays the game. And the feeling is mutual. "He is very loved by our fans, but he gives to our fans," said MSU coach Chris Lemonis. "He never turns away an autograph. There's days he's stayed two hours, three hours. The night when he set the SEC (hits) record, he stayed for four hours signing autographs. The give-back of this kid is huge. Not only is he a great player -- you see that every day -- but who he is, is special."
 
Brookhaven family soaks up trip to Omaha
In 2018 when Mississippi State made it to Omaha and the College World Series, the Adams family of Brookhaven --- Nicholas and Juliana and their three boys -- were enjoying a beach vacation. There was talk of Nicholas flying out of Pensacola to catch a game, but impending work duties won out -- not before a vow was made that if State made it back in 2019, the Adamses would be there. State rolled through the regular season like a juggernaut and before they won their Super Regional over Stanford, Juliana Adams was already looking for somewhere to stay in Omaha. "Hotels rooms 20 miles away were going for $350 a night," said Juliana. "I lucked out and found a really great spot on Airbnb and booked it before they clinched the Super Regional. It had a 48-hour cancellation policy, but I wasn't too worried." Both MSU alums, Nicholas and Juliana loaded up their two oldest sons, Matt and Max, for a trip to Nebraska to cheer for the Dogs. "It was just an unbelievable experience," said Juliana. "As someone who has always loved sports and always loved college athletics, it's a bucket-list type trip. The atmosphere of all the fans pouring into the stadium will give you chills."
 
An ode to Omaha
The Dispatch's Ben Portnoy writes: As I sat in the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport between flights back to Starkville, I couldn't help but reflect on the past week's festivities. For the first time in my life I headed to Omaha, Nebraska, to cover Mississippi State at the College World Series. In all its magic, heartbreak and unbridled glory, I sat through every minute of every game as MSU made its ill-fated charge toward the program's first national title. I wasn't born in the Midwest but it's the place that shaped me. After my freshman year of high school I moved to the suburbs of Chicago before heading to Indiana University for my undergraduate work. I'm used to the plains, the offbeat accent and the stereotypical kindness Midwesterners often possess. Omaha was no different. From the minute I arrived, the excitement of the week had engulfed the city. Above Jams American Grill, just on the edge of the Old Market, flags with the logos of each qualifying team hung high and mightily. So many other establishments offered varying arrays of the same display.
 
Mississippi State's Holman, Peters receive NBA opportunities
Quinndary Weatherspoon was drafted in the second round by the San Antonio Spurs but may not be the only rookie Mississippi State player on an NBA roster next season. Power forward Aric Holman signed a free agent deal with the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday while point guard Lamar Peters agreed to terms to play for the New York Knicks in the NBA Summer League July 5-15 in Las Vegas. Holman started 79 of 124 games during his MSU career, averaging 8.3 points and 5.6 rebounds. He scored 9.5 points and grabbed 6.2 boards per game as a senior. Peters went undrafted despite entering as a junior. He started 71 of 98 career games, scoring 10.7 points and dishing out 4.4 assists and averaged 11.9 points and 5.2 assists this past season.
 
Cowboys QB Dak Prescott makes Metroplex youth football an annual priority
Not all NFL players have football camps, and some, understandably so, don't have them every offseason. However, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott makes his Metroplex youth football camp a yearly priority. The two-time Pro Bowler held his third annual Citi Dak Prescott Football ProCamp in Partnership with Albertsons & Tom Thumb at Northwest High School, spanning two football fields' worth of drills and sportsmanship for boys and girls grades first through eighth. "This is just such a grateful experience, thankful situation that I get to be a part of," Prescott said. "Use my platform for the right reason." Prescott has had a heart to give back to the next generation of football players since he ascended to prominence at Mississippi State.
 
USM planning for baseball diamond facelift
Scott Berry can tell you exactly when he new something was going to have to be done with the playing surface at the University of Southern Mississippi's baseball stadium, Pete Taylor Park. "When we started losing balls in the outfield this year," University of Southern Mississippi baseball coach Scott Berry said. "When they started disappearing in the ground." To the casual eye, the green, green grass at PTP provides the kind of luxuriant, natural surface where baseball was meant to be played. USM's outfield has become nearly as vicious as Charlie Brown's kite-eating tree. But, instead of munching on flying paper and balsa, Pete Taylor has resumed eating the random fly ball. "I'm telling you the truth," Berry said. "In the Gonzaga series (in early March, I had to put that in the ground rules, that if the ball plugs and disappears into the ground, then it's a ground-rule double. If you can see any part of it, dig it out and we play." Berry said the outfield hasn't received the kind of loving overhaul its needed since 1993, when French drains were first installed.
 
Michigan coach helped build Vandy program he's out to beat
Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin gets right to the point when he discusses his protege, Erik Bakich. He's proud of him. He's impressed with what he has accomplished at Michigan. He's his biggest fan. Now he wants to beat him. Corbin's Commodores and Bakich's Wolverines have never played each other. That changes Monday night when they open the best-of-three College World Series finals at TD Ameritrade Park. "I'm not uncomfortable with it," Corbin said. "If you're going to play someone you really care about and like, this is the best place you could possibly do it. It's two groups of teams playing each other, more than anything else. I'm happy for what he and his wife and his staff and that university have done to put themselves in a position to play for a national championship." The 41-year-old Bakich has become the hottest coach in the college game for taking the Wolverines to the CWS for the first time since 1984. They're playing for their first national title since 1962. Bakich said the seven years he spent at Vanderbilt (2003-09) as an assistant to Corbin shaped him as a coach, leader and man.
 
LSU's NCAA issues expand with new revelations
The NCAA scrutiny of LSU has expanded to include the football program, as the school confirmed on Friday afternoon that it has been working with the NCAA about an "ongoing inquiry" into a six-figure payment to the father of a former player. An LSU booster named John Paul Funes, who pleaded guilty to stealing more than a half-million dollars from a foundation where he worked as a fundraiser, paid $180,000 to a man that Yahoo Sports confirmed on Friday is the father of former Tigers star lineman Vadal Alexander. In federal documents, a man identified as "individual C" allegedly received "approximately $180,000 in Foundation Funds" from Funes. That man is James Alexander, the father of Vadal Alexander. His identity was first reported Thursday by the Baton Rouge Business Report. Funes' lawyer, Walt Green, declined comment to Yahoo Sports when asked explicitly whether he or his client had heard from the NCAA.
 
R.C. Slocum balanced his son's medical ordeal, being interim AD 'beautifully.' Here's what's next for Texas A&M's 'treasure'
More than anything, Father's Day underscored everything that R.C. Slocum has faced this year. He's preparing to step down after serving as Texas A&M's interim athletic director for nearly three months to return to being an assistant to the president. He's looking ahead to his first year serving on the College Football Playoff selection committee. In-between, Slocum spent several days at a hospital bed praying for a medical miracle. "It's life," Slocum said in an extended phone interview. "You can't predict those kind of things. You have to just to take it when it comes." By far the hardest thing was the medical ordeal of John Harvey Slocum, his youngest son. He collapsed while playing golf near his home in Midland. Born with a heart defect, doctors estimated that the younger Slocum may have flat-lined for 13 minutes. Eventually John Harvey was transferred by ambulance from Midland to Houston, where he underwent six hours of heart surgery to have a defibrillator implanted. "I say it's an absolute miracle and the medical people say the same thing," R.C. Slocum said. "The doctors did everything they could but I think the big man upstairs had a whole lot to do with it too."
 
Tennessee athletics expects finances to rebound after losing millions in 2018
Tennessee athletics expects to be back in the black for the fiscal year that ends June 30. Reid Sigmon, UT's executive associate athletic director, told the Board of Trustees' special committee on UT athletics during a meeting Wednesday that the athletics department is projecting a $405,401 operating surplus for this fiscal year. That comes after the Vols endured an operating loss of $6.5 million in the previous fiscal year -- largely because of $13.8 million in buyout costs that came with firing the football coaching staff and athletics director John Currie. The athletics department, as of June 7, projected an operating revenue of $135.3 million for this fiscal year, with projected operating expenses of $134.9 million. That includes $1.5 million in projected severance costs. During the current fiscal year, Tennessee fired women's basketball coach Holly Warlick and assistant football coach Terry Fair.
 
Regional Divide Opens Up in Sports Betting Legislation
In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for every state to legalize sports betting , a regional divide has opened as states decide whether to expand their gambling options. By year's end, legalization is possible in a dozen states in the Northeast and Midwest. But most states in the Deep South and far West -- SEC and Pac-12 territory in college sports -- are staying on the sidelines, at least for now. State lawmakers are weighing the benefits of a slight boost in state revenue and the ability to add consumer protections against concerns about the morality of allowing another form of gambling. With just two exceptions, the Deep South states have been among the most resistant to legalizing sports betting. In Louisiana, a legalization bill passed the Senate earlier this year but died in the House. Republican state Sen. Danny Martiny favors legalization, saying Louisianans already are betting on sports through bookies, offshore websites and casinos in neighboring Mississippi.



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