wvusports.com

Since 2010, West Virginia women’s tennis has been under the leadership of head coach Tina Samara. While the results haven’t always been there, the program grew as a whole.

On Friday, June 14, Samara accepted a head coaching position with the University of Wisconsin. As a student-athlete at the University of Georgia, Samara won three national championships, with two being won at the Nielsen Tennis Center in Madison, Wis.

The memories Samara had at Wisconsin will lead her back to the Badgers, an elite program in women’s tennis over the last few years.

While Samara added that WVU has bettered herself and the program, it’s in her best regard to head back to Madison.

A Farewell Thank You From Coach Tina Samara | http://t.co/2iu1FTkKa0 #HailWV

— WVU Sports (@WVUSportsBuzz) June 17, 2013

.@BadgerWTennis announced today that Tina Samara will take over as head coach after 3 seasons at West Virginia. #Badgers #BigTen

— Badger Herald Sports (@BHeraldSports) June 17, 2013

Here’s a picture:

Here is Ohio State’s “be the best man” doctrine.. #OhioState #CompleteMan pic.twitter.com/XJUXICTYef

— George Whitfield Jr. (@georgewhitfield) June 17, 2013

The Louisville football team also has an interesting set of core values that play off of OSU’s values (head coach Charlie Strong worked under Urban Meyer, so it makes sense that he took a leaf of out Meyer’s playbook). The Cardinals’ core values start with “honesty” and end with “no guns”.  

The best football programs have cultures that build young men… Like Ohio State & others, Louisville spells it out. pic.twitter.com/tPngdIm4qF

— George Whitfield Jr. (@georgewhitfield) June 17, 2013

We’re just surprised that Ohio State doesn’t list “Pay For Tattoos.”

[For The Win] 

Thankfully, the ball was caught. It was pretty wild – check it out:

#danceclass #razorbacks #do #ballet lol https://t.co/eIZ62qhsxk

— Reeve Koehler (@reeve_koehler78) June 18, 2013

Brooks Ellis dancing #realrazorbacksdance https://t.co/w31hA5mQ8P

— Reeve Koehler (@reeve_koehler78) June 18, 2013

#realrazorbacksdance https://t.co/5Rs5frYZHk

— Reeve Koehler (@reeve_koehler78) June 18, 2013

Hey, good for them. Most men are terrified to step on the dance floor, much less take up ballet. Perhaps it’ll make them more nimble on the field in the ultra-competitive SEC West.

One of those national champion Cardinals, Gorgui Dieng, had some pretty interesting comments recently in an interview before the upcoming NBA Draft — specifically, he was calling out John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats.  Dieng thinks that Kentucky, which is said to have the best recruiting class ever, has a chance to win the title, but he doubts the Wildcats’ team chemistry is there. Here’s what he told Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog:

“They always have the best players and always, I don’t want to say best players, they always have the chance but are they going to be a team? We don’t know. You can have a lot of pieces but it’s tough to have a team.”

Dieng also mentioned that he thinks the Cardinals will be better in 2013-14 than they were last year, so everyone else should look out.

These comments, particularly the ones relating to UK, will no doubt spark emotion between the rival schools. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until December for these two teams to battle it out on the court. 

[Cardinal Connect] 

And so, the school’s recruits Twitter handle has responded:

WE ARE…LINEBACKER U! pic.twitter.com/hLVQ563oAv

— Penn State Recruits (@PSURecruits) June 18, 2013

Sorry UCLA, but we’re going to have to side with the Nittany Lions on this one. You can’t just jack another school’s title with a claim on Twitter.

Channel1450.com

Former Oklahoma State quarterback Wes Lunt, who decided earlier this week that he’d be transferring to Illinois ahead of his sophomore year, gave a very candid interview with Channel1450.com yesterday. The most surprising fact he dropped? His former coach Mike Gundy, who came under fire for reportedly blocking Lunt from looking at 37 different schools, actually lifted that ban on some schools in early June.

“Ugh, it was hard. You know, I didn’t kinda understand it at first, I just picked those five schools because I had previous relationships with them before I picked OSU. And you know it was difficult, I didn’t understand the process, so, when they were blocked, I knew that I could appeal but it was going to take a while, and you know about a week and a half ago Coach Gundy called Coach Leonard and said that I could go to another school if I wanted, but by that time I’d lost contact with those coaches, and you know Illinois and Louisville were great choices, so I stuck with them.”

Leonard was Lunt’s high school coach.

Interesting, right? Perhaps Gundy felt badly for how Lunt was being treated? Either way, as Lunt mentions, the lift on the ban clearly came too late in the process.

You can watch the interview in its entirety below:

[Channel1450 via ESPN]

The Minnesota Golden Gophers play their football in TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, and apparently the home locker room is all swagged out.  The official Minnesota football account tweeted out this Vine of an enormous flashing block “M” on the ceiling:

The Block “M” in the ceiling of our locker room at TCF Bank Stadium #Gophers https://t.co/9AK7p0QJrA

— GopherGridiron (@GopherGridiron) June 18, 2013

I can’t see how this is a necessity or a good investment at all — unless the football team is throwing some serious parties in the locker room (which would be awesome, by the way). However, I’m sure that recruits probably find it pretty cool.

During halftime of the Kentucky vs. Mississippi State basketball game back in February, the 1996 National Championship basketball team was recognized and given special rings for their accomplishments. Four months later, it appears that former UK star Walter McCarty put both the original NCAA National Championship ring and the Kentucky ring up for sale on Ebay.

After this news started to spread, McCarty reportedly said that it was a “misunderstanding” with a family member. 

Spoke with @waltermccarty today, who is working diligently to have the rings returned. Misunderstanding with family member. @KySportsRadio

— Brooks Downing (@BrooksDowning) June 17, 2013

The bidding was supposed to end in 27 days, but it appears that the bidding ended this morning at 8:17 AM. Hopefully that means he’s taking them down.

The original ring is currently sitting at $3,400 while the newer one that the school purchased is listed at $5,200. 

We’re not really sure what exactly is going on within the McCarty family, but we do know that he has had financial problems for years. Hopefully this situation can get worked out.

[Lost Lettermen]

Yesterday, the Bruins’ football Twitter account posted an image claiming Penn State’s famous title:

#linebackeru pic.twitter.com/psyVu1hswP

— UCLA Football (@UCLAFootball) June 17, 2013

Naturally, people aren’t happy about this:

More of an abomination: Joey Crawford reffing Game 6 or UCLA now referring to themselves as “Linebacker U”?

— Bill DiFilippo (@bflip33) June 18, 2013

Linebackers in the NFL- Penn State 12, UCLA 4. Not sure they should be calling themselves Linebacker U

— James Bodenheimer (@JJBodenheimer) June 18, 2013

I realize lots of college teams claim to be linebacker U, but. UCLA saying that is comical.

— Nick Johnson (@CBJ_DJ) June 18, 2013

It’s too late for the Bruins to take this one back — it was a pretty bold move that is drawing some serious attention. But hey, it’s just a little extra motivation for both UCLA and PSU to back up the nickname on the field.