GRINDING IT OUT

While the Pittsburg State men’s basketball team shot a collective 57.1 percent from the field, it was the 26 turnovers that may have overshadowed it.

The Gorillas got a career night from senior Carlos Taylor but it was not enough as Pitt State fell to Missouri Western 86-75 in the MIAA conference opener for both teams at the Looney Athletic Complex Wednesday night.

Let me join the ranks of writers that express their disgust with the Bowl Championship Series and offer a solution.

Sports pundits and the like have complained for years that the BCS is flawed and each year they seem to have viable proof that a change needs to be made.

For Pittsburg State softball, it is all about family.

That must be why head coach Brad Horky recently signed a pair of high school seniors with family ties to Gorilla softball to national letters of intent for the 2010 season.

The Frontenac Junior High 7A basketball team wrapped up the CCCJL title after knocking off Northeast 51-11 on Tuesday night in Arma.

The win moved them to 11-0 on the season.

University of Kansas wide receiver and Pittsburg High School graduate Kerry Meier earned All-Big-12 honorable mention honors and was one of 10 Jayhawks to be honored by the league’s coaches.

Starting the MIAA conference schedule this early can be problematic for most coaches.
Pittsburg State head men’s basketball coach Gene Iba is no different.

This season, the Gorillas begin conference play at 7:30 p.m. tonight against Missouri Western at the Looney Athletic Complex in St. Joseph, Mo. and they have just five games under their belt.

For Pittsburg State women’s basketball coach Lane Lord, it comes down getting his team to grow.

Since they have started the 2008-09 season 4-2, he thinks the growing process is starting nicely.

Pittsburg State senior offensive lineman Kendall Molz earned first-team Daktronics All-Super Region Four honors, while senior tailback Caleb Farabi and sophomore safety Alex Kuhlman garnered second-team recognition Tuesday.

Three Pittsburg State University volleyball players were recently named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association All-South Central Region team.

Junior Pamela Cartagena and seniors Linda Igbinigie and Sammie Williams will now advance to All-America voting.

Three-time Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines summed up Al Ortolani in just one word.

“The biggest thing that stuck out for me was that he had an amazing ability to make you relax,” Gaines said in a phone interview with The Morning Sun Monday “They called him Magic Fingers, but they should have just called him Magic.”

Gaines worked with Ortolani, the longtime Pittsburg State and USA Olympic athletic trainer who died early Friday morning, for the 1980 and 1984 Olympic games.