Bielema joins Patriots as consultant
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Bret Bielema officially has a new job back in football.
The former Arkansas head football coach will be serving a consultant to New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick this upcoming season. Bielema has been working with the team since this spring. His new title was listed in the Patriots team media guide.
This is Bielema’s first NFL position. Belichick said Wednesday that Bielema’s specific role is evolving, but he expects “it will kind of work its way into some areas.”
The 48-year-old was a defensive coordinator at Kansas State and Wisconsin before taking over as the Badgers coach from 2006 to 2012. He left that position for Arkansas the following season, where he went 29-34 over five seasons before getting fired following a 4-8 campaign in 2017.
Little Rock women’s team to host Texas A&M
LITTLE ROCK — The Little Rock women’s basketball team will host 2018 Sweet 16 participant Texas A&M on Nov. 20 at 6:30 p.m. in the Jack Stephens Center.
This will be the Trojans’ 11th contest against the Aggies since first meeting in 2001, and it will be Texas A&M’s third visit to the Jack Stephens Center and fifth visit to Little Rock.
Little Rock has two wins against Texas A&M — its most against a team from the Southeastern Conference. The Trojans’ last victory against the Aggies was a special one as they defeated No. 6 seed A&M, 69-60, in the first round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament in Tempe, Ariz. Prior to that, Little Rock won the first-ever meeting in the series back in 2001 by a score of 80-68 at home.
Last season, Texas A&M advanced to the Sweet 16 and finished with an overall record of 26-10 and an 11-5 record in SEC play. The Aggies tied with Tennessee, Missouri and LSU for fourth place in the conference. After defeating Arkansas and LSU, A&M met national runner-up Mississippi State in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament and lost 70-55.
As a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, Texas A&M defeated Drake, 89-76, in the first round before squeaking by with an 80-79 win against DePaul. In the Sweet 16, the Aggies came up short to eventual-national champion Notre Dame, 90-84.
No member of the 2018-19 Aggies roster has played more than a year with the program, but they will return Chennedy Carter, the 2018 National and SEC Freshman of the Year. Carter averaged 22.7 points per game and 4.9 assists.
The Trojans will return 11 players
from last season’s Sun Belt Conference championship squad. All-Sun Belt First Team selection Ronjanae DeGray and sister Raeyana DeGray will round out their four-year career with the program, while sophomores Tori Lasker and Terrion Moore look to build upon their freshman seasons.
Reddies tennis honored with academic awards
TEMPE, Ariz. — The Henderson State tennis team was recognized as one of the most outstanding academic teams in all of NCAA Division II this week when the Reddies received a 2018 Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-Academic Team award.
The ITA All-Academic Team award is open to any ITA program with a cumulative team grade point average of 3.20 or better on a 4.0 scale. All varsity letter winners were factored into the cumulative team GPA for the current academic year, including fall 2017 and spring 2018.
Four Henderson players were recognized for their individual academic success. Sydnee Parker, Annie Shannon, Lorraine Banimataku and Thea Minor were each named ITA All-Academic Scholar Athletes.
A player must be a varsity letter winner, have a GPA of at least 3.50 for the current academic year and have been enrolled at their present school for at least two semesters in order to earn ITA Scholar Athlete status.
In all, 735 teams and 4,328 student-athletes across all five divisions of college tennis were honored. Henderson was one of 96 women’s tennis teams at the DII level to receive ITA All-Academic Team recognition.