Kritik und Anregungen » st season in Charlotte, was at the game

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Florida is making a strong push to catch up in the facilities race of college athletics.A little more than a year after finishing a $17 million indoor practice field and with a $65 million renovation to its on-campus arena nearing completion, the Gators announced concepts for the next phase of upgrades Friday.The $100 million master plan includes a stand-alone football facility and significant improvements to outdated baseball and softball stadiums.Theres a lot of momentum building in our program on different levels, said Jeremy Foley, who is retiring Oct. 1 after 25 years as Floridas athletic director. And I think these things are going to keep us moving forward.Foley and his staff shared the concepts with the University Athletic Association board Friday afternoon and then released them publicly. The school still has to raise the $100 million, which Foley expects will come from private donations, bonds and borrowed cash. The Gators, who already have $91 million in debt carried, anticipate having blueprints and a timeframe for breaking ground this fall.Florida currently houses football meeting rooms and coaches offices inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Its cramped quarters, and the weight room is shared with student-athletes from other sports.The stand-alone facility would give the football program its own space, an estimated 100,000 square feet located between the teams practice fields and the basketball practice facility. It will have offices, a training room, a weight room, a players lounge, a recruiting lounge and other amenities. Second-year coach Jim McElwain has been outspoken about the need to upgrade Floridas facilities.It will be everything that we need, that Mac has envisioned, Foley said. Obviously, he has been talking about facilities because those are important to him. Part of our job as athletic directors and administrators is to listen to our coaches. You cant always do everything you want right away. You cant always do what they want all the time because of financial constraints.But at the University of Florida, when that football coach has a vision he wants to convey to you, were going to do it.Other parts of the plan include:- McKethan Stadium, where the baseball team practices and plays, would get about 400 club seats covered by a roof structure, field-level seating behind home plate, expanded dugouts and a renovated press box. The team also would get a players lounge and enhanced locker rooms.- Pressly Stadium, where the softball team practices and plays, would expand seating from 1,200 to about 2,500, add shaded structures over seats behind home plate and along the first- and third-base lines, create additional restrooms and concession spaces, and add offices, locker rooms and meeting rooms.- A new dining hall would be built for all student-athletes.- Current football offices would be converted into administrative offices, and the current weight room and training room would be renovated for use by all student-athletes.One of the things we did when we did our facility assessment is to look at what we current had, what our needs were, what are peer institutions had and then determine, `OK, where do we need it and where is the best place to do it? said Chip Howard, Floridas executive associate AD for internal affairs.It had become obvious that Floridas facilities were not on par with some of the biggest spenders in the Southeastern Conference and other high-profile programs around the country.But if these concepts become reality the Gators will have committed $207 million to facility upgrades since January 2015. That includes the master plan projects, the indoor practice facility, the ODome renovation and the Hawkins Center, a $25 million academic center for student-athletes.Foley is quick to point out that the Gators won two national titles in football (2006, 2008), back-to-back national championships in basketball (2006-07), advanced to the College World Series five times in the last nine years and won consecutive softball titles (2014-15) without the plushest amenities.Facilities are just part of the conversation, Foley said. Our facilities have not kept us from being successful. ... Obviously these things are going to help us recruit, help us be successful. At the end of the day, its going to go back to what it always does: coaching, recruiting. These facilities will enhance that, but its not the end-all, be-all.If you have good coaches, youre going to get good athletes, and weve shown that time and time again around here.---AP college football website: www.collegefootball.ap.org Discount Air Max Shoes . Kozun faked to the forehand and beat Monsters starter, Calvin Pickard, pad side in the second round for the winner. Spencer Abbott also scored in the shootout for the Marlies (25-13-4). Air Max Outlet . Nathan MacKinnon, Jamie McGinn and Jan Hejda also scored for the Avalanche, who won despite being outshot 38-23. MacKinnons goal, also on the power play, came with just over a minute remaining. http://www.cheapairmaxchinadiscount.com/ . -- Matt Rupert scored once in regulation and again in the shootout as the London Knights extended their win streak to nine games by defeating the Owen Sound Attack 4-3 on Friday in Ontario Hockey League action. Wholesale Air Max .J. -- Pitcher Carl Pavano is retiring after 14 major league seasons. Cheap Vapormax China Discount .com) - Following a late-game loss to the reigning NBA champs, the Toronto Raptors will look to sustain their recent high-level play as they travel to Indiana to take on the Pacers. NEW YORK -- Kemba Walker lost his backup and a few other key players from the best team hes played on in the NBA.Instead of taking a step back, his Hornets are off to their best start in 16 years.Walker scored a season-high 30 points and Charlotte improved to 4-1 for the first time since 2000 by beating the Brooklyn Nets 99-95 on Friday night.Its pretty early but I like the team that we can become, coach Steve Clifford said.Nicolas Batum added 18 points and nine rebounds, while Marvin Williams, who missed his first 10 shots, made a 3-pointer with 1:05 left after the Nets had cut the lead to one point.Reserve Sean Kilpatrick scored 19 points for the Nets, who didnt have starting point guard Jeremy Lin available to face his former team because of a strained left hamstring that will keep him sidelined for at least two weeks.Lin played behind and alongside Walker last season on a team that went 48-34, but then also lost Al Jefferson and Courtney Lee in free agency. But Walker said he isnt surprised by their fast start.We have players who put in the time and effort and the work, so Im not surprised at all, he said. This is what were supposed to do. I feel like were a really good team, so we want to continue to get better each and every day.Brook Lopez added 18 points and Trevor Booker had 12 points and 13 rebounds for the Nets, who because of injuries had to turn to rookie Isaiah Whitehead, a second-round pick out of Seton Hall, to make his first career start.The Brooklyn native finished with eight points but the best point guard in the game, and from New York, was Walker, who shot 11 for 22 and also grabbed six rebounds.It was a good experience but at the end of the day we lost, Whitehead said. Thats never good.The Nets had a 13-point lead in the first half and were still ahead 55-43 early in the third before Walker and Cody Zeller, who played just five minutess in the first half because of foul trouble, turned it around.dddddddddddd Walkers basket capped an 18-3 run that gave Charlotte a 61-58 lead and it remained a three-point game going to the fourth quarter.I thought that third quarter really hurt us, Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said. I thought we got stagnant. I thought the ball stopped moving. They got into us.The lead was down to 92-91 when Williams nailed a 3 from the corner. Walker followed with a free throw to make it 96-91 and the Nets never got closer than three points again.TIP-INSHornets: Walker and Batum each scored 11 points in the first quarter. Charlottes only other point was a free throw by Ramon Sessions. ... The Hornets followed their 4-1 start in 2000-01 by losing their next five games. They finished 46-36.Nets: Brooklyn was also without guards Greivis Vasquez (sore right ankle) and Randy Foye (strained right hamstring). ... Kilpatrick entered as the NBAs top-scoring reserve with 16.6 points per game.HORNETS NESTCharlotte has won the last five meetings overall and three in a row in Brooklyn.OFF NIGHTSWilliams finished 2 for 13 for six points. On the other side, Nets guard Bojan Bogdanovic shot 4 for 17. He had 14 points.LIN UPDATELin, who averaged 11.7 points last season in Charlotte, was at the game with his left leg wrapped. He said hes never had a hamstring injury before and doesnt know yet how long he could be out. I think were just saying like the first three days, its really important to do a whole lot of nothing, and after that time you can get a much better gauge of where Im at, Lin said.UP NEXTHornets: Begin a three-game homestand Monday against Indiana.Nets: Host Minnesota on Tuesday to end a four-game homestand. They begin a five-game trip the next night. ' ' '