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03/05/2009 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 2009 Colonial Athletic Association Tournament will take place in Richmond, Virginia, beginning with the first round on Friday and wrapping up with Monday's title game.
The top four seeds each receive a bye for the opening round, and the winner of the tournament gets an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Virginia Commonwealth grabbed the top seed after picking up its third consecutive CAA regular-season title. However, the Rams know all too well that they've got some more work to do, as they missed out on a NCAA Tournament invite last year after losing to fifth-seeded William & Mary in the semifinals. VCU is led by CAA Player of the Year candidate Eric Maynor, who leads the league in scoring (22.4 ppg), and also broke the school's career scoring record in the season finale. George Mason, last season's CAA Champion, has the No. 2 seed. The Patriots have won four of their last five games. The No. 3 seed belongs to the Northeastern Huskies, who faded a bit down the stretch, losing four of their final six games. The final first-round bye belongs to the fourth-seeded Old Dominion Monarchs, winners of five straight and nine of their last 10 overall.
Kicking off the first-round action will be the eighth-seeded Georgia State Panthers and ninth-seeded Delaware Blue Hens on Friday at noon. The winner gets a date with VCU in the quarterfinals on Saturday. Georgia State (11-19, 8-10 CAA) and Delaware (13-18, 6-12) split the season series. This marks the Panthers' highest seed since joining the CAA four years ago, as they closed out the regular season by winning four of their final five games. Leading the way for Georgia State is guard Joe Dukes, who averages 12.3 ppg to go along with 4.4 rpg and 4.4 apg. He is complemented in the backcourt by Trae Goldston (11.0 ppg), the team's top three-point shooter at 34.6 percent. Shooting hasn't exactly been the team's strong point throughout the season. They are putting up just 60.8 ppg on 42.1-percent shooting from the floor. They've even struggled at the free-throw line, shooting just 61 percent.
Delaware has gone with the same starting lineup for all but two games this season, and while four of those players are scoring in double figures and logging 30-plus minutes per game, the team doesn't have a whole lot of depth beyond that. Marc Egerson is averaging 15.5 ppg and 10.4 ppg, and he is also a 39-percent shooter from beyond the arc. Jawan Carter is good for two three- pointers per game (34.1 percent) and is averaging 15.3 ppg. Other key contributors include Alphonso Dawson (14.2 ppg) and Brian Johnson (10.2 ppg). As a team, the Blue Hens are knocking down 7.4 threes per game, though they attempt more than 20 per game, which also waters down their field-goal percentage a bit (41.7 percent).
Game two pits the fifth-seeded Hofstra Pride against the 12th-seeded UNC- Wilmington Seahawks. The winner will advance to face fourth-seeded Old Dominion in quarterfinal action. Hofstra (20-10, 11-7) and UNCW (7-24, 3-15) played a pair of tightly-contested games in the regular season. The Pride notched a two-point victory at UNCW on Jan. 28, then beat the Seahawks in overtime in the season finale this past Saturday. In fact, it marked the fourth straight season these two played in an overtime game.
Hofstra was able to reach the 20-win mark for the fourth time in the past five seasons, thanks largely to guard Charles Jenkins (19.2 ppg). One of only two sophomores in school history to eclipse 1,000 points, Jenkins recorded a career-high 35 points on Saturday, including what turned out to be the game- clinching bucket late in overtime. His previous career-high was 33 points, set against those same Seahawks in late-January. Cornelius Vines is scoring 10.6 ppg on the season.
As for UNCW, the offense filters mostly through Chad Tomko, who leads the team with 15.8 ppg. A 31.8-percent shooter from beyond the arc, Tomko launches an average of nearly eight three-point attempts per game. Johnny Wolf (13.7 ppg), a 34.3-percent shooter from beyond the arc, also gets plenty of looks in the back court. In the low post, Dominique Lacy is averaging 10.6 ppg and 6.0 rpg. However, the Seahawks are often at a disadvantage on the boards, as they are a -6.9 in rebounding margin this season. And while they do have a few guys who can score, defensive stops have been few and far between, with opponents putting up 83.7 ppg and shooting 50.7 percent from the floor. Still, you can't sleep on a program that has more tournament wins than any other school in the CAA.
Seventh-seeded James Madison (18-13, 9-9) will take on the 10th-seeded William & Mary Tribe (10-19, 5-13) in Game three of the first round. The winner moves on to face George Mason Saturday night. JMU swept the season series for the first time since 1999-2000. Last year, William & Mary lost to George Mason in the CAA Championship game. So, while the Tribe enter this year's conference tourney as the 10th-seed, they've got some players who have proven they know what it takes to win in postseason play. The Tribe prefer to slow the tempo down and operate out of their half-court offense. They've held opponents to 63.2 ppg, but are scoring just 61.9 ppg and shooting 41.5 percent as a team. Guards David Schneider and Danny Sumner headline this group. Schneider leads the team with 14.4 ppg and Sumner is scoring 13.2 ppg, though neither is shooting better than 40 percent from the floor. In fact, Schneider has taken more shots than any player on the team, but is shooting a rather ugly 34.7 percent from the floor.
As for the Dukes, they need to find a way to rebound after closing out the regular season with losses in three of their final four games. Juwann James leads JMU with 15.4 ppg despite starting only three games this season. He is shooting a scorching 59.4 percent from the floor. Kyle Swanston (11.9 ppg), Julius Wells (11.8 ppg) and Devon Moore (10.1 ppg) are each key figures in the offense. One of the team's main strengths is its foul shooting, as the Dukes have four players who rank in the top-six in the CAA in free-throw percentage. Should the game come down to the last few possessions, JMU has the advantage here.
In the night cap of Friday's first-round action, sixth-seeded Drexel will take on 11th-seeded Towson, with the winner advancing to face Northeastern in the quarterfinals. Drexel won both regular-season meetings against Towson. The Dragons (15-13, 10-8) rank dead-last in the CAA in field-goal percentage (37.9) and three-point percentage (29.7) although they rank second in field- goal percentage defense (39.6). The team sputtered down the stretch, losing three of its final four games. The Dragons closed out the season with a 48-47 loss to William & Mary, which followed up a 47-46 loss to Northeastern three days earlier. Scott Rodgers is the only player averaging double figures, with 13.8 ppg to go along with 5.0 rpg. He averages a team-high 12 shot attempts per game, and is shooting just 35.6 percent from the floor.
Towson (10-21, 5-13) didn't fare too well down the stretch, either, dropping four of its final five games. As a team, the Tigers are shooting just 40.1 percent from the floor and are being outscored by an average margin of 6.1 ppg. Still, they've got one of the league's top big men in Junior Hairston (12.7 ppg, 7.3 rpg). Josh Thornton is scoring 11.2 ppg and is a threat along the perimeter, where he has knocked down a team-high 74 three-pointers (36.5 percent). Jarrel Smith is tallying 10.4 ppg and 4.9 rpg and is the only player to have started all 29 games this season.
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Terrell Owens will address the media at a 3:15 p.m. ET news conference outside the Cowboys' practice facility after an internal police report indicated he tried to kill himself by overdosing on prescription pain medication, even putting two more pills into his mouth after a friend intervened.
The Dallas police report said Owens was asked by rescue workers "if he was attempting to harm himself, at which time [he] stated, 'Yes.'"
Owens left the hospital late Wednesday morning, giving reporters a "thumbs up" but making no comment as he was driven away in an SUV.
Michael Irvin said that Owens denied he attempted suicide and said he was rushed to the hospital as a result of an adverse reaction to medication. And a source close to Owens told Michael A. Smith that Owens wasn't attempting suicide.
NFL Network analyst Deion Sanders said he spoke with Owens shortly before his release from the hospital and that Owens was in good spirits.
"The fact that it has been reported a suicide attempt, he's laughed at that notion. It was a case that medication that was taken wasn't accepted well in his system with the other vitamins he's on," Sanders said.
The series of events began a little before 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Owens' publicist, Kim Etheredge, said she was at Owens' home when he took pain medicine for his broken right hand. Concerned by how he began acting, Etheredge said in various interviews Wednesday with Dallas-area media that she called 911. Owens was taken to a hospital, with Etheredge saying it was an allergic reaction to the medicine.
But early Wednesday, several media outlets received a police report -- that had yet to be released by the authorities -- saying Owens had attempted suicide by overdosing on the painkillers, even putting two more pills into his mouth after an unidentified friend intervened.
The police document, first reported by WFAA-TV, said Owens was asked by rescue workers "if he was attempting to harm himself, at which time [he] stated, 'Yes.'"
When officially released by police, about half the document was blacked out, including the phrases "attempting suicide by prescription pain medication" and "a drug overdose," as well as the details of Owens having two pills pried from his mouth and Owens saying "Yes" when asked if he intended to harm himself.
Etheredge, who said she was the friend cited in the police document, told Dallas-area media Wednesday that the police got the story wrong.
The tape of the 911 call could help clear things up. The Associated Press filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act to get its contents, but fire department officials said it would not be available before late Wednesday.
The police report said the 32-year-old Owens told his friend "that he was depressed." Details of the police report were first reported by WFAA-TV.
The friend, who is not identified in the report, "noticed that [his] prescription pain medication was empty and observed [Owens] putting two pills in his mouth," the police report said.
Using her fingers, the friend attempted to pry them out of Owens' mouth. Owens told police he had taken only five of the 40 pain pills in the bottle he'd emptied before the incident.
Etheredge told the Star-Telegram that Owens was "fine."
Etheredge said she called 911 because Owens was groggy and lethargic. After taking some supplements "it kicked in a reaction" with the painkillers, she told the Star-Telegram.
"Here's a person whose body is so clean, it really had a negative reaction to the medication and supplements he was taking," Etheridge told The Morning News. "Thank goodness someone was there to call an ambulance."
Police Lt. Rick Watson said he could only confirm that paramedics called police to say they were taking Owens to the hospital. He said no more details would come from the police because no laws were broken.
It is not a crime in Texas for a person to attempt suicide.
"This is a high-profile person. We looked into it and we determined it is not a criminal offense," Watson said. "This a medical type of situation that occurred."
Watson and fire department spokesman Joel Lavender cited privacy laws for the lack of information they could provide. Lavender said more details could come from the 911 call. The Associated Press filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act to get the contents of the call.
"Let's just look at the tape, review the tape," Lavender said. "I'll give you an honest answer once I know something."
At the police news conference, Watson released a version of the police narrative with certain sections blacked out. The full report was obtained by several news outlets and reported first by WFAA. The AP received the full version from WFAA.
According to the police report, Dallas Fire and Rescue was called regarding someone "attempting suicide by prescription pain medication." Officers arrived to find Owens being stabilized by ambulance workers, who then took him to Baylor University Medical Center.
Owens was hospitalized late Tuesday because of what his publicist said was an allergic reaction to pain medicine he was taking for a broken hand. Doctors reportedly tried to induce vomiting.
Owens, one of the league's top receivers during his 11-year NFL career, is best known for wild stunts on the field and other publicity-seeking antics off it.
When the Cowboys signed him to a $25 million, three-year deal in March, they said their background checks indicated no red flags. In fact, team consultant Calvin Hill -- who mostly deals with troubled players -- said during training camp that his department was not involved with Owens because he didn't have a history of those kinds of problems.
He missed most of training camp, and three of four preseason games, because of a hamstring injury. He was late for work during his recovery and was fined for it, but Owens laughed it off, saying he overslept. He said it had happened before, though not with Dallas, and would probably happen again.
Owens broke the bone leading to his right ring finger during a game a week ago Sunday. The next day, doctors screwed in a plate so the bone could heal without fear of further damage. Cowboys coach Bill Parcells said last week that the pain medicine made Owens ill.
Owens had not practiced since the injury, but because Dallas had a bye this past weekend he did not miss a game. He was expected to practice Wednesday, and Parcells had said there was a chance Owens could play Sunday against Tennessee.
Owens had been especially looking forward to the Cowboys' game after that -- Oct. 8, in Philadelphia, against the team that dumped him midway through last season only months after he helped them nearly win the Super Bowl.
Owens was seen laughing and joking on the practice field Tuesday morning. He chatted briefly with reporters in the locker room in the afternoon and seemed fine. A 2-inch scar on the top of his hand was puffy but not wrapped, and he said the swelling was doing down.
While in the locker room, he took a pill from a white paper bag and looked at another medicine bottle that was in the bag. He also called a business partner about a towel-wrap venture they're starting and joked to TV cameras that he wasn't talking until Wednesday and it was only Tuesday.
"My little boy knows better than that," he said, laughing, as he plopped onto a sofa in the middle of the locker room.
Also Tuesday, Owens was involved in launching a national campaign for the National Alliance to End Abuse, an organization aimed at helping at-risk youngsters. He appeared at a high school Tuesday morning and was scheduled to visit others but had to cancel because of changes in the team's practice schedule.
Owens has played two games for the Cowboys, catching nine passes for 99 yards and a touchdown. For updated football betting lines and Dallas Cowboy Superbowl odds visit online sportsbook MySportsbook.com
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