Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel is the Big 12 male athlete of the year, and Nebraska volleyball star Sarah Pavan won the female award for the second straight year.
Daniel led the Tigers to their first Big 12 North title, setting school records for passing yards (4,306) and touchdowns (33). He finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy race.
Nominees are submitted by each Big 12 school and selected by a media panel based on 2007-08 athletic performance, academic achievement and citizenship.
Kansas State adds to baseball staff
Kansas State announced the hiring of Andy Sawyers as an assistant baseball coach. Sawyers will serve as the Wildcats’ hitting coach and work with the team’s catchers under coach Brad Hill.
Sawyers replaces Lane Burroughs, who left K-State after one season to become an assistant at Mississippi State. Sawyers played at Nebraska and was an assistant there for five years before joining Texas A&M’s staff last season.
Bucknam Arkansas’ new track coach
Northern Iowa coach Chris Bucknam will take over as head coach of Arkansas’ men’s cross country and track and field program.
Bucknam, who has been Northern Iowa’s coach since 1984, will replace John McDonnell. McDonnell announced in April that he would be stepping down as head coach, after leading the Razorbacks to 42 national titles and 83 conference crowns.
Bucknam has guided Northern Iowa to 35 league titles and six top-20 finishes in NCAA indoor and outdoor championships. He has received 33 conference coach-of-the-year awards.
Ohio hires Groce as basketball coach
Ohio University has hired Ohio State assistant John Groce as its basketball coach.
Groce, 36, had been the top assistant under Ohio State coach Thad Matta for the last four years. He also worked under Matta at Xavier and at Butler.
Groce replaces Tim O’Shea, who left this week to become head coach at Bryant University in Rhode Island.
Humphrey off Georgia team
Georgia basketball coach Dennis Felton has dismissed guard Billy Humphrey from the team after Humphrey’s third arrest in less than a year.
Humphrey, 20, was charged with DUI, failure to maintain his lane and the underage purchase of alcohol and taken to the Gwinnett (Ga.) County jail early Tuesday.
Felton announced Friday that Humphrey, a rising senior who was the team’s second-leading scorer last season, was dismissed from the team.
“I am disappointed in Billy,” Felton said. “We’ve worked really hard with him in the past to see that he succeeds, but I feel that it’s now best for our program to move forward without him.”
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