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Messenger Sports Briefs for April 4

Messenger Sports Briefs for April 4
Briefly

Volunteer gridders
have ways to go

KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee coach Derek Dooley says the Volunteers have a long way to go after their first spring football scrimmage.
The Vols defense dominated early on Saturday, but the offense improved later in the scrimmage.
Rajion Neal led the offense with a 63-yard touchdown run. He finished with 14 rushes for 152 yards and two other touchdowns.
Tyler Bray completed 11-of-27 passes for 172 yards and had three touchdown passes and two interceptions. His longest pass of the day came when he hit Da’Rick Rogers across the middle for a 70-yard touchdown.
Rogers led receivers with 79 yards on two catches, both touchdowns.
Brent Brewer led the defense with six tackles and an interception. Nigel Mitchell-Thornton registered two sacks and returned an interception 23 yards.

New UT hoops boss
receives Jobe award

New Tennessee men’s basketball coach Cuonzo Martin received the 2011 Ben Jobe National Coach of the Year Award Friday at the CollegeInsider.com awards banquet in Houston. The award is presented annually to the top minority coach in NCAA Division I men’s basketball.
Martin became the second recipient of the Ben Jobe Award after leading Missouri State to a 26-9 record, winning a school-record 15 conference games and capturing the school’s first-ever Missouri Valley Conference regular-season championship. Martin was named Tennessee’s 18th head men’s basketball coach on March 27.
In addition to this latest honor, Martin also was named the 2011 MVC Coach of the Year and was a finalist for the 2011 Hugh Durham Award, which is given annually to the top mid-major coach in Division I.
Joining Martin on the 2011 finalists list for the Jobe award were coaches such as Anthony Grant (Alabama), Leonard Hamilton (Florida State) and Shaka Smart (VCU). Ed Cooley (Fairfield) won the inaugural Jobe award last season.
Jobe is an icon in the history of basketball at historically black colleges and universities and is best known for his 12-year tenure as the head coach at Southern University. He also served head coaching stints at Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Talladega, Tuskegee and South Carolina State.