TAMPA - South Florida athletics finally has a centralized home. Beginning Monday, the various elements of USF sports will move into the long-awaited new athletic facility.
Football will be leaving the trailers it has occupied since before the program began playing in 1997. It will be joined by academic services, athletic administration, sports information, external affairs, soccer, track and field and several other sports in the $15-million complex.
Associate athletic director Rick Costello, the chief financial officer, said the facility is on budget, with $11.6-million in expenditures thus far toward the $15-million budget.
The facility originally was pro-jected to cost roughly $18-million but was trimmed by some $3-million and funded through a $13.2-million bond. USF has a $10-million fundraising goal for the pro-ject, toward which it has secured about $5-million in donations.
"Now that you see it up, it really, truly is stepping up athletics at the University of South Florida," track and field coach Greg Thiel said.
Former area standout arrested
Former Robinson High basketball player Desmond Allison, whose promising career at Kentucky was derailed by a DUI arrest during his sophomore season in 2000, was arrested in Tampa on Sunday night and charged with a misdemeanor count of possession of marijuana.
Allison, 24, was arrested on Nebraska Avenue at 11:15 p.m. Sunday and charged with possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana, a first-degree misdemeanor. Early Monday evening, he remained in custody at the Orient Road Jail, with his bail set at $500.
Allison was the St. Petersburg Times' Hillsborough County High School male athlete of the year in 1998. A nationally coveted recruit, his career at Kentucky ended after he was arrested in March 2000. He transferred to Martin Methodist University, an NAIA school in Tennessee, and failed in an attempt to play in the NBA. His arrest report lists him with an Orlando address.
ACC seeks title site
AMELIA ISLAND - The ACC has requested proposals from nine cities to host its football championship game, which begins in 2005.
Jacksonville, Charlotte, N.C., and Orlando are considered among the top candidates. Tampa, Miami, Atlanta, Washington, Baltimore and East Rutherford, N.J., also are being considered.
Commissioner John Swofford said at the annual meetings that the league will make its decision in late summer or fall.
COLORADO: Attorneys for two alleged rape victims asked a federal judge to force the university to hand over information about alleged sexual misconduct by football players. The women filed lawsuits accusing the university of tolerating an atmosphere that was hostile to women.
Testimony focuses on ex-Hogs coach's contract
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Arkansas built Nolan Richardson's contract differently than others because the basketball coach wanted guaranteed money - not additional income based on incentives such as graduation rates, the school's chancellor testified Monday.
John A. White, on the stand at the federal trial on Richardson's discrimination lawsuit, said Richardson was not offered an incentive-based contract, as many other coaches receive. Richardson was most emphatic about how he saw his role in improving graduation rates, White said.
"He was so talkative about the fact that it wasn't the coach's responsibility," White said.
White fired Richardson on March 1, 2002.
GONZAGA: Scoring leader Ronny Turiaf will return for his senior season, the forward said.
TOWSON: Former FSU coach Pat Kennedy was hired as coach after spending the past two seasons at Montana.
BUZZER BAN?: The NCAA rules committee has proposed eliminating the period-ending buzzer in determining if a shot counts. The proposal would use the game clock to determine if the shot was taken in time. If the clock is unclear during viewing of a replay, then the red light behind the backboard would be the determining factor.
Baseball
FLORIDA STATE: Despite winning two of three at then-No.7 Virginia over the weekend, Florida State fell out of Collegiate Baseball's Top 25 for the first time since May 2, 1988, a span of 266 polls.
TAMPA: The Spartans (41-14) are seeded second in the Division II South Region tournament, which begins Thursday in Winter Park. UT plays Florida Southern at 1 p.m.
Other sports
GOLF: The Florida men's team was chosen the No.1 seed in the NCAA East Region tournament to be played May 20-22 in New Haven, Conn.
SOFTBALL: USF senior Leigh Ann Ellis was named Conference USA pitcher of the week for the sixth time this season. The Bulls face East Carolina on Thursday in the opening round of the C-USA tournament.
TENNIS: Eckerd women lost to Florida Southern 5-1 in the opening round of the NCAA Southeast Region in Winter Park. ... USF junior Uli Kiendl was selected to play in the NCAA men's singles championships May 26-31 in Tulsa, Okla.
- Times staff writers Greg Auman and Brian Landman contributed to this report, which used information from other news organizations.
