When the Sun Belt Conference names its baseball Player of the Week later today, the name should be familiar to FAU fans. Owls shortstop Nick DelGuidice has already been named one of four Louisville Slugger national Players of the Week after he put together a monster weekend, going 8-for-11 with two home runs and13 RBIs against Boston College.

Anytime a player can start every game of a weekend series and tally more RBIs than official at-bats, he's done something pretty remarkable. DelGuidice's big day was Saturday, when his nine RBIs broke Gary Kamphouse's FAU single-game record of eight.

DelGuidice (photo) followed that 4-for-4 performance in FAU's 15-6 win, with a 3-for-3, four RBI afternoon in Sunday's 11-7 victory.

I had more than one Boston College fan comment that DelGuidice swung one heck of a bat. While that may be true, he hadn't shown it this season. DelGuidice entered the weekend 3-for-23 in the first six games of the season, without a home run or RBI.

Can he keep it up? Doubtful. No one can be expected to keep up that pace. But FAU coach John McCormack wouldn't mind seeing a few more weekends like that once conference play begins this weekend.

"Don't wake him up. No one talk to him. Leave him alone," McCormack said following Sunday's game. "Maybe we'll get a player of the week out of that."

Amen to that.

A few more thoughts from the weekend:

> Leadoff hitter Mike Albaladejo only scratched out two hits over the weekend, but he still made his presence felt. The diminutive Albaladejo threw out five potential base stealers over the weekend - four on Friday night alone.

"I think (the Eagles) like to be aggressive and he shut that down," McCormack said.

> First baseman Dan Sheffler has the opposite problem. His .448 average leads the Owls, as do his three home runs. Unfortunately, Scheffler's also committed a team-high four errors, and that doesn't count a couple of missed routine pop flies that fell untouched. McCormack still considers Scheffler to be an "above-average defensive first baseman." He'll have to start showing that skill soon, or McCormack may turn to Sean Bukovich as a late-inning defensive replacement.

> The Owls didn't miss closer Glen Troyanowski over the weekend - no games were tight enough to need a closer. FAU should learn more about Troyanowski's ailing shoulder and his availabilty for the upcoming weekend on Tuesday. Andy Mee would have filled the closer role against Boston College. Since he didn't pitch against BC, McCormack intends to throw Mee for one inning against Pittsburgh on Wednesday, regardless of the score.

> Anthony Mesa went 0-for-4 on Sunday, snapping a seven-game hitting streak. He's hitting .357 - not bad for a No. 9 hitter.

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FAUOwlAccess.com's Marcus Nelson returned from being the only local media member to cover the Sun Belt Conference basketball tournament and offered this analysis of the Owls' season.

Owl Cal
A calendar of FAU athletic events

Wednesday
2 p.m. Baseball - Pittsburgh vs. FAU
6 p.m. Softball - WKU vs. FAU
8 p.m. Softball - WKU vs. FAU

chuck

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - FAU junior forward Sanchez Hughley was hurting so bad he couldn't even answer the call for the second half in the Owls' loss to South Alabama on Saturday.

Hughley was just an extreme example of why FAU's season came to an unceremonious end in the first round of the Sun Belt Tournament on Saturday.

It's a simple explanation: Down the stretch, the team wore down.

Ray Taylor was talking about it last week when he told FAUOwlAccess he was feeling so tired last week he closed his eyes for a 20-minute power nap and woke up five hours later.

Every team in the nation is battling the rigors of a season that started in November.

However, FAU's top offensive weapons, Taylor and Greg Gantt, were freshman whose bodies were still making the transition to college basketball games (40 minutes instead of 32 minutes in high school) and the rigors and travel of their first full season in Division I.

Further proof: FAU had 22 points in the first half vs, Middle Tennessee last week and then went even worse with 19 at halftime vs. South Alabama.

Folks, it's no coincidence FAU's two worst halves of basketball happened in the last two games and the Owls lost their last four games of the season.

Speaking of Hughley, I asked FAU coach Mike Jarvis about Hughley only playing four minutes in the second half.

His response was interesting.

"He wasn't going," Jarvis said. "He was playing lousy. If you play lousy , you sit on the bench. It's that simple whether you have an injury or not. He's got injuries, but most guys have injuries this time in the season. I decided to play the guys in the second half who were getting it done. The guys that we had the best chance to win with. That's why he was on the bench most of it. I asked if he could play the last quarter. He said yes and he should have gone in and been the hero, but it wasn't meant to be."

Hughley played just four minutes in the second half and finished with just four points.

Well, the whole team now has the next eight months to rest.


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The hoops season is over so we can turn undivided attention to the baseball team, which beat Boston College on Sunday. Check out out recap, photo gallery and video highlights.

Owl Cal
Your calendar to FAU events
Wednesday
2 p.m. Baseball, Pittsburgh at FAU

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - There were plenty of fans in blue and red at the Summit Arena for the Sun Belt Conference Tournament here on Saturday.

Nice of fans of Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky to show up.

Too bad, the same can't be said of FAU fans.

I won't say there weren't many there. I don't think there were any there. That's right. Zilch. Nada.

A women's basketball player's parents were there as was Mike Jarvis' wife, Connie.

Throw in a few members of the dance team and a few administrators (and of course, myself) and that was it, from what I saw. Some players on the FAU women's team (pictured) were among the few sitting behind the FAU bench during the loss to South Alabama.

Oh, I know it's hard to get here and it's far away and all the other excuses.

Save it.

FAU fans have nothing to explain to me. They had better things to do. I get it.

Instead, FAU fans should save the litany of excuses for the ADs and presidents of Conference USA and the Big East and all the other conferences some fans believe FAU will be invited to in the coming years.

Conferences look at things like how well does a team travel and when not one fan cared enough to follow their team to the conference tournament, I hardly see conferences falling over themselves to lock up the Owls.

At times this season, FAU had good crowd support and it looked like more fans were coming to games.

However, this is Division I athletics and it's time for FAU fans start thinking about getting serious about supporting their program. Having some representation at the annual conference tournament, which fans of the other Sun Belt schools found a way to do this weekend, would be a nice start.

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As I mentioned, FAUOwlAccess.com was in Hot Springs, Ark. for the tournament and here is my report along with a photo gallery of the action. As everyone knows it was a short stay by the both the men's and women's teams.

Back in Boca Raton, Chuck King was at the baseball game where at least he was around happy Owl fans after the baseball team pounded Boston College 15-6. He also had a video highlights package of the big game by Nick DelGuidice, who set a school record with 9 RBI.

The Mobile Press Register was in Hot Springs as well and had this recap of the game

Owl Cal
Your calendar to FAU events
Today
1 p.m. Baseball, Boston College at FAU, FAU Stadium

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Of all the possible scenarios, seeing both the FAU men's and women's basketball teams miss shots at the buzzer and go down in the first round of their respective Sun Belt Conference tournaments was pretty unlikely.

Of course, that's exactly what happened. So all of the Owl fans who didn't make it to Hot Springs, Ark. (by my count it was all of them) may have saved themselves the aggravation of watching their teams falter.

Perhaps that's to be expected when both the leading scorers for the men's and women's teams had days they would like to forget.

Brittany Bowe only scored three points as the women lost to New Orleans 51-50 and Greg Gantt scored 12 points, but was 5-of-20 from the field in the 52-51 loss to South Alabama.

It would have been pretty unlikely for both - or even one - of the teams to win the tournament, but I am floored to see both bow out on the first day of the event.

There will be plenty of time to dissect the seasons that just ended, but for now it's time to join what appears to be a mass exodus from Hot Springs back to Boca Raton.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Want to know something unique about the Sun Belt Conference Tournament here?

It's the largest combined (men and women) field of any tournament at one site in the nation.

So large in fact that it requires two courts at the site. Most games will be at Summitt Arena, but there is another court at the adjacent Convention Center.

And the FAU women will play in the first game played on the Convention Center Court in their first-round game vs. New Orleans.

An auxillary court usually means trouble, but I'm here for the morning tip and the set-up is quite nice.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - When the FAU basketball team made its travel plans it didn't know it would be playing in the 2:15 p.m. (local time) game.

Otherwise it probably wouldn't have planned to arrive in Little Rock around 8 p.m. and then have to make the hours drive to Hot Springs.

But the team is here and ready for Saturday's game vs. the Jaguars.

Here's a shot of the team arriving at the Little Rock National Airport where they were greeted by a welcoming part of myself and radio play-by-play voice Ken LaVicka. As you can guess, they were thrilled.

The FAU dance team and Owsley also have made it to Arkansas.

Remember, the women's basketball team will play early (10 a.m. local) so I'll have some more photos of the scene here in Hot Springs then.

In what seems to be an annual occurrence, everyone was downright giddy after FAU seniors lifted, ran and did something called the V-Tech in front of NFL scouts on Thursday.

Maybe I'm getting caught up in the hoopla, but this looks like the year FAU finally has a player drafted. This time I mean it.

Last year, it looked like linebacker Frantz Joseph was a lock to have his name called, but it wasn't to be.

This season, there are a few options and the odds are better than before we might get to hear Mel Kiper talk about an Owl.

Take quarterback Rusty Smith. Smith has already locked up a workout with the Dolphins next month and could have many more especially after his solid performance Thursday.

Showing off his shorter throwing motion, Smith looked comfortable and maybe even looked better than before his October injury to his non-throwing shoulder. Most impressive was his accuracy on a breezy day.

Remember when Howard Schnellenberger declared Smith destined to be a first-round pick? OK, that's not going to happen, but I dint think it's too big of a stretch to think Smith could be drafted in the late rounds by a team gambling that Smith will come into his own and cut down on interceptions with his new delivery.

Do you remember when Jason Harmon used to be tight end don't you? Thursday was the day he officially became a halfback-receiver as that's what scouts project him to be. It will be an easy transition for Harmon because it's speed and his hands which have always been his best attributes.

Harmon didn't have the best Pro Day, but he's fortunate that he worked out for scouts at the Texas vs. Nation game.


Also, I was skeptical about fullback Willie Rose's chances until I saw his performance on Thursday. He definitely made an impression on the scouts that were there as he was asked to go through extra drills so they could evaluate him some more.

If Rose can keep working hard, he could wind up getting a few tryouts as well.

I'm going out on a limb - something I rarely do, but I expect an Owl to be drafted this season, breaking a drought that has gone on for way too long.

Owl Links
What's being written about the Owls

FAUOwlAccess.com was out at the Pro Day all day and provided this recap along with video highlights, photosand an easy-to-read compilation of how each player's official results.

We also have a preview of the home baseball series with Boston College this weekend.

Owl Cal
Your calendar to FAU events
Today
6:30 p.m., Baseball: Boston College at FAU

Saturday
11 a.m. Women's Hoops: FAU vs. New Orleans, Sun Belt Conference Tournament, Hot Springs, Ark.
2 p.m. Hoops: FAU vs. South Alabama, Sun Belt Conference Tournament, Hot Springs, Ark.
4 p.m. Baseball: Boston College at FAU

Sunday
1 p.m., Baseball: Boston College at FAU