Victims of disaster have been met with an outpouring of support from the sports world (including OKC’s most prominent athlete, Kevin Durant, who donated $1 million dollars to the relief efforts), and Mountaineers coach Randy Mazey felt that his team should do its part to assist those affected, as well.

So, the 20-plus members of the WVU baseball team spent Tuesday morning at a local Walmart, where each was given $100 to buy clothes, food and other necessities for those impacted by the tornado.

“I think it meant a lot to [the players],” Mazey told USA Today. “Twenty years from now, when they look back at their college baseball career and the baseball tournament in Oklahoma City, I have my doubts if they’re going to remember the games at all. Just remember what we did for the families and the impact they had on people’s lives and all the devastation.”

The team was originally scheduled to open tournament play against Kansas at Oklahoma City’s Bricktown Ballpark on Wednesday, but the Big 12 decided to push the start date back to Thursday in the wake of the twister that left at least 24 dead and thousands without homes.

Check out more from the Mountaineers’ shopping spree in the photos and video below.

The team donating supplies to Jamie, a victim of today's tornado. http://t.co/WJgf1uQCOA

—
WVU Baseball (@WVU_Baseball) May 21, 2013

Coach Randy Mazey and members of the #WVU baseball team purchasing supplies for today's tornado victims. #HailWV http://t.co/oudfgAAkw4

—
WVU Baseball (@WVU_Baseball) May 21, 2013

The team waiting in line! Can't wait to give all of the clothes to the kids! #wvubaseball #helpmoore http://t.co/Sgp4mzNsUy

—
Brady Wilson™ (@BradyWilson23) May 21, 2013

Just trying to brighten up a little kids day #PrayForOklahoma http://t.co/B4df7aFI7B

—
Pascal Paul (@P_Paul15) May 21, 2013

Photo via Twitter/@WVU_Baseball

Diggins currently plays guard for the WNBA’s Tulsa Shock and graduated Sunday from Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. Her agency, Jay-Z‘s Roc Nation, surprised her with quite the gift. Diggins left her graduation ceremonies and was surprised in the parking lot with a brand new white Mercedes, complete with a red bow and a handwritten note from Jay himself.

Diggins posted a collage of photos of the car on her Instagram account with the caption, “Got surprised with a new Mercedes! Thanks so much to Jay and @rocnation, and @dancyautogroup!”

Check out the pricey gift in the photo below.

Photo via Instagram/SkyDigg4; Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@SkyDigg4

Smith kicked two senior players off the team mid-season, according to some investigative work from the New Jersey Star-Ledger. Brooke Rickards was cut for electing to attend Spanish classes rather than go on a road trip on April 30 and May 1.

Cashel Gaffey was kicked off the team after Smith found a notebook in her bag about the team. It is hinted in the story that the notebook contained complaints about the coach.

Some of those complaints are that Smith did not adhere to the NCAA’s practice limit (20 hours per week), punished a player by making her do the team’s laundry alone at a Jacksonville Holiday Inn at 1 a.m., split the team into two workout groups named “aborted fetuses” and “booze bags” and routinely admonished players in public for missing games.

Two players had to skip a trip to San Diego with the team to make a presentation before Johnson & Johnson. Smith threatened to suspend the girls from every other team trip if they made the presentation. Smith did not carry through on the threat.

Rickards asked to skip three games on April 13 and 14 to see her Marine husband off to Afghanistan. Smith told the pitcher she would be letting her team down if she left.

“There are procedures in place to monitor the welfare of all of our student-athletes and insure adherence to NCAA compliance regulations,” Seton Hall said in a statement. “Every issue brought to the attention of the athletic department and university is taken very seriously. We thoroughly investigate all allegations in accordance with university and athletic department policies.

“It is our policy to not comment publicly on issues related to our teams and student-athletes. This is in order to protect the privacy of our student-athletes as required by law and to maintain the integrity of the process.”

Photo via Facebook/Seton Hall Pirates

While a group of players were out for a late-night food run prior to a tournament, they came across a panicked couple pulled over on the side of the road.

“We heard two people screaming in a car, and it turned into driveway right in front of us,” third baseman Zach Stone told LancasterOnline. “A dad hopped out of a car and picked up his kid. He just looked limp. … The kid didn’t look like he had any life to him.”

The Norman family’s 1-year-old son, Braydin, had stopped breathing. Immediately, the team sprang into action. Some attempted to calm the parents while others called 911 and third baseman Tyler McDonald assisted Megan Norman with administering CPR.

Thanks the quick thinking of the Division II ballplayers, Braydin regained consciousness, was transported to the hospital and fully recovered within a day. The youngster even made it down to Millersville’s game against Slippery Rock — in the pouring rain — two days later, where the team posed for a picture with him and presented him with a signed ball.

“We came there just for baseball,” Stone said, “and we ran into this family who needed our help. There’s a lot more to life than baseball.”

Photo via Facebook/Bleacher Report

Photo of the night

Well played, Nick Saban.

Photo via Twitter/@tylersiskey

Tweet of the night

Yep, it’s going to be that kind of series.

I've seen emergency plane exit demonstrations by flight attendants that were more entertaining than that Bruins/Rangers first period.

—
Adam Proteau (@Proteautype) May 17, 2013

Video of the night

Get back to work!

Lehigh sophomore Patrick Corbett stepped up with a an impressive goal toward the end of the first quarter that put the Mountain Hawks on top 2-1.

Corbett received a pass near the top of the crease, made a move like he was going to do a spin to shake his defender and ripped a behind-the-back goal that froze UNC goalie Keiran Burke on the spot. The goal was a beauty, but Lehigh went on to lose the game 16-7.

Check out the head-turning goal in the video below.

In the final inning of an Ohio-Miami playoff game, Miami was trailing by one run with two outs when Jenna Modic launched one to the fence in what looked like at least the game-tying hit, perhaps even a walk-off two-run homer. But Alyssa Wolfe wasn’t having any of that.

Wolfe made a leaping catch at the track for the third and final out, as seen below.

The spiritual leader of the Tibetan people addressed students at the Comcast Center at the University on Maryland on Tuesday in a lecture titled: ”Peace Through Compassion: Connecting in a Multi-Faith World.” According to the Baltimore Sun, he spoke about how compassion and self-confidence encourage trust between friends, enemies, members of different religions and even between nations.

The 14th Dalai Lama, born Tenzin Gyatso, gave his lecture before pulling a red and white Maryland visor onto his shaved head saying, ”Since my childhood, I always loved new things. Now I have this new hat.”

Check out the Dalai Lama’s new head wear in the photo below.

The @DalaiLama shows his #MarylandPride today as he speaks at Comcast Center! http://t.co/Cyy4AmFNmF

—
Maryland Athletics (@umterps) May 07, 2013

Presidents and chancellors of the Big Ten schools voted Sunday to move to an East/West format beginning in the 2014 season. They also approved a nine-game conference schedule to begin in 2016. These changes are the result of Maryland and Rutgers moving to the conference in 2014.

The divisions will coincide with time zones. The eastern teams will all be located in the eastern time zone, which includes: Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State and Rutgers.

All of the western teams, with the exception of Purdue, will be located in the central time zone. The West includes Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin.

Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney told reporters that geography was the No. 1 factor in the divisional realignment.

“It’s pure geography,” Delany said. “Last time, we were a combination of competitive balance and geography being last. So those names weren’t available to us last time. We didn’t have a lot of discussion on it.”

Delaney also believes the realignment will be good for the fans and the overall competitive nature of the conference.

“We thought the geography was a good way to bind the conference together,” Delany said. “We also wanted to preserve as much tradition as we could, and we do that through the protection of the rivalries. Everybody will play everybody at least once in a four-year cycle, even though it’s a bigger conference.

“It’s good for the fans, it’s good for the players. It strengthens our schedule from the perspective of the postseason and binds the conference together in a powerful way.”

The Big Ten will be the third conference to feature a nine-game league schedule during the 2016 season, joining the Big 12 and Pac 12.

Photo via Facebook/Big Ten Conference

However, what was considered a one-in-five-million chance of happening has occurred. Lyle was found as a match for a 28-year-old man suffering from lymphoblastic leukemia. Without a transplant, the man would have only had six months left to live.

Lyle’s case is unique, however. He is a senior on the UNH track team, participating in shot put and the hammer throw. Choosing to donate bone marrow would ultimately end his track career for the Wildcats. But the Plaistow, N.H., native found it to be a quite easy decision to make.

“It was kind of a no-brainer for a decent human,” he told ABC News. “I couldn’t imagine just waiting. He could have been waiting for years for a match. I’d hope that someone would donate to me if I needed it.”

Lyle’s procedure will take place Wednesday morning at Mass General Hospital in Boston. Check out more about Lyle’s story in the video below.

Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@Cam_Lyle

During Saturday’s spring game, five UMass football players wore jerseys to honor the victims of the Boston Marathon tragedy. In place of their own last names on the back of their jerseys, Stanley Andre, Klyssman Alfonso, Brandon Howard, Randall Jette and Rob Branchflower donned the names of the four victims, with the fifth jersey bearing the symbolic “Boston Strong.”

Check out the jerseys commemorating Martin Richard, Krystle Campbell, Lu Lingzi and Sean Collier below.

Photo via Twitter/@UMassAthletics

The University of Massachusetts football team plans to honor those victims during Saturday’s spring game by having several players replace their last names on the back of their jerseys with the names of the victims, the Daily Hampshire Gazette’s Matt Vatour reports.

Senior defensive lineman Stanley Andre will wear Martin Richard‘s name, freshman wide receiver Klysmann Afonso will wear Krystle Cambell‘s, sophomore tight end Brandon Howard will wear Lu Lingzi‘s, sophomore defensive back Randall Jette will wear MIT police officer Sean Collier‘s, and senior captain Rob Branchflower‘s uniform will bear the rallying cry “Boston Strong.”

UMass' Randall Jette will wear MIT Police Officer Sean Collier's name on his jersey instead of his own at Spring Game

—
Matt Vautour (@GazetteUMass) April 19, 2013

Jette joins Afonso (Krystle Campbell), Andre (Martin Richard), Howard (Lu Lingzi) Blanchflower (Boston Strong) w/special UMass jerseys Sat

—
Matt Vautour (@GazetteUMass) April 19, 2013

Thumbnail photo via Facebook/UMass Football

Last week, UConn revealed its new Husky Dog logo, which was received positively by both men’s basketball coach Kevin Ollie and women’s coach Geno Auriemma. The new jerseys include more red, mainly in the trim. The new football helmets feature the Husky logo above the facemask, showing the dog’s aggressive eyes. Nothing is on either side of the helmet.

Check out more of UConn’s new look in the photos below.

Photos via Instagram/uconnhuskies and Twitter/@JohnFSilver

At halftime, marathoners who sign up will be able to run a lap around Amherst’s McGuirk Stadium and cross a “finish line” set up at midfield while their names are displayed on the stadium’s video board.

“Competing in the Boston Marathon is a lifetime achievement and something to be celebrated,” head coach Charlie Molnar said in a statement. “These runners deserve to finish what they started and we hope we can provide that for them. We want them to have that feeling of coming down the home stretch to the sound of applause and to have their friends and families greet them as they cross the line.”

The Minutemen will also wear commemorative stickers on their helmets in honor of the victims and first responders.

Photo via Facebook/UMass Football

On Thursday, the University of Connecticut revealed its new take on the Husky Dog logo. The school’s athletic department has worked with Nike on new logos, wordmarks and uniforms for more than a year now. The new look was applauded by both men’s basketball coach Kevin Ollie and women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma.

“We are proud to share with everyone the new visual identity of UConn Athletics, which includes a new Husky Dog logo,” UConn Director of Athletics Warde Manuel said in a press release.  “Our student-athletes and coaches strongly believe that the new Husky dog logo boldly reflects values such as Pride, Loyalty, Strength, Determination and Athleticism.  They are all very excited to wear it into competition and to see it displayed prominently in our facilities.”

Check out the new logo below.

Photo via Facebook/UConn Huskies

Duy Truong is a standout on the Worcester State track & field team, running the third leg of the 4 x 200-meter relay team that set a school record last month. He may be one of the school’s top runners today, but there was a time not long ago that the ability to even walk was an accomplishment.

During his senior year at Doherty (Worcester) High School in 2010, Truong was hit over the head with a baseball bat while trying to escape a brawl in Amherst, Mass., resulting in severe skull fractures and swelling of the brain. When he awoke from surgery, he was unable to move the left side of his body and doubted whether he would ever be able to compete again.

But Truong was adamant in his rehab efforts, and, after taking his final year of high school off from sports, he returned to the track at Worcester.

Check out Truong’s inspirational story in the video above.

To account for this realignment, the conference — which by 2014 will include members from Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Tennessee and North Carolina — is adopting a new identity.

Big East commissioner Mike Aresco announced Wednesday that the league will officially become the American Athletic Conference at conclusion of the spring seasons. Input from fans, member schools, sports marketing experts and television executives at ESPN and CBS was all reportedly taken into consideration when deciding on a new conference identity.

‘Our name is a nod to tradition, but at the same time makes clear our determination to be a conference with national impact and appeal,” Aresco said in a statement. “The American Athletic Conference will represent core American values of optimism, energy, growth and innovation. We have a broad geographical footprint that represents unity as well as diversity.”

Of the 16 current Big East schools, only four will remain at the end of 2014. Notre Dame, Syracuse and Pittsburgh will depart for the ACC this summer while the “Catholic 7″ (DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John’s and Villanova), along with Creighton, Butler and Xavier will break off to form their own conference, retaining the Big East name. Louisville and Rutgers are also scheduled to leave for the ACC and Big 10, respectively, in 2014.

By the start of the 2014-15 school year, the new American Athletic Conference (which will be branded as “The American,” not the AAC, according to the Big East’s Twitter account) will include 11 full-sport members: Connecticut, Cincinnati, Central Florida, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, SMU, South Florida, Temple, Tulane and Tulsa, with Navy joining as a football-only member in 2015.

Photo via Facebook/BIG EAST Conference

Four years later, a freshman again took over the conference title game at TD Garden. But this time, he was wearing red, white and blue.

In just his 21st collegiate game, Connor Hellebuyck etched his name in the River Hawks history books Saturday night, turning aside 36 shots in a 1-0 win that gave top-seeded Lowell its first Hockey East title in school history.

“He’s been phenomenal,” UML head coach Norm Bazin said of his young goalie. “You don’t win a championship without a great goalie, and [Saturday] I thought he was spectacular. He made key stops at key moments to keep the game tied. You can’t say enough about the kid. … He was the difference tonight.”

In four postseason games, Hellebuyck, who was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, has allowed just four total goals. He backstopped the River Hawks to a two-game sweep of Maine, then proceeded to play dominant hockey under the bright Garden lights, outdueling Providence’s own freshman phenom Jon Gillies in a 2-1 thriller in the semifinals before shutting out the high-powered Terriers offense to clinch the title.

BU goaltender Sean Maguire, yet another freshman, matched Hellebuyck save-for-save for much of Saturday’s contest as the teams remained locked in a scoreless tie deep into the third period. Both teams hit posts around the 10-minute mark of the final frame before junior Derek Arnold finally scored what proved to be the game-winner, wrapping the puck between Maguire’s left pad and the goal post after a 3-on-2 rush.

Maguire finished with 28 saves, bringing his tournament total to an astounding 141 over four games.

On a national scale, Lowell did not need this win. With a 25-10-2 record and a regular-season conference title, they were a lock for the NCAA tournament, and may have been a No. 1 seed even with a loss on Saturday. But for Bazin and his team, the win serves as validation that they have finally reached the pinnacle of arguably the nation’s best hockey conference after decades of futility.

“It was very important,” said Bazin, who played for UML when the River Hawks lost to BU in this very game in 1994. “I think there are a lot of skeptics out there and a lot of detractors that felt that we were going to come up short again. I was certainly reminded by our own press people how many times we’ve seemed to have lost the game in the finals. … It was fitting that we played BU tonight.”

Bazin’s 1994 squad came up one goal short against the Terriers. So did the 2009 team. This year was different.

“To be honest, no,” Arnold said when asked if he could have envisioned winning a conference title when he enrolled at Lowell three years ago. “Coming from New England, growing up seeing BC and BU win every year, you didn’t see Lowell in there too many times. But it’s amazing right now, a remarkable accomplishment by the group of guys in that room.”

A new power has risen in Hockey East, and it’s rather fitting that UMass Lowell’s coming-out party also marks the end of a terrific career for BU head coach Jack Parker. After a mid-season swoon in February, the Terriers will almost certainly not qualify for the national tournament, but Parker’s final game behind the bench was certainly not one that will soon be forgotten.

“I couldn’t ask for more of my team,” Parker said. “I couldn’t ask for a better weekend from us. We played really well, played really hard, and I think there are teams in the national tournament that aren’t as good as us, but the reason we aren’t [in] is because we had a dip in the middle and we never recovered.”

Millan’s 2009 Terriers will now go down as the final team to lift the Hockey East trophy under Parker. That squad went on to win the national title less than a month later. Those are some footsteps that Hellebuyck would love to follow in.

The Tigers plan to cover the Towson wordmark on the front of their game jerseys with black duct tape each time they take the field this season.

“We don’t support Towson,” catcher Zach Fisher told Baltimore’s ABC 2 News, “so we don’t want to wear something that says ‘Towson.’ “

Head coach Mike Gottlieb, who has led Towson since 1988 and is an alum of the school himself, said he was made aware of the cuts 30 minutes before they were announced to the public (the school also discontinued the men’s soccer program). University president Maravene Loeschke was escorted by police to the announcement press conference for fear of a violent response, according to The Baltimore Sun.

The Sun reports that the decision will eventually save the university close to $900,000 per year, while Towson will continue to honor all scholarships awarded to baseball or soccer players. But that doesn’t provide much help to any prospective major leaguers on the Tigers roster, who will now have to find a new college diamond.

Screenshot via ABC2 News

Photo of the Night

Dwight Howard‘s return to Orlando went about as well as expected.

Quote of the Night

“I’m just coming back when I feel normal. If that’s in a couple days, that’s great. If it’s not, I’m fine.”
–Derrick Rose, on if Bulls fans will see him in uniform anytime soon

Tweet of the Night

We couldn’t pass up an opportunity to give Desmond Bryant some more face time.

This man just got a $34 million deal. http://t.co/lsqEZqgnMH

—
Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) March 13, 2013

Video of the Night

Pretty tame by DeAndre Jordan‘s standards.

“Institution” is a word often thrown around to describe legendary sports figures, but when it comes to longtime Boston University coach Jack Parker, the word seems apt.

With the coach announcing his intention to retire at the end of this season, Boston Terriers past and present reached out to share their words of congratulations with the coach. NESN Nation’s Dan Duquette found some of the best ones, so check out what Parker’s former players are saying in the video above.

Join NESN Nation: In-game home page | Twitter | Facebook

In a move that came as no surprise to any college hockey fan not living under a rock this weekend, Parker, on his 68th birthday, announced his retirement after 40 years as head coach at Boston University.

“The question is why, and again, it’s time,” Parker told an assembled group that included numerous former  coaches and players. “I’ve been coaching the team for 40 years, I’ve been a coach here for 44 years and I was a player here before that. So for 48 out of the last 49 years I’ve been reporting for duty for BU hockey, and that’s enough.”

A man that would certainly be enshrined on the Mount Rushmore of college hockey, Parker has racked up 894 career victories since taking over at BU in 1973 — second among active coaches behind crosstown rival Jerry York of Boston College — to go along with seven Hockey East titles and three national championships. He’ll hope to add a few more trophies to the case at Agganis Arena before calling it a career, however, as Parker will continue to lead his team in this weekend’s conference tournament and into the NCAA tourney, should the Terriers qualify.

Parker admitted that he originally planned to retire following last season, but after a difficult year for the team that included multiple suspensions and accusations of a “culture of sexual entitlement,” he decided to return for 20012-13. As for choosing to announce his intentions in the week between regular season and the tournament, Parker said the timing just felt right.

“I didn’t want to do it earlier on,” he said. “I didn’t want to go through a farewell tour of all the other rinks in the league. That’s not me and I didn’t need to have that happen. But at the same time, I didn’t want to wait until the end of the year and have myself and my team find out when all the games are over that, ‘Oh by the way, guys, that was the last time I’ll coach you.’

“I always talk about BU being a family. I have two daughters and about 226 sons, and the team I have now are my youngest sons. And I’m not going to have any more children.”

Though Parker is beloved by his BU family on Commonwealth Ave., his influence reaches far outside the city limits. During his tenure, the Terriers have produced dozens of NHL players, six Stanley Cup winners and four members of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” squad that won the Olympic gold medal in Lake Placid, including Team USA captain Mike Eruzione and goalie Jim Craig.

“If you look at my record, it looks like it’s a real good record,” Parker said. “If you took me and put me at Yale and took Tim Taylor and put him here, he’d have a better record than me. There’s a lot of great coaches around. The only way you can stay a long time is continue to win, and the school has to want you to win and be behind you. And this university over a long period of time, and more so now than ever, has been behind the hockey program and the hockey coach.”

Parker remains under contract with the university until 2017-18 and will continue to be a part of the BU community, serving as a special adviser in charge of fundraising to university president Robert Brown. But his final games behind the bench at the rink that bears his name will come this weekend, when BU hosts Merrimack in the opening round of the Hockey East tournament.