FAU has announced that former baseball coach Kevin Cooney will be inducted into the university’s Hall of Fame.

For newbies or those with short memories, Cooney is the guy who built the program into a mid-major power.

He compiled a record of 750-480-5 in his 21 seasons as skipper of the Owls. He slowly built up the program and it broke onto the national scene in 1999 when the Owls tied an NCAA record with 34-straight wins. That was the year FAU also went to its first NCAA regional, and Cooney would have them there five more times in the next six years, with the run ending in 2005.
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Cooney wasn’t just a good coach. He was a great guy with an independent streak that sometimes got him in hot water.

I’ll always remember him as “Blue Wave” Cooney, and for the Bruce Springsteen songs that blared from the loudspeakers on game days. And then there were the green bases and socks for St. Patrick’s Day and, well, you get the idea.

Congrats to Cooney, who retired in 2008 and moved to a farm in Tennessee.

The ceremony, which includes women’s hoops player Shontavia Williams, is Feb. 24 at the Premiere Club at FAU Stadium (good use of that facility). Tickets are $35. For more info the contact is Brenda Husinka at 561-297-0069 or bcoto@fau.edu.

Cooney will hang around and throw out the first pitch of the Feb. 25 baseball game, with the Owls hosting Manhattan.

Later…

FAU's first-ever signing day fundraiser couldn't have gone much better.

The dinner, held hours after Carl Pelini made official his first-ever recruiting class, was a sellout, with more than 140 people paying $150 per ticket.

And thousands more were generated by donations and an auction, with the total climbing to $70,000, according to Anthony Altieri, an FAU alum and one of the event's sponsors.

UPDATE: Altieri orginally said he thought they had more than $40,000 but he didn't have the exact total. Turns out there were some bigger than expected donations, and the total actually was $70,000.
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Sitting in front, from L, DC Marvin Sanders, HC Carl Pelini, OC Brian Wright. Standing in back, from L, DB Ross Watson, DL Brett Dierson, LB Jovan Dewitt, OL Luke Meadows, TE Jared Allen, WR Jeff Sims and RB Kerry Dixon. (corrected)
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Those attending got a rundown on the Class of 2012, but also got their first chance to meet FAU's eight new assistant coaches.

Looks like the dinner will be a signing day fixture from now on.

Later....

“It was a bad week of basketball,” Mike Jarvis said Monday on his show on ESPN760. That summed it up pretty well.

0-2, with losses at SoBama and then at home in front of a sellout against FIU, a team that most of the Owls, from juniors on down, had never lost to.

But the Kitties ended their 0-5 skid by winning in The Burrow.

Isiah Thomas has been a bit of a puzzle, to say the least, but the more I see the guy in post-game interviews, the more I like him.

He has gotten some good talent, but FIU, like FAU this season, still can’t seem to get any kind of momentum.

Saturday you might expect Thomas to be feeling pretty good, as he got his first win over FAU in his three years at FIU and his team had its first win streak of the season, but Thomas took time to thank Jarvis for being his mentor and helping him in his new role as college coach.

It was pretty classy and an interesting insight into their relationship.

As fate would have it, I would guess that FAU and FIU will meet in the Belt tournament with a lot more at stake.

With six games left, four at home, now would be the time to catch on fire…

Later…

New regime, new uniforms, right?

After all, FAU really hasn’t changed things since they first took the field in 2001.

In that stretch time, Owsley has had about three makeovers.
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But there is a catch, and with FAU athletics, it is always the same catch: Money, or lack thereof.

AD Craig Angelos said they would like to revamp the unis, but when you are outfitting 100 players with new home and away garb, it does ad up.

Not to say it isn’t going to happen, but the finances have to work.

And FAU had to dig deep for the regime change, not just for Pelini’s salary, but upping the total pay for assistants from $550,000 to $800,000.

And then there are those hotel bills to be paid – Pelini and eight assistants living in hotels since they were hired.

So the uniforms are on hold right now.

Later…

The fans kept piling into The Burrow, and pretty soon there were just a few empty seats to be seen.

The students did their job, spilling out of their section, and the paying customers also showed up. Grand total of 2,854, which was declared a sellout.

Here is what a packed FAU Arena looks like…
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Problem was the Owls didn’t show up in the second half and ended up getting blown out by the Kitties, who turned a 29-28 halftime deficit into a 76-56 win.

A 20-point win in a series where the last four games were decided by 3 or fewer points is beyond a blowout. It is a slaughter, and to have it take place in front of a crowd primed to roar and ring the bell it, well, call it horrid timing.

(I call it the curse of Burying The Burrow In The Wrong Color, but that is just me)

But give FIU credit. They had found ways to lose to FAU in the closing seconds for three seasons, and Isiah Thomas was 0-5 in his coaching career vs. the Owls.

So they could have been figuring the worse when the second half started. But it was the Owls who fell apart, getting outrebounded 25-10 and outscored 48-27 in the final 20 minutes.

Here is what Mike Jarvis had to say…
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It has been a puzzling season.

Anyway, two more home games coming up against two tough opponents.

Thursday it is Denver and that Princeton offense that can drive opponents (and fans) crazy. That Saturday it is North Texas, which will give fans to see Tony Mitchell, the best player in the Belt and someone who could be in the NBA next season (and hopefully will be, or the Mean Green will blow through the Belt).

Later…