College notes: ECU coach gets 5-year contract
East Carolina's trustees have approved a five-year contract for basketball coach Mack McCarthy.
The deal will pay McCarthy $225,000 per year in base salary and compensation for radio, television and Pirate Club appearances. The contract also includes a $50,000 bonus to monitor academic goals such as continuing to improve the program's grade-point average and graduation rate.
OHIO STATE: Seven-foot center Zisis Sarikopoulos has transferred from UAB to Ohio State. Sarikopoulos, a native of Greece, must sit out the 2008-09 season.
FOOTBALL
SOUTH CAROLINA: Steve Spurrier cleared up several items: He's not leaving South Carolina, he's not ceding his role as the Gamecocks' chief strategist and he thinks he's got a special, albeit untested, talent in junior quarterback Tommy Beecher.
"I will oversee all the playcalling. I'm still the offensive coordinator," Spurrier said. "In fact, I plan to spend more time with the quarterbacks and the offense this year than maybe I have in three years."
Spurrier laughed off the idea that turning the Gamecocks into Southeastern Conference contenders would be anything but a gradual process. "Did you think there was a team here ready to win the SEC?" he said
The Gamecocks' best recruiting class under Spurrier came in 2007. Those players, Spurrier says, are just ready to flourish.
