BASKETBALL
FS Northside guard commits to Arkansas
Fort Smith Northside guard Isaiah Joe orally committed to Arkansas after receiving a scholarship offer from Coach Mike Anderson during a Tuesday visit to Fayetteville.
Joe, 6-2, 160 pounds, chose the Razorbacks over offers from Alabama and UALR, while drawing interest from Stanford, Tulsa, Auburn, Tennessee and others.
“I’m just really happy; there’s a lot going through my head right now,” Joe said.
Joe had an outstanding summer in AAU ball and was seen by Anderson and his staff members numerous times. He averaged 15.3 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1 assist during the Adidas Summer Championships in Las Vegas last month.
He learned of the offer during a meeting in Anderson’s office.
“He went over a lot of stuff, and he eventually gave me the offer and I accepted and I told him I was looking forward to being a Hog,” Joe said.
In the last 10 games of the season, he averaged 13.5 points and 3.9 rebounds while shooting 61 percent from the field and 42 percent from beyond the three-point line for the Grizzles as a sophomore.
Joe is the first Arkansas commitment for the Class of 2018. Oral commitments are nonbinding.
— Richard Davenport
GYMNASTICS
UA’s Snider promoted
Arkansas gymnastics Coach Mark Cook announced Tuesday he has promoted former Razorback gymnast Samantha Snider to associate head coach.
Snider, who competed as Samantha Cortez from 2005-2008, has been on the Arkansas staff since she graduated, first as director of operations, followed by three years as an assistant coach and two years as assistant head coach.
Snider, whose work on the balance beam helped the Razorbacks rank 14th on that apparatus last season, was named the South Central region’s assistant coach of the year in 2016 by the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches. She also helped guide Katherine Grable to the school’s first NCAA individual championships on the vault and floor exercise in 2014.
Snider and her husband, volunteer assistant coach Ryan Snider, had their first child this summer.
VOLLEYBALL
Arkansas Tech picked tops in the GAC
Arkansas Tech was picked as the preseason favorite to win the Great American Conference volleyball title in a poll of head coaches, the coaches announced Tuesday.
The Golden Suns, who went 15-1 in winning the GAC regular-season title last season, earned 116 points and seven of the 12 first-place votes to beat out second place Oklahoma Baptist, which earned 106 points and one first-place vote. Southwestern Oklahoma State was picked third with 103 points and Southern Nazarene was picked fourth with 95 points. Southwestern Oklahoma State and Southern Nazarene each earned two firstplace votes.
BASEBALL
UALR hosting American Legion regional
Ten days after playing for the American Legion Arkansas state championship, the Texarkana Razorbacks and Bryant BlackSox return to action in the Mid-South Regional Tournament, which begins today at UALR’s Gary Hogan Field at Curran-Conway Park.
Texarkana (33-3) will play the Pontotoc (Miss.) Red Sox at 3:30 p.m. Pontotoc (23-7) won the Mississippi title by beating Tupelo. Bryant, who is considered the host team for the regional, will play the Kansas state champions at 6:30 p.m.
The eight-team, double-elimination tournament will continue through Sunday. Other states represented in the Mid-South Regional are Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri.
Texarkana will represent Arkansas as its state champion. The Razorbacks lost to Bryant in the winners’ bracket finals, but defeated the BlackSox twice on the final day to claim the championship.