COLLEGE: Ole Miss hires Nutt
One day, Houston Nutt was leaving Arkansas. The next, he was heading to Mississippi. Ole Miss will introduce Nutt as its new coach today, ending a whirlwind hiring that began when he resigned at Arkansas on Monday and agreed to become the Rebels’ coach about four hours later.
Mississippi was without a coach for less than three days. Ed Orgeron was fired on Saturday after three losing seasons.
Nutt agreed to a contract Monday night, a four-year deal that will pay him $1.7 million to start and increase by $100,000 each year. He has an option for three more seasons as well
* Virginia exercised an option to add a year onto the contract of football coach Al Groh, who guided the Cavaliers to a 9-3 record this season. Groh’s deal will now run through the 2011 season.
* Connecticut yesterday accepted a bid to play in the Meineke Bowl in Charlotte, N.C., on Dec. 29 against an Atlantic Coast Conference team.
* Three top-rated high-school basketball players have signed national letters of intent to play at Syracuse next season, the school announced.
Mookie Jones, Kris Joseph and James Southerland are all forwards and make up a recruiting class that is ranked among the top 30 nationally.
* Chris Fouch, a sharp-shooting senior guard at Rice, committed to Drexel yesterday. The 6-1 Fouch will have plenty of company from New York City when he gets there, as Bruiser Flint’s roster already includes four players from the PSAL and CHSAA. Fouch, a third-team Post All-CHSAA selection a year ago, chose Drexel over George Mason.