BRIEFS

Gamecock Club

meeting April 17

Cherokee, Greenville, and Spartanburg County Gamecock Clubs will hold their Spring Meeting on Tuesday, April 17 at the Palmeto Expo Center, 1 Exhibition Drive, Greenville. Coach Steve Spurrier will be the guest speaker. Cash bar and food stands will be available. Tickets will be $10 and can be purchased at Dr. Hank Jolly's office, Harold's Restaurant, Substation II, or by calling 488-3730.

Prevatte reunion

slated for April 14

The annual reunion of former players of Coach Bob Prevatte will be held April 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the Gaffney High School cafeteria. All former players are encouraged to attend.

The meal will be catered. This meeting will kickoff the three-year campaign to raise funds for the Bob Prevatte Education Foundation, which will give a yearly scholarship to a needy Gaffney High athlete in honor of Coach Prevatte.

For more information, contact Thomas Blackwell at bpescholarship@ bellsouth.net or (864) 489- 3634.

Huggins goes home

to West Virginia

Thirty years after playing his last game for West Virginia, Bob Huggins has come home to coach the Mountaineers.

Just two days after coach John Beilein left West Virginia for Michigan, WVU found a replacement in Huggins, a Morgantown-born alum who left Kansas State after one season to return to his roots.

A handful of students wearing blue and gold waited to greet him at the Morgantown airport Thursday night, one holding a poster with the words ''Welcome home, Coach Huggins'' scrawled in blue marker.

But Huggins' plane instead landed in Charleston, some 300 miles away. He got into a car and left without speaking to reporters. The school did issue a new release.

''I'm incredibly happy to be coming back to West Virginia,'' Huggins said in the statement. ''I left a great situation at Kansas State with wonderful people who are as close to West Virginia people as you can get.''

Huggins, who played from 1975- 77 and was a graduate assistant at West Virginia, once turned down a chance to take the Mountaineers' job when he was at Cincinnati. He couldn't turn down his alma mater again.

Donovan stays,

players go

Florida coach Billy Donovan is staying. His star players are leaving.

Donovan spurned a chance to return to Kentucky and take over the tradition-rich program, saying Thursday he hopes to build the same in Gainesville.

He'll have to do it without Corey Brewer, Taurean Green, Al Horford and Joakim Noah. The four juniors will enter the NBA draft.

Donovan and the foursome led the Gators to consecutive national championships, capping the coach's 11 years and setting the foundation for a program he hopes will someday be mentioned with the likes of Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina, Duke and UCLA.

Donovan opened a news conference confirming the four players were headed to the NBA.

''They made a decision to forgo their senior years and enter the draft,'' Donovan said, looking over to the players sitting to his left. ''I do not expect any of them back here next year.''

The Gators became the first team to win back-to-back titles since Duke in 1992. But following Monday night's 84-75 victory against Ohio State, Donovan's future had become the biggest question mark surrounding Florida.

Donovan acknowledged interest in the Kentucky job this week, saying he had a lot of admiration for the Wildcats. But he also said he intended to stay in Gainesville.