Ruffing has been interim head coach since March

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Evansville Director of Athletics Mark Spencer has announced that Matt Ruffing has been named the permanent head women’s basketball coach for the Purple Aces, effective immediately.  Ruffing assumed head coaching duties on an interim basis on March 1, 2016.

“Since taking over the position on an interim basis, Matt has done an excellent job with our team and we look forward to the future with him at the helm,” Spencer said.  “In just a short time, Matt has shown that he is ready for this opportunity with our team performing well on and off the court.”

Ruffing came to UE in 2011 and served as an assistant coach until 2016.

“I am very thankful for this opportunity to continue coaching at the University of Evansville and am excited to keep working towards our program goals,” Ruffing said.  “The young ladies on our team are receiving a top notch education while representing UE on the basketball court and in the community. I look forward to helping them succeed academically and athletically.”

“Evansville and UE have become home for me over the past five and a half years. I want our players to have that same feeling during their time here,” Ruffing added.”

Ruffing has led the Aces to a 5-6 mark through their first 11 games of the season.  Included in that span is a 4-game win streak that included wins over Valparaiso, Murray State and Austin Peay.  Going back to last year, Ruffing has directed the team to six wins in 13 contests.

In 2011, Ruffing came to Evansville after spending four seasons on the coaching staff at the University of Akron.  Beginning as a graduate assistant in the 2007-08 season, while working on a masters in sports science, Ruffing was promoted to assistant coach for the past three seasons. He served as the scouting and equipment coordinator and assisted in recruiting, handled film exchange and assisted in pre and postseason conditioning.

Ruffing also worked closely with the post players and developed sophomore center Rachel Tecca into a first team Mid-American Conference selection in 2011, marking just the third Zip in program history to receive the honor. Tecca was also named the MAC Sixth Player of the Year under Ruffing’s guidance in 2010, while Ruffing coached an All-MAC Freshmen Team Member in each of his three years as assistant coach.

Prior to Akron, Ruffing served as a student assistant and head manager of the University of Dayton women’s basketball team. Ruffing helped coordinate the team’s tape exchange and assisted the coaching staff in many other roles, including the daily operations of practice.

“I also want to thank some very important people who made this opportunity possible. I need to thank Dr. Kazee, Mark Spencer and Sarah Solinsky for believing in my vision and supporting our staff since last March. I would also like to thank my wife, Erin, and both of our families for their tireless support of UE Women’s Basketball,” Ruffing said.  “Lastly I would like to thank the players, coaches, alumni and their families. This is not possible without their hard work and commitment to the program.”

Evansville moves to perfect 8-0 at home with win

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Jaylon Brown scored a game-high 33 points to lead the University of Evansville men’s basketball team to a 68-55 win over Mount St. Joseph on Thursday evening at the Ford Center.

Brown drained 11 of his 16 shots to lead everyone and was 7-of-8 from the free throw line.  Next for the Purple Aces (9-4) was Ryan Taylor, who tallied 13 points. Duane Gibson posted 12.  Leading Mount St. Joseph (8-3) was Andrew Finley with 17 points.

“Give Mount St. Joseph credit, I thought they played with far more energy and executed better than we did,” UE head coach Marty Simmons said.  “Our guys played harder in the beginning of the second half, but couldn’t sustain it.  We are just fortunate, we were not able to execute what we practiced on either end of the floor over the last 3-4 days.”

Brown scored 22 points in the first half alone as the Aces took a 37-29 lead into the locker room.  Both teams had trouble finding their groove early on, leading to a 6-5 UE lead at the 16:43 mark.  The Aces got moving shortly after as a Brown jumper midway through the half gave UE a 22-12 lead.

Mount St. Joseph stayed tough as they cut the gap to two at 24-22 on a Bob Murdock trey.   That capped off a 10-2 stretch.  Over the final minutes, UE was able to regain its advantage as a Gibson bucket put the Aces up 37-29 with just over a minute to play in the half.

Out of the half, UE turned it up.  A 14-2 run in the opening six minutes of the stanza saw Evansville take its largest lead of the night at 51-31.  The Lions made a run late, cutting the gap to 13 at the final buzzer, making it a 68-55 game.

Evansville outshot the Lions by a 47.3%-38.6% margin thanks in part to a 6-for-7 effort from Duane Gibson.  The win moved UE to a perfect 8-0 record at home in non-conference play.

Missouri Valley Conference play is up next for the Purple Aces as they travel to Illinois State on December 29 for a 7 p.m. game.  On January 1, UE will be home to face UNI on West Side Night in a 3 p.m. tilt.

Writer, historian ‘has taught us all how to face overwhelming adversity with great strength, courage, grit and class,’ Gray says in commendation

Bill Mooney, the award-winning turf writer who ranks among Thoroughbred racing’s premier historians of any generation, has been recognized by Lexington Mayor Jim Gray and the Kentucky Senate for his contributions to the horse industry and courage in the face of a devastating two-year battle with cancer.

The Senate proclamation on the motion of Sen. Reggie Thomas read in part that Mooney “has worked tirelessly to preserve for posterity horse racing’s illustrious history, using details and descriptions which, for the reader, bring to life the colorful world of horse racing, both today and throughout history.”

Mayor Gray in his commemoration declared December “Bill Mooney Month in Lexington,” in part stating that the Lexington writer “is a kind, loving person who goes out of his way to help others in need; who has been a role model for journalists; and who has taught us all how to face overwhelming adversity with great strength, courage, grit and class; and … has made incredible contributions to horse racing that will last in perpetuity.”

The full text of both commendations can be found at NTWAB.org, the website of the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters. Mooney last year was the inaugural winner of the NTWAB’s Bill Mooney Award for the racing participant displaying courage in the face of tremendous adversity.

Mooney is a two-time Eclipse Award winner, in 1985 for the quintessential story about Ellis Park that ran in Thoroughbred Record and in 2007 for a poignant story about the euthanization of champion Precisionist at Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Farm in Georgetown, Ky., that ran in Post Time USA. The native New Englander was awarded the 2012 Walter Haight Award by the NTWAB for career excellence, co-authored multiple editions of The Complete Encyclopedia of Horse Racing: The Illustrated Guide to the World of the Thoroughbred and is author of the Tony Ryan Book Award-winning Keeneland’s Ted Bassett: My Life. He also has been a racetrack publicist of note.

However, Mooney’s greatest legacy could be his painstaking research and colorful descriptions of long-forgotten subjects such as the end of racing in Texas in 1938 before being banned for 50 years and short-lived Tri-State Fair Grounds in Huntington as the site of the first West Virginia Derby in 1923. The latter story (http://bit.ly/2hVhnk5) was published in the Paulick Report in August when Mooney was critically ill but still drove the six hours each way between his home in Lexington to Mountaineer Park to handle publicity for the West Virginia Derby.

“One of the things that bothers me about the illness is that there are so many other stories that I wanted to write about,” Mooney said. “There was a great racetrack in Charleston, S.C., back in those days where something like four Kentucky Derby winners raced there. I so much wanted to write about that racetrack. There are a lot of lost racetracks out there that people don’t know about. It’s our history and our heritage.”

Mooney — whose magnificent and voluminous history and story-telling have been typed with one finger (a byproduct of being in a horrific auto crash at age 15) — sounds befuddled by the tributes, saying, “I’m an ordinary guy.” 

That might be the one fact that Mooney has gotten wrong.

“I’ve never met a more diligent reporter,” said Michael Blowen, president and founder of Old Friends after being a critic for the Boston Globe. “I never met anyone, regardless of what their beat is, who is as good a fact-checker as Bill Mooney. On top of all that, we just owe him everything at Old Friends. Because he was one of the first people who had a reputation at stake who thought this was a good idea…. He’s just been a tremendous friend. We’re going to name a street after him. There’s nobody I’ve met more courageous than Bill.”

“Bill Mooney has been a mentor and, most importantly, an invaluable friend to the Thoroughbred racing industry and the Bluegrass community as a whole,” said NTWAB president Alicia Hughes. “The courage he has shown in his battle with cancer and the perspective he has maintained have further solidified his status as an inspiration to all.”

Tributes to Mooney from his colleagues can be found at NTWAB.org (direct link: http://bit.ly/2ihG8WP). Also on the website: The definitive story about rather than byMooney, the son of two circus performers, including a world-class aerialist, and his distinction with the Walter Haight Award for Career Excellence In Turf Writing. http://bit.ly/2heF8GJ