Fang

NBA scouts aren't calling for passes to see Coppin State. The Eagles probably aren't going to win 20 games, and they are supposed to do the chasing in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference after two years of front-running.So why is coach Fang Mitchell smiling?Coppin State beat a team it was supposed to last night, as the Eagles jumped on Youngstown State early and cruised to a 76-59 victory at the Coppin Center. Among Mitchell's starters were a freshman and three sophomores, three seniors played hard off the bench, and the last subs were diving on the floor in the 40th minute.

Those who looked at Coppin State's men's basketball roster last year may have seen a team loaded with youth and inexperience and dismissed the Eagles' chances in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.They know better now.After the Eagles cruised through the conference undefeated to capture their third league title in four years and earned their second trip to the NCAA tournament, the MEAC coaches made Coppin State a unanimous pick to win the conference title this time.It's easy to understand why. Although they have only one senior in 6-foot-10 center Galen Howard, the Eagles return four starters from last year's 22-8 team, including what is probably the strongest backcourt in the league, led by juniors Sidney Goodman and Stephen Stewart.

"Interview With the Vampire" author Anne Rice shot a letter off to People Weekly on Tuesday taking issue with a short magazine article on Tom Cruise and advising the magazine not to be "so eager to whore for [Pat] Kingsley or Cruise" by writing "idiotic trash" from the publicity machine run by Pat Kingsley.The May 9 People article says Ms. Rice didn't want Tom Cruise to play the Vampire Lestat because she wanted "a less clean-cut lead."Ms. Rice wrote, "Did Pat Kingsley dictate it to you, or are you really that stupid?"

In the newspaper business (motto: "Trust Us! We're English Majors!") we have high standards of accuracy. Before we print anything, we make sure that: We personally believe it's true, or A reliable source (defined as "a source wearing business attire") told us it's true, or Another newspaper, with a respectable newspaper name such as the Fort Smidling Chronic Truncator says it's true, or It's getting late and we need to print SOMETHING so we can go to the bar. Despite these safeguards, newspapers are not perfect, as evidenced by the recent front-page New York Times story incorrectly identifying Gen. Colin Powell as "the capital of Guam."

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!The first stop this week on the party circuit was the Boumi Temple on North Charles Street, where members of the Advertising Club of Baltimore paid tribute to the Coppin State College basketball team.The Ad Club, which has been applauding and accentuating the positive about Baltimore since 1909, thanked "Fang and the Gang" for making Marylanders so proud as the team slam-dunked its way to national prominence in the 1997 NCAA tournament.Hundreds of people, led by Ad Club President Brent Gunts, were at the Boumi Temple to meet and honor Coach Ron "Fang" Mitchell and his players.

In one month, Fred Warrick has gone from being a student at Philadelphia Community College to a starting forward on Coppin State's basketball team.Warrick joined the Eagles the last week of December after completing graduation requirements at Philadelphia CC. He had been the 1995 NJCAA Region 19 Most Valuable Player after averaging 27.8 points, 10.3 rebounds and 4.7 assists, and shooting 45.6 percent from three-point range at Essex County College in Newark,...

It'll be a season of transition on North Avenue, as longtime Coppin State coach Fang Mitchell welcomes nine new players to the Eagles' roster. Coppin, which finished 14-16 one year ago, graduated its top five scorers, but has added a top transfer who is a familiar face to local basketball followers. Mitchell spoke to The Sun last week during Hurricane Sandy as he waited for the power in his Baltimore County home to return. You lost your top five scorers - Tony Gallo, Akeem Ellis, Michael Harper, Logan Wiens and Antonio Williams - to graduation.

Fang Mitchell clearly remembers his first win as Coppin State's basketball coach. It came in 1986 and was played at the Community College of Baltimore. "We were 0-9 at the time and it came against North Carolina A&T, which was dominating the conference. They had won seven straight championships," Mitchell, now in his 25th season at Coppin State, recalled Friday. "It was a very big win in many ways. I had come from Gloucester Community where we had only lost 45 games [in eight years]

At 5 o'clock on a fall morning in 2009, Coppin State University basketball coach Fang Mitchell drove then-sophomore Michael Harper to the hospital for surgery on his wrist. Harper, from Milwaukee, appreciated the show of support — then and now. When Harper finishes his college career next season for the Eagles, Mitchell will be there for him again, just like Harper would want it. "If they were bringing in a new coach in my fourth year, it would mean a whole new system, a new personality, a different look on the team," Harper said.