MTSU to play in tourney after Tina Stewart's death

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- The Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders women's basketball team spent most of Thursday grieving the stabbing death of teammate Tina Stewart and agonizing over the decision to play in the Sun Belt Conference tournament.

They reached a unanimous decision just before facing reporters.

Standing together, holding hands for support and with their eyes red from crying, senior guard Anne Marie Lanning announced they would try to win another title and trip to the NCAA tournament.

"We know Tina would want us to go out and play," Lanning said. "We just talked about it, and we all just kind of looked at each other, 'Yeah, that's what we want to do.' We want to make sure to collectively decide. Not five saying yes, five saying no. We all just talked about it. We're going to go out there and play for Tina and give it our all."

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Bradley Lambert/MT Athletic CommunicationsTina Stewart, a 21-year-old junior from Memphis, averaged 5.5 points and 2.5 rebounds in 28 games this season.

Stewart, 21, of Memphis, was stabbed to death Wednesday night and her 18-year-old roommate, Shanterrica Madden, has been charged with first-degree murder. The MTSU freshman is being held without bond. Madden's attorney, Joe Brandon, told The Associated Press that his client used Stewart's own knife in self-defense during a fight. He did not say what the altercation was about.

Lanning said the players went from the hospital where Stewart was declared dead to coach Rick Insell's home Wednesday night, spending hours together.

Freshman KeKe Stewart couldn't stop the tears from rolling down her cheeks at the news conference. In a show of unity, the men's team stood behind the women with all the players wearing purple ribbons and stickers reading "20GETHER" in honor of Stewart's jersey No. 20.

The teams then went into the Murphy Center for a vigil.

Stewart's boyfriend, junior KC Anuna, doesn't know yet if he'll go with the men's team to the Sun Belt tournament, but said Stewart was just trying to do the right thing Wednesday night. He wouldn't go into details and athletic director Chris Massaro said the ongoing police investigation limits what they can say about the case.

Murfreesboro police spokesman Kyle Evans wrote in an email to the AP that possible drug use inside the apartment is part of the overall investigation and police believe first-degree murder is the appropriate charge.

"I cannot discuss the question on the drug use except to say that we do not believe the victim was using drugs," Evans wrote.

Anuna said Madden had done "something" before and Stewart had warned Madden not to do it again, promising to report her to the courtesy officer at their apartment complex close to campus. He said Madden agreed.

"It happened again. She called the courtesy officer. I guess, I guess that's when the roommate got mad," Anuna said.

Middle Tennessee (23-6) is the East's top seed scheduled to play Sunday in Hot Springs, Ark. The Blue Raiders, 14-2 in league play, are trying to earn the automatic berth with the tournament title for a 14th trip to the NCAA tournament. They won last year, but this team is much younger with 11 freshmen and sophomores.

The 5-foot-7 Stewart was a key veteran on this team despite being relegated to the bench after starting in a career-high 14 games this season and had a career-best 15 points on Nov. 28. She averaged 5.5 points and 2.5 rebounds in 28 games this season for the Blue Raiders.

Insell said they will meet Friday morning with counselors. The plan is to travel to Arkansas, but he said they have no time scheduled to depart.

Massaro said he has been getting calls from athletic officials at other schools where students have died. He said they haven't decided how to handle the tournament or how to honor Stewart because the decision to play had just been made. But he said the time on the court will be the players' best chance at escaping their loss.

"The pregame meal is going to be hard," Massaro said. "The bus trip where she normally sits on the bus is going to be hard."

Police found Stewart in her apartment stabbed multiple times when they were called about a disturbance. Madden's attorney won a request that she be photographed by police to document her injuries as proof of the fight.

"Miss Stewart, who was an athlete, had Miss Madden down on the ground beating on her," Brandon said. "Miss Madden has an abrasion above her left eye, looks like perhaps a fingernail. She has swelling to both of her eyes. And during the course of the fight, a knife belonging to Miss Stewart that was in Miss Stewart's possession ended up getting used on Miss Stewart."

Brandon said he will file a motion asking that bond be set for Madden. She is scheduled back in Rutherford County General Sessions Court on March 11.

Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press

20 THINGS MEN DONT KNOW ABOUT WOMEN

A friend of mine, a guy who used to occasionally step out on his woman and hook up with other girls, had the strangest theory about the female species.

They will never tell....

“Women don’t cheat,” he told me, when I asked if he was ever worried she was doing the same thing to him. “It’s just not in their nature.” I just laughed and took a sip of my beer. Of course, I was not at all surprised when he found out she’d been two-timing him for most of their relationship after their inevitable breakup, but he was completely shocked.

There are of course many things that men don’t know about women, mainly because we don’t want them to know, and so we try and keep them hidden really well. But during my two and a half years of interviewing countless ladies for Maxim‘s sex section, I discovered that there are many, many more things that we ladies keep hidden from men ...

1.As soon as we are alone in the house—husband leaves for the office, kids go to school, roommate goes out of town—and we have quality free time knowing no one is going to walk in on us, we masturbate. Sometimes we even just do it if you’re still in the house if that quality free time is never going to come. Usually, it’s while we’re in the bathroom.



2.A good majority of us prefer to pee outside. And in the shower. And sometimes we really just want to do it in the hot tub, but we try to not do that one out of respect for everyone else in there.


3.We pluck stray hairs from our toes, our chin, our lips, moles on the backs of our legs and our nipples. And we really, really enjoy plucking a stubborn ingrown hair. Getting that sucker out is, for some gross reason, such sweet satisfaction.


4.When we’re in love, we smell your clothes or the pillow you were sleeping on when you’re not around. If you were to catch us doing this, we’d be mortified.


5.We’ve all wished that we could be more open and casual about sex from time to time … maybe go to a swingers party, have a threesome or be a dirty stripper for a night, but with no emotional consequences.


6.Deep down we really hope that your guy friends secretly want to sleep with us, and very often we will dress for them and subtly flirt just so they will. We don’t want to bone them; we just want them to want us.


7.We are not insulted in the slightest by those catcalls from construction workers, as long as they aren’t rude or nasty. It’s kind of flattering. We also like it when you get a little jealous, to a degree. Not in an irrational or psycho way, just a bit to show you’re protective and you care.


8.We regularly check in on what our exes are up to via Facebook, emails or texts. As long as we have the technology, they will never be fully out of our lives or minds. This doesn’t mean we still love them; we’re just curious.


9.When we have girls’ nights, we do bad things that you wouldn’t approve of like spill all of your embarrassing secrets, sneak cigarettes or other substances, and drink way more than we let on. Grinding with strangers at a club can also sometimes occur.


10.When you’re not around, we fart. The longer, the louder and the stinkier, the more enjoyable.


11.If you’re really hot or the sex is good, you can be a total idiot and we’ll still date you for a while. But we’ll never marry you. Brains and kindness will always trump sexiness when it comes to marriage material.


12.A lot of times we really like to have sex on the first date to determine whether the chemistry is there and we should have another date. Or sometimes we’re just plain horny and want to get laid. We hate being judged for it.


13.We hate waxing our privates. Hate it, hate it, hate it. But, we like that when it’s cleaned up you go down on us more readily. In a perfect world, you would go down on us with regularity on naturally poofy pubes.


14.When a guy says he doesn’t want kids, it’s really a dealbreaker for almost every woman who is still of child-bearing years.


15.The majority of us don’t really care about how much money you have or make as long as you are kind and emotionally generous and work hard. Laziness and lack of motivation is inherently unsexy.


16.A lot of us are fakers … when it comes to our love of sports and being outdoorsy.


17.We love flaws on guys. A little belly, gray hairs, even a receding hairline. It reminds us that we all have body issues and that we shouldn’t be so insecure or hard on ourselves. Being human is cool. But being whiny about your paunch or constantly fussing over your gray temples is as annoying as us always asking, “Does this make me look fat?”


18.During sex, we’re usually thinking about something other than you. A gross and pervy situation, another man, being dominated … who knows, but we always, always fantasize. It doesn’t mean we’re not sexually attracted to you, we just need the weird mental images to get us off.


19.We don’t consider drunk kissing cheating, as long as we’re the ones doing the drunk kissing. We consider sex with another man cheating.


20.We cherish our independence and “me” time more than you’ll ever know. We say we miss you, but are often secretly glad you’re going so we can just totally relax and be ourselves. But we still love it when you come back.

I hope this was somewhat of an educational course for you men. Then, again, there is always more than I listed today. Be careful of all relationships in your life, because one thing that I know for sure: WOMEN ARE SOME CRAZY ASS CREATURES!!! Yep, I said creatures. Thank God for being bisexual and PRO-CHOICE.

Happy Endings Everyone!
Amile