ap Page 1805 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Pittsburgh Panthers
1. No one recruits NY like Pitt. Pitt coaches regularly take trips to New York and hand out the majority of their scholarships to the best players they can find. On this year's team, five players are from the NYC area, including starters Levance Fields, Ronald Ramon and Keith Benjamin. No wonder Pit...
North Carolina Tar Heels
1. Look Out.North Carolina enters the tournament as the No. 1 overall seed and prohibitive favorite. Their path to the Final Four would start in Raleigh and move all the way to Charlotte. (Jim Boeheim on PTI Monday: "Does Carolina even need to get out of bed to advance?") They are peaking at the rig...
Stanford Cardinal
1. The Happiest Place On Earth. While other programs struggle with illegal shenanigans and recruiting scandals, the Cardinal are definitely rated G. Twins Brook and Robin Lopez are obsessed with everything related to Walt Disney, including knowing the answers to trivia questions such as: Where did W...
Boise State Broncos
1. I Just Flew In From Boise, and Boy Are My Legs Tired. Four days might not be near enough time for the Broncos to rest up for their first round game. They needed three overtimes and 107 points to put away the pesky New Mexico State Aggies and take the WAC's auto-bid. The good news is that it was o...
Coppin State Eagles
1. Is That Record Inverted? Located in Baltimore's inner city, Coppin State is the first 20-loss team ever to make the NCAA tournament. The Eagles lost their 20th game at Morgan State to end the regular season. After an improbable three-game run through the MEAC tournament, they faced the same team ...
Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils
1. Nine in a Row. The Delta Devils haven't lost a March game this season. In fact, they were sporting a dreadful 8-15 record on February 16, and they have won every game since to get to 17-15. Their overall record didn't get above .500 until their SWAC semifinal win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff....
American Eagles
1. Curse-Breakers. Have you ever played Mario Kart and, just when it looks like you're going to win, the computer defies physics and sends Wario out to give you some competition? And then, thanks to a freaking green shell, Wario ends up winning? That's pretty much the relationship between AU and Hol...
Virginia Commonwealth Rams
1. The Straw(s) That Stir(s) The Drink. Everyone learned in short order who Eric Maynor was last year when he took over the CAA championship game against George Mason, hit the jump shot with 1.8 seconds left to beat Duke in the opening round of NCAA tournament and then led a 19-point comeback in the...
California Golden Bears
1. The Bears would dominate the Big East. I no longer live in California, so my chances to watch Pac 10 ball are few. However, living in DC has exposed me to a large number of Big East games, and I have come to the conclusion that the Bears' formula of allowing their opponent to run up a huge lead, ...
Belmont Bruins
1. Wait... The Atlantic Sun is Perhaps Not A Powerhouse Conference? Belmont has ranked in the top 10 nationally in three-point field goals per game seven of the last 10 years. The Bruins are fourth this year at 10.6 three-pointers per game. HOWEVUH, when it mattered (in their NCAA appearances the la...
Never Challenge Blake Hoffarber To A Game Of H.O.R.S.E.
When they were handing out natural disasters in the NCAA conference tournaments, the SEC came up with tornadoes. The Big Ten ended up with lightning striking twice. (The MAC? Perpetual darkness.) Minnesota's Blake Hoffarber's last-second desperation jumper to beat Indiana 59-58 was brain-exploding u...
Media Approval Ratings: Jim Nantz
We are coming up on the busiest month of Jim Nantz's life. He'll be broadcasting the Final Four, and then he'll head off to the event that he seems born to cover, the Masters. We sometimes think Jim Nantz is the living embodiment of the Masters. This is both a good thing and a bad thing....
Bob Costas Thinks You're A Loser
Some of you out there might like Bob Costas. Some of you might not. We've always been partial to the guy, not just because he's a St. Louis guy, and not just because he did the intro to the final episode of "Cheers," though that certainly helps. Costas is an obviously intelligent guy, if a bit smugg...
Baseball Season Preview: Philadelphia Phillies
For the third consecutive season, we are proud to introduce the Deadspin Baseball Season Previews. Yes, baseball is awfully close now; it's spring training, after all....
Media Approval Ratings: Al Michaels
Of all the brilliance of the great Berman videos, our third biggest thrill (behind the initial outrage and the deux deux deux) involves his rants about Al Michaels. As we said before, in this tiny little universe, Berman seems to see Michaels as Mozart, and himself as Salieri. Which is just sad....
Media Approval Ratings: Joe Buck
After reading KSK's anonymous and almost certainly not true (but still quite entertaining) tale of Joe Buck rollicking out in Vegas, we figured this was as good a time as any to check in with the ominpresent Fox broadcaster....
Media Approval Ratings: Bill Raftery
We think it's kind of amazing that ESPN has Bill Raftery working with Jay Bilas this week at the Big East tournament. That's not because we don't like either of them; far from it. It's just that Bilas, as a game broadcaster, seems to be doing a Bill Raftery impersonation. Which is fine, of course....
About Last Night
What you missed while in jail ... • NBA: Take your time coming back, Yao. Rockets win 19th straight. • College basketball: Gonzaga losing to San Diego in the WCC final? Inconceivable! • NFL: Titans raid Colts, take OG Jake Scott. Peyton stocks up on aspirin....
Please Do Not Get Smudges On The Yankees' Uniforms; They Have To Last All Season
Yankees' manager Joe Girardi disagrees, however. And Don Zimmer disagrees with the disagreement....