art Page 303 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

One Depressing Sports Weekend
We don't mean to overstate this, but Saturday was a disappointing an evening for college basketball as we can remember. It's not just that George Mason lost to Florida, or even that they lost so convincingly. Their legend had been secured simply by making it to Indianapolis at all; any mid-major w...

USC Still Can't Believe It Lost Either
Boi From Troy has dug up an interesting little nugget: The schedule poster for the upcoming Southern California football team contains the word "ENCORE!" as its theme....

NCAA Pants Party: Michigan State vs. George Mason
Michigan State Spartans (22-11) vs. George Mason Patriots (23-7). When: Friday, 7:10 p.m. Where: Dayton, Ohio....

Michigan State Spartans
1. They ve Got The Family On Their Side. Michigan State has its fair share of notable alumni, but perhaps none has the cool quotient of James Caan. (Not even Bubba Smith — and he played Moses Hightower.) And yes, we re basing that simply on the theory that anyone involved in The Godfather has a cool...

Dan Le Batard Horrifies You The Most
Congratulations to Dan Le Batard, who you say has the most terrifying ESPN: The Magazine mugshot. It was a tight race, with Le Batard — who was joking about the mugshots and this poll on his radio show yesterday, quoting from several of our great commenters — edging out Stuart Scott (who actually ...

Authors With Pure Hearts: Sam Walker
When we were on our Caribbean vacation a while back, we spent most of our time on a beach, sipping blue beverages and ... reading about fantasy baseball. Naturally. Specifically, we were reading Sam Walker's Fantasyland, a relentlessly entertaining look at a fantasy baseball virgin attempting to win...

Poll: Scariest ESPN Mag Mugshots
Yesterday, we tried to figure out what was going on with Bill Simmons' ridiculous mugshot in ESPN: The Magazine. Well, now we've got copies of all four main mugshots in the magazine, and they're inexplicable. And horrifying. Take a look at them below, and let us know which one makes you want to c...

Authors With Pure Hearts: Will Blythe
We've taken some time off from the Authors With Pure Hearts series, but we gleefully return with Will Blythe's To Hate Like This Is To Be Happy Forever, a hysterical, slightly crazed book about what it means to hate so much that it becomes purifying. In the case of Blythe, born and bred in North Car...

Today In College Hoops...
UConn just put their thing down against Villanova this afternoon, winning by a score of 89-75 and avenging their earlier loss to the Wildcats. This is probably as much talent as is possible to put on one college basketball floor at one time this year. UConn's talent, however, is much taller....

Vince Carter Getting "Freaky?"
We were sent the following video from a fellow named Mr. Jones, claiming that Nets guard Vince Carter is shown frollicking in Cancun. If one can classify this activity as "frollicking." We will say that our vacation was nothing like this at all....

Welcome To The Bizarro NFL
Word on the street is that the Green Bay Packers are set to hire San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McCarthy as the team's new head coach, with an announcement to come maybe later today. This may come as a surprise to, well, anyone who is familiar with the final NFL regular season stan...

Elsewhere...
• Morris Peterson gets ejected from the Raptors/Nets game for slapping Vince Carter in the face. I didn't see it, so I can't comment, but I can't think of too many reasons to not slap Vince Carter. Sorry. I'm not a Vince Carter fan....

Jamar Smith Fever, People: Catch It
Our father knows us very well, so when we went home for the holidays, he bought us the best gift we can remember receiving: A Illini jersey T-shirt of Jamar Smith. Who's Jamar Smith, you ask? Oh, you'll know very soon. He's the Illini's freshman shooting guard whose 3-point touch is like a tip-in....

They're Not Booing. They're Yelling "Stuuuu!"
We know this is our job and everything, but we'll admit, we, uh, weren't watching Stuart Scott's little New Years Eve "spectacular" in Times Square over the weekend. Sorry. We've let you down....

Clearing The 1 o'clock Table...
• San Diego 7, Kansas City 20. So, what did you use for pregame motivation, Marty, the tape of Jim Mora screaming, "PLAYOFFS? PLAYOFFS?!" I feel much pain. • Buffalo 37, Cincinnati 27. Rough day for Chad Johnson. First, someone stole his reindeer (I HATE YOU, whoever it was), and then, they lose to ...

Soon, They'll Start Stealing His Chicks
So here's a completely strange story: Apparently USC quarterback Matt Leinart — perhaps you've heard of him — was apparently suspended for the Rose Bowl for, like, an hour....

When In Trouble, Go After Magic
In the midst of his take-me-back contrition tour, Indiana Pacers small forward Ron Artest spoke to an Indianapolis radio station on Friday. Artest was asked his thoughts on Magic Johnson's recent comments that Artest didn't deserve a second chance....

Leinart Responds To Party Photos
As you might have heard yesterday, USC quarterback Matt Leinart was spotted at NYC hotspot Marquee after finishing third in Heisman voting on Saturday night and according to the emailer who sent us the photos, he hit on a Texas woman — described as "one of the nicest people" by one of our commente...

Matt Leinart's Big Post-Heisman NYC Adventure
We present the above picture, with the following story, without comment, sent anonymously to us this morning....

Ron Artest Back To Selling Crazy. Whew.
Our heads are still trying to get around the news that Indiana swingman Ron Artest has demanded a trade from the Pacers. Neverminding that the Pacers (and, specifically, Larry Bird) stood steadfast by their man while he was portrayed as Jeffrey Dahmer in the offseason. Neverminding that the city o...