as Page 2354 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Texas Tech Red Raiders
1. Nic Cage Likes Them Out of the East. The "Masked Rider" mascot of Texas Tech began unofficially in 1936 as "The Ghost Rider," as unknown groups of students would circle the field on horses at home football games, then depart the stadium. At the 1954 Gator Bowl, The Masked Rider became the officia...
Pittsburgh Panthers
1. The Name Game. Pitt's starting lineup includes a lanky Canadian forward with stupid lines shaved in his head and a compact cornrowed point guard formerly of the famed New York Gauchos AAU team. One is named Levance and another is named Levon, but can you tell which is which?...
Xavier Musketeers
1. Can't touch this! Junior guard Stanley Burrell is the second leading scorer for the Musketeers. No, not that Stanley Burrell!. The Xavier student section had nicknamed him "The Hammer" before he even set foot on campus....
Indiana Hoosiers
1. Larry Bird and What Might Have Been. The 1976 Indiana Hoosiers—the last undefeated team in men's college basketball history—are generally considered to be the second-best team of all time behind 1968 UCLA. But remember that West Baden/French Lick native Larry Bird was successfully recruited by Bo...
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
1. You Might Be A Yellow Jacket ... Sure, the most famous Georgia Tech — because we're talking about the university here, I will refer to them by their official name, "The Georgia Institute of Technology" — alumnus is Jimmy Carter, who was (reportedly) President of the United States and also won the...
Tennessee Volunteers
1. The machines ... they're getting smarter. UT's freshman class has overcome being labeled "The Fab Five" by Knoxville media outlets to become a legitimate driving force on the court. Top-50 recruits Duke Crews, Wayne Chism and Ramar Smith have been particularly effective, finishing the regular sea...
Purdue Boilermakers
1. Turnaround. The Boilermakers reached the 20-win mark for the first time since the 2000 season. Their 11-game turnaround from last season's nine-win campaign is one of the five best in the nation. Furthermore, their RPI at the end of last season was 175; this year it's 47. (For a point of comparis...
Michigan State Spartans
1. Drew Me Baby One More Time. Use both hands, please If you can overlook the disturbing visual similarities between Drew Neitzel and Britney Spears (she just wanted to look like him). There's a lot to appreciate about the Spartans leader. When he was 12, Drew won the national 2-ball championshipm w...
Rasheed Wallace Cannot Be Made To Care
After you pick up 16 technical fouls in one NBA season, each technical foul thereafter earns you a one-game suspension. You'll never guess who became the first player to be suspended via that rule ... oh, hell, I'll just tell you. 'Twas Rasheed Wallace....
About Last Night...
• College Basketball: Pitt 65, Louisville 59. Louisville has blown huge leads on two straight nights. Keep that in mind, tiny conference team that plays Louisville in the first round of the tournament. • NBA: 76ers 108, Lakers 92. Another game, another white man hit by a Kobe elbow. I guess someone ...
Another Reason Baseball Players Shouldn't MySpace
This is CJ Wilson, a reliever for the Texas Rangers, an up-and-comer, a LOOGY, if you will. He also has a MySpace page and is pals with teammate Brandon McCarthy, who also has a MySpace page. They're buddies, along with, as always, an endless supply of buxom blondes who write things like "p.s. you k...
Baseball Season Preview: New York Yankees
You might remember, from back at the beginning of the NFL season, when we previewed each team by having a writer we liked write about their favorite team....
Wait, Who's Teaching Whom Here?
You know, nothing is going to encourage kids to head out there and hit the books than an interactive reading session with Tampa Bay Devil Rays Shawn Camp and Rudy Lugo, particularly because each and every one of the kids is better at reading than Shawn Camp and Rudy Lugo. (Seriously, those SUPERSTAR...
MLB Pretends It Cares, A Little, Barely
So, if you buy what Major League Baseball is spinning, yesterday's announcement that the Direct TV wouldn't necessarily be an exclusive deal is great news, a chance for fans to still watch their favorite out-of-town team without having to buy stupid DirectTV. After all, cable providers have until th...
You Have No Idea How Hard It Is Not To Make A "Pokey" Joke
This, friends, is Pokey Chatman, who, until about 16 hours ago, was one of the most successful young coaches in women's college basketball, leading her LSU Tigers into the NCAA tournament and earning the respect of her peers. Now, though, she's decidedly less than that: Now she's a disgraced former ...
About Last Night ...
What you missed while dancing a series of Irish jigs ... • NHL: Even we know that what Chris Simon did was not nice. • College basketball: Grin and Bear it ... Cal upends UCLA 76-69 in OT in Pac-10 tournament quarterfinals. • NBA: Manu The Moment ... Ginobli leads Spurs to 11th straight win....
Time To Rev Up The NCAA Tourney Previews Again
Longtime readers — or at least those who have been with us for a year or longer — will remember last year, when we introduced the world's only reader-created NCAA tournament previews. Well, that thing is a mother to put together — essentially, three presumably fascinating facts about all 65 teams in...
Find Those Committee Members, Stat!
Man, we're only three days away from Selection Sunday. It came up on us so fast! As we obsess over Bracketology and RPI and conference tournaments, we are reminded that the brackets will not just pop up from the nether on Sunday. Somewhere in Indianapolis, there's a group of old men sitting around a...
It's Almost As If He Had Poor Role Models
So, remember William Ligue Jr., the maniac who jumped Royals coach Tom Gamboa for no apparent reason about five years ago? Well — and you're not gonna believe this — apparently he might not have been the best influence on his son, who was sitting next to him that night....
Baseball Season Preview: San Francisco Giants
You might remember, from back at the beginning of the NFL season, when we previewed each team by having a writer we liked write about their favorite team....