ball Page 338 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Gird your loins for the Coach K farewell tour
College basketball is back in all its upset-heavy glory. Opening night saw No. 17 Ohio State coming THIS close to dropping one to Akron, Navy beating No. 25 Virginia out of nowhere, and a fun Top-10 matchup between No. 10 Kentucky and No. 9 Duke kicking off the biggest story of this season:...

OBJ is ring-chasing, and who can blame him?
Despite being only 29 years old, based on his statistics and games missed due to injuries the past few seasons,Odell Beckham Jr. could be in the twilight of his career. Through six games this season, OBJ is averaging the fewest yards per game, fewest receptions per game, lowest catch rate, fewest ya...

Cole Anthony is putting a rough North Carolina career behind him, and starting the 2021 season on a tear
It was no brainer that Cole Anthony would be a top NBA draft pick one day. He was the starting point guard his first day at Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens, N.Y., a feat that legendary point guards Kenny Smith and Kenny Anderson didn’t reach. Anthony was the No. 1 point guard prospect in Ame...

Why even play the games, CFP committee?
The second set of College Football Playoff rankings was released last night, much to the dismay of anyone who really still thought the playoff committee wasn’t microdosing quaaludes every Saturday before turning on the television. For those of you out there thinking, you just complained about this l...

Cowboys’ loss to Denver appears to have quieted the annual ‘Dak for MVP’ talk
On Sunday, the Dallas Cowboys laid an egg so big that it looks like the inexplicable and yearly Dak Prescott MVP discussion has gone away... for now....

Mets searching for that elusive GM who likes big market, big stage
Mets team president Sandy Alderson offered up a Michael Scott-ism on Tuesday to explain why his team hasn’t been able to hire a general manager yet, saying their greatest strength — massive market — also is their greatest weakness....

Antonio Conte solves Tottenham Hotspur’s biggest problem: ketchup
In 2013, Tottenham Hotspur hired a new manager with some unconventional training methods. He introduced NFL-style tackling, encouraged players who kicked the ball over the goal, danced the robot, and asked his players for “60% effort, 1000% of the time.”...

An oddly specific betting trend is emerging in the NFL
Who doesn’t like earning money, huh? Everyone does. That’s why we all can use some friendly betting advice from time to time. To that end, if you’re looking just to do straight bets, there’s a new trend in NFL betting that’s been incredibly positive for some people. ...

Chef Curry dropped buckets and hurt feelings with his 50-point demolition of the Atlanta Hawks Monday night
Stephen Curry had one of those nights on Monday inside Chase Center against the Atlanta Hawks. You know, one of those nights where you start off hot and just get hotter as the game flows along until you look up and you’ve dropped 50 on fools. Yeah, me neither. But that’s precisely the kind of night ...

Najee Harris puts ESPN on full blast for inaccurate ‘trauma porn’ — and good for him
ESPN did it again on Monday night: They went too far with the tragedy/trauma porn....

Drumming up some interest: Boilermaker coach making a name for himself with upsets
Outside of Ohio State, it’s hard to definitively say what’s real and what’s Iowa in the Big 10. The conference has had six teams ranked in the top 10 — Penn State twice, Iowa twice, Michigan and Michigan State — lose over the past five weeks. Two of those six upsets have come at (and due to) the han...

We’re witnessing the greatest punting seasons (PLURAL!) of all-time
Everybody hates punting. I know there’s a big movement to give punters the respect they deserve, and yes, punters are people, but you can’t deny that punting is the worst part of football. When the most exciting part of a punt is how favorably/unfavorably it bounces, you know it’s not an exciting pa...

Nikola Jokić went all WWE against the Heat Monday night and laid out Markieff Morris
Every now and again in life, you just have to fight back and say “enough is enough.” Reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokić had a come-to-Jesus moment Monday night when he shoulder tackled Markieff Morris of the Miami Heat....

College football teams, embrace your championship history, but don’t be like Nebraska with Scott Frost
It’s not 1971, it’s not 1983, it’s not 1995, it’s not even 2001, but Nebraska it can’t be like this. They haven’t finished a season at or above .500 since 2016. Since Scott Frost became coach in 2018, they’ve finished with a winning percentage better than .400 once. Nebraska is making some changes, ...

ESPN should replace Michigan State with Villanova in the Champions Classic
Villanova is a better basketball program than Michigan State. That’s not an opinion, it’s a fact. The Wildcats have more program wins and national titles than the Spartans....

A tale of two Windy Cities
It was comeback city in Chicago last night, as the Bulls and the Bears both mounted fourth quarter efforts against their respective opponents, to — ahem — varied success....

You can’t let NFL refs 'feel'
Generally, I think it’s loser shit to blame the refs or bad calls for a loss. There’s almost always a chance to overcome them, and either you’re good enough or you’re not. I’m not even salty as a Bears fan about losing to the Steelers, 29-27, due to a couple of horrible calls, because in the grand s...

2021 Rookie QB Rankings: A Fields of Dreams, the Lawrence of the land and Big Mac
We’ve reached the midway point of the NFL season, and rookie quarterbacks are always front and center, with some living up to the hype and others not as much. With that, let’s look at how the 2021 rookie class fared in Week 9....

Justin Fields played well last week, and the Bears need to do everything in their power to give him the best opportunity to improve tonight
It was there at Soldier Field last Sunday. It didn’t result in a win, but it was there. The electricity, the oohs, the aahs, the dazzling, the breathtaking type of football that Bears fans have been clawing at their walls waiting to see from quarterback Justin Fields....

LeBron James and the Lakers may need to admit they were wrong about Russell Westbrook sooner than they’d imagined
The Russell Westbrook experiment in Los Angeles has not clicked yet, and I don’t know if it ever will. LeBron James missing games with an injury doesn’t help, but things were scary even when he was playing. Acquiring Westbrook was a LeBron decision, made in place of trading for a much better shooter...