et Page 1619 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Your College Basketball Open Thread, Just In Time For Miami At Duke
It's March! College basketball really started mattering last weekend, during the bracket buster match-ups, but we weren't ready. Now we're ready. It's time to start getting to know these teams, so your March Madness picks can be ill-informed, instead of uninformed....

The NFL Appears Totally Ready For An Openly Gay Player, So Long As You Overlook Its Teams And Players
One of the most unintentionally hilarious sentences currently in print can be found on this SB Nation post by Robert Wheel, a.k.a. Bobby Big Wheel, called "What the NFL can do to support gay players." Beneath, a comma-spliced subhed reads: "The NFL is ready for a gay player, the problem is the rest ...

Rick DiPietro's AHL Tenure Is Not Going Amazingly Well
The other day, Barry reflected on the difficulty of Rick DiPietro's career as of late, and how at times his story has veered hard from farce to tragedy. For a rich man who plays a game for a living—when he's healthy enough to do so—hard luck has befallen DiPietro with maddening consistency....

World Number One Rory McIlroy Walked Off The Course Because He Was Having A Mental Breakdown His Teeth Hurt
Yesterday, reigning PGA champ Rory McIlroy walked off the course at the Honda Classic in Florida after a day of subpar golf, eight holes into a second round for which he was already seven strokes over par. As reporters trailed him on his way out, he said he was in a "bad place mentally," which doesn...

North Korea Invented Its Own, Totally Different Way Of Scoring Basketball Games
Dennis Rodman's bizarre visit to North Korea has led to many dissections of North Korea's strange relationship with basketball—or rather, the Kim family's strange relationship with basketball—and one happy consequence is the opportunity to remember that, despite the Kim family's love for the NBA, th...

Here's A Photo Of UCLA Head Coach Ben Howland, In A Tracksuit, Playing Beer Pong With Students Last Night
From the game day campout live-blog at the Daily Bruin (and via Twitter), here's a picture of notoriously sorta grumpy UCLA basketball coach Ben Howland, looking extremely relaxed last night in advance of today's game against #11 ranked Arizona at Pauley Pavilion (9 p.m. EST, ESPN)....

Twitter Loves The Orlando Magic, Has Never Heard Of The Arizona Cardinals
The Wall Street Journal has helpfully assembled the sort of slow-news-month story that lets you forget that none of the four major sports (five, if you include college football) is playing many meaningful games at the moment. In it, the incomparably named Stu Woo compiled the Twitter follower counts...

Thief Breaks Into Popeye's, Eats 16 Slices Of Pie, Gets Tired From Eating All The Pie, Takes Nap, Gets Arrested
A enterprising and hungry man recently committed maybe the most agreeable crime in the history of Baltimore, and surely tested the limits of the Baltimore PD's tactical command units in the process, by breaking into a Popeye's, committing a daring robbery, and then......

Four Things You Can Learn About The NBA By Skimming Sloan Sports Analytics Conference Research Papers
The Sloan Sports Analytics Conference is under way in Boston and, though we sent no intrepid reporters to Dorkapalooza this year, the conference happily made its research paper finalists publicly available on its website. Let's blearily page through and see if we can't learn a few things. (We're foc...


Steve Buckhantz Couldn't Tell Whether That Game-Ending Shot Went In Because The Owners Moved Him To The Cheap Seats
We all had a good laugh when Washington Wizards play-by-play man Steve Buckhantz dusted off his patented "dagger!" call despite Trevor Ariza's (very nice looking) airball to end the Wizards' game on Wednesday night. The misplaced enthusiasm was funny but, as we noted at the time, you couldn't really...

The U.S. State Department Actually Clarified That Dennis Rodman "Has Never Been A Player In Our Diplomacy"
In case you were wondering:...

Scott Fujita Says A Gay Teammate "Would Not Be An Issue At All" In The Locker Room
Every morning, the fine folks at Sports Radio Interviews sift through the a.m. drive-time chatter to bring you the best interviews with coaches, players, and personalities across the sports landscape. Today: The Browns linebacker says a gay teammate would be just another guy....

Start Your Weekend With An Inspirational Quote From Bob Knight
Bob Knight has a new book out next week. It's called The Power of Negative Thinking: An Unconventional Approach to Achieving Positive Results, because Bob Knight is still playing his (lucrative) role as college basketball's senile great-uncle. He sat down with Andrew Goldman for the New York Times M...

17 Sports Moments That Will Restore Your Faith In Humanity
It's been a rough week in the sports world for those of us who put faith in our fellow man and woman. From NASCAR drivers' alleged bigotry, to NFL execs wanting to know if Manti Te'o is gay, to a youth hockey coach being sentenced for tripping a little kid, it's tough to look at the sports world ...

Andre Iguodala Doesn't Like Clubs Because They Are Too Damn Loud
GQ just posted an interview with Nuggets guard Andre Iguodala that includes a few entertaining insights. Iguodala talks about the "chill" spot he retreats to for hours at a time where he can "watch SportsCenter and text people and just relax," and he also tells us that Deadspin favorite JaVale McGe...

Actually, Duke Had No Problems Getting Off The Court In Virginia Last Night
Virginia fans stormed the court in Charlottesville last night, after the unranked Cavaliers defeated No. 3 Duke, 73-68, and Mike Krzyzewski was a bit rankled by the lack of protection for his team. He reportedly "hollered an F-bomb at a fan" and later suggested that he and his team hadn't been pro...

Patriots Punter Zoltan Mesko In A Speedo With Two Chihuahuas? Patriots Punter Zoltan Mesko In A Speedo With Two Chihuahuas.
Zoltan Mesko is a punter for the New England Patriots. He got pretty bored on Wednesday....

Zach Galifianakis Is Nikola Pekovic's Ventriloquist Dummy
If the two people in this photo weren't famous, it would be quite the optical illusion. Is the guy on the left some kind of bearded mini-person, or is the guy on the right a gigantic mutant? I can't tell!...

Coach K Hates Fun And Games
A wonderful thing happened in Charlottesville, Va., last night: the Virginia Cavaliers defeated No. 3 Duke, 73-68. Duke losses are always something we, united in our reasonable hatred of the Blue Devils, can collectively appreciate; that this one came against an unranked bubble team playing on it...