florida Page 41 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

This Is The Face Of A Hockey Player
Veteran Panthers center John Madden took friendly fire in the first period of last night's Game 7 matchup with New Jersey last night, leaving bits of himself on the ice and suffering the sort of injury that generally knocks most other athletes out of competition. Most other athletes, of course, are...

Devils Fan Ridiculed By Panthers President For Lack Of Twitter Followers Now Has More Followers Than He Does
It's been two days since the Florida Panthers launched a concerted effort to blame visiting Devils fans for disrupting play by chucking rubber rats on the ice, despite the fact that it's a Panthers tradition and they sell the damn things for $5 in the arena. (And collect them to resell after they're...

Youth Baseball Coach Arrested After Allegedly Arguing With Umpire, Threatening Parent With Gun
OK, gang. Florida or Ohio? How about neither! This one happened in Scranton, Pa., where 39-year-old Babe Ruth League coach John Zahradnik was charged Saturday with reckless endangerment and harassment. It started when Zahradnik allegedly argued with an umpire, which escalated into an alleged argumen...

Panthers Somehow Blame Devils Fans For Ruining Rat-Throwing Tradition
Before their 1995 home opener, a rat entered the Panthers locker room—and was promptly killed with a slapshot by Scott Mellanby. The legend took hold, and as Florida made a finals run, the "rat trick" was born. After Panthers goals and wins, fans would throw hundreds of rubber rats onto the ice....

Florida Beat Georgia Last Night On A 16th-Inning Walkoff Strikeout
Fifth-ranked Florida escaped with a bizarre 3-2 win over Georgia last night in Gainesville, as a rare walkoff strikeout allowed Vickash Ramjit to score from third after Bulldogs catcher Brandon Stephens blundered away what should have been the final out of the 16th inning....

Miami TV Station Congratulates The Florida International University Panthers On Their Stanley Cup Playoff Win
The Florida Panthers took a 2-1 series lead over the New Jersey Devils with an astonishing 4-3 win that came after falling behind 3-0 in the first period. It's understandable, then, that the story led off the 10:00 news on Miami's WSVN; perhaps unaccustomed to hockey success, they got a few details...

Palm Beach High School Baseball Player Suspended For Soaking Visiting Dugout In Urine Before Crosstown Rivals Arrived
From the Palm Beach Post comes word of gamesmanship. Foul, fetid gamesmanship....

Hockey's Frozen Four In Tampa: Where America Came To Thaw Out Its Frigid Heart (And Wear Shorts Outside)
TAMPA—Sometime around midnight after the Frozen Four final, I found myself a few blocks away from the Tampa Times Forum, jumpstarting a former Ferris State player's car under the distant watchful gaze of a hockey writer who was afraid I was going to be beaten or murdered. ...

Baltimore Orioles Find A New Way To Lose To The Baltimore Orioles
Near the end of spring training, major league teams will sometimes schedule an exhibition match against a local minor league or college squad. It provides for some local buzz, the minor league team gets to say they played against major league talent, some money often goes to charity, and everyone go...

Florida's Erving Walker Arrested For Alleged Theft Of Taco
Erving Walker's career as a guard for Florida's basketball team ended with last week's loss to Louisville in the Elite Eight. He's since moved on to becoming an alleged taco bandit. According to the Palm Beach Post, citing a report from the Gainesville (Fla.) Police Department, this is what Walker i...
![A Jaguars Beat Writer Spent Friday Night In Jail After Allegedly Berating Cops At A Bar (And On The Phone) [UPDATE: Tania Freed!]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/17hnxnpr7hr2ijpg.jpg)

Your NCAA Tournament Elite Eight, Day One Open Thread
Florida vs. Louisville gets our day started at 4:30 p.m. and then Ohio State vs. Syracuse follows up at 7:05 p.m. Both will be on CBS. Friend vs. Friend, Red vs. Orange, we've got it all! Enjoy the games and lively discussion down below in the comments....

25 Years After Run With Providence, Rick Pitino And Billy Donovan Fight Each Other For Final Four Berth
The built-in storyline for this afternoon's Louisville-Florida game is the connection between the two head coaches. In 1987, Rick Pitino coached a Providence team, lead by point guard Billy Donovan, to the Final Four by exploiting the new rules-change that created the three-point shot. There are sev...

Panthers Score Magic Physics Goal
On Sean Bergenheim's tally, the primary assist goes to the Wells Fargo Center. [The700Level]...

The D Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore: Farewell, Dontrelle Willis, Crazy-Armed Everyman
The pitchers who wow us these days don't remind us of anything familiar. Most of MLB's sharpest aces—Justin Verlander, Jered Weaver, Roy Halladay, Clayton Kershaw, and C.C. Sabathia—were first-round picks, blessed with a freakish ability to throw much harder than their competitors, and groomed for m...

Today It Was Florida State That Avoided An Upset Thanks To The Refs
Another day, another blown call that changed a game's outcome in Nashville as third-seeded Florida State escaped with a win over St. Bonaventure due to referees missing this violation (hint: when inbounding the ball you have to stay out of bounds) that would have handed the Bonnies the ball under ...

Jawanza Poland's Play-In Game Tip Slam Was Final Four Quality
Jawanza Poland's USF team is making as much a case to warrant their inclusion in the NCAA tournament as they are for the committee being completely out of their minds when offering a bid to Cal. It's been a thorough thrashing all game, and there's no better example of USF's dominance than Poland'...

Florida State, Vanderbilt, And Michigan State Are Going Dancing, But They Would Have Been Anyway
This brings to a close our series highlighting teams celebrating their conference championships, and like most televised entertainment, it comes to a somewhat anticlimactic end. Sure, FSU won the ACC for the first time ever, and Vanderbilt won the SEC tournament for the first time since 1951 (thou...

Florida's Casey Prather Ruined Kentucky Forward Kyle Wiltjer's Day With This Massive Dunk
Florida's off to a quick start against Kentucky in their SEC tournament semifinal, and there's no better example than this posterizing dunk by Casey Prather over the Wildcats' Kyle Wiltjer. [ABC]...

It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Weekend: Your College Basketball Open Thread
I had this whole great thing written breaking down each game with the most mind-blowing analysis the world had ever seen, but internet connectivity issues ruined it all. Just know that it would have made Dick Vitale look like a gimmicky old man—it was that good. Anyway, here you go, chat down below ...