usc Page 8 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Everton can’t really get themselves relegated, can they?
In the previous decade, we could have asked this question about Aston Villa, West Ham, or Newcastle. All of those clubs are of the same size as Everton, all should be comfortably in the second tier of the Premier League behind the big six, if not breaking into the big six themselves. And yet, the la...

Chris Finch is the NBA’s Coach of the Year
The Minnesota Timberwolves’ surge up the NBA standings has been a warm fire during another frigid winter. For the past decade, this has been an utterly moribund franchise. The time was nearing for Karl-Anthony Towns to begin asking for an escape hatch as his super-max contract approached its expirat...

The most dazzling tournament runs (by players who didn’t win it all)
One byproduct of college basketball’s March Madness’ 68-team, single-elimination format is it provides an avenue for players from programs major and mid-major to upgrade their stature. When certain players get their opportunity, they unlock a level few mortals can reach and sustain for multiple week...

The Jarrett Allen social media jokes were funny, but his real life teammates were wrong for making him buy that phone
iShameThe personalities are the most fun part about the NBA, but not only because they’re flashy or frequently appear in gossip blogs. Those players are fun, but it’s different types of personalities in the league that make it work....

How are last year’s Elite Eight teams faring this time around?
With March fast approaching, the NCAA basketball regular season is wrapping up as teams prepare for conference playoffs and, in less than a month, a potential shot at the Big Dance. For many of the athletes competing, it will be their first “normal” tournament, with full fan attendance back for the ...

With the MLB trying so little to end the lockout, here are other things they could try less at, too
I’ve seen disgruntled NBA superstars dogging it because they want to be traded, try harder than the MLB has tried to end this lockout. All parties bear some of the onus over these extended, aggravating negotiations, but when given the choice between ripping the proverbial Man, or ripping the people ...

The best NBA Players to never make an All-Star appearance
The National Basketball Association has had some great players step onto the court in its 75-year history. Some outstanding players have been left off the All-Star team each season in the NBA. Many of these names get snubbed year after year, and others made their names off big moments but probably s...

Super Bowl Ads Roundup: More cameo than commercial
It feels like tweens put more effort into their TikToks than ad agencies put man hours into Super Bowl ads. Feature a celebrity endorsement — or six — into a commercial and we’re good, right? Don Draper called Peggy Olsen lazy for pitching a Joe Namath cameo in the ’60s, and here we are, 60 years la...

I know just the coach for Auburn
The writing is on the wall for Bryan Harsin at Auburn, to the point where Paul Finebaum is openly speculating about Hugh Freeze coming in from Liberty — after five years of SEC exile — to take the Tigers job....

Everton completely change gears, hires Frank Lampard
When you become a club that’s as much of an underground circus that Everton Football Club have become, your list of possible managers shrinks. You can really only get the desperate or those with nothing better to do, or possibly those who would work nowhere else. Everton have let Duncan Ferguson, wh...

Can Stanley Johnson be the difference for the Lakers?
It’s not wise to assume anything about Lakers fans, but, in this case, I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and believe they know that they can’t expect 7-9 from the field and 10 points in the fourth quarter on a regular basis from Stanley Johnson. He was a one-man wrecking crew on Monday...

Blame Dr. LeBronenstein for creating this monster
It’s easy to just want to blame Russell Westbrook....

The Wizards of odd
It feels like such a long time ago that the Washington Wizards were in first place in the Eastern Conference, winning 13 of their first 20 games. Since Nov. 29, however, Washington has gone 8-13, dropping it all the way down to ninth place in the East at 21-20. Talk about a fall from grace....

The world felt a just a bit less chaotic with Klay Thompson back on an NBA floor last night
Those lovable, plucky underdogs, the Golden State Warriors. A couple of tough seasons — really one terrible season and another season that ended in disappointment, proved to be a mere traffic jam on the Warriors’ freeway of dominance....

Centers aren’t extinct, they’ve just evolved
As humans, we tend to eulogize the extinct with reverence. The Dodo Bird. The Rocky Mountain Locust. The Golden Toad. And why wouldn’t we? It was us who eradicated these precious, sentient creatures. Some theorists would argue it had to do with their inability to adapt. But what if things are adapti...

IDIOT OF THE YEAR 2021: Tony La Russa, Tommy Tuberville, every NFL referee, and other esteemed dummies
Happy holidays, you filthy animals, and welcome to Deadspin’s annual IDIOT OF THE YEAR extravaganza. Within these hallowed slides are 50 of the year’s least bearable dorks, whose transgressions range from “just kinda silly,” to “dangerously stupid,” to “Trevor Bauer.”...

Corporate names on sports venues are dumb, we have suggestions
Sick of corporate names on your sports stadiums and arenas? So are we. So, let’s fix it, and get the names of all these places right, once and for all. ...

The U.S. needs to beat Mexico tonight, so it better act like it
There isn’t one crescendo to World Cup qualifying, but the U.S. hosting Mexico tonight is just about as close it gets. They’ll play again in the spring of course, and both have other matches to negotiate. But this is one of the games that gets highlighted as soon as the schedule is announced, and ev...

Bulls currently thriving with Alex Caruso, and the Lakers could’ve brought their defensive stalwart back at a discount
The 2019-20 NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers were a much deeper team than just two stars, LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Danny Green, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Rajon Rondo, and Alex Caruso were all key contributors on a team that finished the regular season 11th in offensive rating and third in defe...

Who needs triple-doubles anyway?
Believe it or not, the Washington Wizards are in a three-way tie for the top spot in the Eastern Conference 10 games into the season. Washington is flying under the radar at 7-3, while teams like the Bulls and Heat get everyone’s attention for improving their rosters in the offseason. But the Wizard...