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Sports Quote of the Day:
"For me, winning isn't something that happens suddenly on the field when the whistle blows and the crowds roar. Winning is something that builds physically and mentally every day that you train and every night that you dream." ~ Emmitt Smith, NFL Hall of Famer, Dallas Cowboys and Super Bowl Winning Running Back
How 'bout them Chicago Blackhawks? Blackhawks disappointed, but season not defined as failure.
By Tracey Myers
Game 7 had barely finished, the overtime defeat still stinging too much for the Blackhawks to think back on the whole season and on everything they did during it.
“Not yet,” Ben Smith said when he could look back and appreciate everything. “It’s been a pretty special year, going back to last June. Obviously we didn’t want it to end like this. We felt good about ourselves coming into the game and we’re disappointed with how it ended.”
“Disappointed” and “frustrated” were said a lot after the Blackhawks’ 5-4 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday. One word that shouldn’t be uttered: “failure.” For as much as the Blackhawks fell short of the ultimate goal, they hardly had a failure of a season.
The Blackhawks were one bounce, one break, one goal away from being back in the Stanley Cup Final for the second consecutive season. The Blackhawks played as big a part as the powerful Kings did in their demise, as team-wide defensive struggles had them giving up a lot of goals. Still, the Blackhawks were that close. And considering how difficult it is to repeat, the Blackhawks should be pretty happy with what they did this season.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our guys, the way we competed in tough situations, down 3-1 (in the series) and one shot away from trying to do it again,” coach Joel Quenneville said late Sunday night. “We were pretty close to getting to the big dance. Look how close we were, how competitive it was. It’s a tough league. Tough thing to do, to win the Cup.”
Indeed, it is. There’s a reason why no one has repeated since 1998, when the Detroit Red Wings capped their consecutive two-year reign. The Wings almost pulled it off again in 2009 but the Pittsburgh Penguins beat them in seven games. The Kings were looking to do it last season before the Blackhawks thwarted them in the Western Conference Final.
The Kings were pretty beat up, pretty worn out by that series in the spring of 2013. The Blackhawks weren’t giving much credence to fatigue right after Sunday’s game, and Quenneville wasn’t specific when asked if the Blackhawks were battling injuries, other than to praise Andrew Shaw for coming off his right-leg injury.
“It’s no different than any other years. Everyone has some annoyances out there. Getting through it, playing through it,” he said. “(Shaw) was a warrior type of guy, he came back and gave us a nice jolt. Other than that, I don’t think it was different than other years.”
The Blackhawks will clean out their lockers on Tuesday, so perhaps they’ll be more forthcoming on if fatigue/injuries played a part in their early exit. It wouldn’t be surprising if they did.
Whatever the reasons, however, the Blackhawks had a tremendous 2013-14. Sure, they could’ve played better defensively against the Kings. Switching up defensemen didn’t work, Corey Crawford had better series and the Kings, who created plenty on their own, also took advantage of a lot of Hawks’ woes.
Still, they were that close…
The elimination wound was too fresh on Sunday night to step back and appreciate everything the Blackhawks have done. Time heals those wounds. It’ll also give them the opportunity to see this team, while disappointed and frustrated, was nowhere near being a failure.
“People forget pretty quick about the team that came up short. We never want to be that team. You can learn something from it but right now we’re not going to accept that or think about that,” Jonathan Toews said. “It’s tough. You never want to lose. When you get the chance to win a Cup and then win another one, you see how great it feels and how amazing it is to be a part of a group like that that gives everything to get the result you want, especially when the city of Chicago rallies around you. To come up short, it’s not fun, especially knowing what we’re missing out on.”
How will possible Kane, Toews extensions affect Blackhawks?
CSN Staff
The Blackhawks were 7:17 away from their second consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup Final.
After a heartbreaking, season-ending Game 7 loss to the Los Angeles Kings, the talk in Chicago has quickly turned to which players will be back in a Blackhawks' sweater next season instead of how many games it would have taken for the Hawks to knock off the New York Rangers for the Stanley Cup.
One major question that will linger throughout the offseason: will Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews remain Blackhawks for the rest of their careers?
General manager Stan Bowman has said it time and time again, the two stars will be in Chicago for the long haul.
"That's something we're going to focus on as we get into the spring," Bowman said during an appearance on SportsTalk Live in March. "Those typically take place in May and June, you try to work the details down so it's ready by the July time frame when you can actually execute it. So there's plenty of time to do that and it's obviously a priority for us."
Kane and Toews — who are currently making $6.5 million a season — are both be due for a raise. Their contracts run through the 2014-15 season, but Bowman can begin negotiations with the duo in July.
The Blackhawks aren't concerned about losing Kane and Toews, but will the massive contracts headed their way hurt the team in other areas?
"Hockey is a sport where if you have the right scouting and talent development, you can keep drafting those guys," NHL.com's Brian Hedger said Monday night on SportsTalk Live. "The Red Wings have done it for 23 years, it can be done. That's what they've built here, the core. The role players are going to be the guys that kind of come and go and shift around."
2014 Belmont Stakes Odds.
www.belmontstakes.org
Most sportsbooks will not be offering futures odds for the 146th running of the Belmont Stakes betting until the field is set and Belmont Park linesmaker sets the ‘morning line’ for the event on the Wednesday before the race. This will take place on Wednesday, June 4, 2014 with the race taking place on Saturday, June 7, 2014.
A few sportsbooks around the world are already offering futures odds on the 2014 Belmont Stakes. Even more sportsbooks are offering proposition wagers on whether California Chrome will win the race and complete the Triple Crown. Here are the futures odds from Wynn Las Vegas as of 6/2/14:
TO WIN BELMONT STAKES:
California Chrome 1/1
Wicked Strong 9/1
Commanding Curve 15/2
Tonalist 15/2
Ride On Curlin 11/2
Social Inclusion 28/1
Samraat 22/1
Commissioner 33/1
Kid Cruz 40/1
Matuszak 40/1
Medal Count 16/1
Matterhorn 33/1
General A Rod 20/1
Quick Facts
Main Course: 1 1/2 Miles
Last Turn to Finish on Main Track: 1,097 feet
Widener Turf Course: 1 5/16 Miles
Inner Turf Course: 1 3/16 Miles
Attendance Capacity: 85,000 - 90,000
Parking Capacity: 18,500 Cars
Trackside Dining: 2,300
Total Seating Capacity: 32,941
Note: Post positions and updated odds will be available on our Friday, June 6, 2014 , sports update.
Bear Down Chicago Bears!!! How good is the Bears' offense, really?
By John Mullin
Marc Trestman has not made “balance” a specific head-coaching objective for his offense. But he got it last year, in some ways better than any Bears team in history and better than nearly every other NFL team in 2013.
One measure: No other team put individual players in every main offensive area in the top 10 for their positions.
It was the culmination of a two-year effort by general manager Phil Emery to surround quarterback Jay Cutler with skill sets comparable to Cutler’s own — trading for Brandon Marshall, trading up to draft Alshon Jeffery, free-agency-signing Martellus Bennett, satisfying Matt Forte with a market contract, and protecting Cutler with a made-over offensive line.
Added to that was a specific search for an offensive head coach — which narrowed down to Trestman and Bruce Arians, who took Arizona from 32nd to 16th in offense his first year — who would know what to do with a full toolbox.
The early focus of the offseason necessarily was on the overhaul of the defense, with the occasional signing on offense (Cutler, Marshall, Roberto Garza, Brian de la Puente, Matt Slauson) sprinkled around so that side of the ball didn’t feel neglected, at least financially.
The underlying assumption has been that the offense of Trestman/Aaron Kromer/Matt Cavanaugh, ranking second in scoring (including defensive scores) and eighth in yardage, is generally set schematically, personnel-wise and such.
“There certainly is a sense of confidence, a sense that we’ve got a chance to be a very good offense, particularly because those are the guys that have been together,” Trestman said. “But they’re not taking anything for granted. The guys have their feet on the ground.”
First, some perspective
Indeed, were it not for the over-chronicled injury woes on defense, the Bears would have played more than 16 games in the extended 2013 season.
But an offense better than just about any in franchise history isn’t necessarily “elite” by NFL standards, past or current. The Bears compiled a franchise-record 6.109 yards in 2013, but their average per game still ranked behind four years of Bears offenses in the “dead-ball era” (1940’s). The 2011 New Orleans Saints rang up 7,474 yards.
What makes the Bears’ offense particularly noteworthy, however, is not yardage, or even team points, since those include defensive scores and the Bears had six of those in 2013.
One reason the Bears did not invest a single draft choice on a projected 2014 starter, besides the obvious needs on defense, and other than a fourth-rounder on a backup running back (Ka’Deem Carey), is because all of the high-end pieces are in fact in place.
The facts
The Bears were the only team to have quarterbacking, a running back, wide receivers, a tight end and offensive line play ranking in the top 10. This despite injuries at quarterback and an offensive line with four new starters, including two rookies. This with a new coaching staff on offense.
“You know, it was a long journey last year, from this first day when we started, just to get the cadence,” Kromer said. “It was like rookie camp, with veterans.”
It doesn’t make the Bears the best. The Denver Broncos scored more. The Philadelphia Eagles piled up more yardage. The Broncos protected better.
But consider:
Quarterback: (Cutler, McCown) 6th
The combination of Cutler and Josh McCown posted a combined passer rating of 96.9. That ranked 6th. McCown is now in Tampa but Cutler registered passer ratings of 90 or higher in seven of the nine games he played injury free.
Running back: Matt Forte 2nd
Only Philadelphia’s Shady McCoy rushed for more than Forte’s 1.339. Only Pierre Thomas (77 for New Orleans) and Danny Woodhead (76 for San Diego) caught more passes than Forte’s 74, and those two combined for 42 fewer carries than Forte alone.
Tight end: Martellus Bennett 8th (tied)
He may have felt neglected at stretches of ’13, but Bennett’s 65 receptions tied Denver’s Julius Thomas among tight ends in a league that has seen increased emphasis on the position.
Offensive line: Bushrod/Slauson/Garza/Long/Mills
With all of the settling in that was required, the Bears still finished top 10 in sack percentage (4th) and rushing average (7th). Only Dallas (eighth in both) and New England (ninth in both) ranked in the top 10 for these measures of O-line play.
Wide receiver: Alshon Jeffery/Brandon Marshall
No other team placed two wideouts in the top 10 for receptions, with Marshall’s 100 and Jeffery’s 89. Jeffery finished sixth in the NFL with 1,421 yards and Marshall 11th with 1,295, making the Bears the only team with two in the top 11 (Denver’s Eric Decker finished 12th to give the Broncos two in the top dozen).
If the Clippers went for $2 billion, what would the Cowboys or Redskins fetch?
By Frank Schwab
The Los Angeles Clippers' sale might end up like Alex Rodriguez's Texas Rangers contract, so far over market value and outrageous that everyone practically ignores it when calculating future deals. But it's still worth thinking about if the Clippers' sale represents the new market for sports franchises.
The Clippers were sold for $2 billion, way more than the estimated value of the franchise. Business Insider, via Yahoo Finance, looked at what other NBA teams might go for if the value of the franchises was multiplied by 3.48, which was the inflation on the Clippers' sale. The Knicks' hypothetical sale would be $4.87 billion, and the Lakers would go for $4.7 billion.
So let's try this exercise with the big boys, shall we? Of Forbes' 20 most valuable sports franchises, as valued in 2013 by the magazine, 12 were NFL teams. Five of the other eight were international soccer clubs. A sale of one of the top NFL franchises would create a frenzy.
Jerry Jones is never going to sell the Cowboys. No matter how much Redskins fans hope for it, Daniel Snyder isn't selling his team either. But what would each NFL team go for if the Clippers' sale is the new standard for selling teams? Again, the Clippers' sale might be the A-Rod contract, so insane that no other franchise ever sells for more than three times its estimated worth. And in two recent NFL sales, Shad Khan bought the Jaguars for a reported $760 million and Jimmy Haslam bought the Browns for $987 million, according to Forbes, prices that are actually less than the Forbes' 2013 value of $840 million and $1 billion, respectively.
But that was before the Clippers' sale. Who knows what the future market for franchises holds? Here's what each of the NFL franchises would sell for if the Clippers' inflation of 3.48 times the value of the franchise is multiplied by Forbes' 2013 valuation for each franchise. And, of course, in these hypothetical sales, profits from the sale of the publicly-owned Packers would go to the Green Bay Packers Foundation, per the team's bylaws.
1. Dallas Cowboys, $8.004 billion (actual value: $2.3 billion)
2. New England Patriots, $6.264 billion (actual value: $1.8 billion)
3. Washington Redskins, $5.916 billion (actual value: $1.7 billion)
4. New York Giants, $5.394 billion (actual value: $1.55 billion)
5. Houston Texans, $5.15 billion (actual value: $1.45 billion)
6. New York Jets, $4.8 billion (actual value: $1.38 billion)
7. Philadelphia Eagles, $4.573 billion (actual value: $1.314 billion)
8. Chicago Bears, $4.357 billion (actual value: $1.252 billion)
9. Baltimore Ravens, $4.27 billion (actual value: $1.227 billion)
10. San Francisco 49ers, $4.26 billion (actual value: $1.224 billion)
11. Indianapolis Colts, $4.176 billion (actual value: $1.2 billion)
12. Green Bay Packers, $4.117 billion (actual value: $1.183 billion)
13. Denver Broncos, $4.04 billion (actual value: $1.161 billion)
14. Pittsburgh Steelers, $3.891 billion (actual value: $1.118 billion)
15. Seattle Seahawks, $3.762 billion (actual value: $1.081 billion)
16. Miami Dolphins, $3.738 billion (actual value: $1.074 billion)
17. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, $3.713 billion (actual value: $1.067 billion)
18. Carolina Panthers, $3.678 billion (actual value: $1.057 billion)
19. Tennessee Titans, $3.671 billion (actual value: $1.055 billion)
20. Kansas City Chiefs, $3.511 billion (actual value: $1.009 billion)
21. Minnesota Vikings, $3.504 billion (actual value: $1.007 billion)
22. Cleveland Browns, $3.497 billion (actual value: $1.005 billion)
23. New Orleans Saints, $3.494 billion (actual value: $1.004 billion)
24. Arizona Cardinals, $3.344 billion (actual value: $961 million)
25. San Diego Chargers, $3.303 billion (actual value: $949 million)
26. Atlanta Falcons, $3.247 billion (actual value: $933 million)
27. Cincinnati Bengals, $3.216 billion (actual value: $924 million)
28. Detroit Lions, $3.132 billion (actual value: $900 million)
29. St. Louis Rams, $3.045 billion (actual value: $875 million)
30. Buffalo Bills, $3.027 billion (actual value: $870 million)
31. Jacksonville Jaguars, $2.923 billion (actual value: $840 million)
32. Oakland Raiders, $2.871 billion (actual value: $825 million)
2. New England Patriots, $6.264 billion (actual value: $1.8 billion)
3. Washington Redskins, $5.916 billion (actual value: $1.7 billion)
4. New York Giants, $5.394 billion (actual value: $1.55 billion)
5. Houston Texans, $5.15 billion (actual value: $1.45 billion)
6. New York Jets, $4.8 billion (actual value: $1.38 billion)
7. Philadelphia Eagles, $4.573 billion (actual value: $1.314 billion)
8. Chicago Bears, $4.357 billion (actual value: $1.252 billion)
9. Baltimore Ravens, $4.27 billion (actual value: $1.227 billion)
10. San Francisco 49ers, $4.26 billion (actual value: $1.224 billion)
11. Indianapolis Colts, $4.176 billion (actual value: $1.2 billion)
12. Green Bay Packers, $4.117 billion (actual value: $1.183 billion)
13. Denver Broncos, $4.04 billion (actual value: $1.161 billion)
14. Pittsburgh Steelers, $3.891 billion (actual value: $1.118 billion)
15. Seattle Seahawks, $3.762 billion (actual value: $1.081 billion)
16. Miami Dolphins, $3.738 billion (actual value: $1.074 billion)
17. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, $3.713 billion (actual value: $1.067 billion)
18. Carolina Panthers, $3.678 billion (actual value: $1.057 billion)
19. Tennessee Titans, $3.671 billion (actual value: $1.055 billion)
20. Kansas City Chiefs, $3.511 billion (actual value: $1.009 billion)
21. Minnesota Vikings, $3.504 billion (actual value: $1.007 billion)
22. Cleveland Browns, $3.497 billion (actual value: $1.005 billion)
23. New Orleans Saints, $3.494 billion (actual value: $1.004 billion)
24. Arizona Cardinals, $3.344 billion (actual value: $961 million)
25. San Diego Chargers, $3.303 billion (actual value: $949 million)
26. Atlanta Falcons, $3.247 billion (actual value: $933 million)
27. Cincinnati Bengals, $3.216 billion (actual value: $924 million)
28. Detroit Lions, $3.132 billion (actual value: $900 million)
29. St. Louis Rams, $3.045 billion (actual value: $875 million)
30. Buffalo Bills, $3.027 billion (actual value: $870 million)
31. Jacksonville Jaguars, $2.923 billion (actual value: $840 million)
32. Oakland Raiders, $2.871 billion (actual value: $825 million)
So there you go. If you have an extra $8 billion laying around, start planning on offering it up for the Cowboys if they ever come on the market.
Just another Chicago Bulls Session… Bulls' Noah headlines NBA's all-defensive team.
By The Associated Press
Chicago's Joakim Noah and Indiana's Paul George received the most votes on this year's NBA all-defensive team, released Monday.
Less than two months after a landslide victory in balloting for the league's defensive player of the year, Noah was the only player to receive more than 100 first-team votes and earn more than 200 points for the team. Noah received 105 of 123 possible votes, while George had 65 votes. The rest of the first team consisted of Clippers guard Chris Paul, Oklahoma City forward Serge Ibaka and Golden State swingman Andre Iguodala.
It's the second consecutive year Noah was chosen to the first team.
Four-time league MVP LeBron James and defensive player of the year runner-up Roy Hibbert were both on the second team.
Noah dominated on the defensive end this season, joining Andre Drummond of Detroit and Anthony Davis of New Orleans as the only players in the league to average at least 10.0 rebounds, 1.5 blocks and 1.2 steals. Noah finished sixth in the league in rebounding (11.3), 12th in blocks (1.51) and helped the Bulls hold opponents to 43.0 percent field goal shooting, the second-best mark in the league. He also had 1.24 steals per game.
George, widely considered one of the league's best two-way players at age 24, finished fifth in the league in steals (1.89) and was the only player in the NBA to average at least 6.5 rebounds and 1.8 steals.
Paul received 64 first-team votes after winning his sixth steals title (2.48). Ibaka made his presence felt in the Western Conference finals. After getting beaten twice in San Antonio without him, the Thunder won the next two games on their home court with Ibaka. The Spurs eventually won the series 4-2.
Iguodala averaged 1.5 steals as the Warriors jumped from No. 19 in defense in 2012-13 to 10th this season. James and Iguodala each received 57 first-team votes but Iguodala had 14 more second-team votes to edge out James for the final spot on the first team.
Houston guard Patrick Beverley, Chicago guard Jimmy Butler, San Antonio forward Kawhi Leonard and Hibbert rounded out the second team.
Indiana and Chicago were the only teams with two players on the list, which is selected by a panel of 123 sports writers and broadcasters in the U.S. and Canada.
Selfless, steady Spurs built for revenge against the Heat.
Reuters; By Larry Fine in New York; Editing by Frank Pingue
Smart, sharing, versatile, deep and most of all consistent are the San Antonio Spurs, who hunger for revenge against the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals.
Leading by five points with 30 seconds to go in a potential Game Six clincher in Miami last year, the Heat rose up to send the game to overtime, force a Game Seven and prevail to dash San Antonio's hopes for a fifth NBA crown.
"It's unbelievable to regain that focus after that devastating loss that we had last year," said Spurs' future Hall of Famer Tim Duncan after beating Oklahoma City to reach another NBA final. "But we're back here.
"We're happy it's the Heat again. We've got that bad taste in our mouths still."
In an NBA where the cult of personality has dominated in recent decades from Magic Johnson to Michael Jordan to Kobe Bryant to LeBron James, the low-key Spurs have thrived the old fashioned way - through teamwork, dedication and stability.
San Antonio won their first NBA crown in 1999 and their last of four titles in 2007 with a four-game sweep over the Cleveland Cavaliers, who were led by 22-year-old LeBron James.
It has been an unquestioned success story for the only original American Basketball Association (ABA) team to win an NBA title.
BORN CHAPARRALS
The franchise was born in 1967 with the upstart rival league to the NBA as the Dallas Chaparrals, a nickname related to drought-tolerant scrub plants, but the team did not flourish.
In 1973 a group of 36 San Antonio businessmen leased the team for three years to move it to their city and agreed to return the team to Dallas if they could not arrange a purchase.
The team was renamed the San Antonio Gunslingers, but by the time they played their first game in San Antonio the name was changed to Spurs.
The city embraced its only professional sports team, the purchase was made and the club was folded into the NBA in June 1976 when four ABA teams merged into the NBA.
San Antonio's best known player in the early years was high-scoring guard George "Iceman" Gervin.
Gervin, a 6-foot-7 run-and-gun scorer, won three NBA scoring titles in a row from 1978 and added a fourth in 1982, compiling a 26.3 average in his dozen seasons with the Spurs.
Although the team consistently made the playoffs, they were not able to break through to a championship and after Gervin left San Antonio in 1985 the team struggled.
Their fortunes changed when first overall draft pick David Robinson joined the team for the 1989-90 season.
U.S. Naval Academy graduate Robinson, nicknamed "The Admiral," lifted the Spurs back into a perennial playoff team.
In 1996-97 a spate of injuries led to San Antonio's worst season ever, 20-62, but it brought them another number one pick in the NBA Draft and they hit the jackpot again by taking Duncan out of Wake Forest.
In Duncan's second season with the team, the so-called "Twin Towers" of Duncan and Robinson combined for San Antonio's first NBA title and launched, with Parker and Ginobili joining in, a stretch of four championships in nine seasons.
THE FORMULA
Under Popovich, a disciple of longtime former NBA coach Larry Brown, the Spurs stressed ball movement, unselfishness and defense.
The Spurs amassed a team with a distinctly international flavor including France's Boris Diaw, Italy's Marco Belinelli, Australian guard Patty Mills and Brazilian Tiago Splitter.
Another key piece is third-year forward Kawhi Leonard, who last year played nagging defense on James and is considered by Popovich to be the future face of the team.
And talent, of course.
Duncan, their stabilizing, stoic presence in the middle, dazzling French point guard Tony Parker and all-purpose Manu Ginobili of Argentina have formed a core four with cerebral coach Gregg Popovich for an unprecedented run of 17 seasons in the playoffs.
San Antonio won their first NBA crown in 1999 and their last of four titles in 2007 with a four-game sweep over the Cleveland Cavaliers, who were led by 22-year-old LeBron James.
It has been an unquestioned success story for the only original American Basketball Association (ABA) team to win an NBA title.
BORN CHAPARRALS
The franchise was born in 1967 with the upstart rival league to the NBA as the Dallas Chaparrals, a nickname related to drought-tolerant scrub plants, but the team did not flourish.
In 1973 a group of 36 San Antonio businessmen leased the team for three years to move it to their city and agreed to return the team to Dallas if they could not arrange a purchase.
The team was renamed the San Antonio Gunslingers, but by the time they played their first game in San Antonio the name was changed to Spurs.
The city embraced its only professional sports team, the purchase was made and the club was folded into the NBA in June 1976 when four ABA teams merged into the NBA.
San Antonio's best known player in the early years was high-scoring guard George "Iceman" Gervin.
Gervin, a 6-foot-7 run-and-gun scorer, won three NBA scoring titles in a row from 1978 and added a fourth in 1982, compiling a 26.3 average in his dozen seasons with the Spurs.
Although the team consistently made the playoffs, they were not able to break through to a championship and after Gervin left San Antonio in 1985 the team struggled.
Their fortunes changed when first overall draft pick David Robinson joined the team for the 1989-90 season.
U.S. Naval Academy graduate Robinson, nicknamed "The Admiral," lifted the Spurs back into a perennial playoff team.
In 1996-97 a spate of injuries led to San Antonio's worst season ever, 20-62, but it brought them another number one pick in the NBA Draft and they hit the jackpot again by taking Duncan out of Wake Forest.
In Duncan's second season with the team, the so-called "Twin Towers" of Duncan and Robinson combined for San Antonio's first NBA title and launched, with Parker and Ginobili joining in, a stretch of four championships in nine seasons.
THE FORMULA
Under Popovich, a disciple of longtime former NBA coach Larry Brown, the Spurs stressed ball movement, unselfishness and defense.
The Spurs amassed a team with a distinctly international flavor including France's Boris Diaw, Italy's Marco Belinelli, Australian guard Patty Mills and Brazilian Tiago Splitter.
Another key piece is third-year forward Kawhi Leonard, who last year played nagging defense on James and is considered by Popovich to be the future face of the team.
"He's gaining confidence ... starting to figure out that he's a hell of a player," the coach said. "He's probably the future of the Spurs, partially because everybody else is older than dirt, and somebody younger has got to take over eventually."
Popovich said there is no secret formula to their success.
"Every coach in the league is trying to get his guys to go good to great, and hit the open man, so that's not unique with us. I happen to be fortunate enough to have some players that are built that way."
"Every coach in the league is trying to get his guys to go good to great, and hit the open man, so that's not unique with us. I happen to be fortunate enough to have some players that are built that way."
Good, bad, ugly: The Cubs at the two-month checkpoint.
By Patrick Mooney
It’s two months into the season, the Cubs have the worst record in baseball and they’re nowhere close to hitting rock bottom.
Manny Ramirez arrived in Arizona on Sunday, according to a Cubs official, and will likely need about a week of extended spring training before joining Triple-A Iowa as a player/coach.
That idea would have sounded crazy in mid-February when pitchers and catchers reported to Cubs Park, the new facility funded by Mesa taxpayers that would set Cactus League attendance records, showing this is an organization that gets things done. Surely, a coherent plan to renovate Wrigley Field, a moneymaking deal that works for City Hall and the rooftop owners, would be right around the corner.
Uh, maybe not…but at that point, would Cubs fans have taken this?
• Anthony Rizzo and Starlin Castro enjoying bounce-back seasons, showing why Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer invested more than $100 million in those foundation pieces.
• Jeff Samardzija leading the majors in ERA on June 1.
• Jason Hammel beating Masahiro Tanaka – his first loss in 43 regular-season starts – and pitching like a potential All-Star.
• Mike Olt leading all National League rookies in home runs and RBI.
• Emilio Bonifacio getting red hot and putting together 17 multi-hit games.
• Neil Ramirez (0.77 ERA) and Hector Rondon (6-for-7 in save chances) stabilizing a bullpen now stocked with power arms.
• A positive run differential in late May.
• The division’s three playoff teams from last season fighting to stay above .500 (St. Louis) or struggling to even get there (Cincinnati and Pittsburgh).
Hey, with the second wild card, all that money leftover from the Tanaka sweepstakes, Javier Baez crushing the Pacific Coast League, waiting to give the team a shot of adrenaline…maybe the Cubs could at least make it interesting?
“It’s a crazy game, so you never know what’s going to happen,” Rizzo said. “But it’s not about me and Castro. It’s about all of us, the other 23 (guys) that are up here, too. We win together, we lose together.”
Winning is hard. That should be one takeaway from your 2014 Cubs. It’s a reminder for the next time president of business operations Crane Kenney and the Ricketts family tell you Theo, Jed and the boys could win 83 games in their sleep, that winning just one World Series isn’t what they’re about – they expect multiple titles.
This is what happens when a franchise writes off entire major-league seasons, and it’s difficult to flip the switch, no matter what Kris Bryant does at Double-A Tennessee.
The Cubs open a three-game series on Tuesday night at Wrigley Field against another big-market team with financial issues and a hazy competitive timeline – Meet the Mets – at 20-34, stuck in last place, amid a string of PR gaffes.
With scouts and executives sequestered in Chicago preparing for the amateur draft that begins Thursday night, the Cubs would have the No. 1 overall pick in 2015 if the season ended today.
“Obviously, we’re not where we want to be in the standings,” Hammel said, “but we’re learning to win together right now.”
“We’ve had some things that I think have gone well,” manager Rick Renteria said. “There are some things that we continually need to improve on. We’ve had some components of the club that I think have gone very well. Our starting pitching has held its own.
“For the most part, I think the relief corps has done a nice job. On the offensive side, we’ve had some ups and downs. I think some individuals have started to carry a little bit more of the load. As a whole, I think we still aren’t clicking on all cylinders.”
Everyone understands The Plan and recognizes the Cubs have built a good farm system.
But Renteria is a second hire for this administration. Epstein has admitted the timing wasn’t right for Edwin Jackson’s $52 million contract. When the baseball operations department only has so many bullets to fire, another $14 million can’t be wasted on relievers Jose Veras and Kyuji Fujikawa. Take away Junior Lake’s production and the outfield’s platoon system has hit three home runs.
“The only thing you can do is just keep grinding,” Jackson said. “Good, bad, the ugly – it’s a long season. The starting pitching’s been good overall. The offense comes and goes, but that’s baseball. It happens. We’ll have our offensive surges and we have times where we don’t (hit). But when you’re on the mound, you can’t really think about that. You just have to pitch.”
It won’t get any easier when the Cubs trade away 40 percent of their rotation again. Renteria’s job will be keeping the clubhouse together, managing the public message, not burning out the young arms in the bullpen and making sure core players like Rizzo and Castro don’t take steps backward.
“How we are judged in the end?” Renteria said. “You know, I really don’t concern myself too much with it, because I have to really worry about what’s going on here right now. If I start worrying and thinking about how I will be judged or not judged – that’s happening every single day, so I can’t control that.
“And it’s done by everybody – by the media, by the fans, by the front office. I can’t control that. I know that I can only control the things that I try to do and the things I try to impart with the players here on a daily basis.
“In the end, what I am or am not – or where we are as a team – is not judged by everybody else. It’s going to be what it’s going to be.”
It could all work out in the end, but the next four months will be critical – who the Cubs draft with the No. 4 overall pick, what they get in the Samardzija/Hammel trades, how Baez and Bryant develop and if they finally put shovels in the ground for that $575 Wrigleyville project.
Here are your updated U.S. Open odds.
By Shane Bacon
We are just seven days from U.S. Open week and the start of the second major of 2014, and with Tiger Woods announcing he will officially be missing his second straight major, the championship is really up for grabs.
We've seen a ton of the big names in the game play well, and even win, in the last few weeks, and with that comes changes in the odds. Here are your U.S. Open odds via Golf Odds, so check out all the names and let us know in the comments who you think is the best value on this list.
US OPEN
PINEHURST NO. 2 - PINEHURST, NORTH CAROLINA
JUNE 12-15, 2014
ODDS TO WIN:
RORY McILROY 10/1
ADAM SCOTT 12/1
PHIL MICKELSON 15/1
JORDAN SPIETH 20/1
PHIL MICKELSON 15/1
JORDAN SPIETH 20/1
JASON DAY 20/1
JUSTIN ROSE 20/1
MATT KUCHAR 20/1
HENRIK STENSON 25/1
BUBBA WATSON 25/1
DUSTIN JOHNSON 30/1
LEE WESTWOOD 30/1
JASON DUFNER 30/1
SERGIO GARCIA 30/1
GRAEME McDOWELL 30/1
JIM FURYK 30/1
LUKE DONALD 30/1
BRANDT SNEDEKER 40/1
HUNTER MAHAN 40/1
CHARL SCHWARTZEL 50/1
RICKIE FOWLER 50/1
KEEGAN BRADLEY 50/1
WEBB SIMPSON 50/1
STEVE STRICKER 50/1
JIMMY WALKER 50/1
IAN POULTER 60/1
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN 60/1
PATRICK REED 80/1
HARRIS ENGLISH 60/1
GRAHAM DeLAET 60/1
HIDEKI MATSUYAMA 50/1
BILL HAAS 80/1
JONAS BLIXT 80/1
RYAN MOORE 80/1
ERNIE ELS 80/1
MARTIN KAYMER 40/1
GARY WOODLAND 80/1
BILLY HORSCHEL 100/1
NICK WATNEY 100/1
VICTOR DUBUISSON 100/1
K.J. CHOI 125/1
ANGEL CABRERA 100/1
JAMIE DONALDSON 125/1
JOHN SENDEN 100/1
MARC LEISHMAN 100/1
MATT JONES 125/1
MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ 100/1
GONZALO FERNANDEZ-CASTANO 150/1
FRANCESCO MOLINARI 100/1
THOMAS BJORN 125/1
RUSSELL HENLEY 150/1
CHRIS KIRK 100/1
THORBJORN OLESEN 150/1
NICOLAS COLSAERTS 150/1
PETER HANSON 200/1
GEOFF OGILVY 150/1
CHARLES HOWELL III 150/1
MARTIN LAIRD 150/1
BRENDON DE JONGE 150/1
FREDDIE JACOBSON 150/1
JOOST LUITEN 150/1
CHARLEY HOFFMAN 150/1
KEVIN NA 150/1
WILL MacKENZIE 250/1
RYO ISHIKAWA 150/1
BROOKS KOEPKA 200/1
ROBERT GARRIGUS 150/1
ROBERT GARRIGUS 150/1
BO VAN PELT 150/1
RYAN PALMER 150/1
KEVIN STADLER 150/1
RETIEF GOOSEN 150/1
CHESSON HADLEY 150/1
KEVIN STREELMAN 150/1
STEWART CINK 150/1
PAUL CASEY 100/1
STEPHEN GALLACHER 150/1
RUSSELL KNOX 200/1
CHRIS STROUD 200/1
MATT EVERY 200/1
BRANDEN GRACE 200/1
TIM CLARK 200/1
THONGCHAI JAIDEE 200/1
ROBERTO CASTRO 200/1
LUCAS GLOVER 250/1
Y.E. YANG 300/1
BOO WEEKLEY 250/1
D.A. POINTS 300/1
LUKE GUTHRIE 300/1
KENNY PERRY 300/1
DARREN CLARKE 500/1
MICHAEL CAMPBELL 500/1
OLIVER GOSS 500/1
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK 500/1
FIELD (all others) 15/1
Why Japan's Hideki Matsuyama has traits to become PGA's future 'mega-star'.
By Brian Murphy
This is getting good now.
We've journeyed from a desultory 2014 PGA Tour season into a second consecutive week of pyrotechnics.
If it wasn't Caroline Wozniacki, Rory McIlroy's recently dumped fiancée, changing her avatar to a witch stirring her brew, it was Rory himself playing as if hexed, going from a Thursday 63 at Jack Nicklaus' Memorial to a cursed Friday 78. And if it wasn't lefty Bubba Watson seizing a 54-hole lead at prestigious Muirfield Village, only to see it slip away on a messy Sunday, it was lefty Phil Mickelson trying to clean up his own mess when it was revealed he was questioned about possible insider trading by the FBI.
So much for that mental preparation for Pinehurst's U.S. Open next week. Philly Mick's got the feds on his tail. That'll clutter a swing thought.
"I think you've just seen the start," said Nicklaus, "of what's going to be truly one of your world's great players over the next 10 or 15 years."
All that, plus Adam Scott, the world's No. 1 player, fresh off a win at Colonial, posting a hat trick of bogeys on the back nine Sunday to blow his chance at a gorilla dunk of a victory. He went from flashing that signature bent-elbow, flexed-bicep celebration after key putts to a guy who, on Sunday night probably rested his chin on the clenched fist, a la "The Thinker," pondering a frittered chance.
So let's heap praise on Matsuyama, who was 24th in the world coming in based on his five Japanese Tour wins already. The stocky youngster made a name for himself back in 2011, becoming the first Japanese amateur to play in the Masters. He was only 19, and earned the berth by winning the Asian Amateur Championship at the tender age of 18.
If you're still following, dig this: The feds hunted down Lefty at the Memorial! They wanted to ask him about insider trading! You can't make this stuff up!
Whether or not this is true is highly dubious, and surely there are layers to the story which none of us are privy to. But that doesn't stop web pundits from proffering opinions, which surely made McIlroy look less than chivalrous.
Why Japan's Hideki Matsuyama has traits to become PGA's future 'mega-star'.
By Brian Murphy
This is getting good now.
We've journeyed from a desultory 2014 PGA Tour season into a second consecutive week of pyrotechnics.
If it wasn't Caroline Wozniacki, Rory McIlroy's recently dumped fiancée, changing her avatar to a witch stirring her brew, it was Rory himself playing as if hexed, going from a Thursday 63 at Jack Nicklaus' Memorial to a cursed Friday 78. And if it wasn't lefty Bubba Watson seizing a 54-hole lead at prestigious Muirfield Village, only to see it slip away on a messy Sunday, it was lefty Phil Mickelson trying to clean up his own mess when it was revealed he was questioned about possible insider trading by the FBI.
So much for that mental preparation for Pinehurst's U.S. Open next week. Philly Mick's got the feds on his tail. That'll clutter a swing thought.
And in the end, we enjoyed a second consecutive week with a big-name winner, which always pleases this column. We dig stars around here, and when 22-year-old Hideki Matsuyama of Japan made a hugely clutch birdie on the 72nd hole for a final-round 69 to force a playoff with Kevin Na at the Memorial, then saved par from a difficult lie to win his first American event, it was Nick Faldo who told us, as CBS signed off, we just witnessed "a future mega-star."
But what am I doing quoting a guy who insists you call him "Sir," when I can quote the Golden Bear himself, our 18-time major winning host.
But what am I doing quoting a guy who insists you call him "Sir," when I can quote the Golden Bear himself, our 18-time major winning host.
"I think you've just seen the start," said Nicklaus, "of what's going to be truly one of your world's great players over the next 10 or 15 years."
All that, plus Adam Scott, the world's No. 1 player, fresh off a win at Colonial, posting a hat trick of bogeys on the back nine Sunday to blow his chance at a gorilla dunk of a victory. He went from flashing that signature bent-elbow, flexed-bicep celebration after key putts to a guy who, on Sunday night probably rested his chin on the clenched fist, a la "The Thinker," pondering a frittered chance.
It's haymakers galore in the golf world, sports fans.
So let's heap praise on Matsuyama, who was 24th in the world coming in based on his five Japanese Tour wins already. The stocky youngster made a name for himself back in 2011, becoming the first Japanese amateur to play in the Masters. He was only 19, and earned the berth by winning the Asian Amateur Championship at the tender age of 18.
He's shown a knack for the big stage already, which may distinguish him from the other Japanese youngster ticketed for global stardom, Ryo Ishikawa. Ishikawa is just five months older than Matsuyama, but more famous because of his 10 Japanese Tour wins by age 21. Plus, he has funky, spiked hair.
Matsuyama's hair doesn't win any cool contests. It's more along the lines of a Bobby Brady bushy mess. But he shows up when it matters, finishing tie-10th at last year's U.S. Open at Merion, and backed it up with a sixth-place finish at the 2013 Open Championship. Now, he's won Jack's tournament, and winners at Memorial tend not to be one-offs. Matsuyama joins a recent list of Muirfield victors like Matt Kuchar, Tiger Woods, Justin Rose and Steve Stricker.
And he did it flaunting mental mettle to produce one of the best shots of the golf season, too. After it appeared for all the world that Matsuyama was choking his guts out – he double bogeyed 16 and bogeyed 17 to nearly hand Na the tournament, then snapped his driver head in anger on the 18th tee box – Matsuyama faced a 165-yard uphill approach to that tight left flagstick on 18.
He had the good mojo of having birdied 18 all three days entering Sunday. But he had the bad history of the statistic that said no player had birdied 18 all four days since the Golden Bear began throwing his party in his home state of Ohio.
Matsuyama's answer was cold-blooded: a 7-iron approach that curled to within five feet of the pin for a darn-near kick-in birdie. It was one of 2014's finest moments. Matsuyama won the playoff when Na drove into a creek.
So it's heating up. The U.S. Open looms, and we've got ourselves another name to watch. But don't worry. If all else fails, we can just talk about Rory McIlroy's love life.
SCORECARD OF THE WEEK
72-70-72-73 – 1-under 287, Phil Mickelson, tie-49th, PGA Tour Memorial Tournament, Muirfield Village Golf Course, Dublin, Ohio.
Even though he's a born-and-bred San Diegan, consider Lefty's week at the Memorial as taking a page out of Jersey boy Tony Soprano's playbook: Deal with the feds, buy some time, do your thing.
What a story that broke Friday. Mickelson was approached Thursday by two FBI investigators who told him, along with some Securities and Exchange Commission suits, that they were checking out what they considered suspicious trading by Mickelson and Las Vegas gambler Billy Walters. The transactions in question centered around Clorox, shortly before Clorox's price jumped in 2011 because of billionaire Carl Icahn's interest. Reportedly, this is the second time the feds have sniffed around Lefty on this case.
If you're still following, dig this: The feds hunted down Lefty at the Memorial! They wanted to ask him about insider trading! You can't make this stuff up!
I am an avowed fan of Mickelson, whose entertaining game and winning personality have combined to make him this generation's Arnold Palmer. His three Masters wins were all-time capsule gems, and his final-round 66 at Muirfield last year to seize the Claret Jug remains one of the greatest rounds in the game's history.
But if there was one thing Philly Mick was always guilty of, it was being the smartest guy in the room. His varied interests – handicapping football on national radio, trying out for the Toledo Mudhens, launching a science-and-math initiative with Exxon, inspiring a "What Will Phil Do Next?" ad campaign – make it not unusual that Mickelson would be linked to something like trying to beat the stock market. Shoot, look how he approaches his golf game. The more difficult and crazy the shot, the more likely Phil is to try it.
Now, to be sure, Mickelson has said he's done "absolutely nothing wrong," and that may very well be the case. But if you had to pick one player on the planet who would be questioned after a round for possible insider trading in cahoots with a Las Vegas gambler, you would join me and millions of others in saying: "Yeah … if I had to guess … I'd go with Lefty."
It's the ultimate Mickelson story, no matter the outcome. Now, let's see if he can be the first guy to win a U.S. Open with the feds waiting in an unmarked courtesy car in the Pinehurst parking lot.
BROADCAST MOMENT OF THE WEEK
"Is that in somebody's backyard?" – Nick Faldo, incredulous, on CBS, assessing Bubba Watson's errant drive on No. 15 Sunday at the Memorial.
Bubba Watson was by no means alone in finding difficulty Sunday at Muirfield Village. The world's No. 1, Adam Scott, had that bogey hat trick. Jordan Spieth, who started in the top-five on Sunday, plummeted to a tie-19th after a final-round 75. Same with Billy Horschel, who dropped 10 spots on Sunday after a final-round 74.
And Watson remains the leader in the clubhouse for PGA Tour Player of the Year. He's already won at Augusta National and Riviera, and the summer is young.
It was just that he took the prize for most spectacular fallout on Sunday's back nine, hooking his drive on No. 15 into a grassy Ohio backyard. We were treated to a CBS shot of the home's residents, enjoying a June weekend, red cups of libations in hand, some barefoot, checking out the wickedly off-target tee shot.
What made it was the dog. The house had a big dog in the backyard, of undetermined canine lineage, on leash, just checking the scene out. The same way federal investigators questioning Mickelson is a bad look at a tournament, is the same way a big dog checking out your tee shot in a backyard is a bad look when you're tied for the lead at the Memorial.
Bubba would make double bogey on the hole, shoot 72 and finish one shot out of the playoff.
MULLIGAN OF THE WEEK
Our fascination with Rory McIlroy knows few boundaries. Last week's Dump Caroline/Win the BMW PGA at Wentworth was a week for the ages. Then, it was revealed by some salacious tennis journos at the French Open that McIlroy's "Dear Caroline" phone call to Wozniacki lasted three minutes, which some web pundits found lacking in style points.
Whether or not this is true is highly dubious, and surely there are layers to the story which none of us are privy to. But that doesn't stop web pundits from proffering opinions, which surely made McIlroy look less than chivalrous.
But playing well is the best revenge. McIlroy went out and shot a sizzling 63 on Thursday, and it looked like he was set to go wire-to-wire, then tell David Feherty on the 18th green Sunday: "I got 99 problems, but a Polish tennis player ain't one."
Instead! The same day Wozniacki changed her Twitter avatar to a witch stirring a pot, McIlroy developed a knee problem, made three double bogeys in his front nine on Friday, shot 43 on his front nine en route to a 78 and was never a factor after that. He wound up tie-15th, with a dubious knee and with nagging thoughts that he's been hexed.
The game is better when McIlroy is good, so let's go back out to Rory's first tee on Friday, remind him that sometimes a Twitter avatar is just a Twitter avatar, remind him that he's Rory Stinkin' McIlroy, BMW PGA champ, owner of the first-round lead, take a deep breath and … give that man a mulligan!
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
One more before our national championship, and it's the FedEx St. Jude in Memphis. Phil Mickelson is playing. Unfortunate the word "Fed" is in the tournament title, making it likely that a rattled Lefty will continue a 2014 devoid of top-10 finishes.
By Nick Bromberg
1. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 2): Before smoking the field at Dover, Johnson revealed he had hernia surgery after the banquet in December. He actually had three; bilateral hernias and one near his bellybutton. So of course, we need to ask if Johnson will have more hernias or Sprint Cup Series titles in his lifetime. (No, we don't.) Anyway, let's get back to the race. Johnson's best track statistically is Dover and after leading 272 laps on Sunday, he's now led more than 50 percent of the laps at Dover since 2009. Yeesh.
2. Matt Kenseth (LW: 4): Oh man, we've got another winless points leader. How is the world going to survive this madness? As with Johnson, it's pretty obvious that Kenseth is going to get a win sometime soon. You don't run up front like he has (and lead laps late) without getting a win sooner, rather than later. But even without a win, Kenseth is in a good spot right now. He's not going to miss the Chase if he's near the top of the standings without a win.
3. Jeff Gordon (LW: 1): The handling on Gordon's car flat disappeared late in the race and his finish of 15th is not indicative of the speed he had all day. Before he started falling to the back, he worked his way up into the top five and was fifth on the next-to-last restart. Suddenly he started falling back and never recovered. No points lead is no big deal, especially because Gordon has the Kansas win, but do you really think he wanted to lose it?
4. Kevin Harvick (LW: 3): Another fast car, another something that went wrong for Harvick. This time it was a flat tire that derailed him while he was leading. It necessitated a green flag pit stop and Harvick lost laps that he was never able to recover. The bad finishes Harvick is piling up with fast cars are a bit of a double-edged sword. He's not wondering about his car's speed on a weekly basis, which is a great thing. But at the same time, he's wondering what could go wrong next.
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 7): Pick a driver, any driver! We're going to go with Junior after his finished ninth, one spot ahead of Joey Logano, five spots ahead of Carl Edwards and a whole bunch of spots ahead of Kyle Busch. While Junior is likely content with another top 10 finish, he may be happier about his Tuesday morning eBay purchase.
6. Carl Edwards (LW: 5): With every week of no news about Edwards' contract status, the speculation about his future is only going to increase. And based off previous timing of Roush announcements, we may not know for a few more weeks at least. When Edwards re-upped with Roush in 2011 it was announced in August and when Kenseth departed for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2012 he was announced at his new team in September after informing Roush he was leaving in late June.
7. Brad Keselowski (LW: 10): Brad sure tried like crazy to catch Jimmie Johnson over the final laps of the race, but there was just no way he was going to do there. You could tell how aggressively he was driving his car into the corners, but the aggressiveness was sapping his corner exit speed. For the space he gained on Johnson into the corners for the first few turns, he lost it all (and then some) as Johnson cruised away from him on acceleration. Yeah, the No. 48 team had a really, really good car.
8. Joey Logano (LW: 8): Similar to Charlotte, Logano had a good car but not a great one, and hovered near the front of the field all day, even if he wasn't "at" the front. It was Logano's seventh top 10 of the season and he's looking like he's heading towards a second straight season of a better than 50 percent top 10 rate. In four seasons at Joe Gibbs Racing he never did that.
9. Jamie McMurray (LW: 9): McMurray was very fortunate that he was able to avoid smashing into the backstretch wall after the chunk of Dover concrete ate the front splitter of his car. And the people in the pedestrian bridge above turn 2 were also incredibly fortunate that the piece of concrete that cracked a window up there wasn't big enough to pierce it and hurt someone. But props to Dover's track crew for getting the track patched in such a quick fashion and that the patch held so well.
10. Kyle Busch (LW: 6): Had Busch gotten to Clint Bowyer's bumper and retaliated against him after the two wrecked, what do you think the punishment would have been for him? It was reminiscent of what happened in 2007 between Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart at Dover. Heck, it was almost the same type of incident. Kurt Busch shut the door on Stewart, though he got the worst of the crash.
11. Denny Hamlin (LW: NR): The two drivers at the bottom of Power Rankings last week had problems so it's time for two new faces. Hamlin moved up a couple positions on the final restart of the race thanks to a two-tire pit stop. He was the first car to come down pit road for tires and was able to make up some ground, finishing fifth. And despite missing a race, Hamlin is ninth in the standings. Yes, with just four top 10s and one missed race, Hamlin is in the top 10. Avoiding bad finishes will do that to you.
12. Kyle Larson (LW: NR): Anyone else not going to miss a certain NASCAR TV analyst's fascination with Larson? There's not one person who doubts his talent, especially after he's won two Nationwide Series races this year. But much like Chase Elliott in the Nationwide Series, it's OK to give him some space and let him develop. The accolades will (and already have) arrive. There's no need to douse them with hyperbolic lighter fluid. And he, on the space note, it looks like Larson has a lot of it now in his new house.
The Lucky Dog: Martin Truex's sixth-place finish was the highest of his season so far. While you wouldn't have guessed Furniture Row would repeat the excellence it had with Kurt Busch, did anyone think Truex would be 25th through 13 races?
The DNF: Greg Biffle and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got Allmendinger'd, though Allmendinger said Stenhouse came down on him.
Dropped Out: Brian Vickers, Ryan Newman
A U.S. Midfielder Goes on the Offensive.
It was not poor positioning, or an accident. Typically, Bradley’s role in the midfield has demanded that he transition seamlessly and continually between offense and defense. But in the last two games, he has been deployed — at least initially — in the more strictly attacking position in Coach Jurgen Klinsmann’s 4-4-2 alignment.
It is not a minor shift. The United States’ chances of advancing to the knockout phase at the World Cup in Brazil could be determined in large part on just how far Klinsmann dares to push Bradley forward. Boldly sending Bradley into the attack could result in more scoring chances for the Americans in their three first-round games — against potent attacking teams from Ghana, Germany and Portugal — but it may also result in many more goals conceded at the other end.
Pushing him forward and keeping him there, then, is essentially a risk-reward calculation for Klinsmann, even if Bradley shrugs off talk of labels as nonsense.
“I think a lot of times it gets blown out of proportion — the diamond, the 4-4-2, whatever,” Bradley said Friday. “It doesn’t change what I’m about as a player. It doesn’t change my mentality of what I bring to the team.”
But it does change where he plays on the field. Early in the game on Sunday, Bradley often was the lone attacker in the center of the field when the ball drifted toward the wings. Balls to the middle were funneled in his direction and dispersed as he saw fit.
But when Turkey took possession, Bradley did not always rush back to help his fellow midfielder Jermaine Jones defensively. Instead, he often lurked closer to the midfield line, waiting for clearing passes that might start counterattacks. Bradley, a player often called a box-to-box midfielder, was sometimes only fulfilling half of that description.
And when repeated Turkish attacks threatened the goal, Klinsmann was forced to adjust his plans. He asked Bradley to settle into a more traditional role alongside first Jones and then Kyle Beckerman, who replaced Jones at halftime, and the switch helped shore up the Americans defensively in their 2-1 victory.
But the adjustment also showed Klinsmann’s predicament as he tries to get his team to play a more attacking style heading into the World Cup: Pushing extra players forward, even just one, has obvious risks for a defense that remains unsettled.
“It’s important not to overanalyze these games,” Bradley said. “There’s a World Cup coming up, and everybody wants to now look at every play in every minute in every game, but it’s important to now look at these games in the context of a bigger picture.”
In the days before Sunday’s match, Bradley dismissed questions about whether his role in the team had evolved. But during last week’s match against Azerbaijan, he lined up in a similar attacking role. That allowed him to partner with Altidore and striker Chris Wondolowski in a low-risk simulation, as Klinsmann had little concern that a toothless Azerbaijan attack could create problems for his defense.
But against Turkey, Bradley’s push forward often resulted in Jones’s being overwhelmed by multiple attackers. A more ruthless set of finishers — like, for example, the ones Ghana, Germany and Portugal will bring to the World Cup — might have punished the Americans with those opportunities.
Saturday’s final preparation match, against Nigeria in Jacksonville, Fla., offers one more chance for Klinsmann to test his players and his tactics. Just where will Bradley play?
“We have to find it a little bit more,” Jones said of the positional balance in the midfield. “I would say we’ve played a lot of games together. We know each other.
“Maybe Michael has to find out a little bit more now that he’s in this situation, what kind of position he’s playing. He does it perfect in front, so we have nothing to say. But defensively, we have to work everybody hard.”
The advantages of having Bradley in the attacking third are obvious. The first United States goal on Sunday was a give-and-go between Bradley, who was at the top of the penalty area, and right back Fabian Johnson. Bradley, who chipped the ball over Turkey’s back line to Johnson after receiving the initial pass, is clearly Klinsmann’s most creative midfielder.
Yet the quality of the United States’ first-round group in Brazil may make Klinsmann’s experimentation moot. After Turkey repeatedly found holes in his formation, he may not have a choice but to have Bradley play more defensively. His thinking may change, but Bradley says his will not.
“My role is in the center of the field,” Bradley said. “In the center of the midfield, I try to do as much as possible to help the team whether it’s scoring goals, setting up goals, winning tackles, intercepting balls, you know? I try to have as big an impact on the game as possible.
“I think when you look around the world now, midfielders who can do everything are so important for their team. That’s what I try to do.”
THE ‘SHOT’ THAT STARTED IT ALL.
By Grant Wahl
Paul Caligiuri’s wonder goal in 1989 set the table for a quarter-century of unprecedented U.S. soccer growth.
In November 1989, the week-long training camp before the most important U.S. soccer game in 40 years was the usual no-frills affair. In the days before cell phones and the Internet, the U.S. players slept two to a dorm room in Cocoa Beach, Fla., and shared a single pay phone among all of them to call home. But they did have basic televisions in each small unit, and one night defender Paul Caligiuri was sitting on the floor when his roommate, goalkeeper Tony Meola, commandeered the couch and started flipping through channels looking for a show to watch.
Their talk turned to the game they would play two days later in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, a World Cup qualifier that bore the highest of stakes. To clinch the U.S.’s first World Cup berth since 1950, the Americans had to win on the road against a team that had not lost at home during the qualifying campaign. If the U.S. tied or lost, tiny T&T would end up grabbing the first World Cup spot in the nation’s history.
But there was even more on the line for the U.S. players, most of whom were either still in college or barely making ends meet on small contracts with the U.S. Soccer Federation. The word going around was that the U.S. might lose the hosting rights for World Cup 1994 for a number of reasons, including the possibility that the U.S. wouldn’t qualify for Italy 1990. “We heard in camp that Mexico and Brazil were going to be alternate sites,” Caligiuri recalls. “Soccer was their No. 1 sport, and they had stadiums in place and were ready to move in. The big reasons were that we hadn’t participated in a World Cup in the modern era, we didn’t have a professional league, and the question of whether the American sports fan would come out and support the World Cup was a huge concern.”
It was a heavy burden to put on the shoulders of young American players who were neophytes on the world stage. After their previous qualifier, a 0-0 home tie against El Salvador, the U.S. appeared to be choking away its chance to take advantage of Mexico’s banishment from World Cup ‘90 for using an over-age player in a youth tournament. “We went into that game with our dreams, and our dream was to play at the highest level [at the World Cup],” Caligiuri says. “And for most of our players, their livelihoods were on the line. We didn’t have a professional league, and we relied on this monthly income from the federation. There was a lot riding on it, you know?”
All those thoughts were in Caligiuri’s mind that night in Florida as he spoke with Meola, the cocksure Jersey boy and University of Virginia goalkeeper. But Caligiuri was the prototypical sunny Californian, an optimist at heart. At one point in the evening, both men swear today, Caligiuri turned to Meola and said: “I’m imagining the headlines: USA wins 1-0, meola gets the shutout and caligiuri scores the goal.”
Twenty-five years later, Caligiuri still remembers all the little signs, the portents that in his mind foretold history. That he predicted the headline to his roommate in Florida. That the plane the U.S. took to the Caribbean, an old Pan Am jet, was named Destiny. That they left from departure gate 8, a lucky number. “I just felt this energy that we were on a mission,” he says, “and we were going to change American soccer forever.”
The U.S. tried to sneak into Port of Spain by arriving late at night, but that didn’t work. More than 5,000 red-clad T&T fans were waiting at the airport, banging steel drums and chanting songs for their Soca Warriors. Unlike fans in Central America, though, these supporters were festive, not threatening, and many of the U.S. players welcomed the atmosphere in a country where this game clearly mattered to the populace. Not that they enjoyed the noise outside the U.S. hotel. “We had to sleep with earplugs,” Meola says. “People were partying outside our windows, so we asked to move over and over again, but they wouldn’t move our rooms.”
Truth be told, Caligiuri was hardly a lock to start the game. He hadn’t been in the U.S. lineup for any previous World Cup qualifiers, due in part to injuries, and coach Bob Gansler had flat-out benched a healthy Caligiuri for the last match, when the U.S. had wet the bed in St. Louis. But during the team meeting on the night before the T&T game, Gansler dropped a stunner when he told the players his lineup. Caligiuri would start in the central midfield. “It was the first and only game out of my 110 national team games that I played at center mid,” says Caligiuri, who replaced John Stollmeyer, the player everyone had expected to be in that position.
For Caligiuri, it was a difficult situation. He was thrilled to start, but Stollmeyer was his roommate on the Trinidad trip. “I’m thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t sleep the night before the biggest game of our lives because Gansler announced I would take his position.’ I had to break the ice with John.” So Caligiuri pulled Stollmeyer aside and talked it out, and he found a way to catch some sleep that night.
Gameday in Port of Spain was bedlam. U.S. midfielder Tab Ramos remembers inching through traffic to the stadium, which was packed well over the listed capacity, and seeing “people climbing fences, people hanging from everywhere. The atmosphere was crazy.” But he recalls something else, too. When the teams marched out of the tunnel, the T&T players were the opposite of their fans: Tense. Quiet. Overmatched by the moment. “The other team looked scared,” Ramos says. “They didn’t look ready at all, like they didn’t want to be there. It was just too much for them.”
Caligiuri had earned his one and only start in the U.S. central midfield for a specific reason: To mark out T&T playmaker Russell Latapy, whose main function was to distribute the ball to Dwight Yorke, the hosts’ main attacking threat. The instructions from Gansler didn’t exactly encourage Caligiuri to think about scoring goals. “My orders were very clear: ‘Do not go forward and risk a counter-attack,’” Caligiuri says. But in the 31st minute of a 0-0 game, an opportunity presented itself. From a throw-in by Brian Bliss, Ramos hit a simple square pass to Caligiuri. “I gave him a bad ball,” jokes Ramos, whose pass skipped up on the bumpy Caribbean playing surface.
Stationed some 45 yards from the T&T goal, Caligiuri turned on the ball and saw open space closing quickly as defender Kerry Jamerson rushed toward him. “There were only two things to do: Push the ball into the space or try to connect with a teammate and stay back,” Caligiuri says. “I decided to try and beat the player and do something. My instincts just carried me from that moment on.” Caligiuri pushed the ball forward with his chest, skinned Jamerson with a nifty move and in an instant had a look at goal.
Four years earlier, in his first start for the U.S., Caligiuri had scored on a header against T&T goalkeeper Michael Maurice. Another sign, Caligiuri thought. Now Maurice was in the net again, and the tropical sun was bearing down on him, and here came Paul David Caligiuri, formerly of Diamond Bar, Calif., with 40 years of U.S. World Cup misery in his backwash, about to change everything. “I shot it as hard as I could with some sort of topspin and velocity to keep it low enough to have a chance to score,” Caligiuri says. “Golfers and baseball players and soccer players, we all talk about the touch, the feel, the moment. I just had that feeling. I knew it had a chance to score.”
Poor Maurice. He got a late jump on the shot, and now the ball appeared to move in slow motion, arcing and then dipping … dipping … dipping … in. There’s a famous photograph taken after the goal in which U.S. forward Bruce Murray is gazing up at the heavens in thanks for the goal, looking as though he was the one who scored it. Next to him is Caligiuri, expressionless, all business, as if the most significant goal in U.S. Soccer history—The Shot Heard ‘Round The World—is no big deal.
More than anything, Caligiuri remembers the sound in the stadium that moment. “The crowd,” he says, “was absolutely silent.”
When the U.S. entered the locker room at halftime, Caligiuri looked in the faces of his teammates and saw a resolve and a confidence that convinced him: There’s no way we’re going to falter here. Despite being unable to add another goal, the U.S. kept the narrow lead in the second half, not least because the American goalkeeper came up big on several occasions. “Tony Meola played so fantastic in goal, and Tab Ramos and John Harkes controlled the game with their ball possession and ability to dribble out of pressure,” Caligiuri says. “Everyone played their role, and we carried that through the second half.”
When the final whistle blew and the U.S. was in the World Cup for the first time in four decades, Caligiuri stood stock still for a few seconds. USA wins 1-0, Meola gets the shutout and Caligiuri scores the goal. Soon enough he would join in the celebrations, but Caligiuri wanted to freeze this moment in his mind’s eye forever, the scenes on both sides. He watched the players from the U.S. bench rush the field in ecstasy, rolling around on the ground together like kids. And he also watched the T&T players, their dreams crushed, consoling each other, not because he wanted to enjoy their pain but because he respected the hell out of their effort and what this day meant to them, too.
Caligiuri remembers the exultant U.S. locker room and drinking the only liquid available—Carib beer—to try to deal with his cramps on that hot and muggy day. But he also remembers the sportsmanship shown by, of all people, Jack Warner. In the years to come, Warner would come to symbolize all that is wrong with corruption in FIFA as a banished member of its executive committee, but on this day Warner, the president of T&T’s federation, came into the U.S. locker room and leaned in close to Caligiuri. “Please represent the United States at the World Cup as Trinidad had wanted to represent Trinidad,” Warner told him. “You deserve the victory. Congratulations.”
And with that, Warner removed his straw hat, placed it atop Caligiuri’s head and walked out of the locker room.
The U.S. ended up losing all three games in World Cup 1990. It wasn’t always pretty, but Caligiuri did score the lone goal in a 5-1 loss to Czechoslovakia, and the Americans earned respect from nations around the world for their 1-0 loss to host Italy, a game the U.S. came this close to tying through Peter Vermes late in the match.
But the significance of Caligiuri’s Shot Heard ‘Round The World goes far beyond putting the U.S. into a World Cup. His goal was nothing less than the launch pad for U.S. Soccer’s modern era, 25 years of growth that was hardly inevitable. After his goal, any serious concerns over the U.S.’s fitness to host World Cup ’94 disappeared. Contrary to doomsayers inside FIFA, USA ’94 set records for attendance at a World Cup that have yet to be broken. With a boost from the World Cup, Major League Soccer started in 1996 and is now here to stay, having laid a soccer stadium infrastructure around the country while taking the development of U.S. players to a new level. Meanwhile, the success of World Cup ’94 emboldened the organizers of Women’s World Cup ’99 to stage the event in giant stadiums around the country—stadiums that would be filled when pioneers such as Mia Hamm, Michelle Akers and Kristine Lilly created a momentous American cultural moment.
“It’s fascinating to see how far we’ve come,” Caligiuri says. “And to think: What if? If that had never happened, where would we be?”
Why giant-slaying upsets in NCAA's baseball and basketball tourneys could be in danger.
By Pat Forde
Atlantic Sun commissioner Ted Gumbart was in a rental car Monday, headed south from Macon, Ga., to the league's spring meetings in Daytona Beach Shores, Fla.
Driving time is roughly 5½ hours. Commissioners of power leagues may well have fired up the private jet for that commute, but the A-Sun isn't in that category.
Still, Gumbart could feel like a college sports kingpin for a day – actually another in a series of overachieving days for his low-major conference. He had just watched on his phone as Kennesaw State eliminated Southeastern Conference blueblood Alabama from the NCAA baseball tourney and advanced to the Super Regional round, which is the Sweet 16 of college baseball.
"A very enjoyable moment for us," Gumbart told Yahoo Sports on his way to the Florida coast.
This sport is not as hopelessly weighted against the little guys as college football (Louisiana-Lafayette of the Sun Belt Conference is actually the No. 1 team in America, according to some polls).
But if you don't think it's a shocking upset in the grand scheme of things, consider these 2013 athletic revenue numbers for the two schools, from Department of Education filings:
But if you don't think it's a shocking upset in the grand scheme of things, consider these 2013 athletic revenue numbers for the two schools, from Department of Education filings:
Kennesaw State: $12.3 million.
Alabama: $143 million.
That is the beauty of an all-inclusive tournament: The paupers get their shot at the princes on a level field of play. Every once in a while the paupers win – and quite often lately the ones winning are from the A-Sun.
Kennesaw State follows Mercer into the giant-slayer roles, after the Bears took down Duke in the NCAA basketball tournament. And Mercer followed Florida Gulf Coast, which became the first No. 15 seed ever to make the hoops Sweet 16 in 2013 by upsetting Georgetown and San Diego State.
Gumbart pointed out that three A-Sun teams made the NCAA softball tournament this spring, and all three won games. The league also put four teams in the NCAA golf tournament. Kennesaw State baseball, which can advance to the College World Series with two wins at Louisville this week, is merely the team of the moment in the A-Sun.
"Kennesaw just put another big chunk on the side of the scale saying, 'Yes, it can happen,' " Gumbart said.
The fact that it can happen is one of the most beautiful parts of college athletics. National tournaments that give the little guy a chance against the big guy on the field of play are part of the reason why these competitions are a compelling and popular alternative to pro sports for many. The populist appeal is real.
But the context for the Owls' triumph certainly is interesting. These are changing times in college sports, as power schools like Alabama seek to distance themselves even further from the likes of Kennesaw State.
Schools from the "Power Five" leagues have argued for years that they have little in common with the un-powerful majority. Now they are closing in on a historic NCAA membership vote that would grant them autonomy to basically create their own rules, which are more applicable to schools swimming in media-rights cash.
Just three days before Kennesaw State beat a blueblood from his league, Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive flexed some rhetorical muscle about the need for Power Five schools to gain autonomy on their terms. If autonomy comes with a super-majority voting margin needed to pass legislation, that won't sit too well with some folks – including those in the SEC.
So Slive fired a shot across the NCAA membership bow Friday at the SEC spring meetings, saying the next option if a favorable autonomy structure doesn't pass is to create a "Division IV." That set off a ripple of reaction, because the Power Five would be moving another step away from the rest of Division I.
While Slive's statements could be posturing intended to influence the vote in the Power Five's favor, one industry insider suggested the threat is real. In fact, he said it could become more real if the situation deteriorates.
"If they don't get autonomy, the next option is Division IV," the insider told Yahoo Sports. "And after that is the nuclear option."
In other words: a full split from the NCAA.
"I've talked to a few presidents who would be fine with the nuclear option," the insider said.
That, of course, would kill Cinderella once and for all. If the Power Five leagues left the NCAA, then the basketball tournament would never be the same. And so would the college baseball tournament.
And the Frozen Four, which saw tiny Union College of New York win the national title this year.
On the road in his rental car, Ted Gumbart didn't see it coming to that. He generally supports the ability for the Power Five schools to make their own rules, knowing it will allow them to do things financially for athletes that A-Sun members will never match.
"They deserve to have that opportunity," he said. "We would have a big concern if they changed the number of scholarships a school can award. If they go from 13 in basketball to 18, that would be a game changer. But I don't think we're headed in that direction right now.
"If they decide to split from the NCAA entirely, I don't think that would be desirable."
If they do that, Kennesaw State would never get its chance to beat Alabama in baseball. And college sports would be a far lesser place.
Sources: NCAA COO Jim Isch leaving organization.
Sources: NCAA COO Jim Isch leaving organization.
By Charles Robinson and Pat Forde
NCAA chief operating officer Jim Isch – the hierarchical No. 2 in the organization behind president Mark Emmert – will depart the association in the coming months, multiple sources have told Yahoo Sports.
Long considered the right-hand man of Emmert, Isch was expected to step down at the end of June but is now in the process of negotiating a severance package that could push the date of his departure beyond the end of this month, sources said.
"We are not going to speculate on personnel matters," NCAA spokesperson Stacey Osburn said.
The NCAA did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment.
The NCAA did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment.
The departure will mark yet another top-tier NCAA position turning over under Emmert since he took over in April of 2010. During that span the association has faced a growing quagmire of high-profile lawsuits, endured the implosion of several prominent investigations and seen its enforcement arm stripped apart through firings, retirements, or employees leaving for other jobs. Emmert, specifically, has had his leadership questioned through the fallout of the University of Miami probe, as well as during mounting challenges to the NCAA's financial and amateurism model.
Now Isch's departure will add to widespread administrative turnover under Emmert, which has already seen the departures of Tom Jernstedt, a high-powered NCAA vice president of football, baseball and women's basketball; NCAA men's basketball tournament czar Greg Shaheen; Division II steward Mike Racy; NCAA general counsel Elsa Cole and many others.
But few of those individuals wielded the power of Isch, who essentially controlled the NCAA's finances (more than even chief financial officer Kathleen McNeely) and who was believed to have the ear of Emmert. Prior to Emmert's arrival, Isch had acted as the NCAA's interim president following the death of president Myles Brand in 2009. He then played a pivotal role in the candidate search for Brand's replacement, including the courtship of Emmert, whom Isch had shared time with as administrators at Montana State University from 1992-95.
Most recently, Isch came under fire for his role in the NCAA's bungled University of Miami investigation, in which the association paid an attorney of former Hurricanes booster Nevin Shapiro to gain access to evidence relevant to the case. In the fallout of that revelation, the NCAA fired enforcement head Julie Roe Lach for her role in procuring $20,000 to reimburse the lawyer. Emails later revealed Isch had been forwarded the reimbursement proposal by Lach and approved her special finance request for the Miami investigation. But in a seemingly disjointed ruling, an outside investigation ultimately determined that while Isch bore responsibility for approving the funds to Lach, he hadn’t approved them being used to reimburse Shapiro’s attorney. It was that distinction which appeared to ultimately save his job.
On This Date in Sports History: Today is Wednesday, June 4, 2014.
MemoriesofHistory.com
1927 - The U.S. defeated Britain in the first Ryder Cup international golf championship.
1940 - Forbes field hosted its first night game. The Pirates beat the Braves 14-2.
1940 - Sportsman's Park hosted its first night game. It was the first National League to be played at night. The Dodgers beat the Cardinals 10-1.
1964 - Sandy Koufax threw his third career no-hitter.
1968 - Don Drysdale (Los Angeles) pitched his sixth consecutive shutout.
1971 - The Oakland A's beat the Washington Senators 5-3. The game took 21 innings.
1974 - The NFL granted the Seattle Seahawks franchise.
1974 - Henry (Hank) Aaron set a National League record when he hit his 16th career grand slam.
1976 - The Boston Celtics defeated Phoenix in triple-overtime in Game 5 of the NBA finals. The Celtics took the series on June 6.
1980 - Gordie Howe announced his retirement from hockey. At the time he was playing for the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association.
1984 - For the first time in 32 years, Arnold Palmer failed to make the cut for the U.S. Open golf tournament.
1988 - Steffi Graf won the French Open for the second straight year.
1996 - Eddie Murray hit his 535th double. He moved into 18th on the all-time list by passing Lou Gehrig.
1996 - Patrick Roy (Colorado Avalanche) started in his 133rd consecutive playoff game.
1997 - Michael Irvin (Dallas Cowboys) announced that he was putting his NFL career on hold. Irvin later retracted his announcement and returned to the game.
2000 - Julius "Dr. J" Erving reported his 19-year-old son, Cory, missing. His body was found on July 6, 2000.
2000 - Fred McGriff (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) got his 2,000th career hit.
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