CS&T/AllsportsAmerica Wednesday Sporte News Update, 11/26/2014.

Chicago Sports & Travel, Inc./AllsportsAmerica

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Sports Quote of the Day:

“Believe in possibilities. Believe in human potential. Believe in yourself and you’ll have the power to change your fate.” ~ Kevin Ngo, Inspirational and Motivational Speaker

Bear Down Chicago Bears!!! Bears-Lions Preview.

By JEFF MEZYDLO (STATS Senior Writer)

 

Back home for their traditional Thanksgiving contest, the reeling Detroit Lions are bruised but not necessarily battered.

Though the underachieving Chicago Bears have won two straight over weak competition, they've been embarrassed in their last two road games against teams with winning records.

Hoping to ignite a sagging offense and avoid a third consecutive defeat, the Lions try to extend the Bears' struggles against the NFL's better teams Thursday.

Since scoring the go-ahead touchdown with 29 seconds left of a 20-16 home win over Miami on Nov. 9, Detroit (7-4) has been held to five field goals while dropping back-to-back road games to division leaders Arizona and New England.

"If I knew what was wrong, I would have already fixed it," receiver Calvin Johnson said after Sunday's 34-9 loss to the Patriots. "We still have time to get things going in the right direction."

While that's true, the Lions now trail first-place Green Bay by one game in the NFC North and are tied with Seattle and San Francisco for the final wild-card spot, which the Seahawks own via the tiebreaker.

"I'm not worried about (the) big picture to be honest with you," coach Jim Caldwell told the Lions' official website. "I'm worried about our next game and we'll deal with the big picture later on."

Plagued by nagging injuries to the likes of Johnson, Reggie Bush and Joique Bell, the Lions rank 28th with 17.9 points per game - 6.8 fewer than last season.

Matthew Stafford completed a career-low 39.1 percent (18 of 46) of his passes against the Patriots and has only two 300-yard games after recording six in 2014. Now the league's 26th-rated passer, Stafford has thrown six of his 10 interceptions in the last five games.

"Their offense is up and down at times but I'm sure they'll play well on Thursday," Bears quarterback Jay Cutler said. "They're reeling a bit, so we're going to get their very best shot.

"They're going to be ready for this one."

As Stafford looks to avoid going three straight games without a TD pass for the first time in his career, Johnson is stuck on one touchdown in his last seven contests. He's been targeted 37 times in three games since missing three with an ankle injury but has just 16 receptions in that span.

Golden Tate, though, has already set career highs with 72 receptions and 1,047 yards to become the first Lion other than Johnson to post a 1,000-yard receiving season since 2006.

Detroit also has struggled to stay healthy on the offensive line, a big reason the teams ranks 30th in rushing yards per game (80.8) and per carry (3.3). Knee injuries could keep guard Larry Warford out a third straight game and tackle Riley Reiff from playing Thursday. Center Dominic Raiola will play while the NFL takes a closer look at his attempted cut block in Sunday's loss.

"That's the great part about coaching: we get to see the team during the good times and also during tough stretches, and how we respond," said Caldwell, whose team is 4-1 at home. "That's what makes a team. That's when you find out the kind of grit you have, the kind of toughness, the kind of leadership - when things aren't going quite as nice as you'd like them, see if they can battle through."

Detroit, which snapped a nine-game Thanksgiving Day skid with a 40-10 rout of the Packers last season, faces a Chicago team that allowed 106 points in its last two road games against Green Bay and New England.

The Bears bounced back from those horrid performances to post consecutive 21-13 wins over Minnesota and Tampa Bay - teams with a combined six victories and rank 30th and 26th, respectively, in total offense. Chicago could be without linebacker Lance Briggs (groin) and rookie cornerback Kyle Fuller (knee) for this contest.

Cutler and the Bears are average 6.3 points fewer than last season when they scored an NFC-high 27.8 per game. Things likely won't get easier against the Lions, who even after Sunday lead the NFL allowing 17.3 points per contest and are third giving up an average of 303.8 yards.

"It's a tough test, (the Lions) are a heck of a team," said Cutler, who has committed 10 turnovers over the last five games.

Chicago's immediate goal is to get on the board early after being outscored 41-0 in the first quarter of the last six games.

"We're just trying to focus on what we can do better and that is to be more consistent on offense and to use opportunities to make plays," coach Marc Trestman said. "We need to do that from start to finish."

Tied for fourth in the league with 72 catches and third with 1,420 scrimmage yards, Matt Forte remains Chicago's most consistent offensive threat. He totaled 112 yards and rushed for two TDs against the Buccaneers on Sunday.

Forte has averaged 95.8 rushing yards and 5.4 per carry in his last five games at Detroit.

Cutler didn't have an interception in his first five starts at Ford Field before throwing three in last season's 40-32 loss there. The Bears won seven of their first eight games against the Lions that Cutler started before losing both meetings last season.

Johnson caught three of Stafford's four TD passes in that sweep, and Bush rushed for a combined 244 yards but could miss a third straight game with an ankle injury.

Chicago is 8-7 at Detroit on Thanksgiving but hasn't been part of the Lions' annual tradition since a 21-17 loss in 1999.

How 'bout them Chicago Blackhawks? Preview: Avalanche return home to face Blackhawks. 

NHL.com

BLACKHAWKS (12-8-1) at AVALANCHE (8-9-5)

TV: TVA SPORTS 2, CSN-CH, ALT

Season series: The Colorado Avalanche won four of five games against the Chicago Blackhawks last season, including a 3-2 overtime win at United Center on Jan. 14. Tyson Barrie and Ryan O'Reilly led Colorado with three goals each.

Blackhawks team scope: Forward Andrew Shaw will return to the lineup, and Corey Crawford will start in goal, according to coach Joel Quenneville. Shaw missed three games with an upper-body injury. Backup goalie Antti Raanta practiced Tuesday after being limited the past few days because of illness. He was supposed to start Saturday against the Edmonton Oilers, but felt sick at the morning skate. "Of course it was disappointing. You're feeling pretty bad and then you don't get in the game, so it was a tough weekend for me," Raanta told the Blackhawks website. "That's how life goes sometimes. I just have to get myself ready and get myself into good condition. That's the main thing now." Chicago, which leads the NHL at 90.3 percent on the penalty kill, has won five of its past seven games. Forward Kris Versteeg has a goal in three of four games and seven points during his four-game point streak.

Avalanche team scope: Colorado will look to sweep a back-to-back set, having rallied from a three-goal first-period deficit to defeat the Arizona Coyotes 4-3 on the road Tuesday. It was the second consecutive game in which the Avalanche overcame a multigoal deficit; they earned a 4-3 win against the Carolina Hurricanes at Pepsi Center on Saturday after falling behind 3-1 in the first. Calvin Pickard stopped all 25 shots he faced against the Coyotes to earn a win in relief of Reto Berra for the second time in as many games. "Pickard did a really good job against Carolina the other night, and tonight, he was again perfect," coach Patrick Roy said. "You have to give it to him. He battles out there and competes and deserves a lot of credit for his play right now." Captain Gabriel Landeskog scored two goals to snap an 11-game goal drought.

Team Stats

 

	GP	Record	Home	Road	L10	G/GP	GA/GP	PP%	PK%	PIM/GP	S/GP	SA/GP	FO%
	21	12-8-1	7-3-1	5-5-0	6-4-0	2.86	2.10	19.8	90.3	7.8	36.1	27.9	52.2
	22	8-9-5	4-4-2	4-5-3	5-5-0	2.50	3.09	12.3	88.5	10.7	29.3	34.0	49.2

Blackhawks assess 'up-and-down' first quarter of the season.

By Tracey Myers

Twenty-one games down, 61 games to go.

Yes, boys and girls, we’re just past the quarter mark of the 2014-15 season. The Blackhawks have been very good at times, mediocre at others. If the playoffs started today the Blackhawks would be seventh in the Western Conference.

But the playoffs don’t begin today, so let’s move on from the nonsensical “if.” This is about what the Blackhawks have done, or haven’t done, to be in seventh right now. So while the Blackhawks take Monday off, let’s look at what’s worked and what needs work.

What's working

The penalty kill. The Blackhawks have gotten back to their 2012-13 standard with the kill, which has been stellar throughout this early season. Yes, it gave up two consecutive goals against Calgary on Thursday, an unusual sight this season. But it righted itself by the end of that game, snuffing out a late Flames power play to preserve a 4-3 victory. Heading into Monday night’s games, the Blackhawks’ kill is still No. 1 in the league at 90.3 percent. There’s no offense like a good defense.

Goaltending. Corey Crawford was good before he suffered his upper-body injury in October and he’s been just fine since returning. As of Monday he’s among the top goaltenders in the league in goals-against average (fourth at 1.98) and save percentage (ninth at .926). Antti Raanta and Scott Darling have also pitched in, giving the Blackhawks plenty of strength and depth at the position. But mainly it’s been Crawford, and the Blackhawks are happy with what he’s done thus far. “He’s been excellent,” coach Joel Quenneville said Sunday. “He’s been predictable, on top of his game, alert, aware and has had puck control. He’s done everything you’d like to have from your goaltender.”

The power play. OK, while you all rub your eyes and think, “the hell you say!” let’s look at what it’s done recently. The Blackhawks have scored at least one power-play goal in each of their last five games. They scored two against Edmonton – yes, we know, we’re talking Edmonton here. The Blackhawks wanted to see progress on the power play. They still have some that are way too quiet – their first two against Vancouver fall into that category. But they’re ultimately producing more on the power play and are ranked No. 13 in the league on it. They’re strength is on the road, where their advantage is scoring 25.6 percent of the time (fourth in the NHL).

What needs work

Individual games. Bryan Bickell is struggling again. Andrew Shaw was, too, before he was injured. Marian Hossa broke out of a scoring slump on Saturday but offensively he’s been quieter than usual. The Blackhawks are at their best when everyone’s doing a little something out there. They haven’t been getting enough contributions across the board yet.

The Blackhawks’ overall game. This has been the sore spot. In some games the Blackhawks look unbeatable. In others they look sluggish. There was probably too much line changing early on; even when struggling, what’s the harm in seeing some lines through for a bit? But line changes or not, the Blackhawks have been, “up and down,” as Patrick Kane put it Sunday, “We have a lot better to give on certain nights,” he said. “You can see we’re close to playing the way we want, so obviously [Sunday] wasn’t good enough. But there’ve been some stretches where we’ve played good hockey.”

Teuvo Teravainen still adjusting to North American game.

By Tracey Myers

Teuvo Teravainen #86 of the Chicago Blackhawks. (Photo/Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images North America)

“It’s a process ...”

Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman has used that phrase regarding Teuvo Teravainen since he became part of the organization. It will take time for the young Finn to adjust to the North American game. It will take time for him to adjust to life on this side of the pond.

So far, it sounds like Teravainen is making progress. It might not be at the speed that some folks who keep demanding "Teuvo Time" on Twitter want, but he’s getting there.

Teravainen has two goals and eight assists through 17 games with the Rockford IceHogs. The talent level has never been a question with Teravainen; it’s just a matter of finding consistency at a game that’s very new to him. Rockford coach Ted Dent said it’s there — sometimes.

“Couple good games, couple average games, that type of thing. He’s just trying to figure it out,” Dent said in a phone interview. “It’s a game, the pro game where it’s not always on the perimeter like it may have been in the past for him. You have to get to the net more, fight for those 50-50 pucks, and when you lose it, you have to go get it. It’s more of a give-and-go type of thing. Those, I think, are new concepts to him.

“We reinforce through video,” Dent continued. “Now it’s just going out and trying to do it.”

Bowman said it can be difficult adjusting to the AHL, especially for young, offensive-minded players, “because it’s a bit more scattered.” But the Blackhawks still want him to adjust, learn and develop there.

“Teuvo’s been good,” Bowman said. “He missed some games there — he was out sick 3-4 games in a row — but once he got back he’s picked it up offensively. His talents are noticeable. He has instincts you can’t teach. It’s going to take some time for him to adjust to North America, let alone playing in the AHL or NHL. We’re a couple months in and he spent the summer in Chicago, which helps. But he’s a 20-year-old kid living in a new country. It takes time to feel comfortable in your environment.”

Dent said Teravainen’s transition in Rockford is getting there. Teravainen is living with a fellow Finn, defenseman Ville Pokka. Dent said that’s helped “tremendously.”

Teravainen is getting there. Nobody thought this was going to happen overnight. The time in Rockford will serve him well. Teuvo Time, so to speak, will arrive eventually.

“Not everybody just steps in and all of a sudden becomes the best player in the league. Everyone matures at a different rate, so you can’t put a time frame on the process here because it varies, player to player,” Dent said. “I think he talks it all in; he’s very smart. He has high expectations of himself and high standards, and he understands.”

NHL team values zoom upwards per Forbes.

By Josh Cooper

Forbes released its annual NHL team valuations Tuesday. Though some team officials gripe at these, saying that they're off for whatever reasons -- the news is generally positive. First, the good according to Forbes:

"Fueled by a new Canadian media deal with Rogers Communications that begins with the 2014-15 season, the average NHL team value rose 18.6% during the past year, to an all-time high of $490 million. The 12-year, $4.6 billion agreement, which gave Rogers rights to all NHL games in Canada, including the Stanley Cup Playoffs and Stanley Cup Final, on all of its platforms, in all languages, is worth 2.6 times more annually than the league’s previous Canadian deals."

Now the sort of bad -- which we already knew ... that the NHL lags behind other major North American pro sports because these television deals don't exactly equate to what MLB, the NFL or the NBA get from their respective partners:

"The Rogers media deal notwithstanding, the NHL remains the most tribal of the four major North American team sports because the NBA, NFL and MLB still have much bigger equally-shared national media and sponsorship deals."

And the mistake:

"Still, 29 of the 30 teams rose in value, and the one exception, the Florida Panthers (down 21%), was due to a  mistake I made last September in reporting the sale price of the team as $240 million, which we used for our value of the team two months later. But subsequent to the publication of our 2013 valuations I learned that the true sale price was $160 million (the widely reported price of $250 million at the time of the deal included future operating losses that should not be included in calculating an enterprise value). Had we used the correct sale price of $160 million the value of the Panthers would have increased 19%."

So for those who were chirping for the Panthers to move out of South Florida because of one game where they had miserable attendance ... chill. 

Now that we have that all out there, nothing on their list is truly a major, super big surprise. The big market teams are worth more than the smaller market teams. Also, the falling Canadian dollar is not accounted for, since it says it uses the 93 cents per-US dollar figure from the 2013-14 season. It's currently (as of Tuesday anyway) at 89 cents per-US dollar. 

Either way, when the NHL says business is on an upward tick, it's not kidding. Granted, we often bemoan how it could be better -- which it can. Yes, the league is locked into these super long-term television deals now, which have equated to a short-term windfall, but may look bad by the time they're up. 

But at least for the moment, mostly everyone seems happy. 

Note the Islanders massive increase in value -- which likely stems from a pending move to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, away from that haven called Uniondale. 

Below is the Forbes list of franchises and their values. 

Rank	Team	Current Value (millions)	% Change from 2013
`1	Toronto Maple Leafs	1,300	13
2	New York Rangers	1,100	29
3	Montreal Canadiens	1,000	29
4	Chicago Blackhawks	825	32
5	Vancouver Canucks	800	14
6	Boston Bruins	750	25
7	Philadelphia Flyers	625	25
8	Los Angeles Kings	580	29
9	Detroit Red Wings	570	21
10	Pittsburgh Penguins	565	18
11	Washington Capitals	500	21
12	Edmonton Oilers	475	19
13	Calgary Flames	451	7
14	San Jose Sharks	425	5
15	Dallas Stars	420	26
16	Ottawa Senators	400	5
17	Minnesota Wild	370	12
18	Anaheim Ducks	365	22
19	Colorado Avalanche	360	7
20	Winnipeg Jets	358	5
21	New Jersey Devils	330	3
22	New York Islanders	300	54
23	Buffalo Sabres	288	15
24	Nashville Predators	250	22
25	St. Louis Blues	235	27
26	Tampa Bay Lightning	230	28
27	Arizona Coyotes	225	12
28	Carolina Hurricanes	220	18
29	Columbus Blue Jackets	200	14
30	Florida Panthers	190	- 21

Just Another Chicago Bulls Session… Lawson has 20 points, Nuggets beat Bulls 114-109. 

By DENNIS GEORGATOS (Associated Press)

Ty Lawson #3 of the Denver Nuggets takes a shot over Aaron Brooks #0 of the Chicago Bulls at Pepsi Center on November 25, 2014 in Denver, Colorado. The Nuggets defeated the Bulls 114-109. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Ty Lawson scored 20 points, including a key jumper in the waning seconds, and the Denver Nuggets beat the Chicago Bulls 114-109 on Tuesday night for their fifth straight win.

Arron Afflalo added 19 points and Danilo Gallinari had 15 for the Nuggets, who defeated the Bulls for the eighth straight time in Denver.

Bulls point guard Derrick Rose was limited to 10 minutes in his second game back from a left hamstring strain. Rose, who scored 18 points in his return Monday night against Utah after a four-game absence, felt tightness in the hamstring during the first quarter and didn't play the rest of the way.

Jimmy Butler had 32 points for Chicago, and Pau Gasol finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds.

Trailing 56-49 at halftime, the Bulls closed to 64-61 when Mike Dunleavy swiped the ball from Lawson to start a fast break that he finished with a layup.

But the Nuggets pushed back. When Dunleavy later made a 3-pointer, Lawson answered with a three-point play to help Denver to an 86-76 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

The Nuggets used a 6-0 burst that included a pair of dunks by Alonzo Gee to stretch their lead to 94-80 with 8:25 remaining, but then had to fend off a late rally by the Bulls.

Gasol scored a pair of baskets to get Chicago within 10. After a video review erased a 3-point basket by Gallinari because he stepped out of bounds, Gasol converted a three-point play, making it 105-98 with less than two minutes left.

Butler's three-point play with 31.4 seconds remaining trimmed Denver's lead to 109-106, but Lawson then hit a step-back jumper with 8.3 seconds left. After a Chicago turnover, Lawson hit one of two free throws and it was enough to hold off the Bulls.

TIP-INS

Bulls: Joakim Noah was inactive because of an eye abrasion suffered in the win at Utah. ... Taj Gibson missed the game because of a left ankle injury. ... The Bulls haven't won in Denver since Feb. 8, 2006. ... Gasol leads the Bulls with seven double-doubles.

Nuggets: Randy Foye could miss up to three weeks because of a right quad strain. ... JaVale McGee is being rested the next couple of games in hopes soreness in his surgically repaired lower left leg abates. ... Darrell Arthur left in the fourth quarter with a left knee contusion. He is day to day. ... Wilson Chandler finished with 14 points. He has had 10 or more points in 10 of his last 11 games.

UP NEXT:

Bulls: Are at Boston on Friday.

Derrick Rose, Pau Gasol return to help lift Bulls over Jazz 97-95 (Monday night's game, 11/24/2014.

By Brennan Smith

Jimmy Butler #21 of the Chicago Bulls handles the ball against the Utah Jazz during the game at EnergySolutions Arena on November 24, 2014 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images)

Somewhere between the floating assist to Pau Gasol, a catch-and-shoot jumper for two and a buried 3-pointer in the first four minutes of the game, it was clear Derrick Rose was back.

Blatantly obvious, in fact.

Rose and Gasol returned for the Bulls on Monday night after missing a few games with injuries, helping the Bulls to a razor-thin 97-95 victory over the Jazz in Utah.

Rose, whose status was in question up to a few minutes before tipoff, started the game with 10 of the Bulls' first 14 points and finished with 18 points and five assists.

Gasol took advantage of his experience over younger Jazz post players Enes Kanter and Derrick Favors, making floaters and hooks to the tune of 23 points. The Spaniard also iced the game, hitting a one of two free throws to put the game out of reach.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Butler bounced back from a season-worst nine points in Portland, showing signs of his budding star power. He had a team-leading 25 points and harassed Jazz star Gordon Hayward all night, holding him to only six points.

He also stemmed the tide of a 37-point Jazz surge in the third quarter, getting a four-point play on a foul to maintain the Bulls’ lead after Utah brought it within one.

Utah appeared to take the game over while Rose sat for most of that period, charging on a 37-22 run.

However, the Bulls held out and rebounded from two straight road losses, buoyed by the return of two stars and the continued emergence of another.

The Chicago Bulls' Breakout Star Went All Summer Without Cable And Internet So He Would Train More.

By William Scott Davis

Chicago Bulls guard Jimmy Butler is averaging career-highs in points, rebounds, and assists. (Photo/Kelley L. Cox/Reuters)

The Chicago Bulls are a solid 9-5 this season, despite Derrick Rose once again missing games with injuries.

Fourth-year wing Jimmy Butler has emerged as the Bulls' best player. Butler is posting career-highs of 20.8 points on 49.7% shooting with 5.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. He's also playing an absurd 39 minutes per game.

Butler was ready for a breakout season this year. In a profile on Butler from Sports Illustrated's Ben Golliver, Butler said he went the entire summer without cable and Internet so he would be forced to work out more:

Butler and his friends rented a house for the summer so that they could spend time together, but he says he purposefully chose not to furnish it.

“I wanted to be so good at the game that we didn’t have cable, we didn’t have the Internet,” he recalled. “Whenever we got bored, all we would do is go to the gym. We’d eat, sleep and go to the gym. We’d go three times a day because we didn’t have anything else to do. We were sitting on the couch, looking at each other, saying, ‘What the hell are we going to do all day?’”

Butler struggled last season, shooting just 39% from the field, 28% from three-point range, and posting a 13.5 PER, which is below the league-average 15. Butler also played extended minutes last season — 38 per game — but says he wasn't physically right:  “I was hurt, I was moving sluggishly, I was heavier.” 

This season, Butler says he's down 12 pounds from last year after he had previously tried to bulk up to guard bigger players. His offseason regimen included 7 a.m.-to 8-p.m. days, lifting, running on the track, doing individual skills work, yoga, Pilates, and breaks for meals and a nap.

Butler will be a restricted free agent this summer after turning down a four-year, $40-million extension from the Bulls. At the rate he's going, he may very well trump that offer, thus dignifying a strict offseason.
 

Adam Silver thinks an age limit increase to 20 'would make for a better league'.

By Kelly Dwyer

Zach LaVine and Andrew Wiggins were born the same year the Wolves drafted Kevin Garnett. (Getty Images)

Following sports often forces us to balance how we utilize our own value systems in real life versus what we instinctually want to react to as fans. It’s a tough give and take that often sees people rooting against movements and for decisions that we wouldn’t want applied to us personally.

For years, the casual NBA fan was told to ready themselves for a killer 2014 NBA draft. Several teams started out the 2013-14 season by dumping personnel in hopes of establishing good position in the league’s draft lottery, in anticipation of a bevy of fantastic young players. Nearly a month into the season, however, the league’s rookie class is more than underwhelming. Nobody is calling the class a bust – far from it – but none of the expected standouts have even put up an average Player Efficiency Rating thus far. The top overall selection, Minnesota’s Andrew Wiggins, needed a 29-point, five-rebound game on Saturday just to bump his numbers up to 12.5 points and 3.5 rebounds in just under 29 minutes a contest.
 

The reason nobody is calling this class a bust is because its lead dog, the aforementioned Mr. Wiggins, won’t turn 20 until after the season’s midpoint. Most of his lottery contemporaries are around the same age, as this year’s vaunted class is getting paid to develop on company time. The NBA long ago stated that it wanted to change this, and raise its minimum age limit to 20 or even 21, but it would need the players’ approval for such a move, and the players’ union has opposed the move.
 

In a discussion with Chuck Klosterman at GQ, NBA commissioner Adam Silver explained why:

Why can't you do that now? If it's possible to dictate that players can't sign until they're 19, why is making that age 20 any more complicated?

The reason we can't unilaterally do it is because it must be collectively bargained. We bargained with the union many years ago in order to move it from 18 to 19. Going to 20 was on the table during the last bargaining cycle [in 2011], but it was an issue we parked, having already lost several weeks of the season [due to the lockout], and we were anxious to get the season going. But it's something I hope to address in the near future.

What is the union's principal argument against raising the age limit? It seems like it would be good for everyone—the NBA, the college game, the physical development of the players.

Their principal argument is that it's a restriction on players. And as a philosophical argument, I totally understand that. Of course it's a restriction, in the same way a draft is a restriction. But our view is that it would make for a better league. You'd have more skilled players, more mature players. The draft would be better. It would be better for basketball in general. Strong college basketball is great for the NBA. And we know those players are eventually going to come to the NBA, whether they are 19 or 20 or 21.

For further background, the NBA’s age limit was 18 until 2005, when the National Basketball Players Association agreed with the NBA in collective bargaining agreement talks to move it to age 19. For decades, few players left college for the NBA before their junior year of college, much less jumped to the NBA straight from high school. Starting in 1995, however, scads of preps-to-pros prospects turned out – even if, ironically, the final year of age limit-less featured only one American high schooler taken in the first round, the currently unemployed Andrew Bynum.
 

The league’s players voted for a change to preserve roster spots for declining players, older players that would lose a gig if a team decided to draft a youngster in order to develop him. The Players Association has remained staunch in its opposition to any changes this time around, though, even though more and more teenagers are being selected by NBA teams later in the first round and into the second, selections used to garner a talent, rather than a contributor.

This is where a fan’s personal politics come into question.

If an NBA team wants to employ a basketball player at age 18, 19, or 20, they should seem to have earned the right to make such a decision, as the player has earned the right to be viewed as someone whose talents are valuable. Personally, I was paid to write about this league at that age, and restrictions on employment seem ridiculous and, if we want to get haughty over it, un-American.

The fan in me, however, doesn’t really want to wait around while 19-year old Noah Vonleh figures his game out. And the fan in me loves Noah Vonleh’s potential game. The fan in me is having too much fun watching all these veterans do their thing, and he doesn’t really mind waiting a few years for a bigger and better Noah Vonleh to make the NBA.

The American in me thinks it ridiculous that the NBA should get in the way of denying the Charlotte Hornets a chance to make Noah Vonleh a professional at age 18, however. The American in me also thinks it ludicrous that Noah Vonleh would have to work without compensation for an NCAA organization that packs more commercials on CBS into the final minutes of a game than ‘Big Bang Theory’ does for an entire episode.

(The snob in me wants to point out that, when it comes to ‘Big Bang Theory,’ I wouldn’t claim to know how many commercials are in an episode.)

The sportswriter and NBA follower in me also understands that the best possible thing for someone like Noah Vonleh’s development in his chosen profession is to be selected by an NBA team. He’ll receive the best coaching he possibly can, he’ll be allowed to practice without NCAA restriction, he’ll be forced to earn his way amongst the game’s best players, and he’ll be forced to do it over the course of an 82-game season. Even if Noah Vonleh won’t play in half of those games, he’ll still have played more than he would have as an Indiana Hoosier.

Experience is no sure bulwark when it comes to adapting to the NBA. Doug McDermott, a four-year senior and last year’s NCAA Player of the Year, has a 5.8 PER (15 is average) and is routinely being torched defensively. Fellow Chicago Bull Nikola Mirotic, widely considered to be the best international player in the game prior to this season, needed a 24 and 11 game on Friday to move his PER into the realm of the passable, and he’s the only member of this year’s rookie class to contribute a double-double thus far.

It’s true that two members of the same team shouldn’t probably be used as benchmarks for how the 20-somethings would perform, and it’s also true that Andrew Wiggins’ time as a teenager is best served in the presence of the Minnesota Timberwolves, despite our deep respect for the folks at Kansas University. An age limit guarantees absolutely nothing.

As humans first and fans second, though, where should we fall on this?

Kap: Cubs have made 'significant' offer to Jon Lester.

By Tony Andracki

Jon Lester is still one of the biggest dominos to fall in Major League Baseball's offseason.

It's not even December yet, but Lester has already drawn interest from the St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves and San Francisco Giants in addition to the Boston Red Sox - his former team - and the Cubs.

During his "Kap and Haugh" radio show Tuesday morning, CSN's David Kaplan shared the latest info he had from sources on the Cubs' pursuit of Lester:

"What I'm hearing is the Chicago Cubs have made a significant offer - significant north of $135 million," Kaplan said.

Kap also said he's hearing the Cubs' offer would be for six years.

Now that the Giants lost out on Pablo Sandoval - who was announced with the Red Sox Tuesday on a five-year deal worth approximately $100 million - the San Francisco front office has turned its attention to Lester in an attempt to build off the club's third World Series championship in five years.

"The other thing that I'm hearing is, the Giants aren't just making cursory interest," Kaplan said.

"They are definitely interested."

Kap also said the Giants may "kick the tires" on trading for Cubs utility infield Luis Valbuena as part of a possible Sandoval replacement option at third base.

But what if the Giants - or another club - beat out the Cubs in the Lester sweepstakes?

Kap, David Haugh and Ben Finfer didn't go so far as to say Cubs fans would be "upset" if they miss out on Lester, but they settled on "disappointed" as the term to describe the range of emotions for the fan base.

Even with the Cardinals and Braves involved, Kap still thinks it comes down to the Cubs, Red Sox and Giants for Lester's services.

White Sox continue to show they want to contend in 2015.

By Dan Hayes

There’s plenty of walking ahead but the White Sox have begun the offseason at a strenuous pace.

Not only have Rick Hahn and Kenny Williams repeatedly voiced their displeasure with the previous state of the club, they’ve spent the first portion of free agency acting upon it.

There’s no denying a team that has accrued 188 losses the past two seasons still has plenty of work to go. But with Adam LaRoche and Zach Duke already in the fold, perhaps fulfilling two significant holes, and still a good amount of money left, the White Sox have made it clear they’re serious about a quick turnaround. Their message is one of the reasons LaRoche, who finalized a two-year, $25-million deal with the club on Tuesday, is intrigued to join the White Sox.

 “Everything I’m hearing is saying that they are not satisfied,” LaRoche said on a conference call. “I heard Rick say it toward the end of his conference that he may never be satisfied. There may never be a situation where, ‘OK, we have all the pieces we need.’ I think they are always trying to improve and I think that’s probably why I got the phone call from them to start moving in that direction.”

LaRoche isn’t a cure-all for every need as the team seeks its first postseason appearance since 2008.

But he satisfies several requirements in providing the White Sox a left-handed power bat to place in between Jose Abreu and Avisail Garcia in the lineup and a veteran leader for a clubhouse that could use one. Hahn said after the signing leaked he heard from many front office officials and scouts who raved about LaRoche’s leadership.

LaRoche’s credentials on the field speak for themselves as he brings a career 114 OPS-plus, 243 home runs, including six seasons with at least 25, and a 2012 Gold Glove Award with him to the South Side.

Same as they did with Duke, the White Sox made a hard push for LaRoche early in free agency: “They came in strong right out of the gate and showed their interest and commitment,” he said. LaRoche will earn $12 million in 2015 and $13 million in 2016.

Hahn said he didn’t have to try to sell much to LaRoche, who has fond memories from when his father, Dave LaRoche, was the White Sox bullpen coach from 1989-91. LaRoche recalls summers full of positive interactions with manager Robin Ventura and current bullpen coach Bobby Thigpen. The veteran slugger also knows a little about the team’s strong young core and how Hahn hopes he can help the team mature.

“A lot of this sells itself,” Hahn said. “Plus being in Chicago and playing for an organization that has a good reputation in the game and a coaching staff that people want to play for.

“They understand the time horizon presented by having certain special core players under control and what they want to hear is how they fit as part of it. We are looking for the right type of person in free agency who wants to be part of that, and I think that resonated with Zach and Adam.”

Whether or not the horizon can be reached by next season remains to be seen. The White Sox still have several more key needs to fill, including a starting pitcher, another bullpen arm and a left fielder. While they have the desire and financial wherewithal to satisfy those requirements, there are no guarantees in free agency or on the trade market.

But those aren’t their only obstacles to playing into October.

“(These moves are) improving things that you were deficient in the year before,” Ventura said. “Rick’s identifying that and I’m excited about that. Whether it’s enough to be able to overcome two teams that are very good, one went to the World Series and one won the division, is another story. You’re going to have see how it ends up and how many more moves we’re able to make and improvements.”

Based off Hahn’s desire to turn it around quickly, Williams stating he “no longer wants to take it on the chin” and reports from Duke and LaRoche the front office has more moves to make, it would seem the White Sox don’t just intend to talk the talk this offseason.

LaRoche would love to play a role in yet another reclamation project after going to the postseason twice with the Nationals, who lost 298 games over three seasons prior to his arrival. He won’t know if the White Sox are capable of a similar turnaround until he joins his next team in February.

But so far, LaRoche likes what he has heard.

“I like the challenge of coming into a team that has not proved itself but is on the way and is looking to take over the division,” LaRoche said. “I've been in a couple of those situations and it's fun because when it works out in the end, and hopefully that's during my time, but when it does it's pretty rewarding to know that you're a big part of that organization turning it around.”

Golf: I got a club for that; More seeds for a global tour in golf.

By DOUG FERGUSON (AP Golf Writer)

The PGA Tour has small circuits in Latin America, Canada and China. Commissioner Tim Finchem spoke in 2010 about golf heading toward a ''world tour,'' even though he wasn't sure what it would look like or when it would all come together.

It's worth paying attention to the activity of players over the last month.

Brandt Snedeker was in Japan for the Bridgestone Open. Jordan Spieth was in Japan last week at the Dunlop Phoenix, and he's at the Australian Open this week. Webb Simpson was in Japan. Jason Dufner went to Thailand.

Finchem wants to see golf get through the 2016 Olympics - and the schedule problems that will present - before looking too far ahead.

''We need at least two and maybe three years of looking at the schedule in this environment with the wraparound,'' he said earlier this month in Shanghai. ''We need that experience before we start tinkering. In terms of fundamental schedule, we're at least another year away from starting to think about that.''

But when asked about a world tour, Finchem made it sound as though the three satellite tours could be part of a larger, global picture.

''I think what we're going to do - and are doing - is watching carefully not just this tour in China, but also South America and Canada,'' he said. ''And we're spending more time evaluating the other core tours - the Asian Tour, Australia, South Africa - understanding more about co-sanctioning between Europe and some of these other tours. We're just asking ourselves, overall, what's the best mix?''

''Those two things dovetail,'' he said. ''We need to get a better sense of what the Olympics are going to do on the weeks it's played and the weeks around it. And then that kind of feeds into the world schedule.''

Finchem said it was a ''possibility'' of co-sanctioning an event in Australia, though it didn't sound as if the PGA Tour was headed in that direction.

Australia now has four big events on world schedule - the Masters, Open and PGA, along with Perth on the European Tour. This week in Sydney features Nos. 1 and 2 in the world with Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott, along with Spieth.

''We've got more big events around the world that are linked to the PGA Tour,'' Scott said. ''I think the ball is really in their court as to what direction we want to go. It certainly has got the power to dictate to tournaments when they are and where they are. ... If I was the Australian Open or one of the other tournaments, I'd be knocking on Tim Finchem's door and trying to make it a World Golf Championship.''

---

 

HE'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS: U.S. Open champion Martin Kaymer is looking forward to the holidays, and for good reason. The German will be home for Christmas for the first time since 2006.

Kaymer also has a place in Arizona, and for the last seven years, he felt the need to stay in the desert to make sure he was prepared for a new season. After winning a second major, and The Players Championship, it's time to celebrate.

''The last seven years I've been in Phoenix on my own. I don't want to do that again,'' Kaymer said. ''I always went in the beginning of December and stayed four or five weeks. It was difficult to have Christmas, your birthday (Dec. 28) and New Year's Eve in a different country, with not many friends.

You know what's happening at home. But for me, it always was important to prepare for tournaments. I wanted success. Now, I have success.

''But that time of the year, you should enjoy it more, especially when you've had a year like that.''

There are significant differences between Christmas in Arizona and Christmas in Germany.

''It's so weird when they put lights on the cactus,'' Kaymer said. ''It's not cold. I like that hot wine we drink on the Christmas market in Germany. In Phoenix, we drink ice cold water. It doesn't feel like Christmas. I didn't really have Christmas the last seven years, and I do miss it. And I really want to go home this year.''

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EUROPEAN ROOKIE: The Americans have cornered the market when it comes to rookie of the year on the European Tour.

The tour announced Tuesday that Brooks Koepka won the Sir Henry Cotton award as Europe's top rookie. Koepka finished at No. 8 in the Race to Dubai, helped immensely by his victory in the Turkish Airlines Open. He also had four other top 10s, including the U.S. Open.
 

Koepka won the award over Tyrell Hatton of England.

Peter Uihlein was European Tour rookie of the year last season. Uihlein and Koepka often traveled together and are roommates when both are home in Florida.
 

''I've worked so hard this year, and to see the results is fun,'' Koepka said. ''To cap the year off with a win in Turkey has made this year special, and it's a goal I've been working for since I was able to come out on tour, and that was the goal starting the year.
 

''To win rookie of the year, you look at all the guys who have won it, especially last year - Pete Uihlein - so at least we can keep it in the house.''

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ROAD TO ST. ANDREWS: The Australian Open already has the top two players in the world in Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott. It also marks the start of British Open qualifying, with the leading three players from the top 10 on Sunday exempt into St. Andrews.

Only six players at The Australian Golf Club already are exempt to the British Open - McIlroy and Scott, Jordan Spieth, John Senden, Geoff Ogilvy and U.S. Amateur champion Yang Gunn of South Korea.

The Australian Open is the first of 14 tournaments in nine countries on five continents that comprise the Open Qualifying Series, offering a total of 44 spots.

---

DIVOTS: The LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals said Tuesday that Shirley Englehorn of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Donna White of West Palm Beach, Florida, will be inducted into its Hall of Fame next year. ... Tiger Woods has lost more world ranking points this year (341.927) than all but two players - Rory McIlroy (565.132) and Bubba Watson (390.961) have earned. ... Americans have 26 players in the top 50 in the world, up from 22 at this time last year.

---

STAT OF THE WEEK: For the first time, the LPGA Tour had three players top $2 million in earnings for the season.

---

FINAL WORD: ''I always say just have fun. That's a big key, I think, to having a long career.'' - Lydia Ko, who already has five LPGA Tour wins at age 17.

McIlroy eyes green jacket after stellar 2014.

Reuters; By Matt Smith, Editing by Ian Chadband

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland watches his shot from the second tee during the final round of the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai November 23, 2014. (REUTERS/Nikhil Monteiro)

As he picked up the European money list trophy for the second time in three seasons on Sunday, Rory McIlroy had two words to say when asked for his goals for 2015: "Green Jacket".

To golfers, that phrase means one thing -- winning the U.S. Masters, the only major championship to elude the Northern Irishman.

"It's not something I thought possible, I will work hard and make sure I'm ready for that," McIlroy told reporters after tying for second at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, the European Tour season-ender.

Winning in Augusta will be tough -- no European has done it since Jose Maria Olazabal in 1999 -- yet world number one McIlroy is well equipped to end the drought after a season in which he claimed a maiden British Open title, a second U.S. PGA crown and two other European Tour victories.

"In terms of ball striking, I've driven it better, which is a huge part of my game," McIlroy told reporters.

"When I drive it well I can give myself shorter irons into greens and more opportunities for birdies. My mid-range putting has been very good this year."

The 25-year-old admitted the pressure of being the world's best had been difficult to handle.

"I used to be uncomfortable. There's added scrutiny and there's added criticism," said McIlroy. "But I learned to deal with it. It's just part of the title. I want to keep it for as long as I possibly can."

McIlroy's 2014 resurgence happened despite off-course dramas. He split up with his fiancee, tennis player Caroline Wozniacki, and is involved in a legal dispute with his former agents which led him to miss some tournaments.

"I learned a lot from it. I feel I came through this year stronger and wiser and can go into 2015 in a much better place," said McIlroy.

He said he was encouraged to finish just adrift of Dubai winner Henrik Stenson despite three undistinguished rounds following Thursday's opening 66.

"It's a really big positive, not just going into next year, but the rest of my career," McIlroy added.

"In seasons gone by, a bad week for me would have been middle of the pack or if there was a cut, maybe battling to make the cut."

Stacy Lewis sweeps 3 biggest LPGA awards.

By DOUG FERGUSON (AP Golf Writer)

Stacy Lewis of the United States speaks during a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014. Malaysia will host the LPGA Malaysia golf tournament from Oct. 9-12. (AP Photo/Lai Seng Sin)

Stacy Lewis became the first American in 21 years to sweep the three biggest awards on the LPGA Tour, which she considered more valuable than a $1 million bonus.

Lewis closed with a 1-under 71 in the CME Group Tour Championship on Sunday, tied for ninth in the LPGA Tour finale. But it was enough for her to win LPGA Tour player of the year for the second time in three seasons. She also won the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average and the money title.

The last American to sweep the awards was Betsy King in 1993.

''The $1 million would have been nice,'' said Lewis, who was six shots out of a playoff. ''But those three, that's what I came here for. ... It's been hard to play the last four days, and it's nice to be done. I didn't have my best stuff. I'm pretty surprised to finish where I did.''

Two years ago, the 29-year-old Lewis became the first American since Beth Daniel to win the points-based player of the year. She added the Vare Trophy a year ago. And on Sunday, she collected all three at the same time.

Inbee Park, the No. 1 in the world, was the only player who could have kept Lewis from the awards. She trailed in all of them, but struggled all week at Tiburon Golf Club and finished in a tie for 24th, four shots worse than Lewis.

Lewis finished atop the money list with $2,539,039, more than $300,000 over Park. Her scoring average was 69.532, while Park was second at 69.682. Michelle Wie was third in the Vare Trophy standings (69.818), followed by So Yeon Ryu at 69.978.

It was the first time in LPGA history that four women had a sub-70 scoring average.

Lewis felt as much stress this week as at any major, mainly because Park was on a roll and Lewis was struggling. She received one good omen Saturday night when her family ordered Chinese food and her father tossed her a fortune cookie.

Lewis kept it in her pocket during the final day of the tournament and read it aloud to the media when she was done: ''Good news of long-awaited event will arrive soon.''

''The last couple of weeks have been tough,'' Lewis said. ''The game hasn't been exactly where I wanted it to be. I figured (Park would) keep it rolling this week, and I knew I needed to find something. It was probably four of the hardest rounds of golf I've ever played.''

Lewis won three times this year, though she failed to do so at a major. Still, she wouldn't trade what she ended up with.

''Before this week, it was good. Now it's a little bit better,'' Lewis said when asked to measure her year. ''I'd like to have taken a major championship. But winning these three awards makes it almost great.''

NASCAR Illustrated: Chase Elliott is NASCAR's next big star*

By Matt Crossman

Old people, young people, men, women, boys and girls, line up three-wide across the parking lot, and the autograph signing with Bill and Chase Elliott doesn't start for another 30 minutes. So many fans attend the event, pegged to the grand opening of a Field & Stream store, that the organizers run out of wristbands.

That 350-plus fans would show up at 11 a.m. on a Sunday in Raleigh, North Carolina, the day after the cutoff race at Richmond, nowhere near a race track, to get autographs from two men who do not drive in NASCAR's top series speaks to the Elliotts' popularity or NASCAR's or the lack of driver appearances in the area or all three.

Whatever the reason, the line moves briskly, or at least as briskly as possible, all things considered. Bill Elliott, the NASCAR Hall of Famer, sits on the table, and Chase Elliott, Bill's son and NASCAR's next big thing, sits behind it. Each has a Sharpie in his hand and more within reach, in case the ink runs dry or fans want their items signed in silver instead of black.

Father and son scrawl their names on shirts and die-cast cars and hats and even, in Chase's case, the hands of two blonde women, and in Bill's case, a clock made of shellacked wood with his picture on it. Plus, hero cards. Lots and lots of hero cards. Some of them sit in a pile to Chase's right and feature father and son together. Many fans bring hero cards that are quite literally older than Chase.

A man slides one across the table. "Your dad signed that in 1989," he said.

That's six years before Chase was born. Chase's new signature joins his dad's old one.
"I've been watching your dad since 1985," a woman announces when she arrives in front of Chase. She is wearing a Chase Elliott T-shirt and appears old enough to be his grandmother. "I remember when you were born."

And so it goes, two hours worth of fans sharing their Elliott stories -- some about Bill and some about Chase and all of them intertwined in the Elliott family's rich racing history.

Chase was a constant presence in his dad's late-career resurgence in the early 2000s, cheering him on as a young boy and joining his dad in victory celebrations. Today, Bill is a constant presence (in the background) as Chase's career takes off, cheering him on and offering the wise counsel borne of a Hall of Fame career. And while their roles have reversed, they still often find themselves in a familiar place: Victory Lane.

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When Alex Hayden of the Motor Racing Network introduces Bill and Chase at the autograph session, he uses a clever line: "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville and Chase from the same place."

Father and son share racing and NASCAR and speed and love for their hometown of Dawsonville, Georgia, and even a name. Chase's name is not, technically, Chase. He is William Clyde Elliott II, named after his dad. But shortly after Chase was born, a family friend told Chase's mom, Cindy, that he didn't look like a Bill. She called him Chase instead, and from then on, so did everybody else.

Chase was 6 the first time I "met" him. As I interviewed his dad in a small office, he sat quietly nearby. To keep Chase occupied, Bill gave him money to buy Peanut M&M's from a vending machine, and then Bill parceled them out to Chase during the interview.
I meet Chase "again" in another small office, this one in the back of the Field & Stream in Raleigh. His dad finds something far better than candy to keep himself occupied: a crossbow (more on that later).

Chase and I talk about racing, of course, but also about his love for the Atlanta Braves and Georgia Bulldogs, his (lack of) prowess as a right fielder on a softball team with his buddies, and how the fact he still lives in Dawsonville with his parents (and near his buddies) reflects his desire not to be consumed with racing every hour of every day. That's a sign he's comfortable in his own skin, an important trait, given the way the industry devours young drivers.

Chase will not have to learn that racing is a business, and sometimes a cutthroat one. Because he grew up in the sport, he has always known that. This is where Bill has had the biggest influence on Chase's career. Sponsor appearances, autograph signings, interviews -- none of that is new to him because he's gone with his dad to such events his whole life.

"I think enjoying and balancing your time away from the race track is as important as the effort you put into it at the race track -- making sure you have that good balance," Chase said. "You have to make sure you're 110 percent in, but at the same time, you've got to enjoy your time off. Those days are important."

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Chase started racing at a young age in Colorado after convincing his mother he'd rather go fast and turn left than take up golf. He outgrew the racing scene there, and the family moved back to Dawsonville so he could launch a stock car career. The NASCAR world has known Chase is a budding star for years, at least since he signed a developmental deal with Hendrick Motorsports in 2011. But his emergence in the Nationwide Series has still shocked industry insiders.

Nobody foresaw this much success so soon with so little failure. Rookies drive over their heads or hit the fence or run out of talent in Turn 2. Not Chase. His first full season in a national touring series has been unprecedented.

He clinched the Nationwide championship with one race to go. All season long, Chase finished off of the lead lap only once, and that was because of a crash. His only other "bad" finishes (15th, 19th and 20th) came at restrictor-plate tracks, and even in those, and even in those, he still finished on the lead lap.

He picked up his first Nationwide win at Texas in just his sixth start, a huge deal made bigger because he blew past Kevin Harvick, a perennial championship contender at the Sprint Cup level. As big as that was, Chase's win at Darlington Raceway the next week was bigger -- star-is-born bigger, get-that-kid-in-a-Cup-car bigger. And while that came at a place where his dad won five times, Chase did it in a way his old man never could have imagined.

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Darlington Raceway calls itself the Wrigley Field of NASCAR because so much history has happened there. Next year, Darlington will host the Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend for the first time since 2003. Darlington hired Bill and Chase Elliott to promote the event -- even though neither one of them will race in it. The track sees Bill as a nod to NASCAR's old-school history, and Chase as a nod to its new-school future.

His win there in April was as new-school as they come.

Before arriving at Darlington Raceway for his first career race there on April 11, Chase, then still a senior in high school, studied like he was preparing for a test. He searched the Internet and found the in-car camera recording for Kyle Busch's win in the previous season there.

Chase watched all 147 of Busch's laps -- and more important than that, he listened, trying to discern the change in the sound of the motor for evidence of how Busch worked the throttle. He rewound, re-watched and re-listened -- searching for clues about how Busch navigated Darlington, widely considered the most difficult oval in NASCAR.

Then, during practice, Elliott tucked in behind the fastest drivers to watch how they handled the track. He does that before every race and picks the same drivers almost every time -- Busch, Harvick and whoever's driving the No. 22 that week (Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney share the car).

On top of that preparation, Elliott's JR Motorsports team gave him a fast car, as it has all season. Chase led 51 of the first 145 laps and stayed in contention until the final pit stops, from which he came out sixth with two laps left. His chance for a win seemed lost. Bill, watching from Chase's pit, left to go get his car from the parking lot, because nobody wins at Darlington when restarting sixth with two laps to go.

But Chase said because he restarted in the outside lane, the fastest all night, it was like he was in third. He reached second by the drop of the white flag. When leader Elliott Sadler, with two fresh tires to Chase's four, got sideways coming out of Turn 2 on the final lap, Chase zipped by him on his way to the checkered flag.

Even Chase's crewmembers seemed stunned. As smoke billowed from the tires as Chase carved a burnout near the start-finish line, his gasman stood on pit lane, with his hands on his head in disbelief.

Bill made it back in time to join Chase in Victory Lane.

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After that, the speculation about Elliott's future intensified. Rick Hendrick said he expects Elliott will run a handful of Cup races next season -- likely in the second half of the year, which in NASCAR's super-hyped environment might as well be next century.

A few people in line for Chase's autograph at Field and Stream ask him when he's going to go Cup racing. That's not his favorite line of questioning, because it's not his decision and because many drivers have rushed to Cup too fast and flamed out. Chase doesn't want to be the next one to do that.

As great as Chase's first Nationwide season has been, perspective is needed: He is 18. He lives with his parents. He graduated from high school in May. The difference between the next cautionary tale and the next great driver is the difference between impatience and patience. Chase sounds content to keep driving the fast cars JR Motorsports gives him every week and wait for the right Cup opportunity, not a rushed one.

"I definitely have goals and expectations that I put on myself. That is for me to do only," he said. "For anybody else to do that, it's their decision, but at the end of the day, it's irrelevant. To me, at least. You can't let that stuff get to you or bother you. The only expectations to pay attention to are the ones you put upon yourself."

 And there's a deeper, more personal reason for Chase to enjoy the moment and not to look too far ahead.

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The first person who held Chase on the day he was born was his cousin, Casey Elliott. Casey, then 21, was the son of Bill's brother Ernie, a legendary NASCAR engine builder. A few years earlier, Casey had been an up-and-coming driver who was seen as the next great Elliott to take over after Bill retired. But in 1994, he was diagnosed with cancer. As Casey held Chase, just minutes old, he was dying.

Cindy Elliott sees in that moment a brief but deep bond between cousins, one racer to another, one near death, one just born, a passing of the torch from one heir apparent to the next. Casey died less than two months later.

"Casey's comment was, 'I had never held such a brand new life. It was just totally and completely unbelievable,'" Cindy said. "I'll never forget that. It was such a blessing, and it always has been, for Chase's whole life. I just feel like he blessed him somehow when he held him that day. I can only, in my mind, imagine the power. To me, that's a precious thought."

Chase never met Casey, at least not in any way he can remember. But he has heard stories about him and wishes he had gotten to know his cousin.

"I feel like we definitely would get along," he said. "We seem to have the same interests. He loved racing, loved short track racing. Before he got sick, he was doing a good job. I really think he'd be successful in Cup right now if he was still around. I hate that things happened the way they did."

Cindy and Bill talk to Chase often about Casey. As Bill told "USA Today:" "Having Chase racing reminds us all of Casey. We all had high hopes for Casey, and then everything changed almost overnight. It was tough for everybody. I talk to Chase about that a lot and remind him that you can't take anything for granted, that you have to enjoy every moment as you go along. You don't know how long you'll have it."
 
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After the autograph signing, a Field & Stream employee asks Bill and Chase whether they want to try out the store's crossbow range. Neither has shot a crossbow, so they, of course, say yes. Someone makes a William Tell, shoot-an-apple-off-of-a-head joke, and Bill pulls a dime out of his pocket, suggesting he should shoot that off of someone's head.

Nobody volunteers to let him try.

Father and son step into the range. Chase fires first. His arrow flies across the 20-yard tunnel and hits near the middle of the target and a few inches high of the bull's eye.

He shoots again and misses the bull's eye by an inch to the right.

He smiles. He turns and hands the weapon to his dad.

"Try this," he said.

Bill's first shot nearly splits Chase's first shot.

The crossbow instructor walks to the target and pulls the arrows out. When he returns to the firing area, he demonstrates how close the shots, one from the father and one from the son, were together.

"Like this," he said, and he holds up his hand with his index finger and middle finger touching each other.

Lionel Messi sets Champions League career scoring record with hat trick in Barcelona win.

By Joe Lago

Barcelona's Lionel Messi celebrates with teammates scoring his side's 4th goal during a Champions League Group F soccer match between APOEL and FC Barcelona at GSP stadium, in Nicosia, Cyprus, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Another game, another hat trick, another all-time scoring record for Lionel Messi.

Three days after becoming La Liga's top career scorer, the Barcelona magician produced a hat trick in a 4-0 win over APOEL Nicosia to give him 74 goals in the UEFA Champions League and eclipse Real Madrid legend Raul's old mark of 71.
 

Messi broke Raul's record in the 38th minute by redirecting Rafinha's shot into the low left corner, then added a second goal 20 minutes later with another right-footed finish. He completed the hat trick in the 87th minute.
 

Here is Messi's history-making moment of career goal No. 72 in club soccer's top competition:

On Saturday, Messi scored three times in a 5-1 victory over Sevilla to set the all-time Spanish League goals mark with 253, a record held for 49 years by Athletic Bilbao's Telmo Zarra with 251. Messi's grip on the Champions League mark, however, could be temporary.

Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo has 70 Champions League goals and will be looking to add to his career total against Basel on Wednesday.
 

Who'll end up No. 1 on the list? That's like trying to predict where Messi would go if he did the unthinkable and left Barcelona. Either way, soccer fans will be the big winners. Because they'll get to watch two of the game's all-time greats in their prime try to one up each other.
 

Your move, Ronaldo.

UEFA Champions League roundup: Chelsea wins group, Man City's late show, classy PSG.

By Joe Prince-Wright

An eventful evening of UEFA Champions League action saw plenty of drama, goals and heartache as eight matches in Groups E-H took place.

Manchester City snatched a late win against Bayern Munich to boost their last 16 chances, while Chelsea smashed five past Schalke to top their group.

Lionel Messi broke the all-time UCL scoring record as Barcelona romped past APOEL, while there were also wins for PSG, Sporting Lisbon, Bilbao and FC Porto.

Catch up on all the action with recaps on all eight games below, as there is just one UCL matchday left for these 16 teams.

GROUP E

Manchester City 3-2 Bayern Munich – RECAP

Aguero was the hero as he bagged a hat trick to hand City a UCL lifeline. The tiny Argentine striker put City 1-0 up from the spot as Mehdi Benatia was sent off but Bayern shockingly went ahead with just 10-men as goals from Xabi Alonso and Robert Lewandowski stunned City. Aguero scored two in the final five minutes to set up an epic showdown with AS Roma in two weeks time. City know a win or a score draw in Rome, coupled with a Bayern win over CSKA, will see them go through. They are still alive.

CSKA Moscow 1-1 AS Roma

Roma took the lead in freezing Moscow thanks to Francesco Totti’s powerful free kick but crucially gave up an equalizer with the last kick of the game which could cost them dear. Defender Berezoutski looped in a cross in the final minute which missed everyone and went in, as Roma must now beat City at home to seal qualification to the last 16 or draw 0-0 and hope CSKA lose to Bayern. Any score draw with City and a defeat for CSKA to Bayern will result in Roma crashing out. Okay? Head hurt yet? Permutations galore…

GROUP F

APOEL Nicosia 0-4 FC Barcelona

A hat trick from Messi (all with his right foot) did the damage as he became the UCL’s all-time leading scorer and Luis Suarez also scored his first Barca goal to give the Catalan club an easy win. Now they face PSG at home in their final group and must win to go top of Group F.

Paris Saint-Germain 3-1 Ajax

Two goals from Edinson Cavani and a strike from Zlatan Ibrahimovic kept PSG top of Group F. Davy Klaassen scored a superb diving header to level things up, but the Dutch champions were outclassed in the French capital. A draw or win at Barca will see PSG win the group.

GROUP G

Schalke 0-5 Chelsea – RECAP

Jose Mourinho’s men sealed top in Group G with an emphatic win in Germany, as they have set themselves up for a good draw in the last 16. Goals from John Terry, Willian, an own goal from Kirchhoff, Didier Drogba and Ramires made it an unhappy night for former Champions League-winning Blues Roberto Di Matteo and his Schalke side. A win away at Maribor in their final game could send Schalke through to the knockout round.

Sporting Lisbon 3-1 Maribor

Goals from Cardoso Mane, Nani and Islam Slimani secured the win for Sporting and they scored an own goal through Nascimento just to keep things interesting. Going into the final group game they are in second place, two points ahead of Schalke, but face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge knowing a defeat could see them miss out on a spot in the last 16.

GROUP H

BATE Borisov 0-3 FC Porto

Goals from Hector Herrera, Jackson Martinez and Christian Tello sealed top spot in Group H for the Portuguese side as they battered bottom side BATE.

Shakhtar Donetsk 0-1 Athletic Bilbao

The Spaniards sealed their first UCL win of the season thanks to San Jose’s goal, even though a shocking hand ball late on denied Shakhtar a clear equalizer in Ukraine. Shakhthar were already through to the last 16.

No changes at the top of the CFP rankings, Boise State and Marshall emerge

By Graham Watson

For the first time since the College Football Playoff rankings first surfaced five weeks ago, the top of the rankings are unchanged.

After a lackluster weekend where some teams didn’t play, and others played and blew out weaker competition, the committee dug its heels in with its top seven and will let rivalry week and championship week sort out the top 4.

 

CFP rankings for Week 14.  Alabama, which beat Western Carolina last weekend, held on to the top spot, while Oregon, Florida State, Mississippi State, TCU, Ohio State and Baylor all followed. UCLA moved up to the No. 8 spot with its win against USC. The Bruins are the highest ranked two-loss team and could make a case for getting into the playoff if they win out. However, that would include a win against the Ducks and might have to jump several one-loss teams ahead of it.

 

The most interesting thing about this week’s rankings weren't at the top, but rather the bottom where two teams from outside the Power Five conferences emerged for the first time since the first week of these rankings. Boise State appeared at No. 23 and undefeated Marshall showed up at No. 24.

Until now, East Carolina had been the only non-Power Five team to appear in the rankings.

 

This is interesting because the highest-ranked non-Power Five conference champion will play in a prestigious New Year’s Six Bowl. Of course, Marshall has the easiest path with a game against Western Kentucky to round out the regular season and a date against either Louisiana Tech or Rice in the Conference USA title game.

Boise State still has to play Utah State and if it wins that game, it will play one of a handful of teams in the Mountain West title game.

In the end, the No. 4 spot is still the most closely contested. Committee chairman Jeff Long said Mississippi State is holding strong to the spot, but it still has to play its rival, Ole Miss, this week. TCU, Ohio State and Baylor all have two games remaining, including the Big Ten Championship for the Buckeyes and the Bears highly-anticipated matchup against No. 12 Kansas State.

Point. Poll: FBS coaches prefer eight-team playoff to four-team playoff.

By Sam Cooper

College Football Playoff Executive Director Bill Hancock poses with he College Football Playoff National Championship Trophy, Monday, July 14, 2014, in Irving, Texas. A rising gold football-shaped trophy will be the prize for the national champion in the new College Football Playoff. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

The first College Football Playoff has not been played yet, but FBS coaches are already in favor of a change.

According to a poll conducted by ESPN in which 103 of 128 FBS coaches participated, 44 percent of those coaches prefer an eight-team playoff compared to 29 percent in favor of the four-team model.

On top of that, 17 percent of those polled want the playoff expanded to 16 teams.

Other coaches voted for no playoff at all (four percent), a six-team playoff (two percent), a 12-team playoff (two percent), plus one vote each for a two-team playoff, a 32-team playoff and a 64-team playoff.

The poll found that many coaches who prefer the eight-team model think the playoff should consist of “the conference champions from the Power 5 leagues plus the next three highest-ranked at-large teams, or the top-ranked Group of 5 champion and the two highest-ranked at-large teams.”

The conference breakdown for the votes went like this:

More than half of the coaches (53 percent) from the Power 5 conferences (ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12) who voted chose an eight-team playoff, compared with 33 percent for the four-team model. The coaches who voted from the Group of 5 conferences (American, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West and Sun Belt) preferred an eight-team playoff (39 percent). However, 25 percent of the Group of 5 coaches wanted a 16-team playoff, slightly below the 26 percent who voted for a four-team playoff.

The College Football Playoff has a 12-year contract with ESPN and CFP executive director Bill Hancock has said on numerous occasions that there have been no talks of expanding beyond four teams. Despite that, ACC commissioner John Swofford – a member of the CFP management committee – said last week that an eight-team format “would probably be ideal.”

Swofford said he thinks the debate on a four-team playoff vs. an eight-team playoff is going to stick around for a while.

"You have four teams that get a chance to play for the national championship, which is twice as many as before," Swofford said. "But whoever's fifth or sixth is not going to be happy. There will be some [Power 5] conferences that won't have a team in the playoff."

Counterpoint. Why it's a bad idea to further expand college football's playoff field.

By Eric Adelson

For so long there's been steady clamor for a fairer way to crown a college football champion. The BCS arrived in 1998 and soon there was a movement for an expanded playoff. Now we are months into a four-team playoff system and it's already a source of aggravation. The weekly polls from the new selection committee have brought nebulous decisions based on "game control" and "eye tests." So of course it would seem the easy remedy is an eight-team playoff.

ACC commissioner John Swofford said recently that moving to eight would be "ideal," and 44 percent of coaches polled by ESPN agree. Another 17 percent want a 16-team playoff, and there were even votes for a 32-team playoff and a 64-team playoff.

This is all trending in an irresponsible direction. The desire to make things fairer has overlooked something quite unfair: adding games to an already burdensome and risky situation for players. Coaches, commissioners, pundits and fans all love the idea of more games, but those people don't have to go out there and get hit. The people with the most at stake have absolutely no voice in the matter. That's a problem.

The last year without any form of a title game was in 1997, when Michigan and Nebraska each went unbeaten and claimed a national championship. The Cornhuskers played 13 games; Michigan played 12. This season, it's likely that the national champion will play 15 games. That's a 25 percent increase, from 12 to 15, and yet another game would make it 16. So the potential is there for an extra season of games over four years for those who play for contending teams. Over the last decade, we've learned much more about the dangers of hits to the head, both in the short- and long-term. There has been much in the way of research, worry and hand wringing. Yet when talk of expanding the playoffs has come up, that concern for player welfare seems to vanish.

The talk of expanding to eight teams has come along at the same time as the news that former South Carolina star running back Marcus Lattimore retired from professional football, unable to fully rehab from knee injuries suffered in college. Georgia's Todd Gurley, similarly talented, tore his ACL this month and may see his draft status suffer because of it. Everyone is upset by these developments, but that worry doesn't seem to carry over to the playoff discussion. No one seems to stand up and ask why unpaid players should be put through as many games – 16, or as long as an NFL regular season – as paid players.

There is value in a college scholarship, but that value doesn’t increase commensurately if a team plays an extra week of football. And even if athletes are given a stipend of several thousand dollars, it surely won’t compare to pro salaries. Nor will it cover the costs of long-term health care. This isn’t just about players who suffer catastrophic injuries, some of whom are insured. Consider the offensive linemen, carrying around 300-plus pounds and holding back pass rushers dozens of times in every extra game. Most of those players are not insured, and so one awkward fall can cause a lot more than a couple nights of discomfort.

And no one seems to mind that these games are added in December and January, when players are theoretically supposed to be taking end-of-semester tests and seeing their families. Now there's still a full slate of games over Thanksgiving weekend, and championship games the following weekend.

Oh, but it's only one or two more games for eight teams, say the proponents. And yes, that's true. But that "just one more" philosophy has nudged us from 12 to 15 already. "What's one more?" is not a healthy question to ask when players don't have a union or long-term health care in place. Yes, injuries are part of the game and can happen to anyone who takes the field on any given day. But isn't that exactly the reason to be resistant to add any games? Isn't one career-threatening injury enough of a risk? If it isn't, how many would we need for the greed to stop?

Maybe the extra playoff games will be contingent on subtracting a regular season game. Perhaps an eight-team playoff will rid us of the conference championship games, which are poorly attended and often anti-climactic. Let's face it: Do we really need an afternoon in Atlanta to tell us Alabama is better than Georgia or Missouri?

Don't count on it. More than a few of the athletic departments behind the biggest football programs are struggling financially. There's not a lot of incentive to give up money-making games with corporate sponsors. And, since there's no players' union, there's no pushback. It's the same with the cupcake games against FCS teams played by most contending teams. There's some displeasure with those contests, but why give away a lucrative home gate just because one or two teams in the conference may have to play one more game in January? Again, "What's one more?" is a lot easier to ask than "What's one less?"

And we might not be moving toward a better system. Florida State is unbeaten and yet the Seminoles have been skewered for the way they've won games. They've moved from first to second to third in the rankings without losing. What does that say about the value of a victory? Oregon has leapt Florida State despite a loss and despite being the only winning team on its side of the Pac 12. Alabama also has a loss, and the Tide is ahead of both of those teams, basically because it plays in what's considered the top conference. Ohio State is currently out because of its one loss, even though quarterback J.T. Barrett has transformed himself from a raw freshman to a Heisman contender since that loss. The four-team playoff is an effort to "settle it on the field," yet this process seems decidedly unsettled.

This is in part because evaluations of teams can't be separated from evaluations of conferences. It's not just about how good Alabama is; it's about how good the SEC is. Since the SEC teams rarely go out of conference, and losses outside the conference are quickly dismissed (e.g. Missouri losing to Indiana), there's really no way to ever resolve these discussions. An eight-team playoff will only cause more focus on conference strength and less focus on the value of winning. Florida State is basically an SEC team, with the same geography, the same recruiting base, and the same beeline to the NFL (18 draft picks in two years), yet the Seminoles are considered a world apart because of the teams they play. The debate and irritation over the three at-large teams in an eight-team playoff will be just as fraught with bias as the current system is.

A four-team playoff allows two more teams into the mix, but an eight-team playoff would spark even more debate over whether one team's one loss is worse than another team's two losses. And we would likely see a two-loss team given the chance to play an unbeaten team in a two-game postseason. This year, that would mean a team like UCLA, with two losses including one to four-loss Utah, getting the same shot as an unbeaten Florida State team. Would that be more exciting? Sure. Any football is exciting. A 128-team playoff would be exciting. (It might even get Marshall into the playoff!) But is it worth the added risk to players, in search of a conclusion that we can probably arrive at anyway? No.

These debates take place in a vacuum, without enough regard for what can happen to a player in a single game. One of the most memorable BCS Championship Games took place between Ohio State and Miami in 2003, with the Buckeyes winning the game in the last minutes. Late in that game, 'Canes running back Willis McGahee went down with a serious knee injury that threatened his pro career. Every additional playoff game brings that danger. And if that injury happens in a quarterfinal game, it changes the semifinal and the final. Jameis Winston has been hobbled lately by injuries; if he gets hurt in this year's semifinal game, will we ever really know how good the Seminoles are?

In the end, maybe no one cares. Football brings fun and money, so more football brings more fun and more money. But adding games is something that can't really be rescinded. Once we're all used to a 15- or 16-game season, we're never going back to 12 or 13. An eight-team playoff seems like a good idea in theory, but the effects of it, like the injuries they might bring about, won't be reversible.

Chicago Sports & Travel, Inc./AllsportsAmerica would like to know, what kind of college football playoff tournament do you suggest? We'd love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to express yourself in the comment section and the bottom of this blog. Thanks. Marion P. Jelks, Chicago Sports & Travel, Inc./AllsportsAmerica blog editor.

NCAA Basketball Top Twenty Five (Monday, November 24, 2014).

By The Associated Press

The top 25 teams in The Associated Press' college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Nov. 23, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last week's ranking:

Record Pts Prv

 

1. Kentucky (62) 5-0 1,622 1
 

2. Wisconsin (3) 4-0 1,494 3
 
3. Arizona 3-0 1,491 2

 

4. Duke 5-0 1,474 4

5. North Carolina 3-0 1,314 6

6. Louisville 3-0 1,219 7

7. Texas 4-0 1,187 10

8. Virginia 4-0 1,165 9

9. Wichita St. 3-0 1,120 11

10. Gonzaga 4-0 1,077 13

11. Kansas 1-1 981 5

12. Villanova 3-0 917 12

13. Iowa St. 2-0 828 14

14. VCU 3-0 760 15

15. San Diego St. 3-0 736 16

16. Ohio St. 3-0 557 20

17. Miami 5-0 521 -

18. Florida 2-1 473 8

19. Michigan 3-0 401 24

20. Michigan St. 2-1 399 19

21. West Virginia 5-0 344 -

22. UCLA 4-0 173 -

23. Creighton 4-0 148 -

24. UConn 3-1 144 17

25. Arkansas 3-0 131 -

 

Others receiving votes: Oklahoma 108, Stanford 80, Providence 63, Utah 42, Minnesota 21, N. Iowa 17, Rhode Island 16, Syracuse 15, Oklahoma St. 14, Georgetown 10, Memphis 10, Baylor 7, Indiana 6, California 5, Illinois 5, Nebraska 5, Cincinnati 4, NC State 4, Wyoming 4, Dayton 3, Maryland 3, UTEP 3, BYU 2, Northeastern 1, Xavier 1.
 
On This Date in Sports History: Today is Wednesday, November 26, 2014.

Memoriesofhistory.com

1917 - The National Hockey League (NHL) was founded. The teams included were the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, Toronto Arenas, and Quebec Bulldogs. Frank Calder was elected as the first NHL president. He served from 1917 to 1943.

1958 - Maurice Richard (Montreal Canadiens) scored his 600th NHL career goal.

1982 - Howard Cossell called his last boxing match.

1984 - Guy Lafleur (Montreal Canadiens) announced he would retire after 14 years in the NHL.

1998 - Barry Sanders (Detroit Lions) became only the second running back in NFL history to run for more than 15,000 career yards.

1998 - Hulk Hogan announced that he was retiring from pro wrestling and would run for president in 2000.

2003 - Scott Stevens (New Jersey Devils) played in his 1,616th NHL game, breaking Larry Murphy's record for defensemen. Only three players had played more games than Stevens.

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