CS&T/AllsportsAmerica Monday Sports News Update, 01/05/2015.

Chicago Sports & Travel, Inc./AllsportsAmerica

"America's Finest Sports Fan Travel Club, May We Plan An Event Or Sports Travel For You?"

Chicago Sports & Travel, Inc./AllsportsAmerica would like to extend our deepest sympathy to the family of Stuart Scott, Longtime ESPN Sports Anchor that has succumbed to cancer. He was a terrific guy and a dedicated family man along with being a master of his craft. "When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live." ~ Stuart Scott

Rest well my friend, you will be sorely missed.

Sports Quote of the Day:

"It doesn't matter whether you are pursuing success in business, sports, the arts, or life in general: The bridge between wishing and accomplishing is discipline." ~ Harvey Mackay, Businessman, Author and Syndicated Columnist 

How 'bout them Chicago Blackhawks? Sharp tallies game-winner in overtime as Blackhawks defeat Stars 5-4.

By Nina Falcone

The Chicago Blackhawks celebrate their 5-4 overtime victory against the Dallas Stars during the NHL game at the United Center on January 4, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Bill Smith/NHLI via Getty Images)

A pattern began emerging from the time the puck dropped inside the United Center on Sunday night: Each time the Dallas Stars scored, the Blackhawks immediately followed.

That at least turned out to be the case throughout regulation as the Blackhawks answered all four of the Stars' goals as they pushed the game into overtime.

But once overtime began, that pattern flipped, and it was Patrick Sharp who tallied the game-winner in the Blackhawks' 5-4 victory.

"Probably not our best team game in a while," Sharp said. "But to come back and win the game against a division rival definitely feels good."

Stars captain Jamie Benn was the first to get on the board before Brandon Saad answered just over a minute later. That pattern continued to repeat itself throughout the night as Jordie Benn found the back of the net and Erik Cole scored twice, each followed by goals from Patrick Kane, Bryan Bickell and Brad Richards, respectively.

"It's tough chasing from behind, especially against a team like Dallas," Richards said. "It's something that's been happening lately. Credit our team for battling back most nights, but we could make it easier on ourselves with a better first period."

That initial goal from Jamie Benn marked the fifth straight game the Blackhawks have fallen behind in the first period.

It's something the Blackhawks aren't thrilled about, and the team's talked numerous times this season about the need to play a full, 60-minute game. But the Hawks never trailed for long on Sunday, and the team is feeling confident their issues with early-goal deficits will get worked out quickly.

"Firsts haven't been great. We came out of it 1-1, but we wouldn't like to give up the first goal," Richards said. "You could sit in here and have an hour meeting about that but hockey's hockey. You go out there and it's so fast, you never know what could happen.

"We'll have some focus on it but I think just play the right way and get our team game back in order and that'll probably take care of a lot of things."

Part of that includes making adjustments after injuries in a couple of areas.

Corey Crawford's posted just a .891 save percentage since returning from injury after recording a .929 prior to being sidelined. While those numbers aren't what they used to be, coach Joel Quenneville sees Crawford working to improve his performance.

"I think it's a work in progress to get him prior to injury as far as his play," he said. "He's been fine, but he was outstanding prior to that. I think we just have to keep working and pushing and recapturing that confidence."

The Blackhawks also welcomed highly-touted prospect Teuvo Teravainen into the lineup for the first time this season, who was called up after Kris Versteeg was injured at the Winter Classic.

Teravainen had 10:50 of ice time on Sunday, playing with a number of different linemates as the game went on. Quenneville was happy with what he saw and is looking forward to seeing Teravainen's game develop in future matchups.

"I don't mind him, I don't mind his game," Quenneville said. "He thinks the right way, defensively he likes to be above the puck and I think he'll start feeling his way around as far as who's on his line and start learning when there's time and when there's no time. But I still think he wants the puck and he's around it and I think he'll get better in those areas."

Overall, the Blackhawks weren't thrilled with the way they played on Sunday night. But at the end of the day, they were happy to "steal" the two points from the Stars and showed their resilience in another come-from-behind win.

"We struggled a little bit in certain areas, but we're a veteran group and we stayed with it," Richards said. "You always know you're gonna get a big play out of someone on this team and we just kept relying on that and kept clawing back."

Teuvo Teravainen excited to show Blackhawks what he can do.

By Tracey Myers

Teuvo Teravainen stood in front of a sizeable media scrum following the Blackhawks’ practice on Saturday.

He’s done this spiel before, thanks to two training camps and a handful of NHL games played last season and a whole lot of hype throughout his brief time here. So it’s not new to him. The NHL game won’t be either — although it’s been a while — so Teravainen is going into Sunday’s game a lot more comfortable than when he made his NHL debut last spring.

Teravainen will make his 2014-15 regular-season debut with the Blackhawks when they host the Dallas Stars on Sunday night. Recalled on Friday night in the wake of Kris Versteeg’s left-hand injury — coach Joel Quenneville said he’ll miss about a month — Teravainen gets another chance to show the Blackhawks what he can do.

“I’m really excited,” Teravainen said on Saturday. “It’s good to be back here. It’s been my goal to be here this year and I’ve been working so hard all summer and now in the season and I’m happy to be here.”

The Finnish center has spent the season in Rockford, where he’s continued to improve. He had six goals and 17 assists in 33 games with the IceHogs. Now he joins a Blackhawks team that’s playing well and is relatively healthy. The pressure is off, so Teravainen can do what the brass has wanted him to do at every opportunity: play his game.

“He has high-end potential,” Quenneville said. “Expectations internally are at the right area where [it’s], ‘Hey, let’s let him go and see how he matures and progresses.’ There’s not the buildup or the hype of a [Jonathan] Toews or [Patrick Kane] but he’s a young kid. Let him play and hopefully he keeps getting better every game and every year. It’ll be good for the organization if that’s the case.”

No, Teravainen doesn’t have to face what Toews and Kane did when they first started here. Those two were brought in to resurrect a then-dismal franchise and there was plenty of pressure on their shoulders. Still, Teravainen brings plenty of hype and Kane can understand the pressures a young player can feel — sort of.

“When I was coming up I was almost too dumb, too stupid to even know what was going on,” Kane said with a laugh. “Sometimes you just go out there and play. Sometimes that can be the best recipe for success. I'm sure he wants to prove some things. When someone gets called up you always try to encourage them to play their game, to play the game the way that got them there in the first place.”

Teravainen centered the fourth line with Ben Smith on the right and Joakim Nordstrom and Daniel Carcillo sharing time on the left— it sounds like Nordstrom will be in Sunday vs. the Stars. The placement isn’t so much about easing him in as making sure Teravainen concentrates on all parts of his game, including defense.

“That could help him do the right things, learn our system and play the right way,” Quenneville said of Teravainen, who was also on the Blackhawks’ second power-play unit at Saturday’s practice. “Whether quality ice time comes from power-play time — I’m sure he’ll see shifts with Kaner and other guys as well over the course of a game — it’ll grow as he plays, and how well he plays will dictate how much.”

Teravainen has arrived. Again. His time in Rockford has helped him adjust to the North American game as well as North American life. He’s more comfortable now. He’s a little older now. He’s more ready now.

“It’s been good, a good time,” Teravainen said. “I’m getting older — I’m not old yet — but yeah, I feel more comfortable. I just think all of the time, if I work hard, I’m going to get the prize.”

Five Blackhawks voted onto NHL All-Star roster.

By Nina Falcone

With six possible spots up for grabs through the 2015 NHL All-Star fan vote, the Chicago Blackhawks managed to grab five of them.

Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Corey Crawford will be heading to Columbus along with Buffalo Sabres forward Zemgus Girgensons, who earned the top spot with 1,574,896 votes. 

Girgensons managed to lead the way since Week 1 of voting began, but Kane and Toews narrowed in on his lead at the end, earning 1,232,201 and 1,217,210 votes, respectively.

The rest of the roster will be determined by the NHL and announced on Jan. 10.  

Just Another Chicago Bulls Session… Rockets-Bulls Preview.

By NOEY KUPCHAN (STATS Writer)

The surging Chicago Bulls have established themselves as one of the teams to beat in the Eastern Conference, thanks in part to the addition of Pau Gasol.

They're set to face the Houston Rockets, who have been inconsistent of late but looked every bit like one of the top clubs in the West in their last game.

Seeking a 10th win in 11 games, the Bulls may also have Jimmy Butler back for Monday night's showdown at the United Center.

These powerhouses could be at close to full strength with Butler likely to return after missing Saturday's 109-104 overtime win over Boston to attend a funeral. The fourth-year guard, named NBA player of the week Dec. 29 along with Houston's James Harden, is averaging a career-high 21.9 points for the Central Division leaders.

The Bulls (24-10) have also gotten a huge boost from Gasol, as the four-time All-Star is averaging 18.0 points and a team-leading 11.2 rebounds. He scored a season high-tying 29 to go with 16 boards against the Celtics as Chicago won for the ninth time in 10 games.

"Pau has been great," center Joakim Noah told the team's official website. "He has been huge for us all season. He is one of the constants every night. He adds a whole different dimension with his scoring."

Gasol also added five blocks after swatting away a career-high nine shots two nights earlier against Denver. He's averaging a career-high 2.4 blocks and could prove to be the missing piece for a Bulls team that appears poised for a deep postseason run.

"I'm a confident guy," he said. "I'm a competitor. You always have to hope for the best and be positive and optimistic. I didn't know what was going to happen, how I was going to fit in. But I knew I was going to try and do my best to provide everything and give us the best chance to win a title."

The Rockets (23-10) also have championship aspirations thanks largely to Harden, who leads the league with 27.2 points per game. He's averaged 30.3 in the past 13 games and shot 54.1 percent in the last seven.

Despite Harden's efforts, Houston has dropped five of nine. The Rockets suffered their most lopsided defeat of the season Friday, 111-83 at New Orleans before bouncing back with a 115-79 rout of Miami the following night.

"The effort and the energy was just a little bit different," center Dwight Howard said. "I don't know what happened in that game (Friday night), but it happened ... we've got to make sure that it doesn't happen again."

Howard had 23 points and 13 rebounds after averaging 12.0 and 6.0 in the previous three games. He's averaged 14.8 points in his last four against Chicago but could be extra motivated going up against Gasol - his former Lakers teammate.

The Rockets had taken four straight from Chicago before falling 111-87 in their last visit March 13. Howard had 12 points, 10 rebounds and seven turnovers while Harden finished with eight points and shot 2 of 7.

Harden has averaged 20.3 points in four meetings with the Bulls over the previous two seasons. He averaged 25.7 overall in that span.

Derrick Rose has scored 30.0 points per game in his last three against the Rockets but hasn't faced them since 2010-11, when he went on to be named NBA MVP. Rose is still trying to recapture that form, averaging 12.5 points and 24.4 percent shooting in the last four contests.

 

The Bulls have won five straight against the West while Houston is 8-2 against East opponents, including 3-0 on the road.
 

Chicago could again be without forward Mike Dunleavy due to an ankle injury.

Gasol, Bulls win OT thriller over Celtics 109-104.

By Mike Singer

With two starters out, Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau swore his team had more than enough to win.

 

His premonition wasn’t wrong as the Bulls (24-10) looked deep down their bench then relied on their starters in overtime to edge the Celtics 109-104 in a Saturday night thriller, the Bulls’ ninth win in their past 10 games.

 

Derrick Rose had another off shooting night, but once again, he arrived in the fourth quarter and overtime to ice the game. He had seven points throughout the two periods — all in the paint — but none bigger than a dazzling crossover lay-in on Boston’s Avery Bradley with :24 seconds left to stake a commanding 107-103 lead. It was the culmination of a wild fourth quarter and overtime period filled with timely steals, massive rebounds and exceptional blocks from various Bulls players. 

 

Rose, like a cornerback, jumped a fullcourt pass from the Celtics, threaded a pass to Joakim Noah who found Pau Gasol underneath the hoop for an easy lay-in during the overtime period. It was exactly the type of defensive play Thibodeau cited when remarking how Rose could impact tha game in different ways even as he wades through his latest shooting slump. 

 

Gasol was brilliant in the post, tallying a game-high 29 points and 16 rebounds. He had several defensive stands that proved crucial in the waning minutes. Reserve guard Aaron Brooks (19 points) had a chance to win the game at the end of regulation but missed a corner 3-pointer off a play designed specifically for him. It was fitting that with the Bulls shorthanded, Thibodeau trusted Brooks with the game on the line.

 

Were it not for Brooks’ second-half spurt, the game never would’ve wound up in overtime. Fifteen of his 19 points came in the second half or overtime, including eight in the fourth quarter alone. In fact, of the Bulls 30 fourth quarter points, 17 came from the reserves.

 

Leading scorer Jimmy Butler didn’t play while on bereavement leave and Mike Dunleavy missed his first game in a Bulls uniform after jamming his right ankle Thursday. Still, the Bulls, despite shooting 37 percent and turning the ball over 16 times, found a way just as their coach said they would.

 

Amongst the reserves it wasn’t just Brooks who contributed, though. E’Twaun Moore had eight points, while Taj Gibson tossed in 12 as well. Nikola Mirotic, making his first NBA start, played small forward for Dunleavy and had 10 points and eight rebounds of his own. It was exactly the type of depth the Bulls’ envisioned heading into this past offseason.

Gasol hit a 3-pointer to start the third as did Mirotic, but the Celtics reeled off a 14-2 run to flip a four-point deficit in an eight-point, 67-59 lead. As he’s done all year, Brooks once again provided instant offense and halted the run with a crucial 3-pointer from the top of the arc. It began a momentum-swinging 10-2 run of the Bulls’ own, capped by Mirotic’s and-1 conversion to tie the game at 69 heading to the fourth.

 

Nothing was pretty about the Bulls’ first half in terms of its offense, but Tom Thibodeau said earlier this week that his team needed to learn to survive even when it wasn’t at full strength. They shot just 32 percent in the first two quarters, but held the Celtics to 39 percent from the field. The difference was the Bulls’ work on the glass, where they outrebounded Boston 33-22 — largely a result of so many missed shots. Still, Chicago had 15 second-chance points to bolster a 46-40 first half lead.

 

Trailing much of the first half, it wasn’t until Gasol used a patented post-up fake against Boston’s Jared Sullinger that the Bulls finally regained the lead with 4:09 left in the half. Gasol got Sullinger to bite, drew the foul, and converted the free throw to give the Bulls a 37-36 edge. He hit another baseline fadeaway before corralling a loose rebound and assisting on a Rose 3-pointer to distance the Bulls. It was just Rose’s third made 3-pointer in his past four games (out of 17 attempts). The former MVP vowed recently he wouldn’t stop shooting 3-pointers — despite his struggles — as long as they were good looks.

Gasol recorded a first half double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds, while Noah chipped in six points and seven rebounds. It marked Gasol’s 17th double-double of the year.

Gasol on Bulls' title aspirations: 'I didn't come here for any other reason'.

By Mike Singer

Bulls forward Pau Gasol celebrates with teammate Taj Gibson (22) in the second half at the United Center. (Chris Sweda, Chicago Tribune)

Bulls center Pau Gasol admitted what has been apparent all season long, and it’s why the Bulls — winners of nine of their last 10 — are hot on the heels of the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed and have their sights set on something bigger.

 

“I definitely feel rejuvenated,” Gasol said after Saturday’s thrilling overtime win over the Celtics in which the 34-year-old scored 29 points, grabbed 16 rebounds and rejected five shots. Down starters Mike Dunleavy and leading scorer Jimmy Butler, Gasol engineered his second-straight exceptional game as he carried the Bulls to a 109-104 victory over the Celtics.

 

Gasol, coming off a near-triple double this past Thursday highlighted by a career-high nine blocks, said wins like Saturday’s were exactly why he came to Chicago this past offseason via free agency. He had other suitors, contenders like the Thunder and the Spurs, but Gasol chose Chicago because of what the Bulls offered and the potential he saw in them.

 

“That’s what I envisioned, that’s what I was hoping for and that’s what I’m working for,” he said.

 

“That” is a team full of hungry players aspiring for a title, which isn’t a crazy proposition given how good Chicago has been despite its inordinate rash of injuries. The Bulls (24-10) are one game out of the top seed, boast an unparalleled offense at least in the Thibodeau era, and have a bench deep enough to survive without two starters.

 

“All the guys here are hungry to win a championship. Obviously the newer guys don’t have that mindset ... but I think the main guys, the veteran guys who have been here for a while, they’re all ready,” Gasol said. “We talk sometimes about it. It’s not something we bring up every single day. (But) it’s something that’s on our mind.”

 

On a night when the Bulls’ offense wasn’t nearly at its best, shooting a paltry 37 percent from the field, Gasol went deep into his bag of veteran tricks to feed the team’s scoring. Partly as a result of the team’s woeful shooting, Gasol collected his 17th double double of the season … in the first half alone. He backed down Boston’s Jared Sullinger, pumped and pivoted before getting fouled and converting the free throw to give the Bulls the lead 37-36 with 4:09 left in the second quarter. After two quarters, he had 11 points and 12 rebounds.

 

Later in the third quarter, Gasol hit a 3-pointer from the corner. Next he hit several fadeaway jumpers, holding his shooting hand in the air as he trotted back on defense. Every action, be it a rebound or a significant block or a pivotal basket, seemed to be followed by some sort of emotional outburst from Gasol, whose frustrations the past two years in Los Angeles have been well documented.

 

"I'm having fun for sure. I love winning. Guys are extremely humble, selfless. To me, that's extremely rewarding to be part of this team," he said.  

 

Averaging 17.6 points per game, 11 rebounds per game, and 2.3 swats per game, Gasol is so clearly recharged with this newfound offense built around him. Thibodeau likes to works inside-out to open up the perimeter game and establish driving lanes for Rose, and Gasol was the perfect acquisition to implement that offensive system. More than just his offense, though, Thibodeau raved about what he has meant to the Bulls.

 

“The best leadership you can have is what a guy does every day. If you’re doing the right things, that’s the best example for the team to have a great understanding of the commitment that’s necessary to win and the sacrifice that’s made for the team. And he does that all the time. His actions speaks louder than any words,” Thibodeau said. “People talk about the extra pass, you talk about a great screen, you talk about running the floor, talk about practicing hard, you talk about concentrating, talk about film study, getting ready to play … he’s terrific. I think he has a great understanding of what it takes because he’s won a championship.”

 

And make no mistake, the Bulls are going for it this year with Rose on the mend, breakout star Butler emerging and a revitalized Gasol at the center of the team. 

 

“I do see (championship potential). That’s why I came here. I didn’t come here for any other reason. I thought this team has the potential to win a title, and that’s what we’re working for.”

NFL Wild card Weekend Scores.

Yahoo.com

Saturday, 01/03/2015

Arizona Cardinals 16
Carolina Panthers 27

Baltimore Ravens 30
Pittsburgh Steelers 17

Sunday, 01/04/2015

Cincinnati Bengals 10
Indianapolis Colts 26

Detroit Lions 20
Dallas Cowboys 24

Bear Down Chicago Bears!!!!!  Tom Gamble is Bears' safest bet in search for new GM.

By Chris Boden

With his departure/parting-of-ways/firing in the latest chapter of management drama in Philadelphia, the clear-cut, most experienced candidate to take over the running of the Bears is now available.

The question is, would they circumvent Ernie Accorsi's suggestion box to pursue Tom Gamble (or would Accorsi add him to his list)?

Accorsi, as Jim Miller noted in our Comcast SportsNet coverage Monday of the firings of Phil Emery and Marc Trestman, is part of the Giants/Bill Parcells "tree." Gamble, the son of longtime Eagles boss Harry Gamble, started his career as a scout in Philadelphia when the Bears were beating them in the Fog Bowl. Besides working for a Giants division rival, Gamble further cut his scouting teeth working for Bill Polian in Indianapolis as the Peyton Manning Era got underway, filling in needs and roles around the superstar signal-caller. Toward the end of Gamble's time in Indy, Accorsi was about to draft Peyton's brother Eli with the Giants.

Before moving back to Philadelphia two years ago to be closer to his ailing father (who's since passed), he spent about a decade in San Francisco. He rose up the management ranks while 49ers teams struggled under the likes of Mike Nolan and Mike Singletary, but look at some of his early round picks at the same time Jim Harbaugh was hired to help that franchise win again, not to mention develop perhaps the deepest roster in the league prior to the Harbaugh-Trent Baalke power struggle: Anthony Davis, Mike Iupati, Navorro Bowman, Aldon Smith and Colin Kaepernick in 2010 and 2011. He wasn't perfect: His first- and second-rounders in 2012 were A.J. Jenkins and LaMichael James.

But Gamble is highly regarded around the league because of his eye for talent and hits more often than he misses. He is now available, as of Wednesday, and there is just one other general manager opening right now, with the Jets, where he tried assistant coaching for two years in the mid-90s.

In overseeing player personnel departments in San Francisco and Philadelphia, he's risen higher than the current candidates we've been hearing are in the Bears' mix: Chris Ballard of the Chiefs, the Giants' Marc Ross, Lake Dawson of the Titans and the Texans' Brian Gaine. He's sat in the chair. He's called the shots on talent. The others have yet to. And maybe one or two of them could wind up being better than Gamble, if given the chance. But that seems to be the road that Accorsi, George McCaskey and Ted Phillips appear to be heading down. That's also part of what the panel that Accorsi is on does, identifying future general managers with a proper fit and the most chance for success. Could George, Ted and Ernie recognize this is simply the best man out there for the job?

Now, the other question besides whether McCaskey and Phillips would do that is whether Gamble would be interested, confident and comfortable enough that he'd be allowed to do the job. Maybe he wouldn't like the prospect of having to deal with the contracts of Jay Cutler and/or Brandon Marshall. These things are a two-way street. Is either party interested in taking that road? Who knows, if there's mutual interest, perhaps he brings Eagles offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur with him. He's been an NFL head coach before, and he also helped the Rams' Sam Bradford become NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year back in 2010. That would stir up the Cutler-for-Bradford trade talk, if Jeff Fisher is so willing.

As we wait for this process to play itself out, more possibilities will pop up, more conjecture and rumors will arise, with varying degrees of accuracy. What we do know is Tom Gamble is now available. He is clearly the best, most seasoned and experienced man for the Bears' job who knows the league, could roll up his sleeves and get to work.

If either party is interested.

As Bears' search continues, Toub worth keeping an eye on.

By John Mullin

This space won’t get into stumping or shilling for any GM or head-coaching candidates for the Bears; the closest will be assessing trails of breadcrumbs that may lead toward a particular prospect. That’s what this is.

Consultant Ernie Accorsi already has cast a net and ID’d some prospects. But while Arizona defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, Denver offensive coordinator Adam Gase and Seattle defensive coordinator Dan Quinn all come from winning programs, the sense is that there are BowlesGaseQuinn’s every year; somebody has to be the hot candidate.

It doesn’t mean much of anything, seriously. Gase, for instance, has only been the Broncos’ O-coordinator since Peyton Manning arrived. Manning’s compliments notwithstanding, there’s not a lot of mystery as to who the true coordinator of that offense is, and the Broncos were eight games under .500 in Gase’s three Denver seasons (WR’s, QB coach) before Manning.

Much, much more of interest is former Bears special-teams coach Dave Toub, who got no more than a passing glance from then-GM Phil Emery after Emery fired Lovie Smith, under whom Toub had handled special teams for nine successful years. A surprise will be if Toub is not among the finalists for the Chicago job.

Friend and former colleague David Haugh over at the Chicago Tribune mentioned him already so this’ll just have to be a second opinion/analysis.

Why Toub warrants A-list consideration is simple: Unlike Bowles, Gase and Quinn (just two years as an NFL coordinator), Toub has done the coordinator job at the NFL level for more than just a couple years, and has done it extremely well. Bears and now Kansas City special teams have been consistently among the NFL’s elite.

Head coaches are typically associated with either offense or defense. But while Toub was in Chicago, I had occasion to talk about his interest in becoming a head coach — he does indeed want to reach that position — and he laid out a very interesting perspective: that special teams involve players from both offense and defense, kicking and receiving — a very diverse set of personnel and schemes. Toub, 52, comes from an elite coaching “tree” at this point, that of Lovie Smith and Andy Reid, the latter while Toub was on his staffs in Philadelphia and now Kansas City.

Toub would be far from the first time that the organization chose top field bosses from its extended family.

Mike Ditka was the Dallas Cowboys’ special teams coach when George Halas hired him to replace Neill Armstrong in 1982. After the run with Dave Wannstedt — who was the runaway leading candidate after Dallas ascendancy in the early 1990s — the Bears were intent on hiring Dave McGinnis to replace Wannstedt. McGinnis was a big favorite of Ed and Virginia McCaskey but a rupture in negotiations with Michael McCaskey was more than a night on the phone between Ed and McGinnis could save.

The early guest list is drawn from teams in the playoffs, meaning a touch more urgency for getting first interviews done. The Chiefs at 9-7 missed the playoffs, meaning the Chiefs and Toub can get a call at any time.

Don’t consider this an endorsement of a candidate. But according to just about every criterion against which candidates are measured, Toub rates at least a very, very strong dark-horse watch.

When do pitchers and catchers report? 2015 spring training, reporting dates for all teams.

By Justin McGuire

White Sox pitchers and catchers (Getty Images)

Baseball season is getting close, as pitchers and catchers for all 30 teams report to spring training next month.

This year’s reporting dates:

GRAPEFRUIT LEAGUE

(Pitchers and catchers | full squad)

Atlanta Braves: Friday, Feb. 20 | Wednesday, Feb. 25

Baltimore Orioles: Thursday, Feb. 19 | Tuesday, Feb. 24

Boston Red Sox: Friday, Feb. 20 | Tuesday, Feb. 24

Detroit Tigers: TBA / TBA

Houston Astros: Friday, Feb. 20 | Tuesday, Feb. 24

Miami Marlins: Friday, Feb. 20 | Tuesday, Feb. 24

Minnesota Twins: Sunday, Feb. 22 | Friday, Feb. 27

New York Mets: Thursday, Feb. 19 | Tuesday, Feb. 24

New York Yankees: Friday, Feb. 20 | Wednesday, Feb. 25

Philadelphia Phillies: Wednesday, Feb. 18 | TBA

Pittsburgh Pirates: Wednesday, Feb. 18 | Monday, Feb. 23

St. Louis Cardinals: Thursday, Feb. 19 | Tuesday, Feb. 24

Tampa Bay Rays: Saturday, Feb. 21 | Thursday, Feb. 26

Toronto Blue Jays: TBA / TBA

Washington Nationals: Thursday, Feb. 19 | Tuesday, Feb. 24

CACTUS LEAGUE

(Pitchers and catchers | full squad)

Arizona Diamondbacks: Thursday, Feb. 19 | Tuesday, Feb. 24

Chicago Cubs: TBA / TBA

Chicago White Sox: TBA / TBA

Cincinnati Reds: Wednesday, Feb. 18 | Monday, Feb. 23

Cleveland Indians: Wednesday, Feb. 18 | Monday, Feb. 22

Colorado Rockies: TBA / TBA

Kansas City Royals: Thursday, Feb. 19 | Tuesday, Feb. 24

Los Angeles Angels: Thursday, Feb. 19 | Tuesday, Feb. 24

Los Angeles Dodgers: Thursday, Feb. 19 | Tuesday, Feb. 24

Milwaukee Brewers: Friday, Feb. 20 | Wednesday, Feb. 25

Oakland A’s: Thursday, Feb. 19 | Tuesday, Feb. 24

San Diego Padres: Thursday, Feb. 19 | Tuesday, Feb. 24

San Francisco Giants: TBA / TBA

Seattle Mariners: Friday, Feb. 20 | Tuesday, Feb. 24

Texas Rangers: Friday, Feb. 20 | Wednesday, Feb. 25

Known Hall of Fame ballots point to largest class since 1936.

By Mark Townsend

As calls for expanded Hall of Fame ballots to help ease the logjam of candidates get louder, the Baseball Writers Association of Baseball (BBWAA) may be on the verge of electing its largest class since its very first class back in 1936.

Who's in? Who's out? Who's off the ballot all together? We won't know all those answers for sure for another 48 hours. However, thanks to those involved at the Baseball Think Factory's Primer blog, we can analyze some of the early data.

Their mission is to track and report all of the known ballots leading up to the announcement. At this point, 130 ballots have been made public, which according to their calculations is 22.8 percent of the expected vote. That doesn't include ballots for Buster Olney and Lynn Henning, who previously announced they are abstaining in protest.

It's a small sample size to be sure, but it's more than enough to pinpoint what the big stories should be come Tuesday. First and foremost, the BBWAA is currently on track to elect five players for only the second time in history. For a little more perspective on how rare a class that large would be, only twice — 1947 and 1955 — has the BBWAA voted in four players. 

Also, though it's already known we still won't have our first unanimous Hall of Famer, a trio of pitchers look like locks. With 75 percent of the votes needed, Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez might as well pop open the champagne. Not only are they going in, they're both currently positioned to challenge Tom Seaver's record 98.84 percent from 1992.  

Randy Johnson — 99.2
Pedro Martinez — 97.7

Former Atlanta Braves right-hander John Smoltz isn't too far behind. He's currently sitting on 89.2 percent. Next in line are Craig Biggio and Mike Piazza, who at the moment are on the right side of the line. 

Craig Biggio — 84.2
Mike Piazza — 78.9

After just missing the cut at 74.8 percent last season, things are looking more optimistic for Biggio this year. Piazza, on the other hand, could end up as this year's Biggio. 

According to the tracking data, as of Saturday evening they had already counted 22 ballots from New York and another four from Los Angeles, areas where Piazza figures to do well. If will be very interesting to see if or how much his percentage changes as ballots from other, perhaps less supportive regions trickle in.

Here's a more complete breakdown of the voting as put together by Ryan Thibs. He's continue updating right up to the announcement.  

On the outside looking in, Jeff Bagwell (70.0) and Tim Raines (66.2) are in the best positions to make a push. Curt Schilling, Mike Mussina, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are one tier below, ranging from 40 to 55 percent. None are likely to gain the support needed this year.

On the other side of the spectrum, players must receive at least 5 percent of the vote to stay on the ballot. That's notable because controversial candidates such as Sammy Sosa (5.4) and Mark McGwire (6.9) are far from safe. Two other notable names, Gary Sheffield (9.2) and Larry Walker (9.2), are in slightly better position. Don Mattingly, Nomar Garciaparra and Carlos Delgado would be off the ballot as of Sunday.

Again, we're analyzing a little less than one-fourth of the expected final votes. A lot can change as those ballots are tabulated, but it appears we're set up for a large Hall of Fame class and multiple interesting storylines.

Ryan Dempster: Jeff Samardzija can handle pressure of crosstown move.

By Dan Hayes

If anyone can handle the large spotlight cast upon him next season, it’s Jeff Samardzija.

 

At least that’s what ex-teammate Ryan Dempster thinks.

A first-time All-Star in 2014, Samardzija promises to have more attention paid to him in 2015 as he joins the White Sox after playing for the Cubs for seven seasons, give or take a few months with the Oakland A’s.

Even though the transition he intends to make is of the highest profile, Dempster believes Samardzija is well equipped to handle it as he has just begun to realize his potential as a starting pitcher.

 

“He’s just touching the surface of what he can do,” Dempster said last month at the Winter Meetings in San Diego. “He’s a tremendous horse. He’s got a competitive side to him that not a lot of people get, not a lot of people have. This guy is catching football passes on NBC in prime time. So for him, winning is all he really cares about.

 

“That’s a lot of fun for a guy who is young and establishing himself and on his way to a big payday. He really truly cares about winning ballgames and the team being good. The White Sox picked up a great starter, a horse, and now they have a 1 and a 1a in my mind.”

 

Samardzija’s move from the North Side to the South Side comes at a critical time for both teams. After three seasons of rebuilding under Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer, the Cubs have acquired key veterans Jon Lester and Miguel Montero, among others, to mesh with an extremely talented cast of prospects. Meanwhile, Samardzija is the showcase piece among five players added this offseason to a young, talented White Sox cast that is poised to help the franchise rebound from 188 losses over the past two seasons. 

That the Cubs traded Samardzija (along with Jason Hammel) to Oakland last July for a bushel of top minor-leaguers because the right-hander intends to pursue free agency after 2015 only adds to the equation and heightens his return to Chicago.

 

But again, Dempster, who played alongside Samardzija for five seasons, thinks the former Notre Dame wide receiver can handle the challenge.

 

“He’s upping his legend status in Chicago,” Dempster said. “I know he’s super excited. He grew up not far from there and to be back home, he always talked about how he would love to play for the White Sox if the Cubs didn’t work out. And the fact that he’s back there, I’m going to enjoy having him around Chicago and going down there and seeing him pitch.”

 

Golf: I got a club for that; Tiger, Lefty aim for 2015 rebounds. (And Tony Finau to be early favorite for PGA Tour's Rookie of the Year)

ESPN.com

1. Which player has the most to prove in 2015?

ESPN.com senior golf analyst Michael Collins: That's easy, Tiger Woods, of course. But what he has to prove isn't about if he wins but where he wins. Stay healthy all year and win somewhere you haven't won 29 times before. Not as easy.

ESPN.com senior golf writer Farrell Evans: Tiger Woods. The 14-time major championship winner is on the precipice of age 40 and almost seven years removed from his last major victory. The game is on the verge of moving out of his shadow. Can he reassert himself one last time?

ESPN.com senior golf writer Bob Harig: Tiger Woods. Isn't that always the case? Coming off his worst year, a lost season, this is an important time. Whether he returns to his prolific winning ways is impossible to envision, but he needs to stay healthy and remain consistent to be a factor.

ESPN.com senior golf editor Kevin Maguire: Phil Mickelson. Lefty went winless last year on the PGA Tour for the first time since 1992. He's 44, so many will start to wonder whether his days of winning regular tournaments, much less majors, are gone. If he gets a victory on the West Coast swing early in the season, where so many of his triumphs have come, that could kick-start Lefty for the rest of the season and give him more focus on trying to make the U.S. Olympic golf team in 2016.
 

2. Give us a past PGA Tour winner who didn't win in 2014 but will win in 2015.

Collins: Phil Mickelson. Seems strange that Phil had such a bad 2014, but it happened. I think the new, skinny Phil will not have the health issues he had last season and will get back into the winner's circle.

Evans: Jim Furyk had 11 top-10s, including four second-place finishes, in 2014. The 16-time tour winner had a better year than 98 percent of the players on tour who had a win in the year. Although Furyk will turn 45 in May, he is still one of the best players in the world and should get his first tour victory since 2010.

Harig: Phil Mickelson. It was an odd 2014 for Lefty, who always seemed on the verge of something but had just one top-10 on the PGA Tour -- and nearly won the PGA Championship. The sense is that Phil will be motivated to get back to winning, and soon.

Maguire: Rickie Fowler. One of the best American talents in the game, albeit with only one career victory, posted the best all-around record in 2014's majors. A bounce here or there and the conversation could change dramatically for orange-clad Fowler. Having a full year with Butch Harmon's tutelage surely won't hurt, either.

3. If you had to pick now, who will be the 2014-15 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year?

Collins: Picking ROY is like picking Powerball numbers. It's almost impossible to get right. Looking at this year's class of rookies, I'd have to say 25-year-old Tony Finau is the guy who is poised to make the biggest splash on the PGA Tour in his rookie season. His road to the tour has been long even at his young age.

Evans: Tony Finau. He already has two top-10s in five starts. The 25-year-old Utah native is long off the tee (307.9 yard average), and seven years on the mini tours have taught him how to compete and grind his way to good finishes.

Harig: Tony Finau. He's already off to a good start, contending a few times in the fall portion of the schedule. And his long-hitting ways appear to be quite fan-friendly.

Maguire: Carlos Ortiz. The first Mexican national to earn his way onto the PGA Tour since Esteban Toledo knows he has an entire country rooting for him. Ortiz might be a little streaky in his first season out on tour, but three victories last year on the Web.com Tour is no fluke.

4. Who is poised for a great rebound year on the PGA Tour?

Collins: Dustin Johnson is poised to have a huge comeback year. So much, though, will be up in the air for him. If there is one guy who's equipped to handle all the new changes in his life, it's Johnson. That new baby will be the biggest factor in helping get him back in the winner's circle.

Evans: Luke Donald was left off the European Ryder Cup team in 2014 in a year when he had only three top-10s. As recently as 2011, he was No. 1 in the world and had 14 top-10s in 19 tour events. This past season, he tried working on his game with Chuck Cook, but Donald has now reunited with Pat Goss, his longtime coach at Northwestern. These recent disappointments and a failed experiment with Cook have reinvigorated Donald's focus on returning to the top of the world ranking.

Harig: Brandt Snedeker. After playing his last event of 2013, Snedeker was ranked in the top 10; he has fallen to 58th after a frustrating season and is not qualified for the Masters at the moment. He showed some flashes toward the end of 2014 and will be motivated to get back on track.

Maguire: Jason Dufner. If the 2012 PGA Championship winner can remain healthy and those nagging injury issues are a thing of the past, sweet-swinging Dufner could return to his former self. Late in the year, Dufner posted a T-10 finish at the WGC-HSBC Champions event in China, showing a glimpse of what might be ahead for the Auburn product.

Burning the midnight oil: New rules mean more work for teams.

By Darrell Waltrip

Well, Christmas is over and I hope everyone had a blessed holiday. New Year's is upon us which means there isn't a lot of time for the race teams to relax and take a break. The new rule changes for 2015 are going to require a lot of late hours by these teams.

Car changes are something that develop and evolve at the racetrack. Last year's no ride-height rule was pretty dramatic. Some were able to hit on the right setup immediately while others struggled. You saw as the season wore on that the teams were consistently getting better and better.

This year, however, the car changes are relatively minor. There's a little bit of reduction overall in downforce. There's a little different front pan underneath the radiator that will create front downforce. At the same time, there will be a smaller spoiler that will take away some downforce.

I think they will balance each other out pretty much. Historically, here is what always happens when it comes to the aero package that you are given. Last season's tires that Goodyear had will probably be too hard for a car with less downforce in 2015. So that will require some tire testing. It really almost turns into a tradeoff. What you lose in aero grip, you will gain it back in the tire combination that Goodyear brings to the track. You can't have a car with less downforce and less horsepower yet expect to run the same tire you ran last season. So that is something that will evolve, like I mentioned, at the racetrack.

Here's where the big, big change comes, and that's in the engine. There is an incredible amount of work that has to be done by the folks in the engine room by all the manufacturers. That's where you are going to see the midnight oil burned the most.

Naturally with the Daytona 500 being the first race of the year, you have to have your restrictor-plate stuff done. In and of itself, it is a huge year-long process that consumes a ton of man hours and, yes, a ton of money.  For 2015, however, there is also work that has to be done for the engines at all the other tracks other than Daytona and Talladega.

The 2015 engines will have a tapered spacer that will reduce the horsepower by 100-plus, and you'll have a roller cam this year where in the past you've had a flat tapped cam. These aren't simple inexpensive changes, by any stretch of the imagination.

You don't simply bolt a tapered spacer on the engine and give it to the team to go race. You have to build a whole new package around all these changes that NASCAR is requiring. That's neither easy nor cheap.

It's going to mean a new cam shaft, a new cylinder-head configuration, plus maybe even a new piston-head configuration. You just never know until you begin working with it. The headers will change, so it's going to require a lot of testing. Now the good news is these teams have a lot better capability to test than we did when I was racing.

Back then we'd pretty much have to get to the track to get a real sense of what we had. In today's NASCAR not only do they build and dyno the engines but then they can also chassis dyno it in the race car. So these days the teams pretty much know what they have even before they leave the shop to head to the track.

You'll then see the evolution of your engine package take place at the racetrack not only from the actual racing, but from what you pick up and learn from what the others are doing. You'll learn that another team is having great success with a certain type of piston or a team has made gains with a different type of headers. That's one thing that hasn't changed and won't change in the future is watching what the competition is doing. You always keep a sharp eye on what someone else might be doing and see if you can apply it to your program.

So there is a lot to get done and a pretty short amount of time to do it in. It's a costly proposition for these car owners and the engine builders. Remember, though, the bigger changes affect the non-restrictor plate tracks. The teams already know what they have for Daytona and Talladega this coming season. The combination is the same there as it was last season, and obviously NASCAR is happy with it because nothing is changing there.

I know one cat that is also very happy about that, and it's Dale Earnhardt Jr. He's the defending champion of the Daytona 500 and it wouldn't surprise me in the least to see him repeat this February. We all know that Dale Jr. loves to win at Daytona and Talladega. It's an Earnhardt tradition and I know he wants to build on and carry on that family tradition.

Again, there will be teams that hit on the right combination right out of the box. They will be really fast while others will struggle. A perfect example was Kevin Harvick and the No. 4 car that picked up on the 2014 changes and were bad fast each and every week. Then there were those like Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 bunch that seemed to be playing catch-up all year long. We just don't know who is going to hit upon it or who is going to miss it until we get back to the track. Trust me: The one thing we do know is the guy that hits it will be very hard to beat.

Happy New Year, everyone! I expect the 2015 season to be even better than what we saw in 2014, if that's even possible. Hey, it's not that far away! We're only 50-plus days away from the Daytona 500, and I can't wait to be up in the FOX TV booth calling out, "Boogity Boogity Boogity -- Let's Go Racin' Boys!"

Real Madrid has 22-match win streak broken with away loss to Valencia.

By Kyle Bonn

(Photo/AP)

 

Real Madrid lost today for just the third time this season, and first time since September, thanks to a 2-1 defeat at Valencia.

Los Galacticos had a 1-0 lead courtesy of a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty, but second-half goals from Antonio Barragan and Nicolas Otamendi saw Valencia through. The loss leaves Real Madrid exposed at the top of the table, with Barcelona just a point behind and yet to play this round.

It wasn’t even that close, considering both Andre Gomes and Alvaro Negredo came very close to goals, with Gomes rattling the post.

The last loss for Real Madrid came on September 13 when they lost to Atletico Madrid. Since, they have rattled off 12 straight league wins coupled with a perfect record in all other competitions this season – including six wins in the Champions League, two Copa del Rey victories, and a pair of wins plus a trophy in the Club World Cup.

Valencia has been a tough out recently for Madrid. These two sides had drawn two of their previous three matches across all competitions – the most recent of which required a Ronaldo stunner to earn the point – and Valencia had eliminated Real Madrid in the 2012/13 Copa del Rey quarterfinals.

They have also been strong at home this season, losing to just Barcelona on a final-minute Sergio Busquets winner, but otherwise collecting 23 points from a possible 27 at the Mestalla Stadium.

Real Madrid can ill-afford to dwell on the loss, with a vital Copa del Rey Round of 16 match coming up on Wednesday against Atletico Madrid. That was the focus for much of Carlo Ancelotti’s postmatch press conference, as well as some of the players.

Sources: MLS Draft will be without top underclassmen.

By Ives Galarcep                                   

The 2015 MLS Draft is fewer than two weeks away, and all signs point to the event relying heavily on senior talent rather than the top underclassmen which have headlined previous drafts.

Sources have confirmed to Goal USA that MLS is in danger of missing out on several top underclassmen who have chosen to stay in school rather than accept Generation adidas contracts.

Two of the four top draft-eligible underclassmen in the nation have passed on the chance to sign with MLS, while the other two may pass as well. UCLA head coach Jorge Salcedo confirmed to Goal USA that UCLA freshman forward Abu Danladi has joined Georgetown sophomore forward Joshua Yaro on the list of players choosing to stay in school rather than turn pro.

UConn forward and Canadian national team player Cyle Larin has been mulling a contract offer from MLS, but sources tell Goal USA that negotiations have stalled. Sources also tell Goal USA Washington sophomore midfielder Cristian Roldan is leaning toward staying in school, but has not made a decision yet.

If MLS cannot secure deals with Larin or Roldan, it would mean missing out on the league's top four Generation adidas targets.

For several years, the MLS Draft has been led by Generation adidas signings, college underclassmen considered the best college prospects in the nation who also don't count against the salary caps of the teams that select them.

The Generation adidas program has slowly been de-emphasized in recent years, as more and more top prospects move to MLS via Homegrown Player deals or skip MLS to play in Europe. The 2015 Generation adidas class was always expected to be the smallest in the draft's history, but now with so many top prospects staying in school, the 2015 Generation adidas class will likely be as weak as it is small.

Part of the reason for the reluctance of top underclassmen to turn pro this year could, at least in some part, be because of the fact MLS is set to sign a new Collective Bargaining Agreement in the coming months, which is expected to lead to a higher salary cap. For players like Larin, Roldan, Danladi and Yaro, staying in school for a year could lead to significantly larger contracts heading into the 2016 MLS Draft.

For its part, MLS is focusing on the signing of seniors for the draft.

Sources tell Goal USA that the league is preparing to announce a large class of senior signings, with UC-Davis defender Ramon Martin del Campo, Oregon State forward Khiry Shelton, Notre Dame midfielder Nick Besler, Michigan State forward Fatai Alashe, Maryland midfielder Dan Metzger, Washington defender Andy Thoma and North Carolina defender Boyd Okwuonu all expected to be announced as senior signings this week.

One senior who has yet to sign, and appears unlikely to sign before the draft, is UCLA midfielder Leo Stolz. One of the most talented players in the draft pool, Stolz's age (he'll be 24 when the season begins) and contract demands (such as trying to dictate which teams may draft him) have hurt his draft stock as well as the chances he signs an MLS contract before the draft.

MLS traditionally signs the top seniors in the draft to contracts prior to the MLS Draft, and in many cases prior to the MLS Player Combine, which is the showcase event where draft-eligible players play in front of the league's coaches and general managers. The MLS Combine begins Friday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a week before the 2015 MLS Draft, on Jan. 15 in Philadelphia.

With the top four Generation adidas targets potentially out of the picture, MLS has turned its attention to other underclassmen to sign. Central Florida forward Romario Williams is finalizing a deal, while Syracuse goalkeeper Alex Bono and North Carolina State defender Conor Donovan are now on the radar for Generation adidas contracts.

College Football Playoff is good, but it could be better with more teams.

By Pat Forde

Ohio State and Oregon will play for the College Football Playoff trophy on Jan. 12 in Arlington, Texas. (Getty Images)

If there were any lingering doubts that the death of the Bowl Championship Series was abundantly deserved, the College Football Playoff semifinals erased them.

Because here is the national title matchup the BCS would have produced this season: Alabama vs. Florida State. One was defrocked by a big underdog starting a third-string quarterback Thursday, and the other was merely beaten by 39 points.

But under the old system, a moronic marriage of poll voting and computer rankings, either the Crimson Tide or the Seminoles would be standing on a stage under a confetti shower with index fingers in the air, proclaiming themselves the best team in America. Oregon and Ohio State would have played in a hollow Rose Bowl for a far lesser prize.
 

How many other seasons was the best team – or two teams – excluded from contention by the BCS? Who knows? But 2001 Oregon, '03 USC, '04 Auburn and '08 Texas undoubtedly all wish a better system were in place when they were left out of the title chase.
 

Yet even with the upgrade to a four-team playoff, there is a compelling reason to believe the system could be better.
 

That reason is TCU.

Who's to say the Horned Frogs aren't the best team in the nation? They were surprisingly trap-doored by the CFP selection committee in its final rankings, plummeting from third to sixth one day after winning their final regular-season game by 52 points to finish 11-1. As a result, TCU was relegated to the Peach Bowl against Mississippi, which was ninth in the final CFP rankings.

TCU destroyed Ole Miss 42-3, despite easing off the gas and not scoring in the final 28 minutes. It was the biggest beating of the bowl season, and it left everyone wondering whether a mistake was made by snubbing the Frogs.

They lost one game by three points at the final gun on the road against a top-10 opponent. That was far better than Ohio State's two-touchdown home loss to Virginia Tech and Oregon's one-touchdown home loss to Arizona.

As it turned out, Ohio State proved the merit of its controversial inclusion in the playoff by shocking Alabama. But that plus TCU's performance shows there were more than four teams worthy of playing for a title.

(Yes, Florida State still deserves to be included in that company, despite its epic third-quarter collapse against Oregon. A playoff without an undefeated defending national champion would have been just as controversial.)

So the takeaway from the first-ever playoff semifinals is this: four is good. Six or eight would be better. In a nation of five power conferences, simple math suggests as much anyway.

There are complications with the academic calendar when it comes to scheduling an additional round of games, and even a ravenously greedy sport that has been known to make a mockery of higher education must bow to the demands of fall semester finals. But there is a way. It can be done. The smart and powerful minds of the sport got together and hammered out the current format to satisfy public demand; they can do it again.

Tear up the TV contracts and remake the playoff.

While we are patiently waiting for that to happen, we can turn our attention to the championship matchup of Ducks vs. Buckeyes. After dismantling its ninth straight opponent, Oregon is a deserving favorite. But anyone who has watched Ohio State continually reinvent its offense this season knows better than to count out Urban Meyer.

There may be some historical precedent for a team achieving this much while digging all the way to the third rung on the depth chart at the most important position in football, but it escapes me at present. What the Buckeyes are doing with Cardale Jones – who has thrown for 500 yards and four touchdowns in the only two significant appearances of his college career – boggles the mind. At this point you half expect Meyer to be able to start the sousaphone player who dots the "i" in Script Ohio at quarterback and still score 40.

But this time Jones and Ohio State run up against the best quarterback in college football in Marcus Mariota. The Heisman Trophy winner was routinely excellent against Florida State, accounting for exactly 400 yards of total offense and three touchdowns in leading an Oregon offense that punted just twice – its first and last full possessions of the game.

It should be a fun and fascinating matchup.

The big question is what it will feel like – because the semifinal games, as big as they were, seemed to be missing something. They were neither fish nor fowl – not a national championship game and not an old-school bowl game. It will take some getting used to.

As will the notion of getting back to a mental and emotional peak for a massive elimination game. That's the essence of the NCAA basketball tournament – survive and advance – but a new concept in football, and it will be interesting to see how hard that is. It's all new for the players and coaches, who at least have the benefit of 11 days between games to lock in and ramp up.

"It's all or nothing," said former Texas coach and current ESPN analyst Mack Brown, the day before the Rose Bowl. "And for the winner it's all or nothing again the next week."

Thankfully, there is another all-or-nothing game to crown a truer champion than the BCS would have produced. But with a playoff that still isn't big enough, we don't know for sure that it will be the truest champion.

Kobe Bryant rips AAU basketball

By Scott Phillips

Los Angeles Lakers Kobe Bryant #24 (Photo/Getty Images)

Much has been made over the past few years about the American model of youth basketball, and specifically, AAU. We’ve already heard from retired NBA players like Charles Barkley and Robert Horry on the matter, but one of the game’s greatest players spoke up against it on Friday night.

After a loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant opened up about his disdain for the AAU model and how basketball players are developed in the United States. Bryant has an interesting background to speak on the subject since he was raised in Italy for part of his youth and honed some of his basketball skills overseas before becoming a high school prodigy and going straight to the NBA out of Lower Merion High School.

ESPN.com‘s Arash Markazi had plenty of Kobe’s takes on how European players and American players are trained.

“I just think European players are just way more skillful,” Bryant said Friday night. “They are just taught the game the right way at an early age. … They’re more skillful. It’s something we really have to fix. We really have to address that. We have to teach our kids to play the right way.”

The main culprit, Bryant believes, is AAU basketball:

“AAU basketball,” Bryant said. “Horrible, terrible AAU basketball. It’s stupid. It doesn’t teach our kids how to play the game at all so you wind up having players that are big and they bring it up and they do all this fancy crap and they don’t know how to post. They don’t know the fundamentals of the game. It’s stupid.”

But Bryant went even further. He knows that the American youth basketball model isn’t going to change overnight, so he lamented on how the players are often treated as “cash cows” and how everyone is trying to profit off of them. He has some ideas on how to change the model:

“Teach players the game at an early age and stop treating them like cash cows for everyone to profit off of,” Bryant said. “That’s how you do that. You have to teach them the game. Give them instruction.”

“That’s a deep well because then you start cutting into people’s pockets,” Bryant continued. “People get really upset when you start cutting into their pockets because all they do is try to profit off these poor kids. There’s no quick answer.”

This is one of the more fascinating bits I’ve seen in regards to a NBA player speaking on the youth basketball model, mostly because Kobe Bryant is indirectly criticizing one of his employers: Nike.

Instead of playing AAU, top American basketball prospects often play in shoe company leagues like the Nike EYBL, the adidas Gauntlet and the Under Armour Association. The shoe companies are the ones who gobble up all of the elite talent at the high school level and put them in leagues and camps all spring and summer to cultivate a potential future client while also honing basketball skill development.

Nike, in particular, set the agenda for how the current American youth basketball dynamic works with the creation of its Elite Youth Basketball League in 2010. Under Armour and adidas have since followed suit with leagues of their own and it’s where 95 percent of the high-major talent in America plays before they move on to play college basketball.

Bryant’s take on the American basketball model isn’t incorrect, though. Youth basketball players in the United States spend way too many weekends playing in meaningless weekend tournaments to showcase their abilities in front of national scouts and college coaches. Wins and losses don’t matter as much when there is another game to play in a few hours. If a player gets disenfranchised with a coach or a lack of playing time, they can simply hop to another team or another league with no consequences. Instead, these players could be working on skill development and trying to focus on weaknesses in individual or group workouts.

But playing in games and playing on an elite travel team has plenty of perks, as well. Besides all of the cool shoe company gear that kids get if they play for one of those shoe company teams, they’re playing in organized leagues that feature the best talent in the country. All three leagues are working to integrate a shot clock, something that many states still don’t have in high school basketball.

In some shoe-company games it’s not out of the realm of possibility that all 10 players on the floor are high-major talents, with even more high-major talent coming off of the bench. The overall talent on these teams often far exceeds what these players see game-in and game-out during the normal high school season. And there are plenty of really good grassroots coaches as well who focus on skill development and actually making players better.

While peers like LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry specifically work with elite high school players every summer, Kobe has been absent from this scene for many years. Bryant still holds a youth camp every summer, but it’s for kids ages 8-to-18 and you have to pay (or receive a scholarship from a charitable organization) to participate. I’m not blaming Kobe Bryant for not working with the elite high school basketball players in America. He’s still chasing rings and Karl Malone and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the all-time scoring list. But he’s pointing fingers at a model he could help fix with more direct involvement.

If Kobe Bryant wants to help fix American youth basketball, he’d be best served talking to Nike and figuring out the most effective way for the organization as a whole to develop the skills of American basketball players. Bryant carries an incredible amount of clout because of his legendary credentials and jaw-dropping work ethic and he’s seen how things work in both Europe and the United States. It would be really interesting to hear Kobe’s ideas on how to change things and how he would implement those changes.

But until then, we just have another NBA player groaning about the youth while doing little to actually help out.

A Massive NCAA Academic Fraud Scandal Uncovered. (We, (CS&T/AA), guarantee we will hear more on this story; it's a bomb waiting to explode.)

By JD King

(Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports) 

Mr. White, as he would like to be called, masterminded simple but highly effective techniques to get virtually anyone into college.

For some time now, we've all been thinking that the UNC scandal was the defining scandal of college athletics, and why not? It was systematic academic fraud which went on for 18 years.

Well, now it has a rival and the only reason you haven't heard of it is where it was published, because The Chronicle Of Higher Education is not normally a site you think of when you think of investigative journalism.

 

Nonetheless, the Chronicle seems to have the story straight on "Mr. White," who has cooperated in its investigation.

 

This guy worked out a system for getting players through online classes or classes by mail, and he made sure they got through, even if he had to take the tests himself - which was fine, since he had the answer keys.

 

The system he worked out is pretty simple and brilliant. The online courses were not secure; the classes by mail required merely a proctor and a signature. Since the schools were lax about changing the tests up, the answers were never very different. And he used pre-paid credit cards to cover his tracks.

 

This involves mostly junior college players and coaches across the country but mostly in the South and Southeast. Among the few coaches specifically implicated: Stan Heath, formerly at Southern Florida, and Isaiah Thomas, formerly of Florida Atlantic. Heath had no comment; Thomas denied it through a spokeswoman.

 

Among other schools implicated: Texas, Liberty, Morgan State, Oregon, and Xavier of Ohio.

 

The NCAA has interviewed him several times and he knows that he is now seen as an informant rather than a participant. Snitching does not seem to appeal to him but he hasn't ruled it out.

 

There are also glimpses into the broader world of cheating: "Last spring a former assistant basketball coach in the Southeastern Conference attempted to pass online test answers to a former colleague, according to a director of academic support with knowledge of the situation. A coach in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference told The Chronicle how he had helped players trick webcams set up to monitor their online exams. And a former Division I assistant described how he had spent years handing players the answers to online tests."

 

It's not a pretty picture to say the least, but it reflects, yet again, how the vast amount of money flowing through what we used to call amateur basketball is corrupting everything.

On This Date in Sports History: Today is Friday, January 2, 2015.

Memoriesofhistory.com

1920 - The New York Yankees purchased "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sox for $125,000.

1927 - A three-day public hearing began on the charges that four major league baseball games played between Chicago and Detroit on September 2 and 3 of 1917 had been thrown.

1983 - Wayne Gretzky (Edmonton Oilers) scored his 100th point of the season. He achieved his 100th point in only the 42nd game of the season.

1931 - Lucille Thomas became the first woman to buy a professional baseball team. She bought the Topeka franchise of the Western League.

1934 - Both the National and American baseball leagues decided to use a uniform-size baseball. It was the first time in 33 years that both leagues used the same size ball.

1993 - Mike Ditka was fired as coach of the Chicago Bears.

 

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