CS&T/AllsportsAmerica Friday Sports News Update and What's Your Take? 09/13/2015.

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Sports Quote of the Day:

Winning team members need to know five things:

1. Tell me what you expect from me.
2. Give me an opportunity to perform.
3. Let me know how I'm getting along.
4. Give me guidance where I need it.
5. Reward me according to my contribution.”  

~ Paul "Bear" Bryant, Legendary University of Alabama Head Football Coach

Trending: Wrigley rooftop owners seek restraining order to halt new Cubs scoreboard. And the battle continues.....

By Mike Oz

An artist's rendering of the Wrigley Field renovations. (Photo/AP)

As the Chicago Cubs scurry to get Wrigley Field ready for opening day, they've been met with another roadblock. The Cubs' ongoing fight with their neighbors was ratcheted up a notch Wednesday, when angry Wrigley rooftop owners went to court seeking a temporary restraining order to stop installation of the Cubs' new right-field video scoreboard.

The new scoreboard is part of the team's $575 million stadium renovation, which started this winter and will be completed in four phases. The Cubs tore out their bleachers and are already behind schedule in getting new ones in for opening day. The scoreboard fight could be another significant setback in starting what's supposed to be an exciting season of baseball on the North side. 
 

 

A rendering of right field at Wrigley with a new scoreboard. (Photo/AP)

The Wrigley rooftop owners — who sell seats on their roofs to Cubs fans — already filed a lawsuit against the team last month. They claim the big, new scoreboard (which also allows the Cubs to sell more advertising) will ruin their views and thus their businesses. They were in court Thursday seeking the temporary restraining order to stop scoreboard installation before it's too late. 

From the Chicago Tribune:

The owners, led by Edward McCarthy, run the businesses at Lakeview Baseball Club, at 3633 N. Sheffield Ave., and Skybox at Sheffield, at 3627 N. Sheffield Ave. They filed a federal lawsuit last month against the Cubs, accusing the team of anti-competitive behavior and violating the terms of a 20-year contract that granted rooftop owners the right to sell tickets to games.

They are seeking a temporary restraining order to halt installation because they say their businesses will be destroyed before the case goes to trial.

"Simply put, without views into Wrigley Field there is no rooftop business — a fact that the Cubs organization has frequently pointed out while trying to strong-arm the plaintiffs and others into selling out," the suit said.

 This fight ain't new, folks, and it doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon.  

How 'bout them Chicago Blackhawks? Devils-Blackhawks Preview. 

By Eric Lear
                                 

                                       
1. DANCE WITH THE DEVILS

New Jersey enters Friday’s tilt having gone two straight games without a point for the first time since the calendar flipped to 2015. They dropped a 6-2 decision to Montreal on Saturday before losing to last-place Edmonton 2-1 on Monday. Prior to that two-game stretch, the Devils had won five of the past six games. On the other side, the Blackhawks have picked up at least a point in each of their last four, but they’re far from pleased with the last two games at home. The Hawks scored two late goals against Vancouver on Wednesday to force overtime, before Daniel Sedin won it in the extra session. It’s the second and final meeting of the year between the Blackhawks and Devils; Chicago won 3-2 in a shootout on Dec. 9.

2. ELIAS SPORTS BUREAU

Friday’s game will be the 1,200th of Patrik Elias’ storied career. The 38-year-old left winger has hit several milestones this season, his 19th with New Jersey since being drafted in the second round in 1994. His 401 goals, 605 assists and 1,006 points are all franchise records, and he’s one of 91 players in NHL history to score 400 or more goals. His numbers are down a bit this year by the standards he’s set over his career, tallying just eight goals and 15 assists in 44 games, but does have two goals in his last three games.

3. AGELESS WONDER

At 42 years old—43 on Sunday—Jaromir Jagr was drafted before six current Blackhawks were born. The veteran of 23 seasons remains a scoring threat, leading the Devils with 29 points and sharing second with 11 goals. The future Hall of Famer’s career numbers are staggering; he’s fifth all-time in points with 1,784, and he leads all active players in goals (716), assists (1,068) and points.

“It’s fun to play against him,” said Patrick Sharp. “I was I think 7, 8, 9-years old when he was winning Stanley Cups with Pittsburgh and now he’s still playing great hockey.”

4. BOSS HOSS

Marian Hossa picked up two more goals on Wednesday, one of which came in the final minute of regulation and forced overtime. It’s the first time in Hossa’s career that he’s tallied three straight multi-goal games, and No. 81 is just the second player to accomplish that feat in the last three seasons.

“He’s fast and big and strong, and he does everything well out there,” Duncan Keith said after Wednesday’s game. “Even when he doesn’t score, he’s a great player for us and effective all over the ice. It’s nice to see the puck go in for him.”

Hossa now has 16 goals and 40 points in 55 games this season, and is four tallies away from reaching the 20-goal mark for the 14th time in his career. (Jagr leads active players with 18 such campaigns.)

5. SHOW OF POWER

The Blackhawks netted two power-play goals—both in the third period—in Wednesday’s overtime loss to the Canucks, and that was a welcome sight to see. In the game prior, the Blackhawks came up empty on four power plays and had just two shots, the same number of shots Arizona had while shorthanded. Wednesday, the Blackhawks had better zone entries with the man advantage and were able to set up their power play, which featured two new-look units. Hossa scored the first power-play goal, while the second was credited to Brandon Saad after he redirected a Duncan Keith blast from the point. If the Blackhawks can continue finding the back of the net against New Jersey’s 25th-ranked penalty kill, it’ll go a long way to claiming two points on Friday.

6. THE FINAL WORD

The Blackhawks are in a frustrating spot: They have points in four of five games in February, but they aren’t playing to the level they’d like, and they’ve left points on the table in too many games dating back to the Ice Show Trip. Friday's tilt could be a great chance for the Blackhawks to gain some momentum on this homestand against a Devils team that has juggled their lines at the last two practices in order to find some sort of spark offensively. Corey Crawford will start for Chicago, while Cory Schneider’s in goal for New Jersey. He’s 2-2-1 all-time against the Blackhawks with a 3.44 goals-against average and .901 save percentage.

Blackhawks drop second straight in OT loss to Canucks 5-4.

By Tracey Myers

The desperation was there for the Blackhawks. It just took until the third period for it to materialize.

Thanks to that desperation, the Blackhawks somehow got a point, one that didn’t seem possible they’d earn after sloppy, uninspired play through the first 40 minutes. But the Vancouver brother combination made sure the Blackhawks didn’t get the other one.

Marian Hossa had his third consecutive two-goal game but Daniel Sedin also scored two goals, including the overtime winner set up by brother Henrik, as the Canucks beat the Blackhawks, 5-4. The Blackhawks now have 70 points this season and remain third in the Central Division behind Nashville (78) and St. Louis (74).

That point was welcomed by the Blackhawks, especially considering those first 40 minutes. But the fact they had to scratch, scrape and score two late-power play goals – one a 6-on-4 after pulling Corey Crawford – en route to forcing overtime was unnecessary late pressure. They know it never should’ve gotten to that point, and they know their bad puck management got them there.

“Every goal they had, we had the puck in a good position and it ended up going the other way and in our net,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “Whether it was coverage or poor plays with the puck, it all led back into our end and into our net. We had a very sloppy first half of the game.”

It wasn’t pretty. The funny thing was that the Blackhawks got the early lead off a Canucks gaffe. Patrick Kane was credited with his 27th goal of the season but it was his pass that went off Dan Hamhuis’ stick and past Eddie Lack that put the Blackhawks up 1-0 just 57 seconds into the second period. The rest of the second period was all Canucks. Well, a six-minute, 37-second span of that period was really all theirs, as they took advantage of Blackhawks miscues and scored three times in that duration. Linden Vey, Bo Horvat and Zach Kassian, who redirected Luca Sbisa’s shot, all scored for the Canucks in that second period.

“Obviously when things aren’t going your way you’re running out of position,” said Hossa, who added it was up to the forwards to help the defense in playing tighter. “It’s a unit of five and we were way too spread out on some shifts and that’s what happens. There are so many holes and good, skilled teams take advantage of it.”

Quenneville also wasn’t pinning everything on the defense.

“It wasn’t defending as [much as it was] the poor decisions we made with the puck that led to all their action,” he said. “Sometimes you have to keep it simple. There’s nothing wrong with indirect plays or straight-ahead plays. We made some good plays in the offensive zone but some of the decisions we made with the puck were tough to watch.”

Still, the Blackhawks somehow got that point. Hossa’s first goal came on the Blackhawks’ first third-period power play to cut Vancouver’s lead to 3-2. Daniel Sedin followed up Henrik on a delayed penalty, however, to re-establish the Canucks’ two-goal lead, 4-2. But the Blackhawks weren’t done, scoring another goal on another power play, no less, this one from Duncan Keith. Hossa then scored his second of the night on a Kane-in-the-2010-Cup angle, tying it at 4-4 with just 54.4 seconds left in regulation.

Again, it was good the Blackhawks got that one point. But it took a lot of work and a lot of energy in a short amount of time to do it. With better play through the first 40 minutes, they could’ve spared themselves a frantic final 20.

“Whether it’s desperation or urgency, we just came alive there at the end,” Keith said. “We know we’re a tough team to play against when our backs are against the wall. But we don’t want to let it get like that.”

Marian Hossa stays hot in Blackhawks' loss to Canucks.

By Nina Falcone

Marian Hossa #81

 

Marian Hossa's offensive game has experienced some ups and downs this season.

He wasn't having the best luck in the goal-scoring department and the majority of his contributions to the team were coming away from the offensive side of the puck. But Hossa has had no issue finding the back of the net lately.

Hossa tallied two goals on Wednesday night — his second coming with less than a minute remaining in regulation — to send the Blackhawks' matchup against the Vancouver Canucks into overtime, giving him six goals in the Blackhawks' last three games.

"He's on a little bit of a roll," coach Joel Quenneville said of Hossa following his team's 5-4 overtime loss. "He's getting to the net, putting pucks to the net. Been fortunate there, got the one to tie it. But that's what happens when you get a little bit of confidence and things are going your way. Just have to keep riding it, but certainly, three games in a row with two goals, it's got to be fun."

Hossa sure doesn't have any complaints. 

"It feels good when the puck's going in for you," he said. "Just try to put the puck at the net and that's my goal right now and good things have happened. So that's what I tried to do."

 

A renewed confidence has been apparent in Hossa's performance the last few days, as he's been driving to the net and showing he's not afraid to pull the trigger.

 

Even prior to this burst, Hossa's overall game was still strong. Despite some offensive slumps, he had continued to make big plays on the defensive end and helped put his teammates in position with the puck. But now his goals are coming when his team can really use them, and his teammates are taking notice.

 

"He was great," Duncan Keith said. "I mean he scored a huge goal for us tonight to tie it up. He's fast and big and strong, he does everything well out there. So even when he doesn't score, he's a great player for us and effective all over the ice. It's nice to see the puck go in for him."

 

Hossa's proven to be one of the league's best two-way players throughout his career, and right now his offensive game is back up there with his performance on the defensive end. His confidence is riding high, and that managed to earn the Blackhawks a point on a night when the rest of their game was less-than-stellar.

 

Now Hossa's teammates hope to build off his game to get some momentum going.

 

"For him, single-handedly bringing us back in the game is pretty amazing," Kris Versteeg said. "Too bad we didn't finish it off for him. It's pretty crazy to see, you don't see many players in the league with that capability, and he's obviously one of them. The way he's been playing is great, just have to get everyone going and hopefully follow him and string together a few wins."

 

Timeout: Blackhawks send Teravainen to AHL.

 

By James O'Brien

 

Teuvo Teravainen #86 (Photo/Getty Images)

Remember when Teuvo Teravainen was the next big thing for the Chicago Blackhawks? The future isn’t quite now, it seems, as CSNChicago.com’s Tracey Myers reports that he was demoted to the AHL on Thursday.

In exchange, the Blackhawks brought up Ryan Hartman and Kyle Cumiskey, according to Myers.

The 20-year-old really hasn’t made much of an impact, especially lately. He’s currently on a six-game pointless streak and has only managed four points in 15 games.

He’s not really getting much ice time on a loaded Chicago offense, so maybe it really makes sense to send the 18th pick of the 2012 NHL Draft to the AHL where he can regain some confidence and be the BMOC (if you will).

There’s plenty of time for him to convert his robust skills to the NHL game, and there’s always the chance that Chicago may get a boost from him later this season (or perhaps in the playoffs?).

Still, the review seems to be “not yet” so far when it comes to “Teuvo Time.”

Just Another Chicago Bulls Session…  Rose does his best All-Star impression as Bulls top Cavs 113-98.

By Mark Strotman

Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) loses the ball in front of Bulls guard Aaron Brooks (0) in the first half at the United Center. (Photo/Chris Sweda, Chicago Tribune)

Thursday night’s matchup between the Bulls and Cavaliers featured three All-Stars, with a fourth sitting out due to injury. Derrick Rose wasn’t one of those players, but you wouldn’t have known by the way he played.

The former MVP poured in 30 points and added seven assists as the Bulls won their fourth straight game, downing the surging Cleveland Cavaliers, 113-98, in their final game before the All-Star break.

The Bulls, playing without first-time All-Star Jimmy Butler (shoulder strain), executed well in the first half and took advantage of the Cavaliers mistakes. With Cleveland center Timofey Mozgov in foul trouble early and Kevin Love (eye) on the bench the Bulls looked to attack early and often, scoring 30 points in the paint. The Cavaliers, winners in 14 of their last 15, also committed eight first-half turnovers that the Bulls turned into 12 points.

But Cleveland had to have felt fortunate to be down seven, 55-48, at the half, considering LeBron James and Kyrie Irving had combined to shoot 7-for-21 and 19 points. Simply put, the Bulls had played almost flawlessly and the Cavaliers had struggled in almost every area, and the game was still in reach.

That’s when Rose really went to work. After scoring 13 points in the first quarter on an array of aggressive drives to the basket against Irving, the three-time MVP from 2010 to 2012 took his game to another level, scoring 13 more points and handing out three assists as the Bulls pushed their lead to as many as 15 points.

A 9-2 run late in the period, led by James and capped off by a James Jones 3-pointer, had cut the Bulls’ lead to just eight. But Rose took the inbounds pass coast-to-coast in less than six seconds, finishing with one of his patented up-and-under layups that brought the crowd to their feet.

The Cavaliers were able to close the gap to as few as seven in the final period, but an off-night shooting from James (12-for-26, eight turnovers) and a spirited effort from the bench pushed the lead back out to 14, capped off by a Tony Snell 3-pointer. Snell, coming off a career-high 24 points two nights earlier, started in place of Butler and received the initial assignment on the four-time MVP James. He more than held his own, keeping James in check as best he could while finishing with 22 points on 9-for-11 shooting.

Joakim Noah, who missed the Bulls’ 108-94 loss in Cleveland last month with an ankle injury, looked like the player who was named All-NBA First Team a year ago. The Bulls center finished with 10 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists in arguably his best game of the season.

Pau Gasol, who will start in Sunday’s All-Star Game, extended his double-double streak to 14 games by going for 18 points and 10 rebounds. He’s now one double-double away from tying Michael Jordan’s Bulls record, which he accomplished in 1989.

With the win, the Bulls head into All-Star weekend with a 1.5-game lead on the Cavaliers in the Central Division. They’re third in the Eastern Conference and just 2.5 games behind second-place Toronto.

Bear Down Chicago Bears!!!!! Bears (Brandon) Marshall Plan? Still unclear.

By John Mullin

Having been in their present jobs now for more than a few days and with more than a little NFL experience in their pasts, Bears general manager Ryan Pace and head coach John Fox doubtless have formulated a plan for wide receiver Brandon Marshall. Fox, Marshall and Pace met last month but the Bears hierarchy did not clarify that Marshall will begin his ninth NFL season as a Bear. But neither did they definitively indicate to Marshall that he won’t. And they obviously could have.

They may do that next Wednesday when they speak at the NFL’s Scouting Combine. But if Marshall, who knows how to read NFL situations as well as coverages, says he does not know conclusively that he is or isn’t going to be a Bear, over-analyzing this situation remains only speculation at this point.

Marshall is under contract for this and two more seasons by virtue of the four-year deal he signed last offseason. The Bears can save more than $7 million in cash and nearly $4 million in salary cap space by cutting ties with Marshall. But Chairman George McCaskey and President Ted Phillips said that money was not going to be a tipping point imposed on Pace, and that was in reference to Jay Cutler whose guaranteed 2015 money is more than twice what Marshall would be owed if he is on the roster as of March 12.

Marshall spoke in glowing terms of offensive coordinator Adam Gase, who was Marshall’s receivers coach while with the Denver Broncos while Marshall was misbehaving under then head coach Josh McDaniels. If there was any indicator of where matters might be trending, if was Marshall’s use of “The thing I’m looking forward to… .” with respect to Gase.

Marshall said that he had gone to Halas Hall again as recently as Tuesday and visited with Gase. From Marshall’s perspective, it was a positive time, although Marshall admitted that he still didn’t know if the Bears are keeping him. He would like to keep his weekly gig with Showtime’s “Inside the NFL” program; it will be a surprise if Pace and Fox endorse that the way Marc Trestman did. How Marshall reacts to being told “no,” if he is, certainly can be its own decision point. As coaches universally maintain, they don’t make decisions on players; players do.

2015 NFL Offseason Key Dates.

By Dan Durkin

The New England Patriots were crowned Super Bowl champions less than two weeks ago, yet the focus has quickly shifted to the 2015 offseason. Below are key upcoming dates for the 2015 NFL and Bears’ offseason schedule.

(All times are in Central Time)

— February 16: First day for clubs to designate franchise or transition Players.

– February 17-23: NFL Scouting Combine takes place at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

– March 2: Prior to 3 p.m., deadline for clubs to designate franchise or transition players.

– March 7: NFL Regional Combine takes place at Halas Hall in Lake Forest, Ill.

– March 7-10: Clubs are permitted to contact and enter into contract negotiations with the certified agents of players who will become unrestricted free agents upon the expiration of their 2014 contracts at 3 p.m. on March 10. However, a contract can’t be executed with a new club until 3 p.m. on March 10.

– March 10: The 2015 league year begins. Prior to 3 p.m., clubs must exercise options for 2015 on all players who have option clauses in their 2014 contracts.

— Prior to 3 p.m., clubs must submit qualifying offers to their restricted free agents with expiring contracts and to whom they desire to retain a right of first refusal/compensation.

 — Prior to 3 p.m., clubs must submit a minimum salary tender to retain exclusive negotiating rights to their players with expiring 2014 contracts and who have fewer than three accrued seasons of free agency credit.

 — Top-51 begins, whereby the offseason salary cap only accounts for the club’s top-51 salaries.

— All clubs must be under the 2015 salary cap prior to 3 p.m.

— All 2014 player contracts expire at 3 p.m.

— The 2015 league year and free agency period begin at 3 p.m.

— Trading period for 2015 begins at 3 p.m., after expiration of all 2014 contracts.

– March 22-25: NFL annual meeting in Phoenix.

– April 6: Clubs that hired a new head coach after the end of the 2014 regular season may begin offseason workout programs.

– April 20: Clubs with returning head coaches may begin offseason workout programs.

– April 24: Deadline for restricted free agents to sign offer sheets.

– April 28-30: The Chicago Bears holds voluntary veteran mini-camp at Halas Hall.

– April 29: Deadline for prior club to exercise right of first refusal to restricted free agents.

– April 30-May 2: The 2015 NFL Draft is held at Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University in Chicago.

– May 8-10: The Chicago Bears hold rookie mini-camp at Halas Hall.

– May 27: The Chicago Bears hold a organized team activity (OTA) practice.

– June 1: For any player removed from the club’s roster or whose contract is assigned via waivers or trade on or after June 1, any unamortized signing bonus amounts for future years will be included fully in team salary at the start of the 2016 league year.

— Deadline for prior club to send “June 1 tender” to its unsigned unrestricted free agents. If the player hasn’t signed a contract with a club by July 22 or the first scheduled day of the first NFL training camp, whichever is later, he may negotiate or sign a contract from that date until the Tuesday following the 10th weekend of the regular season, at 3 p.m., only with his prior club.

— Deadline for prior club to send “June 1 tender” to its unsigned restricted free agents who received a qualifying offer for a right of first refusal only in order for such player to be subject to the CBA’s “June 15 tender” provision.

– June 3: The Chicago Bears hold an OTA practice at Halas Hall.

– June 10: The Chicago Bears hold an OTA practice at Halas Hall.

– June 15: Deadline for club to withdraw qualifying offer to restricted free agents and still retain exclusive negotiating rights by substituting “June 15 tender” of one-year contract at 110 percent of the player’s prior-year Paragraph 5 Salary (with all other terms of his prior-year contract carried forward unchanged).

– June 16-18: The Chicago Bears hold veteran mini-camp at Halas Hall.

– June 21-27: The Rookie Symposium is held in Aurora, Ohio.

– July 15: At 3 p.m., deadline for any club that designated a franchise player to sign such player to a multi-year contract or extension. After this date, the player may sign only a one-year contract with his prior club for the 2015 season, and said contract can’t be extended until after the club’s last regular-season game.

– Mid-July: Clubs are permitted to open preseason training camp for rookies and first-year players beginning seven days prior to the club’s earliest permissible mandatory reporting date for veteran players.

MLB could alter strike zone as response to declining offense.

By Jeff Passan

The Royals' Nori Aoki swings through a low pitch. (Photo/AP)

Major League Baseball is considering altering the textbook definition of the strike zone for the first time in nearly two decades, fearful that the proliferation of the low strike has sapped too much offense from the game, league sources told Yahoo Sports.

Concern around baseball about the strike zone filtered down to the MLB’s Playing Rules Committee, which must formally adopt a rules change before it’s implemented. The committee will pay close attention to the size of the strike zone in 2015 with an eye on change as early as 2016 after studies showed it has expanded significantly since 2009, coinciding with a precipitous dip in run scoring. Of particular concern, sources said, is the low strike, a scourge not only because it has stretched beyond the zone’s boundaries but is considered a significantly more difficult pitch to hit.

Runs per game fell to 4.07 in 2014, the lowest mark since 1981 and the 13th fewest since World War II, and studies from The Hardball Times’ Jon Roegele and Florida professor Brian Mills pegged the low strike as a significant culprit.

Since 2009, the average size of the called strike zone has jumped from 435 square inches to 475 square inches, according to Roegele’s research. The results: Pitchers are throwing more in the lower part of the zone, and hitters are swinging at an increased rate, knowing the tough-to-drive pitches will be called strikes.

Roegele’s study estimated 31 percent of the offensive drought could be attributed to the strike zone while Mills estimated it’s between 24 percent and 41 percent. After seeing a strong correlation among the size of the strike zone, all-time-high strikeout rates and historically low walk rates, members of the committee now are fairly certain the relationship is causative, too, and seem primed to do something about it.

 

 The problem, sources said, stems from technological leaps that caused unintended consequences. In 1996, when the league last changed the strike zone to extend it from the top of the knees to the bottom, beneath the hollow of the kneecap, it did so to encourage umpires to call knee-level strikes. The lower end of the zone, in practice, was about three-quarters of the way down the thigh, so the idea was that by adjusting the eye levels of umpires to look lower, the result would be a more traditional strike zone.

Then along came Questec, the computerized pitch-tracking system, followed by Zone Evaluation, the current version tied in to MLB’s PITCHf/x system. With a tremendous degree of accuracy – especially in recent years – the systems tracked textbook balls and strikes, and the home-plate umpires’ performances were graded on a nightly basis. Over time, not only did umpires’ strike zones move down to the knees, they went to the hollow and even a smidge below.

“I don’t think the Playing Rules Committee at the time of the last change ever expected that the umpires would call strikes at the hollow of the knee,” said Mets general manager Sandy Alderson, the current chairman of the committee. “To their credit, the umpires now are.”
 

The strike zone has lowered about three inches since 2009. (Hardball Times)

Working in baseball’s favor is the effect of Questec and Zone Evaluation. After years of individualized strike zones, the umpire-to-umpire consistency of balls and strikes is believed to be higher than ever. The technology’s intention worked, and if baseball does return the strike zone to the top of the knee, the learning curve might be lessened because of the constant grading.

“What we’ve done is eliminate one variable, which is the varying application of the strike zone among umpires,” Alderson said. “Now, as a result, one can decide how the strike zone should be defined with some confidence that the umpires will call it that way. There’s a lot less slippage between the policy reflected in a rules change and the actual outcome.” 

At baseball’s GM meetings last November, the room of executives teemed with discussions about how to jolt offense in a game lacking it. Radical ideas were proposed, from putting rules into place on defensive shifts to the possibility of forcing relief pitchers to throw to more than one batter. Generating the most agreement was the problem of the low strike.

If the Playing Rules Committee sees more of the same in 2015, it could make a proposal for a rules change, which the World Umpires Association and MLB Players Association would need to ratify before it could be implemented. One fear committee members expressed were so-called “Band-Aid” fixes that would result in other issues.

Most agreed that raising the strike zone almost certainly would spark offense. The potential issue: More offense equals longer games, and with pace of play one of new commissioner Rob Manfred’s priorities, balancing the two remains a difficult proposition.

Golf: I got a club for that; Billy Horschel paid his caddie $1 million after FedEx Cup win.

By Ryan Ballengee

Billy Horschel lines up a putt with his caddie on the 16th hole in the first round of the Humana Challenge at La Quinta Country Club. (Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports)

When PGA Tour players win, they typically pay their caddie 10 percent of their haul. But that's the norm for tournaments, not the season-long FedEx Cup and its $10 million prize.

So when Billy Horschel won the Tour Championship last September to clinch the FedEx Cup, his caddie Micah Fugitt wasn't sure how he might be rewarded for helping Horschel earn golf's biggest payday.

Horschel paid Fugitt like a standard win. That made Fugitt an instant millionaire, according to a report by Golfweek's Jim McCabe. What did Fugitt feel when Horschel told him the good news?

"Shock, happiness, joy," said Fugitt. "You have such a wide range of emotions."

Horschel didn't just pay his looper, however. He left $10,000 for the locker room attendants at Tour Championship host East Lake G.C. He also gave a cut to others who have helped him along the way, including his family. 

Perhaps the magnitude surprised Fugitt, but not Horschel feeling compelled to give back to those who sacrificed for him: “He’s always been great about showing gratitude to people like that.”

John Daly's first-round 65 has him in contention at Pebble Beach.

By Ryan Ballengee

John Daly

 

Let's face it: Most John Daly stories on this site are not about what the two-time major winner accomplishes inside the ropes. 

However, despite not winning on the PGA Tour since the 2004 Buick Invitational (now the Farmers Insurance Open) and shooting a 90 last year at the Valspar Championship, when Daly posts a number -- a good one, that is -- people notice. 

Take notice.

John Daly shot a bogey-free, 7-under 65 at Pebble Beach Golf Links on Thursday to get in contention after Round 1 of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. It's Daly's lowest score on the PGA Tour since a third-round 64 at the 2014 Sony Open in Hawaii. 

"It's been a long time since I've played that well in the first round of this tournament," Daly said after the round. The bomber, who averaged some 320 yards off the tee on Thursday, was happy to get to take off the headcover often.

"This course allows you to hit the driver a lot," he said. Those drives set up, by his estimation, four or five gimme-range birdies.
 

While Daly tends to produce the one-off, eye-catching round here and there, maybe this week is different. Daly is paired with former NFL head coach and current TV analyst Herm Edwards, who Daly credited after the round with inspiring his play.

"He's so positive and he's just fun to be around," Daly said, insinuating he might need to see Edwards give one of his trademark pep talks. 

There's plenty of time for that in between shots over the next two days. Edwards may well be able to coach Daly through to a run at the pro-am title -- maybe even his first PGA Tour title in over a decade. But Daly isn't thinking too far ahead of here and now. 
 

Asked how he'll approach being in contention, Daly said, "Just take each hole at a time and enjoy the moment."
 

Tiger Woods taking a break, won't play again until 'I'm ready'.

By Ryan Ballengee

Leave of absence. Break. It's semantics. The bottom line is Tiger Woods said Wednesday he won't play tournament golf until he's ready – and that he could be ready in two weeks ... or not.

On his website, Woods explained he's fighting two battles that will keep him from playing tournament golf until both are won.

Woods said he is having daily physical therapy to treat the back injury that forced him to withdraw from the Farmers Insurance Open after 11 holes in Round 1. He also said his game isn't in tournament shape and won't play again until it is.

"Right now, I need a lot of work on my game, and to still spend time with the people that are important to me," Woods wrote on his website. "My play, and scores, are not acceptable for tournament golf. Like I've said, I enter a tournament to compete at the highest level, and when I think I'm ready, I'll be back. Next week I will practice at Medalist and at home getting ready for the rest of the year. I am committed to getting back to the pinnacle of my game."

Woods didn't rule out his next originally scheduled start at the Honda Classic (Feb. 26), but he sounded doubtful at best for the start of the PGA Tour's Florida Swing.

"I'd like to play The Honda Classic – it's a tournament in my hometown and it's important to me – but I won't be there unless my game is tournament-ready," Woods wrote. "That's not fair to anyone. I do, however, expect to be playing again very soon."

The soonest Woods could play next after Honda would be the Arnold Palmer Invitational (March 19), which will round out the Florida run. From the tone of Woods' writing, however, it seems he might wait much longer to return.

Less than a year ago, Woods was ranked No. 1 in the world, but his ranking has plummeted since. After his withdrawal from the Farmers, he now stands at 62^nd in the world, the lowest since October of 1996, when he ranked 75^th.

Complete Daytona 500, Speedweeks schedule.

By Jeff Owens

Champion's breakfast: New Logo for the Daytona 500 2015 with Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and Joe Chitwood, President of DIS

Friday, Feb. 13

Drawing for Sprint Unlimited starting positions, 3:30

Sprint Unlimited practice, 5 p.m.

Final Sprint Unlimited practice, 6:30 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 14

Sprint Cup practice, 10:30 p.m.

Sprint Cup practice, 1:30 p.m.

ARCA race, 4:15 p.m.

Sprint Unlimited, 8:15 p.m.

Sunday, Feb. 15

Daytona 500 qualifying, 1:35 p.m.

Monday, Feb. 16

No track activity

Tuesday, Feb. 17

No track activity

Wednesday, Feb. 18

Sprint Cup practice, 2 p.m.

Sprint Cup practice, 3:15 p.m.

Thursday, Feb. 19

Sprint Cup practice, 12 p.m.

Truck Series practice, 1:30 p.m.

Truck Series practice, 3:30 p.m.

Budweiser Duel qualifying races, 7 p.m.

Friday, Feb. 20

Sprint Cup practice, 11 a.m.

Xfinity Series practice, 12:30 p.m.

Sprint Cup practice, 2 p.m.

Xfinity Series practice, 3:30 p.m.

Truck Series qualifying, 4:45 p.m.

Truck Series race, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 21

Final Daytona 500 practice, 10:30 a.m.

Xfinity Series qualifying, 12:15 p.m.

Xfinity Series race, 3:30 p.m.

Sunday Feb. 22

Driver introductions, 12:15 p.m.

Daytona 500, 1 p.m.

2015 Sprint Cup Series driver tracker.

NASCAR.com

Items in red indicate a change from the previous season

Car #	Driver	Crew Chief	Manufacturer	Team
1	Jamie McMurray	Matt McCall	Chevrolet	Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates
2	Brad Keselowski	Paul Wolfe	Ford	Team Penske
3	Austin Dillon	Gil Martin	Chevrolet	Richard Childress Racing
4	Kevin Harvick	Rodney Childers	Chevrolet	Stewart-Haas Racing
5	Kasey Kahne	Keith Rodden	Chevrolet	Hendrick Motorsports
6	Trevor Bayne	Bob Osborne	Ford	Roush Fenway Racing
7	Alex Bowman	Kevin Manion	Chevrolet	Tommy Baldwin Racing
9	Sam Hornish Jr.	Drew Blickensderfer	Ford	Richard Petty Motorsports
10	Danica Patrick	Daniel Knost	Chevrolet	Stewart-Haas Racing
11	Denny Hamlin	Dave Rogers	Toyota	Joe Gibbs Racing
13	Casey Mears	Bootie Barker	Chevrolet	Germain Racing
14	Tony Stewart	Chad Johnston	Chevrolet	Stewart-Haas Racing
15	Clint Bowyer	Brian Pattie	Toyota	Michael Waltrip Racing
16	Greg Biffle	Matt Puccia	Ford	Roush Fenway Racing
17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Nick Sandler	Ford	Roush Fenway Racing
18	Kyle Busch	Adam Stevens	Toyota	Joe Gibbs Racing
19	Carl Edwards	Darian Grubb	Toyota	Joe Gibbs Racing
20	Matt Kenseth	Jason Ratcliff	Toyota	Joe Gibbs Racing
22	Joey Logano	Todd Gordon	Ford	Team Penske
23	J.J. Yeley	Joe Williams	Toyota	BK Racing
24	Jeff Gordon	Alan Gustafson	Chevrolet	Hendrick Motorsports
26	Jeb Burton	Patrick Donahue	Toyota	BK Racing
27	Paul Menard	Justin Alexander	Chevrolet	Richard Childress Racing
30	Ron Hornaday Jr.	Pat Tryson	Chevrolet	The Motorsports Group
31	Ryan Newman	Luke Lambert	Chevrolet	Richard Childress Racing
34	David Ragan	Derrick Finley	Ford	Front Row Motorsports
35	Cole Whitt	Randy Cox	Ford	Front Row Motorsports
38	David Gilliland	Donnie Wingo	Ford	Front Row Motorsports
40	Landon Cassill	Mark Hillman	Chevrolet	Hillman Smith Motorsports
41	Kurt Busch	Tony Gibson	Chevrolet	Stewart-Haas Racing
42	Kyle Larson	Chris Heroy	Chevrolet	Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates
43	Aric Almirola	Trent Owens	Ford	Richard Petty Motorsports
46	Michael Annett	Jay Guy	Chevrolet	HScott Motorsports
47	AJ Allmendinger	Brian Burns	Chevrolet	JTG Daugherty Racing
48	Jimmie Johnson	Chad Knaus	Chevrolet	Hendrick Motorsports
51	Justin Alllgaier	Steve Addington	Chevrolet	HScott Motorsports
55	Brian Vickers	Billy Scott	Toyota	Michael Waltrip Racing
62	Brendan Gaughan	Zach McGowan	Chevrolet	Premium Motorsports
78	Martin Truex Jr.	Cole Pearn	Chevrolet	Furniture Row Racing
88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Greg Ives	Chevrolet	Hendrick Motorsports
98	Josh Wise	Gene Nead	Chevrolet	Phil Parsons Racing

Keselowski offers his picks for top drivers.

By Zack Albert

Who does the 2012 champ consider to be the best driver in the sport?

What started life as an innocent answer later morphed into a revealing insight from Brad Keselowski about how he rated his peers. But it also illustrated that if there were such a thing as a talent podium of NASCAR drivers, Keselowski has himself on it, but behind reigning Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick and his No. 1 pick, Carl Edwards.

Keselowski, celebrating his 31st birthday Thursday at NASCAR Media Day at Daytona International Speedway, said his progress in NASCAR's big leagues led him to the self-assessment that he considered himself a top-three driver in the sport. Pressed to name the other two, the always candid Keselowski complied, putting Edwards atop his list with Harvick a close second.

"I personally think just from watching, and I'm not afraid to say it, that Carl Edwards right now is the best driver in the Sprint Cup," Keselowski said. "That's my personal opinion; it doesn't make it law or fact. To go with that, you could probably place an argument for Kevin (Harvick) as the second best."

Edwards' efforts in his final season at Roush Fenway Racing were maddeningly inconsistent, and though the veteran struggled with performance at times in 2014, he was able to scratch out two victories -- at Bristol Motor Speedway and Sonoma Raceway -- and advance to the Eliminator 8 in the new-look Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs.

"I've seen what Carl's done in cars that didn't have the speed," Keselowski said. "He has a very diverse skill set. He's been able to win at tracks like Sonoma and has won at every type of track, I should say, and I feel like he does the best job of any driver I've seen out there taking a car that is not fast and finding speed out of it. I think when the times have come that he's had dominant cars, he's had dominant performances. He's shown to me the skill set at every level to be a top driver."

His uncanny ability to do less with more made an impression on Keselowski, who said that he considers Edwards a favorite for the 2015 championship in his first season with Joe Gibbs Racing. Harvick and new team Stewart-Haas Racing struck similar gold in their first year together last season.

"It would not surprise me if they were the team to beat this year," Keselowski said of JGR's No. 19 Toyota, Edwards' new team. "There's something about those new teams -- magic comes together."

U.S. men's national team continues free fall in FIFA World Rankings.

By Joe Lago

Feb 8, 2015; United States coach Jurgen Klinsmann reacts during international friendly against Panama at StubHub Center. The United States defeated Panama 2-0. (Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports)

The Chicken Littles who follow the United States men's national team have had more than a few reasons to believe the sky's been falling on Jurgen Klinsmann's side. Before last Sunday's confidence-boosting 2-0 victory over Panama, the Americans had won just one of their last nine games and had gone winless in five straight. A season-opening 3-2 defeat at Chile last month continued a trend of fall-from-ahead collapses.

The release of the latest FIFA World Rankings on Thursday will only reinforce the belief that the USMNT is headed in the wrong direction.

The Americans dropped four spots from their January rank of 27th to 31st in the world. The last time the U.S. finished the year outside the top 30 was 2011 – the year Klinsmann took over for Bob Bradley – when it was ranked 34th.

Now, the FIFA rankings have been ridiculed over the years for their somewhat nonsensical methodology and apparent lack of logic when it comes to accurately assessing the performance of national sides. But even American supporters who dress up as a dead President would acknowledge that FIFA's ratings of the U.S. since the World Cup have been pretty spot on.

Here are the USMNT's monthly rankings since Brazil 2014, when it entered the tournament as No. 14 in the world.

September 2014: 17th
October 2014: 23rd
November 2014: 28th
December 2014: 27th
January 2015: 27th

Here's the U.S.'s new neighborhood in FIFA's rankings.

And here's the FIFA top 10:

Major League Soccer players, owners on collision course for work stoppage.

By Leander Schaerlaeckens

This fight has been fought before, and the players lost it. Five years ago, as Major League Soccer and its Players Union were hashing out the collective bargaining agreement that expired when the month of January ran out, they caved on the eve of the season.

This time around, the resolve of the players seems absolute, and the start of the 20th MLS season, slated for March 6, is endangered. A labor stoppage is a real threat, and it could do immense harm to the league.

Then, as now, the players fought for their free agency – yes, there are still professional sports leagues in this day and age where players remain the property of their teams after their contracts run out (within the confines of the league, anyway) – as well as a slew of other issues. Emails flew around back then, urging the players to be smart with their money, plan for a potential strike and stay united. The now-retired Landon Donovan appeared to be a ringleader.

But the players settled for a compromise of sorts, reaching a deal five days before the season was to begin. They pitched a re-entry draft, which the league liked – anything to avoid free agency – and has been in use since. Players whose clubs won't renew their contracts, or pick up remaining option years, can now be drafted by other MLS teams, who will own their rights provided they pick up the option or, in the second round, extend a bona fide offer – an exercise of typical MLS-ian convolution.
 

Essentially, a player who is stuck in one town can go elsewhere, but the market for him remains limited to one team.

So the players made gains in 2010, as some of them have benefited from the re-entry draft, but they still fell well short of their free agency. This time around, they're digging in their heels.

Several player representatives to their Union have already said publicly that they're willing to strike over this thing. Brad Evans of the Seattle Sounders and the U.S. national team reiterated it on Monday.

"I think at this point a strike is imminent if we don't get what we want," Evans told the Associated Press. "And that's kind of where we stand. If that's what it takes, that's what it takes. … Right now, we're far off from where we want to be. It's going to take some fighting. It's going to take some grittiness."

The league, for its part, has declared itself unmovable on free agency. MLS says it runs roughshod over the single-entity structure – which it has already defended in court – and that its clubs bidding for players already in the league would imperil its vast growth of the last decade or so.

The owners would rather spend any new money – the salary cap is expected to go up – to attract new talent from outside the league or use it to retain key players, rather than let average wages rise. They speak of needing cost certainty. The players counter that, since there would still be a salary cap, the owners would retain control over their outlay.

Plainly, these two sides are on a collision course. And they understand that much is at stake. "We all have to be smart about it and we've got to look at the repercussions," Evans said. "But we've got to know that a lot of players have built this league and feel they should be rewarded with some sort of movement where they play."

That's a fair assertion. During the league's first 19 seasons, an awful lot of players have toiled for little job security, relinquishing control over their own lives for less money than they might have made in regular jobs. For a time, not so long ago, rookies could be paid as little as $12,900 per year. For a full-time job.

But the owners absorbed heavy losses and kept the league running during a lot of difficult years. The league claims it still loses some $100 million as a whole – although it won't say how it got to those numbers. Does that accounting include, for instance, the latest round of $100 million expansion fees? The signing of a much-improved broadcast deal with ESPN, FOX Sports and Univision? Or the profits from the very successful Soccer United Marketing arm? It would seem unlikely.

The repercussions of a labor stoppage that Evans alludes to are potentially far-reaching. The NHL has been beset by lockouts in the last two decades, and it's inarguably slowed its growth. Some say hockey's popularity has suffered from it. The 1994 player strike in Major League Baseball may well have abetted the sport's slow fade from the national consciousness.

There has never been this much buzz about a new MLS season. Two hotly anticipated expansion teams are joining – New York City FC and Orlando City SC – and a bevy of stars has been imported. Kaka, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and David Villa are soccer celebrities. Sebastian Giovinco adds the cachet of bringing over an Italian national teamer in his prime. In Jozy Altidore, Mix Diskerud, Brek Shea and Sacha Kljestan, yet more elite American players were brought home.

The new TV deal calls for regular time slots on fixed days, something the league has long lacked and blamed for its enduringly weak ratings. Meanwhile, excitement is building over further expansion plans for Miami, Atlanta and Los Angeles – after Chivas USA was folded there – and a fourth market to be determined.

MLS has been on a steep upward trajectory for the better part of a decade. Credibility, fan culture and soccer-specific stadiums have been built. Attendance continues to grow, eclipsing 19,000 per game in 2014. Now the league seems positioned to make real inroads with that elusive television audience – its final frontier.

There's never been this much at stake.

And it's never been this likely that a season wouldn't start on time. The casual, mainstream fans the league covets – having already attracted a devoted hardcore – are fickle and unforgiving. If the build-up to opening day proves anticlimactic, getting them to recommit could prove tricky.

Certainly, that means the players have as much leverage now as ever. But if they wield it too forcefully, they might smash big cracks into the foundation they worked so hard and thanklessly to lay. Just as the owners might undermine all that investment by sitting on their cash now.

Jerry Tarkanian: A true rebel if ever there was one.

By Dan Wetzel

Coach Jerry Tarkanian (Getty Images)

Jerry Tarkanian died Wednesday at age 84, a man who perfectly reflected both his own nickname – Tark the Shark – and that of his famous UNLV teams – Runnin' Rebel.

Before we go beyond all the victories, before we get to how what he always said about the NCAA has become widely accepted and before we get to his immense impact on the integration of the game, let's start with a recruiting story.

Tark recruiting stories are great and maybe no one ever had more of them than him.

There was the time he sent Frank Sinatra in on a home visit in Jersey because the recruit had an Italian mother (didn't work). There was time he'd pick up a recruit after school in Brooklyn for weeks on end, drive him to his girlfriend's house and then wait outside in the car as they, ah, got re-acquainted (worked). 

There was the time he planned on stashing a recruit at a cabin in Lake Arrowhead (Calif.) until signing day, only to have someone else stash him first on Waikiki Beach. There was the time he learned that it always pays to get the high school girlfriend to come along too, at least for the first semester. 

There was the time he sprinted out of a home visit with a mother because he thought the NCAA had bugged the joint. 

There were a lot of times. 

And Tark loved to tell about them whenever he was into telling stories, which was always, although never more often than over a long pasta dinner at Piero's near the Las Vegas Convention Center. 

Not too many people could tell a story better than Tark. He reveled in them, all of them, the hysteria and the hysterics he produced across 31 seasons at Division I, seven more in junior colleges around L.A., a couple at a California high school and even a stint in NBA, producing over 1,000 victories, four Final Fours, one national title and a legacy told in tales too tall to believe.

So let's start with 1985 and a recruit named Clifford Allen, 6-foot-10 out of Carson, Calif. Everyone wanted him, at least until he was busted for robbery his senior year and sent to the El Paso de Robles Youth Correctional Facility.

Then it was pretty much just UNLV recruiting Clifford Allen.

Tarkanian was undeterred by the imprisonment. He was the king of second chances; in part because growing up in Pasadena, without a father, as the son of an immigrant with a strange name, as a smart, but disinterested student, he himself needed a few.

He saw the possibilities in anyone. Plus Allen could really play. He saw those possibilities, too.

So he went to the correctional facility and talked to Clifford on the phone through the glass. It was just like the movies. It worked. Allen earned a GED behind bars and was headed to play for the Rebels upon his release. 

That you've likely never heard of Clifford Allen, that he never scored a point in college basketball, let alone the NBA, and the fact he was later sentenced to 45-to-life for murder in Florida, would normally be the climax of the story. 

Colleges recruiting at-risk kids who never make it aren't that rare though. You win some; you lose some, especially when you roll like Tarkanian. He won more than he lost. That isn't the interesting part.
 

No, to appreciate Jerry Tarkanian in his full glory is to know that at the time Allen signed that Letter of Intent, UNLV had a new president, Robert Maxson, who was trying to improve its academic profile. UNLV was a growing commuter school shaking off the mobster-era reputation of old Vegas.

It needed something big to get some better students, so a new plan was implemented that no matter where a kid went to high school, anywhere in America, they would receive a full academic scholarship to UNLV if they graduated as the valedictorian.

Tark said they read about this in the newspaper one day and one of his assistants immediately cracked a joke: "Hell, Clifford was the valedictorian of that El Paso de Robles GED program. He should qualify for a full academic scholarship."

"We all laughed," Tarkanian said, "but then I got to thinking …"

If Allen was on an academic scholarship then that freed up one more basketball scholarship to bring in another guy. Plus they could publicize it and would help Allen's reputation. Win-win.

An assistant was dispatched to the youth correctional facility and an official paper was drafted (a couple bucks may or may not have been used to grease the skids with a dumbfounded prison worker).

However it was done, Allen was declared the valedictorian of the prison GED program, even if no one knew if a prison GED program could even have a valedictorian because, you know, it's a prison GED program and all.

UNLV wasn't just rubber-stamping this though. It may not have been Harvard, but this seemed suspect, so a hearing was set up where Tark was going to present Allen's case and the signed official paper and all of that.

So what happened?

"Week before the meeting, Clifford boosted a car, got sent back in," Tarkanian said.

He lost his prized big man.

"Yes," Tark cracked, "but I could always say I recruited a valedictorian."

College basketball is a lot more fun when you embrace the characters and there weren't any more colorful than Jerry Tarkanian, who absolutely never fit in with the conservative culture of the sport, the media that covered it, or the NCAA that ruled it.

Philosophically he was probably best suited as a pro coach, but a disastrous stint in San Antonio showed when it came to actually winning games, he belonged in college, even if college wasn't always so sure.

Tarkanian feuded with everyone, always; everyone except players, who whether they wound up playing for him or not instinctively understood what he was accomplishing.

He saw the NCAA as a fraud – a pretentious, overreaching organization that made millions by employing absurd "amateurism" rules. He felt its leadership was concerned only with its own power and money, so it staked out some kind of moral high ground and bullied everyone, particularly poor black athletes.

He wasn't wrong. He just wasn't exactly the greatest messenger for the cause.

Out on the recruiting trail Tarkanian watched as just about every school in the country broke all the rules in the Wild, Wild West era … paying players and parents, fixing grades, whatever. Yet only the small schools would get investigated and punished.

And then the NCAA would pat itself on the back and the newspapers would cheer on this kangaroo court, celebrating the virtues of one coach and one program while demonizing another (often Tark and Vegas).

It led him to deliver three of the greatest one-liners in the history of college basketball:

3. "I always like to get transfers, especially from the Pac-10. They already have their cars paid for."

2. "Nine out of 10 schools are cheating. The other one is in last place."

1. "The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky it's going to give Cleveland State two more years probation."

He first ripped the NCAA back in the early 1970s, when he was coaching Long Beach State and wrote a couple of guest columns in the Long Beach Press-Telegram. That, he said, started a prolonged war with the Association, which included, of course, his subsequent comments and various recruiting antics that had a catch-me-if-you-can element to them.

He ended up suing the NCAA for violating his due process. His first case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court (he lost). In 1998, however, the NCAA settled a civil suit with him for $2.5 million and was forced to apologize.

"My greatest victory," he noted.

Every day since, it seems, more people come to understand what he was getting at. They even finally put him in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013, the establishment at last accepting the trailblazer.

"It meant so much," his son, and one-time point guard, Danny said. "I'm just glad he lived to see it."

There are a number of white coaches who deserve praise for their role in the integration of the sport during the 1960s and 70s. Tark is rarely mentioned. It's the most overlooked part of his legacy.

Tarkanian was the definition of colorblind. He truly never cared what someone's background was, what race they were, what religion they were, who their parents were, what high school they were from, how many other blacks he already had on the roster or anything else.

None of it mattered.

He grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, needed junior college to keep him going and never looked down on anyone, ever. He was comfortable with all races at a time when so few whites were. He cut his teeth as a junior college coach in Southern California, finding players on playgrounds in Watts and Inglewood, games teeming with talent that no D-I program would touch. His last seven seasons at the JC level, he went 196-13 (.938).

Back then schools recruited black players, especially out west. It's just they often recruited a certain kind of black player, one from a particularly stable family or a middle-class high school. There is nothing wrong with that. This is college after all.

 

With Tark, no one was written off because they had lousy parents or came from a brutal neighborhood or was still rough around the edges. Everyone was the same.
Armenian-American. African-American. His players loved him for it.

Colleges and college coaches rightfully brag about having a player that graduates and goes onto become a doctor or something. Part of the opportunity of college, however, is how many rungs on the ladder you can help a man climb. Tarkanian found guys on the bottom and lifted many of them up more rungs than imaginable.

Some kids embraced their chance and excelled. Some just found a stable life. Others became Clifford Allen. That's how it works. More and more programs followed his lead.

"Maybe not all my guys were going to become doctors and lawyers, but they were exposed to college, they learned to value education and so maybe their kids are the ones who will become doctors and lawyers," he'd argue.

Yes, there was a self-serving angle to this. And yes it was because he wanted to win.

All coaches can be self-serving though. All coaches want to win.

Mostly though he was an entertainer, a showman in a showbiz town. His teams played up-tempo. They pressed all game. They reveled in dunks and alley-oops. One season they averaged 110.5 points a game, and that was pre-shot clock.

It was like nothing that exists in college basketball these days. Nothing even comes close to it. UNLV was about big fun and big personalities, packing Gucci Row with celebrities as Tark sat nervously sucking on a towel, an old habit he could never break.

At their best they were the best, building a powerhouse a long way from the traditional college towns. This was a city team, a blue-collar team. In his 19 seasons UNLV won 30 NCAA tournament games. In the 22 since he left, it's won three.

For all the critics who went all puritanical and cursed Tark's band of Rebels while cheering humorless coaches and 46-45 final scores as "the right way to play" … hey, to each his own … but they sure missed out on the fun.

Even the scandals were wild, a tabloid sensation that never failed to enrapture, complete with slumped shoulder Tark in a "who us?" pose. His time in Vegas eventually ended courtesy of a photo of three players drinking beer in a hot tub with a man named Richie "The Fixer" Perry.

"The most famous hot tub in college basketball history," Tark would later say.

The fallouts always hurt, the rip jobs always enraged but in the end his irascible smile and hound dog eyes let you know that no matter his protests, he was, at least a little, in on it. It was always going to be a high-wire act, betting big in Vegas.

Besides, he could always fall back on his family, wife Lois, four children and an array of grandkids he loved. You can't let the NCAA and its rulebook define a man.

He made college basketball more fun, more open, more accepting. He gave a different kind of fan a college team to follow. He gave Vegas its own team, an identity outside of the casinos, something permanent to remind America there was a real there, there.

He challenged power and paid for it, but in the end won it all by following his buddy Sinatra's My-Way mantra.

He was Las Vegas personified … one story at a time, each wilder than the next, right out of a bygone era.

There was the time a transfer showed up from Oral Roberts driving a big, expensive Lincoln. "I told him, 'You can keep the Lincoln, but you have to leave the Oklahoma license plates. I don't want to see a Nevada plate. That way they won't think I bought it.' " There was the time he negotiated his UNLV contract and somehow became a full professor … with tenure.

There was a time at an all-star game when an opposing coach walked in with a suitcase everyone suspected was full of money, only to find an NCAA investigator sitting in the stands. Tark went up to the NCAA guy and told him to go steal the suitcase and buy himself a condo in Florida … "what's the coach going to say?"

There was the time he convinced his team the thin air at 7,200 feet in Laramie, WY., wouldn't affect them because the game was indoors. There was the time one of his Fresno players pulled a Samurai sword on another guy. A Samurai sword? "The papers made a big deal over that one." You think?

There was Larry Johnson and Stacey Augmon and Reggie Theus and Sidney Green and Greg Anthony and Danny Tarkanian and Hammer Gilliam and Anderson Hunt and on and on. There was Lloyd Daniels.

There was the time he went before the Nevada Gaming Control Board to vouch for a friend who'd lost his casino license and the witness list consisted of "me, Wayne Newton and a Catholic priest."

There were a lot of stories. There were a lot of laughs.

There, with Jerry Tarkanian, was one hell of a life just lived.

Naismith Award Top 30 Watch List released. 

By Rob Dauster

(Photo/Getty Images)

 

The Top 30 list for the Naismith Award was announced on Thursday afternoon, and while there are some names that could probably have made their way on their, the bottom-line is this: If Jahlil Okafor or Frank Kaminsky don’t win the award, than it is going to be D’Angelo Russell or Jerian Grant springing the upset.

All four of them are on the list.

So there are now snubs.

Anyway, here is a longer explanation of why I would go with Kaminsky over Okafor as of today.

The rest of the top 30:

Justin Anderson, Virginia
Ron Baker, Wichita State
Ryan Boatright, Connecticut
Malcolm Brogdon, Virginia
Willie Cauley-Stein, Kentucky
Rakeem Christmas, Syracuse
Rico Gathers, Baylor
Treveon Graham, VCU
Jerian Grant, Notre Dame
Montrezl Harrell, Louisville
Tyler Haws, BYU
Buddy Hield, Oklahoma
Stanley Johnson, Arizona
Tyus Jones, Duke
Frank Kaminsky, Wisconsin
Jordan Mickey, LSU
Le’Bryan Nash, Oklahoma State
Georges Niang, Iowa State
Jahlil Okafor, Duke
Marcus Paige, North Carolina
Kevin Pangos, Gonzaga
Bobby Portis, Arkansas
Chasson Randle, Stanford
Terry Rozier, Louisville
D’Angelo Russell, Ohio State
Juwan Staten, West Virginia
Karl-Anthony Towns, Kentucky
Seth Tuttle, Northern Iowa
Kyle Wiltjer, Gonzaga
Delon Wright, Utah

Change in illegal man downfield rule could boost defenses.

By RALPH D. RUSSO (AP College Football Writer)

Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall, left, calls a play in the huddle during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Alabama in Auburn, Ala. Auburn tied the score late in the fourth quarter when Nick Marshall flipped a pass to Sammie Coates over a defense that was drawn in by a run blocking offensive line. The NCAA rules committee has proposed changing the illegal man downfield penalty, shortening the distance lineman can move down field before the ball is thrown, which matches the NFL rule. (AP Photo/Butch Dill, File)

The play still annoys many Alabama fans who are convinced it was illegal. No, not the Kick-Six that Auburn used to beat the Crimson Tide on the last play of the 2013 Iron Bowl. It was the touchdown the Tigers scored before the famous missed field goal that really burns 'Bama fans.

Auburn tied the score late in the fourth quarter when Nick Marshall flipped a pass to Sammie Coates over a defense that was drawn in by a run-blocking offensive line. A couple of Auburn linemen appear to have strayed down the field a bit farther than the 3 yards allowed on the play, but it wasn't called and the rest is history.

Starting next season, offenses that try to confuse defenses by throwing behind run-blocking lines could have less room to work their games of deception.

The NCAA rules committee has proposed changing the illegal man downfield penalty - Rule 7, Article 10 in the NCAA book - shortening the distance linemen can move downfield before the ball is thrown to 1 yard, which matches the NFL rule.

''I think it's a rule that the defensive coaches are going to be very excited about,'' Penn State defensive coordinator Bob Shoop said Thursday. ''Specifically, the ones that are keying hard on the offensive line for their run-pass reads. I think that's a big one right there for them.''

And, of course, offensive coaches - who fought off a proposal by the rules committee to slow down up-tempo attacks last year - see it differently.

''It's the continuation of a trend where defensive people try to change the rules rather than try to stop the advances in offense,'' said new Montana coach Bob Stitt, who used spread schemes at Division II Colorado School of Mines that were considered among the most creative in college football.

NCAA coordinator of officials Rogers Redding said Wednesday the proposal was made because it was difficult for officials to determine if a lineman had gone past the 3-yard limit before a pass was released.

The proposal still needs to be approved by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel in March. If it does - and most do - the change would go into effect next season.

''It definitely will affect offenses that are trying to throw the ball downfield while the box is blocking run with pop passes,'' Stitt said.

Play-action passes have been a part of football for decades. Fake a handoff, have the offensive linemen block as it is a running play, then throw a pass over a defense playing run.

The concept has evolved with the rise of spread offenses, said Chris Brown, the author of ''The Essential Smart Football.''

It started with plays that could be changed at the line to quick screen passes behind run-blocking lines and that led to so-called packaged plays.

''Five, six, seven years ago coaches started realizing we can actually tell our linemen to just run block, block a run play, and give the quarterbacks the option to not just handoff or throw a screen, he can also maybe throw the ball down the field,'' Brown said.

Allowing linemen to drift 3 yards from the line of scrimmage provided a lot of time for a quarterback to make a decision.

''As coaches started experimenting with this stuff they noticed it really started messing with defenses,'' Brown said.

To say the least.

''Once you get down to a certain point, I mean, come on, it's not even fair,'' Oklahoma defensive coordinator Mike Stoops told The Oklahoman after the Sooners lost to Kansas State in October and allowed a 62-yard pop pass for a touchdown to Wildcats fullback Glenn Gronkowski. ''You've got offensive linemen running down the field and they're throwing the ball. That's not the way football was meant to be played.''

Stitt said the number of missed penalties for illegal man downfield gets exaggerated - and it wasn't enough to justify changing the rule.

''We throw passes off of runs a lot like that, and I bet when we stopped the tape we might have been illegal two or three times all season,'' he said.

Illegal man downfield will still be a tough call for officials. And a change in the rule won't cause Stitt, Auburn's Gus Malzahn, Baylor's Art Briles, Arizona's Rich Rodriguez and the dozens of other coaches running spread offenses to tear up their playbooks.

''I don't think these plays are going away and I don't think they should go away. And you see them in the NFL where the rules are pretty strict,'' Brown said. ''But I think it will get rid of what I call the broken video game plays, where there is a guy wide open and it looks like the defenders are broken game logic.''

Jackie Robinson West stripped of U.S. Little League title for cheating. What's Your Take?

By Mike Oz

U.S. President Barack Obama (C) and first lady Michelle Obama welcome members of the Jackie Robinson West All Stars Little League baseball team from Chicago in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington November 6, 2014. The team won the U.S. bracket of the Little League World Series this summer, before falling in the finals to the Seoul Little League of Seoul, South Korea. (Photo/REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst, UNITED STATES)

After months of staying mum while cheating allegations circled U.S. champs Jackie Robinson West, Little League International has finally taken action and stripped the Chicago-based team of its title.

Jackie Robinson West, an all-black team that became a feel-good story of the summer and was celebrated from the White House to the MLB World Series, had been in a vortex of allegations since its season ended. Chief among them: the team used ringers from outside its area, then it illegally manipulated district boundaries to its own advantage.

Little League International had earlier vowed the the case was closed, but it met recently with rival Little League presidents from Chicago's District 4 and re-examined the complaints. On Wednesday morning, came the news, via a statement from the Little League office.

"After an extensive review of the operations of Jackie Robinson West Little League and Illinois District 4, the Little League International Charter/Tournament Committee has determined that the Jackie Robinson West Little League and Illinois District 4 Administrator knowingly violated Little League International Rules and Regulations by placing players on their team who did not qualify to play because they lived outside the team’s boundaries."

"For more than 75 years, Little League has been an organization where fair play is valued over the importance of wins and losses,” said Stephen D. Keener, Little League International President and CEO. “This is a heartbreaking decision. What these players accomplished on the field and the memories and lessons they have learned during the Little League World Series tournament is something the kids can be proud of, but it is unfortunate that the actions of adults have led to this outcome.

"As our Little League operations staff learned of the many issues and actions that occurred over the course of 2014 and prior, as painful as this is, we feel it a necessary decision to maintain the integrity of the Little League program. No team can be allowed to attempt to strengthen its team by putting players on their roster that live outside their boundaries."

In addition to Jackie Robinson West losing its U.S. title, the team will vacate all its wins en route to the title. Its manager, Darold Butler, has been suspended and district administrator Michael Kelley, who facilitated Jackie Robinson West's skirting of the rules, has been removed from his job. 

 
The charge to discipline Jackie Robinson West was led by Chris Janes from neighboring Evergreen Park Little League, which Jackie Robinson West beat 43-2 on its way to the Little League World Series tournament. Jackie Robinson West then made it all the way to the International finals, where it lost to South Korea. Mark Konkol, a reporter with DNA Chicago, had been on the Jackie Robinson West case like a police dog, sniffing out complaints and detractors, ultimately compelling Little League International to re-open the case.

The first inkling of a controversy surrounding Jackie Robinson West came in December, and the following months have included numerous Little League rivals speaking out. Other Little League officials in Chicago claimed that a new district administrator changed the Chicago boundaries without necessary approvals. That administrator, Kelley, was a part of Jackie Robinson West for 20 years prior.

Most recently, the reps for the Las Vegas team that lost to Jackie Robinson West in the U.S. championship game compared the team to Lance Armstrong and Barry Bonds. Ashton Cave, whose team lost 7-5 to Jackie Robinson West, told DNA Chicago:

"Lance Armstrong went down that road and became an example of what happens when you say one thing and it’s actually the other. The truth comes out,” Cave said. “We’re not just going to use 12- and 13-year-old kids as pawns to generate income on society. That’s just unacceptable.”

 Well, the truth has come out, and Little League International also finds it unacceptable.

Chicago Sports & Travel, Inc./AllsportsAmerica Take: It is with a heavy heart that I write CS&T/AA's take. It truly hurt me to see these young men stripped of the title, U.S. Little League Champions, a title that they worked so hard for. They used all of their mental toughness and physical abilities to accomplish a goal that seemed unreachable. Being a proponent for following rules and obeying the law, I know why the title was stripped. It's just so unfortunate that these kids are just collateral damage. They really didn't do anything wrong, they just played their hearts out. I'm not going to discuss what the adults did because if you've followed this story, you know what they did. They circumvented the rules and my article is not about the adults, it's about the players. They learned camaraderie, teamwork, the value of hard work, the true feeling of success, pride and a sense of tremendous accomplishment. These kids will always be winners. Now, if we can just get the adults to follow their lead. It's going to hurt for awhile but everything happens for a reason. Hopefully, this situation will make their best get better.

Now that you know what we think and how we feel, we'd love to know what you think, what's your take? Let yourself be heard by posting your thoughts in the comment section at the bottom of this blog. Marion P. Jelks, Chicago Sports & Travel, Inc./AllsportsAmerica blog editor.  

On This Date in Sports History: Today is Friday, February 13, 2015

Memoriesofhistory.com

1920 - The National Negro Baseball League was organized.

1923 - "The Renaissance," the first black pro basketball team, was organized.

1937 - The NFL's Boston Redskins moved to Washington.

1953 - The Oakland Athletics changed the name of Shibe Park to Connie Mack Stadium. The change was in honor of their longtime owner and manager.

1965 - Sixteen-year-old Peggy Fleming won the ladies senior figure skating title at Lake Placid, NY.

1973 - Frank Mahovlich (Montreal Canadiens) scored his 1,000th career point in the NHL.

1977 - Julius "Dr. J" Erving played in his first NBA All-Star Game. He was voted MVP with 30-points and 12-rebounds.

1982 - Bryan Trottier (New York Islanders) scored five goals against the Philadelphia Flyers.

1983 - Marvin Gaye sang the U.S. national anthem at the NBA All-Star game.

1983 - The World Boxing Council became the first to cut matches from 15 to 12 rounds.

1990 - Bryan Trottier (New York Islanders) scored his 500th career goal in the NHL.

2002 - Bill Simpson filed a defamation suit against NASCAR for blaming a seat belt made by Simpson Performance Products for the death of Dale Earnhardt a year before. Simpson said that all he wanted was an apology, but when NASCAR refused he filed the suit.

2008 - Roger Clemens denied having taken performance-enhancing drugs in testimony before Congress.

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