CS&T/AllsportsAmerica Friday Sports News Update and What's Your Take? 05/22/2015.

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How 'bout them Chicago Blackhawks? Blackhawks' power play comes up empty in Game 3 loss to Ducks 2-1.

By Tracey Myers

Blackhawks players head back to the locker room after losing 2-1 to the Anaheim Ducks in Game 3 of the NHL  Western Conference Finals at the United Center. (Photo/Nuccio DiNuzzo, Chicago Tribune)

The power play was the catalyst in Game 2, giving the Blackhawks momentum and, more importantly, two early goals when they needed them.

On Thursday, however, that power play was gone again. It didn’t generate opportunities. It didn’t gain momentum. Most importantly, it didn’t score. And it’s a big reason why the Blackhawks didn’t come away victorious.

Patrick Kane scored with 56.1 seconds remaining in the first period but the Blackhawks went 0-for-5 on the power play in their 2-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks in Game 3 of the Western Conference Final. The Blackhawks, who suffered their first home loss of this postseason, trail the Ducks 2-1 entering Game 4 on Saturday night.

Coach Joel Quenneville made some lineup changes prior to Game 3, taking out Antoine Vermette and Teuvo Teravainen and putting in Kris Versteeg and Joakim Nordstrom. Quenneville said he wanted to get fresh legs into the lineup. Versteeg played about 13 1/2 minutes and Nordstrom logged just over seven.

The changes were odd, and the “fresh legs” didn’t really add too much. But the Blackhawks’ biggest problem was clearly their power play, which, according to the score sheet, managed just one shot on five opportunities. That includes a double minor the Blackhawks had in the first period.

“The power play goes through stretches where it’s going to get hot and sometimes you’re not going to score,” Patrick Sharp said. “But a big game like that, with a lot of opportunities, it would have been nice to score.”

Indeed, it would have been. The Ducks, who hadn’t scored on their power play the last two games, capitalized on the one power-play opportunity they had on Tuesday night (Patrick Maroon in the first period).

“I don’t think our entries are very good,” Kane said of the advantage. “It didn’t seem to get the puck back when we were battling for it. I think it was just…  we let them have some easy clears, too. That’s got to be way better and we will be better at that. … Especially when it’s the beginning of the game in the first period and you have those opportunities to maybe get yourself the lead, that’s where it’s disappointing.”

The Blackhawks didn’t get much accomplished on 5-on-5 play, either. Frederik Andersen made some good saves once again – he stopped 28 of 29 in the victory – and it didn’t help that the Ducks blocked 27 shots. The Blackhawks blocked nine.
 
The Ducks found what proved to be the game-winning goal in the second, when Simon Despres scored with just 55 seconds remaining in the period.

“Just came down to one play, I guess,” said Corey Crawford, who stopped 25 of 27 in the loss. “I got bumped. I got bumped the whole game. It wasn’t enough to get called, but it was enough on that one (to be) a little distraction. I’ve got to find a way to not get caught up, I guess.”

The Blackhawks got the start they were looking for in Game 2 thanks in large part to their power play. On Thursday, that threat was nowhere to be found.

“We didn’t have zone time,” Quenneville said. “They didn’t get tired; we’re the ones who got tired because we had to keep breaking out. So I think that was a stretch where we didn’t get momentum because we had them taking penalties and we didn’t make them pay.”

The Late Show: The white-knuckle glory of overtime in the NHL playoffs.

By Steve Rushin

This story appears in the May 25, 2015, issue of Sports Illustrated.

“Bart Crashley,” says Mike (Doc) ­Emrick, pronouncing his favorite name in his favorite game. “Bart Crashley just sounds like hockey.” Emrick, of course, is the voice of hockey, so nothing sounds more like hockey than Doc Emrick saying Bart Crashley, unless it is Doc Emrick saying Bart Crashley in overtime of a Stanley Cup playoff game, for the playoffs are the highest form of hockey, and overtime is the highest form of playoff hockey, making overtime of a Stanley Cup playoff game—announced­ by Doc Emrick, with the urgency of an ­auctioneer—the quintessential hockey spectacle.

Bart Crashley played 140 games as a defenseman in the NHL without ever reaching the postseason. Doc Emrick spent seven years in the bushes before calling his first NHL game in 1980 and has since worked countless playoffs. As the lead play-by-play man for NBC Sports’ coverage of the league, he is so canny and grizzled he can smell overtime coming. To him, overtime smells like Skippy, but only because a ­peanut-butter sandwich, prepared by a network staffer, appears unbidden ­before Emrick late in the third period of every close game he calls.

Fortified with a first-grader­’s lunch, Emrick called the Game 7 overtime between the Rangers and the Capitals on May 13, won by New York when center Derek Stepan wristed a rebound past Washington goalie Braden Holtby 11:24 into the extra period. “Some nervous eating going on right now,” Emrick said of his viewers and himself, for what is more excruciating, even for a neutral, than hockey sudden death?

Emrick’s late-night snack routine began three years ago, when he asked for a ­peanut-butter sandwich in the second overtime of another ­Capitals-Rangers playoff game, which winger Marian Gaborik won for New York with a goal in the third OT. “Now they start to make the sandwich as a precaution,” Emrick says. “It’s nice to have some energy in the case of multiple overtimes.”

A man works up a powerful hunger in three OTs. Emrick and then partner Bill Clement famously called Game 7 of the Patrick Division semifinals for ESPN on April 18–19, 1987, when the visiting Islanders needed four overtimes to beat Washington. “Doc and I were starving after the game,” Clement says. “We finally got out of the building, went to Denny’s, and there was a line out the door. It wasn’t even near the rink, but the bars closed at two, and where do people go when the bars close?”

Hockey overtime is a Sinatra song, played in the wee small hours, to a dwindling roomful of drunks. “I remember there was a wedding party at the game,” says Clement. “They left, went to the wedding, then came back hours later during one of the overtimes.”

That game—black ties, black eyes—was a master class in ­whistle-eating by referee Andy Van Hellemond. “He refused to put a team on the power play,” says Emrick. “At an intermission he took off his skates, turned one upside down, and [sweat] just rolled out of it.”

Under any other ­circumstances the two principal attractions of Stanley Cup playoff ­overtime—swallowed whistles, sudden death—would sound like an alarmist report from the Consumer Product Safety Commission. But it’s this knife-edged, forced-march, ­zero-sum insanity that makes playoff overtime so frightfully compelling. “Everyone [is] standing, leaning, falling on each other,” says Emrick’s fellow NBC broadcaster, Al Michaels, a Kings season-ticket holder for 23 years. “Overtime is this great communal experience.” After emerging drained and frazzled from one L.A. overtime thriller last spring, Michaels called NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and said, “This is how you need to market your game: It’s the only sport that leaves fans more exhausted than the players.”

Sudden death is not always sudden and never deadly. Sudden? In 1936 the Montreal Maroons and the Red Wings played six overtime periods in a game that lasted 176 minutes and 30 seconds. Death? The Canadiens won 10 consecutive overtime games in the ’93 playoffs, one more life than a cat for goalie Patrick Roy.

As happens when mortality impends, everything intensifies in sudden death. Fore-checking becomes five checking, five holes become six holes. Goals are often scored by men you’ve never heard of and may never hear from again. And so Sabres center Dave Hannan beat Devils goalie Martin Brodeur in the fourth overtime of a scoreless Game 6 in their first-round playoff series in 1994, with the game’s 120th shot on goal. “Marty would stop him 40 times out of 42,” says Emrick. “But Hannan made just the right shot at just the right time.” This good ­fortune—­Hannan had scored six goals in the regular ­season—is often called puck luck.

Puck luck, like mukluk, is Arctic in origin and utility. “You always say it’s never a bad idea to throw a puck at the net at this time in a game,” Montreal play-by-play man Dan Robertson idly said to his color partner, Sergio Momesso, on TSN 690 when the Canadiens and the Senators began overtime last month in Game 2 of their ­first-round series. “Just throw anything [at the net],” Momesso concurred. “I scored one once from between the red and blue lines against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Went in five hole.”

Momesso was referring to the time in 1990 when he ended overtime in Game 3 of the Blues’ ­opening-round series against Toronto with a shot from just inside the red line, but he couldn’t elaborate on the air. As he spoke, Montreal forward Alex Galchenyuk wheeled from the right circle and blindly slapped a bullet that deflected off a defenseman and past Ottawa goalie Andrew Hammond. “The magical thing of overtime,” says NBC analyst (and SI contributor) Pierre McGuire, “is that one team can utterly dominate, then the other team comes down and wins it with one shot on goal.”

McGuire (along with color commentator Eddie Olczyk) is Emrick’s frequent late-night sidekick, and together they are the most tireless pairing of a Pierre and a Doc since the Curies. Michaels may have the most famous call in U.S. hockey history, but he’s happily retired from calling Olympic hockey, and not just because Do you believe in miracles? is unstoppable. “Are you crazy?” he says. “Doc Emrick can do the game 20 times better than I could.”

While Emrick is upstairs eating peanut butter in OT, McGuire occupies a plexiglass booth between the benches so that he often resembles a contestant in a carnival dunk tank. Before the third overtime of Game 5 of the 2008 Stanley Cup finals against Detroit, Penguins right wing Petr Sykora announced to McGuire, in his heavily accented English, “You remember this: I’m gonna score the winner.” Nine minutes and 57 seconds later, Sykora scored the winner.

There was a beautiful sequence between the Blackhawks and the Kings in the 2014 Western Conference finals, in the first overtime of Game 5. The teams played without pause for seven minutes and 56 seconds. No puck was ­waffle-boarded out of play, no whistle split the night. There was only the sound of carved ice and held breath. The entire 20-minute­ period took 26 minutes. “I love professional basketball,” says Michaels, “but the timeouts suck so much of the drama and tension from the last two minutes.”

After Chicago won 5–4 in the second overtime, Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville, who has played or coached professionally for 37 years, said, “That might have been the greatest overtime I’ve seen.”

Sudden death is a hockey ­coinage, more than a century old. “Hooking, tripping, slashing and slugging made the game at St. Nicholas Rink last night between the ­Irish-American A.C. and the Hockey Club seven the biggest hockey riot that has been played in the amateur league for years,” a breathless (and possibly toothless) correspondent for The New York Times wrote in 1914. “At the end of the game the scrapping teams were tied at 1 to 1, and after more than five extra minutes of exhausting strife, Mackenzie, the Hockey Club Centre, jammed in a ‘sudden death’ goal, and the champions won by a 2 to 1 score.”

A hockey movie called Sudden Death, set in Pittsburgh and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, was released in 1995, three years after McGuire’s last season as an assistant with the Penguins. “Jay Caufield, our tough guy, played the goalie,” says McGuire, laughing at the nerve of Hollywood. “The goalie! And he was our goon!”

This is especially absurd when you consider the supreme athletic grace required of goalies in overtime. It is exceedingly difficult to watch the Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist try to stay dry in a ­vulcanized-rubber rainstorm. “Living and dying with every step,” says Michaels, “like the Great Wallendas on the tightrope.”

In Game 1 of the first-round series between Chicago and the Predators last month, rookie goalie Scott Darling replaced Blackhawks starter Corey Crawford with his team down 3–0 after one period. Darling then shut out Nashville through the next two periods and double overtime as Chicago came back to win 4–3. That just doesn’t happen. (“But it did,” Darling said afterward.)

Game 4 of that series was delayed for three minutes while Predators goalie Pekka Rinne tried to locate a puck lost somewhere on his person in the first OT. Having sweat out several pounds, he looked like the love child of Jim Craig and Jenny Craig. As linesman Steve Miller frisked Rinne for the puck, NBC’s Gord Miller said it perfectly: “It’s like TSA at O’Hare over here.”

That game went to triple overtime and was won on a goal by Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook, who spoke afterward in the time-honored­ hockey way that diverts all praise from oneself onto one’s teammates. “Our forwards have been doing a great job,” he said. “Bicksy, Shawsy, Dez, Vermy, Sharpy. . . .”

If these guys sound like the Seven Dwarfs, well, by the end of three overtimes everyone is Sleepy, Grumpy, Dopey or Happy, including Doc, who says, “It’s not nearly as exhausting for us as it is for the players.” Then he says, “Adrenaline doesn’t evaporate in June.”

It was adrenaline that carried the 56-year-old Quenneville from an 8:45 p.m. start to the conclusion of triple overtime at 1:16 a.m. “I don’t think I’ve ever played a game this late,” Coach Q said after that game, though adrenaline isn’t the only force animating legs and nerves at that hour. McGuire called the fourth-longest game in NHL ­history—a five-overtime Ducks win over the Stars in 2003—without access to a bathroom. Of his own years playing and broadcasting, Clement says solemnly, “I can’t tell you the number of times my bladder has been challenged beyond what I thought it could handle.”

The same late night that the Hawks beat the Preds in triple OT, the Caps beat the Isles in overtime, on a goal by Nicklas Backstrom, in Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, which is called the barn, like every other rink in North America. “When you win as a road team, it’s gonna be quiet in the barn,” Backstrom said of his game-winner­.

But unlike farmers, who also toil in barns before sunup, hockey players receive a form of overtime pay. “John Davidson made it to the Stanley Cup finals [as the Rangers’ goalie] in 1979, and he said that a couple weeks later, after the hoopla was over, he got a letter from the NHL and it was a check!” says Emrick. “And he said, ‘I forgot we got paid,’ he was so immersed in competing. But the winner now gets somewhere around $150,000 for eight weeks’ work. And they never think about it.”

In 2003, New Jersey won the Stanley Cup on June 9. Center John Madden told Emrick that it was the Fourth of July before he got out of bed and didn’t hurt. Days after Anaheim won it all in 2007, the Ducks’ Sean O’Donnell realized that ­everything—his shoulder, elbow, neck, knees—was in pain. But all he had to do was play. Michaels watched every Kings playoff game last year. “And the next morning,” he says, “I always felt like I was in a car wreck.”

Though never painless, sudden death is sometimes sudden. In April, Islanders center John Tavares scored against the Capitals 15 seconds into OT, giving Emrick time to say only, “Tavares!” and—after 20 seconds of goal horn—“Bedlam­!” The shortest playoff overtime on record ended when Brian Skrudland scored in nine seconds for the Canadiens in 1986, though hockey’s most celebrated overtime didn’t last much longer.

Bobby Orr’s Cup-winning­ goal just 40 seconds into overtime against St. Louis in 1970 is immortalized in hockey’s most famous photo. In the picture Orr is soaring, goalie Glenn Hall is falling. “The longer you play in overtime, the more it becomes a trek through the desert,” says Clement, “and you can see what looks like an oasis up ahead. But only the winning team discovers the oasis. The losing team discovers the mirage.”

Or as Emrick says, “One man’s floor, another man’s ceiling.”

It’s the floor—the mirage, the sudden death—that’s most poignant. In the early 1970s announcer Curt Gowdy tried to rebrand sudden death as “sudden victory.” Nobody bought it. As Michaels says, “Sudden death is the perfect phrase.”

For the loser the overtime goal that ends the Stanley Cup finals is the closest that sudden death comes to real death. Except real death is sometimes a blessing, and sudden death never is. “There is zero positive takeaway from losing a long overtime game,” Clement notes. So it’s like death, but sometimes worse—a death that comes not with a white light, but a red one.

Just Another Chicago Bulls Session… There's talent at 22, but Bulls should take note of sketchy history.

By Vincent Goodwill

Much of the attention in the upcoming NBA Draft will be based around the hopes placed on Duke’s Jahlil Okafor and Kentucky’s Karl-Anthony Towns, with the chances for the Bulls to find a significant contributor less likely than the needy teams at the top of the board.

And at 22, while recent history suggests the Bulls won’t find a gem at that particular spot, there will be gems all around waiting to be selected —making it a dangerous proposition when revisionist history starts coming into play a few years from now.

After all, who would’ve thought the Bulls would’ve selected this year’s runner-up for Rookie of the Year at the 23rd spot, or a probable-max player in waiting with the last pick of the first round or a frontcourt mainstay at the 26th spot?

Here’s looking at you, Nikola Mirotic, Jimmy Butler and Taj Gibson, respectively, as the Bulls have done a great job scouting through the years and finding players to fit into their long-held culture.

Many scouts and executives believe the draft’s depth is between the mid-first round and late first round, right where the Bulls are slated to pick unless something changes between now and then.

Despite the constant controversy surrounding the Bulls’ coaching situation, workouts are being held at the Advocate Center daily in preparation for the draft, business as usual — with the Bulls looking to disassociate themselves from the underwhelming history of players selected 22nd.

In the last 10 years, only Kenneth Faried has played well above his head being drafted at that spot, with some real duds and a handful of players who are contributors if not household names.

Jarrett Jack (2005) has been valuable, while Jared Dudley (2007) and Courtney Lee (2008) have been consistent pieces through their careers. Swingman Wilson Chandler and guard Arron Afflalo came not too far after Dudley, while Serge Ibaka (Oklahoma City) and Nic Batum (Portland) went 24th and 25th after Lee.

Mason Plumlee (2013) is certainly starting to make a name for himself with the Brooklyn Nets.

But make no mistake, there are some guys that make you go, “Wow, what happened to him?” or “Who?” Some real head-scratchers in hindsight.

Guard Elliot Williams (2010) has barely played 100 games, getting two 10-day contracts with the New Orleans Pelicans, a part of an empty back end of Round 1 that year, while Eric Bledsoe and Avery Bradley went 18th and 19th, respectively.

Victor Claver (2009) has played 80 games, while the Bulls found Gibson four picks later and Hawks swingman DeMarre Carroll went one pick after Gibson.

Marcus Williams (2006) was out of the league after four years, and the Connecticut point guard was taken two spots before All Star Kyle Lowry. Jordan Adams (2014) has played 30 games for Memphis this season, which is plenty more than the time Fab Melo (2012) received during his ill-fated stint.

Melo played in six games before signing with a team in Brazil last summer.

In other words, with the vast outcomes and seemingly hidden talent around the busts, due diligence must be exercised by the Bulls before making a selection in a few weeks.

Bulls: Jimmy Butler earns NBA All-Defensive second team honors.

By Vincent Goodwill

(Photo taken from article on csnchicago.com)

Jimmy Butler is approaching restricted free agency and although he appears to be in a prime position, he keeps adding to the positive side of the ledger.

Butler was voted as a member of the All-NBA Defensive second team, along with Chicago native Anthony Davis (New Orleans), Tim Duncan (San Antonio), John Wall (Washington) and Andrew Bogut (Golden State). Butler, who helped hound LeBron James to his third-worst shooting percentage in a playoff series in the Bulls’ six-game conference semifinal loss, earned 44 first-place votes.

Butler also won the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award two weeks ago, before the Bulls were eliminated. Butler routinely defended opposing teams’ best shooting guard or small forward, posting a defensive rating of 104 points per possession, while grabbing 5.8 rebounds and 1.8 steals.

Chicago native Tony Allen (Memphis) made the first team, along with Kawhi Leonard (San Antonio), Draymond Green (Golden State) and the L.A. Clippers’ Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan.

Bulls big men Joakim Noah and Pau Gasol received six and three points, respectively.

Pau Gasol's consistency rewarded with All-NBA second team selection.

By Vincent Goodwill

Bulls center Pau Gasol, right. (Photo/Brock Williams-Smith/NBAE via Getty Images)

Tom Thibodeau routinely sang the praises of Pau Gasol, saying the Spaniard was a godsend and believing Gasol was the player he could most depend on.

And Gasol was rewarded for his consistency with his fourth All-NBA selection, being named as a member of the second team, along with Russell Westbrook (OKC), Chris Paul (LAC), DeMarcus Cousins (Sacramento) and LaMarcus Aldridge (Portland).

LeBron James (Cleveland), MVP Stephen Curry (Golden State), James Harden (Houston), Anthony Davis (New Orleans) and Gasol’s younger brother, Marc (Memphis), headlines the first team.

Gasol received 15 first place votes and a total of 242 total points based on a voting scale presented to media. Gasol averaged 18.5 points and a career-high 11.8 rebounds in his 14^th season, resulting in his fourth All-Star appearance.

Other than San Antonio’s Tim Duncan, who made the third team, Gasol is the oldest member of the All-NBA teams at 34 years old.

Gasol made the third team in 2008-09 and 2009-10 before making the second team in 2010-11. The first two were in seasons the Lakers won NBA championships after he was acquired from Memphis in 2008.

Coming to Chicago after the Bulls lost out in the Carmelo Anthony sweepstakes, he was believed to be a complementary piece after two struggling seasons with the Lakers where he and former coach Mike D’Antoni disagreed on how Gasol was to be used.

The Bulls beat out the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs for Gasol’s services, likely because they could offer more than a mid-level exception and also because the Bulls could feature Gasol in the offense.

And Gasol proved night after night he still had more to offer as a focal point offensively, helping the Bulls absorb injury-induced losses to Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler as well as the health decline of frontcourt mate Joakim Noah.

Gasol gave the Bulls an offensive hub from the block and low post, often starting games off as the first option to get the Bulls to early leads, helping the Bulls to their best offensive season in years.

Intangibly, Gasol spoke out against the Bulls’ lack of urgency, repeatedly saying they couldn’t flip a switch to turn into the team they had visions on being.

Unfortunately, he was right as the Bulls fell short of their goal of getting to the Finals, but Gasol seemed to do his part.

His offensive rating of 112 pointers per 100 possessions was 10 points higher than last season, and his highest rating since 2012. Integrating himself into Thibodeau’s defense-first system resulted in his second-best defensive rating of allowing 101 points per 100 possessions, a marked improvement from giving up 108 and 106 the last two seasons.

Who knows if Gasol’s 34.4 minutes per game played a part in his hamstring injury slowing him down early in the second round against the Cleveland Cavaliers, as he put together a 21-point, 10-rebound, four-assist masterpiece in the series opening win in Cleveland.

He began to feel tightness in the next game while playing just 21 minutes in their buzzer-beating Game 3 win before missing Games 4 and 5. Gasol returned for Game 6, giving the Bulls an emotional lift early that they couldn’t sustain.

But in a season full of change that will likely lead to more of it in the offseason, Gasol’s steadiness, should he sustain it at age 35 next season, could help stabilize the team next fall.

Bear Down Chicago Bears!!!! Bears offseason overview — insider.

By Blair Sheade

 

Chicago Bears Head Coach John Fox

The Bears made several major moves this offseason, and ESPN NFL writer Mike Sando gave the Bears a “B” grade for all their acquisitions and subtractions.

Sando asked ESPN analysts Bill Polian, Louis Riddick, Matt Williamson and Field Yates for their opinion on each offseason move.
 

Some of the major additions include safety Antrel Rolle, receiver Eddie Royal, running back Jacquizz Rodgers and defensive end Ray McDonald.

The key losses for the Bears include receiver Brandon Marshall, cornerback Charles Tillman and linebacker Lance Briggs.

Here’s what the analysts said about the Bears’ offseason moves:

Polian said he would have handled the Jay Cutler situation the same way the Bears handled it — keeping him as the starter, given the money guaranteed to him this season and the fact that there wasn’t a viable replacement option — but is anyone excited about the status quo at quarterback? Trading Brandon Marshall made sense under the circumstances, but did it make the Bears better? Vic Fangio was a good hire at defensive coordinator, but does Chicago have the personnel to run his base 3-4 scheme? It was an offseason filled with trade-offs, one reason the endorsements carried qualifiers.

“I guess they did well,” Williamson said. “Losing Marshall and getting White, adding a center, hiring a good offensive coordinator in Adam Gase — the offense should be pretty good. Going to a 3-4 on defense, I thought they might need 10 new starters, but now I look at their defense and do not think it is awful. They are not contenders, but I give them a B grade.”

Riddick was the only analyst to give the Bears an A grade. He loved McPhee’s addition and predicted the ex-Raven would “rip it up” in Fangio’s scheme.

“The coaching staff is star-studded with a lot of brain power in ‘Fanny’ and Gase,” Riddick said. “Whether Antrel Rolle can be the jack of all trades at strong safety in that 3-4, that is key. Eddie Goldman, if he can stabilize the nose, that is key. They are building it strong down the middle. I like how they have done it from the top down, GM to coach to coordinators and then strengthening the roster down the middle. Now, we’ll see if it works.”

Kyle Hendricks brilliant as Cubs shut out Padres 3-0. 

By Patrick Mooney

For all the personal shots at the Ricketts family, wondering when this would resemble a big-market team again, Scott Boras always understood the Cubs would be good for business.

“I didn’t say we wouldn’t want to be a part of it,” Boras said. “I’d love to go to the World Series and have like seven guys playing on the team.”

The super-agent and his entourage must have enjoyed Thursday night’s 3-0 win over the San Diego Padres at Petco Park, watching Kris Bryant and Addison Russell show why they had been two of the top three prospects on Baseball America’s rankings.

It backed up a complete-game performance from Kyle Hendricks, who reminded you why he had been so successful during last year’s breakout rookie campaign, putting up seven strikeouts against zero walks to notch his first win this season.

Bryant remembered coming here as a University of San Diego student, sitting in the cheap seats high above right field before getting drafted No. 2 overall in 2013. 

Bryant set the tone in the first inning, crushing a pitch from Cuban right-hander Odrisamer Despaigne 417 feet over the center-field fence for a two-run homer.

Russell — the second-youngest player in the National League at 21 years, 118 days old and the headliner in last summer’s Jeff Samardzija deal with the Oakland A’s — homered in the seventh inning.

“This organization and their people (have been great) for both Kris and Addison,” Boras said. “You got to remember they’ve done a great job, because these guys have dramatically improved since they’ve been in this organization. Addison was traded here a year ago, and he has jumped up. It’s really a credit to all those coaches and the development staff of the Cubs. We’re always happy the Cubs are drafting our players.”

Manager Joe Maddon kept insisting Hendricks would turn it around, and the Cubs are now 23-17 as they leave San Diego and head to Phoenix for a three-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks this weekend.

“He does a great job of giving these guys a psychological approach,” Boras said. “Joe Maddon’s a talent. He’s very, very good at giving players a focus at a variety of levels of their careers. And I think that has a lot to do with why they’re performing so well here.”

John Danks' rough start does White Sox in vs. Indians.

By Dan Hayes

White Sox pitchers didn’t allow a run after the second inning on Thursday night.

But by that point the game already had been decided.

John Danks allowed four first-inning runs, including two solo homers, as the White Sox lost their third straight, falling, 5-2, to the Cleveland Indians at U.S. Cellular Field.

Danks gave up five earned runs, and the White Sox lost their first home series of the season to fall to 18-20. Danny Salazar and three relievers combined to strike out 11 White Sox hitters.

“I made some bad pitches that got hit,” Danks said. “I wasn’t throwing strikes. That’s tough pitching behind in the count. You know, got to get ahead and stay ahead.

“I dug too deep of a hole and got beat.”

Following two fantastic starts, it was clear from the outset Danks was off.

Jason Kipnis started the game with a double, and after a walk to Carlos Santana it was 1-0 when Michael Brantley singled in a run. A second run scored when Ryan Raburn grounded into a double play.

Then the wheels came off as Danks surrendered solo homers to Nick Swisher — his first — and Mike Aviles as Cleveland took a 4-0 lead. After the White Sox missed out on an early scoring chance in the bottom half, the Indians came back and added another run. Danks walked Roberto Perez, and Michael Bourn reached on a bunt single. One out later, Santana had an RBI groundout to make it a 5-0 contest.

Danks lasted 5 1/3 innings, allowing six hits and walking four.

The effort came on the heels of two great starts by Danks, who had allowed three earned runs and only nine hits over 14 innings.

“The last two times out he’s been great,” manager Robin Ventura said. “He came out strong. Tonight that wasn’t the case. They got to him, the homers, and we didn’t hit, either.”

The offense had its chances but couldn’t convert against Salazar.

Adam Eaton and Jose Abreu singled in their first — the latter extended the slugger’s hit streak to 16 games — but Salazar struck out Adam LaRoche and Avisail Garcia to escape. Two innings later, Salazar struck out Garcia again, this time with the bases loaded. Abreu also hit a deep drive in the fifth inning, but Bourn ran it down and doubled Melky Cabrera off first.

From Salazar’s third inning strikeout of Garcia until a two-out Gordon Beckham double in the ninth, Indians pitchers retired 17 of 20 hitters.

“It’s always frustrating to lose three in a row,” catcher Tyler Flowers said. “We kind of ran into some quality pitching against those guys who were really throwing the ball well. And on top of that, the few opportunities we had, we weren’t able to cash them in.”

The White Sox offense has stalled after a strong road trip. The team scored eight runs and finished a four-game series against the Indians with 24 hits. It was Flowers who prevented the White Sox from being shut out with a 436-foot, two-run homer with two outs in the ninth. But otherwise the White Sox look eerily reminiscent to the offense that produced 64 runs over its first 20 games.

“It does not look good the last few days that’s for sure,” Ventura said. “One way or another we have to turn that around. You want to pitch well first and scratch across some runs. We had guys on base, we just didn’t get the big hit to get it across. It's simple: It needs to be better. That’s not tough to figure out.”

MLB teams are making a farce of the Selig Rule. What's Your Take?

By Adrian Burgos Jr.

If there’s a rule and no one follows it, is there really a rule?

In 1999, then-Commissioner Bud Selig decreed every major league team had to interview at least one minority candidate for a managerial vacancy. The so-called "Selig Rule" was enacted in the spirit of diversity, of honoring Jackie Robinson and of Selig trying to build a civil rights legacy.

Initial progress on this front has disappeared.

With a new commissioner in place, teams are regularly skirting the Selig Rule. Just two weeks ago, Milwaukee fired Ron Roenicke from his first managerial post; in 2010, Roenicke beat out Bob Melvin, Bobby Valentine and a lone non-white candidate, Joey Cora.

With Roenicke out, the Brewers proceeded to interview absolutely no one. Instead, the team did an “internal” hire of Craig Counsell , a former player whose grand total of professional managerial experience was the same as mine: zero.

The Marlins this week figured a way to outdo the Brewers. Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria decided to hire his general manager, Dan Jennings to be his field manager. Jennings, who started as a scout and maneuvered his way up the organizational chart to Marlins GM, never played professional baseball, never managed a single professional game. His lone managerial experience was in 1984, managing the Davidson baseball team (the high school team in Alabama, not the North Carolina-based college NBA star Steph Curry came out of). Jennings was then was fresh from his not succeeding in a tryout with the Greensboro Hornets, a Single-A affiliate of the Yankees.

News of the Marlins hiring Jennings probably struck a raw nerve for a number of aspiring managers, but especially those who are Latino or African-American. Many of their resumes read a lot better than Jennings' does when it comes to playing the game on the field, dealing with personalities in the clubhouse and on making spot decisions. That list of potential minority managers who merit at least a phone call and potential interview includes a young ballplayer who actually did make that Greensboro squad in 1984: Panamanian Roberto Kelly, who is both black and Latino. As blogger David Klopfenstein noted in a Twitter post, Kelly’s has had 22 years of experience as a professional ballplayer, seven years as a coach with the Giants (he is their third base coach), and has three World Series rings.

But his phone did not ring when the Marlins and Brewers had openings.

What is the purpose of the Selig Rule if it is not enforced?

This question is probably running through the minds of African-Americans and Latinos who aspire to be major league managers, though most of them are likely wise enough not to verbalize this thought.

Given that 12 of the last 14 managerial hires have been white, it appears MLB owners have effectively created a 21st century form of the good ole (white) boy system. Seattle’s November 2013 hiring of Lloyd McClendon stands alone as an example of an organization actually placing an African-American manager in charge. McClendon briefly had a companion in Bo Porter as a fellow African-American manager during the 2013 season, but the Astros fired Porter before he had completed two full seasons. The lone Latino hired during this span, Rick Renteria, endured a similar fate with the Cubs, who quickly dismissed him when Joe Maddon became available.

MLB has backslidden on the issue of diversity of its team managers over the past five seasons. This has occurred even though players continue to be nearly 30 percent Latino and just over 8 percent African-American. When one includes Asian and Asian-American players, team rosters are about 40 percent non-white. Yet, in 2015, there are a grand total of two non-white managers out of 30 teams: McClendon and Atlanta’s Fredi Gonzalez, who is Latino.

The point here is not just about hiring African-American or Latinos as managers for the sake of diversity. Rather, the degree to which major league owners are flaunting the Selig Rule and are not even giving minority candidates an interview demonstrates an recalcitrance to practicing diversity for the managerial position.

Indeed, the old adage about owners wanting to hire candidates with coaching or managerial experience doesn’t really hold much weight: In addition to this month’s hiring of Jennings and Counsell, the list of managers hired over the past three seasons with zero experience at any level point to a trend that ought to give Manfred pause. Since 2011, Brad Ausmus, Kevin Cash, Mike Matheny, Paul Molitor, Robin Ventura, Walt Weiss and Matt Williams all have been hired without a single game of managerial experience at any level.

That this list of recent hires does not include Dave Martínez, Sandy Alomar, Jr., Joey Cora or Roberto Kelly (it seems José Oquendo’s chance have come and gone) reflects the inefficacy of the Selig Rule. Indeed, given the coaching experience these men have gained (and managerial experience in a couple of cases), it appears that qualifications needed to take the managerial helm for a big league club are different for whites than it is for African American and Latino candidates.

Given last month’s lamenting around Jackie Robinson Day of the declining number of African Americans on the field as well as in the stands, this trend ought to move Manfred to action. After all, the hiring of Counsell and Jennings are not isolated incidents. This is a trend, one that has increased in spite of the Selig Rule.

Chicago Sports & Travel, Inc./AllsportsAmerica Take: We think that this rule is good for the game and brings fairness, diversity and transparency. It's true and I agree that in America, a business owner should be able to run his business any way he wishes, however, by not at least interviewing extremely experienced and qualified applicants, the owners are shortcutting themselves, their fans and their teams. It breeds deep rooted contempt among the players and the fans. It will end up hurting the teams in the long run. As the owners keep hiring the same retreads (managers), their probability of winning a championship continually dissipates. Check the stats (manager's winning and post season playoff records) and tell me if I'm wrong, I'm not and you'll be surprised at your findings.

We'd like to know what are your thoughts on this rule? Is it necessary? Should it even exist? Is it good for the game? Take a moment a go to the bottom of this blog and post your thoughts in the comments section. Your opinion does matter and we can't wait to hear your take!!!

The Chicago Sports & Travel, Inc./AllsportsAmerica Editorial Staff.

Golf: I got a club for that: Confident McIlroy targets two more majors this year.

Reuters; By Ken Ferris

Rory McIlroy turns to throw his ball into the gallery after his victory during the final round at Quail Hollow Club. Rory Mcllroy becomes the first two time winner of the Wells Fargo Championship. (Photo/Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports)

Rory McIlroy is confident he can add two majors to his trophy haul this year after a successful 12 months in which he has proved himself to be the world's best player.

At Wentworth this week to defend his PGA Championship title, McIlroy on Tuesday picked up the European Tour Golfer of the Year and Players' Player of the Year awards.

The world number one, who has won four majors so far in his career, clinched his third tournament of 2015 on Sunday with a seven-shot win at the Wells Fargo Classic.

The 26-year-old, who claimed the WGC Match Play title two weeks ago, has been in superb form and now has six top-10 finishes in his last eight PGA Tour starts.

"There are three majors left and I feel two of those venues could suit me -- St Andrews (The Open) and Whistling Straits (US PGA Championship)," he told Sky Sports.

"Chambers Bay at the U.S. Open is a bit of an unknown quantity. But there are two great opportunities for major titles and a lot of other opportunities for wins."

"I'd also like to increase my lead in the world ranking," said McIlroy, who already has a lead of almost 200 points over Jordan Speith followed by Sweden's Henrik Stenson and Speith's fellow Americans Bubba Watson and Jim Furyk.

"I feel like I'm in a generation with a lot of young guys that are coming up and I want to be the best of this generation," McIlroy said in a BBC interview on Tuesday.

"I want to win a lot more tournaments, I can win a lot more majors. I haven't put a number on it because I don't want to put that burden on myself. I just want to be better than everyone else.

"I've put in a lot of hard work over the past 12 months, just working that little bit harder, just those tiny little differences that separate a top-five finish from a win."

McIlroy has a long way to go to catch Tiger Woods, who has won 14 major titles, but he has closely studied the former world number one.

"The one thing I've learned from Tiger, from getting to know him, is how hard he works -- the ones who work the hardest do the best," said McIlroy.

"I'll never be able to do for golf what Tiger did. He was a phenomenon, he brought so many more people into the game because of his background and how he started on tour."

Closing birdie for Spieth to share Colonial 1st-round lead.

By STEPHEN HAWKINS

Jordan Spieth reacts to just missing a putt on the 11th hole during the first round of the Colonial golf tournament, Thursday, May 21, 2015, in Fort Worth, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Masters champion Jordan Spieth got his homecoming off to a leading start with a birdie before dark.

Spieth made a 20-foot putt from just off the fringe on the final hole for a 6-under 64 and a share of the first-round lead Thursday in the rain-delayed Colonial.
 

"I had a few of those on the back nine, a few good looks where I knew what the putt was doing, I just didn't match the line and speed right," Spieth said. "I was getting a little frustrated through 17 there. I was like just one more look. ... I didn't really count (18) as a look, but maybe more like luck, and we'll take it."

 

The closing birdie, just after 8 p.m., tied Spieth with Kevin Na, Boo Weekley and Ryo Ishikawa.

There was a huge roar at No. 1 when Spieth teed off in the first of consecutive events at home in North Texas since becoming a major champion. The Dallas player's approach at No. 18 landed just off the back right edge of the green surrounded by family, friends and plenty of fans.

"I was little frustrated to see where my ball went, but I was still was able to soak in kind of the welcoming to the 18th green," he said. "I'm sure it will continue to grow."

 

Spieth opened his bogey-free round with a 25-foot birdie putt at No. 1, then started the back nine with a 22-footer at No. 10. He had a great chance for another birdie on the par-3 16th, but a tricky 4-foot try slid by the hole.

Ishikawa, the 23-year-old from Japan, and 2013 Colonial champion Weekley also were without a bogey.

Na, whose only bogey came at No. 18 to close his first nine, curled up in a corner of the locker room and took a nap when tee times for the morning groups like his were pushed back three hours after more than an inch of rain fell overnight at Hogan's Alley.

"Pulled off a little veteran move, took about an hour nap," said Na, who grabbed a few extra towels, making one into a pillow, using another for a blanket and throwing another over his head. "So I felt great when I woke up."

Na originally woke up at 5 a.m. for a scheduled 7:22 a.m. tee time.

The afternoon groups started 2 hours, 40 minutes later than scheduled, but all 122 players managed to finish before dark.

George McNeill and Ian Poulter, who shared the lead before his only bogey at No. 18, were a shot back after shooting 65.

A group of nine players carded 66s on a day when players were able to lift, clean and place their golf balls hit in the fairways.

"We couldn't have had better scoring conditions today. Just the wind died down, and you could just throw darts, and they were landing and stopping," Spieth said. "I'd like to play golf in this weather the rest of my life."

After the rain, it was an unseasonably cool with temperatures only in the mid-60s. The forecast is for warmer temperatures but more rain through the weekend.

Defending champion Adam Scott had a 72 that included three bogeys and a double bogey. He is No. 11 in the world and hasn't won since Colonial last year in his first week after becoming the top-ranked player.

Weekley, whose last PGA Tour win was at Colonial, woke up with a stiff back Wednesday that was still bothering him when he finally teed off Thursday.

"We just tried to manage it knowing that we couldn't hit the full shots, so we went down a club and felt like we just punched it around the golf course," he said. "And I made some putts. Made a lot of putts actually."

His 27 putts were a collective distance of 151 feet, 9 inches, Weekley's fourth-best putting round on the PGA Tour. He made all 12 of his putts from inside 10 feet, but called a 15-foot par-saver at the par-3 13th one of the key moments in his round.

"I kind of chili-whomped it out there to the right side of the green," he said. "Nine times out of 10 that balls goes in the water, but somehow it hung up and I hit a bad chip there."

NASCAR: H2H: Is the Coca-Cola 600 too long?

By Brad Norman and George Winkler

 

Our experts debate whether a classic race is due for change

The Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It's historic, it's grueling ... it's long.

But is it too long? Does the distance of NASCAR's longest race need to be shortened -- and if so, by how much?

Join NASCAR.com's Brad Norman and George Winkler in this debate, and chime in below in the comments section.

Norman: It's an interesting topic, George. There's no question that businesses must continually innovate and improve, and in that regard, NASCAR must ask itself the very question we are debating. Is the Coca-Cola 600 too long? But -- and this is hard to do -- organizations must also balance that continual improvement with the need to preserve not only what works, but foundations on which the organizational structure is built upon. The May race at Charlotte has always been 600 miles, and it should always be 600 miles.

Winkler: Brad, it's tough for me to go against tradition. I mean, you're talking to a guy who waited to find out whether his children would be girls or boys, so I totally respect what it means to stick with the old-school way of doing things. But the times are changing and sports are reacting accordingly. Recently, college basketball proposed a 30-second shot clock and fewer timeouts. Meanwhile, baseball tested a pitch clock in an effort to shorten their games and appease fans. Why should NASCAR be any different?

Norman: I think that's a great point, George, and one with which I agree. NASCAR should take a serious look into speeding up the pace of the race, so to speak, especially if there's a fan outcry for it. But why does it have to be the Coca-Cola 600? NASCAR could look into shortening races at, say, Atlanta or Texas or any other number of places, but the 600 is, at least to me, on a holier ground. There's a reason Dale Earnhardt Jr. still tweets using the #World600 hashtag, which is what the race was previously called. It means something special to the drivers, and to the sport. Let it stay just like it is, a unique, once-a-year event that's been a part of the sport since 1960.

Winkler: For the drivers, the 600 is an excellent test of man vs. machine. But when I take my kids to a sporting event these days it's man vs. machine all right, the handheld machines that sap their attention span. I'm lucky if I can get them through two hours before they're asking to go home, and I think a lot of parents probably share in my pain. So you end up paying big money and don't get to see a complete event. And since kids' interest level is the lifeblood of any sport, I'd be cool with a Coca-Cola 500 or 400.

Norman: Isn't there something to be said for history and kids, though? Teaching them the value of the past, and explaining the emphasis on man vs. machine and what it meant in 1960 vs. what it means now, all these years later. There's also something so special about starting one of the most historic NASCAR races ever at one of the most iconic venues ever under a gently setting sun, after a sensational tribute to the troops … then seeing the track change, the sparks fly, the lights come on. It's a wondrous thing, if I can get a little poetic. No other track or event can provide all of those facets. As for your kids being on their devices -- and thankfully, I'm not there with mine just yet -- one word for you George: RaceView.

Winkler: Ha, ha, way to sneak the RaceView plug in there, pal. But my kids are at least another two years from being able to appreciate the intricacies of RaceView -- in other words roughly the time it will take to complete another Coca-Cola 600 (wink, wink).

NASCAR Hall of Fame names Class of 2016.

By Jordan Bianchi

 

(Photo/Craig Jones/Getty Images)

Terry Labonte and Bruton Smith are among the five newest members of NASCAR’s Hall of Fame.

A two-time Cup Series champion and the architect of some of the sport's marquee speedways were among five named as the newest members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame Wednesday.

 

Of the five elected, Bobby Isaac, Jerry Cook, Curtis Turner and Terry Labonte are drivers, while Bruton Smith is the chairman of Speedway Motorsports Inc., which operates eight tracks that host a combined 12 Sprint Cup Series races.

 

Smith earned the most votes, with his name appearing on 68 percent of the 57 ballots cast. Next was Labonte with 61 percent, followed by Turner (60 percent), Cook (47 percent) and Isaac (44 percent). The highest vote-getters not earning a nomination were drivers Red Byron, Benny Parsons and car owner Rick Hendrick, who's won a NASCAR record 11 Cup Series championships.

 

A controversial figure due to his outspokenness, Smith was instrumental in NASCAR's growth into a nationally prominent sport. After he and Turner built together Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1960, Smith would later go on to construct and operate tracks from coast-to-coast with Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Charlotte, Kentucky Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Sonoma Raceway and Texas Motor Speedway all falling under the SMI portfolio.

 

"I'm a frustrated builder who had a knack for promoting races, and it's been fun to always try to push the sport to greater heights for the fans," Smith said. "From the first World 600, I've always wanted the fans to leave with something spectacular to remember about their experience.  Even if they don't remember who won the race, I want them to remember the pre-race show and having the time of their lives. I want fans to know we're always working to build the best facilities for them and that's who I really owe this recognition to."

 

Joining Smith is Labonte, who won Cup championships in 1984 and 1994 in addition to 22 victories. He started a NASCAR record 665 consecutive starts, which stood until 2002. That feat earned Labonte the nickname "Ironman" and made him one of the most popular drivers of his era.

 

Cook is known for his prowess on short tracks, having won six championships in NASCAR's Modified division, including four consecutive from 1974-77.

 

Regarded as the "Babe Ruth of stock car racing," Turner carries a reputation as one of NASCAR's best ever dirt drivers and one of its most colorful figures off the track. The winner of 17 races died in a plane crash in 1970.

 

Isaac, who died in 1977, is the 1970 premier division champion and with 37 victories, sits 19th on the all-time wins.

 

NASCAR's Class of 2016 induction ceremony is Jan. 22 in downtown Charlotte, N.C.

SOCCER: Fire's Magee has 'lot of excitement' over return to action.

CSN Staff

Mike Magee believes he can see the light at the end of the tunnel after battling back through multiple injuries. The Fire, who have struggled to score goals lately, sure hope that's true.

The 2013 MLS MVP has eyed the Fire's matchup against Montreal on May 30th at 7:30 p.m. on CSN as a possible return date but admits that the decision is out of his hands.

"I'm going to do my best to prepare as if I am playing in that game and try to put it in the coach's mind that my confidence is there," Magee said. "Hopefully they use me."

The Men in Red have only scored more than once in a match twice this year out of a possible nine games. The forward has watched from the sideline as his team struggled but he still has confidence in the group going forward.

"We've created a ton of chances, which is half the battle," Magee said. "We've all gone through slumps. Unfortunately the team is going through a bit of a slump scoring right now. But it's going to be fine. We're creating chances and I'm definitely hoping I can help with that."

Final day looming in Spain, France to decide Champions League places.

By Kyle Bonn

(Getty Images)

While the top of the Premier League table is almost certainly decided, other top European leagues still have fierce battles for very important spots, with most countries wrapping up their domestic leagues on Saturday.

The most heated is in France, where Paris Saint-Germain and Lyon have both wrapped up top-2 spots, but the battle for third is lasting until the final day. In Ligue 1, only three Champions League places are handed out, Monaco, Marseille, and St. Etienne are all in serious contention.

Monaco has the inside track, with a two-point head start over the other two clubs and a last-day match on the road at 16th-placed Lorient. The hosts will have little to play for in that match, having assured themselves of Ligue 1 survival. However, Monaco did fall to Lorient in the reverse fixture, a 2-1 final all the way back on August 10 in the opening week of the season.

In that match, Monaco must remember a draw against Lorient may not be enough to secure a place in the Champions League. Despite their two-point advantage in the table, Marseille has a vastly superior goal differential, so should the two sides wind up level, Marseille would almost certainly earn the spot.

Marseille will be taking on 11th placed SC Bastia at home on the final day, a rematch of a 3-3 draw also from the first week of the Ligue 1 season. Marseille will need to do better than that, as they’ll need a win plus a Monaco draw or loss to earn the place. OM’s disastrous April, complete with four straight embarrassing losses, looked to have torpedoed their chance at a Champions League place, but there’s still hope as they’ve since rattled off three in a row, and Ligue 1’s second-leading scorer Andre-Pierre Gignac has put himself back in good goal scoring form.

St. Etienne also has a shot at the position, but they’ll need lots of help. They have a home date with 10th-placed Guingamp, and will need a win plus dropped points from both Monaco and Marseille to take the Champions League position.

The race in Spain is also still alive, albeit not as exciting as the one in France. With the Big 3 already safe in their spots for next year, the final Champions League position comes down to Valencia and Sevilla on Saturday. The former has a point advantage and the head-to-head points tiebreaker, so they just need to best or equal Sevilla’s final match haul and they go through to the big dance.

Valencia will host 19th-placed Almeria, no easy task as the Rojiblancos are battling relegation and still have a chance to sneak off the bottom; the last thing anyone battling for a Champions League spot wants to do is take on a team fighting for its lives. Sevilla, meanwhile, has a tough task of its own on the road against eighth-placed Malaga. They did win this reverse fixture 2-0 back on January 18, and are in good form having lost just once since the beginning of March, with draws against Atletico Madrid and Barcelona during that span.

Italy’s Serie A has a fight as well, although there are still two matches left in their season. Roma, Lazio, and Napoli are battling for the second and third and final Champions League spot behind champions Juventus, and all three can still fall out. Roma is sitting in second on 67 points, while Lazio is just one behind and Napoli is four back. The latter will have a very tough task to make up ground, with a matchup against Juventus this weekend before what could be a massive last-round matchup with Lazio on the final day.

Wisconsin's Alvarez: Abolish so-called 20-hour rule.

By ANDREW SELIGMAN (AP Sports Writer)

Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez (AP Photo/Jae Hong)

Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez said it's time to abolish the so-called 20-hour rule designed to limit how much time students spend on athletics instead of academics per week.

Alvarez acknowledged athletes need time off. But the rule in place is not the way to go about it.

''How do you keep track of it?'' he said Wednesday. ''C'mon. Don't have rules that you can't enforce. Like when we took the ban off the food regulations, hallelujah. If you want to feed the kids, feed 'em. Let's not make ridiculous rules that you can't follow.'' 

Alvarez will get no argument from Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, who called the rule a ''misnomer'' based on the amount of time athletes devote to their sport and said it needs a new label. 

He said he sees it as part of a bigger discussion about improving the experience for athletes and putting a greater emphasis on education. 

The same goes for the so-called year of readiness idea that he has floated in which football and men's basketball players would be ineligible as freshmen, as they were until 1972. 

''The most important thing is there be a discussion about how prepared the student is, how the school accommodates preparedness and how it all works,'' Delany said. ''Twenty-hour rule doesn't work. I'm not sure our initial eligibility standards work in these two sports. Certainly, the outcomes are different than they are in all the other sports.'' 

Delany cited NCAA studies showing Division III athletes devote ''high 30s hours per week'' toward their sport. That number, he said, climbs at the higher levels - low 40s at Division II and mid 40s for Division I. 

The 20-hour rule covers required activities such as practices, weight training and conditioning, meetings and video sessions along with setting up equipment. But traveling does not count. Nor does time spent in the trainer's room or voluntary workouts. 

''We have parallel mission statements, and they don't play well together,'' Iowa AD Gary Barta said. ''One of our missions is to graduate young people. The other mission we have at Iowa is it's a $90 million enterprise and much of it is based on filling a stadium or selling corporate sponsorships. But the beauty of it is we've been doing it, 100 years plus, we mixed collegiate sport with wonderful universities. So I still think it's a great model.'' 

It's a model that often needs tweaking. Rules have loopholes. There are gray areas. Is a so-called optional workout or video session really optional? Or is an athlete being pressured by a coach or teammates? 

And what about athletes who are just flat out dedicated, who want to work out and review video during their down time? 

''It really is tricky, and some kids are going to figure out a way to do it,'' Indiana athletic director Fred Glass said. ''They're going to download film on their iPad and work in their dorm room on it, and in some ways that's great if that's what they want to do. But I think the peer pressure and this falsehood about it being optional, when everybody feels the peer pressure or the coach pressure indirectly, I don't think that's what we should be doing. I think we should be creating room that if people want to be doing other things, to have more of a student experience, we facilitate.'' 

A former attorney, Glass compared coaches to lawyers.
 

''They're natural-born advocates,'' he said. ''They figure out the gaps and all that, so I think we need to have some real cut-and-dry rules if we're going to free up time for the kids.''
 

But to Alvarez, the 20-hour rule just doesn't work. He said players know when they are being pushed too hard, that they would tell him when he was coaching the football team.
 

He understands that they need time between the end of the season and the start of conditioning and spring practices, that they need a chance to ''clear their heads'' and maybe pursue an internship or study abroad.
 

But he also said, ''The sports administrator needs to be able to supervise. Players tell you whether the demands are too much.''

NCAAFB: Alabama, Wisconsin to open 2015 season in prime time.

By Tom Fornelli 

AT&T Stadium will play host to Alabama and Wisconsin on Sept. 5. (Photo/USATSI)

 
As I sit here typing these words you are now reading, only 105 days remain between us and the first Saturday of the college football season. That seems a long way off, and it is, but it's not as long as it could be, as we must consider that it's been 129 days since Ohio State beat Oregon in the title game, so we are more than halfway through the offseason.

And while that may not be enough to make the new season feel closer, perhaps this will.

It was announced on Thursday that the season-opener between Alabama and Wisconsin in Arlington, Texas (coincidentally, where last season ended) will be the first Saturday Night Football matchup on ABC next year. It will kick off at 8 p.m. ET.

The game will mark only the second time in history that the two schools have met on a football field, with the last matchup coming way back in 1928. Wisconsin won that contest 15-0, and you just know Tide fans have been licking their wounds for the last 87 years while waiting for their chance at revenge.

And now they'll have that chance. They just need to wait another 105 days for it.

NCAAFB: Syracuse says it didn't change the status of No. 44 on Tuesday.

 

By Nick Bromberg

Perhaps Syracuse has confused itself when it comes to the No. 44 jersey. Or, at the very least, confused a lot of us.
 

A day after having a ceremony around the number worn by Jim Brown, Ernie Davis and Floyd Little, the school issued a statement about the number on Wednesday.

"Yesterday's announcement was simply a reiteration of that commitment and another opportunity to celebrate the great accomplishments of those who have worn the number with Syracuse pride and honor," Syracuse Senior Vice President for Public Affairs Kevin Quinn said in an email to Syracuse.com. "The retired #44 jersey will continue in its place of honor at Dome — as a symbol of past glories and future successes."  

Yes, the school unveiled plans for statues honoring Brown, Davis and Little at Tuesday's ceremony, but the crux of the event seemed to center around the return of the No. 44, which was retired by the school in 2005.
 

After all, Syracuse tweeted this:

Syracuse Football                                                                                Follow

@CuseFootball 

 

It's back

 

2:29 PM - 19 May 2015   

411 Retweets      273 favorites

 

And interim athletic director Pete Sala said this, via Syracuse.com:

"With the blessing of Jim Brown and Floyd Little, the No. 44 is back. The Syracuse University Football Orange, we are restoring the No. 44 back to the program."

Makes it look like the No. 44 would be back on the roster, right?

And former Syracuse QB Donovan McNabb, a member of the school's board of trustees, certainly felt the number was being brought back as he expressed his displeasure about the announcement on Twitter.

Instead, it appears that Syracuse either had an event for the sake of having an event or Sala and the team's Twitter account weren't completely correct.

Now, it seems that Syracuse will proceed with a previous policy that said players would be allowed to wear No. 44 in special circumstances. During the ceremony, Little, now a special assistant to the athletic director and on the committee to help decide who is deserving of No. 44, was quoted describing the characteristics the school would be looking for in a player to wear the number.

Given the Wednesday statement, those comments appear to be in reference to the continuation of the policy. Unless, somehow, the waters surrounding the number get murkier in the days ahead.

Ohio State AD Q&A: Grad transfer rule shouldn't be academic issue.

By Jon Solomon

Gene Smith touched on a number of topics at the Big Ten spring meetings on Tuesday. (Photo/USATSI)

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said Tuesday the NCAA needs to rethink how it views the graduate transfer rule as an academic issue. Smith supports allowing immediate eligibility to graduates without requiring them to be progressing toward a master's degree.

“At the end of the day, they've got one more year of athletic eligibility,” Smith said from the Big Ten spring meetings. “Let them go expire that. Don't put that on the back of academics because it's not.”

On Tuesday, Notre Dame quarterback Everett Golson announced he is transferring to Florida State for immediate eligibility as a grad transfer. Some NCAA officials, major coaches and conference commissioners want to end the graduate transfer rule. Smith, one of the highest-profile athletic directors in the country, framed the debate in a different way than what has been discussed publicly so far, saying it's not fair for graduate programs to see their graduation rates be impacted by transfers simply for athletic reasons.

Here are some excerpts from Smith's question-and-answer session with several media members at the Big Ten meetings. He discussed the graduate transfer rule, Ohio State quarterback Braxton Miller's future as a graduate, his concerns about a football early signing period, and why he thinks players have very limited value and shouldn't be paid while in college.

Q: Do you have a problem with graduate transfers?

Smith: “I'm concerned about it because the original intent is not working. Originally, the conversation was as a graduate transfer you would go to a school because the school you were at did not have your major, your master's major, so you go somewhere else that did it. We know that's not happening. So that's flawed.

“The other part that concerns me is the graduate transfers aren't graduating from those graduate schools. So if I'm a dean of a graduate school, I'm concerned about my graduation rates and if I'm taking people who aren't going to finish and you know they're not going to finish, that's a challenge. I think we need to talk about it. We need to be fair to the kids. At the same time, we probably need to look at it differently if we're going to continue to do it because it's not an academic issue. It's not. They got their undergraduate degree. So let's quit the façade. You know what? They've got one year of athletic eligibility. So how do we facilitate that and not damage a graduate program? I don't know the answer to that.”

Q: Playing devil's advocate: Say a player graduates and stays at his school. How do we know he's progressing toward a graduate degree?

Smith: “Why not just take grad courses? Why say that they have to progress? … Why do they have to be in a graduate program at all? Why couldn't they just take some courses that would be beneficial to their education? That might be real estate, that might be public speaking. I don't care.”

Q: Are you OK with graduates going somewhere and playing immediately?

Smith: “Oh, yeah. I don't have a problem with that.”

Q: Are you OK with them transferring within the conference and playing immediately?

Smith: “It depends on who it is and where (laughs). Good question. I don't know how we could restrict someone if your philosophy is student-athlete welfare, which is mine. I don't know how you restrict them. I think you let them do what they want to do. I think we're beyond those type of restrictions today. We're trying to go the other way and let them do what they want to do in that regard when they reach that level. If you have your undergraduate degree, you did what we asked them to do so let them go if they want to go.”

Q: How confident are you Braxton Miller returns to Ohio State as a graduate student?

Smith: “I'm pretty confident. I mean, any kid could flip. In my conversation with him, which was well before spring ball started and he was rehabbing in the training room, he was committed to coming back. He's taking courses and he's going to come back. So I don't have any reason to believe he's not.”

Q: Do you have an opinion on whether college football should have an early signing period?

Smith: “I'm torn right now. I understand the arguments for a young person (who) feels confident in that position and kind of makes sense to provide him that opportunity. My concern is our coaches are outstanding sales people and I'm a little traditional. I kind of like the old-school model: let them take their time. We notice, as well all know, young people are changing their minds constantly. … The super majority (of people in the Big Ten) are in favor.”

Q: Is there any scenario you could see supporting athletes being paid for their names, images and likenesses?

Smith: “If it's something passed in the courts (as part of ongoing litigation), yeah. That's the only way for me. To me, I think (Baylor AD) Ian McCaw said it yesterday … this is the greatest time to be a student-athlete. It really is, if you think about it. You've got a nutritionist, you've got a sports psychologist, you have better strength coaches, your coaches are better, you're getting cost of attendance if you're on aid. ...

"I'm really concerned about recruiting today and the impact on our kids today and actually it's not just football, it's all sports. We're pushing it earlier and earlier. We have young people coming into our offices who don't have their driver's licenses yet and I'm sitting there with their parents and I'm like, what am I doing? … I'm hoping in the new (NCAA) governance structure with the new council and the way our committee structure is set up is there's discussion about where we are today and we take a comprehensive view of where we are today and start creating packages instead of piece-meal legislation."

Q: But some athletes probably have more of a value than their athletic scholarship. We see NCAA violations occur because there are payments under the table.

Smith: “Then they're cheaters. It is what it is. … I've moved away from whatever year it was, the amateur discussion. We've still in the collegiate environment. … This year, our football team, every single player this summer has to have an internship or shadow somebody in business. That is invaluable. So when you have a Jamie Dimon (CEO of JPMorgan Chase) or a Dan Gilbert (founder of Quicken Loans and Cleveland Cavaliers owner) … and they give you their business card, how many of us would like to have Jamie Dimon's business card and have him stand before (you) and say if I can ever help you, shoot me an email or text? How many of us in college would have loved to have that?

“You're right, if you look at it strictly from a business view. But we're not in that. We're not in a pure business. We're in an educational environment where we're helping young people get a degree, and by their life lessons by participating in sport, they're learning unreal characteristics that will allow them to be successful in life. Put a value on that.”

Q: But it is a major business. You play games on Tuesday weeknights across the country.

Smith: “It is, but we're also educational. We're not pros. … Look at you guys. You're getting paid chasing (college sports). But we're not business, guys. We're not a business model. I mean, all of our money -- we have $152 million that we generate, $37 million goes back to the institution to pay for the scholarships and support other programs. All of the rest goes to the kids. I probably raised $100 million this year and all of that will go into facilities … So when you send your son or daughter to us, you're getting the highest level of support for them to be able to go out and make money. That's the way I look at it. It might be flawed. I know people might disagree with it. You're learning so much when you're in school.

“In fact, the other part of your question, you don't come to me with a persona, you don't come to us with a value. We help you develop that value, we help you develop that persona to some point where your likeness is valuable and it's up to us to make sure we help you maximize that when you graduate.”

Q: You don't think a top recruit could get value right now?

Smith: “Not until they play (in college).”

Q: Some of them used to go straight into the NBA.

Smith: “I'm sorry, you're exactly right. If you talk about 18 to 20 guys, we get 215 freshmen every year, but there's probably across the country 18 to 20 basketball players that could probably go play in the NBA right away. Then football-wise, I'm not sure there's many high school football players -- there are some, some physical freaks of nature, maybe a Joey Bosa (at Ohio State), who could go pro right away. Maybe there's 30 of those guys. So do you change your whole system because of 50? I've never been a believer in that.”

Indy 500 favorite Scott Dixon must cope with Penske trio, aerodynamics.
 
By Jim Peltz

Scott Dixon celebrates with his wife, Emma, and daughter Tilly after capturing pole position Sunday for this weekend's Indianapolis 500. (Sam Riche / Associated Press)
 

With the arrival of Memorial Day weekend, the 99th running of the Indianapolis 500 is Sunday.

 

Scott Dixon, a former Indy 500 winner and three-time series champion, will lead the 33-car field from the pole position at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Alongside Dixon in the Indy 500's unique three-wide starting format will be Team Penske drivers Will Power and Simon Pagenaud.

There have been five different winners in the first five races this season in the Verizon IndyCar Series. But all of those races were on twisty street or road courses. This is the series' first race of the year on a high-speed oval.

Here are four things to watch as IndyCar holds its most celebrated race, which draws more than 200,000 spectators:

Safety concerns: The cars of three drivers went airborne in crashes during practice this month, prompting IndyCar to make quick changes.

The series slowed down the cars for qualifying after the incidents involving Helio Castroneves, Josef Newgarden and Ed Carpenter. None of the drivers was hurt.

The two manufacturers in the series, Chevrolet and Honda, supplied their teams with new body styles, or "aero kits," this season. All three of the cars that went airborne were Chevys. But it's unclear whether the new bodies played a role in the cars flipping into the air.

There were no similar incidents during qualifying last weekend for the Indy 500. But in practice Monday, James Hinchcliffe suffered a serious upper-thigh injury when his Honda-powered car slammed into the wall and nearly got airborne as it spun to a stop.

Hinchcliffe, who won earlier this year in New Orleans, required surgery and is probably out for the season. He had qualified 24th for the Indy 500. Ryan Briscoe will replace him Sunday in the No. 5 car for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.

The field will have a final, one-hour practice Friday.

Dixon the betting favorite: The reserved New Zealander known as "The Iceman," who drives for Chip Ganassi Racing, won the Indy 500 from the pole in 2008, the same year he won one of his IndyCar titles.

The 34-year-old driver also has a victory this year, at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach in April.

Dixon is all-business at the race track, and right now he seems formidable if his team deftly handles his pit stops and fuel strategy and Dixon avoids any crashes.

Gamblers like his chances. Dixon was the favorite to win the race Sunday, at 9-2 odds, on the sports betting website Bovada.com. Pagenaud and Power were next at 11-2.

"We're starting in the right place but it's a long race," Dixon said. "Hopefully, we can replicate what we did in 2008."

Penkse's momentum: Penske drivers Juan Pablo Montoya, Power and Castroneves are 1-2-3, respectively, in the IndyCar championship point standings.

Power won the series' most recent race, on the road course at Indianapolis. Montoya, a former Indy 500 winner, won this season's opener on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla. 

Castroneves, who recently turned 40, is a three-time winner of the Indianapolis 500. He starts fifth Sunday.

Castroneves' bid for a fourth win at the Brickyard fell just short last year when he lost to Ryan Hunter-Reay by less than a car length in the second-closest Indy 500 finish in history.

Finally, team owner Roger Penske has a record 15 wins at the Indy 500.

But all of this guarantees nothing. It's been six years since a Penske driver last captured the race, with Castroneves at the wheel in 2009.

Jeff Gordon lends a hand: The four-time NASCAR champion will drive the pace car for the Indy 500, then rush to Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina to race in NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday night.

Gordon was born in California but grew up in the Indianapolis area, his goal at one point being an IndyCar racer.

He chose NASCAR stock-car racing instead, where he's became one of its legendary drivers. He's also a record five-time winner of NASCAR's Brickyard 400 that's held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the summer.

What: 99th Indianapolis 500.

Where: Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

When: Sunday, 9 a.m. PDT.

Track: 2.5-mile rectangular oval (200 laps).

Defending winner: Ryan Hunter-Reay.

Television: ABC.

On This Date in Sports History: Today is Friday, May 22, 2015.

Memoriesofhistory.com

1968 - Willie Stargell (Pittsburgh Pirates) hit three home runs, a single and a double.

1970 - The Buffalo Sabres and Vancouver Canucks were officially granted NHL franchises for the 1970-71 season.

1975 - Joe Namath refused $4 million offer to play for Chicago in the World Football League.

1977 - Janet Guthrie set the fastest time of the second weekend of qualifying, becoming the first woman to earn a starting spot in the Indianapolis 500 since its inception in 1911.

1985 - Pete Rose passed Hank Aaron as National League run scoring leader with 2,108.

1991 - The NFL owners agreed to add two new teams in 1994.

2002 - Mark Prior became only the 14th Chicago Cubs player since 1920 to win his major league debut. The Cubs beat the Pirates 7-4.

2002 - Barry Bonds (San Francisco Giants) hit his 583rd home run. He tied Mark McGwire for fifth on the all-time list.

2003 - At the Colonial in Fort Worth, TX, Annika Sorenstam became the first woman to play on the PGA tour in 58 years. She ended the day at 1-over par.

2003 - High school basketball star LeBron James signed a $90 million Nike endorsement deal.

2003 - Steve McNair (Tennessee Titans) was arrested and charged with drunken driving and illegal possession of a handgun. He was released on $3,000 bond.

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