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"Sports Quote of the Day"
"The integral part of being a star is having the will to win. All the champions have it." ~ Betty Cuthbert, Olympic Champion Athlete
Trending: Bears to keep rookie receiver Kevin White out all season. (See the football section for Bears updates).
Trending: NFL officiating vice president defends quality of calls this season. What's Your Take? Please read our thoughts and position on the last article in this blog and share your opinion with us.
Trending: Bulls survive Clipper's charge, end three game losing streak. (See basketball section for Bulls updates).
Bear Down Chicago Bears!!!!! Washington Redskins-Chicago Bears Preview.
By KEVIN MASSOTH
After coughing up a chance to separate themselves in the cramped NFC East, the Washington Redskins are still in the driver's seat. The road to the playoffs, though, is a bumpy path away from home.
Bears getting Eddie Royal back adds to Jay Cutler 'trust' factor.
By John Mullin
After coughing up a chance to separate themselves in the cramped NFC East, the Washington Redskins are still in the driver's seat. The road to the playoffs, though, is a bumpy path away from home.
The Redskins haven't won a road game in about 13 1/2 months but will play three of four as the visitors down the stretch, starting Sunday against the Chicago Bears.
Washington (5-7) is winless in five games away from FedEx Field and is 0-9 on the road since a 20-17 overtime victory at Dallas on Oct. 27, 2014 - the longest current skid in the NFL.
But that's not even the end of the Redskins' visiting woes. They have won once in 19 games away from home dating to October 2013, including a 1-12 mark the last two seasons under coach Jay Gruden.
''We understand our struggles on the road and we have to address them,'' Gruden said. ''We have to address them head on and go compete against Chicago.''
But where to start?
Washington is 5-2 at home while allowing opponents to score more than 20 points once, but the Redskins are giving up 32.4 points per game on the road. They have also averaged 17.2 points on the road compared to 24.4 at home.
The problem could be the six turnovers at home as opposed to 14 on the road, or maybe the average of 129.6 rushing yards at home to 44.8 on the road.
''You search for answers. It's hard," left tackle Trent Williams said. "You can't just put your finger on one thing. If that was the case, then it would have been fixed. It's always something different, it seems, every time.''
The numbers working in the Redskins' favor is their run against the Bears, who have struggled to a 1-5 mark at Soldier Field. The Redskins have won five in a row in this series and 11 of 13, including four of five in Chicago.
They will likely have to win as a visitor at least once to finish ahead of Philadelphia and New York, who are also 5-7. Washington hosts Buffalo next week before closing the season at Philadelphia and Dallas (4-8).
It was Monday's 19-16 home loss to the Cowboys that kept the Redskins from their first winning streak of the season and added to the crowded division.
The final minute and a half was a frenzy. The highlights were DeSean Jackson's adventure of a punt return - which ended with a fumble to set up Dallas' only touchdown with 1:19 to play - Jackson's 28-yard TD reception from Kirk Cousins 30 seconds later to tie it and Dan Bailey's game-winning 54-yard field goal.
Jackson's score was possible after Rashad Ross' 41-yard kickoff return and a face mask penalty, but the final field goal was set up by Dallas' 46-yard return.
Even with the gut-wrenching loss, it could be worse. Like for Chicago, which also dropped to 5-7 but likely kissed its postseason hopes goodbye.
Last week's 26-20 overtime loss came at home to lowly San Francisco and only needed extra time after Bears all-time point leader Robbie Gould hooked a 36-yard field goal left at the end of regulation.
An offense that scored seven points in the second half was flat in overtime, and the defense allowed Torrey Smith to get past the secondary for a game-winning 71-yard touchdown.
''I promise you, it will get better,'' right tackle Kyle Long said. ''Gosh, we're in every game. But it's not good enough and we need to be better.''
The Bears had surprisingly crept back into the playoff picture with a 17-13 win at Green Bay on Thanksgiving, but reality hit with their fourth consecutive loss by less than seven points.
''Obviously the playoffs are a long shot,'' defensive end Jarvis Jenkins said. ''We can't go in these last couple of game saying the season is over. These last four games are definitely going to be a test of character for the whole team.''
Chicago will finish the season without tight end Martellus Bennett as he was placed on injured reserve Tuesday with a fractured rib. Bennett leads the Bears with 53 catches despite missing the win over the Packers and playing in a limited role against the 49ers.
They might soon get a boost on the receiving corps, though, as Eddie Royal (knee) practiced for the first time in five weeks and No. 7 overall pick Kevin White (leg stress fracture) participated in 11-on-11 drills. Royal hasn't played since Nov. 1, and the Bears have until Tuesday to activate White from the physically unable to perform list.
Bears getting Eddie Royal back adds to Jay Cutler 'trust' factor.
By John Mullin
“The problem wasn’t that I didn’t know where their guys were going to be,” Kramer said. “It was that I wasn’t sure when OUR guys were going to be.”
The reason was simple. Kramer was coming into a West Coast system under coordinator Ron Turner and was required to execute more of a timing offense, throwing earlier to still-unfamiliar receivers.
Two decades later, Jay Cutler has grappled with the identical problem, although not as much because of scheme or where defenses will be. Instead, Cutler has had to sort out his own guys and the myriad receiver combinations employed. Alshon Jeffery does not run routes the same as Marquess Wilson as Marc Mariani as Josh Bellamy as ... You get the idea.
“Yeah, it’s tough,” Cutler acknowledged on Thursday. “The good thing about is it’s a really good [receivers] room. Availability is key in this league and a lot of the guys have been up and down, up and down. You can go down the list.”
That list may be stabilizing for the good this week with Jeffery no longer on the injury report and Royal practicing on a limited basis after missing the last five games and six altogether this season with a knee injury.
Not that the Jeffery-Royal pairing equates to success; the Bears are 0-3 in the games when both receivers played.
But Royal was a favorite target of Cutler’s when the two played with the Denver Broncos (2008) and again this year in training camp, where Royal clearly was in phase with Cutler.
“For me, I’ve had enough experience with Jay to know how to expect the ball, where he’s going to go, how he’s going to go, when he’s going to throw,” Royal said. “So I’ve still got that in my mind. You’ve still got to react to it and react to the situation. It’s different for a quarterback, who has to throw it before a receiver comes out of his break.
“It’s about trust. Sometimes the timing is not always going to be there, so you have to trust that I’ll be at the right spot. If you have to be there at 10 yards, then that’s where the receiver has to be. And that’s where trust and faith come in.”
Cutler’s trust and faith are there with Royal and with Jeffery, with Cutler declaring that if Jeffery is against one-on-one coverage, “it’s going to take a lot to get me off him.”
Even if trust has sometimes been difficult to come by, Cutler has been consistently complimentary toward his inexperienced receiver group. “They’ve done a really good job of being where they’re supposed to be,” said Cutler. “I think it’s a credit to how hard they work, how much they study, and Mike [Groh, receivers coach] making sure that they are prepared each and every week.”
Bears aiming to diffuse Washington's explosive DeSean Jackson.
By JJ Stankevitz
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
With memories of Torrey Smith’s game-winning 71-yard touchdown still fresh, the Bears began preparations for the Washington Redskins on Wednesday needing to figure out how to diffuse a similarly explosive target.
Washington’s DeSean Jackson may only have 18 catches for 292 yards this year, but the 29-year-old had receptions of 42, 56 and 63 yards in consecutive November games and caught a game-tying 28-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter against the Dallas Cowboys on Monday night (Washington went on to lose on a last-second field goal). He presents a similar test to the one provided by Smith, which the Bears’ secondary spectacularly failed Sunday at Soldier Field.
“You just gotta be sound in your coverage, sound in your technique and your eyes and not have any lapses when you’re lined up against (speed guys),” cornerback Tracy Porter said. “And if you do have any against those guys, they’ll make us pay the same way Torrey Smith did.”
The way to mute Jackson, Porter explained, doesn’t begin and end with pressing and re-routing him off the line of scrimmage. It most of all takes proper technique, since without it, Jackson is able to blow past defensive back and deliver the kind of big-chunk plays on which he’s built his eight-year NFL career.
“The guy’s extremely fast,” Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said. “And unlike a lot of guys that are extremely fast, he’s fast in a hurry. His first few steps, he gets into high gear quicker than anybody.”
It’s not just Fangio and the Bears’ secondary that has to be worried about Jackson, though. The Bears’ punt coverage team has to be prepared for Jackson to get loose, as he tried — in an egregiously disastrous fashion — to do against Dallas. From near the 25-yard line on the far sideline, Jackson tried to cut back to the near sideline, ran all the way to the precipice of the Washington goal line, then fumbled just before 10-yard line. The Cowboys quickly converted that fumble into their only touchdown on Monday night.
While Jackson hasn’t returned a punt for a touchdown since 2010, the last one he housed won’t be forgotten anytime soon. His walk-off punt return touchdown against the New York Giants on Dec. 19, 2010 helped push the Philadelphia Eagles into the playoffs and is regarded as one of the best plays in NFL history.
Count Bears special teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers as someone who has that monumental return in the front of his mind this week.
“You get plenty of respect from special teams coaches because we all remember those type of plays,” Rodgers said. He then pointed to former Kansas City Chiefs returner Dante Hall, who had a penchant for turning the kind of return attempted by Jackson against Dallas into a touchdown.
“There’s a lot of returns, you’re watching him saying, ‘you gotta be kidding me — oh, good, good, yeah, touchdown,’” Rodgers said. “There’s a lot of things that returners have an innate ability to have big plays and covering that kind of thing, as long as your guys are disciplined, you think that you got a chance but a guy with his speed, the longer the play goes, the more likely it is that he’s going to be able to get to the edge and that’s something that I believe he was trying to do. It think Dallas did a good job covering that thing. He’s an explosive guy and you certainly gotta be aware that he’s back there.”
But given it’s been five years since Jackson scored on a punt return, the onus will be on the Bears’ secondary to keep the ball out of the explosive Washington receiver’s hands on Sunday.
“DeSean anytime can make a play for us,” Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins said. “You never know when it’s going to happen based on play calls and coverages and that kind of thing, but he’s always ready and able. We gotta get him involved, we’ve done a good job of getting him opportunities the last few weeks and he’s made good on them.
“He’s a difference-maker for us, a talented player and we just gotta keep finding ways to get him the football and get him chances to go make plays.”
Bears to keep rookie receiver Kevin White out all season.
By Dan Wiederer
Bears rookie Kevin White will not play this season, the Tribune has learned.
White’s recovery from August surgery to repair a stress fracture in his left leg has progressed as the team had hoped, if not better. The young receiver has made marked improvement with his movement, shown signs of burst as his running has increased and worked through bouts of weakness in his left leg to gain more confidence in his acceleration and agility.
White, the No. 7 overall pick in last spring’s NFL draft, has been on the physically-unable-to-perform list since the season began. Officially, the Bears face a Tuesday deadline to activate White to the 53-man roster. The most likely scenario, however, is that he will retain his PUP status and go back to working through his recovery off to the side with the Bears’ trainer and strength and conditioning coaches.
The Bears could push White onto the 53-man roster next week to allow him to continue practicing through season’s end. But even if that were to happen, the rookie receiver would still not play in a game. Furthermore, that move would require the team to eat a roster spot for a player who’d be inactive for the final four games.
League rules have allowed White to work back into practices during a 21-day window that began Nov. 24. The young receiver acknowledges he has been able to improve his route running and gain a better understanding of his reads in the offense over the last 2 1/2 weeks.
“Being an athlete, being a competitor, I want to get out there,” White said. “I think that’s natural.”
But Friday is likely to mark his seventh and final practice this season.
When asked after Wednesday’s practice what message he had for Bears fans itching to see the team’s top draft pick make his NFL debut this season, White sighed and shrugged.
“Not my call,” he said. “… Whatever they want me to do, then that’s what I’ll do.”
In fact, White’s trying first season as a pro finally will reach a definitive conclusion with a decision firmed up to keep him out of game action.
The rookie receiver still needs to strengthen his left leg to get it on par with the opposite side. And while coach John Fox has strategically dodged questions about White’s potential to play this season, the Bears don't want to rush the rookie receiver into full-speed NFL action.
After using a top-10 pick to draft White, the Bears intend to protect that investment for the long term. And the move to keep White off the field on game days this season is an integral part of that.
How 'bout them Chicago Blackhawks? Winnipeg Jets-Chicago Blackhawks Preview.
By NICOLINO DIBENEDETTO
The Chicago Blackhawks haven't exactly capitalized on Patrick Kane's franchise-record point streak.
With Kane on the cusp of a 25th straight game on the score sheet, the Blackhawks seek a bounce-back performance Friday night and their second win over the Winnipeg Jets in under a week.
Kane has collected 38 of his NHL-leading 44 points during his 24-game streak, which is the longest in the league since Sidney Crosby went 25 in a row during the 2010-11 season. He scored his 15th goal of that stretch Thursday, but Chicago (15-10-4) fell 5-1 at Nashville to split a home-and-home set.
"It is a silver lining, and it is great for him," said goaltender Scott Darling, who had 29 saves. "He is playing great, like he always does. So it is good for him."
Kane's dominance, however, doesn't have the Blackhawks racking up wins. They're 13-7-4 during his streak compared to Pittsburgh going 19-5-1 during Crosby's stretch.
"It's nice to see (Kane continue his streak), but I know he's the type of guy that would rather have a win than keep the streak going," forward Andrew Shaw told the team's official website.
Chicago, though, is opening a four-game homestand and is 10-3-1 at United Center, including 9-2-1 during Kane's streak. That includes a 3-1 win over Winnipeg on Sunday in which Kane assisted on Artemi Panarin's empty-net goal with 46 seconds left. He has 17 points in 15 career meetings with the Jets (14-13-2) after getting four in the past three.
The Blackhawks have won three of the last four matchups with Winnipeg, and Corey Crawford has a 2.00 goals-against average while starting each of them. He had 30 saves Sunday before making 36 in a 4-1 win over the Predators two days later.
Crawford is 8-2-1 with a 1.82 GAA over his last 11 home games.
Winnipeg's only loss over its last four games came at Chicago, but each of the victories were at home, including Thursday's 6-4 win over Columbus.
The Jets are 1-7-1 in their last nine road games, giving up an average of 4.11 goals.
With games on back-to-back days, Winnipeg is likely to turn to Michael Hutchinson. However, he's 0-6-1 with a 3.98 GAA over his last eight road games, seven of them starts.
He stopped 29 of 31 shots at Chicago on Sunday, but he's 4-1-1 with a 1.33 GAA in six career starts against the Blackhawks.
If Hutchinson sits for a second straight game, the Jets would start Connor Hellebuyck. The rookie has won his first four starts with a 1.72 GAA since being called up from Manitoba of the AHL after starter Ondrej Pavelec sprained his knee last month.
Hellebuyck made 25 saves against the Blue Jackets after giving up one goal in each of his first three games. Since the performance came in a win, coach Paul Maurice joked about it.
"Send him down. He's got a one-goal limit," he said.
Mathieu Perreault matched his career high with four points Thursday after coming up empty at Chicago. The center's only points in six career visits to United Center were two goals in a 5-1 win Dec. 23.
By Tracey Myers
The Blackhawks got a good look on Tuesday of how dangerous the Nashville Predators can be.
That night, they got enough on their end to get a victory. On Thursday, they didn’t even come close to matching the Predators in intensity, energy or production.
Patrick Kane scored to extend his point streak to a franchise-best 24 games but the Blackhawks were otherwise underwhelming in a 5-1 loss to the Nashville Predators on Thursday night. It was a disappointing night for the Blackhawks, who were coming off two victories in which they looked like they were developing chemistry and playing their usual style.
And their first 20 minutes may have been their most forgettable of the season.
“That was an ugly start,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “They blitzed us right off the bat and we didn’t have a response to it. Maybe woke up in the second period, but that was hard to watch, that first 20 minutes. That’s as ugly as I’ve ever seen us play. It was worse than the first period of the first playoff game here last year.”
In that game the Blackhawks came roaring back. In this one they weren’t really close to doing that. Scott Darling stopped 29 of 33 shots, facing 18 from the Predators in the first period. Andrew Shaw was one of the better players for the Blackhawks, bringing the net-front presence and drive they were otherwise lacking.
“Yeah, Shawzie was the one guy who left it out there,” Quenneville said. “I liked what he did and what he brought.”
Shaw had some of the Blackhawks’ better scoring chances and tried to bring some energy with his first-period fight against the sizeable Barret Jackman.
“Long overdue and I felt like that was the best opportunity to get it started, hopefully spark something with the boys,” Shaw said.
But it didn’t.
The one bright spot was Kane extending his point streak. Pekka Rinne thought he had control of Duncan Keith’s shot but Marcus Kruger pushed the puck and Kane knocked it in, with Rinne arguing to officials. The official review, however, showed the puck was loose and Kane’s goal, his 18th of the season, stood.
The Predators, meanwhile, were energetic and strong from the start. By the time the Blackhawks got their first shot on goal of the game – Jonathan Toews 5:32 into it – the Predators had 10 on Darling. Nashville broke through about seven minutes into this one, with James Neal beating Darling five-hole for the first of two times on the night. Craig Smith added his sixth of the season at the 15:56 mark and just 37 seconds after that Filip Forsberg put the Predators up 3-0.
“Disappointing for sure,” Shaw said of that start. “We let them get the lead, put ourselves behind the eight-ball and that’s a tough team to climb back against a 3-0 deficit.”
Neal then added his second goal with 5:05 remaining in regulation and Eric Nystrom scored an empty-net, short-handed goal with 1:14 left in the game.
The Blackhawks looked pretty good in their last two games. They knew what the Predators would bring on their home ice on Thursday night. Nevertheless, the Blackhawks still weren’t ready at the start.
“It’s a good hockey team,” Quenneville said of the Predators. “There [are] no easy nights. You’ve got to be ready to start, you’ve got to have some energy and enthusiasm and purpose right off the bat. We didn’t have much going in any of these areas and they were all over us. We couldn’t make anything. We did nothing right.”
That night, they got enough on their end to get a victory. On Thursday, they didn’t even come close to matching the Predators in intensity, energy or production.
Patrick Kane scored to extend his point streak to a franchise-best 24 games but the Blackhawks were otherwise underwhelming in a 5-1 loss to the Nashville Predators on Thursday night. It was a disappointing night for the Blackhawks, who were coming off two victories in which they looked like they were developing chemistry and playing their usual style.
And their first 20 minutes may have been their most forgettable of the season.
“That was an ugly start,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “They blitzed us right off the bat and we didn’t have a response to it. Maybe woke up in the second period, but that was hard to watch, that first 20 minutes. That’s as ugly as I’ve ever seen us play. It was worse than the first period of the first playoff game here last year.”
In that game the Blackhawks came roaring back. In this one they weren’t really close to doing that. Scott Darling stopped 29 of 33 shots, facing 18 from the Predators in the first period. Andrew Shaw was one of the better players for the Blackhawks, bringing the net-front presence and drive they were otherwise lacking.
“Yeah, Shawzie was the one guy who left it out there,” Quenneville said. “I liked what he did and what he brought.”
Shaw had some of the Blackhawks’ better scoring chances and tried to bring some energy with his first-period fight against the sizeable Barret Jackman.
“Long overdue and I felt like that was the best opportunity to get it started, hopefully spark something with the boys,” Shaw said.
But it didn’t.
The one bright spot was Kane extending his point streak. Pekka Rinne thought he had control of Duncan Keith’s shot but Marcus Kruger pushed the puck and Kane knocked it in, with Rinne arguing to officials. The official review, however, showed the puck was loose and Kane’s goal, his 18th of the season, stood.
The Predators, meanwhile, were energetic and strong from the start. By the time the Blackhawks got their first shot on goal of the game – Jonathan Toews 5:32 into it – the Predators had 10 on Darling. Nashville broke through about seven minutes into this one, with James Neal beating Darling five-hole for the first of two times on the night. Craig Smith added his sixth of the season at the 15:56 mark and just 37 seconds after that Filip Forsberg put the Predators up 3-0.
“Disappointing for sure,” Shaw said of that start. “We let them get the lead, put ourselves behind the eight-ball and that’s a tough team to climb back against a 3-0 deficit.”
Neal then added his second goal with 5:05 remaining in regulation and Eric Nystrom scored an empty-net, short-handed goal with 1:14 left in the game.
The Blackhawks looked pretty good in their last two games. They knew what the Predators would bring on their home ice on Thursday night. Nevertheless, the Blackhawks still weren’t ready at the start.
“It’s a good hockey team,” Quenneville said of the Predators. “There [are] no easy nights. You’ve got to be ready to start, you’ve got to have some energy and enthusiasm and purpose right off the bat. We didn’t have much going in any of these areas and they were all over us. We couldn’t make anything. We did nothing right.”
Just Another Chicago Bulls Session... Bulls survive Clippers' charge, end three-game losing streak.
By Vincent Goodwill
Maybe it was the mask all along.
Derrick Rose had one of his quietest, worst halves before the ditching the mask that covered his recovering fractured orbital bone, helping pull the Bulls from near disaster.
The Bulls survived Thursday against the Los Angeles Clippers when Chris Paul’s leaning triple try bounced off the rim, with an 83-80 final at the United Center.
Rose’s floater with 45.4 seconds left put the Bulls up six, as he scored nine in the fourth quarter to help end the three-game losing streak. After going scoreless in the first half and looking a bit out of it through three quarters, he turned it up late, and luckily his counterpart wasn’t having a banner night either, as Paul shot just five for 16 and committed critical errors down the stretch when the Clippers were mounting a comeback.
Pau Gasol took charge, at one point blocking three straight shots inside and even hit three 3-pointers for the first time in his career, scoring 24 points with six rebounds. Jimmy Butler scored 14 with eight assists and five rebounds in a contest no high school basketball coach would ever consider showing his team as a model for how the game is to be played.
The Clippers scored 30 points in the middle two quarters, begging to be blown out, but it was the Bulls who were begging for a competitive game. Not even Blake Griffin’s ejection could make the Bulls take complete control, after he whacked Taj Gibson across the head accidentally, resulting a flagrant 2 verdict from the officials.
The Bulls missed nine straight shots in the fourth after leading by 10 while the Clippers suddenly caught fire, as Josh Smith nailed consecutive 3-pointers to tie the game at 66 with 7:19 left.
Then Butler hit one of his four field goals, a long jumper, then took a charge on Lance Stephenson. After Gibson had a follow-up dunk to an Aaron Brooks miss, it seemed the Bulls would cruise somewhat to a win.
But nothing was that easy, as the last couple weeks have shown, but it sure feels better with a win, no matter how it was obtained.
Another ugly fourth quarter sinks Bulls in loss to Celtics. (Wednesday night's game, 12/09/2015).
By Vincent Goodwill
Joakim Noah contested a Kelly Olynyk triple that seemed a bit too early on the shot clock but as he slipped to the parquet floor had backup as the Celtics retreated back on defense when the shot went awry.
A couple seconds later he was shaking his head in disgust as Doug McDermott failed to corral what should’ve been an easy rebound and transition opportunity, sending the TD Garden crowd into a comical frenzy.
Even when things should be easy for the Bulls, they insist on doing things the hard way and Wednesday was no exception, as the Boston Celtics used an early fourth-quarter run to distance themselves from the Bulls for an 105-100 win, the Bulls’ third straight defeat.
David Lee’s dunk a couple minutes later put the capper on a 12-2 run after the two teams played to a virtual standstill for 36 minutes, and resulted with the Bulls playing from behind from that point forward.
“I thought our effort was good, most of the night. But they came out and threw the first punch in the fourth quarter,” Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said. “That got us on our heels a little bit. Then we got back into it but that was it.”
Jimmy Butler, who had a career-high night, tried to help bring the Bulls back with consecutive drives and scores, followed by a fast break layup from Nikola Mirotic to pull the Bulls to within three but the Celtics pulled away.
Mirotic was replaced in the starting lineup by Taj Gibson, who only played 19 minutes but contributed eight points and seven rebounds. Gibson didn’t play in the fourth until late when it was early where a stabilizing force was in desperate need.
“We wanted to stagger them a little bit,” Hoiberg said. “Get Niko coming off the bench, change his rhythm up a little bit. I thought Jo has really developed a nice chemistry with Doug. Get another perimeter guy out there with Jo with Niko. Try and spread it out, get Jo going with his dribble hand-offs and swinging the ball screens, so that was the reason we put [Gibson] in the starting lineup.”
Butler promised he’d be more aggressive, especially late with the game on the line and he delivered for 36 points and seven rebounds, with 17 of his points coming in the fourth quarter but the help wasn’t enough, as the Bulls again struggled scoring.
“At times, we’re really good at our pace,” Hoiberg said. “For the most part it was pretty good tonight. The start of the fourth, we got stagnant and we weren’t moving very well.”
The Bulls shot just 43 percent from the field and their cold start to the fourth proved to be their ultimate undoing and now, the Bulls seem to be in some uncharted territory, beyond the struggling with this losing streak.
“This is the first time ever really going through it,” Derrick Rose said. “We’ve been together for a long time and we’re just trying to figure things out.”
Rose finished with 12 points and six assists, shooting 5-for-11. He was more aggressive going to the basket but didn’t get the benefit of the doubt from the officials, taking away a necessary presence on a night when the Bulls needed every little bit of offensive firepower.
The Celtics, while shooting 41 percent, came up with the big plays in spades when it was needed most, almost a rubik’s cube of options.
Isaiah Thomas’ 3-point play with 2:52 left while being fouled by Mirotic put the Celtics up eight and capitalized his 20-point second half after going scoreless in the first.
All five Celtics starters scored in double figures and their balance shifted to the bench as Olynyk, Lee and Evan Turner all repeated the feat.
Their pressure, more so than their scoring, played a part in sending the Bulls into their tailspin.
The turnovers, a Celtics specialty, was a nemesis for the Bulls. The team that forces the most turnovers in the league used it to get themselves going after the Bulls’ defense kept them in check for the first couple minutes.
“We had too many turnovers in the first half,” said Hoiberg of their 11 giveaways.
Once they turned up the pressure, it erased the small advantage the Bulls had and sent the visitors into a borderline panic.
Pau Gasol scored 16 but shot 7-for-17 and turned it over four times. Derrick Rose committed three giveaways and the Bulls’ 18 turnovers turned into 25 points, something Hoiberg warned his team about beforehand.
But no warning could apparently prepare the Bulls for struggling yet again, for which the answers aren’t quite so easy.
Hoiberg ignored Butler's pleas to start fourth quarter.
By Vincent Goodwill
Jimmy Butler took awhile before meeting with the media after Wednesday’s loss to the Boston Celtics because of a pressing matter, a meeting of the minds of sorts.
It wasn’t with any of his teammates, but with his coach, Fred Hoiberg, who disregarded Butler’s suggestion that he stay in to start the fourth quarter as opposed to Hoiberg giving him a brief rest.
The opening minutes saw the Celtics take a 12-2 run to create some distance in what was a tie game to start the fourth, as Butler couldn’t get to the scorer’s table fast enough to get checked back in.
The damage had been done, and the 17 of Butler’s career-high 36 points all went for naught, prompting Butler to say “I don't give a damn about a career high. I want to win”.
“I told Fred not to take me out at the beginning of the fourth,” Butler said. “I wanted to play. Because that's when we give up those leads. Nothing against my teammates, but if I'm out there and I get the energy going the right way, now take me out and let me rest. But the energy is going and flowing. I gotta start playing in the fourth quarter.”
Things fell apart almost immediately, even though Butler came in at the 9:15 mark with the score 83-77 and the Bulls still had several more empty possessions upon Butler’s re-entrance.
“I can handle an extra 45 seconds to a minute (of playing time),” Butler said. “Just let me get the energy going, get a stop here or there and get us going in the right direction.”
Butler is averaging 37.2 minutes per night and Wednesday was the front end of a road-home back-to-back as the Bulls will play the L.A. Clippers at the United Center, so it’s not as if Hoiberg is skimping Butler on the playing time.
But what’s clear is the Bulls’ margin for error — with Derrick Rose still dealing with the recovery from eye surgery, the Bulls being without veteran Mike Dunleavy and the team acclimating to Hoiberg’s new system — is very slim, if not downright nonexistent.
“It's very small. Very small,” Butler said somberly. “The people we have on this team are good at a lot of things and bad at some things, so you gotta cover that up. When you make a mistake, another team is gonna capitalize on that.
“We get a turnover and then we don't get back. 18 turnovers, 25 points? That can't happen. If you get a turnover, get back. Get the ball back. We can't just look and put our head down. Our margin for error is way too small.”
Butler’s reference to one-way players isn’t exactly off, and it places more of a pressure on him to hold things together while the team figures itself out. In the adjusting to Hoiberg’s system, Butler and many others have wondered if the Bulls en masse have forgotten what made this team formidable.
“Yeah. I think sometimes we forget how hard we gotta play and guys let up and one guy does it, it's contagious,” Butler said. “We gotta go hard on both ends of the floor and not just worry about offense, to win these games we gotta learn to guard late in the game.”
Hoiberg has been harping on the pace of play as a main point while many like Butler and Rose have openly talked about defense being the calling card that will keep things afloat until the team settles.
“Looking at every guy on our roster, we're good. Really good,” Butler said. “But when we get out there and go to work, it's not saying that. That's why numbers don't mean anything in this damn league. We get caught up in that too many times, in the hype and freedom in our offense when we gotta get stops when our defense has to lead our offense.”
If it was an illustration on the Bulls’ dependence on Butler that Hoiberg hadn’t yet discovered, perhaps the loss can be a liftoff point to move forward.
“I've told him and that's what I was back there telling him about, it's a learning curve for him like it is for me,” Butler said. “But we gotta win games if we want to find ourselves in the postseason.
“It's not just on him, it's on us. He can do all the rah-rahing and talking he wants to do. He's not out there playing. it's on us to bring ourselves together. We're supposed to be a team full of leaders. We gotta win games. The coach don't win the games, the players do.”
Will Jason Heyward become the next domino to fall for Cubs?
By Patrick Mooney
Will Jason Heyward become the next domino to fall for the Cubs?
That remained the biggest question for baseball’s new glamour team as the winter meetings ended Thursday at the Opryland and executives, agents and reporters headed toward Nashville International Airport.
A deep playoff run, some creative accounting and an aggressive mindset has pushed the Cubs into the middle of the Heyward sweepstakes and what’s again becoming a red-hot rivalry with the St. Louis Cardinals.
In another twist, CBSSports.com first reported the Washington Nationals are also pursuing Heyward, who may already have a $200 million offer.
The Cubs got ahead of the pitching market with John Lackey’s two-year, $32 million contract before hitting what team president Theo Epstein called a “multiple bank shot” this week when they signed super-utility guy Ben Zobrist to a four-year, $56 million deal and traded former All-Star shortstop Starlin Castro to the New York Yankees.
The Cubs won’t stop there.
“We’ve had a lot of discussions with our business side,” general manager Jed Hoyer said. “They’ve been really wonderfully cooperative and (they’re) certainly trying their hardest to come up with as many resources as possible.”
The tone changed between now and last month’s GM meetings in South Florida, where the Cubs sounded a lot more pessimistic about adding big-ticket items, worried about their immediate financial flexibility and the drag of another megadeal on their future payrolls.
Those feelings haven’t completely gone away, of course, and the Cubs haven’t magically transformed into the Los Angeles Dodgers or Boston Red Sox overnight. Maybe Heyward winds up staying with the Cardinals for the richest contract in that franchise’s history or another mystery team emerges.
But there have been some brainstorming sessions with chairman Tom Ricketts and president of business operations Crane Kenney, knowing this talented class of free agents is much deeper than next winter’s group, so it might make sense to cram almost two off-seasons into one.
At the age of 26, Heyward is seen as a safer long-term investment. His Gold Glove defense could play in center field for at least a year and his on-base skills would complement Zobrist’s knack for grinding out at-bats at the top of a lineup that already includes All-Stars Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant.
“Certainly, they’re doing everything they can to give us all the resources they can,” Hoyer said. “You have a budget number. That number is going to change. What we always say is: ‘It can’t go down. Once you give us a number, it’s got to at least be that.’
“But they’re always trying to find additional dollars. Whenever they do have additional dollars, they let us know about it. That’s kind of been the dialogue this winter.”
It’s not like Theo and the boys used to just sit around a hotel suite drinking beers and eating Doritos during the winter meetings. But the Cubs are operating at a dizzying pace now – a Heyward signing would potentially be synced up with a Jorge Soler trade – and not just trying to make sign-and-flip deals or foreclosing on seasons before pitchers and catchers even reported to Arizona.
Super-agent Scott Boras put it this way: “From the past approach of the Cubs, I would say that they’ve certainly got off the frontage road where all the stop signs are and they’re on the good freeway to a better team.”
The Cubs have a Manager of the Year (Joe Maddon), a Cy Young Award winner (Jake Arrieta) and a unanimous Rookie of the Year (Bryant). Coming off a 97-win season and a breakthrough into the National League Championship Series, this is not the time to step off the accelerator.
“We know we have a good team,” Hoyer said. “We proved it last year. We got a great manager, great players and our ‘now’ is very bright. So I think that we have to take advantage of that. That balance is different now. And as that balance shifts, I do think that creates more urgency.”
Cubs, Cardinals swap minor-leaguers in Rule 5 Draft.
By Tony Andracki
The Cubs and Cardinals swapped minor leaguers as part of the Rule 5 Draft Thursday.
After the big-league portion of the Rule 5 Draft finished, the Cubs then selected outfielder Michael O'Neill from the Cardinals in the minor-league portion of the draft. St. Louis responded by nabbing left-handed pitcher Michael Heesch.
Heesch is a Chicagoland kid (born in Crystal Lake, Ill., and attended Prairie Ridge High School) who played for the Kane County Cougars in 2013-14.
The 25-year-old southpaw was drafted in the eighth round in 2012, but has pitched just one game above A-ball. He spent 2015 with Advanced Class-A Myrtle Beach, going 8-2 with a 2.24 ERA, 1.259 WHIP and three saves in 64.1 innings.
O'Neill is 27 and a former 31st-round pick of the 2010 Draft. He doesn't provide much power (four homers in 549 minor-league games), but has a knack for getting on base with a career .311 average and .412 on-base percentage in six minor-league seasons.
O'Neill split time between Double-A and Triple-A in the Cardinals system in 2015, hitting .289 with a .400 OBP and .719 OPS.
The Cubs also selected catcher David Freitas from the Baltimore Orioles in the minor-league portion of the Rule 5 Draft.
Freitas, 26, provides some much-needed catching depth at the upper levels of the Cubs' system. He spent most of 2014-15 in Double-A with the Orioles, but has 41 games of experience at Triple-A.
Freitas is a career .269 hitter with a .781 OPS in six minor-league seasons.
Among the rest of the moves, the Cubs added outfielder Jesus Loya (Red Sox) and lost left-handed pitcher Ariel Ovando (Angels), right-handed pitcher Julian Aybar (Yankees) and outfielder/second baseman Pin-Chieh Chen (Reds).
White Sox: Trayce Thompson drawing interest around MLB.
That remained the biggest question for baseball’s new glamour team as the winter meetings ended Thursday at the Opryland and executives, agents and reporters headed toward Nashville International Airport.
A deep playoff run, some creative accounting and an aggressive mindset has pushed the Cubs into the middle of the Heyward sweepstakes and what’s again becoming a red-hot rivalry with the St. Louis Cardinals.
In another twist, CBSSports.com first reported the Washington Nationals are also pursuing Heyward, who may already have a $200 million offer.
The Cubs got ahead of the pitching market with John Lackey’s two-year, $32 million contract before hitting what team president Theo Epstein called a “multiple bank shot” this week when they signed super-utility guy Ben Zobrist to a four-year, $56 million deal and traded former All-Star shortstop Starlin Castro to the New York Yankees.
The Cubs won’t stop there.
“We’ve had a lot of discussions with our business side,” general manager Jed Hoyer said. “They’ve been really wonderfully cooperative and (they’re) certainly trying their hardest to come up with as many resources as possible.”
The tone changed between now and last month’s GM meetings in South Florida, where the Cubs sounded a lot more pessimistic about adding big-ticket items, worried about their immediate financial flexibility and the drag of another megadeal on their future payrolls.
Those feelings haven’t completely gone away, of course, and the Cubs haven’t magically transformed into the Los Angeles Dodgers or Boston Red Sox overnight. Maybe Heyward winds up staying with the Cardinals for the richest contract in that franchise’s history or another mystery team emerges.
But there have been some brainstorming sessions with chairman Tom Ricketts and president of business operations Crane Kenney, knowing this talented class of free agents is much deeper than next winter’s group, so it might make sense to cram almost two off-seasons into one.
At the age of 26, Heyward is seen as a safer long-term investment. His Gold Glove defense could play in center field for at least a year and his on-base skills would complement Zobrist’s knack for grinding out at-bats at the top of a lineup that already includes All-Stars Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant.
“Certainly, they’re doing everything they can to give us all the resources they can,” Hoyer said. “You have a budget number. That number is going to change. What we always say is: ‘It can’t go down. Once you give us a number, it’s got to at least be that.’
“But they’re always trying to find additional dollars. Whenever they do have additional dollars, they let us know about it. That’s kind of been the dialogue this winter.”
It’s not like Theo and the boys used to just sit around a hotel suite drinking beers and eating Doritos during the winter meetings. But the Cubs are operating at a dizzying pace now – a Heyward signing would potentially be synced up with a Jorge Soler trade – and not just trying to make sign-and-flip deals or foreclosing on seasons before pitchers and catchers even reported to Arizona.
Super-agent Scott Boras put it this way: “From the past approach of the Cubs, I would say that they’ve certainly got off the frontage road where all the stop signs are and they’re on the good freeway to a better team.”
The Cubs have a Manager of the Year (Joe Maddon), a Cy Young Award winner (Jake Arrieta) and a unanimous Rookie of the Year (Bryant). Coming off a 97-win season and a breakthrough into the National League Championship Series, this is not the time to step off the accelerator.
“We know we have a good team,” Hoyer said. “We proved it last year. We got a great manager, great players and our ‘now’ is very bright. So I think that we have to take advantage of that. That balance is different now. And as that balance shifts, I do think that creates more urgency.”
Cubs, Cardinals swap minor-leaguers in Rule 5 Draft.
By Tony Andracki
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
The Cubs and Cardinals swapped minor leaguers as part of the Rule 5 Draft Thursday.
After the big-league portion of the Rule 5 Draft finished, the Cubs then selected outfielder Michael O'Neill from the Cardinals in the minor-league portion of the draft. St. Louis responded by nabbing left-handed pitcher Michael Heesch.
Heesch is a Chicagoland kid (born in Crystal Lake, Ill., and attended Prairie Ridge High School) who played for the Kane County Cougars in 2013-14.
The 25-year-old southpaw was drafted in the eighth round in 2012, but has pitched just one game above A-ball. He spent 2015 with Advanced Class-A Myrtle Beach, going 8-2 with a 2.24 ERA, 1.259 WHIP and three saves in 64.1 innings.
O'Neill is 27 and a former 31st-round pick of the 2010 Draft. He doesn't provide much power (four homers in 549 minor-league games), but has a knack for getting on base with a career .311 average and .412 on-base percentage in six minor-league seasons.
O'Neill split time between Double-A and Triple-A in the Cardinals system in 2015, hitting .289 with a .400 OBP and .719 OPS.
The Cubs also selected catcher David Freitas from the Baltimore Orioles in the minor-league portion of the Rule 5 Draft.
Freitas, 26, provides some much-needed catching depth at the upper levels of the Cubs' system. He spent most of 2014-15 in Double-A with the Orioles, but has 41 games of experience at Triple-A.
Freitas is a career .269 hitter with a .781 OPS in six minor-league seasons.
Among the rest of the moves, the Cubs added outfielder Jesus Loya (Red Sox) and lost left-handed pitcher Ariel Ovando (Angels), right-handed pitcher Julian Aybar (Yankees) and outfielder/second baseman Pin-Chieh Chen (Reds).
White Sox: Trayce Thompson drawing interest around MLB.
By Dan Hayes
(Photo/Rick Scuteri/USA Today Sports)
He wasn’t quite as popular as Tim Anderson in potential trade talks this week, but sounds like Trayce Thompson drew a lot of interest at the Winter Meetings.
Several scouts have drawn comparisons between the White Sox outfielder — a second-round pick in 2009 — and veteran Chris Young, who recently signed with Boston.
With an outstanding glove, good power and a bat that surprised many over the final two months of the season, opposing teams are curious what the White Sox have in store for Thompson. Thompson hit at a .295/.363/.533 clip with five home runs and 16 RBIs in 135 plate appearances last season. Though they have a crowded outfield, the White Sox plan to find playing time for Thompson next season unless they potentially included him in a trade package.
“We have had a lot of our young guys asked about,” general manager Rick Hahn said on Thursday. “In general, from our major league club, it’s primarily pitching and at the minor league level, it’s a combination of some of those high ceiling position player types that you referenced, as well as some of our near-ready pitching. Those tend to be the most popular asked about so far. We’re certainly in good position with the resources to be able to execute trades. We have guys that people want. It’s just a matter of being comfortable with the matchup.”
As they continue to try and upgrade their offense, the White Sox would prefer to do it via trade or by signing free agents who haven’t received a qualifying offer.
Thanks to a compensatory draft pick for the loss of Jeff Samardzija, the White Sox possess three selections among the top 45 in what looks to be a talented draft next summer. They want to hang on to all three, if possible.
So far, the White Sox look to have slightly improved their offense without dipping into the top of their prospect stash. Neither free-agent catcher signed — Alex Avila and Dioner Navarro — required the White Sox to surrender a pick. They also acquired infielder Brett Lawrie on Wednesday for two lower-level prospects, including one they drafted six months ago.
Were the White Sox to find the perfect fit on the trade market, a young, controllable, impact player, they still have their best prospects — a group that includes Anderson, Frankie Montas, Carson Fulmer and Spencer Adams, as well as Thompson — to peddle. Though they have balked at the Cincinnati Reds’ starting asking price of Anderson for Todd Frazier (who is 30 and only two years from free agency), the White Sox might consider moving any of their top young players if the right deal came along.
“It’s a bit of a balancing act,” Hahn said. “You don’t want to set yourself back for the long term. At the same time, we have the prime of certain players on our roster’s careers that we have under control and we want to maximize our chances to win while we have the benefit of such special talent. Our goal on an annual basis is to have similar such talent available to us. So you don’t want to forsake too much of your future for the now. But at the same time we do realize we have an opportunity in front of us here given the talents and careers of certain players on our roster. We want to make the most of it.”
Hahn thinks his front office made the most of its four days at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. Not only did they complete a trade for Lawrie, he thinks they’ve lined up other potential moves.
“Overall it has been productive, not simply because we were able to address one of our needs, but because we made some progress on other fronts,” Hahn said. “Obviously nothing is completed until you get it signed, sealed and delivered. But at this point we are pleased with the dialog on other fronts, in addition to the deal we were able to close.”
Recent draftee key in White Sox acquisition of Brett Lawrie.
By Dan Hayes
The 2015 baseball draft is only six months old and yet it has already produced a major leaguer for the White Sox — sort of.
Same as the Arizona Diamondbacks a day earlier, the White Sox took advantage of a new rule on Wednesday night when they included 2015 draftee Zack Erwin in a deal with the Oakland A’s for infielder Brett Lawrie.
A left-handed pitcher out of Clemson selected in the fourth round, Erwin was traded under a provision recently altered that allows teams to deal first-year pros after the World Series concludes. Prior to the rule change, one enacted after San Diego traded 2014 first-rounder Trea Turner as a player to be named later to Washington last offseason, players had to remain with their drafting club until one year after they signed. Though he was traded last December, Turner remained in the Padres farm system until June 13, a year after he signed his first pro contract. The idea that their most recent draft has already affected the major league roster was a point of emphasis for new White Sox amateur scouting director Nick Hostetler.
"It’s exciting from a standpoint of you realize your draft has immediate impact," Hostetler said. "When you can get an immediate impact out of a draft, you have to entertain it. With a situation like Zack, we liked him, he was our second pick in the draft, he was a major part of our draft. But to know that pick has already turned into a big leaguer, it’s a success. If we already look at the 2015 draft, it helped produce a major league part."
Erwin, who had a combined 1.43 ERA in 40 1/3 innings last season at the Rookie level and Single-A, profiles as a back-end starting pitcher. Because they forfeited their choices in the second and third rounds to sign free agents last December, Erwin actually was the team's second overall pick behind first-rounder Carson Fulmer. But similar to Arizona, which surrendered Dansby Swanson, the first player taken in last June's draft, in the Shelby Miller trade on Tuesday, the White Sox were OK with giving up future potential for an established product. Given they have a handful of very good minor league pitchers, don't rule out the possibility they could do the same with Fulmer were it absolutely necessary.
General manager Rick Hahn said he's in favor of the rule change.
"It’s good," Hahn said. "Sitting in this chair you want as many assets at your disposal to try to make the team better, and certainly not having to find yourself in an awkward situation where a player is a player to be named later but remains in your system for several months of his development. There’s not only risk, but a level of awkwardness involved in that. So the ability to avoid that is definitely a positive step."
Several scouts have drawn comparisons between the White Sox outfielder — a second-round pick in 2009 — and veteran Chris Young, who recently signed with Boston.
With an outstanding glove, good power and a bat that surprised many over the final two months of the season, opposing teams are curious what the White Sox have in store for Thompson. Thompson hit at a .295/.363/.533 clip with five home runs and 16 RBIs in 135 plate appearances last season. Though they have a crowded outfield, the White Sox plan to find playing time for Thompson next season unless they potentially included him in a trade package.
“We have had a lot of our young guys asked about,” general manager Rick Hahn said on Thursday. “In general, from our major league club, it’s primarily pitching and at the minor league level, it’s a combination of some of those high ceiling position player types that you referenced, as well as some of our near-ready pitching. Those tend to be the most popular asked about so far. We’re certainly in good position with the resources to be able to execute trades. We have guys that people want. It’s just a matter of being comfortable with the matchup.”
As they continue to try and upgrade their offense, the White Sox would prefer to do it via trade or by signing free agents who haven’t received a qualifying offer.
Thanks to a compensatory draft pick for the loss of Jeff Samardzija, the White Sox possess three selections among the top 45 in what looks to be a talented draft next summer. They want to hang on to all three, if possible.
So far, the White Sox look to have slightly improved their offense without dipping into the top of their prospect stash. Neither free-agent catcher signed — Alex Avila and Dioner Navarro — required the White Sox to surrender a pick. They also acquired infielder Brett Lawrie on Wednesday for two lower-level prospects, including one they drafted six months ago.
Were the White Sox to find the perfect fit on the trade market, a young, controllable, impact player, they still have their best prospects — a group that includes Anderson, Frankie Montas, Carson Fulmer and Spencer Adams, as well as Thompson — to peddle. Though they have balked at the Cincinnati Reds’ starting asking price of Anderson for Todd Frazier (who is 30 and only two years from free agency), the White Sox might consider moving any of their top young players if the right deal came along.
“It’s a bit of a balancing act,” Hahn said. “You don’t want to set yourself back for the long term. At the same time, we have the prime of certain players on our roster’s careers that we have under control and we want to maximize our chances to win while we have the benefit of such special talent. Our goal on an annual basis is to have similar such talent available to us. So you don’t want to forsake too much of your future for the now. But at the same time we do realize we have an opportunity in front of us here given the talents and careers of certain players on our roster. We want to make the most of it.”
Hahn thinks his front office made the most of its four days at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. Not only did they complete a trade for Lawrie, he thinks they’ve lined up other potential moves.
“Overall it has been productive, not simply because we were able to address one of our needs, but because we made some progress on other fronts,” Hahn said. “Obviously nothing is completed until you get it signed, sealed and delivered. But at this point we are pleased with the dialog on other fronts, in addition to the deal we were able to close.”
Recent draftee key in White Sox acquisition of Brett Lawrie.
By Dan Hayes
The 2015 baseball draft is only six months old and yet it has already produced a major leaguer for the White Sox — sort of.
Same as the Arizona Diamondbacks a day earlier, the White Sox took advantage of a new rule on Wednesday night when they included 2015 draftee Zack Erwin in a deal with the Oakland A’s for infielder Brett Lawrie.
A left-handed pitcher out of Clemson selected in the fourth round, Erwin was traded under a provision recently altered that allows teams to deal first-year pros after the World Series concludes. Prior to the rule change, one enacted after San Diego traded 2014 first-rounder Trea Turner as a player to be named later to Washington last offseason, players had to remain with their drafting club until one year after they signed. Though he was traded last December, Turner remained in the Padres farm system until June 13, a year after he signed his first pro contract. The idea that their most recent draft has already affected the major league roster was a point of emphasis for new White Sox amateur scouting director Nick Hostetler.
"It’s exciting from a standpoint of you realize your draft has immediate impact," Hostetler said. "When you can get an immediate impact out of a draft, you have to entertain it. With a situation like Zack, we liked him, he was our second pick in the draft, he was a major part of our draft. But to know that pick has already turned into a big leaguer, it’s a success. If we already look at the 2015 draft, it helped produce a major league part."
Erwin, who had a combined 1.43 ERA in 40 1/3 innings last season at the Rookie level and Single-A, profiles as a back-end starting pitcher. Because they forfeited their choices in the second and third rounds to sign free agents last December, Erwin actually was the team's second overall pick behind first-rounder Carson Fulmer. But similar to Arizona, which surrendered Dansby Swanson, the first player taken in last June's draft, in the Shelby Miller trade on Tuesday, the White Sox were OK with giving up future potential for an established product. Given they have a handful of very good minor league pitchers, don't rule out the possibility they could do the same with Fulmer were it absolutely necessary.
General manager Rick Hahn said he's in favor of the rule change.
"It’s good," Hahn said. "Sitting in this chair you want as many assets at your disposal to try to make the team better, and certainly not having to find yourself in an awkward situation where a player is a player to be named later but remains in your system for several months of his development. There’s not only risk, but a level of awkwardness involved in that. So the ability to avoid that is definitely a positive step."
Golf: I got a club for that..... Americans English and Kuchar grab Shootout lead.
AFP
Americans Matt Kuchar and Harris English combined for a 14-under par 58 in a scramble format Thursday to seize a one-stroke lead after the opening round of the 27th annual Franklin Templeton Shootout in Naples, Florida.
The three-day invitational event hosted by retired Australian star Greg Norman matches 12 pairs of golf's top men's players in three different styles, with Friday featuring a modified alternate shot and Saturday's final round utilizing a better-ball format.
Kuchar and English, the only pairing to have played the event together more than once, won the Shootout in 2013 and finished second last year.
Kuchar comes off a win in October at the Fiji International event on the Australasia PGA Tour while English has a best finish of second this year, losing a playoff at Torrey Pines.
Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell, who won a US PGA Tour event last month in Mexico, and American Gary Woodland were one stroke adrift, sharing second with the US duo of Hunter Mahan and Billy Horschel.
Americans Daniel Berger and Charley Hoffman shared fourth on 60 with Colombia's Camilo Villegas and American Cameron Tringale. Last year, Tringale won the title alongside Aussie Jason Day, who last week pulled out of defending the title.
Jack Nicklaus still isn't ready to say Tiger Woods won't catch his major tally.
By Ryan Ballengee
If you polled golfers and golf fans at large, the overwhelming majority would probably tell you they believe Tiger Woods has no chance of winning the five majors he needs to pass Jack Nicklaus' major tally of 18.
However, one of those golfers that would say Woods still has a chance is Nicklaus himself, who has maintained throughout Woods' personal and health struggles that the 14-time major champion will eventually catch him.
Once again, Nicklaus has answered in the affirmative when asked if he thinks Woods will get to 19 majors.
"He has always been a very focused young man with a great work ethic, and is tremendously talented. To count him out of [the majors record] would be foolish, he certainly has a very good chance of doing that," said Nicklaus, according to CNN.
As we've said before, it behooves Nicklaus to maintain that Woods can catch him because the day he declares Woods' chase over, it is one of the last big headlines he can make. The class act he is, the 75-year-old Nicklaus would much prefer Woods to play out the chase, letting the question answer itself inside the ropes, rather than potentially prematurely declaring himself the winner.
Woods, who hasn't won a major since the 2008 U.S. Open, turns 40 on December 30. Even were Woods completely healthy, he'd face an uphill battle to reach Nicklaus. The highest number of majors any player has won beyond the age of 40 is three. Nicklaus himself did, winning two majors in 1980 before his miraculous Sunday at Augusta National in 1986. Ben Hogan won the second-most majors after 40 with three, all coming in his incredible 1953 season.
Ahead of his Hero World Challenge last week, Woods gave heartfelt insight into how he views his accomplishments and legacy, even were he never to add to his win tally. However, while there was a sense of despondency in Woods' remarks, he remains confident he'll play golf again.
NASCAR: Magazine names Martin Truex Jr. Colorado Professional Athlete of Year.
By Jerry Bonkowski
Outdistancing players on the Broncos, Rockies, Avalanche and Nuggets, NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Martin Truex Jr. has been named 2015 Colorado Professional Athlete of the Year by Mile High Sports Magazine.
Truex, who drives for Denver-based Furniture Row Racing, is coming off his best season ever in Sprint Cup racing, advancing to the final four in NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup playoffs.
Not only did he earn a win at Pocono, Truex also recorded eight top fives, 22 top 10s and led 567 laps. He also was the biggest gainer among Sprint Cup drivers from one season to the next, going from a 24th place finish in 2014 to fourth in 2015.
“On Monday mornings in Colorado, you talk about how the Broncos played on Sunday,” Mile High Sports editor-in-chief Doug Ottewill said. “It’s just what you do. But this year, on more than one occasion, Monday morning included conversations about how well Furniture Row Racing and Martin Truex Jr. did over the weekend.
“The fact that this team got the general sports fan talking about, and interested in, motor sports is remarkable. Truex and his team put our state on the map in a sport where we’d previously had little, if any, representation. That’s a remarkable feat, and it’s exactly why we chose to honor him. Simply put, they were excellent all season long.”
Truex joins a long list of athletes that have received the honor from the magazine including Peyton Manning (Broncos), Carmelo Anthony (Nuggets) and Joe Sakic (Avalanche).
“I am deeply honored to be recognized in the home state of our Furniture Row Racing team,” Truex said in a statement. “Though it will be showcased as an individual honor, the Mile High Sports award would never have been possible if it weren’t for the talented and dedicated group of people at our Denver shop for giving me fast race cars throughout the season.
“Our team owner and Denver native Barney Visser has given us the resources to compete with the top teams of the sport. And Joe Garone, another Denver native, has skillfully guided the program in his role as general manager. Needless to say, our results in 2015 have been a total team effort. I also want to give a shout out to all the Colorado NASCAR fans for their support, which means so much to everyone associated with Furniture Row Racing.”
Mile High Sports Magazine can be found on newsstands in Colorado. The January issue, which honors Truex, will be available Jan. 5. The digital version can be found at milehighsports.com.
Chris Buescher on the big Christmas present Santa Roush gave him.
By Jerry Bonkowski
NASCAR team owner Jack Roush just gave Chris Buescher the biggest Christmas present he’s ever received in his life.
In the course of forging a new technical and performance alliance in 2016 with Front Row Motorsports, Santa Roush sweetened the pot by making Buescher part of the deal as the new driver of the No. 34 Ford.
As a result, the 2015 Xfinity Series champion now will be a full-time rookie in 2016 in the Sprint Cup Series with Front Row.
“Things happen quick around here, I’ve learned that through the years,” Buescher said Thursday morning on The Morning Drive on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “It’s definitely exciting for it to come together now. There were a lot of things circulating and rumors … but it’s finally played out.
“We feel a little bit better going into next year. It’s relieving. Even though it’s been a quick turnaround time, it’s very stressful not knowing what you’re doing next year, where you’re going to be racing at or how often. This is very relieving news and very exciting news.”
And while Buescher will be driving for Front Row, he will still be linked at the hip to RFR.
“I definitely will be in a Ford as we move forward and with Roush Fenway Racing,” Buescher said. “We’re not cutting any ties in the process, we’re creating new ones. It’s to help out multiple parties.”
Buescher will not be a new face at Front Row. He competed in six Sprint Cup races for the organization in 2015, with a best finish of 20th in his first start early in the season at Fontana, Calif.
Front Row has had growing pains and struggles over the years. It formed in 2005 as a part-time team, moved to full time in 2009 and earned its first and only Sprint Cup win with David Ragan at Talladega in 2013.
To date, FRM has made a combined 668 starts in the Sprint Cup Series with one win, four top-fives, nine top-10s and one pole. Its best single-season finish was 26th with David Gilliland in 2013.
But Buescher is optimistic that the new technical partnership with Ford and Roush Fenway Racing will pay dividends to FRM going forward.
“It is a newer team, it is a smaller team, but it’s a team that’s still building,” Buescher said. “In the last 10, 20 years, I don’t think you’ve seen anybody come into this sport and be dominant right off the truck. It’s going to be a building process.
“We’re going to have the alliance with Roush, a little better communication between Ford teams, which is exciting, and I think it’s a way to build it up. There’s always challenges when you move … there’s going to be a learning curve. It won’t be easy, but it’ll be fun and interesting.
“It’s nice having the communication open already over there and I know a lot of people there and it will make the transition easier.”
One person Buescher knows quite well is his crew chief in the Xfinity Series, Scott Graves, who will be joining Buescher in the same role at Front Row.
“That was a big part of this,” Buescher said. “It’s so important to keep the chemistry and you see the guys that are successful have had long relationships. It’s important to be together and have that foundation, at least. Not everything is new. There’ll be something to bounce back off of.”
While he’ll be focused on Sprint Cup, there is a possibility Buescher still might run some Xfinity races in 2016 as well.
“I’d love to run more Xfinity races,” Buescher said. “It’s as important as ever to get as much seat time as possible right now, especially with no testing. If everything comes together, I’ve expressed an interest in it and I know Roush is open to it. It’s going to take the right circumstances and sponsorship, as well.”
Buescher will join 2014 Xfinity champ Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Brian Scott as Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year contenders.
“Those are the same guys we’ve been racing against for a long time,” Buescher said. “It’s cool that we’ve all been able to make it this far.
“If you look back just five to eight years ago, we were all racing late models and Legends cars at local short tracks and that we’ve made it all to this point. We just can’t get away from each other. It’s a good thing we get along.”
Buescher said he learned of the new deal just a few days ago: “Roush said, ‘You’re getting ready to be busy,’ so here we are.”
Truex, who drives for Denver-based Furniture Row Racing, is coming off his best season ever in Sprint Cup racing, advancing to the final four in NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup playoffs.
Not only did he earn a win at Pocono, Truex also recorded eight top fives, 22 top 10s and led 567 laps. He also was the biggest gainer among Sprint Cup drivers from one season to the next, going from a 24th place finish in 2014 to fourth in 2015.
“On Monday mornings in Colorado, you talk about how the Broncos played on Sunday,” Mile High Sports editor-in-chief Doug Ottewill said. “It’s just what you do. But this year, on more than one occasion, Monday morning included conversations about how well Furniture Row Racing and Martin Truex Jr. did over the weekend.
“The fact that this team got the general sports fan talking about, and interested in, motor sports is remarkable. Truex and his team put our state on the map in a sport where we’d previously had little, if any, representation. That’s a remarkable feat, and it’s exactly why we chose to honor him. Simply put, they were excellent all season long.”
Truex joins a long list of athletes that have received the honor from the magazine including Peyton Manning (Broncos), Carmelo Anthony (Nuggets) and Joe Sakic (Avalanche).
“I am deeply honored to be recognized in the home state of our Furniture Row Racing team,” Truex said in a statement. “Though it will be showcased as an individual honor, the Mile High Sports award would never have been possible if it weren’t for the talented and dedicated group of people at our Denver shop for giving me fast race cars throughout the season.
“Our team owner and Denver native Barney Visser has given us the resources to compete with the top teams of the sport. And Joe Garone, another Denver native, has skillfully guided the program in his role as general manager. Needless to say, our results in 2015 have been a total team effort. I also want to give a shout out to all the Colorado NASCAR fans for their support, which means so much to everyone associated with Furniture Row Racing.”
Mile High Sports Magazine can be found on newsstands in Colorado. The January issue, which honors Truex, will be available Jan. 5. The digital version can be found at milehighsports.com.
Chris Buescher on the big Christmas present Santa Roush gave him.
By Jerry Bonkowski
NASCAR team owner Jack Roush just gave Chris Buescher the biggest Christmas present he’s ever received in his life.
In the course of forging a new technical and performance alliance in 2016 with Front Row Motorsports, Santa Roush sweetened the pot by making Buescher part of the deal as the new driver of the No. 34 Ford.
As a result, the 2015 Xfinity Series champion now will be a full-time rookie in 2016 in the Sprint Cup Series with Front Row.
“Things happen quick around here, I’ve learned that through the years,” Buescher said Thursday morning on The Morning Drive on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “It’s definitely exciting for it to come together now. There were a lot of things circulating and rumors … but it’s finally played out.
“We feel a little bit better going into next year. It’s relieving. Even though it’s been a quick turnaround time, it’s very stressful not knowing what you’re doing next year, where you’re going to be racing at or how often. This is very relieving news and very exciting news.”
And while Buescher will be driving for Front Row, he will still be linked at the hip to RFR.
“I definitely will be in a Ford as we move forward and with Roush Fenway Racing,” Buescher said. “We’re not cutting any ties in the process, we’re creating new ones. It’s to help out multiple parties.”
Buescher will not be a new face at Front Row. He competed in six Sprint Cup races for the organization in 2015, with a best finish of 20th in his first start early in the season at Fontana, Calif.
Front Row has had growing pains and struggles over the years. It formed in 2005 as a part-time team, moved to full time in 2009 and earned its first and only Sprint Cup win with David Ragan at Talladega in 2013.
To date, FRM has made a combined 668 starts in the Sprint Cup Series with one win, four top-fives, nine top-10s and one pole. Its best single-season finish was 26th with David Gilliland in 2013.
But Buescher is optimistic that the new technical partnership with Ford and Roush Fenway Racing will pay dividends to FRM going forward.
“It is a newer team, it is a smaller team, but it’s a team that’s still building,” Buescher said. “In the last 10, 20 years, I don’t think you’ve seen anybody come into this sport and be dominant right off the truck. It’s going to be a building process.
“We’re going to have the alliance with Roush, a little better communication between Ford teams, which is exciting, and I think it’s a way to build it up. There’s always challenges when you move … there’s going to be a learning curve. It won’t be easy, but it’ll be fun and interesting.
“It’s nice having the communication open already over there and I know a lot of people there and it will make the transition easier.”
One person Buescher knows quite well is his crew chief in the Xfinity Series, Scott Graves, who will be joining Buescher in the same role at Front Row.
“That was a big part of this,” Buescher said. “It’s so important to keep the chemistry and you see the guys that are successful have had long relationships. It’s important to be together and have that foundation, at least. Not everything is new. There’ll be something to bounce back off of.”
While he’ll be focused on Sprint Cup, there is a possibility Buescher still might run some Xfinity races in 2016 as well.
“I’d love to run more Xfinity races,” Buescher said. “It’s as important as ever to get as much seat time as possible right now, especially with no testing. If everything comes together, I’ve expressed an interest in it and I know Roush is open to it. It’s going to take the right circumstances and sponsorship, as well.”
Buescher will join 2014 Xfinity champ Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Brian Scott as Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year contenders.
“Those are the same guys we’ve been racing against for a long time,” Buescher said. “It’s cool that we’ve all been able to make it this far.
“If you look back just five to eight years ago, we were all racing late models and Legends cars at local short tracks and that we’ve made it all to this point. We just can’t get away from each other. It’s a good thing we get along.”
Buescher said he learned of the new deal just a few days ago: “Roush said, ‘You’re getting ready to be busy,’ so here we are.”
SOCCER: Red Stars move back to Toyota Park for 2016 season.
By Dan Santaromita
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
When the 2016 season starts, the Chicago Fire won’t be the only team to call Toyota Park home.
The Chicago Red Stars of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) announced on Thursday that they will be playing at Toyota Park in 2016.
The Red Stars have played at the Village of Lisle-Benedictine University Sports Complex since the NWSL began play in 2013. With a capacity of around 3,000, the stadium was among the smallest in the league. Another benefit from the stadium move is that the team can now play on grass as opposed to a turf field designed primarily for football.
“Our fans and sponsors will now enjoy an exciting game day environment in a major league stadium, while our players and the rest of the teams throughout the NWSL will enjoy the benefits of competing on a world class, natural grass pitch,” said Chicago Red Stars owner Arnim Whisler in the team’s press release. “We are thankful for the warm reception and incredible support of Benedictine University and the Village of Lisle over the last three years. It gave us an intimate and affordable setting as our club and the league have grown.”
The team previously called Toyota Park home in 2009 and 2010, back when the Red Stars played in Women’s Professional Soccer, which folded following the 2011 season. In 2015, the Bridgeview stadium hosted two regular season games and the NWSL semifinal, a 3-0 loss to eventual league champion FC Kansas City.
The stadium move means the Red Stars join Houston and Portland as NWSL teams which play in MLS stadiums.
The Red Stars also announced that season tickets are now on sale and that there will be free parking at Toyota Park.
MLS announces new $37 million investment in player compensation.
By Dan Santaromita
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
The Major League Soccer offseason has begun with a few player moves already, but it could get more interesting very quickly thanks to a $37 million investment in player compensation from the league.
The league announced the extra funds on Wednesday, which will go towards the league’s latest transaction catchphrase “Targeted Allocation Money” (TAM) along with some going towards homegrown players. From the league’s press release the money will come in the next two years with the goal of “providing clubs the opportunity to sign more impact players in the middle of the roster and add young Homegrown talent.”
The added money will come in the form of $800,000 in TAM and an extra $125,000 for homegrown players, both for each of the next two years. While the money can carry over from 2016 to 2017 if not used, it is use it or lose it by the end of 2017.
The new TAM will allow teams to buy down designated player salaries that are between $457,500 and $1 million and allow those players to no longer occupy one of the three DP slots allowed to teams. The Chicago Fire used TAM to buy down Kennedy Igboananike midway through the 2015 season, which allowed the team to acquire Gilberto as a new designated player.
When TAM was first introduced before the 2015 season, teams were given $500,000 to use during the next five seasons. It was not a total to be reset each season, but rather one time use over the five-year period.
If all of that is too complicated to fully understand, in simpler terms it means more money is coming into the league and it will give the Fire more flexibility in the offseason. This also means the Fire will have the ability to add another designated player to the roster despite already having all three DP spots filled if they choose to buy down Igboananike again. This gives extra life to the persistent rumors of Mexican international Carlos Vela joining the MLS, and possibly the Fire.
The league announced the extra funds on Wednesday, which will go towards the league’s latest transaction catchphrase “Targeted Allocation Money” (TAM) along with some going towards homegrown players. From the league’s press release the money will come in the next two years with the goal of “providing clubs the opportunity to sign more impact players in the middle of the roster and add young Homegrown talent.”
The added money will come in the form of $800,000 in TAM and an extra $125,000 for homegrown players, both for each of the next two years. While the money can carry over from 2016 to 2017 if not used, it is use it or lose it by the end of 2017.
The new TAM will allow teams to buy down designated player salaries that are between $457,500 and $1 million and allow those players to no longer occupy one of the three DP slots allowed to teams. The Chicago Fire used TAM to buy down Kennedy Igboananike midway through the 2015 season, which allowed the team to acquire Gilberto as a new designated player.
When TAM was first introduced before the 2015 season, teams were given $500,000 to use during the next five seasons. It was not a total to be reset each season, but rather one time use over the five-year period.
If all of that is too complicated to fully understand, in simpler terms it means more money is coming into the league and it will give the Fire more flexibility in the offseason. This also means the Fire will have the ability to add another designated player to the roster despite already having all three DP spots filled if they choose to buy down Igboananike again. This gives extra life to the persistent rumors of Mexican international Carlos Vela joining the MLS, and possibly the Fire.
NCAAFB: Swinney says 'no question' 13-0 Clemson belongs with elite.
By CHARLES ODUM
Each of the four College Football Playoff coaches was asked to talk about his team's ability to recover from a loss.
Only three had an answer.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney grinned as he was skipped on that question in Thursday's news conference. Top-ranked Clemson (13-0) stands alone as the only undefeated team in the playoff.
The Tigers will face Oklahoma in the Dec. 31 Orange Bowl playoff semifinal. Later that night, Alabama and Michigan State meet in the Cotton Bowl.
Clemson hasn't won a national championship since 1981, but now the Tigers have their chance to end the drought.
Swinney was prepared when asked if the Tigers are ready for the big stage.
''They're 13-0,'' Swinney said. ''We played on a big stage all year.''
''It's been a fun group. They've responded to every challenge. If we get beat it won't be because they got overwhelmed by the big stage,'' he said.
The coaches took a break from their recruiting schedules for a news conference at the College Football Hall of Fame before Thursday night's awards show.
Oklahoma (11-1) has won seven straight since a 24-17 loss to Texas. Michigan State (12-1) won four straight following a loss to Nebraska. Alabama (12-1) lost to Mississippi in its third game of the season before recovering to win the Southeastern Conference championship.
''They had their backs to the wall early in the season losing a game and they responded time and time again,'' Alabama coach Nick Saban said.
''The players responded extremely well. We didn't do anything different, but I could tell the players had much more intensity to prove that they were going to do to get better.''
Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops and Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio told similar stories of new-found resolve from their players following a loss.
''The message that was sent was this is an opportunity to grow also,'' Dantonio said.
Stoops said he saw an immediate sign in practice that his players wouldn't let the loss to Texas spoil their season.
''What I noticed immediately was as much energy as any practice we had,'' Stoops said. ''Guys had all kind of energy. You could tell there was a determination they were going to do something about it. There was a determination to improve.''
Clemson has won 10 or more games in five straight seasons. The Tigers beat Oklahoma 40-6 in last season's Russell Athletic Bowl. Clemson beat Ohio State in the Orange Bowl following the 2013 season and beat LSU in the Chick-fil-A Bowl after the 2012 season. The Tigers won the Atlantic Coast Conference championship in 2011 for the first time since 1991.
Swinney was selected the Home Depot Coach of the Year on Wednesday. The Tigers will take a 16-game winning streak into the playoff, the nation's longest active streak.
Swinney said Clemson deserves its place with the game's elite teams.
''There's no question Clemson belongs,'' he said. ''We've been as consistent as anybody out there in the county and then you've got to step out of your conference and be able to win big games and we've done that.''
This year's bowl trip provides a new challenge. The four teams are playing to advance to the national championship game, but Swinney said he's still keeping the focus on one game.
''It's not about planning for another game,'' Swinney said. ''It's about winning this game.''
Why the College Football Playoff won't expand anytime soon.
By Pat Forde
Everyone has an idea for the perfect way to expand the College Football Playoff. Just don’t waste your breath explaining it to the sport’s powers that be.
They aren’t in a mood to hear it.
The three Power 5 conference commissioners who participated in a panel discussion at the IMG/Sports Business Journal Intercollegiate Athletics Forum here Wednesday basically shot down any hopes and dreams for expansion beyond four teams anytime in the near future.
“I don’t want to say never,” Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner John Swofford said. “But I don’t think we’ll see it during the remaining years of the contract.”
That media-rights contract with ESPN runs through 2025. So get used to what we’ve got – which, it must be reiterated, beats the heck out of what we used to have.
Swofford, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby and Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey enumerated several complications that would arise from trying to expand the playoff to eight teams or more. Among them:
• The radical restructuring of the calendar.
The season either would have to be extended further into January or more playoff games would have to be played in December, and both of those are problematic options.
The season already extends to Jan. 11, the date of the championship game. If you add another week, it would basically become a two-semester sport, which is something most administrators adamantly oppose.
The counterpoint: basketball, hockey, wrestling and swimming are two-semester sports, and nobody cares about that. (Well, almost nobody. Bowlsby did say Tuesday that he’d be in favor of confining all sports to one semester.)
So the other option to going longer with the season would be starting the playoff earlier. The problems there are final exams, and Christmas.
School presidents would be a hard sell on the notion of quarterfinal games during exam week. They would have a lot of unhappy company from a faculty that was forced to accommodate players who were traveling to games during that time.
The counterpoint: does the FCS not care about its players’ academics? That playoff has now expanded to 24 teams, with quarterfinals being played this weekend and semifinals next weekend – the heart of exam time. At least those are on-campus games, which means that the number of teams being displaced during exams is cut in half, but still the focus of the home team is likely to be compromised as well.
Traditional New Year’s bowls like the Rose, Cotton, Orange, Fiesta and Sugar would certainly balk at being moved to pre-Christmas dates. Bowlsby made mention of upsetting “100 years” of tradition by moving those bowl games.
The counterpoint: tradition has never mattered less in college sports than it does now. Texas A&M had been in the same league with Texas since 1915 and Missouri had been in the same league with Kansas since 1928 – until they decided to move to the Southeastern Conference in 2012. In this environment, moving a bowl game is sacrosanct?
• Nobody wants to give away revenue-producing games.
A big reason why the FCS playoff works is because those teams play 11 (not 12) regular-season games and do not have conference championship games. That allows its playoff to start in late November.
Would FBS conferences be willing to do the same?
“I don’t see either one happening,” Swofford said.
The reason schedules have inexorably crept from nine games a year to 10, 11 and now 12 is because schools want to maximize their home games – and thus their home-game revenue. Persuading the likes of Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State, Alabama, LSU, Tennessee and Texas to go along with a plan that leaves them selling 100,000 fewer tickets per year would be difficult.
Doing away with conference championships would be a tough sell as well. In the SEC alone, the game puts more than $1 million in the coffers of each member school. And using those title games as a regionalized rallying point for the entire league – a chance to celebrate itself – has been useful as well.
"What happens around the Southeastern Conference championship game for the past 25 years has been very, very important to the conference,” Sankey said.
• The physical toll on the participants. Sankey mentioned this, and both Ohio State and Oregon’s coaches said last year that adding another game might well have been more than their players could have handled at relatively young ages. Those teams both played 15 games, one short of a full National Football League regular season.
My personal playoff plan has been six teams: the champions of the five power leagues, plus one at-large pick. The original goal was 12 – including all 10 champions in FBS, making it more like the NCAA basketball tournament in terms of inclusiveness – but that will never fly. So I downsized to six.
The top two teams get a first-round bye. The other four play in first-round games a week before Christmas, on the campuses of the higher-seeded teams. (Final exams are the issue there, one I can’t readily solve.) Then the winners advance to play the top two seeds in the New Year’s Day/Eve semifinals, just like now, and the championship game comes thereafter.
That at least gets all five champions of the best leagues into the playoff, plus the thrill of the chase for the lone at-large bid. The regular season remains as vital as it is today, as do the conference championships. It would work.
But don’t bother even bringing it up. If you believe the current commissioners, nothing is going to change for a decade.
NCAABKB: Once a model of consistency, Wisconsin is now impossible to predict.
By Jeff Eisenberg
For much of Bo Ryan's tenure, Wisconsin has been one of college basketball's most dependable teams.
That's why it's so jarring that this year's Badgers have been more up and down than the price of gas.
One night they're losing at home to hapless Western Illinois. The next they're taking down Atlantic 10 power VCU. One night they're scoring a mere 48 points in a blowout loss to Oklahoma. The next they're upsetting 14th-ranked Syracuse at the Carrier Dome.
The latest unpredictable result came Wednesday night when Wisconsin suffered another home loss against a small-conference foe. This time it was Milwaukee who celebrated on the floor of the Kohl Center after edging the Badgers 68-67.
Milwaukee trailed by as many as 15 points in the first half, but the Panthers rallied by limiting Wisconsin to just one field goal and four foul shots over a 10-possession stretch during the final minutes. Bronson Koenig missed a last-second 3-pointer to seal the Badgers' fate.
If the Western Illinois loss was a complete shocker for Wisconsin, this one was nearly as surprising. Milwaukee was picked third in the Horizon League before the season and owns a 7-3 record, but the Panthers hadn't defeated the Badgers since 1992 and had already suffered losses against middling Duquesne and Murray State this season.
What was especially disconcerting for Wisconsin was that it lost despite a career-high 32 points from forward Nigel Hayes. The rest of his teammates shot 11 of 37 from the field and nobody besides Koenig and Hayes scored more than 10 points.
The Badgers' 36.4 percent shooting reflects their season-long offensive struggles. They're shooting 32.2 percent from behind the arc and 45.5 percent from inside it, a far cry from the last couple years when departed stars Frank Kaminsky, Sam Dekker and Josh Gasser powered one of the nation's most efficient offenses.
In Ryan's previous 14 seasons in Madison, Wisconsin has never finished below a tie for fourth place in the Big Ten and has never failed to make the NCAA tournament. The Badgers have weathered roster turnover in previous years, but losing five of their top seven players from the national runner-up has so far proven more difficult to overcome.
The encouraging aspect for Wisconsin is that it hasn't reached its ceiling yet. Redshirt freshman center Ethan Happ has shown flashes of emerging as an impact player, Khalil Iverson has also shown glimpses of promise and veterans Vitto Brown and Zak Showalter are still growing into larger roles.
But even in mid-December, time is of the essence for the Badgers. They've already taken two bad losses. In a year when the Big Ten isn't as deep as it usually is, they can't afford too many more.
Pollard scores 21 as Dayton upsets No. 21 Vanderbilt 72-67.
By TERESA M. WALKER
Dayton coach Archie Miller has seen his Flyers not respond before when an opponent jumped out ahead. This time, they fell behind by 16 points in the first half in an old gym where comebacks are tough.
The Flyers couldn't have answered much better.
Kendall Pollard scored a season-high 21 points, and Dayton rallied to upset No. 21 Vanderbilt 72-67 on Wednesday night in what Miller called a ''terrific'' win.
''The end of the first half was really important,'' Miller said of a run that started with 2:35 left. ''It gave us some confidence at halftime, and I thought once we got our offense in front of our bench it was a little easier to control it, and some guys got some baskets to go in and we had some confidence.''
The Flyers (7-1) now have beaten three teams from the power five conferences this season, with previous wins over Alabama and Iowa. They have won two straight since being routed 90-61 by Xavier.
The Commodores (6-3) not only blew a big lead on their own floor in their second straight loss, but will be without top shot blocker Luke Kornet for four to six weeks after he tore the medial collateral ligament in his left knee in practice Monday.
Coach Kevin Stallings called Kornet probably the most physical player on their team.
''We got to play harder,'' Stallings said. ''We came out the start of the second half and I mean literally on defense we were walking around. Literally.''
Scoochie Smith added 13 points, and Steve McElvene added 10 as Dayton shot its way back into the lead despite just seven points from leading scorer Charles Cooke.
Wade Baldwin IV and Damian Jones scored 18 apiece for Vanderbilt, which hit just two of its final 10 shots. Matthew Fisher-Davis and Riley LaChance each added 11 points.
Pollard hit just the fifth 3-pointer of his career with 44 seconds left to help seal the upset for Dayton, matching the Flyers' biggest lead. Smith missed two free throws with 36 seconds left, and Fisher-Davis hit a 3 from the left corner with 25 seconds left to pull Vandy within 69-67.
Baldwin missed a layup for Vandy, and the Flyers hit three of four free throws in the final 12 seconds.
Vanderbilt took its biggest lead at 38-22 off a 12-2 run. Darrell Davis answered by scoring the next eight points starting a 23-6 run that spanned halftime and put Dayton ahead 45-44 early in the second half on a layup by Cooke.
The Commodores missed eight of their first nine shots in the second half before Jones threw down a one-handed dunk and hit the free throw to put Vandy back up 47-45 with 13:50 left.
TIP-INS
Dayton: Dayton has won 12 of 15 against the SEC and is 28-11 against power five schools over the past nine years. ... Miller now is 22-7 in December.
Vanderbilt: The Commodores were leading the SEC by holding opponents to 34.6 percent shooting, including 29.1 percent from 3-point range. But Dayton shot 59 percent in the second half (16 of 27). ... Stallings said freshman guard Camron Justice is out until sometime in January with an injured groin.
KEY STATS
The Flyers outrebounded Vanderbilt 41-31, including a 15-7 edge on the offensive glass. That led to a 17-2 scoring edge in second-chance points.
QUOTABLE
''It's unacceptable for a Top 25 team to lose two games in a row, especially losing here on our home court like that,'' Baldwin said.
UP NEXT
Dayton hosts Chattanooga on Saturday.
Vanderbilt gets a 10-day break before hosting Wofford on Dec. 19.
By Kevin Seifert, NFL Nation
Dean Blandino, the NFL's vice president of officiating, released a spirited defense of the league's officiating last Friday, citing internal statistics that suggest officials have made what he called "a very small number of mistakes" in a season rampant with controversy.
"There is a perception now that officiating is not very good at the moment," Blandino said during a two-minute statement on a weekly video produced by the league. "But the reality is that the officiating is very good."
"There is a perception now that officiating is not very good at the moment," Blandino said during a two-minute statement on a weekly video produced by the league. "But the reality is that the officiating is very good."
Blandino's comments came after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said multiple times in recent weeks that he wants officiating to improve.
According to Blandino, officiating crews are averaging 4.3 mistakes in roughly 160 total plays per game this season, based on the league's confidential grading method.
The 2015 season has featured near-weekly instances of questionable calls, most recently a face mask penalty that extended Thursday night's game between the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions by one play, but Blandino said he considers them a statistical exception.
"We are talking about a handful of plays that have happened in high-profile situations," he said. "Those have been mistakes. We own them. We have to make the corrections and the adjustments to make sure they don't happen again."
One example of a call the officials got right, Blandino said, was a debated offensive pass interference call against New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski during Sunday's game against the Denver Broncos.
"He's going to go into the defender, use his forearm to push off, extend his arm and create separation," Blandino said. "This is a foul for offensive pass interference. Whether he uses the forearm or an open hand, the key is the extension, the extended arm into the defensive player to create that separation."
Any time a receiver extends his arm to create space, offensive pass interference should be called, Blandino said.
Blandino also argued that technological scrutiny of officiating has changed the way performance is perceived.
"The officials are very, very good at what they do, and it's a very difficult job," Blandino said. "They see it once in real time, full speed, and then we all get to evaluate them from multiple different angles with high-definition, slow-motion replay. So we understand where the standard is, and we are going to work to meet that standard, but our officials are very, very good at what they do."
Goodell said last month that he would like to see more consistency across officiating crews, which historically produce wide ranges of penalty calls.
Speaking at an NFL owners meeting Tuesday in Dallas, Goodell said he thought the officials do an "extraordinary job" but announced the formation of a committee to study what many believe is a flawed catch rule. He also said that "no stone will be left unturned with respect to how we continue to improve officiating" and added that he wants the competition committee to study how to integrate more technology.
"We all recognize that officials are going to make mistakes," Goodell said. "What we need to do is try to avoid those mistakes as much as possible, train them differently, improve the quality of the officiating and use technology to help them whenever a mistake does occur."
Chicago Sports & Travel, Inc./AllsportsAmerica Take: This year the NFL officials have missed a lot of calls. They weren't bad calls, just totally missed calls. The refereeing officials are getting more assistance than ever with every scoring plays being reviewed and with the coaches having the ability to challenge questionable plays. Yes, the players are bigger, stronger and much faster. Perhaps the league needs to add one more set of eyes to each crew. I truly haven't seen this many missed call since the replacement officials were used last year.
In reality, the officials do make many, many good calls, however, that one bad call can change the momentum in any game and precipitate a loss. It's very difficult to say a team can't lose on one play because there are many opportunities that teams miss in the course of a game that will permit them to win, but occasionally it does happen. One play can cause a team to lose a game. All games are graded on officiating and that is one of the purposes of preseason; not just for the teams to hone their skills but for the officials to get live game experience, become familiar with their crews and to improve their ability to make the right call. It's a game with definite rules but also have many calls that the officials must make that are subjective.
It's a part-time job but now might be the time to make it a full-time job with year round training and situational film study and testing from years of NFL games. At all cost, we must protect the integrity of the game and let the players determine the winner of a game and not the officials.
As always, we've stated our position and you know what we think and how we feel, we'd love to hear your thoughts and know, what's your take? Please go to the comment section at the bottom of this blog and post your thoughts. We love to hear them and even more so, we really value your opinion.
The Chicago Sports & Travel, Inc./AllsportsAmerica Editorial Staff.
According to Blandino, officiating crews are averaging 4.3 mistakes in roughly 160 total plays per game this season, based on the league's confidential grading method.
The 2015 season has featured near-weekly instances of questionable calls, most recently a face mask penalty that extended Thursday night's game between the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions by one play, but Blandino said he considers them a statistical exception.
"We are talking about a handful of plays that have happened in high-profile situations," he said. "Those have been mistakes. We own them. We have to make the corrections and the adjustments to make sure they don't happen again."
One example of a call the officials got right, Blandino said, was a debated offensive pass interference call against New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski during Sunday's game against the Denver Broncos.
"He's going to go into the defender, use his forearm to push off, extend his arm and create separation," Blandino said. "This is a foul for offensive pass interference. Whether he uses the forearm or an open hand, the key is the extension, the extended arm into the defensive player to create that separation."
Any time a receiver extends his arm to create space, offensive pass interference should be called, Blandino said.
Blandino also argued that technological scrutiny of officiating has changed the way performance is perceived.
"The officials are very, very good at what they do, and it's a very difficult job," Blandino said. "They see it once in real time, full speed, and then we all get to evaluate them from multiple different angles with high-definition, slow-motion replay. So we understand where the standard is, and we are going to work to meet that standard, but our officials are very, very good at what they do."
Goodell said last month that he would like to see more consistency across officiating crews, which historically produce wide ranges of penalty calls.
Speaking at an NFL owners meeting Tuesday in Dallas, Goodell said he thought the officials do an "extraordinary job" but announced the formation of a committee to study what many believe is a flawed catch rule. He also said that "no stone will be left unturned with respect to how we continue to improve officiating" and added that he wants the competition committee to study how to integrate more technology.
"We all recognize that officials are going to make mistakes," Goodell said. "What we need to do is try to avoid those mistakes as much as possible, train them differently, improve the quality of the officiating and use technology to help them whenever a mistake does occur."
Chicago Sports & Travel, Inc./AllsportsAmerica Take: This year the NFL officials have missed a lot of calls. They weren't bad calls, just totally missed calls. The refereeing officials are getting more assistance than ever with every scoring plays being reviewed and with the coaches having the ability to challenge questionable plays. Yes, the players are bigger, stronger and much faster. Perhaps the league needs to add one more set of eyes to each crew. I truly haven't seen this many missed call since the replacement officials were used last year.
In reality, the officials do make many, many good calls, however, that one bad call can change the momentum in any game and precipitate a loss. It's very difficult to say a team can't lose on one play because there are many opportunities that teams miss in the course of a game that will permit them to win, but occasionally it does happen. One play can cause a team to lose a game. All games are graded on officiating and that is one of the purposes of preseason; not just for the teams to hone their skills but for the officials to get live game experience, become familiar with their crews and to improve their ability to make the right call. It's a game with definite rules but also have many calls that the officials must make that are subjective.
It's a part-time job but now might be the time to make it a full-time job with year round training and situational film study and testing from years of NFL games. At all cost, we must protect the integrity of the game and let the players determine the winner of a game and not the officials.
As always, we've stated our position and you know what we think and how we feel, we'd love to hear your thoughts and know, what's your take? Please go to the comment section at the bottom of this blog and post your thoughts. We love to hear them and even more so, we really value your opinion.
The Chicago Sports & Travel, Inc./AllsportsAmerica Editorial Staff.
On
Memoriesofhistory.com
1951 - Joe DiMaggio (New York Yankees) announced his retirement from major league baseball. DiMaggio only played for the Yankees during his 13-year career.
1971 - The Los Angeles Lakers set an NBA record with 21 consecutive wins.
1972 - Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula was on the cover of "Time" magazine.
1981 - Muhammad Ali fought his last fight. He lost his 61st fight to Trevor Berbick.
1985 - The single "Superbowl Shuffle" by Chicago Bears Shufflin' Crew was released.
1992 - The National Hockey League Governors named Gary Bettman as the first NHL commissioner in League history, effective Feb. 1, 1993.
2000 - Mario Lemeiux, owner of Pittsburgh Penguins, announced that he would end his three-plus year retirement and become an active National Hockey League (NHL) player again. When Lemieux returned officially he became the first owner/player in NHL history.
2001 - It was announced that Little League Baseball Inc. would require more detailed documentation of the eligibility of its players. Four months before, the Rolando Paulino Little League team from the Bronx, NY, had its third-place finish taken away after pitcher Danny Almonte was found to be too old to play.
2002 - Scott Young (Dallas Stars) played in his 1,000th NHL game.
1971 - The Los Angeles Lakers set an NBA record with 21 consecutive wins.
1972 - Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula was on the cover of "Time" magazine.
1981 - Muhammad Ali fought his last fight. He lost his 61st fight to Trevor Berbick.
1985 - The single "Superbowl Shuffle" by Chicago Bears Shufflin' Crew was released.
1992 - The National Hockey League Governors named Gary Bettman as the first NHL commissioner in League history, effective Feb. 1, 1993.
2000 - Mario Lemeiux, owner of Pittsburgh Penguins, announced that he would end his three-plus year retirement and become an active National Hockey League (NHL) player again. When Lemieux returned officially he became the first owner/player in NHL history.
2001 - It was announced that Little League Baseball Inc. would require more detailed documentation of the eligibility of its players. Four months before, the Rolando Paulino Little League team from the Bronx, NY, had its third-place finish taken away after pitcher Danny Almonte was found to be too old to play.
2002 - Scott Young (Dallas Stars) played in his 1,000th NHL game.
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