CS&T/AllsportsAmerica Friday Sports News Update and What's Your Take? 04/01/2016.

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"Sports Quote of the Day"

"I just think winners win. And guys who won all the way through high school and college, the best player at every level, they have a way of making things happen and winning games." ~ Tony Dungy, Former NFL Super Bowl Winning Coach and Player

Reminder: MLB Opening Day, April 3, 2016. Chicago Cubs @ Los Angeles Angels, Monday, April 4, 10:05 p.m. ET, Chicago White Sox @ Oakland Athletics, Monday, April 4, 10:05 p.m. ET

Trending: Jim Boeheim's logic: Rules were broken, but Syracuse never cheated. What's Your Take? (See the last article on this blog for our position and share your thoughts with us in the comment section below).

Trending: MLB: Mirror, mirror on the ball: 30 bold predictions. (See the baseball section for Cubs and White Sox updates).

Trending: Bulls hang on for win over Rockets, stay alive in playoff race. (See the basketball section for Bulls updates).

Trending: The NCAA March Madness continues this weekend and the finals will be played Monday Night April 4, 2016. (See the college basketball section for NCAA March Madness updates).

How 'bout them Chicago Blackhawks? Blackhawks prep for time without Duncan Keith.

By Tracey Myers

The Blackhawks don’t know Duncan Keith’s suspension fate yet but they’re planning to at least be without him on Friday against the Winnipeg Jets.

Keith’s hearing for his match penalty in Tuesday’s game has yet to be scheduled, per a source. He is suspended indefinitely until that hearing and ruling. Defensive pairings reflected that on Thursday. Trevor van Riemsdyk was with Niklas Hjalmarsson, Viktor Svedberg paired with Brent Seabrook and Erik Gustafsson paired with Michal Rozsival.

Coach Joel Quenneville said he spoke to Keith “briefly,” about the incident. Keith declined to talk following practice.

“His competitiveness is what makes him a great player,” Quenneville said of Keith. “And I just think [it’s about] being smart and knowing your limitations, or I guess the limit, is what we have to do.”

The Blackhawks will also be without Marian Hossa, who is sick and will not make the trip to Winnipeg. Artem Anisimov, who has missed the last two games with a lower-body injury and Brent Seabrook, who was ill the last game, are expected to play vs. the Jets. Scott Darling will start.

For now the Blackhawks move on without Keith, who missed 10 games earlier this season when he had knee surgery. The Blackhawks went 5-4-1 during Keith’s absence in the fall.

“We have seven [defensemen] who are ready to play. We’ve been moving guys in and out recently on the back end, pairs have been changing in games,” Quenneville said. It’ll be a good chance for some guys to get good ice time and more quality.”

In other news, Corey Crawford could be back on the ice this weekend. Crawford has been out for more than two weeks with an upper-body injury. He’s been listed as day-to-day the entire time.

“Spoke to him a while ago. He’s really progressed well here. We expect him on the ice this weekend and go from there,” Quenneville said. “Good progress the last day or so, and I was encouraged.”

In Duncan Keith's absence, 'everyone can do a little more'.

By Tracey Myers

The Blackhawks went 10 games without Duncan Keith earlier this season when the defenseman underwent knee surgery.

They’ll be going without him again now. They just don’t know for how many games.

Keith is going to have a hearing with the NHL’s Department of Player Safety at some point. Keith was offered an in-person hearing, but as of Thursday morning, per a source, it had not been scheduled yet. Keith could also waive his right to an in-person hearing and just have it over the phone.

Regardless, Keith is suspended indefinitely until he has that hearing and the department renders a ruling on Keith’s reckless high-stick on Minnesota’s Charlie Coyle. Keith was given a match penalty for intent to injure midway through the first period in Tuesday night’s game. Whatever Keith gets, it will mark his third NHL suspension — he was suspended five games for elbowing Daniel Sedin in March 2012 and suspended one game for high-sticking Jeff Carter in the face in June 2013.

On Thursday the Blackhawks were preparing for games without Keith, including Friday night’s outing in Winnipeg.

“No one can do the things he does, but everyone can do a little bit more. I think that’s the mindset,” Marcus Kruger said. “We all want him on the ice, but the situation is what it is. It’s up to the guys playing to fill that hole.”

It’s never a good time to lose a player, especially one who does as much as Keith.
But the timing right now is that much worse: The Blackhawks have struggled the last few weeks and are fighting to stay in good position in the Central Division. Keith’s poor choice could really be costly.

“We always talk about discipline, as a team we feel we’re pretty strong in that area. We deal with it the right way, and we feel going forward that we have to be smart about how we play on the ice, how we react to different situations and don’t hurt the team,” Quenneville said. “We were fortunate to come out of (that five-minute penalty kill) we outscored them in that stretch, but we missed him the whole game.”

Keith practiced on Thursday but declined to speak afterward.

“His competitiveness is what makes him a great player,” Quenneville continued on Keith. “And I just think being smart and knowing your limitations, or I guess the limit, is what we have to do.”

Keith’s absence means another defenseman gets an opportunity. On Thursday the pairings were as follows: Trevor van Riemsdyk-Niklas Hjalmarsson, Viktor Svedberg-Brent Seabrook and Erik Gustafsson-Michal Rozsival. Gustafsson was one of the Blackhawks’ call-ups when Keith was injured earlier this season.

“He’s not the whole team, but he’s a big part of it,” Gustafsson said. “He’s one of our best defensemen and one of the best in the league. We just have to keep moving and just get on a winning track here, start winning some games in a row. We just have to go out and play hockey.”

The Blackhawks were already struggling to find answers and victories down the regular-season stretch. They were already without Corey Crawford, who still isn’t skating. Now they’ll have to make do without Keith.

“I think every year ... you’re dealing with all kinds of situations. Certain guys, are they going to be ready for the playoffs? And in the playoffs things happen,” Quenneville said. “Being adaptable as a team, a line, a group we feel we (have to) find ways, find solutions. That’s where we’re at: No matter what hand we’re dealt here, we’ll find a way to do everything we can to rectify every situation we have in front of us and be the best we can be.”

Chicago Blackhawks-Winnipeg Jets Preview.

By Kevin Massoth

One swing of the stick might have altered the Chicago Blackhawks' chances of repeating as Stanley Cup champions.

With five games left before the playoffs start, they'll have to maintain their top-three spot in the Central Division without their top defenseman.

With the status of Duncan Keith cloudy, the Blackhawks close a four-game road trip Friday night seeking their fourth straight win over the last-place Winnipeg Jets.

In third place in the division, Chicago (44-26-7) is headed for a first-round matchup with Dallas or St. Louis - if it can at the least remain in third. Nashville has a chance to catch the Blackhawks and relegate them to a wild-card berth.

The Blackhawks have surrendered 3.1 goals per game during a 3-5-1 stretch, and keeping the puck out of their net will likely be tougher without Keith. The three-time All-Star winner has been offered an in-person hearing by the NHL for high-sticking Minnesota's Charlie Coyle during Tuesday's 4-1 loss.

The offer means the league could suspend Keith more than five games, though it doesn't have to.

After being dropped to the ice on his back in the first period, Keith whipped his stick into Coyle's face. Keith - who has been suspended twice in the past - was handed a 10-minute match penalty and ejected, and the Blackhawks went on to lose their first road game in four tries.

''We've done it before,'' captain Jonathan Toews said. ''Whatever happens we'll make the best of any situation. That's the only way to look at it.''

Chicago was already facing personnel issues at the back end, as goaltender Corey Crawford will sit out an eighth straight game with an undisclosed injury - reportedly to the head.

Coach Joel Quenneville says he expects Crawford on the ice this weekend. The Blackhawks open a three-game home-stand against Boston on Sunday.

Defenseman Brent Seabrook, who sat one game with an illness, is expected back Friday along with center Artem Anisimov, who missed two with a lower-body injury. However, forward Marian Hossa is sick and will not make the trip to Winnipeg after scoring his 499th career goal against the Wild.

Crawford's backup Scott Darling will make his eighth straight start in the matchup with the Jets (31-39-7), against whom he logged his lone shutout March 18. Darling made 28 saves in a 4-0 road win, Chicago's third straight in the season series.

The Hawks have won five of their last six against the Jets and are 8-1-0 in their last nine at Winnipeg.

Darling has posted a 2.36 goals-against average while going 3-3-1 in place of Crawford.

The Jets enter on a three-game skid as they continue to sputter offensively. They've scored 14 goals during a 2-4-2 stretch.

Mark Scheifele scored his team-leading 26th early in the third period to tie it Wednesday, but Ottawa answered less than two minutes later in a 2-1 win that dropped the Jets to 17-19-3 at the MTS Centre.

Scheifele has three goals and four assists in a five-game point streak.

''Getting closer and closer to 30 (goals) is obviously a goal of mine," Scheifele said. "But the biggest thing is winning games and help this team and grow as a full 200-foot player.''

Just Another Chicago Bulls Session... Bulls hang on for win over Rockets, stay alive in playoff race.

CSN Staff

(Photo/csnchicago.com)

After a huge fourth quarter turned a nine-point deficit into an eight-point lead, somehow the Bulls appeared to be on the verge of another collapse.

But thankfully for the desperate Bulls, clawing to stay in the race for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, Trevor Ariza's attempt at a game-tying buzzer-beating 3-pointer bounced off the rim, and the Bulls ran out of Houston with a 103-100 win on Thursday night.

The score was knotted at 52 at halftime, Nikola Mirotic scoring 21 first-half points as the Bulls went 7-for-16 from behind the 3-point line.

But the third quarter belonged to the Rockets, who scored nine straight after halftime and used a 14-2 run to build a double-digit lead that sat at nine at the start of the fourth quarter, a lead only that small thanks to 13 third-quarter points from Jimmy Butler.

The Bulls chopped that lead down to next to nothing, though, with the bench providing almost all the scoring. The Rockets were ahead by just a point after the Bulls' reserves scored seven unanswered. With about six and a half minutes to go, Doug McDermott's tip in gave the Bulls a one-point lead at 87-86.

The game was tied at 89, with Michael Beasley giving the Rockets the lead back on a layup with a little more than three minutes to play. Mirotic answered with a triple — his fifth of the game — to put the Bulls back in front, and Butler slammed home a dunk to grow the lead, only to be assessed a technical foul for hanging on the rim. E'Twaun Moore splashed home a 3, and the Bulls had a six-point lead with a minute and a half left thanks to an 8-0 run. That run extended to 10-0, making it an eight-point lead for the Bulls with under a minute to go.

The Rockets refused to give up and in less than a minute chipped that lead all the way down to as little as two. It was three after Justin Holiday split a pair of free throws with nine seconds left, and Ariza got a wide-open look at a potential game-tying triple. But the shot was no good, and the Bulls clung to victory.

After a stellar performance from 3 in the first half, the Bulls were 4-for-8 from behind the arc in the second half and shot 48.1 percent from the field on the game as a whole, significantly better than the Rockets' 40-percent effort. The Rockets dominated the points in the paint category, outscoring the Bulls, 48-30, but the Bulls' bench outscored Rockets reserves, 67-31.

Mirotic led the way with 28 points, going 8-for-14 from the field and 5-for-10 from 3-point range, also hitting seven of eight free throws. Butler finished with 21 points, eight rebounds and six assists. McDermott scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Pau Gasol had 12 points but was just 6-for-14 from the field.

Derrick Rose, despite battling elbow soreness, made the start, but he exited the game briefly after the first quarter. He made a short return but did not appear after halftime, with the Bulls announcing he would sit out the remainder of the game with a left elbow contusion.

The win improved the Bulls' standing in the playoff picture, moving them just one game behind the Pacers, who lost Thursday, for the No. 8 seed in the East.

Bear Down Chicago Bears!!!!! Bears in prime spot for NFL Draft moves.

By John Mullin

As a sort of P.S. to the NFL’s official layout of draft picks, in which the Bears have five in the first 127 and nine overall, it becomes more than simple musing to look closer at the Bears’ draft capital and what it means for GM Ryan Pace.

Specifically, Pace has positioned the Bears to be a player on the Apr. 28-30 draft weekend when teams are sitting by their phones waiting to mull over trade scenarios. In short, by creating flexibility, Pace has expanded the “available” in best-player-available.

He and the Bears will not have to simply hope that certain players fall to them. They will have extra picks in meaningful ranges, and early in rounds, to be able to move up for targeted players.

This is potentially more than just early snowflakes in the annual blizzard of trade what-if’s; every team makes calls and receives calls before and during the draft regarding players and picks and moves up and down in myriad draft rounds. Much of it will be sound and fury signifying nothing.

But calls to and from the Bears are likely to be more than casual temperature-taking. Pace has created the capital to make incremental moves for players targeted for their combination of talent and position.

The reason: Pace traded Jon Bostic to New England and Jared Allen to Carolina, both last year and both for sixth-round picks in this year’s draft. Pace then parlayed that Patriots’ sixth into a fourth-rounder as part of the trade of Martellus Bennett to the New England.

Having a passel of picks does not automatically make you a dealer. Nor does it remotely ensure quality simply because you hold quantity; the Bears had five seventh-round picks in the 2008 draft, none of which were on the roster in 2009.

Tapping the brakes

Before assuming the Bears will be moving on draft days, realize that two informal, unofficial “factors” can come into play.

One is that teams typically can charge a little more for a seat involving the Top 10. In the 2012 draft GM Phil Emery was able to select Alshon Jeffery by moving up five slots for the price of one fifth-round pick. By contrast, the Minnesota Vikings needed to give up a mid-fifth-round’er to move up just one slot, ninth to eighth, in the 2014 draft.

Jacksonville needed to give up a mid-second-round’er in order to move up six slots in 2011.

The second factor, intangible, is the target. Quarterbacks cost more in contract dollars and they also can cost more in draft capital. If the draft target is a quarterback, the team holding the first-round pick can charge more if the trading partner will be using that No. 1 on a quarterback.

Case studies

Looking at a sampling of recent Round 1 trades involving Top 15 picks, fourth-round picks are popular currency for teams looking to move up a pick or two from their initial spot:

Draft	Team	Traded	In order to...
2015	San Diego	1st + 4th	Move up - 17th to 15th
2014	Minnesota	1st + 5th	Move up - 9th to 8th
2012	Jacksonville	1st + 4th	Move up - 7th to 5th

Teams covet draft choices. So if the Bears find when their turn at No. 11 comes that there is still a handful of their targeted players available, they may deal down to add picks, with the knowledge that they can still secure one of their top prospects. Dealing down does produce quantity, if not always quality:

Draft	Team	Traded	In order to...
2011	Washington	10th pick	Move down to 16, pick up a No. 2

MLB: Mirror, mirror on the ball: 30 bold predictions.

By John Schlegel

The prediction business is booming this time of year with Opening Day just around the corner and every baseball expert having something to say about how 2016 is going to turn out. Not all of them go out on the proverbial limb to make their prognostications, but this is as good a time as any to go for the bold.

Saying the Royals were headed to the World Series last year might have been a tad brazen, but saying they would the year before, as they did after a Wild Card ride through October, now that would be bold. Predicting a year ago that the Cubs would wind up four wins from their first trip to the Series since 1945 would qualify as bold. Saying they'll make it this year, well, it's a crowded limb you're climbing out on there, pal.

Really, bold is in the eye of the beholder, and not every prediction can be so far out there as to be unbelievable. So with teams getting ready to go from zero to 162 in six magical months, MLB.com takes you from team to team to provide a prediction into each one's future. Just how bold they go, we'll know once the season is through.

Here's a look a bold prediction for each of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball:

AL East

 Blue Jays: Toronto hadn't seen October baseball since the Jays went back-to-back as World Series champions in 1992-93, and then came the 2015 team, led by MVP Josh Donaldson. How about another repeat in 2016? More »

 Orioles: For all the offense the O's boast, it will be a revitalized rotation that will lead Baltimore back to the postseason promised land. After ranking 14th in starter ERA last year, Chris Tillman and Co. will provide a position of strength in 2016. More »

 Rays: The AL East has plenty of suitors for October glory getting more attention, but don't sleep on the gritty team that scratched out 80 wins last year. This is a team that is bound for playoff contention this year. More »

 Red Sox: A swan song that began in Spring Training and will continue throughout the season will be key to the team's fortunes. The final season for DH extraordinaire David Ortiz can't end in September, can it? More »

 Yankees: The stockpile of arms the Yankees have amassed at the back end of the bullpen will carry them into the postseason. Adding Aroldis Chapman to the mix that includes Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances? Imagine that trio in October. More »

AL Central

 Indians: Corey Kluber leaped into prominence and won the AL Cy Young two years ago, and he'll be considered a candidate this year. But would you believe it will be another Tribe hurler bringing home the hardware this year? More »

 Royals: The team concept that has been so evident in Kansas City's back-to-back trips to the World Series had them on top of the baseball world last year. But there's an MVP in the making, a leader on and off the field -- Eric Hosmer. More »

 Tigers: The constant on a Tigers pitching staff that has seen its share of changes over the last few years, Justin Verlander heads a revamped rotation -- and you can figure on another historic gem up his sleeve. More »

 Twins: So close a year ago, the Twins became September darlings, taking their postseason hopes deep under first-year manager Paul Molitor. A first playoff bid since 2010 is there for the taking. More »

 White Sox: His name has been in the mix for a few years now, and he has finished in the top five in voting each of the last three. It's about time for Chris Sale to step up to the Cy Young throne. More »

AL West

 A's: Having corrected some bad habits at the plate in a productive spring, the pieces are in place for Billy Butler to bounce back in Oakland. More »

 Angels: There's no question the individual greatness that exists on the roster, rocketing superstar Mike Trout and future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols in particular. But they're in it to win it, and October has got to be on the agenda. More »

 Astros: For all the ways the Astros turned heads in 2015 with their run into the playoffs, one player's arrival on the scene really stood out -- and Carlos Correa will make the jump from Rookie of the Year to the next level. More »

 Mariners: Heralded as a game changer from the time he signed, Robinson Cano has yet to break out in Seattle. After a monster Spring Training, this sets up to be the year Cano makes it happen. More »

 Rangers: Especially once Yu Darvish makes his way back, aiming for a return sometime in May, the Rangers will have a rotation that ranks with the very best in the American League. More »

NL East

 Braves: Not many are predicting big things for the Braves this season, but there's one area of the roster that figures to turn heads: the rotation. See where they might land by the All-Star break, and you might see a change in Atlanta's fortunes. More »

 Marlins: Give him a full season of health, and we'll really see what Giancarlo Stanton can do. It says here that if he stays strong and keeps swinging, a big single-season milestone for homers is in the offing. More »

 Mets: Plenty of observers who thought the team's run to the World Series was well earned still don't think they'll hold off the Nationals again. But behind a stellar rotation, the NL East is in New York until it's not. More »

 Nationals: All the promise and all the talent came together in one dazzling season for Bryce Harper, who walked away from 2015 with his first Most Valuable Player Award. Do we hear a second? More »

 Phillies: Don't look for them being predicted to go all the way back to October this year, but with talent like Maikel Franco on display, don't be surprised if the rebuilding process picks up some steam. More »

NL Central

 Brewers: His reputation for power precedes Chris Carter's arrival in Milwaukee, but so does a .199 average last year with the Astros. This year, we'll see more balls going out and fewer outs for the big first baseman. More »

 Cardinals: The Cardinals won an MLB-high 100 games without him last year, but Adam Wainwright is back to lead a rotation that will be a dominant force in the National League. More »

 Cubs: Baseball's darlings a year ago are right at the top of everyone's list of predictions this year, many thinking they will go all the way this time, at last. Is this the year? More »

 Pirates: The return to postseason play after a drought of 21 years was rewarded with a Division Series berth, but the last two years of being back in October have ended after one Wild Card Game. That figures to change in 2016. More »

 Reds: So much has changed in Cincinnati over the last couple of years, from last year's rookie rotation through the lineup. But Joey Votto remains a constant, and that means he'll be in the MVP conversation when the season is complete. More »

NL West

 D-backs: In a rewarding offseason for starting pitchers, nobody went bigger than the D-backs did by signing Zack Greinke to a record contract. Could that move and other adjustments to last year's third-place club put Arizona atop the NL West? More »

 Dodgers: If the Dodgers reach the postseason for an unprecedented fourth consecutive season, their first-year manager Dave Roberts could be in line for some hardware that hasn't been seen in Hollywood since the 1980s. More »

 Giants: Their pitching staff has been a hallmark of the Giants' run to three World Series titles in the last six years, and that staff has seen some changes. But don't expect closer Santiago Casilla to be one of them. More »

 Padres: The predictions aren't as kind to the Padres this year after some offseason changes, but here's a bold call: A piece of unwanted history could disappear this year with the team's first-ever no-hitter. More »

 Rockies: He brings the highlights at third base, and he brings the power swing to the plate. This year, look for Nolan Arenado to vault into the national limelight and make his most impressive grab yet - the NL MVP Award. More »

Target practice: Cubs end spring training as the hunted.

By Patrick Mooney

“Everybody’s going to be on our helmet.”

Within all their layers of management, the Cubs don’t have an official Department of T-shirts. But Dexter Fowler nailed it on the head with that quote, putting context to Jason Heyward vs. Madison Bumgarner and the San Francisco Giants after an offseason of hype.

If “Embrace The Target” became Joe Maddon’s go-to slogan for deflating pressure in camp – with a bull’s-eye designed onto the front of those T-shirts – then “Buckle Your Chinstrap” might be the takeaway as the Cubs leave Arizona.

The buzz around this team is so loud that the Cubs set a new spring-training attendance record (226,163) during Wednesday’s 10-0 win over the Colorado Rockies at Sloan Park, averaging more than 15,000 fans a game during Cactus League play.

“We just have to keep…it…to…ourselves,” said Anthony Rizzo, the All-Star first baseman slowing down the last four words for emphasis. “We’re genuinely cheering for each other. It’s not like we’re out there doing stupid stuff to show up the other team.”

It is not a “narrative” when Cubs players know they are going to get everyone’s best shot this year and president of baseball operations Theo Epstein is sensitive to the idea of organizational arrogance, saying this is a third-place team competing to get back into the playoffs.

Camp Maddon featured mimes, karaoke jams, two cubs from Bearizona Wildlife Park and that sledgehammer-swinging motivational speaker who smashed the cement brick resting on the manager’s chest.

Plus, a surreal presidential race where Donald Trump cryptically threatens the Ricketts family. Coming off a winter where Heyward signs with the Cubs and someone posts on Twitter an image of his red No. 22 St. Louis Cardinals jersey on fire.

The manager is right when he says that the overheated nature of social media warps perception. And Maddon – who definitely isn’t a micromanager – pretty much just lets gonzo strength-and-conditioning coach Tim Buss do his thing before the team stretch.

“I’m a little bit more old-school, too,” catcher Miguel Montero said. “But you know I respect (Maddon’s) philosophy. I’m a guy that likes to get to the field and get to work sometimes and probably try to focus on the game more than maybe some other things. But I respect that (approach). I do my best to fit in.

“Sometimes it’s fun, because you kind of actually take a lot of pressure off your shoulders and see what he’s doing. I (also) like to get to work sometimes and take it a little bit more seriously.

“But it’s OK. Not everybody’s the same. That’s what we’re trying to accomplish over here – (take) everybody’s different personalities (and) pull the same way.”

Jon Lester also didn’t always know how to react while pitching for the tightly wound Boston Red Sox against Maddon’s Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East.

“I don’t think you could ever have a bad vibe with Joe,” said Lester, who threw five scoreless innings and hit a two-run homer against Colorado as the Cubs finished with a 10-17 Cactus League record. “It’s always a positive day.

“That’s one thing I’ve always respected about Joe: No matter where we’re at in the season or where we’re at in the standings – or how we’re playing or how bad we’re playing – it’s always positive. He always brings a positive vibe to the clubhouse. That makes our job a lot easier. We don’t have to make that up.”

The New York Times, New York Post, Washington Post and USA Today all published stories with Mesa datelines, while Sports Illustrated put the Cubs on a regional baseball-preview cover.

“All the other extracurricular stuff,” Lester said, “is good for some of these guys. It’s something that a lot of us have gone through at different points in our career (with) the hype involved and the hoopla. I think you have to go through stuff like this in order to make yourself better.

“Nothing’s affected them so far, so I don’t see this effecting them. We had bears (out here). You never know what might show up at Cubs camp or Wrigley Field. It keeps us on our toes."

Only these Cubs could have planned-in-advance goodwill gestures (a coach's son bringing out the lineup card for his birthday or welcoming an RBI youth team to practice) and make you wonder if they were trolling the White Sox after the Adam LaRoche retirement fiasco. (They weren't.)

Maybe Jake Peavy is still fuming over how long it took Kyle Schwarber to stop listening to Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and step into the batter’s box before the Cubs swept the Giants last August. Whatever.

Can’t wait to see how The Best Fans in Baseball react to bat flips at Busch Stadium. Can’t wait to hear the boos in Pittsburgh after Jake Arrieta mocked Pirates fans on Twitter, telling them the blackout atmosphere wouldn't matter in the wild-card game.

The Cubs are going to rip up this game's unwritten rules and get chased by baseball’s fun police.

“Enjoy it,” Rizzo said. “Show the emotions. Show it for each other. When I’m in the box, I feel like Heyward and Dex and ‘Ske’ (assistant hitting coach Eric Hinske) and 'KB' (Kris Bryant) – they’re all up there with me. So when I get that big knock, I’m excited for them, because they’re excited for me.

“I talk to a lot of guys around this league. And they say it looks like you guys are having so much fun.”

How Cubs finally landed Ben Zobrist as a piece to their World Series puzzle.

By Patrick Mooney

While Ben Zobrist made a recruiting trip to New York – with the Mets showing him around the affluent suburbs in Westchester County and Connecticut – the Cubs did everything over the phone and didn’t even need to offer the most money.  

That’s the buzz around a team that sells itself now, the sense that after two meaningless exhibition games on Thursday and Friday in Las Vegas, a National League pennant could be on the line if the Cubs and Mets clash again in October.

Zobrist also visited the Bay Area to meet with the San Francisco Giants, a model franchise that ultimately matched New York’s four-year, $60 million offer. The Washington Nationals even presented a three-year, $56 million contract that would have meant a higher average annual value.

“The Cubs pretty much stay under the radar,” said Zobrist, who took a four-year, $56 million deal for the chance to end the 1908 drought and be closer to his family in downstate Illinois. “That was one place I knew – just because of Joe – and I knew the city a little bit. (With) the stadium, Theo’s track record, I didn’t feel like I needed a face-to-face.”

Chicago already knows all about insider deals. The Cubs had a closer in Joe Maddon, who managed Zobrist for nine seasons with the Tampa Bay Rays and is represented by the same agency.

Theo Epstein had worked with Octagon Baseball – which has a John Hancock Center headquarters – in putting together Maddon’s $25 million landmark contract. The president of baseball operations needed those relationships and that sense of goodwill.

The Cubs had to move Starlin Castro before signing Zobrist and only one team really had the resources to take on $38 million and the belief in an inconsistent three-time All-Star bumped off shortstop to second base. But the New York Yankees didn’t want to do that deal – and give up versatile pitcher Adam Warren – at the July 31 trade deadline last year.

By the time the winter meetings started to heat up at the sprawling Nashville Opryland biodome – not far from Zobrist’s offseason home in Tennessee – the Yankees had reconsidered their youth movement and created an opening at Wrigley Field.

Everyone understood the Cubs had Zobrist on their radar. It just didn’t seem like Maddon’s roster had a glaring need for a 34-year-old second baseman or Epstein’s baseball-operations department could afford that luxury item.   

The Cubs tried to trade for Zobrist after the 2014 season, but let’s just say that Tampa Bay probably wasn’t in the mood to help. Not when the Rays were pushing Major League Baseball to pursue the Maddon tampering case.   

At that point, Tampa Bay wanted a big-time prospect along the lines of a Kyle Schwarber or an Addison Russell. Even if the Cubs knew they probably would’ve had the inside track to sign Zobrist to an extension, giving up a long-term asset didn’t make sense for a one-year rental in what was supposed to be a steppingstone season (and not a 97-win carnival).  

Until they made it to The Show, teams could keep asking about the Schwarbers and the Russells and hope they weren’t untouchable. The Cubs generally found it difficult to get teams to move down the list and focus on a different return when Russell was a Double-A player and not a big-league shortstop.

Maddon remembered the Rays being intrigued by Schwarber leading up to the 2014 draft, when the Cubs surprised the industry by taking the Indiana University catcher/outfielder with the No. 4 overall pick.

With Miguel Montero and David Ross now in place, the Cubs wanted to unload Welington Castillo, a young catcher with a good attitude and all the physical tools. But the Rays are a data-driven operation focused on pitch-framing skills and Castillo does not grade out as well in those metrics.

“As a player, you try not to pay too much attention to rumors, because that’s all they are,” Zobrist said. “Whenever you’re on the trade block, you never know if anything will actually happen. Plus, you got a job to do.”

Tampa Bay finally traded Zobrist to the Oakland A’s in the middle of January 2015. The Cubs tried again last summer, but never felt close, because “Moneyball” architect Billy Beane wanted a frontline pitching prospect in return.  

The Kansas City Royals offered Sean Manaea, a pitcher the Cubs had considered for the No. 2 overall pick in the 2013 draft before his junior season at Indiana State University. Kris Bryant went out and put together a monster year at the University of San Diego, while injury concerns dropped Manaea to the Royals at No. 34.

The Cubs didn’t have any prospects close to joining a big-league rotation. The Royals watched Zobrist strengthen their overall team defense and lengthen the lineup (.880 OPS in 16 playoff games) against New York’s power pitching in the World Series.   

“He’s so professional,” Maddon said. “He’s a winner. It’s just the way he plays the game (with) patience at the plate, both sides of the plate. He works a great at-bat almost every time out there (and) can play multiple positions well. He’s a good, heads-up baserunner.

“When you talk to him – and when he’s going to talk to all these guys (in the clubhouse) – what’s his agenda? To win. That’s it. He’s got nothing else on his mind.”

Zobrist is a self-made player who wasn’t drafted out of high school and started out at Olivet Nazarene University before transferring into Dallas Baptist University. His father, Tom, is a pastor at Liberty Bible Church in Eureka, which is about 20 miles east of Peoria.

“I believe in a divine plan,” Zobrist said. “The early part of my career in Tampa Bay was exactly what I needed at that time. Last year, (we) knew it was going to be a transition year.

“But to be able to land with Kansas City was a huge blessing. To get a sense of playing there – and playing in the playoffs and going all the way – all of that has kind of prepared me for this moment.”

Zobrist is a rich man now, but it really wasn’t all about the money. Still, everything had to click into place for a player the Cubs saw as a missing piece to a World Series team.    

“Illinois is home,” Zobrist said. “To be able to come home and try to win a championship where it hasn’t been done for a long, long time – in front of my hometown state, family, friends and with my manager that I grew up with in the major leagues – is kind of a dream situation for me.

“They’ll get everything I got for the next four years. Hopefully, we can win at least one (title) during that time.”

White Sox purchase Jimmy Rollins' contract, name him Opening Day starter.

By Dan Hayes

While his first goal was to make the team, Jimmy Rollins also had his eye trained on the starting shortstop job, too.

The veteran nailed down both on Wednesday.

The White Sox purchased the contract of the non-roster invitee and manager Robin Ventura named Rollins the Opening Day shortstop for Monday’s game at the Oakland A’s. Rollins, who signed a minor-league deal with the team in February, will earn $2 million this season after he was put on the 25-man roster.

The White Sox also optioned Scott Carroll to Triple-A Charlotte and out righted Jacob Turner to Charlotte.

“To win the job is great,” Rollins said. “That’s just the beginning. Just go out there and be productive when I get my opportunities to play and when I’m getting my days off and rest, get ready for the next day.”

Rollins hit .354/.373/.604 with four home runs and 13 RBIs in 48 at-bats this spring. The plan calls for Rollins to get the bulk of playing time with Tyler Saladino as his backup. But Ventura said Rollins, 37, would get his fair share of rest. Ventura said he likes how fresh Rollins has looked with an occasional day off.

“When he’s fresh he’s got some good range,” Ventura said. “He’s been making the plays he’s had to make.

“He swung the ball well down here from both sides of the plate. But you have to be fresh to do that and that’s part of the reason of having him and Sal together.”

Rollins is open to the idea. He has an idea how he will use the occasional off day to recuperate. Rollins could also use the time to work in the cage. He’s pleased with the adjustments he made at the plate earlier this spring after he felt lost.

“I had a week there where I didn’t know what was going on,” Rollins said. “But I was able to make the adjustments and just having the confidence in myself to make the adjustments, especially after going through a lot of adjustments last year, I was able to do that and hopefully I can continue that for the rest of the season.”

The team has 29 players left in big league camp.

Crow hop helps White Sox Carlos Rodon take flight.

By Dan Hayes

It’s funny how a crow hop could change a player’s fortunes.

But all it took was a little skip off his back foot before he releases a warmup toss to get Carlos Rodon headed in the right direction.

The suggestion came last summer courtesy of White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper, a potential remedy Rodon said they stumbled upon in a bullpen session as they searched for answers to his control issues.

It took quickly and instantly brought command and consistency to Rodon’s side sessions.

The improved work between starts also made a swift impact on the diamond and got Rodon closer to the expectations heaped upon him by everyone, himself included, when the White Sox drafted him third overall in 2014.

Perhaps even more so, it brought Rodon much-needed relief and a renewed sense of confidence as he went 5-2 with a 1.81 ERA in his final eight starts. Now, both Rodon -- who is set to pitch six innings in a simulated game Thursday in his final spring tune-up at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Ariz. -- and the White Sox are hopeful his late 2015 success translates into more of the same this season. Whether or not Rodon takes the next step could be critical for the White Sox plan to contend in 2016.

“I don’t want to sound conceited, but it was about time that it happened,” Rodon said. “Things come together. If you make those pitches on the side days, it’s going to come during the game. “But if you don’t, you can’t expect it in the game.

“You can’t expect it to happen.”

Rodon describes himself as a quiet, humble guy off the field.

He prefers to fish -- ocean, lake or stream -- with his dad, hunt white deer with his girlfriend and her dad or play golf with a friend. If he’s not in one of those spots, Rodon said he usually can be found at home with his dog, a 1-year-old German shepherd.  

Last spring, even as he tried to impress them and make the club, Rodon made it a point to be seen but not heard in the clubhouse. Out of respect for teammates who had a much longer path to the majors, Rodon didn’t want to make waves in his first big league camp.

“He’s a very simple guy,” pitcher John Danks said. “Fits right in with us.”

But once he steps in between the lines, Rodon’s persona changes -- “that’s when you have your confidence, maybe a little cockiness,” Rodon said.

He’s the guy who last spring heard the team needed to see him throw more changeups and promptly threw 20 in a 94-pitch effort against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Camelback Ranch.

He throws three different variations of an elite-level slider and a very good fastball when he commands it.

“He can be as good as anybody, really,” pitcher Chris Sale said. “His talent is through the roof.”

And prior to last year, when he walked 50 batters in the first 84 2/3 innings of his major league career, he had been that dominant pitcher for a long time.

The left-hander didn’t actually pitch until he attended Holly Springs (N.C.) High School even though he had been playing baseball since he first joined a rec league at age three. Rodon remembers that at first he was a thrower and not a pitcher. The command and stuff began to develop in his junior and senior years.

Once he reached North Carolina State, Rodon took off.

He went 9-0 with a 1.57 ERA in 17 games as a freshman and struck out 184 batters in 132 1/3 innings as a sophomore. It was right about then Rodon realized he may have a future in baseball. He started to attract attention as a potential first overall draft pick after a dominant performance for the USA College National team against Cuba in which he struck out 11 in 6 2/3 innings in July 2013.

“It was different,” Rodon said. “Never really was a guy that in the spotlight until college. I guess you take it for what it is. You try not to pay attention, try to push those things aside and do what you do on the field and stay humble.”

The rise continued after Rodon signed with the White Sox. He improved his changeup in the minors in 2014, was promoted twice and nearly reached the big leagues. Rodon drew rave reviews during his first big league camp and only spent 2 1/ 2 weeks at Triple-A Charlotte before he joined the White Sox.

But his struggles immediately started once he was in the majors.

Rodon walked three in his first game, a 2 1/3-inning stint in relief on April 21.

Though he’d win his first start (May 9), Rodon walked four batters in six innings. Then he walked six at Oakland and five at home against Cleveland.

Rodon had a 5.00 ERA and was issuing 5.32 walks per nine by the time August rolled around.

“That was tough, getting hit around a little bit, runs scored on you,” Rodon said. "Confidence goes down. But you’ve got to find a way to bring it back up and believe in yourself and it’s not easy.”

For as accomplished as he was, Cooper thought Rodon still had much to learn. White Sox general manager Rick Hahn suggested as much in April when he said the final phase of Rodon’s development would come in the big leagues.

For Cooper, it was the work in between starts that needed improvement.

“Even though he was one of the top picks in the nation, he had no idea about a lot of things,” Cooper said. “He’s was a very green guy.”

Then came the bullpen session.

Cooper can’t pinpoint the date and Rodon only recalls that it took place at U.S. Cellular Field. But the veteran coach made the suggestions in hopes it would help Rodon get extension and an “aggressive ride” going toward the plate.

Though he’s fuzzy on the details, Rodon remembers the impact.

“It was kind of a little breakthrough as far as consistency and command of everything,” Rodon said. “Feels like my body’s online with the catcher and the middle of the glove and its online toward the plate.”

Golf: I got a club for that..... Hoffman starts strong at SHO, looks to finish on top.

By Will Gray

The Shell Houston Open remains a fertile hunting ground for Charley Hoffman.

The veteran is making his 10^th start in this event, and he has never missed a cut. That streak is likely to continue after Hoffman opened with an 8-under 64, one shot off the course record. It gave him a one-shot lead over Dustin Johnson and Roberto Castro and marked his 16^th sub-70 round at Golf Club of Houston – more than anyone else at this week’s venue.

“Houston has treated me well,” Hoffman said. “The rough is not too long. It’s nice to get the good contact on the ball from the fairway, and somehow I usually putt fairly well.”

Hoffman was a mainstay on leaderboards last season, notching seven top-10 finishes, but he remains in search of his first such result this season and surprisingly sits at No. 125 on the latest FedEx Cup standings. For Hoffman, it’s been a case of being close – but not close enough down the stretch.

“The tournaments I played well in the last few weeks, I’ve shot 3, 4 over on the back nine on Sunday when I’ve’ been going from winning the golf tournament to 12^th or 15^th place,” he said. “That’s big positions on the PGA Tour. Early in the year I was struggling a little bit, the putter was acting up and I wasn’t driving it great. You go through lulls throughout the year.”

But Hoffman began to turn things around at Doral, where he finished T-17, and followed that with a T-11 finish at Innisbrook. He showed no signs of struggle Thursday on a familiar track, carding nine birdies including four in a row on Nos. 1-4 to spark his round.

It’s a strong start to his quest for a fourth career victory, and one he hopes to be able to sustain throughout the weekend.

“I learned a long time ago, I entered golf tournaments to try to win them, not try to make cuts,” he said. “Making cuts is a great thing, but we play the golf tournaments to win golf tournaments, not just to base a resume off of cuts. I’m going to try to put myself in contention and have a chance to win.”

Alan Shipnuck Breaks Down the Top Contenders for the Masters at Augusta.

Golf; Alan Shipnuck

Ever since Jordan Spieth opened 2016 with a scorched-earth performance at Kapalua, it's been clear this is going to be a special year. In the dozen weeks since, three other Masters champions have won PGA Tour events (Bubba Watson, Adam Scott, Charl Schwartzel), as have a pair of PGA Championship winners (Jason Dufner, Jason Day). That so many top players are peaking only adds more juice to what was already shaping up as an exceptionally intriguing Masters. The miniswoon that Spieth has fallen into post-Kapalua actually helps; had he kept up that torrid play, he would have been a prohibitive favorite heading into Augusta. Now it will be fascinating to see if the boy wonder can summon a big-time performance for his title defense. Bubba's minor back injury is also helpful to the narrative—Watson has won two of the last four Masters, and he is playing some of the best golf of his life. After his win at Riviera he supplanted Spieth as the Masters favorite, but now you have to wonder how a withdrawal from Bay Hill will affect Watson. Golf's most finicky character doesn't do well when anything upsets his routine.

So who is going to win this Masters? That's a boring question, best left to a voodoo priest, or perhaps Mark Broadie. Here's a passel of players we want to win, in descending order of awesomeness.

Vaughn Taylor (20) has never been a headliner, but his surprise victory at Pebble Beach, after years of poor play and related hardship, has been the season's sweetest moment so far. Like another Augusta native, Larry Mize, Taylor is a preeminent putter, and he will be helped by an adoring home crowd. If you want a Cinderella story, this is it.

Danny Willett (19), the Yorkshire terrier who is third in the European tour's Race to Dubai, makes an excellent dark horse. He has the game and the gumption to pull a Spieth and contend in only his second Masters. But an entire generation of Next Faldos has failed to get it done at Augusta. Can Willett, 28, break the curse?

Speaking of dread titles, Henrik Stenson (18) lugs around a weighty one: Best Player Never to Have Won a Major. (Rickie Fowler is too young and has not collected enough scar tissue to earn this good news--bad news honorific, and we've simply given up on Sergio García.) Stenson's hot draw and towering irons set up perfectly for Augusta National, but his mental fragility holds him back on golf's most stressful greens, which is why he has never finished better than 14th.

Of course, we can't discuss demons without mentioning Kevin Na (17). Can you imagine the tension if he took a lead into Amen Corner on Sunday? Na's 12th-place finish last year gives him something to build on and us something to dream about.

In this era of the neo--Big Four, Mr. Top Five himself, Patrick Reed (16), has gone strangely quiet. Everyone likes the polite, personable young men atop the World Ranking, but Reed, 25, is the antihero golf desperately needs. He hasn't won in more than a year; it would be just like him to rise up and nab the green jacket from one of his more popular contemporaries.

If we're talking about young players ready to make a big leap forward, how about Justin Thomas (15)? To this point he is known for being Spieth's best friend on Tour, but Thomas can flat play, and when he recently said Augusta National is a "perfect" fit for his game, he was just being honest. Endless droll musings have made Thomas, 22, a social-media superstar, and nobody will ever have more fun with a green jacket than this kid.

Brooks Koepka (14) has a similar scouting report as Thomas—long off the tee, great touch on the greens—but he brings even more firepower and polish. For a couple of years now Koepka, 25, has been billed as the next big thing, and he's begun to fulfill that promise with top 10s at the last two majors.

Quick, which Americans have won the most PGA Tour events since the start of 2011? Yes, Watson and Tiger Woods (remember him?) lead the way with eight, but next on the list, at seven, are Spieth and none other than Brandt Snedeker (13), a cold-blooded killer who fools folks by having the personality of a Labrador retriever ... and the same haircut. Sneds has racked up seven top 10s in the majors, including a pair at the Masters, where his fearless putting can separate him from the field. At 35 it's time for Snedeker to stop being underrated and win the major that will stamp him as a star.

LPGA Takeaway: Opportunities Abound with PGA Partnership but Don't Read Too Much Into It.

Golf; Marika Washchyshyn

LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan has done a lot for the LPGA over his six-plus years at its helm, not the least of which was announced earlier this month: a "strategic alliance" with the PGA Tour, geared toward growing both the men's and women's games.

The two tours have committed to formally working together to examine several different areas of the game where key growth can occur, including television distribution, improved digital coverage and the potential for joint events. While the two sides have leaned on each other before for the good of golf, the move announced on March 4 is unprecedented in size, says Whan.

"Fifteen years ago, there were strong stakeholders in the game but they all were sort of doing their own thing," Whan said in an interview with GOLF.com. "If you look, really in the last four or five years, the biggest stakeholders in the game are all working together: Drive, Chip and Putt, Get Golf Ready, Girls Golf, The First Tee — these are all programs that we're working on together to help grow the game."

With the continued investment in these programs, Whan has seen his own tour grow a significant amount. According to the commissioner, the LPGA has grown 100% in television coverage, 60% in prize money and 50% in the number of tour events. The collaboration between the LPGA, USGA and Girls Golf has exploded the bracket of girls under 18 playing the game by 900%.

"Right now, it’s about 80-20 men to women in the sport, and I believe it’s not out of the realm of possibility to think that in 10-15 years, this is a 50-50 sport," says Whan. "If we’re going to grow the game, it’s not going to come through male growth, it’s going to come through female growth."

“From our collaboration in bringing golf back as an Olympic sport as joint members of the International Golf Federation to our cooperation in helping to grow the game of golf as part of the World Golf Foundation, our two organizations have had a long history of working together for the common good of our sport,” PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said in a statement. “Extending our relationship with the LPGA into these new areas is a natural extension of this work and collaboration.”

But what fans and media are most likely to latch on to is the prospect of seeing both PGA Tour and LPGA stars tee it up in formal competition together. Reminiscent of the 1960s' Golfing Battle of the Sexes starring Mickey Wright and Barbara Romack vs. Arnold Palmer and Dow Finsterwald (which, as Michael Bamberger notes in an earlier column, the ladies won), Whan is convinced that nearly all of his players would jump at the chance to compete against the men, on the same course, for legitimate prize money. Imagine Bubba Watson teeing off right before Lexi Thompson, and Paula Creamer hitting a shot right before Rickie Fowler, Whan mused. If you're a fan of the game of golf, merely that image is tantalizing entertainment. 

We asked, but the 'Commish' wouldn't budge on revealing his ideal match.

If LPGA stars can agree on anything, it's the incredible access that fans have to the women on tour. Stacy Lewis, Paula Creamer, Jessica Korda and others have shared that one of the things they love about playing on the LPGA is the ability to really get to know their fans. On the other hand, the PGA Tour is a little more tight-lipped. That's not to say that the likes of Jordan Spieth, Jason Day and Fowler don't know their fans on personal levels, but the LPGA prides itself on its openness and accessibility. Whan assured that the alliance with the PGA Tour would not affect that treasured characteristic of the LPGA.

"I wouldn’t read too much into ‘partnering’ with the PGA Tour," Whan says. "It’s not like we’re going to become one tour, we’re not going to become one organization, we’re not sharing board seats or ownership rights. Getting together is not going to change our personality or theirs, it’s not going to change how we treat the fans or theirs. We’re just going to get together and say, ‘Hey, is there an opportunity or two where we can play together and create something really special for the fans?'"

This fan has high hopes. Both the women and the men rock their respective tours, with young talent abundant on both. Wouldn't it be great to see them showcased, both equally and together?

NASCAR: Weekend schedule at Martinsville Speedway.

By Daniel McFadin

(Photo by John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR)

After a two-week break for the Sprint Cup Series and an even longer month off for the Camping World Truck Series, both return to racing this weekend at Martinsville Speedway.
The Cup circuit takes part in the STP 500, the first of two races at Martinsville this year. The Truck series brings us the Alpha Energy Solutions 250.

Here’s the full weekend schedule complete with TV and radio information.
All times are Eastern.

Friday, April 1

8 a.m. – 5:45 p.m. – Sprint Cup garage open

9 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. – Truck series garage open

10 – 10:55 a.m. – Truck practice (Fox Sports 1)

11 a.m. – 12:20 p.m. – Sprint Cup practice (Fox Sports 1, Motor Racing Network)

12:30 – 1:55 p.m. – Truck practice (Fox Sports 1)

3 – 3:50 p.m. – Final Truck practice (Fox Sports 1)

4:15 p.m. – Sprint Cup qualifying; three round/multi-car (Fox Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Saturday, April 2

8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. – Sprint Cup garage open

8 a.m. – Truck garage opens

10 – 10:55 a.m. – Sprint Cup practice (Fox Sports 1, MRN)

11:15 a.m. – Truck series qualifying; three rounds/multi-car (Fox Sports 1)

12:45 p.m. – Truck series driver-crew chief meeting

1 – 1:50 p.m. – Final Sprint Cup practice (Fox Sports 1, MRN)

2 p.m. – Truck series driver introductions

2:30 p.m. – Alpha Energy Solutions 250; 250 laps, 131.5 miles (Fox Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM Radio)

Sunday, April 3

7 a.m. – Sprint Cup garage opens

11 a.m. – Driver-crew chief meeting

12:30 p.m. – Driver introductions

1 p.m. – STP 500; 500 laps, 263 miles (Fox Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM Radio)

Kevin Harvick looks to build on Martinsville run, continue streak.

By Dustin Long

(Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing have combined to win the last nine Sprint Cup races at Martinsville Speedway.

The last driver to win at Martinsville for a team other than those three was Kevin Harvick in 2011 when he was with Richard Childress Racing.

Harvick, now with Stewart-Haas Racing, will look to continue the dominance of those three teams at the .526-mile track in this weekend’s STP 500.

The points leader enters having finished in the top 10 each of the past nine races, dating back to last season. No Cup driver has a current streak of more than two consecutive top-10 finishes.

Harvick, who nipped Carl Edwards for the win at Phoenix, has led a series-high 413 laps (31.5 percent of the laps run) and has an average finish of 4.0.

Harvick has four top-10 finishes in his last five starts at Martinsville.

“It’s a track where I feel like we could have won more races than we probably have in the record books,’’ Harvick said in a team release. “It’s a place where you enjoy racing and it’s very similar to Talladega by the fact that you just never know when something’s going to happen. You just never know when it can turn and that’s really what short-track racing is all about. And it’s something that happens a lot at Martinsville.”

RECENT WINNERS AT MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY

2015

Jeff Gordon … Hendrick Motorsports

Denny Hamlin … Joe Gibbs Racing

2014

Dale Earnhardt Jr. … Hendrick Motorsports

Kurt Busch … Stewart-Haas Racing

2013

Jeff Gordon … Hendrick Motorsports

Jimmie Johnson … Hendrick Motorsports

2012

Jimmie Johnson … Hendrick Motorsports

Ryan Newman … Stewart-Haas Racing

2011

Tony Stewart … Stewart-Haas Racing

Kevin Harvick … Richard Childress Racing

Jeff Gordon already misses the ‘driver’s club’ five races into retirement.

By Daniel McFadin

(Photo/foxnews.com)

Back in December at the Sprint Cup Awards banquet, drivers said they’d be perfectly fine with keeping the retiring Jeff Gordon on a group driver text.

Drivers, including champion Kyle Busch and Clint Bowyer, believed Gordon’s decades of experience was invaluable to them.

“Let’s get through the Daytona 500 and see how I talk about them (as a Fox broadcast analyst),” Gordon said at the time. “Not that I’m going to talk bad, but I’m going to be honest.”

Almost four months later and after five Sprint Cup races without Gordon in the field, the four-time champion has had his membership to the group text revoked.

“I miss being on the (driver group) text,” Gordon said Tuesday at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. “I was kind of bummed about that.”

Gordon admitted the transition into his new role as a TV analyst has changed his dynamic with his former competitors to a degree. Enough to make him miss “the driver club” more than he was expecting.

“I guess I kind of miss some of the interaction with the drivers,” Gordon said. “They look at me differently. ‘Can we trust him? He’s one of us, well, he’s not really one of us anymore.’ I still sense respect from other drivers because I’m just stepping out, but at the same time they’re looking at me as ‘Don’t give too much information up there, that doesn’t help us out a whole lot.'”

Gordon hasn’t been completely exiled. With his connection to Hendrick Motorsports, Gordon was brought in to talk to Chase Elliott, his successor, to prepare for the Daytona 500.

“At Daytona, they asked me if I’d come and talk to Chase prior and be a part of their debriefing prior to Daytona to walk through previous Daytona 500’s and expectations,” Gordon said. “I’m glad they did. I do miss those competition meetings.”

But Gordon says his race preparation for Fox is enough like it was as a driver to help fill the void that comes after leaving that chapter of his life behind.

“We have our debriefs on Tuesday and we all get on a conference call and talk about the previous race, we talk about the next race,” Gordon said “Very similar to a race team. That’s really fulfilling a lot of those things.”

SOCCER: Improving time of possession is next target for Fire.

By Dan Santaromita

(Photo/csnchicago.com)

Throughout the offseason, Chicago Fire general manager Nelson Rodriguez spoke about how important revamping the defense was.

That defensive unit has shown improvement within the first three matches and even picked up a shutout in the Fire’s most recent match, a scoreless draw with Columbus at Toyota Park.

Now, a new problem seems to have shown itself. The Fire are struggling to keep possession of the ball and it has drawn the attention of coach Veljko Paunovic.

“You have to build your team with a good defense and then improve from that point,” Paunovic said after the Columbus game. “Our team in the last two games has improved defensively. If you remember my answers after the first game and I said we had to improve defensively. Now we are improving defensively. We improved defensively. Now the next step: possession and realization, scoring.”

Though the Fire have sat back and tried to play on the counter at times, Paunovic has emphasized how important possession is to him.

“I personally value very much the possession and I think that every team that doesn’t control that is missing something very important so we will work on that,” Paunovic said. “It’s a process.”

Considering Paunovic talks about building out of the back as one of the focal points of his tactical strategy, it is a bit unexpected to see the Fire rank last in MLS in terms of possession so far. The Fire have had an average of 38.7 percent of the possession in the first three matches, according to the stats on MLSsoccer.com.

Team	Average time of possession (percent)
New York City FC	61.93
Columbus	59.33
Sporting Kansas City	59.03
New York Red Bulls	57.13
Colorado	55.63
LA Galaxy	54.80
Seattle	51.07
Portland	50.77
Orlando	50.53
Dallas	50.50
New England	50.28
Montreal	48.87
Houston	48.30
D.C. United	46.00
Philadelphia	45.20
San Jose	43.77
Real Salt Lake	42.90
Toronto	42.87
Vancouver	42.53
Fire	38.73

There are a few things worth mentioning before making too much of how low that number is. First, it’s only been three matches and for 60 minutes of one of those matches the Fire had to play with 10 men on the road. It was natural in that match at Orlando for the Fire to concede possession and defend, which they did to hold on to a 1-1 draw.

Also, the team has a lot of new pieces which could be contributing to more turnovers while the team jells.

“I think one thing we do need to work on a little bit more is when we get into their half we need to possess and pin them in for longer stretches of possession,” midfielder Matt Polster said. “I think as the season goes on and as we get to know each other, that will happen. It’s only the third game in.”

The value of possession is debatable, but it’s hard to regularly win matches while losing the possession battle by a wide margin. So what do the Fire have to do to improve in this area?

“What we have to take advantage of is the width we create with this width of the field,” Paunovic said. “Then our fullbacks have to go a little bit higher. Then when we are in the opponent’s end we have to be more patient with the ball. That will be tactically what we have to improve in the game, but this is what we are working on.”

Being patient with the ball is something the Fire do need to do more of, but the most telling thing from Paunovic’s quote is what he says about width and the fullbacks.

Since Paunovic has inserted Jonathan Campbell as a third center back, the role of the outside backs has changed.

The outside backs are playing like defenders, which isn’t surprising given their background, and it sounds like Paunovic wants them to play like true wide midfielders. Against Columbus, to most observers it appeared the Fire played with a five-man back line, and Polster even said so after the game. When Paunovic talked to media on the Monday following the match he called the formation a 3-5-2. Clearly he views the fullbacks as midfielders in that setup, even if they are natural defenders.

As the Fire continues to learn how Paunovic wants to play and he reacts to how the team is performing, this will be something to watch in the early portion of this season.

Joao Meira left Portugal for something different in Chicago.

By Dan Santaromita

(Photo/csnchicago.com)

After playing his entire professional career in Portugal, Joao Meira was ready for something different.

The 28-year-old defender had been a professional playing in various levels of Portuguese soccer for 10 years. His most recent stint was with Belenenses from 2012-2015, helping the club earn promotion to the top league in Portugal during that time.

“I finished my contract with Belenenses and didn’t renew because I wanted other things in my career outside Portugal,” Meira said. “I had an agreement with one club in Spain, but the financial problems killed the contract.”

As a result, Meira was stuck without a club for six months, waiting until the next transfer window opened in January. While he admitted training alone with a personal trainer was difficult, he was able to stay in shape and the Chicago Fire eventually came calling.

Having gone several months without playing organized soccer, the Fire made sure to push him in their tests when evaluating him in person.

“We were aware that Joao hadn’t played competitively for a while,” Fire general manager Nelson Rodriguez said. “I think this speaks to Joao’s character; we ran him through a battery of tests on the field, and physical, and he was great about all that.”

Rodriguez spoke highly of Meira’s versatility and said the fact that Meira helped a team earn promotion in Portugal was another selling point.

“We liked that he helped a lower level team ascend,” Rodriguez said. “That leadership, that experience of making an impact against a previous weaker team is something we thought could translate well for us.”

Meira also speaks English and can speak Portuguese to Brazilian teammates Gilberto and Rodrigo Ramos. Ramos, another offseason acquisition of the Fire, doesn’t speak any English yet so Meira can act as a translator on and off the field.

Moving to MLS was something Meira insists he wanted in his career. He was unsure of when it could happen, but when the Fire approached him, it became a reality.

“Sincerely it’s a goal of mine,” Meira said. “It is a good opportunity for me, to show myself in America and MLS.”

He has played every minute of the Fire’s first three matches. He has already noticed differences in how the game is played in MLS as opposed to in Portugal.

“Here you play more with your heart,” Meira said. “The game is open. In Portugal you think the game a little bit more and more tempo in possession, the ball. It’s different. More tricks.”

Off the field, Meira is getting used to a new apartment he just moved into in the West Loop. He had been staying in a hotel in downtown Chicago.

His answer to what his first impression was of the city may not surprise any Chicagoans.

“The life is fantastic, but the wind and the cold, it kills me,” Meira said. “It’s very different than Portugal, which has fantastic weather.”

Meira said he doesn’t miss much from Portugal yet. He is able to talk on Skype with his parents and family everyday.

However, one thing he does miss is Portuguese food, which Meira has not yet found in Chicago. He said Chicago has good restaurants, but laughs when saying they are very expensive.

“Very different restaurants, I try to know a little bit the Greektown,” Meira said. “It’s good… The Greek is similar, a little bit different.”

When talking about Portuguese food Meira lights up just a bit more.

“It’s more healthy, like Mediterranean,” he said. “You have big plate in Portugal and it’s fantastic food. The traditional food of Portugal is not the best, but in the top five best of the world.”

This is not Meira’s first time in the U.S. He has vacationed in Miami and New York on multiple occasions, which was made easier because his wife is a flight attendant.

Now, Meira is trying to make the most out of his more permanent stay, both on and off the field.

“It is good for me," he said. “I am very happy.”

Week 32: Top Five Premier League storylines — Spurs-Reds, Foxes-Saints, and a big 6-pointer.

By Nicholas Mendola

(Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

In any other year, you’d look at this weekend’s list of Premier League fixtures and figure the top teams would cement their statuses against inferior competition.

But this isn’t any typical Premier League season. So while Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United would normally be expected to scoop up three points and go onto the next one, that’s just not how the PL has rolled this year.

Saints the latest villains in Leicester’s push for glory

Leicester City vs. Southampton — Sunday, 8:30 a.m. ET (NBCSN)

Given Leicester’s brutal trio of May matches, when they’ll go away to Manchester United and Chelsea with a visit from Everton in between, winning April’s home-heavy slate is key to the Foxes’ title form. The first of three home matches comes Sunday against Southampton, who has won two on the bounce to climb into 7th. That’s just three points back of fifth.

Get used to seeing Leicester on Sundays; The Foxes play six of their last seven on the week’s final day.

Spurs keep chasing Foxes with taxing visit to Anfield

Liverpool vs. Tottenham Hotspur — Saturday, 12:30 ET (NBC)

Tottenham’s task of making up five points on Leicester City sees one of its toughest turns when it visits Anfield on Saturday. That, Liverpool hasn’t been consistently strong at home and Spurs have won four of five away from White Hart Lane. It should be buzzing atmosphere for both sides on NBC to finish off Saturday’s matches.

An absolutely massive relegation six-pointer at Carrow Road

Norwich City vs. Newcastle United — Saturday, 10 a.m. ET (USA)

Alex Neil‘s Canaries could go a long way toward cementing the Premier League’s trio of relegation teams with a win over visiting Newcastle United on Saturday. Norwich has a three-point lead on 19th place Newcastle and a two-point lead on 18th place Sunderland. Beating Rafa Benitez‘s Magpies would be huge.

Losing would be another story, and Newcastle will remember well one of its finest moments of the season, a 6-2 thrashing of the Canaries at St. James Park that saw Georginio Wijnaldum ravage the back line to the tune of four goals.

LVG’s United keeps up its quest for the Top Four

Manchester United vs. Everton — Sunday, 11 a.m. ET (USA)

Of the three teams within a point of fourth place, United probably has the toughest fixture of the week despite being at home. The last four matches in this series have seen multi-goal affairs, and the one before that was an Everton 1-0 win at Old Trafford. Strap in, LVG. It could be a bumpy ride.

Gunners hope to find home form, stabilize Top Four spot

Arsenal vs. Watford — Saturday, 10 a.m. ET (NBCSN)

After winning at Everton to snap a three-match Premier League winless skid, Arsene Wenger‘s Gunners are hoping that the hiccups are out-of-the-way. The French manager has presided over a four-match home run that’s grabbed just a point-per-game.

Arsenal has a five-point advantage on the teams competing to replace it in the Top Four, and Watford has been struggling. Still, when you’ve got two managers who are willing to wheel and deal in excitement on the pitch, there’s every reason to expect entertainment.

PST Roundtable: Who’s more likely to win hardware amongst these five Premier Leaguers?

By Nicholas Mendola

Photo by Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images

The Premier League returns from international break for a two-month stretch run that could be quite breathless for several groups of fans.

The PL title chase may be down to two teams barring an improbable drop-off from the main contenders, but five of the bigger names in England are still up for hardware.

Well, four and a group of new boys.

So who has the best chance to do the deed: Leicester City or Spurs to win the league, Manchester City to take the UEFA Champions League, Liverpool to nab the Europa crown, or Manchester United to lift the FA Cup?

Five of our writers weigh in, although as many as four of these scenarios can occur.

Joe Prince-Wright says Spurs can chase down Leicester: All season long they’ve flown somewhat under the radar and their defensive solidity plus Harry Kane is a recipe for success. Mauricio Pochettino’s men are five points behind Leicester with seven games to go and I get it… that is a lot of ground to make up. But with Kane and Dele Alli on form, as long as they stay fit I think Spurs can win at least five of their final seven games of the season. That will push Leicester all the way. It’s true that Tottenham’s players haven’t been in a PL title race, just like Leicester, but their youthful exuberance will hold them in good stead. I see Tottenham finishing the season strong and clinching the title on the final day of the season.

Matt Reed says it’s Leicester’s title: Three losses this season and no other competitions to tend to down the stretch? Leicester is fully capable of pulling off this Cinderella story. The Foxes feature two of the Premier League’s top goal-scorers, in Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez, as well as boasting one of the division’s most underrated back lines. Manager Claudio Ranieri has certainly had his pitfalls throughout his coaching career, but his experience lines up well with what Leicester is so close to completing.

Kyle Bonn says Man City can win the UCL: Desperation, i.e. They very well may have to. For Pep Guardiola to come into a team not in the top competition could be embarrassingly damaging beyond repair. Their form is in the toilet at the moment, but how long could a team like this truly play off its level of capability? Toure needs to play to save his career. The central defense is on the ropes, but Martin Demichelis has, until recently, played better than Nicolas Otamendi. And most importantly, the Aguero storm is brewing; he has two goals in his last six, and Sergio never goes that long without scoring…it’s coming.

Kyle Lynch says Man Utd win lift the FA Cup: In this unpredictable English season, it would make for the perfect ending to Louis Van Gaal‘s tenure at Old Trafford. After being written off a few months ago, LVG could now leave United with an FA Cup trophy and a Top Four finish. David De Gea has the ability to steal a win himself, and the young Marcus Rashford has shown a penchant for scoring on the big stage. Plus, a lot of the pressure will be on West Ham in the last-ever FA Cup match at Upton Park.

Nick Mendola says Liverpool can win three more Europa ties: While the Reds’ matches-in-hand will provide them the chances to compete for the Top Four, Jurgen Klopp‘s bunch will be motivated to leap into Europe’s top competition this way. There’s a massive roadblock in Borussia Dortmund, the favorites remaining in the tournament, but Klopp knows his former side as well as anyone and that could swing the tie in his favor. Also remaining are tournament champions Sevilla, but Liverpool is arguably the No. 2 favorite to win the thing. I think they just may pull it off, giving Klopp his first Liverpool hardware.

NCAABKB: Final Four Previews: They can win the national title if …

By Rob Dauster

Syracuse: The Orange are going to have their work cut out for them on Saturday as they face a North Carolina team that is about as bad of a matchup on paper as anyone in the country is for the Orange. Here’s the thing to know about the Syracuse zone: It’s always been really good at taking away threes. In the 15 seasons that are in KenPom.com’s database, the Orange have been outside the top 75 in defensive three-point percentage just three times; they’ve never allowed opponents to shoot better than 35.4 percent from three and have not once finished outside the top half of the country in that stat.

That’s not by accident. That’s how Jim Boeheim coaches that defense. If you watch them play, there are times where the zone almost looks more like a 2-2-1 than a 2-3 because of how high the wings play. That’s designed to make it difficult to get clean looks at the rim from beyond the arc, but by extending his defense as much as he does, Boeheim leaves open the short corner and the high post, not to mention the offensive glass. The Orange are 337th in the country in defensive rebounding percentage. North Carolina? They’re third nationally in offensive rebounding percentage and they have one of the nation’s best front lines at their disposal.

What does this all mean? Well, the Orange are going to have to find a way to battle in the paint on Saturday night or else their stay in Houston is going to be short-lived. And if they can get past the Tar Heels, I think they would actually have a real shot at winning a national title.

Villanova: The key for Villanova is offensively is going to be their shot selection. The difference between the Villanova that we’ve seen over the course of the last two months — the Villanova that has looked like the best team in the country during the NCAA tournament — and the one that was mollywhopped by Oklahoma back in December is how smart they are with when they decide to shoot from the perimeter. For a stretch early in the season, the Wildcats were shooting more than half of their field goal attempts from beyond the arc and making them at a roughly-30 percent clip. That’s going to earn you a lot of losses.

During the tournament and down the stretch of the season, it was a totally different story. The Wildcats focused on getting the ball into Daniel Ochefu in the post. They put Ryan Arcidiacono in ball-screen actions and tried to get the ball into the paint. The threes they took were on kickouts and in transition as opposed to the shots they settled for because they couldn’t — or didn’t have the patience to try — find something better.

The result has been that Ryan Arcidiacono has been more productive and efficient and Josh Hart has gotten some easier looks at the rim. But the biggest beneficiary may have actually been Kris Jenkins, who has been feasting on the catch-and-shoot threes and the opportunities he gets to attack close-outs as power forwards struggle to remember that he is the most dangerous perimeter weapons Villanova has.

Villanova is good enough defensively — they’re tough, well-coached and mix up defenses enough to keep people off balance — that they’ll keep Oklahoma and whoever they play in the title game from running away from them. But their shot selection is going to determine whether or not they actually win this thing.

Oklahoma: Who shows up other than Buddy?

I mean, it’s really going to be that simple for the Sooners. You know what you’re going to get from Buddy Hield. He’s either going to be making shots like he did against VCU and Oregon, or the defense is going to be selling out to take away his touches like Texas A&M did. The Sooners have a pair of guards in their back court that have made game-winning plays and put on game-changing performances in big games this season. But both Isaiah Cousins and Jordan Woodard have put together some clunkers during the year.

Ryan Spangler is a stretch four that can get a double-double and Khadeem Lattin is an energy guy that blocks shots, gets to the offensive glass and finishes off lobs, but they’re not the real danger for opponents. It’s Cousins and Woodard, and when those guys get it going, Oklahoma is really, really good.

North Carolina: North Carolina has the best front line in the Final Four and, to be frank, it really isn’t all that close. Brice Johnson was an AP First Team All-American. Kennedy Meeks is an all-ACC caliber player. And Isaiah Hicks? There are NBA scouts that believe he may actually be the best of the bunch when it comes to NBA potential.

Those dudes are long, they’re athletic, they’re physical and they know how to get the space they need to be effective, whether it’s on a post touch or getting to the offensive glass. The key for the Tar Heels, the way that they’re going to win the national title, is by doing what they’ve done for the last month: pounding the ball inside. Not only will that get Carolina points at the rim and opponents in foul trouble, but once teams realize that they’re not going to be able to stop Johnson and company without some kind of help, it will create open looks from the perimeter for Joel Berry II, Marcus Paige and Justin Jackson.

With the way those guys are shooting the ball right now, rhythm threes for them are the kind of back breakers that will win the Tar Heels a title. In other words, if opponents are forced to live with those guys shooting threes, and they’re making threes, that’s a bad sign for those opponents.

Final Four Preview: They won’t win the title because …

By Rob Dauster

North Carolina: The major question mark with North Carolina earlier this season was their toughness, which is something that I think we can safely say has been answered. If the run through the ACC tournament wasn’t answer enough, getting to the Final Four should be.

But the Tar Heels still do have two flaws that could eventually cost them a game this weekend. The most obvious is their inconsistency shooting the ball from the perimeter. Marcus Paige, Joel Berry II and Justin Jackson have been better, but every coach in the country will tell you that they’ll live with those guys taking threes as opposed to North Carolina’s big men getting post touches.

The other issue is defending ball-screen actions. Kennedy Meeks is not exactly fleet of foot. Brice Johnson is vertically explosive but he’s not great when he’s asked to move laterally. And the Orange? They like to put Michael Gbinije in ball-screen actions — they’re in the 90th-percentile nationally with 28.9 percent of their possessions ending in a ball-screen action — which can be a problem for the Tar Heels if Gbinije is allowed to turn a corner and get going downhill. With shooters all over the floor and a play maker like Gbinije, that’s an exploitable matchup for the Orange.

Oklahoma: The Sooners score 38.9 percent of their points from three-pointers, which was the 14th-highest total in college basketball this season. Michigan was the only high-major program that was more reliant on the three-ball for points than the Sooners. Two out of every five shots they take from the floor are from beyond the arc. Why does this matter? Because shooting NRG née Reliant Stadium has never been an easy thing to do. In 15 games played in this building since 2002, teams have shot 32.2 percent from distance. Is that just a fluky number? Or is it really that difficult to shoot here?

The Sooners better hope that it is the former, because the achilles’ heel for this team is that if they are not hitting their threes, they don’t really have another way to beat you.

Villanova: There are a couple things that I could see costing Villanova a win, but none is bigger than the fact that they just don’t have the same kind of athleticism as the rest of the teams left in the tournament. Josh Hart is a physical freak that plays like a physical freak, but beyond that, the Wildcats have a pair of guards in Ryan Arcidiacono and Jalen Brunson that are slow and crafty and a power forward in Kris Jenkins that is a land warrior with a jumper. Some of that is mitigated when Mikal Bridges sees the floor — he does give them so much lineup versatility — but his presence defensively takes away from what is their best offensive lineup.

I’m not sure that will be a huge issue against Oklahoma. I don’t think Ryan Spangler is really a guy that’s built for dominating smaller defenders. But if the Wildcats do end up locking horns with North Carolina in the title game, that’s the matchup that the Tar Heels will be able to take advantage of.

Syracuse: They just don’t have the size inside to deal with North Carolina’s big men. It’s really that simple. Brice Johnson, Kennedy Meeks and Isaiah Hicks are big enough and physical enough to overpower the Orange front line. It doesn’t help matters that the best lineup that the Orange can put on the floor features a five-man in Tyler Lydon that is generously listed at 200 pounds. Now to be fair, the Orange lost by just five points in the Dean Dome earlier this season, and that happened because they just packed their zone in as much as possible. That could end up working this weekend as well, but the one thing to remember: Joel Berry II and Marcus Paige are hitting threes at a better clip than they were during the middle of the year.

I think the Orange actually match up fairly well with Oklahoma and with Villanova, but the issue is getting past the first game this weekend, which is not going to be an easy task.

Final Four Previews: Ranking the head coaches.

By Raphielle Johnson

1. Roy Williams, North Carolina

Overall Record: 782-208

NCAA tournament record: 66-23; seven Final Four appearances, two national titles (2005, 2009)

Williams is one of two members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame who will coach in this weekend’s Final Four, with the other being his semifinal opponent in Jim Boeheim. Williams has led two of the sport’s most storied programs and enjoyed a great deal of success at both, winning 80.5 percent of his games and making three Final Four appearances at Kansas before returning to his alma mater in 2003.

At North Carolina, Williams’ teams have won 77.3 percent of their games, and he led the Tar Heels to national titles in 2005 and 2009. Williams has now led North Carolina to four Final Four appearances, with this year’s trip being the first for the program since 2009. In both 2005 and 2009 the Tar Heels were the favorites at the Final Four, and that will be the case this weekend as well. Can this group win it all? That remains to be seen.

2. Jim Boeheim, Syracuse

Overall record: 989-346 (not accounting for games vacated by the NCAA)

NCAA tournament record: 53-30; five Final Four appearances, one national title (2003)

Boeheim and Williams, his opponent in the semifinals, have met in a Final Four before. That came back in 2003, when a Hakim Warrick blocked shot preserved the win for Syracuse over Kansas and gave the Orange their first (and only) national title. Boeheim’s led his alma mater to five Final Four appearances, and he’s reached the title game in three of the previous four trips.

Syracuse dropped a heartbreaker to Indiana in the 1987 title game, and nine years later they fell to a Kentucky team that would reach the title game in three straight years (winning in 1996 and 1998). Of the four prior teams Boeheim’s led to the Final Four none had been seeded lower than a four, so this group is a definite outlier given their status as a No. 10 seed.

3. Lon Kruger, Oklahoma

Overall record: 590-360

NCAA tournament record: 20-16; two Final Four appearances

It’s been 22 years since Kruger last led a team to the Final Four, doing so at Florida with a team that included Andrew DeClerq and Dametri Hill. Kruger’s the lone head coach to lead five different teams to the NCAA tournament, with Kansas State, Florida, Illinois and UNLV being the other four. After losing in the round of 64 in each of his first two appearances at Oklahoma, Kruger’s Sooners reached the Sweet 16 last season where the lost to Michigan State.

In addition to taking the five aforementioned schools to the NCAA tournament, Kruger’s managed to take each one to at least the Sweet 16. With guards Buddy Hield, Isaiah Cousins and Jordan Woodard leading the way, Kruger will look to make his first-ever appearance in the national title game.

4. Jay Wright, Villanova

Overall record: 474-242

NCAA tournament record: 18-12; two Final Four appearances

After missing the NCAA tournament in each of his first three seasons at the helm at Villanova, Wright’s led the Wildcats to the Big Dance in 11 of the last 12 seasons. Add in two NCAA tournament appearances while the head coach at Hofstra (2000 and 2001), and Wright has a total of 13 trips to the tournament to his credit. From 2005-2009 Villanova reached at least the second weekend of the NCAA tournament in four of the five seasons, which included a trip to the Final Four in 2009.

After that run Villanova hit a bit of a cold stretch, not getting out of the first weekend in any of their five appearances from 2010 to 2015 and missing the tournament completely in 2012. Wright and the Wildcats got over the hump this year, and Las Vegas odds have them second in line behind North Carolina when it comes to their chances of winning the national title.

Final Four Preview: Ranking the starters in the 2016 Final Four.

By Scott Phillips

The 2016 Final Four features Player of the Year candidates, former McDonald’s All-Americans and solid role players. So who are the players you need to know when the games tip on Saturday?

1. Buddy Hield, Oklahoma — The breakout national star of the NCAA tournament, Hield has drawn national attention for his ability to score. The senior is likely a top-10 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft and his deep shooting range has drawn the attention of basketball fans clamoring for a college version of Steph Curry.
2. Brice Johnson, North Carolina — Another senior who had a breakout year, Johnson is averaging 17.1 points and 10.5 rebounds per game and found himself in the Player of the Year race briefly after a strong stretch in ACC play.
3. Josh Hart, Villanova — The unsung leader of Villanova was one of the best players in the Big East this season, as Hart put up 15.3 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.
4. Michael Gbinije, Syracuse — A former Duke transfer, the senior has carved out a solid career with the Orange as he’s averaging 17.6 points, 4.4 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game.
5. Isaiah Cousins, Oklahoma — Part of the reason Buddy Hield is so successful is the perimeter-shooting threat of Cousins, another senior who acts as Oklahoma’s best distributor.
6. Marcus Paige, North Carolina — The former second-team All-American hasn’t been as effective the past two seasons, but he’s still a major threat as a scorer and distributor.
7. Ryan Arcidiacono, Villanova — Villanova’s senior point guard has put up some hot shooting performances during the NCAA tournament and he’s as steady as it gets with the ball in his hands.
8. Jordan Woodard, Oklahoma — Woodard is the (very good) third perimeter option for the Sooners as he’s shooting 46 percent from 3-point range on the season.
9. Justin Jackson, North Carolina — The native of Texas has scored in double-figures during every NCAA tournament game, and at 6-foot-8, he’s a matchup problem for some smaller teams.
10. Kris Jenkins, Villanova — The junior “stretch-four” has scored double-figures in 13 consecutive games as he’s come on strong at the end of the season. Jenkins’ defense on Perry Ellis was also solid in the Elite Eight win.

THE REST

11. Joel Berry II, North Carolina
12. Daniel Ochefu, Villanova
13. Malachi Richardson, Syracuse
14. Tyler Roberson, Syracuse
15. Ryan Spangler, Oklahoma
16. Kennedy Meeks, North Carolina
17. DaJuan Coleman/Tyler Lydon, Syracuse
18. Jalen Brunson, Villanova
19. Trevor Cooney, Syracuse
20. Khadeem Lattin, Oklahoma

NCAAFB: Report: FanDuel, DraftKings to suspend college sports games.

By Zach Barnett

(Photo/Getty Images)

Remember FanDuel and DraftKings?

The daily fantasy sites that consumed every available millimeter of media last fall have spent the past few months on the down low as attorneys general across the nation inquire as to whether their business models are souped-up fantasy games or straight-up gambling.

As part of that scale back, each site has voluntarily suspended all activity on college sports games, according to a report from David Purdum of ESPN — beginning after Monday night’s basketball national championship.

“[W]e will work closely with the NCAA and lawmakers on a carve-out for collegiate sports in any proposed regulatory framework moving forward,” DraftKings said in a statement to ESPN. “DraftKings is committed to ensuring that fantasy sports players are able to continue to play these skill-based contests that bring them closer to the sports that they love.”

This is a bit of a strategic play for the sites, as college sports accounted for a fraction of their revenue. ESPN notes college football and basketball combine for just three percent of FanDuel’s revenue, while DraftKings sees 1o to 20 times the action on the NFL as compared to college football.

The college sports establishment has long maintained a violent resistance to any and all forms of betting. In October the NCAA prohibited FanDuel and DraftKings from advertising on NCAA championship events.

The SEC quickly followed suit with its own network.

“Is it a form of gambling, is it a form of skill game, and I think there is some question about that,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said last fall. “And I think the appropriate place for us to land as a conference on the SEC Network, again working with ESPN, is not to include that advertising on the SEC Network moving forward.”

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby agreed with Sankey. “We’ve been wrestling with all the issues around DraftKings and FanDuel,” Bowlsby told USA Today, “which I don’t think anybody can suggest isn’t gambling.”

Jim Boeheim's logic: Rules were broken, but Syracuse never cheated. What's Your Take?

By Matt Norlander

Jim Boeheim might as well have been George Costanza up at the podium on Thursday.

Remember, Jerry. It's not a lie if you believe it.

According to Boeheim: It's not cheating if it's not intentional.

Academic fraud, multiple failed drug tests that didn't prevent Syracuse players from losing eligibility, money exchanging hands from a local acquaintance to SU players. Not intentional acts. Not -- technically -- "cheating."

This was the argument the 71-year-old Syracuse coach made on Thursday when asked to reflect on how the NCAA's penalties have affected the well-being of his program. It was an incredible moment of spin for a man who's otherwise taken in this staggering run the Final Four with humility and acknowledgement of his own surprise at making it this far with this 10th-seeded team.

With Syracuse and North Carolina -- the former on probation, the latter awaiting a potentially historic punishment from the NCAA's Committee on Infractions (COI) -- set to play on Saturday in the national semifinals of the NCAA Tournament, the unavoidable showed itself here at NRG Stadium. Boeheim and UNC coach Roy Williams (both men who've been inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame) were asked, repeatedly, about their programs' awkward standing with the NCAA slamming up against the fact they've made it to college basketball's biggest stage.

What Syracuse has done over the past two weeks amounts to one of the best coaching performances of Boeheim's career. In many respects with that, he's never looked better. With this? It's hard to look much worse.

Williams didn't have much to say. He mostly dodged or shrugged off the latest round of inquiries from the press. The 65-year-old described his Carolina program's ongoing account with the NCAA as such: "All that other stuff that sometimes I call 'junk' has been talked about too much."

Boeheim, as has long his strong suit, didn't skirt and, in defending himself, caused a stir among those who don't buy his latest defense of what went wrong at Syracuse for nearly a decade. The NCAA's investigation and punishment into Syracuse officially completed, upon appeal, earlier this season. One of the sanctions upheld was a nine-game suspension, something Boeheim sardonically on Thursday referred to as a "vacation." Now, with a fifth Final Four attached to his résumé, Boeheim fought back and went the semantics route to discredit anyone who wants to call him a cheat, to say his program cheated.

"When they say 'cheating,' that's not true," he said. "Rules being broken is a lot different. Cheating, to me, is intentionally doing something, like you wanted to get this recruit, you arranged a job for him, or you went to see him when you shouldn't. You called him when you shouldn't to gain an edge in recruiting, to get a really good player. That's cheating. I think if something happens that you're not aware of, it doesn't really affect the recruit, I don't look at it the same way."

The NCAA doesn't agree with that, and neither does its president, Mark Emmert. I asked Emmert at his annual state-of-the-NCAA presser about Boeheim's personal dictionary. The NCAA president mostly fell back on the COI's decision, and in doing so, disputed the coach's contentions.

"When those folks looked at the facts, they reached the conclusion that, indeed, violations of our rules and bylaws had occurred and imposed sanctions that were consistent with their view and that behavior," Emmert said. "I'll let coach Boeheim define that how he wants to. But the committee determined these are clear violations of the rules and that, therefore, it warranted some pretty significant sanctions, and they were imposed. ... It's the closest thing you're going to see to 'a jury of your peers' model for as broad an association as this one that includes a wide collection of institutions and members. I have complete confidence in what that body did in this case."

For months Boeheim has been most vocal about the suspension. He wasn't allowed to communicate with his team at all during that time from Dec. 5- Jan. 5. And he's still smarting over the NCAA wiping 106 of his wins off the record books, too. For him, even if rules were broken, no "cheating" happened. The punishment remains unfair, and even though he can't fight it anymore, he'll still remind anyone who will listen how unjust, in his eyes, the punishments ultimately were.

"I think being out nine games is a severe punishment for a coach," he said. "If you don't think that, you just don't know it, you haven't been through it. It's a severe punishment. Losing the games is the most irritating thing to me because there's many situations and past cases where similar things, exact same things happen, and games were not taken away. We presented all that stuff. But, you know, nobody listened. But that was the thing that probably bothered me as much as anything."

Truth is, Boeheim's program did cheat. It's historic in its cheating; so rarely has one program been involved in so many murky issues throughout such a long period of NCAA review. It was so bad that the program's former director of basketball operations was using players' school accounts to help them pass classes, and when the director of athlete support services discovered something was amiss, he was hesitant to report anything because, according to the NCAA, "He had a sense that men's basketball might have 'a little bit of special treatment.'"

We're not done here. A former YMCA employee with ties to a local YMCA handed out cash to five former players for helping out at the gym, an extra benefit so brazen and old-school, it's amazing to think of it happening in the modern college sports climate. Failed drug tests, academic fraud, all of it encompassed the program for the better part of a decade.

Boeheim's defense now, and always has been, I didn't know, therefore I didn't cheat. The same for my assistants. Amazingly, in the same stream of consciousness, Boeheim said this: "Things can happen in your program. You have to take responsibility for them. You have to go on. I've coached 40 years. Yeah, you know, that's something that I regret. I'm not happy about. I don't think we gained any competitive advantage at any time in this whole case that we've been through for 10 years. I think it weighed on us for 10 years and affected recruiting for 10 years. That's just part of the punishment."

Boeheim failed to bring up how the program essentially bargained with the NCAA to not be stripped of it 2003 national title and the 2013 Final Four appearance. And if the program suffered, it's hard to see how that's bearing fruit. Emmert himself said Syracuse's current players deserved to be here, that the punishment system worked. The program instituted a self-ban for the 2015 postseason -- after it was clear the team wouldn't be at-large worthy.

I don't fault Boeheim one bit for saying what he said. It is who he is. It's how you get to 71, how you win nearly 1,000 games, no matter what the NCAA wants to take away. It's also how you put your program in the position that he did. Is 2016 a redemption story for him, for Syracuse?

"I stopped trying to prove people wrong a long time ago," he said.

But he's also never stopped trying to tell people how wrong they are. He never will, either. Boeheim's self-assurance and intransigent attitude make him compelling and one of the most reliable quotes in the business. He can't stop himself from defending who he is and, by extension, the empire he's built over four decades in central New York. It's not a fault, it's a defining character trait.

He can play the semantics game, but no matter the words used, the actions will always outweigh his definitions that follow.

Chicago Sports & Travel, Inc./AllsportsAmerica Take: A fish rots from the head down. What differentiated America from other countries and made us great was, "We were a country of rules and laws. And everyone abided by them." That's not the case today. It's helter skelter, people choose which rules and which laws apply to them. Just like the case above. Academic fraud, multiple failed drug tests that didn't prevent Syracuse players from losing eligibility, money exchanging hands from a local acquaintance to SU players. Not intentional acts. Not -- technically -- "cheating." This was the argument the 71-year-old Syracuse coach made when asked to reflect on how the NCAA's penalties have affected the well-being of his program. And we wonder where our kids are acting the way they are right now. The examples being set by some of today's role models, mentors and so-called icons are seriously misleading our young people into believing winning, (the right way or wrong way), is the only thing. It might sound corny but hard work and fair play truly does really matter. For those of you that believe and those of you that do not, karma still does matter and will eventually come into play.

There is so much parity in college basketball today. There are good players on the school yards everywhere. The smaller schools and mid-majors are starting to come on strong, however, if they watch the bigger schools, they too will feel the only way they can win is to skirt and circumvent the rules. Personally, I feel that if the school, regardless of it's size, is caught breaking or circumventing the rules then it should be suspended for a certain period of time. End of the story, no exceptions. Everyone wants to win and good hard competition where the best team wins makes the games more exciting. The upsets in this year's NCAA "March Madness" Tournament have made the event something special. The smaller schools and mid-majors now feel that they can compete with the big guys and win. It's enhancing their recruiting programs, academic and sports, and driving their school pride to new highs.

When the rules are followed, the competition is hard and everyone has a fair chance, the sport, the school, the students, the alumni and general sports fans will all prosper in one form or another and that will be good for America. My dad told me, "Hard work never killed anybody and when you earn something and learn something, no one can ever take it away from you. Some of the old school ways were the best. I'd love to see us go back to many of them but that's another story for another day and another discussion.

As usual, I've stated my opinion right or wrong, it is mine and I own it. However, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this issue and hear, what's your take? Please go to the comment section at the bottom of this blog and share your thoughts. I love to hear from you and respect your opinion whether I agree with it or not. "If you break rules and they're not intentional, do you consider that cheating?" We're waiting to hear from you..............

Marion P. Jelks, Chicago Sports & Travel, Inc./AllsportsAmerica Editorial Director

On This Date in Sports History: Today is Friday, April 01, 2016.

Memoriesofhistory.com

1919 - The final game of the 1919 Stanley Cup was canceled due to the worldwide epidemic of influenza. No winner was declared in the series between the Montreal Canadiens and the Seattle Metropolitans.

1930 - Leo Hartnett of the Chicago Cubs broke the altitude record for a catch by catching a baseball dropped from the Goodyear blimp 800 feet over Los Angeles, CA.

1931 - Jackie Mitchell became the first female in professional baseball when she signed with the Chattanooga Baseball Club.

1972 - The Major League Baseball Players Association went on strike. The strike lasted 12 days and canceled 86 games.

1978 - Mike Bossy (New York Islanders) became the first NHL rookie to score 50 goals in a season.

1983 - Mike Bossy (New York Islanders) became the first National Hockey League (NHL) player to score 60 goals in 3 consecutive seasons.

1992 - Players began the first strike in the 75-year history of the National Hockey League (NHL).

1996 - U.S. President Bill Clinton threw out the first ball preceding a game between the Kansas City Royals and the Baltimore Orioles.

1996 - Baseball umpire John McSherry died after collapsing during a game between the Cincinnati Reds and Montreal Expos.

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