MARCH 05/11- SPORTS NEWS
NCAA COLLEGE BASKETBALL
NFL - top ten projected 2006 first round picks:
1. Houston Texans – Reggie Bush, RB, USC.
2. New Orleans Saints – Matt Leinart, QB, USC.
3. Tennessee Titans – Vince Young, QB, Texas. T
4. New York Jets – D'Brickashaw Ferguson, OT, Virginia.
5. Green Bay Packers – Mario Williams, DE, North Carolina State.
6. Oakland Raiders – A.J. Hawk, OLB, Ohio State.
7. San Francisco 49ers – Vernon Davis, TE, Maryland.
8. Buffalo Bills – Haloti Ngata, DT, Oregon.
NCAA FOOTBALL Top 5 recruiting classes for 2006
1. Florida: A
The nation's best receiver, the nation's third best quarterback and 11 ESPN 150 players.
2. USC: A
So much for rebuilding. They've filled holes with three talented running backs and
answered defensive needs with two of the nation's top safeties and outside linebackers.
3. Texas: A
Texas struck early to keep most of the top talent in their own state -- only two players
come from outside of Texas.
4. Georgia: A
Despite QB Matthew Stafford being largely anonymous throughout the recruiting process, he is one of the top quarterbacks in the country and will compete for the starting job.
5. Notre Dame: A
Notre Dame increased athleticism and team speed across the board as Charlie Weis parlayed surprising on-field success to the recruiting trails.
NCAA COLLEGE BASKETBALL MARCH MADNESS
10 trends to filling out your NCAA COLLEGE BASKETBAKK MARCH MADNESS BRACKETS more difficult:
1. Reversed trends in 2005: Offense, victory margin and team youth
Last year reversed the course of three key trends that characterized the tourney field.
Over the last 16 years, the scoring offense of tourney qualifiers has steadily declined,
from 82.7 points per game in 1989 to a low of 73.6 in 2004. In 2005, the average scoring of the tourney field actually rose for only the third time during this period. It was only a slight uptick to 74.1 points a game, but it may signal a renaissance for
offensive-minded teams. As we'll see in trend No. 6, offense remains a key indicator of
which teams will advance to the Final Four and beyond. Now it might also signal which
teams get a ticket to the dance.
2. Despite bracket fortunes, last year's tourney was relatively predictable
After high-profile teams such as No. 3 Kansas and No. 4 Syracuse went down in the first
round and No. 2 Wake Forest and top-seeded Duke made early exits.
3. The incredible shrinking mid-major pool has bottomed out, teams such as creighton,butler, wisconsin milwaukke, akron & george mason have not had as much success in the tournament in recant years, because teams are more aware of tehm.
4. Experienced coaching has never been more important
If you need any proof of how critical coaching is to success in the tourney, consider how
the coaching experience grows for schools that advance in the tourney.
5. More experienced teams are making the dance; less experienced teams are advancing
Just as tourney coaches are getting more experienced College programs seem to be able to retool much faster now after failing to make the tourney. The old rule that a tourney-tested team will conquer the bracket no longer applies.
6. Scoring offense remains low, but offensive-minded teams are more likely to advance
Despite the uptick in the scoring averages of the tourney field.
7. Teams are winning by wider relative margins. this rule alway appliy's in the 1st round
when alot of the public thins some mid major can upset a higheer seed and the higer seed comes to play and does not look to the second rd opponent.
8. Tourney qualifiers are deeper than ever . connecticut comes to mind in this scenerio,
this team is as deep as any jim calhoun coached team, a number 2 seed that comes to mind is ohio state.
9. Backcourts have grown more important for making the tourney, but strong frontcourts
determine champions.
10. Tourney teams are getting younger, especially champions. with recruiting values
changing nba rules, coaches can now go after high school stars with winning on their mind wheter it is for 1 year or 4 years as north carolinas marvin williams did in 2005,
williams was a key part in the tar heels 2005 championship team and was the 2nd overall pick in the 2005 nba draft.
NBA- Kobe Bryant will be the centerpiece of the new-look USA Basketball team that is expected to improve upon a disappointing bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics.
bryant joins Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James and 20 other players
Lamar Odom, Shawn Marion, Amare Stoudemire and Dwyane Wade -- members of the 2004 Athens team -- also were selected to the roster. They will be joined by Gilbert Arenas, Shane Battier, Chauncey Billups, Chris Bosh, Bruce Bowen and Elton Brand.
Others on the roster include Dwight Howard, Antawn Jamison, Joe Johnson, Brad Miller,
Chris Paul, Paul Pierce, Michael Redd and Luke Ridnour. College players J.J. Redick (Duke) and Adam Morrison (Gonzaga) also were chosen.
NBA - suns @ mavericks recap. After completing his second career triple-double, Phoenix
Suns center Boris Diaw credited his defense for his strong play.
Diaw had 24 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, and helped limit Dallas Dirk Nowitzki to
three points in the fourth quarter as the Suns extended their winning streak to a
season-high 10 games with a 115-107 victory over the Mavericks on Sunday.
NFL - Apparently all the NFL labor talks have established is that there is no such thing as a deadline.
Hours after negotiations between representatives of the NFL and the Players Association broke off Sunday in an attempt to reach a new collective bargaining agreement, both sides again agreed to postpone free agency another 72 hours.
Free agency originally was to begin on Friday, then was pushed back to Monday as both
sides tried to hammer out a deal to extend the CBA, which runs through 2007 but ends with an uncapped year.
The owners made a new proposal to Players Association executive director Gene Upshaw on Sunday, but no agreement was reached before the latest deadline.
However, the deadline was pushed back again after Upshaw presented the owners with a proposal on Sunday night.
We have to give the owners a chance to have their meeting and vote on our package, Upshaw said. The owners will meet in Dallas on Tuesday to consider the union's proposal.
MLB- former minnesota twins outfielder and hall of famer Kirby Puckett was in critical condition Monday after surgery for a stroke, and the Minnesota Twins asked fans to pray for the Hall of Fame outfielder.
The 44-year-old Puckett, who led the Twins to two World Series championships before his career was cut short by glaucoma, was stricken Sunday at his Arizona home.
He remained in intensive care at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, hospital
spokeswoman Kimberly Lodge said. Puckett was moved to the hospital after surgery at
Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn. Tough day, former Twins manager Tom Kelly said Monday at the Twins' training camp. "The Minnesota Twins and major league baseball ask fans to keep Kirby and his family in their thoughts and prayers," the team said in a statement.
Ron Shapiro, who was Puckett's agent, said a day earlier he had been in contact with
Puckett's family
NHL - Carolina left wing Erik Cole will miss at least the rest of the regular season with a compression fracture in a vertebra in his neck caused when he was driven headfirst into the boards by Pittsburgh's Brooks Orpik during a 7-5 Hurricanes victory Saturday night.
NBA - after knocking off the detroit pistons on satruday, kobe bryant and the los
angeles lakers host the defending nba champion, San Antonio Spurs tonight at the staples center in los angeles, the lakers can only hope to contains the suprs and all star tim duncan. a victory would give the lakers a mountain of confidence for the rest of the
season.
NCAA COLLEGE BASKETBALL MARCH MADNESS- senior Terence Dials scored 20 points in his last game at value city arena in columbus and the ninth-ranked Buckeyes broke the game open with a 14-2 blitz to start the second half to beat Purdue 76-57 on Sunday, clinching their first outright Big Ten title in 14 years. the buckeyes have an outside chaance at a number
1 seed in the upcoming ncaa march madness tournament, and are surely a number 2 seed.
NCAA COLLEGE BASKETBALL MARCH MADNESS - Southern Illinois was struggling entering the Missouri Valley Conference tournament, having dropped three of four.
Randal Falker's 17 points and career-high 16 rebounds powered a 59-46 victory over Bradley in the championship game on Sunday, leading the Salukis to their fifth straight berth in the NCAA tournament, the missouri valley could have as many as 6 teams in the ncaa march madness college basketball tournament with Bradley, creighton, wichita state, northern iowa and sw missouri state all in the mix,this is almost unheard of from a mid major conference.
NCAA COLLEGE BASKETBALL MARCH MADNESS- after completeing a great season under new head basketball coach bruce pearl the university of had a bit of bad new on monday as basketball players Anthony Passley and Jordan Smith were charged with possession of crack cocaine and suspended indefinitely from the team.
Passley, a redshirt transfer, and Smith, a walk-on, were arrested early Sunday, Knoxville
police spokesman Darrell DeBusk said Monday.
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