Tuesday, May 31, 2011

The Downfall Of Jim Tressel - Terrelle Pryor facing significant inquiry










The Downfall Of Jim Tressel

to read the aricle click HERE
It's about time!!!!! I love the Bucks and now it is time to show our perserverence!


Terrelle Pryor facing significant inquiry

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- On the same day coach Jim Tressel resigned in the wake of an NCAA investigation, The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that the NCAA and Ohio State are looking into whether star quarterback Terrelle Pryor received cars and other extra benefits.
Pryor, who will be a senior this fall, has already been interviewed at least once by investigators, the paper reported.
The newspaper cited unnamed sources who said this is the most significant inquiry of Pryor. The NCAA and Ohio State are also probing more than 50 car purchases by Buckeyes players, their families and friends.
He and four other players have been suspended for the first five games this fall for accepting improper benefits from a local tattoo-shop owner. A sixth player, freshman linebacker Jordan Whiting, who received a discount on tattoos, must sit out the first game of the 2011 season. Tressel knew of those benefits and did not report it to Ohio State or NCAA officials.
Tressel resigned early Monday citing NCAA violations which he said had "been a distraction" for Ohio State.
The newspaper's sources say that Pryor has been connected to at least six vehicles during his time at Ohio State.
Ohio State spokesman Jim Lynch would not confirm to the newspaper whether Pryor is being investigated.
"The university continues to work with the NCAA as they investigate matters involving our football program, and we will continue to do so until the conclusion of the investigation," Lynch said. "We are unable to comment on specific players' situations because of federal law."
The Dispatch reported in January that Pryor had been stopped three times for traffic violations over the past three years, each time driving cars that were owned by a car salesman or a Columbus used-car dealership where the salesman worked.
The salesman, Aaron Kniffin, told the newspaper that while working at a dealership in 2008, he allowed Pryor to drive his SUV to Pryor's hometown of Jeannette, Pa., and show it to his mother. Pryor did not buy the vehicle.

“I sign a lot of stuff for Buckeye fans -- I don't like to turn down fans. But I don't do it to get any favors or discounts.

” -- Terrelle Pryor

Kniffin also said he arranged for Pryor to use a 2009 Dodge while Pryor's car was being worked on at another dealership where Kniffin worked.
"He looked at a lot of cars," Kniffin told ESPN "Outside the Lines" reporter Tom Farrey.
Kniffin said Pryor had a white Hyundai Sonata when he met him. But he wanted a better car, and so in 2008 Kniffin, as a salesman at Jack Maxton Chevrolet, loaned him a 2004 GMC Yukon Denali. He was ticketed in that vehicle for speeding in eastern Ohio. Pryor didn't buy the Denali because, according to Kniffin, family members didn't approve.
Pryor later traded in his Sonata for a Dodge Charger, acquiring it, according to Kniffin, through a dealership near his hometown of Jeannette. "His dealer always seemed to have a better price than me," Kniffin said.
Still, Pryor kept turning to Kniffin for cars, or at least loaner cars. He test-drove a Dodge Challenger worth close to $20,000 before that deal was nixed, Kniffin said, by Ohio State officials. "They wouldn't let him drive it because it was too high-profile," he said.
Kniffin said Pryor never ended up buying a car from him.
At least one of the dealerships has dozens of autographed jerseys hanging up inside its offices. Pryor said, at the time, that he doesn't remember signing his jersey that hangs in the dealership.
"I sign a lot of stuff for Buckeye fans -- I don't like to turn down fans," he said. "But I don't do it to get any favors or discounts."
Investigators are also looking into Pryor's relationship with a businessman in his hometown, Ted Sarniak, who has served as his mentor. Sarniak was a prominent player in the recruitment of Pryor, considered the nation's No. 1 quarterback recruit when he graduated from high school.
Ohio State has refused an Associated Press records request seeking communications between Ohio State officials, coaches, Tressel and Sarniak, citing a federal privacy law that shields students.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Buckeyes Ray Small Getting Blasted by Former Buckeyes

You have to go to this website to read all of the tweets and comments by former Buckeyes about Ray Small.

click HERE

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Video of the Space Shuttle's Junk Parts Falling Back to Earth........Amazing! -


I know this has nothing to do with sports, but it is awesome! Watch as you can ride along with the space shuttle and fall back to earth with the junk parts. Simply amazing!!
This is a much watch whether you are a sports fan, or not!!!!!

The Earth starts spinning and warping; spiky lens flares streak out from the sun; a trail of smoke from the other lost booster angles across the frame.
Then all goes black but for two demonlike eyes of light. A dragon growls. Then: all black. A sudden explosion of light and a raptor's scream. A strange symbol appears and metamorphoses into jellyfish, mushrooms, space flowers, parachutes. A last wrenching clank of sound as a setting sun appears and we splash down into the Atlantic, the parachutes settling into the sea.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

The Deadspin Guide To The New ESPN Book - WVU head coach-in-waiting booted from casino - Lakers to Hire Mike Brown

If the Lakers really do hire Mike Brown, then have fun showtime fans. Ha! Ha! Is all I can say. We had this idiot for way too many years in Cleveland. L.A. will no longer be known as showtime, but with Brown they will be known as slowtime. Mike Brown couldn't handle Prince James, Z, Boobie,so how in the heck will he be able to handle Kobe, Artest, Odem? That's right he can't! If this happens, I feel sorry for the Lakers, but hey, we put put up with him, so now it is someone elses turn to watch their team fail to reach their potential under Mike Brown.





The Deadspin Guide To The New ESPN Book

This is a great read for any sportscenter fan! Buy the book or go to deadspin.com and read more on these topics listed below.

The new ESPN oral history, Those Guys Have all the Fun, is now available in stores. We've been having some fun with the book in recent days. Mixed in with our usual sober analysis of satellite transponder rights and ESPN's dual-revenue-stream model, we've also brought you many tales of ESPN people screwing other ESPN people, in both senses of the word. What we've learned thus far:

Michelle Beadle watched the Erin Andrews peephole video | "I felt bad for her. She looked fabulous but it was such a violation. ... I think things might have been handled differently, but she seems to be moving on. Sometimes these things turn out better for people." READ »

Those guys have all the fur | "You hear about the 'Rug Races?' Well, [redacted] had this place near [redacted] and we used to go out there for meetings a couple times a year. There was a lot of drinking that went on there, a ton of drinking. [Redacted] and his buddies apparently called these hookers and in front of [redacted], he got them to lie naked on the floor on their backs with their legs spread ..." READ »

ESPN was basically Studio 54, give or take some disco music | "There was screwing in the hallways. Okay, maybe not in the hallways, but there were a couple of stairwell stories…. There were drugs in the building, that I knew." READ »

The decision about LeBron James's Decision was an orgy of self-interest, with Jim Gray on top | "I worked for this. I created this. I came up with the concept. Maverick Carter and Ari Emanuel are two of the most stand-up, honorable, loyal people I've been engaged with in television, in all my thirty-five years. When ESPN wanted to replace me and throw me under the bus, they stood firm and said, 'No, Jim Gray is with us.'" READ »

Bill Simmons is not "intimidatable" | "And I'm just sitting there with a big smile on my face, like, Oh, it's great that we finally met, and within five minutes I disarmed him, but [ESPN executive Norby Williamson] still had to go into the whole 'People here don't think you're a team player, you think the rules don't apply to you.' And I said, 'I'm actually kind of feeling like maybe they shouldn't to some degree.'" READ »

Also, Simmons seems to hate everything about ESPN | "Nothing against Bristol, but I do worry that it becomes a little cultish after a while. ... At the cafeteria, there's Mike and Mike getting a sandwich and there's Matthew Berry and, hey, there's Mark Schlereth." READ »

No one is having any of the fun — not ESPN, not the book's publisher, and not post-lobotomy Mike Tirico | The network is convening emergency meetings, and the book's publisher, Little, Brown, is sending out cease-and-desists. And here's what Mike Tirico says about all that unpleasantness: "Most of the people over time who have worked with me have enjoyed working with me. I hope they have. At least they said they have, and I hope they always will." READ »

Chris Berman blames Tony Kornheiser for "You're with me, Leather" | "In the mid-nineties, somebody said I was in a bar and used a pickup line on a woman wearing leather and she left with me. I really didn't know what they were talking about. But a colleague of mine, Mr. Kornheiser, chose to run with it, and the Internet chose to run with it for years. I don't even know what 'it' is, but it's a very dangerous thing, especially when a colleague piles on and gives credence to it." READ »
• Also: Rick Chandler's "You're with me, leather" source resurfaces, swears it's all true

Berman is a sockpuppet and proud of it: "I'm a simple guy. I don't watch TV. I don't go on the Internet. So I never watched Playmakers, but I knew if the league was pissed, I probably should be pissed." READ »

Keith Olbermann once calculated that he deserved an 887 percent raise | "Based on the reported profits of the Today show and the salaries of its key figures, a fair ratio was to pay your talent a total figure of about 10 percent of their show's profits. Working off numbers I had gotten from a sales guy in the N.Y.C. office, I calculated that the correct salaries for Dan and me were about $2,750,000 a year. And a year and a half later, Fox offered me a contract for something like $2,813,000 a year. The top salary paid to anybody doing SportsCenter had been whatever I was getting, which I think topped out around $310,000 a year." READ »

Dick Ebersol was pretty perceptive this one time | "ESPN basically has to have one of their talent talk about Hitler or put a picture of their dick on a phone — which is what that Salisbury guy did — before they'll do anything about any of these various crazies, because they don't have to. Nobody can touch them." READ »



WVU head coach-in-waiting booted from casino
Kind of makes you miss Rich-Rod doesn't it?
Gotta be honest with y’all. When my phone started blowing up with a link to a story about West Virginia’s offensive coordinator/head coach-in-waiting getting “escorted” from a casino at three or so in the morning a week or so ago, my initial reaction was — and I’m paraphrasing myself here — (chuckle).

I mean, it’s Dana Holgorsen we’re talking about here; hell, the fact that naked bongos being played on a blackjack table apparently wasn’t involved may have been, at least initially, the most startling part of the “situation”.
The thing is, though, this story involves the future head coach — we think — of a football program that’s a member of a BcS conference — technically, and for now — so it might be worth at least taking note of. With that said…
Citing multiple unnamed sources, the Charleston Daily Mail is reporting, and we’ll quote them verbatim here, “Holgorsen was removed from Mardi Gras Casino & Resort after 3 a.m. May 18.”. The paper further expounds on the alleged situation involving the future head coach of the Mountaineers:
Holgorsen’s behavior allegedly reached a point that necessitated involvement from on-site security, sources said. Holgorsen was escorted out of the casino with the episode caught on surveillance. University representatives who were with Holgorsen were said to have then intervened. No arrest was made.
Police records indicate Metro 911 received a call from the casino at 3:13 a.m. that night. A “white male” was said to be “refusing to cooperate with the casino’s management.” Casino supervisors had the male detained at the time.
While my pretend sources would like to pretend that the lack of Busch Tall Boys cold or otherwise was somehow involved, it’s unclear at this point in time what “necessitated involvement from on-site security”. I’ll guarantee, though, that I’d pay good money for that surveillance “episode”. And would bet the same good money that it involves a tank-topped, cargo-shorted Holgorsen and the words “dude” or “duuude” a lot if audio is available.
Regardless, the university is aware of the alleged episode, and issued a statement to the paper that broke the story.
“Athletic director Oliver Luck and head coach Bill Stewart have been made aware of the alleged incident. Once they have all the facts, they will deal with it appropriately,” Michael Fragale, the assistant athletic director for communications, told the Daily Mail.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Indians Win Again - Dale Earnhardt Jr. close to extension - RIP Macho Man Randy Savage




RIP Macho Man

A great article on Macho Man click here


Dale Earnhardt Jr. close to extension

CONCORD, N.C. -- Hendrick Motorsports is close to finalizing a multiyear extension with Dale Earnhardt Jr., team owner Rick Hendrick said Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Hendrick hopes to announce the deal within the next month. He would not give specifics, saying most of the major points are agreed on and the extension would keep NASCAR's most popular driver at HMS for another three to five years after the current five-year deal expires in 2012.
"We know we want to be together and we just want to get this over with," said Hendrick, who told ESPN.com last year he was working on the extension. "It shows I'm committed to him and he's committed to us."
Hendrick has been committed to making Earnhardt a champion since the driver left Dale Earnhardt Inc., after the 2007 season to join his organization. He made a major move during the offseason, moving Earnhardt into the same shop with five-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and pairing him with Steve Letarte, Jeff Gordon's long-time crew chief.
Asked about the extension following the preliminary to the All-Star race, Earnhardt said, "Whatever [Hendrick] says is probably true.''
"I'm excited to be where I am," Earnhardt continued. "From my heart, it's an amazing organization. There are some great, great people there. I've learned a lot being around there. It's made me a better person. We've still got a lot of things we would like to accomplish on the racetrack. If I get an opportunity to stick around I'm excited about that.
"We've just been talking about it. I don't think we'll have any trouble."
Earnhardt was fourth in points heading into Saturday's All-Star race.
"He and Stevie ... it's just that magic right now," Hendrick said. "They have confidence in each other and like each other. So much of this thing is confidence and getting the right guys to communicate. The team believes in him and he believes in them."
Hendrick said Earnhardt's decision to call a team meeting to apologize for a pit road violation that cost the team a top-10 finish following the recent Darlington race was another sign of a renewed dedication.
"There is a tremendous change," Hendrick said. "There's a tremendous confidence level. When he got all the crew together after the race and said, 'Hey, I made a mistake and I'm sorry,' I never saw Dale do that. He'd go to the coach."
Hendrick said from the outset the pressure was on him to make Earnhardt, who has said he would like to retire at HMS, a winner. He believes they're headed in the right direction.
"I took on a big challenge and felt like I failed," he said of making the crew chief change after Earnhardt missed the Chase the last two seasons. "It's amazing when you think all the equipment is the same. So what's the big difference? The big difference is communication and confidence.
"You can't just tell somebody that. They've got to feel it and believe it. So I'm looking for a great finish [to the season] and I just think they''e going to get better and better every week."





Indians Win Again!

CLEVELAND -- For the first time this season, a national TV audience finally experienced the Indians' late-inning karma.
Funny enough, Cleveland's manager watched it on the tube, too.
Asdrubal Cabrera's two-out RBI double in the eighth inning -- the latest big hit delivered by Cleveland's shortstop -- rallied the Indians to a slippery 3-2 win over the Red Sox on Monday night, another dramatic victory for a team that believes there is no deficit too big to overcome.
"We're just going out and winning ballgames," Indians starter Justin Masterson said. "It's a different person every night. It's been a lot of fun."
With a steady rain falling, Cabrera, who went 5-for-5 with two homers and five RBIs on Sunday, drove his double off reliever Daniel Bard (1-4) to the wall in left field, scoring Michael Brantley and helping the Indians win their fourth straight and improve to 19-4 at home.
The win was the Indians' eighth in their last at-bat at home this season.
"It's kind of what we do," Masterson said with a shrug.
Cabrera also homered in the fourth, and has nine hits in his last 11 at-bats.
Joe Smith (2-1) got one out in the eighth, and closer Chris Perez got out of a first-and-third situation in the ninth by getting Carl Crawford, one of the toughest players in baseball to double up, to bounce into a game-ending double play for his 13th save.
"Who would have thought that you would get a double play on Carl Crawford?" asked Indians manager Manny Acta, who had to watch the game on a TV adjacent to Cleveland's dugout after being ejected in the eighth. "These guys always feel like they have a chance to win."
Trailing 2-1 and being held in check by Boston starter Clay Buchholz, the Indians came up with another does of late-inning magic.
They tied it when Jack Hannahan singled, pinch-runner Adam Everett moved up on a groundout and scored on Brantley's two-out RBI single off Bard. The Indians then took the lead on Cabrera's double.
Cleveland has continued to win despite not having two of its top players, Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner, who are on the disabled list.
"We have to scratch and claw and do everything we can until those two big guys are back," Acta said. "We need to hang in there."
The loss could have been doubly costly for the Red Sox, but the team got a positive report afterward on All-Star second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who injured his left foot in the eighth and had to come out.
Pedroia hurt the foot he had surgery on in September when he fell over second base while trying to go to third in the eighth. He was rounding second on Adrian Gonzalez's single to right when he slipped on the wet base and fell awkwardly. He scrambled on his belly back to the base safely. Pedroia laid with his face in the dirt as a team trainer and manager Terry Francona jogged out to check on the former AL MVP.
"It's kind of like a stinger," Pedroia said. "It took a little while to get the feeling back in my leg. It stinks, man."
Francona will stick with his previous plan and have Pedroia sit out Tuesday.
Crawford homered for the Red Sox, who lost for just the second time in 10 games and missed a chance to move into first-place in the AL East.
Buchholz allowed just two runs and four hits in 7 1/3 innings, but Bard couldn't hold the Indians.
Boston was making its second visit to Cleveland this season. The Red Sox were swept in a three-game series in early April, dropping them to 0-6. But they've recovered from the awful start and are finally playing like the team many predicted would win it all in 2011.
Just not against the Indians.
A major, $142 million-over-seven-years disappointment so far with the Red Sox, Crawford snapped a 1-1 tie in the fifth with just his second homer. He turned on a 1-1 pitch from Masterson, driving it over the wall in right for his first homer since April 27.
He had a chance to be a hero in the ninth, but Crawford hit a hard grounder right at second baseman Orlando Cabrera. He flipped it to Asdrubal Cabrera, who fired to first for the double play.
"He hit it right on the nose," Francona said. "But it was in the one place they could turn a double play."
As hot as any hitter in the game, Cabrera tied it 1-1 with his 10th homer. It was Cabrera's seventh straight hit, four shy of the team record held by Hall of Famer Tris Speaker in 1920. Cabrera flied out in the sixth to end his streak.
The Red Sox went up 1-0 in the third on a perfectly executed hit-and-run single by Pedroia.

Game notes
Gonzalez is just the fourth Red Sox player since 1920 to have at least 65 hits and 40 RBIs through the club's first 40 games. The others: Ted Williams (1948), Jim Rice (1978) and Manny Ramirez (2001). Gonzalez came to Boston in a December trade from San Diego. "It's nice to see it in person," Francona said. "You make a trade of that magnitude, you've got a pretty good idea of what a guy can do, but when you see a really good hitter in the midst of a good streak, it is fun to watch." ... The Indians said Cabrera on Sunday joined Cincinnati's Roy McMillan (1960) as the only shortstops since 1946 to go 5-for-5 with two homers and five RBIs in a game. Cabrera leads all AL shortstops in runs, hits, homers and RBIs.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Year of the scandal - Tressel, OSU prove an awkward backdrop for Big 10 - Tressel has to pay for his lawyers




Year of the scandal
A great article from espn the mag written by Ryan McGee
excellent read!!

"THE NOISE NEVER STOPS." That was Bruce Pearl's beleaguered declaration to a small handful of friends and reports as he stood in the tuneel of Charlotte's Time Warner Cable Arena on March 18, moments before Tennessee's NCAA Tourney opener against Michigan.
His season began with a tearful admission that he had lied to the NCAA about recruiting violations. University-imposed sanctions, a contract termination and an eight-game suspension soon followed, but the tar-and-feathering lasted for months. The buzz around his job security crescendoed two days before the Michigan game, when his athletic director, Mike Hamilton, told a Knoxville radio station that he was uncertain if Pearl would return as men's basketball coach. For 48 hours, those words permeated every space of Pearl's life, from press conferences to his hotel room TV to the Twitter account that he ultimately decided to ignore.
He trudged, bleary-eyed, onto the court, where his team was hammered by 30. It was the worst, and last, loss of his Tennessee career. When he left the floor two hours later, a dead coach walking, he actually looked relieved.
"Punishment for your transgressions is always hard," he said. "But now, it never stops. Even while you sleep, people are out there, digging. When you get up, you don't know what you'll read or hear about yourself or anyone."
Welcome to collegiate sports, stumbling into the summer after the most titillating and titan-toppling 12 months since a BMOC first buttoned up a varsity sweater. Over the past year, muck has been tracked around the infield of the College World Series by Arizona State, over midcourt at the Final Four by UConn, and across the 50 at the BCS national championship on the cleats of both Auburn's Heisman winner, Cam Newton, and the team charged with stopping him, Oregon. Even those who operated that game, the executives of the Fiesta Bowl, have been brought down for illegal political contributions, inspiring a 276-page investigation that includes a subsection titled "Strip club visits."
The problems now run so deep that they have damaged the reputation of programs and players in the eyes of NFL front offices, not a group that typically loses sleep over issues of morality. And the mire has spread beyond the revenue sports, seeping into every corner of once-proud athletic departments. In early May, Boise State was told it was being investigated for "lack of institutional control" by the NCAA, not so much because of its minor football infractions, but because of the school's inability to monitor rampant issues within & women's tennis. And while Bama's football squad will always dominate the headlines, the Tide's entire athletic department went on three years' probation in 2009 after the school self-reported that student-athletes from 16 different sports were given impermissible benefits.
This rampage of rule-bending has campus compliance officers scrambling, searching for answers within their stacks of three-ring binders marked with the NCAA's familiar blue-circle, block-letter logo. The volumes are ever-expanding, designed to cover everyone from USC to the tiniest Division III colleges. Their pages have been written, one reaction at a time, over a century. New problems lead to new solutions, which produce new stacks of pages to be mailed out to 1,281 member institutions. The result is a labyrinth of words that, while well-intentioned, have become as complicated to enforce as they are to interpret.
"There is an undeniable sense that we are in a constant game of catch-up," says Holden Thorp, chancellor of the University of North Carolina. Thorp found himself on the front lines last summer when the Tar Heels football squad faced charges of improper involvement with sports agents and academic misconduct. "Everything in college athletics has become so big so fast, and it never stops evolving," he says. "Our job as the policemen of college athletics, be it the NCAA or the schools, is to evolve with it. And quickly."
On May 9, the NCAA enforcement division launched a new website to educate the public and, more important, member institutions and student-athletes on how its processes work. The next day, 30 national-media members went to Indianapolis for the "NCAA Enforcement Experience," a daylong, step-by-step mock investigation of fictional, über-evil State University. By day's end, member schools following on a live chat were asking about doing an Experience in person. "We as a group have let it get to this point," says TCU athletic director Chris Del Conte. "Athletic administrators, coaches, university presidents. I think there's a real feeling across the board of, Okay, enough. How embarrassed do we need to be before we rein this in?"
Athletes are going to do whatever they can to win. Those who stand to profit most from those athletes -- coaches and agents -- will do even more. When they all push back against the rules together, it creates a critical mass of malfeasance that rolls in and out on waves. History has shown that such periods can be both destructive and cleansing. It happened in the 1980s with the SWC and SMU's Death Penalty. It happened again in the 1990s with Big Ten basketball, from Michigan paydays to Minnesota's term-paper-writing secretary. And it's happening now, seemingly everywhere. The earlier eras began with, and were ultimately toppled by, a certain tip or tool. This era is crashing 140 characters at a time.
Chancellor Thorp learned about UNC football's suspected ties to pro agents the same way that we all did, when defensive tackle (and New York Giants' 2011 second-round draft pick) Marvin Austin tweeted a few too many South Beach party updates. Back then, Thorp, who once fancied himself web-savvy because he posted a blog, was actually a social-media novice. But Dec. 5, 2010, marked a new step in the chancellor's evolution: @chanthorp officially joined Twitter.
And it's not just the big schools that have increased their vigilance. "There will always be something," says a compliance officer at one small Division II school. "It was letters, then cellphones, then texts and now Twitter. There's no way to get ahead of it. Rather, we all have to react." Like most of her colleagues, she is happy to talk, but only if assured anonymity, perhaps to protect her good name should the school find itself in trouble. Or perhaps it is because she is embarrassed about her undying love for the 1994 college basketball flick Blue Chips, currently playing on her office TV. "Oh, my god, this is the best scene," she says. Nick Nolte's character is Pete Bell, a Bob Knightish hoops coach who's been busted. Big time. He assembled an all-star squad via unsavory means, allowing a booster to lure recruits with cash, homes and, um, a tractor.
"Boys, the rules don't make much sense," Coach Bell growls from the TV, addressing his team in their moment of greatest triumph. "But I believe in the rules. Some of us broke them. I broke them. I can't do this. I can't win like this." Then, Coach Bell, in his powder blue sweater, walks into the press room, delivers an "I've become what I despise" tirade and quits.
The compliance officer claps her hands, laughs and then fantasizes aloud. "Just once I want someone to do that for real. Give that same speech. Call out the jerk that caused the whole problem, someone who more than likely never even went to the school. Call out the reporter who broke the story. And then point at all these three-ring binders and explain how ridiculous they might be, but how necessary they all are." Then, with a wink, she adds: "You know, there's a coach who could do that right now. It would rock the world. And he wears sweaters, too."
She is speaking of Jim Tressel. These days, everyone speaks of Tressel, the Ohio State coach who knew of the merchandise-for-benefits scandal some call Tattoogate a full eight months before it was revealed by chance, through an unrelated FBI investigation of a tattoo-parlor owner. In recent weeks, OSU's "improper benefit" problems have graduated from free arm ink to cut-rate Chryslers. As the school investigates a May 7 story in The Columbus Dispatch that alleges car dealers gave perks to OSU players and their families, Coach Tressel will be at a Tampa resort for a five-day NCAA compliance seminar in June as part of his school-imposed punishment.
"The part that none of us understands is pretty simple and profoundly confusing," says a compliance officer at a Big East school. "When Tressel had obviously been made aware of a potentially very large mess, why didn't he just walk down the hall and hand it off? Their compliance office is very good."
They are also battle-hardened. After a debilitating basketball recruiting scandal that landed Ohio State on probation and stripped them of their 1999 Final Four visit, they even chose a former NCAA enforcement officer to head up the department, which now has six full-time employees. But instead of taking the issue to the people hired to protect the program, Tressel chose to handle it himself. Among some coaches and players, his one-man circling of the wagons has been hailed as an act of loyalty. But among many college administrators it is viewed as a cover-up.
Tressel's initial assertion that he hadn't told anyone about the violations was proved false by his own e-mail conversations with a player's mentor. None of the messages, uncovered by The Dispatch, were cc'ed to Ohio State officials.Tressel, like most coaches, is a state employee. That means his e-mail and phone records are subject to open records requests by the media and public (see page 55). And that transparency makes covering up transgressions even harder.
When asked about Pearl, everyone from fellow coaches to compliance officers to athletic directors contend that his main violations (hosting a cookout for recruits, impermissible phone calls and incidental contact with a high school recruit) were far from heinous. But like Tressel, his concealment afterward exacerbated the situation. Also like Tressel, so did his naivete. Pearl's denials unraveled when a snapshot of the cookout surfaced, and the illegal calls were dug up by Comply & Verify technology, an algorithm that analyzes phone records to spot questionable patterns and frequencies in calls made and received.
"It wasn't so long ago that you would have handled that situation exactly like [Ohio State], and it would have been no big thing at all," says retired football coach Bill Dooley, whose 35-year career included stints at North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest. "Call the kids in your office, chew them out, call their mamas, bench 'em for a little while and it was over. An old-school-style coach is going to think he can still do it that way. But back then, just 10 years ago, the circle of people you had to control was tiny. A few players, coaches, the athletic director, maybe a reporter. Now that circle is, well, hell, it's the whole world."
It is players and wannabe players, boosters and wannabe boosters. It is 200 million users on Twitter, half a billion on Facebook, bloggers and message-board junkies. Voices and opinions, whether they are liars or Pulitzer winners, are no longer bound by the chains of regionalism. They've gone global in an age when keeping secrets is impossible and a volume knob stuck on 10 converts one-liners from the transaction page into headlines. For a high-profile coach like Pearl, the digital storm that his actions created contributed as much to his dismissal as the actions themselves. "Once it's out there, it's out there, true or false," says Debbie Yow, athletic director at NC State. "And I have yet to see someone get water to go back up into the faucet."
The question remains: Is the integrity of collegiate athletics actually at an all-time low, or does the Internet-fueled cyclone of news and bloviation just make it feel that way?
"Listen, this is not the wild, wild west that we had in the 1970s and '80s," says Mark Marquess, Stanford's head baseball coach since 1977. "But there is no doubt that everyone is under more scrutiny now. Even the smallest violations or investigations are reported like the big ones. If there's an upside, that scrutiny has forced schools to be more proactive with compliance than reactive."
So what's the downside of better policing? Depends on the coach. "It's no secret that head coaches at big programs are now more CEO than coach," says Bill Stewart, about to start his final football season patrolling West Virginia's sideline. "But you can't use that as an excuse. Some guys do. Do we have more to keep track of now? Sure. But if we're going to take the big paycheck we also have to take the big responsibility. What did they teach us all in kindergarten? If you decide to break the rules you have to be willing to live with the embarrassment of standing in the corner in front of everybody."
Thirty years ago, few, if any, schools had a staffer assigned to compliance. Now, it seems every member institution, no matter how large or small, has an office staffed with law-school graduates. Stadium skyboxes are stocked with NCAA literature, and team websites are loaded with pages to educate boosters, alums and staff on the do's and don'ts of compliance protocol.
Since 2000, the NCAA's enforcement division has added a dozen investigators. NCAA president Mark Emmert, a former college president (most recently at Washington), who began his job in the middle of this scandalous year, has pledged to hire more, saying during the Enforcement Experience: "I'm committed to adding as many as we need to maintain proper, even enforcement." Those investigators, many of whom have experience on the federal and state level, will quickly learn how to sift through all the noise, whether it be a football player tweeting too much information (UNC), a story broken by the media (Cam Newton's recruitment) or information uncovered by federal or police investigations (Ohio State). Without subpoena power, the NCAA must rely on its ability to use these bits of information overload as tools.
"Everyone has gotten better at what they do on all sides," says Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe, a former NCAA director of enforcement who made his name during the most notorious scandal of them all: SMU football's Death Penalty. "The NCAA does better investigating. Journalists are better at reporting. And the schools are better at policing themselves."
So, might better awareness lead to a decrease in scandals? Not so fast, says Beebe. "The problem is the idiots out there, the ones from the outside who end up causing most of the problems," he says. "They are also better at being idiots than they used to be." And that means coaches have to be a lot smarter when forced to deal with them.
See you next year.



Tressel, OSU prove an awkward backdrop

A cloud has covered the Big Ten meetings this year, and while Ohio State's bad behavior may not have overwhelmed them, it does certainly darken the mood. Asked for the impact of the Ohio State situation on the Big Ten so far, Commissioner Jim Delany said, "A lot of interest, and I don't think it's positive." Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez was more blunt. "You need to talk to Ohio State about that," Alvarez said. "I'm not going there." ... In a year when the conference is in the process of welcoming new member Nebraska, integrating three other new football coaches and pondering issues as serious as potentially increasing scholarship aid to help athletes with living expenses, Jim Tressel wasn't in a place to serve as a face of the conference he's dominated.



Tressel has to pay for his lawyers
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Ohio State will not have to pay for Jim Tressel's legal team as the Buckeyes' coach defends himself against NCAA charges that the knew his players received improper benefits but didn't report it.
Athletic director Gene Smith, attending Big Ten meetings in Chicago with Tressel on Wednesday, confirmed to the AP in a text message that the coach is responsible for his own lawyers.
Tressel, in his 11th year at Ohio State where he makes around $3.5 million per season, has hired Gene Marsh to represent him before the NCAA's committee on infractions on Aug. 12 in Indianapolis.
The NCAA has charged that Tressel "failed to (comport) himself in accordance with ... honesty and integrity." Tressel violated NCAA bylaws - and his own contract's stipulations - which require that he immediately report all knowledge of any NCAA violations to his superiors, the NCAA or the university's compliance department.
Marsh, a member of the NCAA's infractions committee for nine years and chairman for two, is an Ohio State graduate. He has said he never attended a Buckeyes football game during his years as a student.
Tressel traded 12 emails with a former Ohio State walk-on player, now a lawyer, starting in April 2010. Tressel was told that Buckeyes players were trading autographs, uniforms and championship rings for money and tattoos from local tattoo-parlor owner Edward Rife. Rife was the subject of a federal drug trafficking case.
Yet Tressel did not tell Smith, Ohio State President Gordon Gee or anyone else at the university what he had learned. He did, however, forward the first email to Ted Sarniak, who is star quarterback Terrelle Pryor's "mentor" back in his hometown of Jeannette, Pa.
The Buckeyes were ranked No. 1 at one point during the 2010 season and finished with a 12-1 mark. In early December, the U.S. Attorney's office notified Ohio State that it had raided Rife's home and had come upon dozens of Ohio State items, some autographed. A subsequent investigation revealed that six prominent players - including Pryor - had benefited from the relationship with Rife. The U.S. Attorney's office pegged the value at $12,000 to $15,000.
Tressel, Smith and Ohio State issued a five-game suspension to Pryor and four other players and a one-game suspension to sixth. Throughout Ohio State's investigation of the players' case in December, Tressel never revealed that he knew anything about it.
He had also signed an NCAA compliance form in September swearing that he did not know of any violations.
With Ohio State and the Big Ten asking for leniency, the NCAA permitted the players to play in the Sugar Bowl where the Buckeyes defeated Arkansas, 31-26.
Shortly after the team returned from New Orleans, Ohio State officials began building an appeal for the players. It was while going through staff emails that they discovered Tressel had known he was using potentially ineligible players throughout the 2010 season.
In early March, Ohio State self-reported Tressel's violations and handed Tressel a two-game suspension (later raised to five games) along with a $250,000 fine. He was also compelled to make a public apology and attend an NCAA compliance seminar. Smith later told The Associated Press that he had had to meet with Tressel before the coach finally issued the apology. Smith also said that the $250,000 fine would not cover the cost of the investigation of the coaches' violations.
Tressel is attending the NCAA compliance seminar in Tampa, Fla., in June.
His five-game suspension permits him to practice every day with the team throughout the spring, during August workouts and the entire season. The only time he cannot be with the team is during games. Smith has confirmed that the five-game suspension actually amounts to only a 15-hour suspension - the time during which the Buckeyes are playing games.
Chuck Smrt, a former member of the NCAA's enforcement staff, will handle Ohio State's side of the case in August.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

The Mall of America’s unusual tribute to Harmon Killebrew - Gene Smith says he backs Jim Tressel - 2011 NBA Mock Draft 1.0 si.com -


The Mall of America’s unusual tribute to Harmon Killebrew

The United States is littered with landmarks designating the spots where great ballparks used to stand and great players used to play. That said, the Mall of America's standing tribute to Hall of Fame member Harmon Killebrew — who passed away from cancer Tuesday morning at age 74 — is arguably the most unique of the bunch.
The red seat you see on the right side of the above photo commemorates the 522-foot homer that Killebrew hit off the Angels' Lew Burdette on June 3, 1967. Though it now overlooks the "Log Chute" ride at Mall of America's amusement park, the chair is said to be mounted at the spot where Killebrew's homer landed in the second deck of the Minnesota Twins' old Metropolitan Stadium. The ballpark used to stand on the site of the shopping center's grounds in Bloomington, Minn., and a plaque marking the spot of The Met's old home plate is also located within the amusement park.
Both locations are bound to get a lot more attention this week as the baseball world mourns the loss of one of its greatest home run hitters. In fact, Sports Illustrated's Steve Rushin made special mention of the seat in his excellent tribute to Killebrew.

Writes Rushin:
When the Met was razed, and replaced by the Mall of America, Killebrew's red bleacher seat was bolted high above the mall's central atrium, in roughly the same space it occupied at the ballpark. It is there to this day, a permanent testament to one man's baseball-crushing powers, on a street still called Killebrew Drive, now and forever a Boulevard of Broken Seams.
I suppose the new location of the seat is uber-sad in a Judge Doom, nothing can stop progress sort of way. But at least the many visitors the Mall of America attracts each year can get a little impromptu lesson in Twins history en route to buying a new sweater or an iPad or whatever. In other words: It's not ideal, but it's better than the alternative.
Speaking of that homer off Burdette, it was initially estimated at only 435 feet by the Twins' official scorer. But because Killebrew's prodigious blast was clearly headed even farther had the second deck not stopped its momentum, the Twins were compelled to contact a physics professor to calculate the true distance. An interesting Pioneer Press story from 2006 notes that the distance chart created by that professor is still used by the Twins to estimate the length of today's home runs.



Gene Smith says he backs Jim Tressel
Well then Gene, you are a fricking idiot too. Obviously, you knew what was going on the whole time too because any man with common sense is not gonna support this type of behavior.

CHICAGO -- There's a feeling that Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith has been distancing himself from embattled football coach Jim Tressel in recent weeks.
But at the Big Ten spring meetings Wednesday, Smith -- while declining to discuss any details of the ongoing NCAA investigation of Tressel -- affirmed his support for the coach, who is entering his 11th season with the Buckeyes.
"Oh, definitely, no question," Smith said. "I haven't changed, I haven't changed. But I'm not talking about the case beyond that."
Smith noted last month in an interview with The Associated Press that Tressel should have apologized at the infamous March 8 news conference, where Tressel acknowledged he failed to notify Ohio State officials of emails he received about some of his players receiving improper benefits.
Smith also has talked about the high legal costs Ohio State is dealing with, calling the ongoing NCAA situation "a nightmare."
Tressel has received support at the spring meetings from fellow coaches such as Michigan State's Mark Dantonio and Northwestern's Pat Fitzgerald, as well as from Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne, a longtime friend.
"Coaches are great," Tressel said. "They understand all the challenges everyone has. It's good to be with them."
Tressel also talked about new Michigan coach Brady Hoke and the fuel Hoke has added to the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry.
"Brady's awesome," Tressel said. "Anything that's good for the Ohio State-Michigan game, I'm for it. And Brady's good for it."




2011 NBA Mock Draft 1.0 si.com
The city known for having some of the worst luck in sports caught a break Tuesday. Cleveland won the draft lottery with a pick that had a 2.8 percent chance of becoming No. 1. Thus, after a 19-63 season on the heels of LeBron James' departure, the Cavaliers have restored some hope by landing the first and fourth selections in the June 23 draft. Here's our first look at how the draft could unfold.


1 PG Kyrie Irving
Duke
Fr. 6-2 180
He's not LeBron, but he's the closest thing this draft has to offer. And considering this pick came courtesy of the Clippers in the February trade that netted point guard Baron Davis, it's only fitting that he gracefully pass the backcourt baton and play the mentor role for Irving in these final two seasons of his contract.



2 SF Derrick Williams
Arizona
So. 6-8 241
If Williams had his druthers, he would be known more as a small forward than a power forward. It's a revealing reality of his identity crisis, as his perimeter game is advanced to the point that he resists being identified as a brutish banger. That might come in handy with the Wolves, who already have Kevin Love and Michael Beasley at the power forward spot but aren't likely to pass up on Williams. The pick should have significant value if they decide to trade it to one of the many teams that would welcome Williams no matter how he sees himself.


3 PG Brandon Knight
Kentucky
Fr. 6-3 185
The Deron Williams trade with New Jersey in February was the foundation of the rebuilding effort, and now Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor needs to find his new point guard of the future for the post-Devin Harris era. Enter Knight, a quality two-way player with shooting range and an ability to distribute.

4 C Enes Kanter
Kentucky
Fr. 6-11 262
The Turkish center is a bit of a mystery man to scouts and personnel types, at least when it comes to seeing him in person on a regular basis. He was disqualified by the NCAA during his one season at Kentucky, and his greatest Stateside performance to date was a 34-point, 13-rebound outing at the Nike Hoop Summit last year. But it's not hard to see why his skills should translate, and the Cavs would be better with his gritty rebounding, scoring and defense down low.


5 PF Jonas Valanciunas
Lietuvos Rytas (Lithuania)
--- 6-11 240
As long as possible hang-ups with Valanciunas' overseas contract don't keep him out of the league next season, his pairing with Andrea Bargnani in the frontcourt could be formidable. Valanciunas, 19, is skilled offensively, and his knack for offensive rebounding would come at a good time because forward Reggie Evans will be a free agent this summer.


6 PF Jan Vesely
KK Partizan Belgrade (Serbia)
--- 6-11 240
Last year's No. 1 pick, point guard John Wall, needs another high-octane talent to help push the Wizards' offense into a new gear. He would have it with the 21-year-old Czech big man.


7 PF Donatas Motiejunas
Benetton Treviso (Italy)
--- 7-0 215
The Kings could have one of the most dynamic young frontcourts in the game if they go with Lithuanian 7-footer Motiejunas. Last year's lottery pick, DeMarcus Cousins, had a solid rookie season and showed plenty of offensive versatility in the post, but the creative Motiejunas, 20, would take it to another level. Defense would be a concern, making it all the more important that the Kings re-sign center Samuel Dalembert in the summer as they plan to do.

8 PF Bismack Biyombo
Baloncesto Fuenlabrada (Spain)
--- 6-9 240
Motor City, meet the next Ben Wallace. The biggest question surrounding Biyombo at this juncture is how much of what he does so well is legal in the NBA. The Congolese forward is a relentless defender, ferocious rebounder and the perfect complement to last year's top pick, Greg Monroe, in the Pistons' frontcourt.


9 SF Kawhi Leonard
San Diego State
So. 6-7 225
The Bobcats are desperate for rebounding and scoring, and Leonard offers both in the same spot that Gerald Wallace just so happened to leave vacant when he was dealt to Portland in February. Coach Paul Silas wants to run, and Leonard can do that, too.

10 PG Kemba Walker
Connecticut
Jr. 6-1 172
This might ruffle a few feathers (namely Brandon Jennings) or spark comparisons to Minnesota general manager David Kahn among skeptics (for his flurry of point guard picks in recent years), but it would be great value on the pick as well. Walker as Jennings' backup would be potent, and

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

2011 NBA Draft Lottery Results: Go Cavs - David Kahn insinuates NBA lottery is rigged? - Who Should Be #1


2. Timberwolves - Derrick Williams F Arizona
Williams could go over Irving at No. 1, but as of now, we're guessing he ends up in Minnesota. Unfortunately, they've already got Kevin Love and Michael Beasley, but Williams would have time to develop off the bench in Minnesota, and appears to be the only option they have at No. 2. Then again, David Kahn is running the show, which means anything is possible here.





1. Cavaliers (via Clippers) - Kyrie Irving PG Duke
With some help from owner Dan Gilbert's son, Nick, the Cavaliers turned their trade of Mo Williams for Baron Davis into Davis AND Kyrie Irving by landing the No. 1 pick. I still think they'll take Irving, as he currently looks like the No. 1 pick, hands down. That could change between now and draft day, but my early money is on Irving. He's the best point guard in the draft and while he's not as fast as Derrick Rose or John Wall, he's quick enough to keep defenses honest and is considered by most as the clear first pick this year. The Cavs already have Baron Davis, but he's far from reliable, while his career is also starting to wind down. If they decide to pass on Irving, which seems unlikely at this point, Derrick Williams would be the next logical selection. As for Ramon Sessions, who can also play point guard? If they take Irving, expect Sessions to be traded on draft night.








2011 NBA Draft Lottery Results: Go Cavs

SECAUCUS, N.J. -- The new face of the Cavaliers is 14 years old, wears a bow tie and has battled disease since birth.
Nick Gilbert looks nothing like LeBron James, but on Tuesday night he brought back all the hope that left Cleveland right along with its franchise player last summer.
The Cavaliers got a huge jump on their post-LeBron rebuilding process, winning the lottery and the No. 1 selection in next month's NBA draft.
"Shocking events took place last summer and it was a slow, long, painful haul to get through it. Maybe this will be the final straw in getting over the hump, getting to the other side, and having a lot of hope for the future," Cavs owner Dan Gilbert said. "That's what we need."
Gilbert sent his son and "hero", 14-year-old Nick Gilbert, to the stage and the kid came up with a stunning victory, as the Cavs turned a pick from the Los Angeles Clippers that had only a 2.8 percent chance of victory into the top spot.
Nick Gilbert was born with Neurofibromatosis (NF), a nerve disorder that causes tumors to grow anywhere in the body at any time. He was wearing black-rimmed glasses and a bow tie and looked serious until he showed a keen sense of humor in a television interview. His father called him his "hero" for the way he has fought the disease.
"It's sort of Nick fashion. He has been doing it his whole life to some degree. I'm proud of him. I'm proud of the way he carried himself and I am very excited for the fans of Cleveland, Ohio who have been through a very, very rough year," Dan Gilbert said. "They deserve it more than anybody and they have some good hope now."
The Cavs will select first for the first time since 2003, when they drafted James out of high school.
He left for Miami last summer and the Cavs tumbled to the second-worst record in the league, but they will have two top-four picks next month as they try to back owner Dan Gilbert's boast that they would win a title before James. They already had their own pick and acquired another at the trade deadline from the Clippers in the deal for Baron Davis.
Minnesota will select second and Utah turned New Jersey's pick from the Deron Williams trade into the No. 3 selection.
The Timberwolves continued their unbelievable lottery losing streak, falling to 0 for 14 and dropping for the eighth time. They had a 25 percent chance of winning after finishing with a league-worst 17-65 record.
Instead the luck went to the Cavs, who are used to playing deep in the playoffs and hope they won't have to worry about this trip again.
Besides Nick Gilbert, the Cavs also brought along current Cleveland Browns Josh Cribbs and Joe Haden, dressed in the Cavs' wine and gold jerseys, and former Browns star Bernie Kosar for good luck.


2011 NBA Draft Lottery Results
Team 2010-11 win pct.

1. Cleveland (from L.A. Clippers) .232
2. Minnesota .207
3. Utah (from New Jersey) .476
4. Cleveland .232
5. Toronto .268
6. Washington .280
7. Sacramento .293
8. Detroit .366
9. Charlotte .415
10. Milwaukee .427
11. Golden State .439
12. Utah .476
13. Phoenix .488
14. Houston .524


They will likely decide between point guard Kyrie Irving of Duke or Arizona forward Derrick Williams as the top pick.
"I don't think you can make comparisons to me and LeBron," said Irving, who attended the lottery. "One, I'm not 6-8. Two, I'm not a high flyer and three, my name isn't LeBron James. Honestly, you can't make those comparisons yet. I think I would bring a different feel to the Cleveland organization if they do decide to take me."
With the NBA down to its final four teams, 14 at the bottom of the standings made the trip to NBA Entertainment studios in northern New Jersey for what commissioner David Stern called the league's "annual rite of renewal."
"There are a lot of teams who think they are one player away and this may be the player," Stern said during a news conference before the lottery.
And it was an important year to finish near the top. In part because of the league's uncertain labor situation, the draft is not considered particularly deep. North Carolina's Harrison Barnes and Ohio State center Jared Sullinger were among the expected lottery picks who instead decided to return to school.
But the lottery again failed to help the team that needed it most. Not since 2004, when the Orlando Magic picked Dwight Howard, has the team with the worst record picked first in the draft.
The Wolves went from second to fourth when Washington won last year, but this drop could be more costly -- though probably not as much as the only other time they had the best chance to win. A two-spot dive in 1992 cost them a shot at Shaquille O'Neal and they instead settled for Christian Laettner at No. 3.
Wolves general manager David Kahn said he knew Minnesota was "dead" when it got down to the final three of himself, Utah executive Kevin O'Connor and Nick Gilbert.
"This league has a habit, and I am just going to say habit, of producing some pretty incredible story lines," Kahn said. "Last year it was Abe Pollin's widow and this year it was a 14-year-old boy and the only thing we have in common is we have both been bar mitzvahed. We were done. I told Kevin: 'We're toast.' This is not happening for us and I was right."
Then again, maybe the Cavs needed the help more. James' departure from his home state turned a 60-win power into the worst team in the Eastern Conference. Dan Gilbert was defiant when James left, but it was obvious all season his team needed plenty more firepower to live up to his tough talk, especially when the Cavs lost an NBA-record 26 consecutive games.
"We have some very good, young talent and we got a couple of great players hurt early or in the middle of the year and they are coming back," Dan Gilbert said. "We have some great talent and hopefully who we pick up at 1 and 4 and I just can't believe this is really happening."
Toronto and Washington dropped to Nos. 5 and 6 and Sacramento, represented by Mayor Kevin Johnson, fell to No. 7.
The draft is June 23 in Newark, N.J.



David Kahn insinuates NBA lottery is rigged?
For years -- no, decades -- basketball observers have had suspicions about the NBA Draft Lottery. The process is hidden, ping pong balls involved, and there are a bunch of hurt feelings because 13 of the teams present go home without the No. 1 pick.
Speculation about the lottery being rigged has always been a favorite custom of fans, but it's not something you ever hear spoken, or even implied, by NBA executives. Until now.
Minnesota Timberwolves president David Kahn apparently implied in an interview with the Associated Press that the NBA's lottery process is not totally on the up and up.
Kahn's comments came after he joined Utah Jazz GM Kevin O'Connor and Nick Gilbert, the son of Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, as the three finalists for the No. 1 pick. Nick Gibert suffers from a nerve disorder and eventually secured the No. 1 pick for the Cavaliers.
"This league has a habit, and I am just going to say habit, of producing some pretty incredible story lines," Kahn said. "Last year it was Abe Pollin's widow and this year it was a 14-year-old boy and the only thing we have in common is we have both been bar mitzvahed. We were done. I told Kevin: 'We're toast.' This is not happening for us and I was right."
A "habit" of producing incredible storylines implies that it's not intentional or manipulated but simply the product of a track record. But the disclaimer "I am just going to say habit" screams "I am really, really bitter because this was totally fixed so that the kid would win."
Either this was the clumsiest language of all time or a crystal clear implication. I don't see any other interpretations. Surely, a clarification is coming. (Not to mention an apology for referring to a child with a nerve disorder and a widow as "storylines".)
Even the implication of impropriety is sure to rub NBA commissioner David Stern the wrong way and this isn't Kahn's first time getting on Stern's bad side. Kahn was fined $50,000 last July for comments made regarding Timberwolves forward Michael Beasley's marijuana use. A fine here wouldn't be out of the question considering what's at stake for the league: its reputation.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Ohio State great George selected for College Hall - 2011 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race Starting Grid - NBA Lottery



NBA Draft Lottery

Your team isn’t in the NBA draft lottery unless it needs help (or you used to do trades with Isiah Thomas).
Everybody in it needs to win it. Especially this year, where the drop off from All-Star to “maybe he can be a rotation guy in a couple years” to “we’re hoping he can develop” is very quick and steep. The prize at the top is Kyrie Irving of Duke, and although you can debate if he is a future All-Star or superstar, the consensus is you’re getting a very good point guard. And if you’re in the lottery, you take him.

Who needs to win this most? Here are our five picks:

Minnesota Timberwolves (25 percent chance of getting top pick). Why they need to win the lottery: The Wolves won 17 games last season, so they need all the help they can get. They have one building block inside in Kevin Love and a couple decent wing players (Wesley Johnson, Martell Webster), but they need a Mr. Outside. In theory that would be Ricky Rubio, the guard they drafted from Spain two years ago, but despite what Timberwolves management says, there is no reason for him to come over. They win and draft Irving, and they can shop Rubio to fill another need. They won 17 games, so there are a lot of needs.

Cleveland Cavaliers (22.7 percent chance of getting top pick, via their own pick and the Clippers pick). Why they need to win the lottery: Their last top lottery pick left them, and they need another. The Cavaliers won 19 games with a sad roster that suffered a lot of injuries (frankly explaining cold fusion would be easier than explaining how Minnesota won fewer games than Cleveland). There is no position on the floor where they are set. They need stars and role players, as such they are wisely stockpiling draft picks. Irving would give them a guy to start building around. And, for all of Dan Gilbert’s actions, they are owed a break by the basketball gods.

Toronto Raptors (15.6 percent chance of getting top pick). Why they need to win the lottery: Their best player left them and they need a star to replace him. This team won the lottery in 2006 and has Andrea Bargnani to show for it (Hey, it could have been worse, they could have drafted Adam Morrison.) Really, this team has a few pieces — DeMar DeRozan is a good athletic wing, Ed Davis was solid as a rookie, Jarryd Bayless is a quality guard, and even Bargnani can shoot. A top-flight point guard such as Irving ties this team together, and they get a lot better fast. Well, on offense. Until they start defending it’s all moot, but that’s another issue.

Detroit Pistons (4.3 percent chance of getting top pick). Why they need to win the lottery: Maybe this will convince them it’s time to blow it up and rebuild. The Pistons have lived in a limbo with roster that was begging to be broken up and rebuilt, but that couldn’t happen with an unsettled ownership situation. Throw in veteran players in virtual open mutiny against the coach and things got ugly. Right now Rodney Stuckey is the point guard of the future, but he is no Irving at the point. They have a good young center in Greg Monroe and Austin Daye can be a part of the future, but Irving and a new owner might lead to the rebuilding of this team that has been needed for more than a season.

Golden State Warriors (0.8 percent chance of getting top pick). Why they need to win the lottery: This is a long-suffering fan base that had an owner that really didn’t care, they deserve a break. This is a team with some pieces that is about to undergo a makeover and winning the lottery helps that along dramatically. New owner Joe Lacob — who will represent the team at the lottery — is looking to change this franchise into one that plays defense and not Don Nelson’s scatter ball. Sure, they already have two guards in Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry, but they win the lottery and one of those (*cough* Curry *cough*) will be moved.







Ohio State great George selected for College Hall


NEW YORK (AP) -- Heisman Trophy winner Eddie George has been selected for induction into College Football Hall of Fame.
George's selection was announced Monday on ESPN's "College Football Live."
The rest of the class of 14 former players and two former coaches will be announced Tuesday at a news conferences at the NASDAQ MarketSite. Three other members of the newest Hall of Fame class will ring the opening bell at the NASDAQ.
George won the Heisman in 1995 as a senior and finished his career at Ohio State with 3,768 yards, 44 rushing touchdowns and a school-record five 200-yard games.



2011 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race Starting Grid

- Trevor Bayne 21 Ford Exemption
- Greg Biffle 16 Ford Exemption
- Clint Bowyer 33 Chevrolet Exemption
- Kurt Busch 22 Dodge Exemption
- Kyle Busch 18 Toyota Exemption
- Carl Edwards 99 Ford Exemption
- Jeff Gordon 24 Chevrolet Exemption
- Denny Hamlin 11 Toyota Exemption
- Kevin Harvick 29 Chevrolet Exemption
- Jimmie Johnson 5 Chevrolet Exemption
- Kasey Kahne 4 Toyota Exemption
- Matt Kenseth 17 Ford Exemption
- Mark Martin 25 Chevrolet Exemption
- Jamie McMurray 1 Chevrolet Exemption
- Juan Pablo Montoya 42 Chevrolet Exemption
- Ryan Newman 39 Chevrolet Exemption
- David Reutimann 00 Toyota Exemption
- Regan Smith 78 Chevrolet Exemption
- Tony Stewart 14 Chevrolet Exemption



NOTICE THERE IS NO DALE EARNHARDT JR. IN THAT GRID!

Monday, May 16, 2011

Ohio State's 'gold pants' gifts delayed - Tressel's hired gun says he won't resign

I would like to see how many people truly want the Heat to win the NBA Championship THIS year. Seriously! I do not want to see them win it. I don't think it would help the league if they did win it NOW, but I don't think as many people would care if they win it within the next Couple of years.
Dale Jr. must win this year or else??? This will be the first Nascar All-Star Race that I attend in the past 8 years that Dale Jr. will not be a shoein to make the field because his exempion is up. He may get the fan vote, but wow how low can he go. Lowes Motor Speedway is his Home track.






Kenseth win at Dover




THAT'S RIGHT BULLS! CHICAGO TAKES A 1-0 LEAD ON THE HEAT!



Ohio State's 'gold pants' gifts delayed
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- An NCAA investigation into rules infractions by the Ohio State football program has delayed release of the team's 2010 "gold pants" charms, awards that team members receive if they beat rival Michigan.
The Gold Pants Club that distributes the trinkets is waiting to see if the NCAA vacates any of last season's wins, President Jim Lachey, a former Ohio State All-America offensive lineman, told The Columbus Dispatch for a Sunday story. The university-licensed club pays about $50 each for the charms.
Ohio State has suspended five players, including quarterback Terrelle Pryor, for the first five games of the 2011 season for violating NCAA rules by selling a Columbus tattoo parlor owner several pieces of memorabilia -- including the 2008 gold pants charm Pryor earned for the 2008 season.
A letter from a U.S. attorney sent in December stated Ohio State players had received between $12,000 and $15,000 in cash, free tattoos and reduced-price tattoos for providing the merchandise, some of which was signed.
Coach Jim Tressel failed to reveal that he knew about the players' violations, as required by his contract and NCAA rules, and the university suspended him for five games. He also was fined $250,000, required to make a public apology and receive a public reprimand and to attend an NCAA compliance seminar.
The NCAA is still investigating the 10-year coach of the Buckeyes, and the university goes before the association's infractions committee in August. The NCAA has said penalties could include vacating wins from last season.
"We're dealing with some outstanding issues that we've never had to deal with before," Lachey told The Dispatch. "If they vacate the win, it makes no sense to award the gold pants, at least in our minds. And if you hand them out and say, 'Oh yeah, we'll need to get them back if the win is vacated' -- I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be a smart way to go."
Ohio State beat Michigan 37-7 in November for an unprecedented seventh straight win over the Wolverines.
Lachey said he's also considering withholding the charms in the future until players are no longer on the team and have used up their eligibility to play, when selling the items would no longer be an NCAA violation.
The practice of awarding the gold pants charms started after coach Francis Schmidt took over the program in 1934.
John Hicks, an All-America offensive lineman under coach Woody Hayes, said he was bothered to see team members bartering them.
"They are a symbol of being part of a special team, of a bunch of guys who worked hard for a common goal of beating our rival," he said. "Sometimes when you're 18, 19, 20 years old, you don't realize what that really meant to you, but when you get to 60 or so, you do."





Tressel's hired gun says he won't resign

Former NCAA COI chairman & current Lightfoot, Franklin & White attorney Gene Marsh will represent Jim Tressel in forthcoming NCAA hearing. But nothing indicates quitting is part of Tressel's thinking right now. And Gene Marsh, the former chairman of the NCAA Committee on Infractions who has been retained by Tressel in recent weeks, agreed with that sentiment in a brief interview with The Plain Dealer on Friday. According to conversations with others in the past week, Tressel's intentions, like it or not, are to stay with his players and continue what he sees as his mission at Ohio State.

Friday, May 13, 2011

2010-11 All-NBA First Team -

Bye! Bye! Tiger Woods. If you think he will ever get back to form you are nuts!!!!








2010-11 All-NBA First Team

ATLANTA -- One week after being named the youngest Most Valuable Player in league history, Chicago's Derrick Rose made headlines again by being selected to the All-NBA First Team for the first time in his short career.
Los Angeles' Kobe Bryant, Miami's LeBron James, Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant and Orlando's Dwight Howard join Rose on the first team. Bryant was named to the team for the sixth straight season and ninth time in his career. James -- the lone unanimous choice -- earned honors for the fourth straight season and fifth time overall. Howard was voted in for the fourth consecutive season and Durant made the team for the second time.
The All-NBA Second Team features Miami's Dwyane Wade, Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook, Los Angeles' Pau Gasol, Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki and New York's Amar'e Stoudemire.
San Antonio's Manu Ginobili, New Orleans' Chris Paul, Memphis' Zach Randolph, Portland's LaMarcus Aldridge and Atlanta's Al Horford comprise the third team.
Of the All-NBA selections, only Rose, James, Wade, Durant, Nowitzki, Westbrook and Randolph remain in the postseason. Rose totaled 19 points and 12 assists on Thursday to help the Bulls beat the Hawks 93-73 and advance to the Eastern Conference finals.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

RIP Robert 'Tractor' Traylor - Ohio State-Miami to play in primetime on Sept. 17 -



Robert 'Tractor' Traylor found dead
I don't care who you are or if you are a fan of basketball. You got excited when you saw Traylor jump! Not just dunk, but jump. There is something about a 300 pound man flying through the air. I had the pleasure of watching Tractor many times when he was with the CAVS and I can honestly say he was a fan favorite and brought me out of my seats many times a game. RIP!!
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Robert Traylor, the former NBA and University of Michigan big man nicknamed "Tractor" because of his hulking frame, has died. He was 34.
Described as a "gentle giant" with a generous smile, Traylor played seven years in the NBA. He is perhaps most remembered, however, for his career at Michigan, where he was a standout for three seasons but became embroiled in a major scandal involving a booster.
Police in San Juan said Traylor was found dead Wednesday on the bedroom floor of his oceanfront apartment. Police and Traylor's team, the Bayamon Cowboys, said he had been missing for a few days and apparently died from a heart attack.
"He was a leader of the team," said Jose Carlos Perez, the Cowboys' manager. "He was very, very friendly. He got along very well with everyone. The fans loved him, idolized him."
Perez told The Associated Press that Traylor had been talking by phone to his wife in Chicago when the connection was suddenly cut off. She called team officials Wednesday and they checked on him, Perez said.
The 6-foot-8, 300-pound Traylor was injured and had not been playing, the team said.
Traylor was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks with the sixth pick in 1998, but they traded his rights to Milwaukee in a major deal that sent Dirk Nowitzki to Dallas. Traylor played for the Bucks in the first two seasons of an NBA career that included stops in Cleveland, Charlotte and New Orleans.
"The entire Milwaukee Bucks organization is saddened by the news of Robert Traylor's death," the Bucks said in a statement. "Robert was a fierce competitor on the court who helped the Bucks reach the playoffs in each of his two seasons in Milwaukee.
"Off the court he was a gentle giant, displaying his smile and care, especially toward young people through his involvement in school visits and his work with the Special Olympics clinic."
Traylor got his "Tractor" nickname in high school, then went to Michigan shortly after the departures of Fab Five stars Chris Webber, Juwan Howard and Jalen Rose. Part of another highly touted recruiting class that arrived in 1995, Traylor played three seasons with the Wolverines.
Dugan Fife, who played with Traylor for a season at Michigan, described him as soft-spoken and selfless.
"He loved putting on that Michigan jersey," Fife said. "I was disappointed I only got to play one year with him because of the kind of guy he was. ... Never complained about playing time, never complained about getting the ball."
Of course, what everyone remembers about Traylor was his size -- including his unusually large hands and feet.
"I remember shaking his hand for the first time," Fife said. "I could put my foot, with a shoe on, inside his shoes."
Traylor was the most valuable player of the NIT in 1997 and averaged 16.2 points and 10.1 rebounds the following season, when Michigan won the inaugural Big Ten tournament.
"We are saddened to hear about the loss of a former student-athlete, Robert Traylor," Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon said. "Our sympathies go out to his family during this difficult time."
Although he was productive on the court, Traylor was one of the Michigan players whose ties to booster Ed Martin resulted in NCAA sanctions against the basketball program.
He turned pro after his junior year, averaging 4.8 points and 3.7 rebounds in 438 NBA games.
Traylor had surgery on his aorta in 2005, the Bayamon Cowboys said.
The team suspended its game Wednesday night because of his death.
Traylor had been playing with a team in Veracruz, Mexico, before he moved to Puerto Rico in mid-March, Perez said.
"His game was one of a lot of strength, a lot of defense," he said.
Indiana coach Tom Crean, a former assistant at Michigan State, echoed those sentiments in a post on Twitter.
"At Michigan State we battled against him and he might have been the most time-consuming and mind-challenging matchup we ever faced and we as coaches weren't even playing. He had great feet and hands and a very soft touch...You really had to have a plan to stop him."
In 2009, Traylor was sentenced to jail after violating conditions of supervised release related to an income-tax case in which he acknowledged preparing a false tax return that hid assets of a convicted drug dealer.
A judge had delayed the sentence so Traylor could play for an Italian team.
Detroit attorney Steve Fishman, a friend of Traylor's who also represented him during his legal troubles, said Traylor often worked with him at youth basketball camps.
"He was a gentle giant," Fishman told the AP on Wednesday. "There were two things about him that really stood out from other athletes of this day and age: He never complained and always took responsibility for anything he ever did."
Fishman downplayed Traylor's size, saying the former NBA player was "just a huge person."
"If he starved himself in the Gobi Desert, he would still weigh 270 pounds," Fishman said.
Fishman said Traylor's aorta troubles were discovered during an NBA physical, causing teams to shy away from him.
The attorney also bristled at questions about Traylor's connection to Martin, who died in 2003 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to launder money. Martin had told federal prosecutors that he took gambling money, combined it with other funds and lent $616,000 to Traylor and other players.
"Any player that came from the circumstances Robert Traylor came from would have taken money from Ed Martin or anybody else," he said. "He was not a child of privilege."
Perez said Traylor's survivors include his wife and two sons.





Ohio State-Miami to play in primetime on Sept. 17

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The September game between Ohio State and Miami will be played in primetime.
Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford announced Wednesday that kickoff in Miami will be at 7:30 or 8 p.m. on Sept. 17. The game will be broadcast on either ABC or ESPN.
The teams played in Columbus last season, with the Buckeyes winning 36-24. The 2011 matchup will be Ohio State's first trip to play the Hurricanes in Miami.


Who Will Start at QB for OSU: Si.com Truth and Rumors

At 25, Joe Bauserman is finally on the verge of starting football games at Ohio State -- after a reportedly so-so spring. Meanwhile, Braxton Miller, a highly touted freshman, gradually improved throughout the spring. His performance in the final scrimmage, leading the offense to three scores in his four possessions, has titillated an already-infatuated fan base. Bauserman understands that. "People want excitement, and a guy that they've never seen before is going to get them thinking about it," he said. "It doesn't bother me. I feel like I can play at this level just as well as anybody else." The debate seems to come down to Bauserman, Mr. Safe and Steady, versus Miller, Mr. Clueless but Flashy. Quarterbacks coach Nick Siciliano did not shy away from that comparison


Report: Car sold for $13,700, not $0
Former Ohio State linebacker Thaddeus Gibson didn't understand why his purchase of a used Chrysler 300C was listed at $0 in documents disclosed in a media report, since he was still making payments on the vehicle.
Now, newly uncovered documents appear to back up Gibson -- to the tune of $13,700.
In an initial report on Ohio State's investigation of car sales to athletes and their families, The Columbus Dispatch cited documents showing a purchase price of $0 for Gibson's car.
But on Wednesday, the newspaper reported it obtained a previous title on the vehicle listing the purchase price as $13,700 for a sale dated June 27, 2007 and financed through Huntington National Bank.
The title listing the purchase price as $0 was dated March 6, 2008 and listed the same bank as the lender, according to the report.
Ohio State's compliance department is reviewing the sales of more than 50 cars to student-athletes and their families to make sure the sales meet NCAA rules.
The Dispatch reported that a car salesman who received game passes from Ohio State athletes handled many of the deals at two different dealerships. Ohio State has since taken the salesman, Aaron Kniffin, off the pass list.
Athletes are prevented from receiving special deals not available to other students and are not permitted to trade autographs for discounts. Both dealerships display signed Ohio State memorabilia in their showrooms.
School officials have seen no evidence of players getting special treatment in vehicle sales, Douglas Archie, associate athletic director for compliance, said in a statement Saturday.
"Consistent with our standard procedures, we are nevertheless reviewing these sales to assure ourselves that our policies were adhered to," he said.
The mother and brother of Buckeyes quarterback Terrelle Pryor also purchased cars from the dealerships. Kniffin loaned his own car to Pryor for a three-day test drive to Pryor's home in Jeannette, Pa.
Kniffin and the owner of one of the dealerships he worked for, Jason Goss, have attended seven football games as guests of players, including the 2007 national championship game and the 2009 Fiesta Bowl.
The car sales investigation comes on the heels of Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel being punished for not revealing his knowledge of his players' NCAA violations.
Tressel was notified in April 2010 via emails from a Buckeyes fan and former player that Ohio State players were trading signed jerseys and other memorabilia to a Columbus tattoo parlor owner for cash and reduced-price tattoos. Even though his contract and NCAA rules required him to notify athletic director Gene Smith, Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee or the university's compliance department, Tressel did not do that.
It was not until more than nine months passed -- and five players including Pryor had been suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season -- that Ohio State officials discovered the emails and confronted Tressel. He finally admitted he knew of the players getting improper benefits.
Tressel was originally suspended for two games -- later extended to the first five games this fall to match the punishment of the five players -- and was fined $250,000, required to make a public apology and receive a public reprimand and to attend an NCAA compliance seminar.
The NCAA is still investigating Ohio State and Tressel, who are scheduled to appear before the NCAA's committee on infractions Aug. 12.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Tiger Going to Play the TPC - Pau Gasol: Rumors caused 'suffering'



Tiger Going to Play the TPC
sportsline.com
At a venue where the only certainty about the winners over the years has been the unpredictability of their identity, Tiger Woods went back to work Tuesday.
He played his first nine holes since the Masters, and hit balls for only the second time since playing four weeks ago at Augusta National. The first time he dumped a practice bucket on the grass was ... Monday.
"It is what it is," he shrugged, offering his infamous catch-all phrase.
As for his game, knee and other myriad ailments, it's more like, it's not what it was.
The former world No. 1 is still listed as the Players Championship favorite in the global betting parlors, though given the locale and his physical particulars, that seemingly represents pure folly.
After missing last week's PGA Tour event in Charlotte, N.C., because of multiple leg injuries, Woods reunited with swing coach Sean Foley on Monday at his home track outside Orlando for some needed tune-up work.
Foley hadn’t seen his prize pupil since the Masters, slightly over four weeks ago. Thus, this might represent the least that Woods has prepared for a tournament since the 2008 U.S. Open, when he had a blown-out knee and two broken bones in his leg. Of course, he won that tournament with sheer stubbornness and a wheelbarrow of Advil.
This time around, facing a daily post-round regimen that includes anti-inflammatories, ice, elevating his knee and soft-tissue massage, Woods is doing everything but changing the lug nuts on his wheels. He doesn't have a choice.
"I feel hot," Woods cracked after his nine-hole jaunt, where he walked at a very tempered pace in 90-degree weather. "Good enough to play. Here we are."
In the span since Augusta, Woods has been to China and South Korea on a manufacturer's publicity junket, and partied at Las Vegas gaming tables with musician John Mayer, who played at Woods' annual concert fundraiser. He can rock and roll, but can he roll the rock?
It's anybody's guess what we'll see Thursday at TPC Sawgrass, where Woods has amassed one victory, exactly a decade ago, and has cracked the top 10 only once since. In that victory at Sawgrass in 2001, NBC analyst Gary Koch supplied one of the most memorable moments in tournament history as Woods' rollicking putt on the fabled 17th rolled 40 feet into the hole, "Better than most ... better than most."
Since the win in '01, Woods has posted six rounds in the 60s and his performance can best be described as: Better than some ... worse than others. As Foley headed off to watch Woods play a practice round Tuesday afternoon, he said the former world No. 1 looked fairly solid in their session a day earlier at Isleworth Country Club.
"Pretty good," Foley said as he headed off for a practice round. "All things considered."
The list of "things" keeps getting longer with Woods, whose victory drought on the PGA Tour now stretches back a career-long 20 months. Woods hit four practice balls off the No. 2 tee, spraying a 3-wood all over the place.
In practice, Foley said Woods didn’t have any limitations with his swing relating to the knee and foot issues, but until he walks 18 holes, it's hard to predict how he'll manage. He didn’t enter the Wells Fargo Championship last week in Charlotte, N.C., where he is a past champion, because of nagging issues with a knee and Achilles. In fact, Woods spent some of the past month in a walking cast after hurting himself hitting a shot from under the Eisenhower Tree at the Masters.
Woods said Tuesday that the injury really took a bite out of him, and a trip to the doctor confirmed that he had badly tweaked his brittle left knee, which has undergone four surgeries.
"I just had to power through it," he said.
Eisenhower was a military general, of course, and right now, Woods can ill afford another retreat. After struggling to incorporate a raft of swing tweaks into his regimen, Woods seemed to be playing less robotically at the Masters.
A month-long layoff can’t have been good for his continuity, which in some instances has peaked and cratered over the course of a single round.
"That's the way it goes," he said. "Take some time off, listen to the doctors."
Despite the long absence from the victory circle, Woods said his current stretch pales in comparison to the swing work he did over parts of 1997-99 with former coach Butch Harmon. In that span, he won once, so he has found it easier to be patient this time around.
"It was brutal because I had never been through a stretch like that before," he recalled.
Given the lost time over the past month, Foley didn’t argue the point that the hiatus isn't ideal as it relates to building familiarity with the changes, though Woods is certainly fresh after his doctor-imposed time on the bench.
"You never know," Foley said. "Sometimes, when you lay things down...."
At this point, it seems pretty clear that Woods not only has fallen -- dropping another slot this week to No. 8 in the world ranking -- he just can’t seem to get up.
Woods, 35, has logged a thousand miles of road work since his teen years, so when he was asked whether his Achilles issues, which have affected his heels over past three years, were related to running, the answer was somewhat surprising.
And for his fans, quite possibly disturbing.
"No, just old age," Woods said.


There could be two impact players for the Buckeyes
9. Ohio State: There could be two impact players for the Buckeyes depending on how things shake out in fall camp. Quarterback Braxton Miller is certainly in the race to be the starter with Terrelle Pryor suspended for five games and showed flashes during the spring. Linebacker Curtis Grant was one of the top players coming out of high school and should be able to fill in right away on defense.



Pau Gasol: Rumors caused 'suffering'
Ramona Shelburne espn.com


EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Lakers forward Pau Gasol denied recent internet reports and speculation in several major media outlets that there has been any conflict between Kobe Bryant's wife Vanessa and Gasol's girlfriend Silvia Lopez Castro.
One report even intimated that Gasol's situation had spilled into the Lakers locker room and caused an argument between him and Bryant because Bryant's wife became involved in Gasol's relationship issues.
On Tuesday, Gasol called rumors of a rift between he and Bryant or a breakup with his girlfriend "absolutely false."
"My girlfriend and I are fine, we're happy, we're doing well. Kobe and I are fine," Gasol told ESPNLosAngeles.com in the parking lot outside the Lakers training facility Tuesday, after his exit interview with Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak and coach Phil Jackson.
"She [Lopez Castro] was suffering because she saw me suffering. And I was suffering because I was seeing her suffering. When you add that to other stuff to what's already happening, it's tough."
Gasol said that he didn't realize the extent to which the internet chatter had spread as an explanation for his subpar play during the Lakers disappointingly short playoff run this year because he doesn't read articles about himself or the team on a regular basis.
"I didn't know to what extent it had become an issue," Gasol said. "During the playoffs I'm totally out of the media whether it's great or not so great.
"But you do feel it because your environment feels it, and they make you feel it."
Part of the reason the story spread and became somewhat legitimized in recent days were Gasol's cryptic comments after the Lakers 122-86 loss to Dallas in Game 4 Sunday night.
Gasol said that he needed to learn to handle "whatever goes on, on or off the floor" better and "not let it affect anything that goes on on the floor."
It was taken by some as an acknowledgement of off the court issues. Tuesday, Gasol clarified his remarks, saying that he was referring to the toll the viral story had taken on him and the team.
"Everything just seemed to get bigger and heavier," he said, referring to the wild story about Bryant's wife and his girlfriend.
"Sometimes I feel like I'm an easy target."
Gasol's teammate Derek Fisher said he too was stunned by the chorus of criticism of Gasol once he got back to Los Angeles and began to hear and read some of the stories about the Lakers disappointing sweep at the hands of the Mavericks.
"I don't read as much and listen to as much of the news and articles and blogs, so I don't think I or we as a team fully understood the things that were being said about what people thought was going on with Pau," Fisher said.
"If there's anything I regret, I regret the fact that I wasn't able to fully understand it and speak up sooner on his behalf.
"To say that I think it was ridiculously wrong to assume some of the things that were being assumed, and to place the burden of how successful we were or were not on his shoulders."
Lopez Castro attended Game 2 with Gasol's mother.
"She's been great," Gasol said. "A great help and support throughout this process. It's been rough for her, because it's been really unfair to her. I mean, forget about me."
Earlier, in an interview session with a large group of reporters, Gasol said he was deeply disappointed in his performance and the final outcome of the Lakers season. Gasol said Los Angeles' exit from the playoffs was "stunning" and that "this season has been pretty crazy and very emotional, not just for me, but as a team, and I guess it took it's toll at the very end, at the critical time."
Gasol averaged just 12.5 points and 9.3 rebounds in the four-game series against the Mavericks, well below his season averages of 18.8 points and 10.2 rebounds. He shot just 42.2 percent in the Dallas series, also well below his season average of 53 percent.
"I understand that with player that I am and I consider myself to be, there are a lot of expectations. And once those expectations are not achieved, there's going to be criticism," he said.
"So it's time to get through it and stand up for yourself. I understand this is part of the deal, whether you consider it fair or not.
"The thing that makes me the angriest, I guess, is me not playing at my best and not being able to help my team accomplish its goals."
Gasol said he planned to spend the unexpected time off analyzing his own play and looking for ways to come back with "a clean cut" next season.
He also said he was "leaning toward playing" for the Spanish National team this summer as it tries to qualify for the 2012 London Summer Olympics.
Gasol has not played for Spain the last two summers because he decided he needed to rest after the Lakers deep playoff runs.
"My decisions the last couple years have been because of a lack of rest and time to recover from our runs to the championships before the beginning of the season," he said. "But this obviously gives me more opportunity of participating with my national team."
Spain is scheduled to participate in the Eurobasket European Championships from Aug. 31-Sept. 18 in Lithuania, where two teams will earn Olympic bids.