8:00 PM CSN Baltimore has video of Marcus Smith, a U.S. soldier who dressed as a minor league umpire to surprise his children at a Bowie Baysox game with a home visit from Afghanistan.
7:45 PM A Japanese Harley-Davidson motorcycle that was swept out to sea during last year's tsunami washed up on a shore in British Columbia last month. The bike's owner asked that the motorcycle be displayed at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee as a memorial to the tsunami victims.
7:30 PM Buffalo Bills receiver David Clowneytweeted the results of his HIV test which came back negative. And to the critics of his decision to share his results, Clowney added: "Some people are Ridiculously stupid ... And can't see the bigger picture about things that are important in this world."
It’s hard to blame John Calipari for leaving the Memphis Tigers to take the head coaching job with the Kentucky Wildcats. Sure, he had a lot of success in Memphis during his nine years there, turning the program into an NCAA powerhouse, but it’s the Kentucky Wildcats. One of the premier programs in the history of college basketball, and they backed up a truck full of cash to Calipari’s front door. Frankly, to say no would have been downright idiotic.
Tell that to the people of Memphis, though. They’re the Jennifer Aniston to UK’s Angelina Jolie right now and they’re still feeling a bit betrayed and probably will be for a long time. Which is why when Calipari showed up to his annual “Coach Cal & Friends” charity event on Monday night, he came through the door with a couple of bodyguards.
Lost in all the hoopla and hullabaloo of John Calipari heading to Kentucky is the status of Coach Cal’s previous program in Memphis. Not only have the Tigers lost a head coach, they’re also likely losing an entire coaching staff and a couple of quality players.
So now it’s UM’s turn to seek out a new court general. And the Conference USA champs have there eyes set on someone already in state: Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl. And when it comes to pursuing Pearl, Memphis isn’t talking peanuts - they’ve presented the Vols coach a deal worth up to $21 million.
Now that Billy Gillispie has been canned by Kentucky, free to hit on all the ESPN reporters he can find, the Wildcat brain trust is still looking for their next leader in Lexington. And they may have found their man in the next state over.
Memphis Tigers coach John Calipari met with Kentucky officials on Sunday, a source “close to the situation” told ESPN. You can tell these talks were serious because the meeting was held in “an undisclosed location”. How clandestine!
There was a lot of attention surrounding UConn entering last night’s Sweet 16 matchup with Purdue, and it was all for the wrong reasons. In the midst of an ongoing investigation of the school’s recruitment of now-departed super-stud prospect Nate Miles, no one has received as much heat as UConn’s architect himself, Jim Calhoun.
So what is a Hall of Famer like Calhoun to do? That’s easy: Win the whole thing, then walk away. If Calhoun’s Huskies get out of the gate as well as they did against Purdue last night. Not only did UConn sprint to an 8-0 lead and never look back, the Huskies showed the balance and Hasheem Thabeet-led inside dominance that could lift them back to another national title.
Sure, they’re out West, but with the additional inspiration UConn has received since its exit from the Big East tournament — first Calhoun’s hospitalization, then the Yahoo! investigation — UConn suddenly looks like the biggest beast left in the dance.
Meanwhile, Missouri proved that John Calipari - a past subject of NCAA indiscretions & Calhoun’s scorn after he stole onetime UConn recruit Marcus Camby- still has some work to do if he’s ever going to deliver a national title to the C-USA program he’s taken under his wing. Mizzou did everything that Memphis tries to do — run, trap, press and run some more — except they did it more effectively and efficiently. Even a late heat-check from Tyreke Evans and near-collapse from Mizzou couldn’t resuscitate Memphis, which means that the one team standing between Calhoun and a return trip to the Final Four is Mike Anderson. At least we know what the game plan will be come Saturday: Everybody press! Ready, break!
That wasn’t the case back East, where UConn once assumed it would be, and where No. 1 seed Pittsburgh struggled through another lackluster tourney win. It’s certainly not what Pitt fans will want to hear, but the Panthers just don’t seem to be clicking on all cylinders. In fact, one could argue that Pitt hasn’t played on its top speed since knocking off UConn … again … near the end of the regular season. In fact, let’s run the gauntlet of recent Pitt performances: Lost to West Virginia in Big East tournament, underwhelmed in beating No. 16 seed, trailed No. 8 seed Oklahoma State throughout much of second-round win, then eked past a Xavier team that should have been completely overwhelmed.
If that sounds like Pitt has set the table for a suddenly hot Villanova team to swoop in a steal a ticket to the Final Four, well, maybe they have. The Wildcats smoked a Duke team that was finally exposed at the point, with streaky shooters and with no semblance of a legitimate interior game. Perhaps not surprisingly, Duke again rolled snake eyes in the tournament because it was over-reliant on outside shooting and couldn’t stop a deep set of athletic guards and swingmen. Let’s see, Virginia Commonwealth (Eric Maynor), West Virginia (Joe Alexander), anyone in the Villanova starting lineup. Hmmm, anyone else see a pattern?
But there were other sports outside of the tournament right? Well, we suppose.
We’ve seen plenty of big sports stars in bad movies in the past — Kazaam comes to mind, no? — but none may be worse than the upcoming flick Never Surrender, which features Quinton Rampage Jackson, Anderson Silva, Heath Herring, and Georges St. Pierre and B.J. Penn.
This is just made for a bad-karma jinx. They’re plenty of points away from clinching a division title, but you can already get your hands on Washington Capitals Southeast Division Championship gear if you know where to look.
Speaking of the Caps, coach Bruce Boudreau is more than sick of people bitching about Alex Ovechkin’s celebration of his 50th goal. He can’t even take it anymore.
Darren Rovell: Responsible economic journalist, proud CNBC talking head, expat of ESPN integrity, producer and eater of preposterously large burger? Now he is.
Has anyone bothered to tell Colorado coach Dan Hawkins that he’s been struggling to make bottom tier bowls the past couple years? How, exactly, does he expect to win 10 games in 2009?
Brazilian soccer stars are known for being big partiers — seen any pictures of the older, fatter Ronaldo lately? — but this may take the cake: A 12-hour soiree with a transvestite pornstar.
You can hardly blame the sports media for overhyping, at every single possible occasion, the importance of public smack-talk by teams before they play an important game. Not only does it make the media’s job of filling inches and radio time that much easier, but it also lets the media feel like they’re part of the game now, even when they aren’t. Whatever “bulletin board material” comes from the pre-game interviews probably has about zero effect on the game itself.
(Not the team you want to talk trash about)
That said, if you’re going to question a team’s credentials, don’t do it if they’re eight seeds better than your team, and really don’t do it to the point where you suggest their team’s no better than yours. Coaches (and 99% of America) know this, and that’s why their players are coached to be boring, generic talking point robots; let’s keep the embarrassment on the court, etc. etc. But then there’s Maryland’s Greivis Vasquez, whose only problem has ever been, um, “caring too much.” Someone asked him a loaded question about Memphis’ strength of schedule, and the star Terrapin answered with the kind of honesty that makes coaches want to quit.
