News sport : Jaguars claim Bernard Pierce after Ravens release him

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One team's trash is another's treasure.


The Baltimore Ravens swiftly released running back Bernard Pierce after his arrest for a DUI this week (yet dragged their feet for months on Ray Rice hitting his wife), and it didn't take long for him to find a new team.


The Jacksonville Jaguars confirmed that they put in a successful waiver claim on Pierce, who joins a muddled running back group. Denard Robinson showed signs of life last season, but is he a lead runner? The same question could be asked of Toby Gerhart, Jordan Todman, Storm Johnson and Pierce, who also are in the mix. Together, it might not be a bad group, but there certainly is no clear-cut starter identified yet.


Pierce first must find out how his legal situation plays out and is subject to a two-game league suspension because of his arrest, based on new personal conduct rules.


After a strong rookie season as Rice's backup on the Ravens' Super Bowl-winning 2012 team, Pierce has struggled. For his career, he has rushed 353 times for 1,334 yards and five touchdowns but only has averaged 3.3 yards per carry with a long run of 28 yards and was unable to keep the Ravens' starting job last season as Justin Forsett took it and flourished.


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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!






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News sport : Ronda Rousey vs. Bethe Correia reportedly slated for UFC 190 in Brazil

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Ronda Rousey reportedly has her next fight.


And to the disappointment of seemingly everyone in the sporting & entertainment world who challenged Rousey to a scrap in the last month, this fight will come against an actual mixed martial artist.


Fresh off her 14-second destruction of Cat Zingano in February at UFC 184, “Rowdy” is rumored to meet Bethe Correia at UFC 190 from the HSBC Arena on Aug. 1 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The fight is expected to serve as the main event — although no official announcement from the UFC has been released. Brazilian outlet Tatame was the first to report the news.


Correia, 31, put herself on the MMA map last April when she defeated Rousey’s teammate Jessamyn Duke. After defeating Duke, she held up four fingers, turned them upside down, and plunged them to the floor. The symbolic move was meant as a warning to Rousey and Duke along with teammates Marina Shafir and Shayna Baszler — aka the “Four Horsewomen.” It was a defiant move by the newcomer and it was signaling: “One down, three more to go.”


Correia made good on her proclamation in August of the same year and TKO’d Baszler in the second round of their fight at UFC 177. The Brazilian bomber has been on a verbal assault ever since, and has her sights set directly on the women’s bantamweight champion.


Rousey, 28, is truly one of the biggest and brightest stars in the UFC. Undefeated in her career, Rousey is also the first woman in American history to medal in judo at the Summer Olympics. When she isn’t remaining undefeated in the Octagon, Rousey can be found in summer blockbusters like “Furious 7” and the new “Entourage” movie.


The fight with Correia is something Rousey has made clear she is interested in. However, after Rousey’s last fight, it was announced she would be taking time off to star in a new movie —Peter Berg’s “Mile 22.”


Correia criticized Rousey for being too involved in Hollywood. She said that the champ needed to defend her belt to be considered a real champion — which was a bit perplexing seeing as Rousey is one of the company’s most active champions.


Apparently Rousey’s next project won’t interfere with her fighting career too much. It will be the second time the champion has fought in 2015 and will take place in Correia’s backyard instead of Las Vegas or Los Angeles.


The “home court” advantage may seem nice on paper. However, when you consider that Rousey has dispatched the majority (10) of her opponents in the first round, this begins to seem more like a “Ronda Rousey World Tour” showcase than a championship fight.


Hyperbole aside, this matchup features the third time Rousey will meet an undefeated challenger in the Octagon (Cat Zingano & Sara McMann) and it will serve as another viable test for the incredibly dominant champion. If she can take care of Correia later this summer, then expect the long-rumored matchup of Rousey vs. Cristiane Justino to be the next — and potentially last — logical opponent if “Cyborg” comes down to 135 pounds and the UFC bantamweight champion agrees to the fight.


After that, it’s anyone’s guess. However, for at least a few months, it will be nice to not have people talking about which athlete (man or woman) Rousey will square off against next.






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News sport : Rick Neuheisel's NCAA Tournament song is great (Video)

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Rick Neuheisel's new song pokes some fun at himself.


The former coach and now CBS Sports analyst broke out a new song on Thursday's Dan Patrick show about the NCAA Tournament.


Neuheisel was fired from Washington in June of 2003 amidst an NCAA investigation. He participated in a neighborhood NCAA Tournament pool that, according to an email from a member of Washington's compliance department, was OK under NCAA rules. It was not (Participation in tournament pools is against NCAA guidelines).


He was eventually cleared by the NCAA and received a settlement of nearly $5 million as he wasn't the only member of the athletic department participating in betting pools.


How do you think it ranks among all of his songs? He'll have enough for an album pretty soon.


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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!







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News sport : Georgia State's Ron Hunter falls off his stool and into our hearts

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You fall off one chair during your son's game-winning shot to clinch a dramatic upset and suddenly you're a star. In America, it's that easy.


Ron Hunter, head coach of Georgia State, became an instant celebrity thanks to this moment in Georgia State's phenomenal upset of Baylor on Thursday afternoon. Hunter had to use a chair after he tore his Achilles celebrating Georgia State's tournament bid-clinching victory last weekend. But he wasn't confined to that chair, no. Not when he watched his boy R.J. Hunter knocking down the shot of his life:



Naturally, that set off a whole range of Twitter jokes, memes, and Internet what-have-you. Jameis Winston's playoff flop was a popular choice, and others ran from the sublime to the ridiculous:





Hunter himself had a few words for President Obama, who, like pretty much the rest of humanity, picked against Georgia State in the opening round:



You know we're going to be seeing that chair fall for the rest of this tournament and for years afterward. Better enjoy it as much as Hunter himself did.


____

Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter.



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News sport : Happy Hour: Stewart-Haas as NASCAR's Jekyll and Hyde

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Throughout the week you can send us your best questions, jokes, rants and just plain miscellaneous thoughts to happyhourmailbag@yahoo.com or @NickBromberg. We'll post them here and have a good time.


If you're a sports fan and this isn't one of your two or three favorite weekends of the year, you're doing something wrong. 48 basketball games over four days. Racing at California. NBA and NHL in the homestretch. Baseball getting ready. Spring starts Friday... Glorious.


But before we go any further, we just want to say that we don't expect you to care about our Tourney Pick'Em Bracket and therefore we don't care about yours. Yes, we realize it's very, very likely you picked Iowa State and Baylor to win Thursday and possibly to go to the Final Four. You weren't picking a perfect bracket anyway, so just consider this an early cracking of your delusions.


Let's get to it.


Hey Nick. I liked your article on the SHR program and how Harvick is performing at the top while the others, particularly Tony Stewart, seem to be struggling. As far as the 41 goes, I think you can chalk that up to the situation with Kurt this year, a substitute driver and that host of issues. I wouldn’t be too concerned there unless Kurt falls off the map as far as speed/time goes when he returns and gets a couple weeks under his belt. Danica, well, is Danica, ‘nuff said. Happy is running lights out, no issues there. Which brings us to Tony. OK, I get that ‘setups’ don’t always work for each driver, and putting the #4 setup under Tony may not work. However, putting the #4 setup in the car, having Harv test it and getting it fast, could you not work from that base line with Tony in the car and adjust? Presently, there is no speed in the #14, so work from the same point as the #4 and ‘tweak’, or learn to adjust to drive more Harvick style with this current car if that’s what it’s going take. It’s embarrassing to see him running laps down every week. He’s a multiple past champion and too damn good a driver to be where he is right now. I just can’t understand why working from the #4 setup WITH speed in the car you can’t tweak, and if he loses that speed, then I guess you’re back to square one and he better make some adjustments. After that, then crew chiefs/teams may need to be re-worked. - M


Stewart-Haas has already tried putting Harvick's setups in Stewart's cars and Stewart can't drive them as successfully as Harvick can.


It's similar to cries of Gordon driving Johnson's setups when the No. 48 was in the midst of his five-year title streak and the two teams were in the same shop. Different setups work for different drivers (obviously), and you can bet that SHR figured out pretty quickly that they should try the setups Harvick and crew chief Rodney Childers have perfected in Stewart's cars.


It's still striking to think that Stewart has the fewest points of anyone who's participated in all four races this season. The guess is not, though who would have guessed Stewart would have fewer points than Landon Cassill right now in the first place?


P.S. Busch's fifth-place finish also underscores how ridiculous the notion of it being tough for Busch to get in the top 30 in points. He's already just outside it. Hell, with a good finish on Sunday, he could be in it.



We can go with what we know, and that's while top-end speed may be throttled a bit with the horsepower reduction, corner speeds are up. If you're someone that prescribes to the theory that slower = better, well, that's not good for side-by-side racing in the corners.


It's imperative, however, to realize that this is a temporary fix given the rules that will be in place in 2016. And hopefully there will be some significant corner-speed reduction. We're not fans of 1.5-mile tracks becoming places where you don't touch the brake hardly at all (and can get away with barely lifting on qualifying laps). Let's make drivers work the brake some more and the throttle, even if it's on qualifying laps. The more drivers have to manipulate the pedals, the better the racing could be in terms of cars yo-yoing through the field.


As far as the hot dogs go, well, they were served at the Daytona media center during Speedweeks. Not to go all conspiracy-theory here, but wouldn't the media be a good test subject for the new hot dogs? And we can't say we heard any complaints, though we also didn't have a hot dog. No hot dogs for us meant thirds or fourths for others.


And if you want to continue the theme of the 2015 rules package ... behold and see if you can spot the best line we'll ever get in a reader email this year:


With all the technology these days nascar should be able to figure out how to make all the cars equal so on lap 20 the lead car ain;t lapping cars. Daytona was good but their mile and a half settups suck.. 25 years ago they didn't have much of a package settup to go by and plus back then that was hardcore racing. They need to fix something before this season is over or their going to lose a lot of fans. You can tell already that their not selling out like they use to by just looking at the stands during a race and seeing how empty they are. Nascar use to have good racing until they decided to tweet things and look where that got them. We got only a handfull of dominint cars right now with the #4 leading the pack. All I'm saying is it's not fun to watch anymore because you really don't have side by side racing anymore. You have a laeder that's 5 seconds in front of second place. That's not racing. Thanks for getting back to me but wish your reply was a little better. - Bobby


The cars are as "equal" as they've ever been. Look at the scoresheets in practice and you'll see that lap times are separated by tenths of a second in places. In Friday's first practice at Phoenix, the top 40 cars were separated by 1.04 seconds.


But parity brings out its own issues. With cars so close together (and also aerodynamically dependent) passing is tough. You can't pass someone on the highway if you're going the same speed, right?


It's Twitter's fault.


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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!







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News sport : Report: SEC adds BYU and Army as Power Five non-con teams

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Army and BYU are now Power Five teams, at least in the eyes of the SEC for scheduling purposes.


According to ESPN, the Black Knights and Cougars will join Notre Dame in fulfilling the conference's requirement that all teams play a Power Five opponent during the season.



After settling at 14 teams with the additions of Missouri and Texas A&M, the SEC had the opportunity to stick with its current eight-game conference schedule starting or expanding the conference slate to nine. It chose to stay with eight and mandated that its teams play a Power Five opponent as one of four non-conference games starting in 2016.


Notre Dame was initially included in the Power Five opponents list. Navy, an independent team in 2014, will be a football-only member of the American in 2015.


BYU had fought to be shown the same reverence that Notre Dame has been and has already been considered a Power Five opponent by the ACC for its teams to fullfil a Power Five opponent requirement. By being considered a Power Five team by conferences whose teams are given the obligation, BYU can have an easier time finding games.


The Cougars are on Missouri's schedule in 2015 and 2020, so The Tigers don't have to worry about finding a Power Five team five years from now. The only other non-conference team on Missouri's slate for 2020 is Eastern Michigan.


The Cougars are also scheduled to play LSU in 2017 and gives LSU two "Power Five" opponents with a game against Syracuse slotted a week later. According to ESPN's report, BYU will also play Mississippi State in 2016 and 2017.


According to FBSchedules.com, Army doesn't have any games scheduled against SEC opponents in the future. We're going to guess that will change shortly.


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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!







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News sport : NAACP upset that NCAA is allowing South Carolina to host women's tourney games while state still flies Confederate flag

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South Carolina is hosting an NCAA tournament game for the first time in 13 years, and there are more than a few members of the NAACP who aren't happy about it.


The Palmetto State is under an NCAA tournament ban because it flies the Confederate flag on the statehouse grounds. But the organization is allowing the SEC champion Gamecocks to host games this weekend because of a new format delegating home dates to top-16 seeds in March Madness.


So the home team gets to stay home even though the ban is still in effect.


"If they were really serious about supporting the cause of justice, there would be no loopholes," said Lonnie Randolph, president of the state chapter of the NAACP.


Randolph said he accepts the NCAA's decision, but he's upset his group was not informed until it was made.


"I don't agree with how they handled it," Randolph said. "We didn't have a chance to have a conversation with them about it."


<span id=previewtooltip_1f86eb4a80d54a4e8d0f0704b371371d class=tooltip style=top: -55.3px; left: -507px; display: block;>Confederate flags fly from a house on Church Street in downtown Charleston, S.C., in 2012.</span> In an email to Yahoo Sports, NCAA spokesman Cameron Schuh explained the decision to allow the Gamecocks to host:


"With this format making it a non-predetermined NCAA championship, schools in South Carolina and Mississippi are now permitted to serve as hosts for those rounds of the championship. Under the previous format, schools in South Carolina and Mississippi were not permitted to host championship games in any round due to the NCAA confederate flag policy, which states that no predetermined NCAA championship site may take place in a state where the confederate flag has a prominent presence."


So games in those two states that are earned through play are allowed, while games that are delegated, or chosen, are not.


Randolph said "this will not cause a major problem with the organization at this time," but he also said he's heard from several members who are upset because "it appears they are softening their approach to injustice."


James Gallman, who lives in South Carolina and is a member of the NAACP national board, called the NCAA's justification "garbage."


"They told us there would be no event held in South Carolina that led up to championships. This is a predetermined event. They could have established other sites."


Dawn Staley is the second person ever to play and coach for a No. 1-ranked team. (USA Today) Gallman, who has been on the national board for nine years, said he's "totally opposed" to the games being played in his state under the ban. But he lays some of the blame at his own organization for not mobilizing quickly enough in opposition.


"There were some things done too slowly on our part here in South Carolina and at the national office," he said. "It got to the point where they were going to move ahead. I had suggested there would be some demonstrations but we at the NAACP did not plan."


The Gamecocks are led by coach Dawn Staley, a Hall of Famer from her playing days at Virginia and now credited with building a power in Columbia. Staley carried the U.S. flag at the opening ceremonies for the 2004 Olympics, and is only the second person ever to play and coach for a No. 1-ranked team. She was asked in 2013 by The Daily Gamecock about the flag and the policy.


"I understand the history here in South Carolina," she told the paper. "It's not my history, but it's somebody's history. I think it prevents us and it prevents me from doing my job in a place that I choose to call home. If it creates an opportunity for us not to have [an NCAA tournament game at home], then yes, I'm offended."


That year, Staley's team had to fly to Colorado to face the lower-seeded Buffaloes, and they lost. A columnist in the Post and Courier blamed the ban. "The flag flap almost certainly cost South Carolina a trip to the Sweet 16," wrote Gene Sapakoff, "but ill-conceived NCAA punishment of our state isn't effective. Worse, it has backfired and should be shelved."


Randolph is sensitive to the concern that the players themselves suffered because of the rule, and that has lessened his resentment to the shift in format. "This isn't about punishing people," he said.


Yet nothing could mitigate his resentment of the flag.


"What the confederacy stands for," Randolph said, "is against everything America stands for."






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News sport : Bryce Harper voted MLB's 'most overrated player' by his peers

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(USA TODAY Sports) Proving that MLB players and Internet commenters sometimes agree, Bryce Harper was voted the "most overrated player" in baseball in a poll of his peers conducted recently by ESPN The Magazine.


Harper, the 22-year-old Washington Nationals outfielder, garnered a whopping 41 percent of the vote, according to The Washington Post's DC Sports Bog. Yasiel Puig finished second with 15 percent. The two of them finished in the same spots in the same poll last year, though the percentages were closer — Harper with 24 percent, Puig with 21 percent.


Harper is seen as something of a baseball villain by your average fan, even though our own Tim Brown wrote last week that Harper is miscast in that role. No matter, some baseball fans see him as a young punk. And heck can you blame them, what with that haircut and that Instagram account. (Please notice our tongue firmly in cheek). Other fans are just tired of hearing about Harper, since we've been following his exploits since he was the 16-year-old annointed as "The Chosen One" on the cover of Sports Illustrated.


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It can't be too different for MLB players. Harper gets a lot of attention and endorsement money. He's looked at as one of the emerging faces of the game, though, truth be told, he hasn't proven too much on the field yet. It's not because Harper isn't talented, he obviously is, but injuries have caused him to miss 106 games over past two seasons. But he did win the NL Rookie of the Year in 2012.


When he's played, Harper has been exciting and effective, hitting 55 homers over three seasons and posting a combined .816 OPS. But he hasn't put it all together yet. So in the sense that his hype has lapped his production, yes, you could say Harper is overrated.


One of the challenges for Harper this season will be staying healthy and proving he's actually as good as we've been hearing all these years. That would help him get that ring and it would help him shed the "overrated" label — or at least make the ESPN poll a closer race in 2016.


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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!






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News sport : Iowa State destroyed your bracket and almost everyone else's

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Mar 19, 2015; Louisville, KY, USA; UAB Blazers bench reacts against the Iowa State Cyclones during the second half in the second round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament at KFC Yum! Center. (Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports) Two and a half hours. That's about how long it took.


When 14th-seeded University of Alabama-Birmingham knocked off third-seeded Iowa State in the 2015 NCAA tournament, it didn't just crush the Cyclones' hopes. It also busted the brackets of almost every one of the millions of players in Yahoo Sports' bracket challenge.


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A full 96 percent of brackets featured Iowa State winning its matchup. That was the 10th best team of all picks. Oh, but the carnage didn't stop there. Almost 78 percent picked Iowa State to win its second game and advance to the Sweet Sixteen. Just more than 38 percent picked the Cyclones to reach the Elite Eight, and 15.8 percent picked them to reach the Final Four.


More than 7 percent of brackets had Iowa State going to the championship, the best of the No. 3 seeds. And raise a glass to that 1 percent who had Iowa State winning it all. Also, save some love for the 0.1 percent who had UAB going to the Final Four. Those people have earned the right to laugh at all of us.


____

Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter.



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News sport : Paul George plans to return to Team USA for summer mini-camp: 'I'm in'

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Paul George defends Kevin Durant during a Team USA practice session on July 30, 2014. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images) When Paul George shattered his right leg during a USA Basketball scrimmage in Las Vegas in August, ahead of the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain, it made a number of players — including reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Kevin Durant — take a step back and reconsider whether or not they wanted to continue competing for the U.S. men's national basketball team. One player whose commitment to the national program didn't waver, apparently? Well, that'd be Paul George.


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George continues to work his way back to the Indiana Pacers in a monthslong comeback that's gone step-by-step, from jumpers to dunking to full-fledged practicing. As he considers whether he feels close enough to come back this season without screwing up his team's chemistry — a bit more of a concern when the Pacers were one of the NBA's hottest teams, a bit less of one now that Indy has dropped three straight to fall out of the top eight in the Eastern Conference — George has also begun to think about his status beyond this regular season ... not only with the Pacers, but with Team USA, according to NBA.com's John Schuhmann:


As a result of its gold medal victory in last year’s World Cup of Basketball, the U.S. has qualified for the [2016] Rio [Olympic] games and won’t be participating in this summer’s FIBA Americas tournament, where two more Olympic bids will be earned. But the U.S. will bring together staff and players in Las Vegas for a four-day mini-camp in August. Potential Olympians were notified of the camp last fall, and the USA Basketball staff has been in communication with them throughout the season. [...]

This summer’s mini-camp will include another exhibition game at the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of UNLV, where George snapped his right leg against the bottom of the basket stanchion last Aug. 1. The stanchions at Thomas & Mack have since been replaced by ones that are further from the court.

Though George has been practicing with the Indiana Pacers for three weeks, he has yet to decide if he’ll play this season. But he told NBA.com’s Steve Aschburner on Wednesday that his summer plans won’t change whether or not he plays between now and the end of the Pacers’ season. And when asked about the mini-camp, he was clear that he intends to be there.

“I’m in,” George said. “Of course.”

“The day it happened,” George added, referencing his injury, “right after, I told them I looked forward to continuing on with USA basketball.”

And right after the injury, Team USA's brass told George he'd be welcomed back to the fold for the 2016 Olympics with open arms:


Wanting to add to George’s motivation during the comeback from a broken right leg, [USA Basketball managing director] Jerry Colangelo and coach Mike Krzyzewski have also already made it clear to the Pacers small forward that he is expected to be in the lineup in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

“We’ve told him we have a spot for him in ’16,” Colangelo told NBA.com at festivities Thursday in advance of the Friday enshrinement of the Hall of Fame class.

Without seeing how he comes back?

“Right,” said Colangelo, also the Hall chairman. “That’s what we told him.

As Colangelo told Schuhmann, the forthcoming August mini-camp isn't really a tryout for the 2016 squad, per se, but more of a check-in to keep the players in the pool from which Team USA will select its final Summer Olympics roster in sync and invested in the program. And as our Eric Freeman wrote back in August, it's not entirely clear what Colangelo's "guarantee" means; were George to stumble in his recovery efforts, struggling to return to the two-way brilliance that made him one of the league's most exciting ascendant All-Stars prior to his leg injury, it wouldn't be especially shocking to see George not wind up on the final Rio roster, especially given how loaded the U.S. squad tends to be on the wings.


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Either way, it's heartening to hear that George is eager to participate in the mini-camp and willing to face what must be the awful feeling of returning to the scene of the most traumatic experience of his career. If he's able to get back on the court alongside his Team USA brethren and rediscover the spark that had him in line to be one of the leaders of the World Cup squad, you'd suspect that would go a long way toward calming any frayed nerves and restoring any confidence that George might have lost as he attempts to return to the ranks of the basketball world's elite.


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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!



Stay connected with Ball Don't Lie on Twitter @YahooBDL, "Like" BDL on Facebook and follow Dunks Don't Lie on Tumblr for year-round NBA talk, jokes and more.






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News sport : Ohio State's Thad Matta thinks Greg Oden 'may make another run at' an NBA comeback

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Greg Oden sits near the Cleveland Cavaliers bench during a Nov. 22, 2014, game. (David Richard-USA TODAY Sports ) We haven't heard very much from or about Greg Oden since he reached a plea agreement with prosecutors to avoid standing trial on the felony battery charges he faced after allegedly punching his ex-girlfriend in the face during an altercation last August. Now that he's reached the plea deal — which requires the former No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 NBA draft to pay a $200 fine and complete 26 weeks of domestic violence counseling, Alcoholics Anonymous classes and 909 days of probation — the 27-year-old Oden might be once again turning his attention to returning to the hardwood, according to his former college coach.


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During a pre-NCAA tournament interview session on Wednesday, as his Ohio State squad prepared to take on VCU in the opening round of the 2015 NCAA tournament, Buckeyes head coach Thad Matta fielded a question about the current status of the center who teamed with point guard Mike Conley Jr. to lead OSU to the 2007 national championship game. As relayed by ASAP Sports Transcripts:


Q. Have you had much contact recently with Greg Oden? How is he doing?

COACH MATTA: He's doing great. It's funny, I see Greg every day. He's back in Columbus. Comes in, works out. I don't know quite honestly if I've ever seen Greg as happy as he is right now in terms of everything is going great in his life. He's made a lot of personal commitments to change. Having him around literally every single day and spending time with him, there's no greater feeling. I'm excited for him.

Q. Coach, since you see Greg all the time, is your sense that he's still got some NBA left in him? Is his career over?

COACH MATTA: I tell you what Greg is doing right now, he's probably been six months of high-level conditioning, training in the weight room, working out on the court. Our coaches work him out. I think he's right now trying to gauge how the body feels. There is a possibility he may make another run at it. He looks great. Probably about 280 pounds right now. I mean, quite honestly I haven't seen Greg look this good since when he played for us back in the day at Ohio State. Like I said, his attitude is off the charts. He went through a lot. You look at Greg's life, how difficult things have been. I know that he is a kid that never wanted to let people down. The injuries, you know, none of us can prevent those. I know there's part of him that wishes that stuff couldn't have happened. I still swear he was going to be one of the greatest to ever play in the NBA just from the year I was with him.

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There's quite a distance between Matta saying "There is a possibility he may make another run at it" and Oden actually making a comeback, of course. Getting from point A to point B would require, for starters, Oden once again convincing clubs that his famously haunted knees could remain in sound working order long enough to consider him a viable option for a bench slot. He was able to do last season, finally making his long-rumored comeback after years of rehabilitation work by joined the Miami Heat.


On top of that, though, NBA teams would have to consider Oden a worthwhile enough gamble to bring in despite his limited on-court impact last season — just 219 combined regular- and postseason minutes for the Heat, averaging 2.6 points and 2.1 rebounds in 8.4 minutes per game. And despite reports that the alcohol abuse that plagued him in Portland persists, "remained a concern last season as he sat out many games because of soreness in his knees and back," and played a role in the 7-foot-, 280-plus-pound Oden allegedly punching his ex-girlfriend multiple times in the face last summer. And despite the likelihood that offenses like the one with which Oden was charged — and the one that earned Charlotte Hornets forward Jeffery Taylor a 20-game suspension after a guilty plea to misdemeanor domestic assault — seem, thankfully, to be taken more seriously than ever under the leadership of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.


And Oden would need to be ready and able to handle his reintroduction into the high-stakes NBA environment, too. In September, Oden's agent, Mike Conley Sr., told ESPN.com's Michael Wallace that Oden "doesn't want to talk about basketball [and was] not even thinking about basketball." In November, Oden told Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon-Journal that he wasn't interested in a comeback because he had "life stuff" to deal with first; given the nature of the trouble in which he found himself last summer, it seems difficult to envision that "stuff" getting neatly stowed away in the space of 3 1/2 months.


If Oden has gotten himself on a better, calmer, more sustainable path, though, and makes it clear that he's angling for yet another return to the court, it's not impossible to imagine one of 30 teams at least testing the waters to see if there's anything left in his tank. At no point last season did he really resemble the sort of game-changer he was at Ohio State and, in spurts, with the Trail Blazers, but even so, Heat president Pat Riley left the door open to bringing Oden back into the fold in free agency prior to his arrest.


"We talked about it, and we know him physically better than anybody else would," Riley said during a July 30 conference call, according to Wallace. "Next year, we would raise the protocol on him and see if he would have a different approach. I've seen him play in practices and I've seen him play in games, and you just don't walk away from that kind of talent."


When that kind of talent comes saddled with one of the worst injury histories in recent NBA history and bright red off-court flags still fresh in everybody's mind, though, the circumstances seem like they'd be somewhat different. For now, perhaps it's best just to consider it a plus that Oden seems to be spending his time doing something simple and stable in a positive environment. Maybe that in and of itself will help him establish the sort of foundation that can help him build a better life after basketball, even if it never gets him back on the court at the highest level.


- - - - - - -


Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!



Stay connected with Ball Don't Lie on Twitter @YahooBDL, "Like" BDL on Facebook and follow Dunks Don't Lie on Tumblr for year-round NBA talk, jokes and more.






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News sport : Andrew Wiggins on Minnesota: 'I plan to be there a very, very, very long time'

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When Masai Ujiri took full control of the Toronto Raptors in the summer of 2013, the objective seemed clear. Ujiri would attempt to deal away all of the seemingly middling talent his predecessor (and former boss) Bryan Colangelo had outfitted the Raptors with, while joining a group of teams that were seemingly tanking the season in the hopes of drafting the very good (and also Toronto-born) Andrew Wiggins.


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After dealing Rudy Gay for nothing resembling a star and dangling Kyle Lowry in front of the New York Knicks, the Raptors seemed well on their way toward the lottery after a 6-12 start to the season. The Raptors went 42-22 after sending Gay to Sacramento, however, and ended up winning the Atlantic Division. The Cleveland Cavaliers, designed to actually shoot for a playoff seed, lucked out again and jumped from eighth to first in the 2014 NBA draft lottery, with the chance to draft Wiggins.


With the chance to trade for Kevin Love, then Cavs then dealt Wiggins to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Timberwolves are terrible, the Raptors are above-average, and the twain done met in Toronto on Wednesday evening: Wiggins’ first game as a pro played on his home soil. The 20-year old, averaging 15.7 points and 4.3 rebounds on the season, hit 6-9 shots on his way to 15 points in the 107-100 Minnesota loss.


Fancy playing a few more contests in Toronto, Andrew? Like, 41 a year and possibly some playoff games?


Here’s what the rookie told the press on Wednesday, via Eric Koreen at National Post:



“I love Minnesota,” Wiggins said. “They treat me nice up there. I plan to be there a very, very, very long time.”



For those that think the stars call the shots in the NBA, well, they still do. For those that think younger, less-established stars call the shots in the NBA, well, they usually don’t – unless a shortsighted general manager and ownership team decides to hand a young star a too-short contract that he can opt out of too quickly.


Luckily for Minnesota, Andrew Wiggins will never have to learn David Kahn’s name, even if owner Glen Taylor is still running things. And thankfully for Wolves fans, NBA rules make it so Andrew Wiggins will have to give the Timberwolves quite a while to figure out how to build a winner around him.


How long is “quite a while?” A very, very, very long time, of course.


Wiggins can begin to negotiate a contract extension during the 2017 offseason, conversations we hope won’t be addled by extended labor negotiations. The Wolves may be tied for the worst record in the NBA entering Thursday night, and the team could “earn” the league’s worst record by losing to their tie-mates from New York in Wiggins’ next game, but the Wolves and president Flip Saunders still have two full seasons following this one to develop the young core that is already around Wiggins, and add new pieces via the draft and other means of veteran acquisition.


There is a very good chance the Wolves could bomb in their attempts to build around Wiggins, the favorite so far for 2014-15 Rookie of the Year. Saunders did well to acquire the youngster in the Love deal, and his other draft selections have showed promise, but Saunders’ other transactions have been hit and miss so far.


Whether he’s complaining, or committing, the “very, very, very long time” comment from Wiggins is spot on. Because if 2017 rolls up and Wiggins has had enough? He’d still have to wait what would feel like “a very, very, very long time” to leave the franchise.


If Wiggins develops as expected, the Wolves will offer him a maximum contract during the 2017 offseason – because of a potential collective bargaining agreement change in 2017 and because we don’t know how high the salary cap will be in light of all that added television deal revenue, it’s not fair to guess at what the terms would be.


Wiggins could decline the offer, but the Timberwolves would more than likely pick up their team option for Wiggins contract in the 2017-18 season. That option for the 23-year old, at $7.5 million while working under a salary cap that could be nearing $100 million, could turn out to be one of the great bargains in NBA history. Wiggins would then have to pass on accepting any restricted free agent offer in the summer of 2018, offers Minnesota would quickly match, in order to become an unrestricted free agent in 2019.


In basketball terms, especially to someone who just turned 20, that is “a very, very, very long time from now.”


Masai Ujiri did everything he could not to tamper when talking about Wiggins recently when he pointed out that the player he’d most like to add to the Raptors (excepting LeBron James) “might be Canadian,” and the Raptors will have cap space in 2018 to make Wiggins a restricted free agent offer. They’ll also have cap space in 2019, but every team in the NBA will have cap space over the next few years. Even the Brooklyn Nets, with Deron Williams making over $22 million in 2016-17, could have cap space nearing $65 million during the 2016 offseason.


You truly cannot cross any team off Andrew Wiggins’ list, a list he won’t even bother to put together for a few more years. A list of potential teams that, should the Timberwolves fail him, would take years to follow through on. No player has ever turned down a max extension coming off of a rookie contract, and rare is the coveted starter that sees a rookie contract out to its unrestricted end.


Andrew Wiggins’ comments on his permanence from Wednesday night shouldn’t be taken as a commitment to Minnesota (though he does truly dig it there), nor should they be viewed as a glimpse into the frustrations of a player (an already-traded player) that could go over five NBA years without getting the chance to choose his employer.


These are just factual statements. Andrew Wiggins is going to be in Minnesota for a very, very, very long time. Do something with that, Timberwolves.


- - - - - - -


Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!






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News sport : Confident Kentucky fan has '2015 National Champions' tattoo (Photo)

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Kentucky fans are quite the confident bunch.


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The Wildcats are a perfect 34-0 heading into the NCAA tournament and one fan is so convinced UK will win it all that he already has a “2015 National Champs” tattoo.



Per WLKY (Louisville) reporter Marissa Alter, the tattoo belongs to Rock Wright, who pretty much looks like the average Kentucky fan.



To his credit though, Wright has a plan to correct the tattoo if a team manages to knock off the Wildcats. In that case, his tattoo will commemorate Kentucky’s 2012 national title-winning squad.



This isn’t the first time a Kentucky fan has gotten a rather bold tattoo. Prior to last season’s SEC Tournament, a fan got a “2014 National Champions” tattoo. That boast raised plenty of eyebrows, but it miraculously almost came to fruition as the eighth-seeded Wildcats made a miraculous run all the way to the Finals before falling to UConn.


This year’s Wildcats open up their tournament play Thursday night against No. 16 seed Hampton in Louisville. The game is scheduled for a 9:40 p.m. ET tipoff.


(H/T SB Nation)


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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!







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News sport : Why does UAB's team wear two different colored shoes?

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Eagle-eyed observers of Thursday's matchup between Iowa State and the University of Alabama-Birmingham may have noticed that UAB was wearing two different colored shoes on the court. Fashion statement? Lost equipment? Nah. The truth is far more noble.


UAB is working with the Alabama Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders to raise awareness of Childhood Cancer Research and Advocacy.


"We played a team over in Spain (in 2014) and one of the players came out, wearing a black and white shoe and everybody just noticed it," head coach Jerod Haase said last November. "So we started talking and kind of joking about that and one idea led to another idea about 27 ideas later this is the one we came up with."


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You can see more about the Blazers' fundraising efforts right here. And look for this particular fashion trend to stick around. Hey, it's better in every way than a return of short-shorts.


____

Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter.



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Liverpool taking aim at United

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There is much more than simply local bragging rights at stake when Liverpool host Manchester United at Anfield.


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Manchester, England – It was only three months ago that Liverpool exited the Champions League at the group stage, was closer to the relegation zone than the top four in the Premier League, and their manager thought he was about to get fired.


Now, the Reds are the in-form side in England, Brendan Rodgers is being praised for his tactical acumen, and the team is one win away from a return to the Champions League qualification places.


To make it even sweeter for Liverpool, that win could come on Sunday against their fiercest rivals, Manchester United.


Liverpool hosts Manchester United at Anfield in what is traditionally seen as the biggest game in English football - and there is much more than simply local bragging rights at stake.


Liverpool can supplant United in fourth place with a victory that would maintain their unbeaten run in the league since the teams last met, at Old Trafford on December 14. On that occasion, United won 3-0 and Liverpool was on the slide - a far cry from the one that almost won the Premier League last season.


It has made up a 10-point deficit to the top four since then - a “monumental” effort, according to Rodgers.


“We haven't done anything yet,” Rodgers said, “but from where we were at the start of the season, the intent that they have shown and the work they have had to put in to claw that back and to give ourselves a fighting chance, (it) is great.”


United come into the match on the back of probably their most impressive performance of the season, a 3-0 win over Tottenham. It was the kind of upbeat, dynamic display that manager Louis van Gaal had been waiting for. The question, with nine matches remaining, is: can United keep it up?


For a while, it seemed England's two most successful sides were fighting for one of the two final Champions League places, behind the top two of Chelsea and Manchester City.


However, second-place City is stumbling and is only a point clear of third-place Arsenal, two ahead of United and four ahead of fifth-place Liverpool. Even Chelsea is within sight of the chasing pack now, with the leaders seven points clear of Arsenal.


Chelsea visits Hull, Manchester City is at home to West Bromwich Albion and Arsenal is away to Newcastle.


Here are some things to know about the latest round of fixtures in England's top division:


Di Maria dilemma


United's best display of the season coincided with the absence of Angel Di Maria because of suspension.


So, Van Gaal has a big decision to make: Does he bring back a player that cost almost 60 million pounds ($88 million) - a British record fee - in the summer, or stick with Juan Mata, who impressed against Spurs in his first start since mid-January?


Campaign trail


Chelsea has a new gripe - apparently, the team isn't being awarded enough penalties.


Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has spoken of a “clear campaign” against his side this season, a complaint that earned him a fine of 25,000 pounds (then $38,000) in January.


Now, the leaders have addressed the “abnormally low” number of penalties they have received, in an article on the club's website entitled “Penalty Puzzle.”


Chelsea earned seven penalties last season and 11 the season before. “This season's tally of two unquestionably bucks the recent trend,” the article says, “yet our position as clear league leaders and second-highest scorers suggests we can't be labelled anything other than an attacking side, spending plenty of time in the opposition box.”


Chelsea might be glad to be playing away this weekend - it has drawn three of its last four home games in the league, meaning that the team is creeping rather than powering to the title.


Advocaat’s debut


Dick Advocaat takes charge of his first match as Sunderland manager when his new team visits West Ham on Saturday. The experienced Dutchman replaced Gus Poyet, who was fired on Monday as Sunderland slips toward the relegation zone. Sunderland is a point and a place above the bottom three.


It is perhaps an ideal start for Advocaat - West Ham is winless in its last eight games in all competitions. – Sapa-AP






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