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The Daily Digest for Monday, March 17, 2008 |
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March 17, 2008 |
≡ The Daily Digest ≡
 Clark - not Ernie - Kent preferred by some Duck fans? |
= To Our Readers =
In addition to posting our regular daily column of news, observations and commentary, we now send out The Sports Examiner DAILY, a .pdf-format newsletter – with bonus features – with the daily Tip Sheet that can be printed out to take with you or forwarded to your laptop to read later.
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= Tonight’s Menu =
>> Minneapolis, Mn.: The 21-44 Clippers tackle the woeful 15-50 Timberwolves tonight at the Target Center with Los Angeles finishing up a five-game road swing. They’re 1-3 so far and center Chris Kaman is again questionable because of back problems; the Clippers are 2-11 without him. Minnesota will not have point guard Sebastian Telfair, out with an ankle injury, but the T-Wolves have won three of their last four from the Clippers and are a six-point favorite tonight. The over-under is set at 196, so the home team is supposed to win, 101-95.
= L.A. Stories =
>> What’s Bruin:
See our daily blog on UCLA sports at LATimes.com!
>> Lion’s Roar:
Last week’s resignation of Rodney Tention as the head basketball coach at Loyola Marymount wasn’t simply a decision by athletic director William Husak that the team was going in the wrong direction.
A well-placed observer says that Tention’s records of 12-18, 13-19 and 5-26 in three seasons (30-61 total) came up in discussions at the Board of Trustees level and that a directive to improve the program – which hasn’t appeared in the NCAA Tournament since 1990 – was given to LMU Senior Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. Elena Bove, who has oversight responsibility for athletics. Said the source, “it didn’t take more than 30 minutes after the meeting” to set Tention’s “resignation” in motion.
It was not lost on the trustees that a record three West Coast Conference teams appeared likely to – and did – receive NCAA Tournament bids: Gonzaga (25-7), St. Mary’s (25-6) and San Diego (21-13). And it’s San Diego that shows what the right coach can do: in one year, former Gonzaga assistant Bill Grier turned the Toreros from a 6-8 team in the WCC to 11-3 and from 18-14 overall under Brad Holland to 21-13 and WCC Tournament champions.
>> Scene and Heard @ the Pac-10 Tournament:
The 2008 edition of the Pac-10 Men’s Basketball Tournament at Staples Center might have been one of the most successful ever. Some of the off-the-court highlights:
The actual attendance – not tickets sold, but bodies in the house – was very good, with 17,534 showing up for the final game between UCLA and Stanford. Having two teams with strong local followings – especially the Bruins – really helped.
The media contingent attending the tournament was treated to an unusually sumptuous spread before each session. For Friday’s semifinals, the fare included a wedge lettuce salad with tomatoes, onions and bleu cheese dressing; cole slaw, cucumber dill salad, fresh fruit, a vegetable medley of green beans, peas and mushrooms, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, buttered corn on the cob, sliced barbeque brisket and a make-your-own strawberry shortcake bar! On Saturday afternoon, there was a lighter (?) meal with salad, a lengthy sandwich boards with meats, cheese, vegetable accents and condiments and both chocolate chip cookies and chocolate chip brownies!
One thing the Pac-10 does for its tournament which is not widely-enough praised: free programs. A 64-page, full-color program is given, free, to all spectators right as they walk in. It has the full roster of all of the teams and a recap of each of the tournament games of the day(s) previous. It’s a great keepsake and a nice gesture by the conference.
In 2009, the men’s and women’s Pac-10 tournaments will be held concurrently: the men at Staples Center again and the women at the Galen Center at USC. Said one observer, “I don’t see how this is going to work, but SC really wanted it.” Attendance at the HP Pavilion in San Jose has been spotty, but at least they had local teams Stanford and Cal to help draw. In Los Angeles, there’s ?
= Panorama =
The National Pastime:
>> New York, NY: In case you thought the Yankees might be spending less rather than more in future off-seasons, forget it. Tyler Kepner noted in the New York Times today that “The Yankees have more than $75 million coming off their payroll after this season, including the contracts of starters Andy Pettitte, Mike Mussina and Carl Pavano.” Kepner asked Cleveland’s star starter, C.C. Sabathia if he’s considering New York when he’s a free agent after this season, but the 27-year-old appears to be leaning toward staying in Cleveland.
College Hoopla:
>> Bowling Green, Ky.: The best name in the 2008 NCAA tournament might be Desire Gabou of Western Kentucky. He’s a junior guard from the Ivory Coast who hardly plays, logging only 38 minutes in 16 games this season. No doubt he desires more playing time!
>> Eugene, Or.: There are more than a few people in Eugene who would prefer Clark Kent to Ernie Kent as coach of the Ducks. But with an 18-13 record (9-9 in the Pac-10), Oregon got into the NCAA Tournament as a ninth seed.
Jon Canzano, who writes about everything Oregon for The Oregonian, noted “What we have here is a coach gumming up the works. Oregon sputtered and stumbled, and in the end, at 18-13, somehow saved itself. I don’t care if the results feel a little Forrest Gump-like, Kent woke up today coaching in the big dance, and if he somehow pulls off another NCAA Tournament appearance next season, athletic director Pat Kilkenny might as well name the new arena Ernie Kent Pavilion at Phil Knight Court.”
And this:
There’s a faction of Ducks fans who don’t think Kent can coach, and this group won’t ever really accept him because they envision the new arena opening with Gonzaga coach Mark Few on the Ducks’ bench.
Kent is a terrible game coach, but he compensates by being an above-average recruiter. Kent’s former players, on the whole, will tell you they don’t really care for him. Yet he’s able to get them to play for him when it counts.
Oregon will open play in Little Rock, Arkansas on Friday against eighth-seeded Mississippi State. If the Ducks win, they’ll get a shot at one-seed Memphis on Sunday.
NBA Hoopla:
>> Houston, Tx.: Now that the Rockets have disposed of the Lakers to win their 22nd straight game, it’s worth looking ahead to see what Houston’s possibilities are for shattering the Lakers’ 1971-72 feat of 33 straight wins.
The toughest test might be Tuesday, when Boston comes to the Toyota Center in a game on TNT. Houston then has to go on the road to New Orleans (Wednesday), Golden State (Friday) and Phoenix (Saturday). The following week, they get easier games with Sacramento and Minnesota, but have a trip to San Antonio on March 30 that will be televised on ABC. That’s seven games remaining in March and if they won them all, the Rockets would have 29 straight wins.
They would then need four more to tie the Lakers and have four straight road games against lousy teams – Sacramento, Seattle, Portland and the Clippers – to start April and could set a new mark on Wednesday, April 9 at home against Seattle. In other words, if the Rockets don’t lose this month, they may not lose the rest of the regular season.
College Gridiron:
>> Jeannette, Pa.: Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan have at least two things in common. None of the three made the NCAA basketball tournament and all three are trying to convince Jeanette High football star Terrelle Pryor sign with them to play football. Pryor finished his senior basketball season by helping his school to the state AA basketball title with 23 points in a 76-72 win over Strawberry Mansion in overtime on Saturday.
Sharpies think Pryor is on the way to Ohio State and told reporters he’s down to two schools. He’s also shown some interest in Oregon, which did make the NCAA tournament, but is unlikely to secure his services, even if the Ducks hold a spot open for him at small forward.
Keeping Track:
>> London, England: With London hosting the 2012 Olympic Games, sensitivity to doping is at an all-time high and the moral crusaders have been in distress over Dwain Chambers, the sprint star who served a two-year suspension for doping and immediately made the British team that competed in the IAAF World Indoor Track & Field Championships.
Chambers figures to make the British team for Beijing as well, but not if British Olympic Association chief Colin Moynihan – a former boxer – can help it. “I’ve been in sport for 28 years and I am determined there will be no room for cheats in our teams for Beijing or London,” he was quoted in The Independent. Chambers has been banned from Olympic competition for life, but if he fights the ban in court, Moynihan promises a “fight to the finish.”
Rings & Things:
>> Lausanne, Switzerland: The International Olympic Committee has completed its analysis of the air quality in Beijing last year during the August period in which the 2008 Olympic Games will be held. The findings were mixed:
The findings indicate that, at Games time one year out, the health of athletes was largely not impaired. This finding is upheld by the fact that no health issues related to air quality were reported to the IOC by any of the team physicians who looked after athletes competing during the August 2007 test events. Nor were any such problems reported at the IAAF Junior World Championships that were held in August 2006. Moreover, measures are continuously being taken by the Chinese authorities which can be expected to improve the air quality further when compared with 2006 and 2007.
For outdoor endurance events that include minimum one hour continuous physical efforts at high level – urban road cycling, mountain bike, marathon, marathon swimming, triathlon and road walk - the IOC Medical Commission’s findings indicated that there may be some risk. The IOC will, therefore, be working together with the relevant International Federations in order to put in place procedures which will allow a “plan B” to be activated for such events if necessary. The procedure will include daily monitoring of air quality and weather conditions at the venue, a reporting process from the Beijing Environment Protection Bureau to the IOC and relevant sports Federation, and a joint IOC-sports Federation decision to postpone the event if necessary.
Translation: watch for the IOC to feel it necessary to change at least one event to show it cares, unless conditions are perfect. And the Chinese will go along because they want to put the athletes first, right?
>> Lochristi, Belgium: Olympic drug testing is an impersonal, humiliating procedure and those who do the testing are widely disliked. Here’s another reason why: Belgian professional cyclist Kevin van Impe was required to give a sample in the crematorium of the town of Lochristi while making funeral arrangements for his dead son, who died six hours after birth.
If he did not give the test, he could have been suspended for two years and the specimen collector was not willing to even wait two hours for the arrangements to be completed. The German sports newsletter Sport Intern noted that the “news was also greeted with indignation by the participants in the Paris-Nice race. They delayed the start of the last stage [in protest].”
~ Rich Perelman
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