Who wins game 1 Saturday?
Monday
BK third best Big East coach The Sporting News 3. Brian Kelly, Cincinnati. The guy has been a winner at three schools now. No way that's a fluke. Kelly has the Bearcats poised to be the next big thing in the Big East, thanks largely to sitting in fertile recruiting territory. But one wonders: How long will this great mind stay in the Queen City?
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Reds news
Volquez and Belisle today pitched in extended spring training games.
Volquez, 7.2ip, 2h, 0r, 0bb, 13k, 93 pitches
Belisle, 6ip, 4h, 1er, 0bb, 2k, 63 pitches
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Bengals news The National Football League announced today that the Bengals have been awarded four compensatory choices in the 2008 draft. Cincinnati will have an extra pick in Round 3 (97th overall), an extra pick in Round 6 (207th), and two extra picks in Round 7 (244th and 246th) The Bengals currently have 10 total selections in the 2008 draft. Prior to the compensatory pick announcement the Bengals had one selection each in Rounds 1 through 6. The Bengals traded their original pick in round 7. Compensatory picks are awarded by the League for net player losses in unrestricted free agency for the previous year. In addition to player movement, a formula including salary, playing time and post- season honors determines the specific picks awarded.
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Reds news RHP Richie Gardner today was claimed off waivers by the Brewers.
Reds news Today the Reds placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to 3/21, RHP Matt Belisle (right forearm) and SS Alex Gonzalez (left knee) and, retroactive to yesterday, C David Ross (lower back); designated for assignment LHP Mike Stanton and LHP Jon Coutlangus; purchased the contracts of non-roster invitees C Paul Bako (#9), RHP Johnny Cueto (#47), RHP Mike Lincoln (#57), LHP Kent Mercker (#50) and OF Corey Patterson (#23)...another spot on the 40-man roster will be cleared after 1:00 p.m. today.
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See ya Monday
Gameworks Newport On The Levee
Live 8am-1pm
8am Alan Cutler, C Trent
10am Mo Egger and Lance McAlister
Guests:
Former Reds pitcher Mo Sanford
Former Reds minor leaguer/Dragons batting coach 2000-02 Brian Conley
Brian and Mo now run SWOBAT, a baseball/softball academy
Former Reds INF Chris Sexton
Breakfast Buffett
Opening Day Tickets
T-Shirts
Prizes
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Bennett won't be next coach at IU ESPN
After speaking to Indiana athletic director Rick Greenspan on the telephone Saturday night, Washington State coach Tony Bennett told ESPN.com Sunday he has decided not to pursue the Hoosiers' head coaching job.
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Miami falls in OT heartbreak
Did you watch that!? The Miami Redhawks hopes of their first ever Frozen Four appearance ended in a 4-3 OT loss to Boston College. Miami led 2-0 late in the 2nd when BC scored three goals in 1:58 to take the lead. Miami tied the game with 12-minutes left in regulation. BC won the game at the 7:48 mark of OT on a rebound goal by freshman Joe Whitney. Whitney dove the thru the air like Bobby Orr to slap home the winner. Miami had dominated OT....and as Barry Melrose said, "Miami had been the better team in OT".
BC has knocked Miami out of the NCAA tournament three consecutive seasons.This will be the 21st Frozen Four appearnace by Boston College.
There is nothing better in sports than overtime hockey.
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Reds news
Opening Day lineup
Patterson, CF
Keppinger, SS
Griffey, RF
Phillips, 2B
Dunn, LF
Encarnacion, 3B
Hatteberg, 1B
Valentin, C
Harang, RHP
Also:
Josh Fogg threw a complete game today in a minor start. He pitched for Billings vs Sarasota. 9ip, 6h, 2er, 1bb, 3k, 93 pitches
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Most painful end to a game...maybe ever
Memphis 85 Texas 67
Is it really over?
Trying to play catch up, Texas fouled 13 times from the 4:03 mark to the :46 mark. Memphis hit 18 of 22 during that time and 30 of 36 (83%) for the game.
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Q/A with Jr
Dayton Daily News
With me, people don't know a whole lot about me, and that's fine. I take a lot of shots because I do say things that other players won't say. That's part of my job because I can handle it and have done it for years. People will say and write what they want, but they can't take away anything I've done on the field, so I don't worry about it.
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Hal's predictions
Dayton Daily News
Josh Hamilton is hitting .325 with 20 home runs and 47 RBIs at the All-Star break for Texas and Reds fans continue asking, "Why did we trade this guy?" Meanwhile, Edinson Volquez is 9-4 with a 3.50 earned-run average and the same fans ask, "How'd we get this guy?"
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Latest on Bennett to IU rumors
Indy Star
There has also been a report today that Bennett is not interested in the IU job, thinking he's not a good fit for it. I've heard from enough people close to Bennett now to also believe this story isn't accurate either. I think Bennett has some interest, and I think there's good reason to suggest that he's on IU's list, too.
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What they are saying about Xavier-UCLA
The Arizona Republic
Xavier had a team of exceptional role players who overachieved and bought into Miller's family philosophy. But in the end it didn't have what it took to combat UCLA's powerful one-two punch of freshman center Kevin Love and junior point guard Darren Collison.
All Xavier players could do was recognize the amazing talents of Love (19 points, 10 rebounds) and Collison (19 points, five assists).
What is the most likely outcome of the Reds season
Saturday
X'd out
UCLA 76 Xavier 57
Hard not to get a tear in your eye watching the tears from seniors Burrell, Lavender and Duncan. Hell of a run......this year and for four years.
For all of the experience X had, that game seemed almost too big for them.
Wow, can UCLA play some defense. They were so much quicker than Xavier. How about Kevin Love?....knocking down 3's, banging inside, chasing guards on the perimeter. He must have the biggest butt of a big man since Wes Unseld and Charles Barkley.
Sean: "We played a very good team....and we did not play very well. The game and pressure seemed pretty big for our guys....you could tell UCLA has been here before. I really think we went as far as we could...and got beat by a better team."
Sean on his future at X: "I'll be back...and I look forward to being back. I'm excited about what we are doing here"
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Miami hockey wins in OT
MURedhawks.com
(Justin Mercier's overtime goal was his seventh game-winner this season)
It took some late game heroics, but the RedHawks were able to knock the Falcons of Air Force out of the NCAA Tournament with a 3-2 overtime victory on Saturday.
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Congrats to NKU women!
D2 National Championship: NKU 63 South Dakota 58
The Northern Kentucky University athletics department will hold a
reception for the women's basketball team on Sunday at Regents Hall.
The national champions will arrive at noon, and all fans and media
members are encouraged to attend.
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Reds moves
Today the Reds reassigned to minor league camp RHP Jim Brower, IF/OF Jolbert Cabrera and IF/OF Jerry Hairston Jr..
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See ya Monday
Gameworks Newport On The Levee
Live 8am-1pm
8am Alan Cutler, C Trent
10am Mo Egger and Lance McAlister
Breakast Buffett
Opening Day Tickets
T-Shirts
Prizes
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Must see TV!
If you watch nothing else in the next week....watch HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. I never watch it. I was told by a friend I had to. AMAZING episode this week. All three features were spectacular.
1. Lenny Dykstra...former Met and Phillies OF
Best feature of the show. Simply stunning. He is now a self taught financial planner...making millions. Jim Cramer, of Mad Money on CNBC, says Dykstra is one of the "great ones" in the business. It all started when Dykstra gave 2-million dollars to his own financial planner to invest for his future. The planner lost all but $400,000 of it. So Dykstra decided to learn financial advising on his own. He never went to college. He doesn't like to read. He bought CD's and DVD's..and gave himself one year to learn the business and create his own system. Then he went at at it. He works out of his home. He bought Wayne Gretzky's mansion for 17-million and owns a Maybach, a $400,000 car.
He recently sold the chain of three car washes he built for 55-million dollars.
He called them the Taj Mahal of car washes, but admits he doesn't even know what the hell the Taj Mahal is.
He is also a magazine publisher...starting a money magazine for athletes.
Wait til you see him...he's at least 275 pounds these days. He was asked about the people who laugh at him and don't take his financial planning skills seriously. He said, "They'll be laughing till they want a loan, those mother f------.
2. Bruce Pearl, Tennessee coach
Great look at what makes him tick. He talked about the damage done to his career when he "ratted out" Illinois for allegedly giving money to a recruit he lost while at Iowa 20 years ago. He addressed his critcs that say he's more style than substance. Pearl is Jewish. Wait til you hear him speak about taking his team to the site of a concentration camp.
3. Mike Marshall, Cy Young winner 1974
The former Dodgers reliever grew tired of his arm hurting and seeing injuries around MLB. He insists pitching coaches are "idiots" that have no idea what they are doing. He created a pitching school to teach his new pitching motion. Think no wind-up, throwing straight over the top and pronating your forearm.
A bizarre look that he swears by. Pitchers pay $20 a day to learn and throw at his school...throwing footballs and garbage can lids as part of the training.
None of the 20 ML GM's that Real Sports contacted for interviews, agreed to talk on camera. Most consider Marshall arrogant and condescending. Marshall says they fear his way would overhaul all aspects of teaching pitching.....and organizations would have to start over.
4. Vivian Stringer, Rutgers basketball coach
Have not watched this segment yet.
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Cloning another win
The Cincinnati Cyclones closed out the home portion of the 2007-08 regular season with a 4-2 win over Elmira. Barret Ehgoetz and Olivier Latendresse picked up a pair of assists in the win for Cincinnati-which won its 29th home game in 36 tries. A club record 9615 fans packed U.S. Bank Arena for the contest. It was the 14th time this season that an ECHL game had more than nine thousand fans attend. The total eclipsed the previous record of 7584, from November 29, 2002 when Dayton visited. The Cyclones became just the second Cincinnati professional hockey team to win at least 52 games in the regular season. The other was the 1972-73 Cincinnati Swords (AHL) team that won 54 games and captured the Calder Cup championship.
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Wow...what a night
US Bank Arena was rockin' Friday night. The Cyclones had 9,000+ in the house. Great to see traffic jams and lines of fans walking downtown.
I can't thank the Cyclones enough for hosting the Homer Outing. I very much appreciate their generous donation to the Hematology/Oncology Department of Children's Hospital. I give the organization a great deal of a credit for a heck of a product on the ice, fantastic in-game promotions, the drop of ticket prices to $10....and you simply can't beat $1 hot dogs, popcorn and beer. It was very cool of you to give up a Friday night....an NCAA Friday night.... to hang out with us.
Great meeting those that I did. I apologize for leaving the section and not returning. I didn't realize they were going to ask me onto the ice between periods and to hang out down by the ice.
As for my between period t-shirts toss......not one of my finer moments.
I didn't fall on the ice....I did forget about the hanging nets on the ends that protect the fans. I tossed t-shirts on the sides...then turned and fired one into the end section......hitting the net. The t-shirt dropped softly to the ice. I believe that was a chorus of boos and laughter I heard. Uggg. If you have video, I'll pay you not to put it on EBay.
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Say it 'aint so Sasha
Ch 12's Sasha Rionda is leaving
Click for her bio
From Stacey Case to Valeri Abati.....they all leave us
Friday update
Here is the follow-up info from Thursday's interview with Chad Stewart
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Stanton cut
Mike Stanton designated for assignment this afternoon.
Including the buyout for next year...that's 3.5 mill they will eat.
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Best show you are not watching will return!
TVWorthWatching.com
NBC's Friday Night Lights will, indeed, be returning for a third season, according to series star Kyle Chandler.
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X line moving
From UCLA +8.5..... down to +6
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Elite company
From Statman
Here is a list of teams in the last five years to make multiple Elite 8's:
UNC - 3
UCLA - 3
Xavier - 2
Louisville - 2
Kansas - 2 (could be 3 tonight)
Memphis - 2 (could be 3 tonight)
Florida - 2
Wisconsin, Texas and Michigan State could also be added to the list with a win tonight
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Shotgun Bracket Challenge
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Happy Birthday White Shadow
Ken Howard, who played Ken Reeves, coach at Carver High School in TV's The White Shadow, turns 64 today.
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Reds moves
Today the Reds returned to the Red Sox Rule 5 Draft selection LHP Jose Capellan, optioned to Class AAA Louisville LHP Bill Bray and reassigned to minor league camp IF Andy Phillips...the Reds have 31 healthy players remaining in camp.
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Opening lines from Vegas
UCLA -8.5 over Xavier
North Carolina -5 over Louisville
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Love the matchup Saturday
MSNBC
Kevin Love, meet Josh Duncan. The bigs came up huge in the West regional semifinals on Thursday, setting up a low-block party between Xavier and UCLA on Saturday afternoon.
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Forward thinking
Yahoo Sports
Not even an hour had passed since Thursday's 79-75 overtime victory over West Virginia catapulted them into the Elite Eight, and already the Musketeers were exuding that swagger, that air of invincibility that can make a good team great. A Saturday upset of No. 1 seed UCLA ... a spot in the Final Four for the first time in school history ... heck, maybe even a national championship. Nothing seemed out of reach for players such as Drew Lavender and Jason Love as they huddled around the locker room TV, already looking ahead to the next game. "We feel like we can match up with anyone," Love said. "We've got good guards, good forwards - guys that can go off at any minute. We're a confident team right now."
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Overtime and out...WVU made mistakes, XU made plays
CNNSI
But setting aside the jubilee -- from the towel-waving Xavier president in the stands, to the group hug involving forward B.J. Raymond and the entire school band -- the more accurate conclusion to draw from the third-seeded Musketeers' 79-75 victory would be that they seized the win in equal proportion to how West Virginia let it slip away.
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Xavier manages to dodge WVU's bullett
CBS Sports
As the shot clock hit zero, Big Time hit the big shot. It's now a big deal in Cincinnati. Xavier is in the Elite Eight for the second time in five years and beat its hated rival's coach, two teams removed.
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"Fresh Prince of Xavier" leads the way
ESPN
Duncan, the quintessential humble son of a preacher man, couldn't be any more of a college basketball misfit if he tried. In the world of "SportsCenter" posturing, stat stuffing and general showboating, Duncan would rather gouge his eyes out with a spoon than take credit.
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Picture says a thousand words.... just one needed
Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!
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How about Saturday?
Xavier vs UCLA
Louisville vs North Carolina
Holy cow!
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What they are saying about X in Phoenix
ArizonaCentral.com
When he could finally exhale, Sean Miller sought out B.J. Raymond and patted him on the cheek.
"That took guts," he told the Xavier junior. "I'm proud of you."
Guts? That doesn't do Raymond justice. After scoring zilch, zip, nada, nothing in regulation, he pounded his chest and turned superhero in overtime, sinking a pair of are-you-kidding-me 3-pointers to rally the Musketeers to a 79-75 victory over West Virginia on Thursday night in a West Regional semifinal at US Airways Center.
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Pitino now 8-0 in Sweet 16 games
Louisville Courier Journal
The history is impressive. Of his eight wins to advance to the Elite Eight, the average victory is 20 points. No opponent has come within single digits.
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Musketeer's scrappy style serves them well
Fox Sports
By grinding into the Elite Eight, the Musketeers set quite a stage for their showdown with No. 1 seed UCLA, which downed Western Kentucky 88-78 and usually behaves as defensively as a couple of scorned Little League parents. Going through the Bruins to reach the Final Four won't be a physical cakewalk.
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Raise your hand if you picked UL in your bracket
Meeeeeeee
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Line(s) of the night
"Do it BJ....do it!"
-Xavier radio analyst Byron Larkin as BJ Raymond lined up his 3pt shot heard around the college basketball world.
"Gooooooooooooooooooooooood"
-Xavier radio voice Joe Sunderman on BJ's three pointer to make it a four point lead in OT.
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What they are saying in West Virginia
Charleston Gazette
Bob Huggins walked down a hallway deep in the U.S. Airways Center Thursday night, his right arm wrapped around the waist of Joe Alexander and his left draped over the shoulder of Da'Sean Butler. He wasn't exactly whispering sweet nothings in their ears, but it was close. "He was just telling us, 'You're my guys. You're my family,''' Alexander would say later. "He kept saying it over and over again.''
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Congrats to NKU women
The NKU Lady Norse just defeated Alaska-Anchorage 57 - 54. The National Championship game will be on ESPN 2/ICN 6 @ 6:00 p.m Saturday March 29.
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I'm out Friday
Mark Amazon fills in. I'll catch you at the Homer/Clones out Friday night.
Back on the air Monday at GAMEWORKS.
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Bronson in concert
April 5
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Odds for the Reds
BoDogLife.com
Over Under Season Win Totals:
Over 78.5 -115
Under 78.5 -115
Odds to win World Series: 60/1
Odds to win National League Pennant: 28/1
Odds to win National League Central Division: 15/2
HR's in the 08 Season?
Ken Griffey Jr
Over 31.5 -115
Under 31.5 -115
Adam Dunn
Over 39.5 -115
Under 39.5 -115
Brandon Phillips
Over 23 -115
Under 23 -115
Edwin Encarnacion
Over 19 -115
Under 19 -115
RBI's in the 08 Season?
Ken Griffey Jr
Over 95.5 -115
Under 95.5 -115
Adam Dunn
Over 102 -115
Under 102 -115
Brandon Phillips
Over 93.5 -115
Under 93.5 -115
Edwin Encarnacion
Over 82.5 -115
Under 82.5 -115
Wins in the 08 Season?
Aaron Harang
Over 15 -115
Under 15 -115
Bronson Arroyo
Over 12 -115
Under 12 -115
Saves for Francisco Cordero in the 08 Season?
Over 41 -115
Under 41 -115
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"The Bengals Hoops Challenge vs. the Warren County
All-Stars"
Benefiting the Kevin C. Barnhill
Testerman Park
Championship Field Project
Friday, March 28, 2008
Little Miami High School, Morrow, Ohio
Doors open at 5:30pm
Little Miami Youth Basketball All-Star games featuring all-stars from the 1st through 3rd grade leagues will square off at 6:00pm and 7:00pm.
The feature game tip-off is slated for 8:10pm
The Bengals team will consist of 8 current players from the 53 man roster.
The Warren County All-Stars include notable former Bengals David Fulcher, Icky Woods, Joe Kelly, and Jim Breech. In addition, local Warren County college players Clint Nagel (Moeller High and Coastal Carolina), James Cripe (Loveland High and Dayton U), Kevin Schapell (Loveland High and Northern Kentucky), Trent Ingram (Little Miami and Ashland College), Jessica Carmack (Little Miami and U.S. Military Academy) will face-off against the current Bengals. Special guest Anthony Munoz will coach the Warren County All-Stars and will sign autographs. Various in-game activities engaging the audience will
include competitions "Around the World", "First to 10", a Half-Court Shot, Split-the-Pots. Current and former Bengals will sign autographs at
half-time for all members of the audience. A Silent Auction will be held featuring packages that include Reds Opening Day tickets, an autographed Icky
Woods jersey, "A Nite at the Symphony", Homeowners and Beauty packages, "Win Big at Argosy Weekend", a luxury suite at US Bank Arena for a Ravyn
Simone concert and other packages.
Ticket prices: Adults- $10
Students- $5
Children under 6 are free.
For ticket information call Bill Barnhill at
513-703-0810.