Companies shun Bahrain Grand Prix hospitality - Reuters

By Tom Bergin and Keith Weir

LONDON | Thu Apr 19, 2012 11:17am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Western companies are opting not to entertain clients and partners at the Bahrain Grand Prix following calls for sponsors to boycott the event because of political turmoil.

Royal Dutch Shell, which sponsors the Ferrari racing team, will not be hosting any guests at the event, a source familiar with the company's plans said.

The Grand Prix was not held last year when an anti-government movement erupted in Bahrain following after uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, but in 2010 and other years, Shell had invited a "small number" of guests, the source added.

Shell declined comment on its hospitality plans but a spokesman said technicians would be there to support the Ferrari team "if the race goes ahead".

Safety fears grew on Thursday after members of the Force India team were caught up in a petrol bomb incident and police used teargas to disperse protesters.

Agencies which offer corporate hospitality were also seeing less business than they had in previous years.

"We're 80 percent down. We've got so few people going we've not even bothered to send out a representative to host them," Daniel Bois, director of London-based ticket agency F1 Corporate said.

He added that the risk of violence was one of the reasons potential clients appeared to be deterred.

A source close to the matter said that Swiss bank UBS would not be sponsoring any client events at the Bahrain race.

Corporate hospitality raises around $200 million in total during the 20-race season - about 10 percent of total revenues for Formula One, a business majority owned by private equity firm CVC Capital Partners.

Vodafone, which sponsors the Maclaren racing team, said it was not planning to invite guests to the Grand Prix, scheduled for April 20-22, adding it was not a race at which it had historically arranged significant entertainment as it does have an operating business in Bahrain.

In recent days, a group of British lawmakers sent a letter to Formula One sponsors warning them they risk damaging their brands by supporting the race.

"We are aware of the international concerns. We continue to monitor the situation very closely. However, whether or not the event should proceed is a matter for the teams and Formula One," said a Vodafone spokesman.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) gave the green light last week that the event, cancelled last year amid a violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators, was on.

(Additional reporting by Martin de Sa'Pinto in Zurich Editing by Maria Golovnina)

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Canucks summer options with Luongo - ESPN (blog)

It was the kind of save that changes the course of a game. And if the Vancouver Canucks can pull off a miraculous comeback, a series.

With 14:37 left in the third period of Wednesday night's game between the Kings and Canucks, Dustin Brown skated to center ice for a penalty shot. Until this point, he'd been dominant for the Kings, who were looking to clinch a four-game sweep at home.

Brown already had four goals in four playoff games and two of them came shorthanded. People still point to his hit on Henrik Sedin earlier in the series as the kind of clean, physical momentum-changer that hockey needs, contrasting it against the Raffi Torres ugliness.

A goal on the penalty shot, during the Kings' penalty kill no less, would have fit the narrative of this series perfectly.

But Cory Schneider was waiting. He aggressively came out to play Brown, didn't bite enough on Brown's first fake and got enough of a push to stop Brown's shot. It was a game saver, the most important save of many for Schneider in this game.

The Canucks won 3-1, avoiding the sweep. It was Schneider's second consecutive start in the series and it was his second consecutive strong start. He finished with 43 saves on 44 shots, putting his postseason record at 1-1, with a 1.01 goals-against average and .969 save percentage. The man he replaced, Roberto Luongo, is 0-2 with a 3.59 goals-against and .891 save percentage in the playoffs.

The biggest thing for Schneider was his comfort level on the road. Last year during the finals, if Luongo had been even average in Boston, the Canucks probably would have won the Stanley Cup. In this road game, Schneider was especially strong early. The Kings outshot the Canucks 31-16 in the first two periods, scoring just once. When the Canucks finally got going, their goalie had played well enough to keep them in the game.

"That's what a goalie is there for, especially on the road," Schneider told reporters afterward. "It's a first step we had to have and we can worry about the next one."

If he keeps this up, it's almost impossible to trade him during the offseason. It probably is already. He's a well-liked player in the dressing room, and the Canucks want to play for him.

"[Schneider] really is a popular guy," one NHL source said. "Not that [Luongo] isn't. He's a different kind of guy."

Now, the Canucks must draw up a plan that includes keeping Schneider and moving Luongo. It's not an easy proposition.

In September 2009, Luongo signed a 12-year contract that extends through the 2021-22 season. It comes with an average salary cap hit of $5.33 million per season. The big payday came last season when Luongo earned $10 million of the $64 million. From then until 2017-18 he's paid $6.7 million per season before the contract tails off in the final four seasons.

The kicker? It comes with a no-trade clause. Not that it needs it.

I checked with a couple of NHL general managers to see if Luongo's contract is moveable. One laughed. The other was a little more diplomatic.

"No," he answered. "Unless the trading team was allowed to subsidize the deal."

So what are the Canucks' options with Luongo this summer?

To read more on the Canucks' offseason options with Roberto Luongo, you must be an ESPN Insider.

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Report: Colts will take Luck at No. 1 - FOXSports.com

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The Indianapolis Colts have their man.

ARE YA READY?Get up to date on the latest pro days and all NFL Draft info. Watch videos.

The Colts will select quarterback Andrew Luck with the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft next week, ESPN reported Thursday. The team has already informed Luck, according to the report, although the timing is unknown.

"We've known for a little while. We've done all our due diligence," Colts general manager Ryan Grigson said Tuesday, although he refused then to identify the team’s choice.

Luck, a former Stanford star, is the player around whom the Colts hope to rebuild since the team and Peyton Manning parted ways earlier in the offseason.

A league source also has said the Washington Redskins will pick Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III at No. 2.

Tweet Tagged: Colts Related Stories Minnesota facing 'serious consequences?' The Light is turned off for Patriots Redskins schedule breakdown and predictions Member Comments Please note by clicking on "add a comment" you acknowledge that you have read the Terms of Use and the comment you are posting is in compliance with such terms. Be polite. Inappropriate posts may be removed by the moderator.

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Lorenzo Fertitta discusses Jon Jones' UFC clothing endorsement at UFC 145 ... - MMATorch

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Lorenzo Fertitta discusses Jon Jones' UFC clothing endorsement at UFC 145, disagrees with claims of favoritism
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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

It was revealed last week that UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones would be sporting only UFC branded gear for his fight with Rashad Evans at UFC 145. The announcement caused a bit of controversy, with many seeing some conflict of interest or favoritism on the UFC's part by "sponsoring" Jones.

Jones and his gave their stance on the situation earlier this week, stating that they didn't want to be a walking billboard for the many lesser brand names that populate the mixed martial arts landscape. Instead, they hope to eventually broker a deal with a major name in the sporting world, such as Nike or Adidas.

Still, the UFC was certainly sensitive to the criticism, going after CagePotato.com when that site added a false quote suggesting UFC President Dana White was also gambling on Jones along with that. But UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta says the perception on this situation has been simply wrong, and in an interview with USAToday he explained their goals with this merchandising endeavor.

"The Jon Jones thing, it's really kind baffling to me that people have kind of responded the way they have," Fertitta said. "I guess because people don't really understand how it came about. To give you a little bit of background, I was going through the process of renegotiating with Jon and his management team on his fight contract. One of the things they brought up was that Jon was at a point where he didn't necessarily want to sign contracts with some of these smaller, what I'll call, T-shirt companies that you historically see in UFC, whether it be Tapout or MMA Elite or any of these other guys.

"His aspirations (were) that he wanted to be signed by a Nike or an Adidas or an Under Armour, somebody like that," Fertitta continued. "The reality is, those opportunities don't present themselves to Jon right now, and that's why I suggested, 'Hey look, we've got this performance line of gear. Let us send it to you. You can test it. You can try it out. If you like it, then you can wear it in your next couple of fights.'"

"In addition to that, it's nonexclusive. (He) can still go out and get a deal with Nike, Under Armour, Reebok or Adidas. So it's a very open-ended process as far as him wearing that. And there's been other guys that have worn UFC-branded product to fight in as well. So it's not necessarily the first time."

Fertitta estimates they've had upwards of 20 fighters already appear in UFC branded clothing, it's just the high profile spot for Jones that has brought about the attention. Still, it's a situation where some will have the clothing arrangement written into their fight contract, while some others will receive additional compensation for it, but Fertitta maintains there's no favoritism involved.

"I don't know what we could possibly do to favor him," Fertitta said. "Anything relative to the fight or the outcome of the fight is 100 percent completely out of our control. The fact of the matter is, Rashad has a deal with Jaco. I don't know the express terms of it, but it's probably a very good deal. That's who he chose to sign a deal with. He's not available to even wear any UFC-branded gear in a fight because he's already got a pre-existing deal."

"So I don't know how anybody can come to the conclusion that one fighter is being favored over the other. Jon was out of contract. He didn't have a deal, and he didn't want to sign another deal with one of those typical MMA brands and decided that he wanted to wear UFC gear."

Penick's Analysis: I don't see anything wrong with this situation, and it's simply another expansion of the UFC that they're building up with their own fighters. It would be one thing if it was only Jon Jones wearing their gear, but there are a multitude of fighters who have already come to agreements with the UFC on it. It's no different than getting an endorsement deal with any other company, it just so happens Jones will be endorsing the company that already employs him.

[Jon Jones art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]

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Women's basketball icon Pat Summit steps aside at Tennessee - Chicago Sun-Times

By TERESA M. WALKER AP Sports Writer April 19, 2012 10:54AM

FILE - In this April 1, 2012, file photo, Tennessee coach Pat Summitt waves to the crowd during a half-time ceremony to honor past olympic coaches at an NCAA women's Final Four semifinal college basketball game between the Baylor and the Stanford in Denver. Summitt, the sport's winningest coach, is stepping aside as Tennessee's women's basketball coach and taking the title of "head coach emeritus", the university announced, Wednesday, April 18, 2012. Long-time assistant Holly Warlick has been named as Summitt's successor. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)

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The time Tennessee Lady Vols and women’s basketball fans have dreaded for months finally has arrived.

Pat Summitt is stepping aside as Tennessee’s head coach after 38 seasons, the last an emotionally draining farewell tour for the woman who won more games than anyone else in NCAA college basketball history.

“I’ve loved being the head coach at Tennessee for 38 years, but I recognize that the time has come to move into the future and to step into a new role,” the 59-year-old Hall of Famer said in a statement issued Wednesday by the school.

Summitt will discuss the move, including the promotion of longtime assistant Holly Warlick as her replacement, at a Thursday news conference on the court named in her honor the night she won her 1,000th game. Making the decision had been only a matter of time since Summitt revealed Aug. 23 that she had been diagnosed with early onset dementia, Alzheimer’s type.

It’s why players from opposing teams joined fans from coast to coast donning T-shirts saying “We back Pat” and greeted Summitt with cheers at every game. Even the Murray State men put shirts with the phrase on when they played at Summitt’s alma mater in Martin this winter on another court named in her honor.

But Summitt’s every move was studied to see how she felt, down to how many officials she yelled at or her icy glares at a player. After losing to eventual national champ Baylor in a regional final, Warlick’s tears during the postgame news conference gave a glimpse of how exhausting the season had been and the possibility it was Summitt’s last game.

Mickie DeMoss, who served as Summitt’s assistant for 21 years combined before leaving for the WNBA’s Indiana Fever earlier this month, said she’s happy for Summitt.

“Her health and well-being are most important to me,” DeMoss said. “She now can focus on doing things for Pat. She has given 38 years to UT and to women’s basketball. Now, she can do what’s best for herself, every day. I’m happy for my friend, and happy that she can begin a new chapter in her life.”

Summitt will report to athletic director Dave Hart in her new role, while assisting the program she guided to eight national titles since taking over in 1974.

“She is an icon who does not view herself in that light, and her legacy is well-defined and everlasting,” Hart said. “Just like there will never be another John Wooden, there will never be another Pat Summitt. I look forward to continuing to work with her in her new role. She is an inspiration to everyone.”

Her responsibilities will include helping with recruiting, watching practice, joining staff meetings, helping coaches analyze practice and games, and advising the Southeastern Conference on women’s basketball issues and mentoring players. Summitt also will be working as a spokeswoman in the fight against Alzheimer’s.

“If anyone asks, you can find me observing practice or in my office,” Summitt said. “Coaching is the great passion of my life, and the job to me has always been an opportunity to work with our student-athletes and help them discover what they want. I will continue to make them my passion. I love our players and my fellow coaches, and that’s not going to change.”

UConn coach Geno Auriemma said Summitt’s vision for women’s basketball and her relentless drive pushed the game to a new level, making it possible for the rest to accomplish what they have.

“In her new role, I’m sure she will continue to make significant impacts to the University of Tennessee and to the game of women’s basketball as a whole,” Auriemma said.

“I am thrilled for (Warlick) as this opportunity is well deserved and Pat will be a huge asset to her moving forward,” he said.

Warlick, a three-time All-American who played for Summitt, was her assistant for 27 years.

Hart said he watched Warlick grow this season under what he called “unique circumstances” and that she is deserving of the head job. While Summitt devoted more attention to her health, Warlick took the lead during games and handled postgame interviews, with the entire staff handling recruiting and practices.

“Her mentor will be available for insight and advice, but this is Holly’s team now,” Hart said.

Warlick said she was thankful for all Summitt has done in preparing her for this opportunity as her coach, mentor and friend.

“We will work as hard as we possibly can with the goal of hanging more banners in Thompson-Boling Arena,” Warlick said.

Tamika Catchings, one of Summitt’s former stars and the WNBA’s reigning MVP, saw the news on TV during a meeting.

“Everyone in the back of their minds was thinking this was going to happen anyway. Holly will do a good job,” Catchings said.

Summitt’s diagnosis came during one of the Lady Vols’ most disappointing stretches — by their coach’s lofty standards, anyway. Tennessee hasn’t won a national championship since 2008 and hasn’t even reached the Final Four, tying for its longest such drought in program history.

“As I’ve said many times, Pat Summitt is a pioneer in basketball,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “Her amazing career accomplishments are among an elite group of leaders. Very few people leave a lasting legacy in their chosen professions and Coach Summitt has done just that at the University of Tennessee and in women’s basketball. She raised the level of commitment, pride and notoriety of her sport. I am honored to call her a friend.”

Tennessee’s five seniors were part of the team that lost in the first round of the 2009 NCAA tournament, the only time in school history the Lady Vols had bowed out on the first weekend.

Those seniors promised they would win a ninth national championship this season — not just for Summitt, but as center Vicki Baugh put it, “ ... for everyone who has Alzheimer’s.”

But they couldn’t make it back to the Final Four, losing to Baylor and Brittney Griner, a player Summitt couldn’t convince to come to Knoxville.

Summitt’s career ends with a 1,098-208 record, 16 regular-season Southeastern Conference championships and 16 SEC tournament titles.

During her time, Tennessee never failed to reach the NCAA tournament, never received a seed lower than No. 5 and reached 18 Final Fours.

“Words cannot adequately describe the extraordinary career that Pat Summitt has had in the world of basketball,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. “She is a model of class and courage, and I don’t think that enough can be said for just how much Pat has accomplished in building and elevating women’s basketball to its current heights.”

Every Lady Vol player who has completed her eligibility at Tennessee graduated under Summitt, and 74 former players, assistants, graduate assistants, team managers and directors of basketball operations are currently among the coaching ranks at every level of basketball.

“You think about the University of Tennessee and you think of Pat Summitt,” Catchings said. “You don’t think of anyone else. The great players that have come and gone, coaches that have come and gone, but the legacy that she built for herself and for the university. It’s amazing how far women’s basketball has come. Her legacy isn’t over yet.”

? 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit http://www.suntimesreprints.com/. To order a reprint of this article, click here. Wright By:kevin,
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Tiger's coach: Criticism out of hand - FOXSports.com

Updated?Apr 19, 2012 12:33 PM ET

Tiger Woods' swing coach says criticism of his client is getting out of hand.

''I know everyone has a job to do, and I get it,'' Foley said this week on ''Fairways of Life,'' a radio show hosted by Matt Adams on XM Sirius. ''But if it is about the game of golf, Tiger Woods is an extremely important part of the game, and I think everyone understands that. It has just gotten to the point where the tearing down of Tiger as a person and a golfer has become just too much. I think it is just out of hand.''

Woods has been under more scrutiny than any other golfer since he turned pro in 1996 when he was 20 and won twice in seven starts on the PGA Tour. The criticism has sharpened in the two years since Woods was exposed for extramarital affairs that cost him his marriage and impeccable image.

He tied for 40th at the Masters, yet most of the attention was on how Woods kicked his golf club after missing a tee shot on the 16th hole of the second round. He said the next day, ''I'm frustrated at times and I apologize if I offended anybody that that.''

Foley began working with Woods at the 2010 PGA Championship, and Woods has shown signs of getting back toward the top of his game. He won the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill last month for his first PGA Tour win since the scandal in his personal life unfolded the night of Thanksgiving 2009.

Foley has gone through his share of criticism, too, especially in the early stages of Woods learning a new swing.

''I realize it is 2012 and we have dotcoms, and you have to write five articles a day, and you run out of things to write about,'' Foley said. ''But we should be in a position where we are trying to help and lift up and support a player like Tiger Woods instead of tearing him down, because everyone in the golf industry is better off because of his existence.''

Foley's comments came at the end of a 20-minute interview, and he raised the issue without prompting.

''That is basically one thing I want to get out,'' Foley said. ''Tiger is a wonderful person, and he is a good dude, and he lives a complex life. I think things have got to slow down, and it has got to stop, the daily referendums and the criticism.''

Woods' performance in the Masters has kept him in conversations, however. It tied his worst finish in a major as a pro — except for the three times he has missed the cut — and kicking his 9-iron became a lasting image of his week at Augusta National.

A few days after the Masters, former Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger said on Sirius XM Mad Dog Radio that Woods' antics were an ''embarrassment to the game, to the membership at Augusta.'' The comments were startling because Azinger has long been a supporter of Woods.

''I was really disappointed to see him carry on that way,'' Azinger said. ''He's not trying to endear himself to anybody. And after he won Bay Hill, I thought, 'Here we go again, this is going to be Tiger just kicking butt and taking names.' I don't know. I thought he acted like the south end of a northbound mule.''

Jack Nicklaus was asked Tuesday about Woods' game and said he didn't know what was going on.

''I don't know what goes (on) between his ears,'' Nicklaus said. ''That's really the X factor. His golf game and his golf swing looks pretty similar to what I've been looking at and he hits a lot of great shots. But you never know what's going on in somebody's head.''

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MLB Notebook: Lee, Cain have duel for ages - MLB.com

On May 26, 1966, the San Francisco Giants and Philadelphia Phillies tussled for 14 innings and combined for just one run. The stars of the day were on the mound, where future Hall of Famers Jim Bunning and Juan Marichal matched zeroes for the first 10 frames. Bunning was done after 10 shutout innings, having allowed just five hits with eight strikeouts and two walks. Marichal went the distance, finishing with a six-hit, 10-strikeout, 14-inning shutout.

Bunning's superb effort produced a game score (an equation used to measure a pitcher's dominance) of 88, while Marichal's line produced an eye-popping 109. Since that epic duel, no other Phillies-Giants game had featured both starters producing a game score of at least 85 -- until Wendesday.

After the Phillies' Cliff Lee (10 innings) and Giants' Matt Cain (nine innings) combined for 19 innings of shutout ball, San Francisco defeated Philadelphia, 1-0, on Melky Cabrera's game-ending single in the 11th.

Lee was the first pitcher since Mark Mulder in 2005, and the ninth since 1991, to finish a start with at least 10 shutout innings. Of these nine, six walked away from their marvelous effort with a no-decision. PitcherDateDecisionHits/K/BBGame ScoreLee was the first Phillies pitcher since Steve Carlton on Sept 21, 1981, to go at least 10 innings and finish a start with no runs allowed.

This game marked the 10th time in the past 20 seasons in which both starters finished their day with at least nine shutout innings, and the first since Jason Vargas and Zach Britton accomplished the feat last May 12.

Cain allowed two hits with four strikeouts and one walk in his gem, producing a game score of 86.

Nationals
With a 3-2 win over Houston, Washington improved to 10-3 for the second-best 13-game start in Expos/Nationals history. The 1981 Expos opened with 11 wins against two defeats.

Jordan Zimmermann allowed one run on four hits in seven innings -- the sixth time this season a Nationals starter has gone at least seven innings and allowed no more than one run. Those six are the most in the Majors.

Zimmermann has allowed one earned run while going seven innings in each of his first three starts of the season. Before him, no Expos/Nationals pitcher had started the season with three consecutive starts of at least seven innings pitched and no more than one earned run.

Rangers
Behind Derek Holland's seven innings of four-hit, two-run ball, the Rangers beat the Red Sox, 6-3, to improve to 10-2 on the season. They matched the 1989 Rangers for the best 12-game start in franchise history.

Through their first 12 games, the 1989 team averaged 5.33 runs per game and allowed an average of 3.58 runs per game, while the club this season is scoring 5.75 runs per game and allowing 2.50 runs per game. With Holland's performance, Texas starters are 8-0 with a 2.44 ERA this season.

Mike Napoli homered, doubled and drove in four runs in the Rangers' victory. Since the start of the 2011 season, Napoli has 60 extra-base hits in 472 plate appearances, for an extra-base-hit percentage of 12.7. Among players with at least 400 plate appearances since the beginning of last year, that percentage is the highest in the Majors.

Here and there
? David Wright drove in three runs to give him 733 RBIs for his career, tying Darryl Strawberry for the Mets' franchise record. Wright is also second in career runs (31 behind all-time leader Jose Reyes), third in hits, first in total bases, first in doubles, fourth in home runs, fourth in walks and first in extra-base hits.

? A.J. Pierzynski went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and now has four homers and 13 RBIs on the season. In the live-ball era, Pierzynski's four homers tie him with Sherm Lollar in 1957 and Carlton Fisk in '81 for the most by a White Sox catcher through 11 team games, and his 13 RBIs tie him with Fisk in '81 for the most through 11 contests.

? Justin Morneau went 3-for-4 with two home runs and three RBIs in the Twins' 6-5 victory over the Yankees in New York. In 12 career games and 52 plate appearances at the new Yankee Stadium (which opened in 2009), Morneau owns a .478 average and 1.582 OPS with five doubles, seven home runs and 10 RBIs. Morneau's seven home runs at Yankee Stadium are two more than he has hit in 340 plate appearances at his home park, Target Field.

? Derek Jeter went 3-for-5 and hit his fourth home run of the season in his 54th at-bat of the year. Jeter, whose fourth home run in 2011 came in his 330th at-bat, has had 266 games with at least three hits -- the 12th most for any player since 1918.

? The Marlins' Mark Buehrle (eight innings, six hits, one run) won his first game as a National League pitcher. From his first season in 2000 through last year, Buehrle's 161 victories were the second most in the American League, behind CC Sabathia's 165.

? The Twins' Josh Willingham went 1-for-5 on Wednesday and the Giants' Pablo Sandoval went 1-for-4. Each player has at least one hit in every game his team has played (12) this season.

Roger Schlueter is senior researcher for MLB Productions. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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Wisconsin's Bo Ryan seeks answers, not disdain, in attempt to block Jarrod ... - SportingNews.com

Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan’s experience with transfers is about as extensive as his experience in beet farming. So, he says, he consulted other coaches about how to handle the process when redshirt freshman forward Jarrod Uthoff recently expressed his intention to leave the program.

Which leads one to wonder: None of those coaches have heard of Twitter?

Bo Ryan has placed significant restrictions on forward Jarrod Uthoff's transfer in the effort to get a full explanation of why he is leaving. (AP photo)

In a conversation Thursday with Sporting News, Ryan explained his decision to restrict Uthoff from transferring to other Big Ten schools -- as well as Marquette, Florida, Iowa State and the entire Atlantic Coast Conference -- was primarily a device to coerce Uthoff into the university’s internal appeals process so he'd have to explain his decision to leave the Badgers.

Ryan made it clear that he was bothered Uthoff was leaving the program without so much as a face-to-face meeting, instead declaring his intent in a telephone call when Ryan was taking a postseason vacation with his wife.

Uthoff, a 6-8 forward from Iowa who redshirted last season, had more than a week to speak with Ryan personally following the Badgers’ loss to Syracuse in the NCAA Sweet 16. If he’d waited a few days until Ryan returned from California -- Ryan even offered to cut his trip short to meet with Uthoff -- there were another three weeks or so before Wisconsin’s semester ended.

But, no. Uthoff’s transfer request stood as the rough equivalent of the dude who broke up with Carrie Bradshaw via post-it note on “Sex and the City.”

“Nobody’s trying to hurt anybody. If the kid doesn’t want to talk to you about a transfer, just do us a favor and go tell the administrator,” Ryan said Thursday. “All we were saying is, 'If you want to go to one of these schools, come in and talk.' He doesn’t have to talk to me, but you can talk to a representative of our school.”

Ryan said on ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike program Thursday that he owed it to his employers and the people who support the university, “If somebody wants to transfer, can I have a little bit better idea of why?”

Transfer restrictions are not rare in college athletics. The Big East has a rule that essentially prevents any recruit who signs a letter of intent with a member school from receiving a scholarship from another league member. With the way that league is expanding, that covers almost half of Division I. And Uthoff's ability to transfer hasn't exactly been crippled; he already has a recruiting visit scheduled to Creighton in the next few days.

In the world of Twitter, however, where a widely published opinion is only 140 characters and one keystroke away, such nuance seems obsolete. There were scores of condemnations for Ryan within hours of the initial report from Iowa-based preps site Metro Sports, which quoted Uthoff as saying, “I didn’t see it coming,” when he received an e-mail from Wisconsin regarding the restrictions.

Ryan, though, would have recognized the impending conflagration that was about to consume him if he’d communicated with people who remembered what occurred not even six months ago with Saint Joseph’s, coach Phil Martelli and aspiring transfer Todd O’Brien.

In the St. Joe’s case, the method, mechanism and intent of the school's decision not to endorse O’Brien’s desire to compete as a graduate transfer at Alabama-Birmingham were buried in an avalanche of media criticism that depicted Martelli as cruel and vindictive.

Martelli has been the Hawks' coach for 17 years. He was in charge of the last team to finish a college basketball regular season undefeated, in 2004, and won just about every national coach of the year award that spring. He is extremely active in the Coaches vs. Cancer program. When you Google him now, however, one of the three top items returned bears this headline from an ESPN.com column: “What on Earth is Phil Martelli doing?”

Ryan has been coach at Wisconsin since 2001 and, during that time, has run perhaps the most admirable program in Division I basketball. Every one of his teams has reached the NCAA Tournament with 10-of-11 clubs winning at least one game in the event. His Badgers have won three Big Ten championships. There have been 39 academic All-Big Ten selections among his players. The Badgers have excelled while fielding only a handful of elite recruits along the way. And, through all of that, essentially only one player prior this year decided to transfer to another school -- and none had it decided for him, which is rarer still.

How many schools aside from Wisconsin could have produced a story such as Rob Wilson, a shooting guard who struggled for nearly four full seasons to find a spot in the Badgers’ rotation -- and this March helped the team win an important Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal game against Indiana with a 30-point explosion? A whole lot of coaches would have -- politely or harshly -- told Wilson he needed to find another school after averaging just 3.1 points as a sophomore. He will graduate from Wisconsin next month, the first in his family to earn a degree.

Ryan told Sporting News merely cutting loose Uthoff with a blanket release “would have been the easy thing to do. I’m not looking for easy. There was no mistreatment.” He said it's conceivable the school could decide to lift the transfer restrictions entirely.

Ryan now recognizes this case is being seized upon by critics of rules restricting NCAA athlete transfers, and it's being used to advance the cause of greater freedom for those young men and women.

There is much to be said for that principle, but turning good people into villains probably won’t advance it, and certainly does not flatter it.

The advantage Ryan has over Martelli at this point is his willingness and/or ability to discuss the reason he chose this particular course. Ryan says Uthoff has some responsibility “to your teammates, to your school, to the people who in good faith recruited him.” All Ryan seeks is an explanation. It does not seem much to ask.

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Guardiola: Chelsea is the favorite - FOXSports.com

Updated?Apr 19, 2012 11:05 AM ET

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola has admitted Chelsea is now the favorite to reach next month's Champions League final following the Blues' 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night.

Didier Drogba's goal in first-half stoppage time was enough to clinch victory in the first-leg encounter.

And though Barcelona would hope to score at least once in Tuesday's return at the Nou Camp if they can match their incredible tally of 24 chances, by gaining the initiative without conceding an away goal, Guardiola believes the Premier League's sole survivors have the edge.

"One-nil is a very good result for them," said Guardiola. "They are the favourites."

Aiming to become the first side to retain the trophy in the Champions League era, Guardiola claimed Barcelona were not surprised to encounter a Chelsea side that spend long periods of the game on the back foot.

Instead, he felt the burden of responsibility lay with his own team for not making the most of their opportunities.

"It's football," he said. "It's not a question about fair or unfair.

"Congratulations to Chelsea. We'd win every game if it all was about possession of the ball because our average is more than our opponents.

"But the most difficult thing in this game is putting the ball in the net, and that's what we couldn't do this evening.

"We have to focus on the next game now and try and create the same number of chances.

"It won't be simple. They'll have 10 men behind the ball, they'll defend, they're stronger than us, they run, they jump more than us.

"But we have to try and take the game under control and discover a way of scoring the goals."

Cesc Fabregas wasted two of Barcelona's clearest openings, whilst Sergio Busquets fired over late on when he seemed certain to equalise.

Having dominated European football for three years now, Barcelona's problem is that they have an energy-sapping La Liga confrontation with Real Madrid on Saturday evening, before they tackle Chelsea.

"Only winners are remembered," he said.

"But my feeling is that being here is already a success. This year has been quite tough. We've had some setbacks, but we've confronted them with great dignity and support.

"We'll see if we're able to claim a trophy, but we already have achieved a lot."

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Column: 'I know how to play this golf course.' - Fox News

AUGUSTA, Ga. – ?Don't say he's back.

Or that's he's not.

Tiger Woods could play Augusta National in his sleep, in a daze, in a blizzard or with a ball and chain cuffed at his ankle and still get around in a respectable number of strokes. See where he is at close of light Sunday. Then we'll talk.

A day before the opening round, Woods tweeted, "Feeling ready," except he didn't play as if he was. Not completely, anyway. He sprayed practice shots all over the range, then pulled his first tee shot into a stand of trees on the left, a bad habit that plagued him most of the day. He scrambled from the pine straw off the first fairway, then holed from 8 feet for a one-putt par, another habit that kept the round from tipping over into disarray.

Say this much for Woods: He's rarely boring. At No. 9, he pulled his drive so far to the left that it wound up in the walkway between the ninth and first holes. A kid got to the ball first, as it rolled to a stop, bent over and looked at the logo. Then he pulled his father in the opposite direction just before a crowd of fans surged toward the errant drive and staked out a spot to watch.

The little guy might have been the only person on the grounds who didn't seem much interested. But Woods salvaged par from there and by the end, his seven one-putts offset the six fairways Woods missed with his driver, as well as the two drops he took because of unplayable lies. That left him effectively stuck in neutral, at even-par 72.

"I just felt my way around today, I really grinded, stayed very present. And you know," Woods said, "I know how to play this golf course. I think it's just understanding what I need to do."

He won two weeks ago at Bay Hill — his first real tournament in 30 months — and arrived here saying, "Everything is headed in the right direction at the right time." That suggested the remodeling of his swing under his latest coach, Sean Foley, was nearly complete. Not so fast. Turns out some of the changes Woods employed under his previous coach, Hank Haney, managed to creep back into his game and get in the way Thursday.

"Same old motor patterns," Woods said, referring to his problems off the tee. "Now I'm struggling with it all the way around with all the clubs.

"The Hank backswing," he added a moment later, "with the new downswing."

But in the moment after that, Woods lauded himself for his "commitment to each and every shot, what I was doing, my alignment, my setup, everything was something that I'm excited about."

You could listen to Woods talk all day and not know what to believe. In his recent book, "The Big Miss: My Years Coaching Tiger Woods," Haney tells the story of how Woods often said one thing for public consumption after a round and then called the coach and laid out the things he felt a need to work on. They were rarely the same things.

Two things are not in dispute.

The first is that Woods knows how to play here, no matter which swing, or swings, he's wrestling with. He's won the Masters four times, never finished worse than 22nd as a professional and tied for fourth the last two years, the post-scandal phase of his career. The second is that golf is still a game played mostly between the ears and only Woods knows what's going on in that space. He's also the only one who knows which, if any, of the various personalities he's tried on in public since that fateful spin down the driveway of his Florida mansion in the early morning hours of Thanksgiving, 2009, is the real Woods.

The rest of us are left to try to divine that from the way Woods has played golf. The results have been middling at best, and the inconsistency suggests that just like this latest swing, Woods' psyche is still very much a work in progress. He was at his best when he was one of the most cold-blooded competitors on the planet, and we haven't seen that person since he dusted off Rocco Mediate in a playoff with one good leg to win the 2008 U.S. Open.

No one knows, perhaps not even Woods, whether that guy still exists. Barring a missed cut, all of us could have the chance to find out on the back nine on Sunday, when the kids who've never seen him in that mode and the contemporaries who wonder where that Woods went start throwing off birdies and wait to see how he replies.

___

Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke(at)ap.org and follow him at Twitter.com/JimLitke.

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Book paints Tigers Woods as full of dichotomies and contrasts - Kansas City Star

Veteran PGA golf instructor Hank Haney has a new book about Tiger Woods. But it isn't a "tell-all" mainly because Tiger doesn't share all with either his friends or swing coach. That said, the book does provide a rare look behind the veil that Woods has constructed around himself, a barrier that allowed only the genius of his golf to escape until running his SUV into fireplug on Thanksgiving 2009.

In "The Big Miss, My Years Coaching Tiger Woods," published last week by Crown Archetype, Haney offers fascinating insights on the broad duality that underlies Tiger's persona. Haney believes that Tiger's success springs from "the Package," a mixture of opposing extremes, or as Haney writes, "the sum of all of Tiger's qualities and characteristics, the good and the bad." Accompanying the foundation of his incomparable play - the ability to stay focused and calm under stress, the ying, perhaps -are other facets of his personality, the yang - "selfishness, obsessiveness, stubbornness, coldness, ruthlessness, pettiness, and cheapness."

The book is full of the dichotomies and contrasts swirling about Tiger, and his relationship with Haney, like slices and hooks.

Woods' public image versus his private life. Tiger's fairly warm embrace of nice guys on the PGA Tour who don't threaten his reign - Steve Stricker and Jim Furyk, but nothing but alpha dog slights and "competitive bullying" for the super talents - Phil Mickelson, for example. Tiger's passive-aggressive behavior. The objective examination of Tiger's swing from Haney, alternating with his subjective psychoanalysis of Woods. Haney's sincere admiration for Woods's achievements and talent versus his settling of some accounts.

Other than a tease at the start about the dissolution of the Haney-Woods association, the book follows the chronology of their time together, 2004-2010. With able assistance from collaborator Jaime Diaz of "Golf Digest" and "GolfWorld" magazines, Haney tells of his unbridled excitement when Tiger asked for his help. He had been coaching topflight players for years, but this would be a career mountaintop.

Woods parted with his previous coach, Butch Harmon, in the summer of 2002, and in 2003, he didn't win a major. In the spring of 2004, Haney viewed Tiger as a "diminished golfer," a real player with real problems, not a mythic athlete. In Haney's view, Woods had three major problems. First, his left knee was hurting. Second, he moved his head too much during his swing. Last and the biggie -Tiger played the driver "with a lot of fear." He feared the "big miss," inside golf-speak for a momentum killer such as driving out of bounds.

As they worked together, Haney found that Tiger's stubbornness made for tough sessions on the range. The coach had to devise ways of making the student believe swing changes were his own ideas. It was a slow process, netting only one official win for Tiger in 2004, the WGC-Accenture Match Play. The relationship became more productive the following year - six official wins, including two majors. In 2006, Woods won two majors and six other official tournaments. In 2007, Tiger won one major and six others, but Haney sensed a subtle change in Woods.

"The 2007 season was when I first began to think that Tiger was closer to the end of his greatness than he was to the beginning," Haney writes. "In hindsight, I think Tiger did, too." Further, again in retrospect, Haney thinks Woods had started to tire of his career, and cites Tiger's obsession then with all things military.

With his father Earl as a model, Tiger had always admired military men. But in 2006 and 2007, Woods started entertaining the idea of becoming a Navy SEAL, a member of the elite special operations force. Haney writes that Woods attended multiple sessions with SEALs, which included parachuting, hand-to-hand combat exercises and live-fire weapons training. The 31-year-old Woods even told Haney that the SEALs would waive their age maximum, 28, for him. This proved worrisome to Team Tiger -agent, caddie, coach and others. Recalling the NFL player who joined the Army Rangers, Haney recalls, "This was Pat Tillman times 100."

The U.S. Navy has acknowledged that Tiger made several unofficial visits to the Navy Special Warfare Command in 2006, but offered no significant details.

Haney writes that information available to him points to Woods tearing his already deteriorated anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during a 2007 SEAL exercise in "kill house," an urban combat simulator. Woods told Haney that he tore it while running on the golf course.

The coach also was opposed to the military-style weight training Tiger affected during this period. The macho pull-ups favored by the SEALs were hard on his shoulders, and Olympic-style lifts appeared to be at least one source for his right Achilles tendon injuries. Haney also believed that he was carrying too much weight for his bad knee.

In July 2007, Mark Steinberg, Tiger's agent, confronted the player about his military preoccupation. Haney heard less about the issue afterward, but another distraction had him worried.

It was that year that Tiger's cell phone seemed to ring more often than before. Unknowing at the time, Haney later saw the activity as evidence of Tiger's extramarital affairs. As exposed by the news media in late 2009, Woods made a deal in 2007 with the "National Enquirer" to keep an affair quiet in return for posing for a photo spread in a sister publication, "Men's Fitness." Haney thought it odd at the time for Tiger, who was always tight-lipped about his training, to speak on the record about his lifting and bare his buff chest.

Haney professes to have been in the dark about Tiger's sexual escapades, and that's not surprising considering Tiger's titanium privacy curtain. Haney did notice coolness between Tiger and his wife Elin in 2007, as well as Tiger's self-centered style at home. At dinner in their Orlando house, Tiger routinely left the table when finished, regardless of whether Hank and Elin were through eating.

Lean, fit and powerful, Woods matched the American stereotype of a professional athlete and brought crossover sports fans to the PGA Tour. This matched Earl Woods' belief that his son was the first golfer to be a true athlete. Tiger eagerly bought into this paradigm, and Haney comments on Tiger's use of insider phrases from other sports in his public statements. He talks about "reps," as in repetitions in NFL practices, "game speed," taking it deep" and "getting good looks."

Haney watched Woods insinuate himself into the fraternity of contact sports stars by casting his injuries as shared badges of honor. Stuff happens to us superstars, right Shaq? This is quite a stretch from his college days when his friends viewed him as such a nerd they nicknamed him Urkel after a TV geek character.

According to Haney, Tiger's multiple swing changes and constant tinkering on the practice tee reflect his deep-seated and admirable quest to improve. He reportedly left Harmon because Butch thought that by 2002, all Woods needed was swing maintenance. Additionally, Haney observes that technical improvements kept Tiger interested in the game. The threat of a prodigy's early burnout, plus Tiger's self-proclaimed attention deficit disorder, has propelled him toward new coaches and new swings.

Full swing analysis aside, Haney frequently mentions Tiger's short game. He faulted him for poor straightforward chips, which he overplayed with too much spin. "Chicks dig spin," he told Haney.

Haney blamed three-putts for many of Woods's woes in tournaments. Overly bold runs on birdie putts beyond 20 feet yielded stressful five-footers for par. Hank argued that even Superman can't make every mid-range birdie putt, so just avoid the three-jack. Tiger's former caddie Steve Williams told Haney that Woods won 85 percent of the time when he played 72 holes without a three-putt. Haney offered this final word on the now 36-year-old Tiger and his putting. "Players rarely improve their putting after their mid-30s."

Tiger's heroic win in the 2008 U.S. Open with two stress fractures and a torn ACL in his left leg has been well documented by others, but Haney adds many insider details. He then takes the reader through Tiger's rebound year in 2009 and his six wins.

Trying to get Woods ready for the 2010 Masters after the player's train wreck the previous winter tested the Woods-Haney team. Coming off his self-imposed exile and a month-long sex addiction rehabilitation, Woods seemed to indirectly blame Haney for his poor play in the tournament. Upset that Tiger replied to his dedication with moody and rude behavior, Haney resolved to quit after the Masters. He phoned Woods in May to resign, but Tiger said that he was busy with his kids. They ultimately traded texts that finished with this exchange.

"I can't tell you how grateful I am for the opportunity, but it's time for you to find another coach."

"Thanks, Hank. But we're still going to work together.

"No we're not. It's finished. Done. Over. I'm no longer your coach."

"We'll talk in the morning."

When the split later became public, Haney did a quick burn when Team Tiger spun the separation as a mutual decision.

Haney and Diaz have crafted a nice read that moves along nicely for golf-savvy readers. The golf-speak leans toward the technical side, but the authors try to help the uninitiated through the tangled forest of swing planes, strong left hand grips and trajectories. Those who are comfortable reading about swing mechanics, however, will enjoy understanding how Tiger hits a golf ball, either well or badly.

The authors intersperse the swing analysis with stories and anecdotes about Woods and his team that add a strong personal flavor to the narrative. Some of what they describe ain't pretty, although Haney's admiration for the man's golf game always shows through. However, that appreciation often fights for sentences with Haney exasperations with Tiger's hardheadedness. Of course, we have only Haney's view on this, and the pushback from Team Tiger will surely offer contrasting assessments.

For the prurient looking for the "good stuff" on Tiger's marital waywardness, there's little to be found. Haney does offer brief accounts of Tiger's reaction to rehabilitation and attempts at reconciliation with Elin. Haney and Diaz chose to include a short index of names only, so casual browsers at the bookstore, if that tribe still exists, can't simply turn to a titillating segment.

The biggest strength of "The Big Miss" is the breadth of its insider view of the Tiger Woods phenomenon, a scrutiny previously unavailable to the public. Considering that Woods is "allergic," to use Haney's term, to people trying to get too close to him, the book succeeds in this regard.

If Haney wrote about why he wrote the book, I missed it. It's clear, however, that he doesn't want to be blamed for Tiger's uneven play before hiring another coach, Sean Foley, in 2010. He must believe that his frank account of dealing with a complex player in difficult circumstances will help defend his reputation. To that end, he notes that under Harmon, Woods won 34 times, almost 27 percent of his 127 official starts. With Haney's help, Tiger won 31 times in 91 official tournaments, or 34 percent of the time.

Haney may pay a price for what Tiger views as out-of-school tales. Another prominent swing coach, Rick Smith, says the book violates golf's version of doctor-patient relations. Harmon, however, backs Haney's freedom to write the book.

A longtime member of the PGA, Haney owns and operates a far-flung golf instruction business with headquarters in Dallas, Texas. He has written four golf instruction books, including "Fix Your Yips Forever," a malady that he admits to having suffered for much of the 1980s and 1990s.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Michael K. Bohn is the author of "Money Golf," a history of the gentlemanly wager on the golf course, and more recently, "Heroes & Ballyhoo: How the Golden Age of the 1920s Transformed American Sports."

Bohn also wrote "The Achille Lauro Hijacking: Lessons in the Politics and Prejudice of Terrorism" (2004), and "Nerve Center: Inside the White House Situation Room" (2003). He served as director of the White House Situation Room, the president's alert center and crisis management facility, during Ronald Reagan's second term. Bohn was a U.S. naval intelligence officer from 1968 to 1988.

2012 McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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Knicks Vs. Magic: Tense Day For Dwight Howard, Stan Van Gundy Ends In Blowout ... - SB Nation

By Seth Rosenthal - NBA Contributor

An uneasy day in Orlando culminated in defeat for the Magic as the Knicks picked up a big win.

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Apr 6, 2012 - The Orlando Magic likely came into Thursday's game against the New York Knicks feeling a little uneasy. They'd spent the afternoon absorbing the attention of the entire basketball community after Stan Van Gundy echoed rumors that Dwight Howard had asked that he be fired. By the time the game rolled around, the Magic were perhaps a bit weary from the turmoil. They gave way to an injury-depleted but plucky group of Knicks, falling 96-80 in Orlando.

The Magic, without Ryan Anderson in the lineup, more than kept pace with New York early, pulling ahead by eight behind the scoring of Jason Richardson and friends. Carmelo Anthony got rolling for the Knicks, though, and so did New York's bench. Toney Douglas, reinserted into the rotation not long ago, checked in late in the first and offered aggressive defense to help New York turn the tide. By the second quarter, Anthony was well into his rhythm and J.R. Smith, also off the bench, exploded from the perimeter. He had 13 of his 15 points in an unconscious and conscienceless six-minute stretch of the second. The Knicks took their lead and pushed it to 12 points at the break, having allowed nothing from Howard.

New York's dominance continued through the second half. A visibly uncomfortable Howard struggled to find himself good looks against Tyson Chandler's imposing defense, and sputtered for pretty much the rest of the evening. (He would finish with just eight points and eight rebounds.) Anthony and Smith cooled off, but Baron Davis got to distributing and Landry Fields found some touch from the perimeter and off the dribble (though not from the free-throw line, where he was 0-6). New York pushed its lead to 15 points after three quarters -- an eerily similar scenario to the one that preceded their fourth-quarter collapse on Tuesday in Indiana -- but this time held on the fourth. Some full-court defense, some scoring from Douglas, and just some sloppy, imprecise play by the Magic assured that there would be no battle down the stretch.

New York's win helped solidify its eighth seeding in the Eastern Conference and pulled the Knicks within a game of seventh-seeded Philadelphia. Orlando, meanwhile, hit a losing streak of five games for the first time in five years and fell to an even record with Atlanta for the sixth seed. It was a fitting conclusion to a tense, unpleasant day that left a lot of folks in the Orlando organization and fanbase feeling pretty sour.

Visit Posting and Toasting for more on the Knicks and check out Orlando Pinstriped Post for Magic analysis.

For all of Thursday's NBA box scores, check out SI.com's NBA scoreboard.

Read More: J.R. Smith (G - NYK), Carmelo Anthony (F - NYK), Jason Richardson (G - ORL), Baron Davis (G - NYK), Dwight Howard (C - ORL), Tyson Chandler (C - NYK), Ryan Anderson (F - ORL), Toney Douglas (G - NYK), Stan Van Gundy (H - ORL), Landry Fields (F - NYK), Orlando Magic, New York Knicks, New York Knicks at Orlando Magic, Apr 5, 2012 7:00 PM EDT

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NHL Standings 2012: Capitals Can Finish 3rd, 7th, or 8th In Eastern Conference - SB Nation

Read More: Ottawa Senators, Pittsburgh Penguins, Boston Bruins, Washington Capitals, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, New Jersey Devils, Florida Panthers, Buffalo Sabres

After Thursday night, we know which eight Eastern Conference teams will square off for the Prince of Wales Trophy and a berth in the Stanley Cup Finals. Washington's 4-2 win over the Florida Panthers coupled with Buffalo's 2-1 loss in Philadelphia eliminated the Sabres and ensured that both Florida and Washington would have something to celebrate at the Verizon Center Thursday night.

So, as of Friday morning, here are the prospective playoff match-ups in the Eastern Conference:

No. 1 New York Rangers (109 points, Atlantic Division champion) vs. No. 8 Florida OR Ottawa OR Washington.

No. 2 Boston Bruins (100 points, Northeast Division champion) vs. No. 7 Ottawa OR Washington

No. 3 Florida OR Washington (Southeast Division champion) vs. No 6. New Jersey Devils (100 points)

No. 4 Pittsburgh Penguins (106 points) vs. No. 5 Philadelphia Flyers (103 points).

As you can see, the Southeast Division title and the race for the No. 7 seed are the two dominoes left to fall. Washington, Florida and Ottawa all close their seasons on Saturday. The Senators play the Devils at 3 p.m., the Capitals play the Rangers at 6:30 p.m., and the Panthers host Carolina at 7:30 p.m.

Ottawa and Florida both are sitting on 92 points. The Capitals have 90 points, but hold the non-shootout win tiebreaker over both their competitors. Florida can not finish as the No. 7 seed, because they have the fewest non-shootout wins of the three. So, with that in mind:

The Capitals Clinch The Southeast Division And The No. 3 Seed With: A win AND a Florida regulation loss.The Capitals Clinch The No. 7 Seed With: A win AND an Ottawa regulation loss AND a Florida win or overtime loss.

Barring the above outcomes, the Capitals will secure the No. 8 seed and a re-match of last year's Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series against the New York Rangers.

For the latest on the Capitals, visit Japers Rink. For more on the Panthers, visit Litterbox Cats. For information on the Ottawa Senators, visit Silver Seven. For the latest news and notes from around the league, visit SB Nation's NHL hub.

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Tiger Woods haters can't stand that he won (Sound Off) - al.com

Tiger Woods waves his hat to the crowd after winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational golf tournament at Bay Hill in Orlando, Fla., on Sunday. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

Woods was listening

Tiger Woods must have taken my advice out of the Sound Off column. I said if he played two or three or four tournaments in a row, he might have a little bit better game. You can't play one tournament and sit out three or four like he's been doing. There's no question Tiger Woods is a great golfer. My problem is with the media coverage of Tiger Woods, not Tiger Woods himself. He has to play to get better. He has to stay in the game. Golf is a weird sport. You just can't play it one week and take the next week off and expect to stay good.

Callers wrong about Woods

A lot of you callers said Tiger Woods was washed up. What happened? Do you still feel that way?

Danica not taken seriously

The driver that replaced Danica Patrick was mocking her when he was introduced down in Florida. He had on a long, black wig and he was wearing the GoDaddy.com uniform. It appears he doesn't have any respect for her. For him coming out on stage with a long, black wig pretending to be a girl was hilarious, but it showed he doesn't take her seriously.

Tide strives for top

The caller is right. Alabama has lost to Louisiana-Monroe. And I also remember an embarrassing loss to Northern Illinois, but that doesn't change the fact that the goal of Alabama's football team is to win the national championship every year. Every year they go out hoping to be an undefeated team, hoping to win the championship and hoping to carry that trophy. We don't always reach our goals, but we strive for them every year.

NFL doing right thing

I'm so glad the football commissioner is doing something about the deliberate hurting of other players just to try to win a game. Whatever happened to sportsmanship? I'm glad we're going after these people. Let's try to get good sportsmanship back.

Punish ex-commisioners

Why aren't all the ex-commissioners being suspended without pay? And what I mean by ex-commissioners are the ones who knew about the bounty program back in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s but didn't do anything to stop the it. A lot of players who played back then hit quarterbacks and actually injured them, but I didn't hear anything about the ex-commissioners being penalized for this.

Where is the outcry?

It's funny how both of the Final Four games are rematches from the regular season, yet I'm sure we won't hear near the outcry we did when Alabama played LSU in a rematch.

_____

The daily Sound Off column comes from calls to the Press-Register's 1-800-568-4123 Sports Sound Off line, where readers can speak theirs minds on anything they wish. Because of the large number of calls received, not all are published.

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O'Brien out; QB competition at Penn State heats up - Philadelphia Inquirer

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - The three quarterbacks battling for Penn State's No. 1 job probably were too busy absorbing rapid-fire instruction from new head coach Bill O'Brien on the team's first day of spring practice to realize there was someone watching from the sidelines who might have competed for the position.

Former Maryland quarterback Danny O'Brien did his best to remain incognito on the sideline, wearing a borrowed Penn State jacket to deal with the brisk northwest wind, while continuing his evaluation process to determine which school would best fit his talents for his final two years of eligibility.

O'Brien ended the suspense Wednesday by announcing that he had chosen Wisconsin in what he called "a very tough decision" over Penn State.

And the Nittany Lions are left with holdover starter Matt McGloin, Rob Bolden and Paul Jones, who is hoping to be in the mix after being academically ineligible last year.

Bill O'Brien has announced that there is "an open competition" for the starting job.

"There won't be a starter named until possibly the night before the [Sept. 1] Ohio game," O'Brien said. "So there's no starter right now at that position."

That may not be music to the ears of McGloin and Bolden, who battled for the starting job much of the last two seasons. They were often kept in the dark last year by Joe Paterno and quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno as to who would start until close to game day.

The three front-runners, as well as three other upperclassmen quarterbacks plus incoming freshman Steven Beach, who will be reporting as soon as he graduates from high school, will have to learn a new offense based on what O'Brien ran as offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots.

They will be judged solely on what O'Brien sees. The new head coach has opted not to watch any tape of last year's offense because "I really wanted to start with a clean slate with these guys."

The Penn State offense was one of the worst in the Big Ten last season, finishing in the bottom three in the conference in five categories. Nationally, out of 120 FBS schools, the Lions were 110th in scoring and 112th in pass efficiency.

O'Brien said he disliked the word "controversy" and that he hopes for a good competition among the QBs.

"We want to give each one of them an equal amount of reps with the first team and the second team and keep stats," he said. "We want to make it as scientific as possible, keep scrimmage stats, keep 7-on-7 stats and talk to them about completion percentage, decision-making, accuracy that go into being a starting quarterback.

"When we go to make a decision on who starts the football game, it'll be an educated decision and a fair decision."

The decision will be made without Danny O'Brien, who became the second quarterback to graduate from an Atlantic Coast Conference school and go to Wisconsin. Russell Wilson came over last year from North Carolina State and helped lead the Badgers to the Big Ten title.

The 6-foot-3, 215-pound O'Brien, from Kernersville, N.C., wanted to see Penn State practice before finalizing his decision. He said he had "a pretty tight relationship with coach O'Brien, and he's going to do some great things there."

"But there was no denying after I took the Wisconsin visit, especially after talking with my family, that Wisconsin was home," he said.

O'Brien passed for more than 2,400 yards in 2010 and was named ACC rookie of the year but struggled under new Maryland head coach Randy Edsall last season and broke his non-throwing arm late in the year.

Contact Joe Juliano at 215-854-4494 or jjuliano@phillynews.com or follow him on Twitter @joejulesinq.

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Yoenis Cespedes hit one of three A's home runs in a 4-1 win over the Mariners - SI.com

TOKYO (AP) -- Cuban defector Yoenis Cespedes is starting to look at home with the Oakland Athletics.

Cespedes hit his first major league home run on Thursday to power the Athletics to a 4-1 victory over the Seattle Mariners that earned Oakland a split in the two-game season-opening series at Tokyo Dome.

Cespedes, who signed a $36 million, four-year contract with Oakland on March 3, said he is starting to feel comfortable in his new surroundings.

"I wake up early every day and get to the field early and work hard because the baseball is different than in Cuba," Cespedes said.

Cespedes connected for a two-run homer off Seattle reliever Shawn Kelley (0-1) to give Oakland a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the seventh. Josh Reddick followed with a solo shot off George Sherrill to give the A's a two-run cushion.

"They tried to throw me sliders every at-bat, so I had to adjust to hit the ball," Cespedes said. "It was great to hit a home run here for the Japanese fans."

The A's opted not to re-sign Japanese slugger Hideki Matsui after a disappointing 2011 season and are hoping Cespedes can provide more production in the middle of the order.

The late rally Thursday was an encouraging sign for Oakland, which had only scored one run in the first 17 innings of the season.

Oakland manager Bob Melvin said Cespedes has been showing steady improvement since joining the team at the beginning of this month.

"He's getting more and more comfortable every day," Melvin said. "The challenges he faces on the field are probably the easiest for him. He's been dropped into a situation that is difficult both on and off the field."

The 26-year-old Cespedes played in Cuba's top league for eight seasons before defecting in 2011. He starred for Cuba in the 2009 World Baseball Classic, hitting .458 with two home runs and five RBIs in six games.

Ichiro Suzuki, who was 4 for 5 in Seattle's 3-1 win over Oakland on Wednesday, was hitless in four at-bats Thursday.

Oakland starter Bartolo Colon picked up the win after striking out six and holding the Mariners to one run on three hits over eight innings. Grant Balfour pitched a scoreless ninth for the save.

"I mixed my pitches well," Colon said. "I tried to go inside with my two-seamer and outside with my fastball."

Jonny Gomes completed the scoring in the eighth with a solo homer off reliever Steve Delabar. Seattle scored its lone run on a solo homer by Justin Smoak in the seventh.

Even though Suzuki was quiet at the plate, he excited the crowd of 43,279 in the fifth inning with a fine leaping catch up against the wall in right to take away a base hit from Kurt Suzuki.

MLB and the players' association are using the series to assist rebuilding in Japan following last year's earthquake and tsunami. A group of players and coaches traveled to the disaster zone on Tuesday to conduct a baseball clinic.

"The main reason we came here was because of the tsunami," Melvin said. "I know MLB has been coming every four years, but the tsunami made this trip happen for sure."

The rest of the big league teams start on April 4, when the renamed Miami Marlins open their new ballpark against the World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals. In the meantime, the A's and Mariners will resume playing spring training games this weekend before facing each other in Oakland on April 6.

NOTES: The two-game series marked the fourth time MLB has opened the season in Japan. The New York Mets and Chicago Cubs opened in Tokyo in 2000, followed by the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay (2004), and Boston and Oakland (2008). Seattle and Oakland had been scheduled to play at the Tokyo Dome in March 2003, but the series was scrapped because of the threat of war in Iraq. Former Seattle closer Kazuhiro Sasaki threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Seattle outfielder Mike Carp was placed on the 15-day disabled list on Thursday. Carp suffered a sprained right shoulder diving for a double hit by Oakland's Kurt Suzuki in Wednesday's game.

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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No. 1 Azarenka suffers first loss of 2012; Venus' return ends - CNN

Victoria Azarenka rose to the top of the world rankings after winning January's Australian Open.Victoria Azarenka suffers her first loss of 2012 to Marion Bartoli at the Miami MastersWorld No. 1 Azarenka had started the year with a 26-match winning streakPolish fifth seed Agnieszka Radwanska into the last four after beating Venus WilliamsTwo-time Miami champion Kim Clijsters to be sidelined for a month with hip injury

(CNN) -- Women's tennis No. 1 Victoria Azarenka is looking forward to more success despite the end of her perfect start to 2012.

The Belorussian had won 26 successive matches going into Wednesday's Miami Masters quarterfinal -- the best start to a season since Martina Hingis went 37-0 in 1997.

However, the Australian Open champion suffered a shock defeat by French seventh seed Marion Bartoli, who will face world No. 5 Agnieszka Radwanska in Thursday's semis after the Pole ended the comeback of Venus Williams.

"What I've done in the last couple of months, I have to be really proud of myself," the 22-year-old Azarenka told the tournament's official website after her 6-3 6-3 loss.

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Defending champion Azarenka had won eight of her previous 10 meetings with the 2007 Wimbledon runner-up, including January's Sydney International where Bartoli lost despite leading in both sets.

"I was up 5-2 in the first set and 4-1 in the second set, and I lost both," the 27-year-old Bartoli said. "So I knew I had to stay really mentally tough and not show her anything.

"Even when I lost those three games in a row, I didn't get down on myself -- I had this positive energy. I was able to turn the match around again and step inside the court and play some great points."

Fifth seed Radwanska booked her place in the last four with a commanding 6-4 6-1 win over former world No. 1 Williams, who was playing in her first tournament for seven months.

Seven-time grand slam winner Williams had not played on the WTA Tour since withdrawing from last year's U.S. Open, having been diagnosed with Sjogren's syndrome -- an incurable condition which causes pain in the joints and fatigue.

"I didn't have a good day," said the 31-year-old Williams, who has won the tournament three times andw as runner-up in 2010. "Unfortunately, I just couldn't press the issue. I don't feel like she did anything special. I just couldn't. I couldn't get myself to do it today.

"If I'm not feeling my best, then it becomes mental and I have to fight, and you have to fight and fight and fight. Today I just I didn't conquer it mentally. I have to be there mentally more than the next player."

The winner of the Radwanska-Bartoli evening match will take on either former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki or four-time grand slam winner Maria Sharapova, who meet in Thursday's opening semifinal.

Meanwhile, two-time Miami champion Kim Clijsters is facing four weeks out after injuring her right hip during her third-round defeat to fellow Belgian Yanina Wickmayer.

"The current prognosis is that Kim will have to recover for four weeks first," read a statement on the four-time grand slam winner's website. " As soon as she has returned to Belgium, she will have additional tests."

The 28-year-old is aiming to return at the Madrid Masters in May ahead of the season's second grand slam event, the French Open.

March 29, 2012 -- Updated 1059 GMT (1859 HKT) He used to be found slugging it out for major tennis titles on the Centre Court turf at Wimbledon -- now Mark Philippoussis laps up the surf in San Diego.March 21, 2012 -- Updated 1416 GMT (2216 HKT) The Williams sisters have not had it easy in recent years, but Venus is ready to follow Serena and return to the court after a long absence.March 19, 2012 -- Updated 1414 GMT (2214 HKT) You can't imagine that one of the greatest players in tennis history has ever lacked confidence, but Roger Federer is bubbling with it again.March 19, 2012 -- Updated 1354 GMT (2154 HKT) World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka talks to CNN's Mark McKay after winning the Indian Wells title to be 23-0 this year. March 15, 2012 -- Updated 1531 GMT (2331 HKT) Mahesh Bhupathi is best known in tennis for his many successes as a doubles specialist, but now he's playing a new role.February 22, 2012 -- Updated 1607 GMT (0007 HKT) Sania Mirza was India's first female player to break into the WTA Top 30 in singles, and the first to win a WTA title.February 27, 2012 -- Updated 1047 GMT (1847 HKT) Somdev Devvarman is the only Indian male singles player to currently rank in the ATP Top 100. February 22, 2012 -- Updated 1607 GMT (0007 HKT) Indian tennis legend Vijay Amritraj talks about his family's contribution to Indian tennis.February 16, 2012 -- Updated 1020 GMT (1820 HKT) Novak Djokovic's domination of men's tennis has made him a hero in his homeland, where he has been awarded Serbia's highest honor.February 14, 2012 -- Updated 1226 GMT (2026 HKT) The life of a tennis professional is tough, but the rewards are plentiful -- and not just in a financial sense.January 27, 2012 -- Updated 1557 GMT (2357 HKT) Maria Sharapova means business when she steps onto a tennis court. And the Australian Open finalist is also becoming a big player off it.January 26, 2012 -- Updated 1314 GMT (2114 HKT) Caroline Wozniacki doesn't like losing -- and it's a trait that the tennis star's nearest and dearest also possess. Today's five most popular storiesWright By:kevin,
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