Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
Ryan Callahan scored for the fifth time in four days and defenseman Ryan McDonagh snapped a second-period tie to lift the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
Kobe Bryant hit a baseline jump shot with 4.2 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up a six-game road trip by holding on to beat the Raptors 94-92 on Sunday, their eighth victory in nine meetings with Toronto
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
Eleven shots separated Phil and Tiger Sunday at Pebble Beach as Lefty secured his 40th Tour win. Jason Sobel had hole-by-hole reports.
The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
AP
SPOKANE, Wash. - The best player on the floor will be the best player on the couch for the rest of the NCAA tournament.
Texas star Kevin Durant’s season came to an unceremonious close Sunday after an 87-68 thumping at the hands of surprising Southern California.
Nick Young led USC with 22 points in the runaway, which left Durant — the freshman front-runner for national player of the year — to decide whether to leave college for the NBA.
“I don’t think that’s an appropriate question right now,” Durant said. “I’m just worried about this team and what we can be next year as a team.”
As he often has this season, Durant led everyone with 30 points and added nine rebounds for fourth-seeded Texas (25-10).
But he never came close to dominating this East Regional game. Many times when he got the ball, the offense ground to a halt for the Longhorns, who fell behind by 17 early in the second half and never made a serious run.
Controlling Durant and minimizing the damage that guard D.J. Augustin could do was the key to the USC game plan.
“Basically, there’s nothing you can do against Durant,” Young said. “You just focus on the other two guys, Augustin and Abrams.”
Augustin was held to six points and five assists, while A.J. Abrams had 20 points and was the only other Longhorn in double figures.
The fifth-seeded Trojans (25-11) also got 20 points from Daniel Hackett and 17 points and 14 rebounds from Taj Gibson — a 6-foot-9 freshman like Durant. USC won by playing smarter, more disciplined basketball, especially on the defensive end, and looking much more like a team in doing it.
A team with a very good leader in Young — the scrappy swingman who had every reason to believe he’d be a USC alum by the time second-year coach Tim Floyd’s rebuilding efforts took shape.
Turns out, the talent’s there now, and next week, the Trojans will make their first trip to the regional semis since 2001 — and second since 1979 — where they’ll play North Carolina in East Rutherford, N.J.
“Things were very hard for us,” Young said, recalling a 12-win season of two years ago. “All of a sudden, we got some great freshmen, they uplifted us, and now we’re playing great. I hope we keep it up.”
With their 25th win, the Trojans set a program record. Not bad for this so-called football school, which got a small — very small — measure of revenge for its heartbreaking loss to the Longhorns in the 2006 Rose Bowl with the national title on the line.
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Though Gibson and Durant weren’t head-to-head for much of this, the USC freshman was more effective. After taking a nasty blow to the face that benched him at the end of the first half, Gibson iced this game in the second.
He dominated the boards and made 9 of 14 free throws, almost all down the stretch. Floyd said Gibson couldn’t talk after taking the hit. X-rays on his jaw showed no break.
“I wanted to make it back to my mom and dad so they can see me play,” said Gibson, a Brooklyn kid who will play next week across the river at the Meadowlands.
USC put this game away early in the second half, after Texas had trimmed a 15-point deficit to four.
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By then, it was 48-33 and Texas was moving into desperation mode.
Durant had nothing to be ashamed of. He added this to a 27-point, eight-rebound opener against New Mexico State in which he never quite looked in sync.
But he couldn’t do it all for the ’Horns, and it is now decision time for the 26-point, 11-rebound-a-game star who will probably win several player-of-the-year awards over the next few weeks.
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But this won’t follow the Carmelo Anthony story of 2003 — when ’Melo led Syracuse to a championship as a freshman and decided he’d done all he could at this level.
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“I hope he does,” Damion James said. “Just think about the team we’ll have next year. He’s got to do what he’s got to do. But I hope he doesn’t leave.”
While that drama plays out, USC is thinking about the present, hoping to continue an unexpected run in a season played in memory of teammate Ryan Francis. Francis, the USC point guard, was gunned down in a drive-by shooting last year in his home state of Louisiana.
His mother, Paulette, was in Spokane this weekend. Her son would have turned 20 on Saturday.
“He could easily be here with us, enjoying this,” Stewart said. “But he is here. We’ve just got to keep doing this, because at the beginning of the season, we said we were doing it for Ryan Francis.”
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 15 points and Evan Smotrycz added 13, helping No. 22 Michigan remain unbeaten at home with a 70-61 win over Illinois on Sunday.
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Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
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