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.
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Ryan Callahan scored three goals as the New York Rangers beat Philadelphia 5-2 on Saturday for their seventh straight win over the Flyers.
Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
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.
CFT: Jordan Jefferson makes it clear he wasn't happy with LSU's game plan in the Tigers' BCS Championship Game loss to Alabama.
Move over, Hollywood and NFL types, golf's two real A-listers take center stage Sunday at Pebble Beach, both in need of a win.
The United States swept favored Switzerland out of the Davis Cup on Saturday when Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan beat Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
Luis Suarez's refusal to shake hands with Patrice Evra overshadowed Manchester United's 2-1 win over rival Liverpool that lifted the defending champions to first place in the Premier League on Saturday.
Marlies Schild of Austria won her sixth World Cup slalom of the season Saturday after overall leader Lindsey Vonn and defending champion Maria Hoefl-Riesch crashed out in the opening run on the windy Pyrenees course.
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
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Even though quite a few Providence fans rushed the court after the Friars beat No. 13 Connecticut 85-76 on Thursday night, there wasn’t a whole lot of celebrating among the players.
The Friars kept alive their chances of qualifying for the Big East tournament with their second win of the season over the Huskies, who had already clinched a first-round bye and were trying to finish second.
“Everybody’s playing for something different,” Providence coach Tim Welsh said. “You can’t get too happy because you can get very sad very quickly in this league.”
Weyinmi Efejuku scored 25 points and Jeff Xavier added 21 for the Friars (15-14, 6-11), who are tied with DePaul for the 12th and final playoff spot in the 16-team conference. Providence closes its regular season at home against Villanova on Saturday, while DePaul is at Pittsburgh on Sunday. Providence holds the tiebreakers, so a win Saturday and the Friars are in.
“We’re realizing if we don’t play well it’ll be two out of three years not going to New York,” Efejuku said, referring to the tournament which starts next week at Madison Square Garden. “We don’t want to go out like that.”
Stanley Robinson and Hasheem Thabeet both had 16 points to lead Connecticut (23-7, 12-5), which closes the regular season Saturday at home against Cincinnati.
Thabeet had 13 rebounds as the Huskies finished with a 44-30 advantage on the boards. The Huskies were hurt by a season-high 21 turnovers, eight above their season average, that they allowed their second-most points in a game this season and that they shot 39.4 percent from the field (26-for-66), including 5-for-23 from 3-point range.
“This was a very disappointing performance, the most selfish performance in 14 games,” Huskies coach Jim Calhoun said. “We didn’t play like a team that won 12 of its last 13 games. We played more like a team that had lost 12 of its last 13 games. There was no individual defense but most importantly there was no collective team defense.”
Providence played like a team with a lot more at stake.
The Friars took the lead for good at 50-48 on a jumper by Geoff McDermott with 9:44 to play. They took advantage of Connecticut’s struggles from the field to lead the rest of the way.
As the Huskies scored almost exclusively from the free throw line — they had one field goal in a 9-minute stretch of the second half — Efejuku and Xavier combined for 12 of Providence’s final 19 points.
The two clicked on an alley-oop play — Efejuku laid in the pass from Xavier — with 1:42 left that gave the Friars a 73-64 lead and had the crowd standing the rest of the way.
It was Providence’s second straight win after a five-game losing streak.
“We had a lot of talks and we tried to have renewed energy, renewed focus,” Welsh said. “We were treading for a long period of time and we found a way out of it.”
Connecticut won 10 straight and then the 12 of 13 since losing 77-65 to Providence at home on Jan. 17. In that game, the Friars had 14 3-pointers, twice what they made in 20 attempts from behind the arc in the rematch. Xavier and Efejuku both had three 3s Thursday.
“Today we were a little bit lousy and they took advantage of that,” Thabeet said.
Welsh credited his team for a “lot of intensity, heart and toughness.”
Calhoun expressed the opposite about his team.
“From the opening get-go we never could get focused on the game,” he said. “That hasn’t happened to us in a long, long time.”
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.
Beyond the Arc: No. 11 Michigan State ends No. 3 Ohio State's 39-game home winning streak with a 58-48 victory.
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Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
Doron Lamb hit a 3-pointer with 3:18 left to put No. 1 Kentucky ahead to stay, and the Wildcats took a big step toward a Southeastern Conference regular-season title by beating Vanderbilt 69-63 Saturday night for their 17th straight win.
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.