Rotoworld: Oregon RB LaMichael James and Oklahoma State WR Justin Blackmon among top 10 players who are being overhyped for the 2012 draft.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
The Detroit Red Wings equaled an NHL record with their 20th straight win at home, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 Sunday night on the strength of Johan Franzen's tiebreaking goal early in the third period.
PBT: Boston's Rajon Rondo continues to be named in trade talks, which is madness. The Celtics guard creates offense and makes everyone around him better, which was evident in Sunday's win over the Bulls.
Arc: Syracuse is among a solid group of No. 1 seeds in our latest tournament projections, but the middle of the pack is much more murky.
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.
Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods greeted their Sunday pairing at Pebble Beach with optimism. But the day would end happily only for one.
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.
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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Jeff Jordan came to Illinois without much more than a famous name.
His talent didn't earn him a scholarship, and there were few, if any, on-court expectations.
Illinois fans called Jordan's arrival two years ago a nice story — legend's son picks Illinois — and wondered how often his dad might catch a game at Assembly Hall.
But people who've known Jordan since he stepped on the court at Loyola Academy in Chicago's north suburbs say he brought something else with him south to Champaign — a chip on his shoulder.
"I know it was a stretch for him to go to the University of Illinois,'' said Patrick Mahoney, athletic director at the Wilmette, Ill., prep school. "I know he did that to prove to everybody he could play Division I at a big-time school.''
Now, as Jordan finishes up his sophomore year — with scholarship in hand — the departure of Illinois tough-guy guard Chester Frazier is creating an opening. Coach Bruce Weber says it's one that Michael Jordan's oldest son could help fill if he puts in the work.
"He's got to really make a decision,'' Weber said. "Does he want to make another giant step this summer? I told him he could be a 20-, 25-minute guy.''
Weber has said something similar every year about Jordan. The coach talked in Jordan's freshman year about how the young guard needed to find a niche to fill, then before the season that just ended about how he needed to work to push beyond the four or five minutes a game he'd carved out for himself.
So far, he's cleared every hurdle Weber has pointed him toward. Jordan played 5.3 minutes in 26 games as a freshman walk-on. This past season he bumped those numbers up to 8.4 minutes and 33 games. He was one of three reserves in Weber's regular rotation.
But assuming Frazier's role, even just a part of it, won't be just another hurdle.
In his four seasons at Illinois, the guard from Baltimore played through injury, fan criticism that he wasn't an offensive threat and the death of his father. He turned himself into perhaps the Big Ten's toughest defender.
In his senior year, Frazier was a big part of why Illinois went 24-10 and earned an NCAA tournament berth a season after being plagued by bad shooting and worse chemistry in going 16-19.
The Illini got a little taste of what life without Frazier might be like as the season wound down.
Frazier injured his shooting hand in practice just before the Big Ten tournament opened and didn't play again. In his absence, the Illini went 1-2, including the first-round loss to 12th-seeded Western Kentucky that sent fifth-seeded Illinois home from the NCAAs.
Jordan saw Frazier hurt the hand, and he figured, even after doctors operated on it, that there was no way would the guy who played hurt so often would end his career on the bench.
"I've seen him get a broken nose and still come back,'' Jordan said. "I never had any doubt that he was going to play. But it was obviously worse than he thought.''
Without Frazier, Illinois looked lost for most of the western Kentucky loss, and had no defensive answer for Purdue's Robbie Hummel in the 66-56 defeat that ushered the Illini out of the conference tournament.
But Weber got a glimpse of what he'd like to see from Jordan in Illinois' 60-50 win over Michigan in the Illini's Big Ten tournament opener.
Arc: Syracuse is among a solid group of No. 1 seeds in our latest tournament projections, but the middle of the pack is much more murky.
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.
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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.
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.
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.