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 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 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
MADISON, Wisc. - Even after the game, Trevon Hughes had all the answers.
Hughes had 19 of his career-high 26 points in the second half and Wisconsin’s 73-69 win over No. 6 Duke on Wednesday night snapped the Blue Devils’ perfect mark in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.
“The Big Ten’s never won, and I think we won it?” teammate Keaton Nankivil asked postgame.
There was Hughes, right on cue: “Yeah, and the first time Duke lost.”
With Illinois’ 76-74 rally over Clemson and Ohio State’s 77-64 victory over Florida State in the final game, the Big Ten won the 11-year series for the first time, 6-5.
“I’m proud to be a part of the conference when they win something,” Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said. “We’re in it to try to win it.”
It was especially sweet for the Badgers (5-1), who never trailed and got a measure of payback against Duke (6-1) after being routed 82-58 two years ago in a challenge game in Durham, N.C. Wisconsin’s win ended the Blue Devils’ 10-0 streak in the annual event and helped end the ACC’s perfect 10-0 record as well.
“It’s a point of pride to know that we had something to do with that in a game a lot of people probably didn’t think we were going to win,” Nankivil said. “It was pretty special.”
Kyle Singler scored 17 of his career-high 28 points in the first half for the Blue Devils and Andre Dawkins went 4 of 4 from 3-point range in the second half to finish with 12. Duke cut Wisconsin’s 11-point lead with just over 5 minutes left to 70-69 with 5.7 seconds to play on a tip-in by Singler.
But after Hughes hit two free throws to make it 72-69, Singler’s inbounds pass to Jon Scheyer was too hard and skipped away. Jordan Taylor’s free throw was the final margin.
Wisconsin only committed five turnovers.
“That’s five opportunities you didn’t get a shot at the basket,” Ryan said. “They had 11 opportunities that they didn’t have to score. That might have been the difference in the game.”
Duke had led the nation in field goal percentage defense coming in and were allowing an average of 58.2 points in their first six games. But in the Blue Devils’ first true road game, Hughes kept slashing the lane and when Duke gave him a little space, he’d hit 3-pointers.
“Their offense just beat our defense,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
Wisconsin went up 59-54 with 7:40 left when Hughes hit two free throws and the only thing that slowed the senior point guard was when he was inadvertently hit in the face with just under 6 minutes to play.
“Yeah, I got hit with an elbow,” Hughes said. “I was checking for blood. It would’ve been my first nose bleed ever.”
No worries.
Hughes came back and hit a 3-pointer that rolled around the rim with 5:08 to go, giving the Badgers their biggest lead at 65-54 until Dawkins answered with three 3-pointers in a span of less than 2 minutes to cut the lead to 67-65.
Duke had a couple of chances to tie it, but never could in the closing moments, only cutting it to 70-69 on Singler’s tap-in in the waning seconds.
“I got a lot of buckets going to the basket, and I got to the free throw line,” said Singler, who didn’t want to talk about his new scoring mark. “That’s about it.”
Wisconsin improved to 123-10 at the Kohl Center under Ryan and got 17 points and seven rebounds from Jon Leuer. Jason Bohannon added 10 points for the Badgers.
Duke cut it to 53-52 on two free throws by Singler with just under 11 minutes to go, but Singler missed a 3-pointer moments later that would have tied it and Wisconsin opened up the 11-point lead.
Duke would’ve been in a much bigger hole had it not been for Singler, who hit floating one-handed shots in the lane with both his left and right hands on his way to 17 first-half points.
Singler hit his first six shots and finished 10 of 17 from the field. But the rest of the Blue Devils, who shot just 29.2 percent in a win over Connecticut on Friday, only hit 39 percent and Scheyer finished 2 of 7 with 10 points.
“I don’t think we did a good job of just staying patient. They did a good job, didn’t give us a lot of open looks and there just wasn’t much there,” Scheyer said. “We need to know that every game we play, no one’s going to give us a game, every team’s going to fight.”
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 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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Must-see college hoops games From the Duke-Butler rematch to the Bluegrass State Showdown, here are the games you have to watch. NBCSports.com |
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Five up, five down from college hoops’ huge day3 hr 34 min ago Michigan State sure shook up Big Ten by beating Buckeyes4 hr 19 min ago UNLV’s thrilling win vs. SDSU adds spice to MWC race8 hr 47 min ago |
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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.
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.
Adreian Payne scored 15 points, Draymond Green added 12 and defense-minded No. 11 Michigan State beat No. 3 Ohio State 58-48 Saturday night, ending the Buckeyes' 39-game home winning streak.