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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1. John Wall is the greatest point guard athlete ... ever
In 25 years, if you are a fan of college basketball, you will be seeing highlights of the time Wall drove on a fast break, got himself too deep under the backboard, and solved that problem by gliding to the opposite side and scooping in a layup past Carolina's Marcus Ginyard. This will be a little different because Julius Erving's swoop past Mark Landsberger was in the NBA Finals, but Wall's play stirred echoes of Dr. J's brilliance.
"It was just instinct," Wall said. "I was just going to go up for a regular layup, but I saw how the defense was trying to cut me off. I had to go up and under. I saw Ginyard coming, so I just tried to reach my body across. I tried to get it to the rim, and luckily it went in."
Two years ago, I wrote that Derrick Rose was the greatest athlete to play the position: the most imposing combination of size, strength, speed, quickness and leaping ability. So it may appear as though I'll write that about every jock-y point guard that comes along. Not so.
To rewrite that declaration so soon required an almost miraculous advancement of those essential qualities. And Wall is blessed with all of it. He is not as strong as Rose, but he is longer, a shade taller, perhaps even faster end-to-end and even better at elevating and controlling his body once in the air.
2. The defensive matchup didn't matter
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As expected, UNC started with point guard Larry Drew defending Wall so as not to invest too much in a tactic that would alter UNC's basic approach. Eventually, Ginyard took a few turns guarding Wall, but the Tar Heels' half-court approach was of little consequence as UK stormed to a 43-28 halftime lead.
That's because — as the Tar Heels have done with many opponents in the past — the Wildcats, as UNC coach Roy Williams put it, "ran us out of the gym."
UK finished the half with a 12-0 edge in fast-break points. Williams said he couldn't recall any of the teams he has coached on the wrong side of a stat such as that. What North Carolina needed to do was keep Wall from getting easy access to outlet passes. Throughout the first half, they failed.
3. This was huge for Carolina
There is no room for moral victories when your national championship ring is so fresh it still carries the jeweler's fingerprints. But coming back from a first-half beatdown against a crowd this ravenous to lose by a single basket was a significant step in North Carolina's evolution.
"We'll learn from this and hopefully carry our intensity to the next game," Heels forward Ed Davis said.
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.
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