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?
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
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Right now, life is a blur for new South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier.
His office is mostly bare except for a couple of dozen golf clubs, two family pictures, an award or two on the wall and a crisp, black visor — complete with Gamecock logo — ready to go.
He spends his days calling prospective assistants or trying to contact recruits who were not interested in the Gamecocks with Lou Holtz in charge but might be now with the high-flying Spurrier at the helm.
“They seem real excited,” Spurrier said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “But we’ll see.”
Yet despite his new surroundings, Spurrier seems very much at ease. He thinks South Carolina has the building blocks to win in the Southeastern Conference.
Already, he has hired at least four assistants, including son Steve Spurrier Jr. He also has decided to help plan his team’s meals to improve his its nutrition.
“A lot of people think it’s a wonderful opportunity, like I do,” Spurrier said. “And then there’s a few out there with the mind-set ... like Lee Corso said you can’t win at South Carolina. Just because we haven’t in the past doesn’t mean we can’t.”
Corso, a college football analyst for ESPN, said on air that Spurrier made a bad move to go to South Carolina. History is on Corso’s side — no South Carolina coach has taken another head coaching job after leaving the Gamecocks.
It is unlikely that the 67-year-old Holtz will walk on the sideline again. The two most recent coaches before Holtz, Brad Scott (1994-98) and Sparky Woods (1989-93), have mostly been college assistants since South Carolina fired them.
The (Columbia) State ran an editorial cartoon Sunday where the school mascot led Spurrier past a graveyard with tombstones of past Gamecocks coaches, telling him, “Oh ... pay no attention to that.”
 |
Streeter Lecka / Getty Images file Lou Holtz finished with 249 victories, eighth-most in Division I-A, and a reputation for turning stumbling programs into winners. |
Spurrier won’t.
When he got to Florida in 1990, the Gators featured star Emmitt Smith but were coming off underachieving seasons of 7-5, 7-5 and 6-6. Spurrier won nine games his first year and took off from there.
“We don’t know what the future is (at South Carolina), but we’ve got hope,” he said. “We’ve got hope that something good was going to happen.”
Spurrier took the South Carolina job because the timing was perfect. He wanted to return to the Southeast. If Holtz, his good friend, hadn’t retired, Spurrier might have sat out this year as well.
After his two failed seasons with the Washington Redskins, Spurrier didn’t burn to get back on the sideline. He played golf, talked to coaching buddies and mostly followed the game from his home in northern Virginia, where his son, Scottie, is a high school senior.
Sometime in October, full-time golf got boring and Spurrier felt the old twangs of the college game calling. When South Carolina athletic director Mike McGee called to discuss Holtz’s retirement about a month ago, the move made sense to Spurrier.
“I like having a golf season of spring and summer,” said Spurrier, who’s played at Augusta National with Holtz, a club member. “I’m golfed out. I have no interest in going and playing for a while.”
That’s good. Keeping his Gamecocks away from fried chicken could be as big a job as turning them into consistent SEC winners.
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.
CFT: Jordan Jefferson makes it clear he wasn't happy with LSU's game plan in the Tigers' BCS Championship Game loss to Alabama.
CollegeFootballTalk headlines |
 | Video: Football from NBC Sports |
 Memphis fulfills BCS dream Tigers officials thrilled to announce that school has been accepted to join the Big East Conference in 2013. |
 | Slideshow |
 | NBCSports.com |
| Slideshow |
 | more photos |
 | Slideshow |
 | NBCSports.com |
| Slideshow |
 | NBCSports.com |
| Slideshow |
 | NBCSports.com |
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.
Paul Pierce has been around long enough to know what Rajon Rondo's performance can mean for the aging Boston Celtics.