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 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.
Golf's dream pairing - Woods and Mickelson - is on the course in the final round at Pebble Beach. Jason Sobel has 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.
Euro Roundup: First-place Manchester City won 1-0 at Aston Villa on Sunday on Joleon Lescott's goal in the 63rd minute, maintaining its two-point lead over Manchester United in the Premier League.
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
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Rick Pitino pushed all the right buttons, while Francisco Garcia and Taquan Dean made all the tough shots.
The result for Louisville was a 93-79 victory over top-seeded Washington — a win that put the Cardinals in the Albuquerque Regional final and turned their insulting fourth seed into little more than an afterthought.
“Um, that’s not something we think about,” forward Larry O’Bannon said. “Coach tells us, ‘You’ve got to go out there and play the game,’ so we just go out there and play.”
Taking advantage of Pitino’s instruction to penetrate, then kick the ball out, Garcia and Dean hit five 3-pointers apiece. The Cardinals (32-4) finished with 11 total, and improved to 24-1 this season when they make at least seven from long range.
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“You wonder what it would’ve been like if they hadn’t been making all the 3s,” Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar said. “But they’ve won 31 other times this year. I’m sure there are 31 other teams who have said that.”
This was billed as a matchup between Washington (29-5), the team trying to prove it really did deserve a top seed, and Louisville, the team that had lost only once since Jan. 8 and couldn’t believe it was only a No. 4.
The Cardinals moved on to Saturday’s regional final against West Virginia, which beat Bobby Knight and Texas Tech 65-60.
Meanwhile, Washington’s top two scorers, Nate Robinson and Tre Simmons, struggled to defend against Pitino’s inside-outside offense and wound up languishing on the bench with three fouls for a big chunk of the first half.
Robinson picked up his third at the 8:51 mark and Simmons picked up his third with 3:50 left, which is exactly when Garcia started the run that put Louisville ahead 45-32.
“It was weird,” Washington guard Brandon Roy said. “I was playing, kind of going through the motions, I looked at coach and said, ‘Why isn’t Nate in there?’ He said Nate had three fouls. It was kind of disappointing.”
The teams traded buckets through much of the second half, and things got chippy when O’Bannon (18 points) went down in a heap with Jamaal Williams and Bobby Jones of Washington. O’Bannon appeared to tap Williams with his foot while Williams was down and the Huskies got angry.
Robinson responded with a steal and dunk — his only field goal of the night — and Hakeen Rollins made back-to-back baskets to pull Washington within 67-61.
But less than two minutes later, Garcia hit his fifth 3-pointer to make it 76-65 and the Cardinals never let the lead fall below double digits.
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.
Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 15 points and Evan Smotrycz added 13, helping No. 22 Michigan remain unbeaten at home with a 70-61 win over Illinois on Sunday.
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 | College hoops power rankings A look at the top teams in college basketball based on performance and potential. NBCSports.com |
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Five up, five down from college hoops’ huge day16 hr 17 min ago Michigan State sure shook up Big Ten by beating Buckeyes17 hr 2 min ago UNLV’s thrilling win vs. SDSU adds spice to MWC race21 hr 29 min ago |
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 Getty Images Highlights: No. 14 UNLV 65, No. 13 SDSU 63 Mike Moser scored 19 points, and UNLV forced three turnovers in the final 42 seconds to win. |
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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.
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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.
