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'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.
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.
AP
ST. LOUIS - Francisco Garcia blamed no one but himself for his worst performance of the NCAA tournament.
“I got some easy shots. I just couldn’t make them,” said Louisville’s junior star, who went 2-for-10 in the Cardinals’ 72-57 loss to Illinois in the Final Four.
The 6-foot-7 swingman averaged 21 points in Louisville’s first four tournament games. He sank shot after shot in pregame warm-ups, bolstering his confidence.
“I really felt like it was going to be a good night,” he said.
But the 3-pointer he missed from the wing 50 seconds in was an indication of what was to come.
|
Shadowed by Illinois’ Deron Williams and Luther Head, Garcia never found his range, missing all four of his 3-point attempts. His two baskets came on a backdoor cut in the first half and an uncontested lay-up following a steal early in the second half.
“Deron did a great job, along with Luther, of not letting Garcia get going,” Illinois coach Bruce Weber said.
Taquan Dean, Garcia’s roommate, said Illinois’ defense had little to do with his best friend’s struggles.
“They were just crowding him a little bit,” Dean said. “He didn’t play as well as he should’ve.”
Louisville coach Rick Pitino has said all season that Garcia has the tendency to try to do too much.
That’s what happened Saturday.
“Francisco didn’t let the game come to him,” Pitino said. “He got caught taking some tough shots, and he was concerned about being off. He was concerned that he wasn’t contributing enough. That was the only problem with it.”
Throughout the game, Pitino urged Garcia to keep shooting.
“He said, ’Relax. The openings are going to come,”’ Garcia recalled.
They did, but the shots never fell.
“I had good looks. For some reason, they were off tonight,” Garcia said.
None of Garcia’s teammates fared much better.
Taquan Dean, who sank a school-record 108 3-pointers during the regular season, went 4-for-15 and 2-for-9 from 3-point range. Dean said he struggled to adjust to the spacious shooting background at the Edward Jones Dome — far different from the intimate practice facility back in Louisville.
“They looked good. If those had been in the other gym, they would’ve gone in,” Dean said.
The Cardinals finished 21 of 54 from the field (38.9 percent) after topping 50 percent in their previous three games. They went 6 of 20 from 3-point range.
Larry O’Bannon, who shot 59 percent in Louisville’s last nine games, epitomized the Cardinals’ struggles by missing a lay-up with 2:39 left.
O’Bannon shrugged off the notion that defense shut down the Cardinals.
“We didn’t see anything that our coaches hadn’t prepared us for,” said O’Bannon, who went 4-for-10 from the field and scored 12 points. “They jumped out on a lot of screens, were hedging a lot. But it was nothing we hadn’t seen.”
Early on, the Cardinals compensated for their bad shooting with the 2-3 half-court zone defense they used most of the season to protect a thin bench.
The Illini looked like they might be ready to shred it after Williams and Head sank 3-pointers 80 seconds in. But Illinois missed 10 of its next 11 3-point attempts.
Louisville fought to a 22-22 tie, but the Illini surged back ahead as the Cardinals went cold again, going 6 minutes without a field goal.
Dean’s last 3-pointer pulled Louisville to 50-49 with 10:24 left. The Illini then went on an 11-0 run as the Cardinals missed four straight shots.
The Illini stayed comfortably ahead as the desperate Cardinals started missing point-blank attempts.
The loss ended a remarkable run for Pitino, who became the first coach to get three different schools to the Final Four.
Louisville was playing in its eighth Final Four but the first since the Cardinals won the title in 1986 — the school not even advanced to the regionals since 1997.
“It’s not a game of statistics right now, because we lost,” Pitino said. “We fought as hard as we could.”
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.
 | Slideshow |
 | College hoops power rankings A look at the top teams in college basketball based on performance and potential. NBCSports.com |
Latest from Beyond the Arc |
Here’s a shot you just can’t defend7 hr 9 min ago Five up, five down from college hoops’ huge day23 hr 39 min ago |
 | College basketball videos |
 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. |
| 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.
The Red Wings have finally started to embrace a record they've been chasing.
