Bengals
The Bengals today made the following roster moves:
* Added DT Pat Sims to the roster from the Reserve/Physically Unable to Perform list. Sims (6-2, 335; Auburn) is a fifth-year NFL player. He has 52 career NFL games and 23 starts, all with the Bengals. He has 158 career tackles with five sacks. He was out through training camp and the first eight games due to a hamstring injury.
* Waived LB Roddrick Muckelroy, a third-year player from Texas. Muckelroy played in five games this year, with one special teams tackle.
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Reds
Reds, still looking for a leadoff man, have interest in Bourn
CBS Sports
The Reds can't be considered a favorite to land Bourn, and there's a real chance that his price will go higher than what they can afford to spend. But he's enough of a fit that they are monitoring the market and are expected to keep in touch with agent Scott Boras.
Michael Bourn
Age: 29, LH, '12 salary: $6.8M
'12: .274/.348, 96 R, 26 2B, 10 3B, 9 HR, 42 SB, 70 BB, 155 K
19th in OBP in '12 among leadoff batters with at least 100 AB
Career: .272/.339
Career vs RHP: .281/.350, vs LHP: .249/.306,
Led NL SB 3-years row 2009-2011. SB seasons: 61, 52, 61, 41
Gold Glove 2009, 2010
Scott Boras client
CBS Sports: A yearly salary between $11 and $12 million would make sense.
Career stats
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Show preview
6:05, Sports Talk
6:30, Xavier basketball
Did you miss him?
Fox NFL analyst, and Super Bowl winning coach Brian Billick joined us at The Roundtable last night. He discussed the Bengals, Dalton, the running game, Giants and leadership.
PS...click HERE for Brian's appearance as a contestant on Match Game PM in the early 80's.
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College basketball
How can you not be pumped about the college basketball season tipping off tonight?
What a season for hoops in the Tri-State. Pull out of a map and check out the basketball in a 150+ mile radius around Cincinnati:
In town: UC,Xavier
7 miles: NKU
33 miles: Miami
54 miles: Dayton, Wright St
83 miles: Kentucky
99 miles: Louisville
107 miles: Ohio State
112 miles: Butler
129 miles: Indiana
155 miles: Ohio
The AP preseason Top 25 includes Indiana (1), Louisville (2), Kentucky (3), Ohio State (4). There are 11 players from Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana on the John Wooden pre-season Top 50 list.
Clearly UC basketball drives the bus of sports talk radio conversation in Cincinnati.
Mick Cronin figures to have his best team at UC. Gone is the ghost of Bob Huggins past. What remains is talk of a UC team that should have depth, length, size, options, experience and a fan friendly style of play. The Bearcats plan to run and press and run and press some more. No more standing around, pounding the basketball, dumping it into Yancy Gates and scoring in the 50's-60's. The Bearcats have a dynamic Wooden Watch player (Sean Kilpatrick) an experienced and tough as nails backcourt (Cashere Wright/Jaquon Parker), a healthy inside force that has reshaped his body (Cheikh Mbodj), a 7'1 giant (David Nyarsuk), a jumping jack Dennis Rodman rebounder (Justin Jackson), a guy named Titus (Titus Rubles) and other versatile parts to develop.
Chris Mack's Musketeers can't wait to hit the court and simply play games after the most trying off season of any college basketball program in the country. Picked to finish 9th in A-10, the Musketeers are short on bodies and experience, but always seem to find the Xavier Way to winning.
John Calipari and UK won a national title but lost 6 players to the NBA who took 92% of UK's offense with them. No players returns that has started a game for the Wildcats. Have no fear, the nation's top recruiting class is here. UK will be really good again, but it figures to take the non-conference schedule for Cal to fit the pieces together. IU is the preseason number one with the nation's best player in Cody Zeller. Yet Tom Crean hands the keys of his team to a freshman point guard in Yogi Ferrell. Elsewhere, first year coach John Cooper brings an uptempo style to Miami.
Archie Miller has a stud in Kevin Dillard piloting the Dayton Flyers.
Billy Donlon enters season three at Wright State with 6 of his top 8 players back from a year ago. Don't forget about the new Division I team in the Norse of NKU. Dave Bezold's crew takes the step up from Division II to the Atlantic Sun conference.
Bring on the hoops!
Blog question results
Favorite college basketball team
45% Cincinnati
18% Kentucky
13% Xavier
10% Ohio State
9% Other
5% Indiana
Let the college hoops begin!
The Sporting News
If you were to take a two-hour drive in any direction from essentially any city in the United States, you would pass by several colleges that play Division I basketball.
This is amazing to me, and what I believe makes college basketball, indeed, the true sport of America. No matter where you are, you have a local team. If you want to go see your favorite professional team play, well, you’d better live near a major U.S. city. (Or Jacksonville.)
But if you want to watch the top level of college basketball, well, the odds are excellent that there’s a team playing pretty close to where you live.
Odds to win the 2012-2013 Men's NCAA Basketball Championship
Courtesy of Bovada, (www.Bovada.lv, Twitter: @BovadaLV).
Kentucky 6/1
Indiana 13/2
Louisville 17/2
Ohio State 20/1
Cincinnati 50/1
Butler 100/1
Xavier 125/1
Purdue 150/1
Dayton 250/1
It's back! I love this game
College hoops challenge
AllSportsPolls.com
Pick one team from each group below for a total of six teams. You will earn points based off the success each of your teams enjoys during both regular and postseason. Updates will be provided throughout the year on our website. Participants will be ranked based off of the cumulative points of their six teams. Prizes will be rewarded to the top three participants. The cost is $15 for one entry or $25 for two. We will pay out 1st-3rd place.
Kilpatrick Named to John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 List
CINCINNATI – University of Cincinnati junior guard Sean Kilpatrick has been named to the John R. Wooden Award List Preseason Top 50 the Los Angeles Athletic Club announced through ESPN.com on Thursday.
Kilpatrick, who was tabbed a preseason BIG EAST Conference first team selection by the league’s coaches in October, ranks seventh among returning BIG EAST scorers (14.3 points per game) after leading the league in three-pointer made with 2.49 per game last season.
Wooden pre-season Top 50
ESPN
Cody Zeller, F, Indiana
Deshaun Thomas, F, Ohio State
Christian Watford, F, Indiana
D.J. Cooper, G, Ohio
Aaron Craft, G, Ohio State
Peyton Siva, G, Louisville
Isaiah Canaan, G, Murray State
Chane Behanan, F, Louisville
Jack Cooley, F, Notre Dame
Gorgui Dieng, C, Louisville
Sean Kilpatrick, G, Cincinnati
Field of 68 projection
The Sporting News
Seeds
1: Indiana, Louisville, Ohio State, Kentucky
5. Cincinnati
It's John Calipari's world
Wall Street Journal
Mix these ingredients together and you get Calipari's secret sauce: an unprecedented ability to translate buzz, marketing and connections into wins, recruiting coups and, in turn, more wins. For a look at how Calipari has positioned himself at the center of the basketball world, see below.
(ESPN.com photo)
Elite Texas junior PF chooses Xavier
ESPNInsider
The 6-foot-7 Swift is a four-star prospect and on the cusp of being in the ESPN 60. He is ranked the No. 8 junior in Texas -- a state that is loaded with talent in the 2014 class.
Swift will bring elite athletic ability to Xavier. He excels in transition, where he is a highlight waiting to happen. He scores over his left shoulder in the lane and uses a quick first step to beat defenders with short, straight-line drives, which he can finish through contact.
Cincinnati 7th best TV market for college hoops last year
ESPN
Top 25 Markets for 2011-12
No. 1 Louisville: 4.5 rating
No. 4 Columbus: 2.7 rating
No. 7 Cincinnati: 2.1 rating
No. 8 Dayton: 2.0 rating
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Reds
Reds could trade a shortstop this winter
FoxSports
The Reds have two talented shortstops on their 40-man roster: Zack Cozart, 27, and Didi Gregorius, 22. Both are far away from free agency, meaning one could be dealt to fill a more immediate need.
In fact, Jocketty told FOXSports.com Thursday that it’s possible he will trade one of them this winter.
“It depends if we get back what we need,” Jocketty said. “If we don’t, then I won’t mind holding onto them.”
Cozart was the Reds’ everyday shortstop this year, but Gregorius was impressive in a September cameo. “He’s going to be an everyday player,” Jocketty said of Gregorius. “It’s just a question of when and how we manage it.”
Bruce wins Silver Slugger award
Wilson Valdez joins Bill Bray in free agency
Hot Stove Report: Cincinnati Reds
The Sporting News
A second division title in three seasons is nice, but the early exits from the postseason are already stale for the Reds. The team's offseason decisions will be made with those failures in mind. The goal is to not only win another National League Central championship but also to advance beyond the Division Series.
The value of elite speed, measured in wins
FanGraph
I’ve dedicated considerable attention to Reds (now) outfield prospect Billy Hamilton in these electronic pages over the last 48 hours.
Hamilton, because he has a tool (in this case, speed) considered by many to be generational, has produced excitement among prospect analysts. In some cases, that excitement is analogous with optimism about Hamilton’s future as a major leaguer; in other cases, it’s more of an aesthetic judgment than any sort of projection about Hamilton’s career.
Assessing impact of new TV deal on spending in MLB
Philly.com
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. - Want to make a general manager uncomfortable? Mention the new national television contracts Major League Baseball finalized in October, which will net the sport nearly 70 percent more in annual revenue than the previous batch of deals.
......If the numbers are accurate, the new deal ended up being a 67 percent increase, or an extra $650 million each year that is distributed evenly to the league's 30 clubs. That would equate to more than $20 million in additional revenue per team each season.
Good stuff with George Foster
Video: George Foster talks hitting with David Franco of NextLevelBallplayer.com.
More: In the Best of George Foster video, he’s talking about teaching Pete Rose everything he knows, which teammate stood out the most, what Pete Rose was like to play with, the two pitchers who gave him trouble, him dropping some Japanese on us, and a few extras.
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Bengals
DVR alert
NFL Films Presents "All About the QB". The episode focuses on former Bengals QBGreg Cook. Bob Trumpy narrates the episode with clips of interviews from Cook, Bill Walsh, Paul and Mike Brown. Sam Wyche and Ron Jaworski offer present-day insights about Cook. It will re-air on NFL Network on Friday at 4:30 p.m. and Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
AJ Green sees 'holes' in Giants' defense
Amukamura responds to Green with subtle daggers
Spoiler alert: 5 teams ready to crash playoff party
NFL.com
2. Cincinnati Bengals (3-5): Here's my problem with the Bengals. Plenty of young talent on a team that can't get on the same page. I picked the Bengals to upset the New York Giants on Sunday, because I believe they're capable of it. But the Bengals can't be taken seriously until they learn to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens. They've got one more shot at each. It's time for the Bengals to capitalize -- not shrink away -- at the opportunity.
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Stuff
Saturday: Bridge Bowl XVII, 1pm
Thomas More hosting Mount St. Josoph
The Bank of Kentucky, Crestview Hills, Kentucky
Shout out
The Mason Girls Varsity Soccer Team will play in their first State Final at Columbus Crew Stadium on Friday. The Lady Comets (20-1-1) take on Perrysburg (22-0) at 7:00 pm. This is the first trip to the State Final for both teams.
Scary stuff on Michele Beadlle's stalker from Cincinnati
Petrino to UK is a no-brainer
Actual attendance figures for UK football
Kentucky.com
Kentucky’s announced attendance figure of 44,902 for the Vanderbilt game raised some eyebrows at Commonwealth Stadium on Saturday. I checked with UK officials about getting the actual scanned attendance figure for the game (each person who enters the venue has a ticket or pass scanned), but they said those numbers were unavailable at the time and had never been requested previously.
18 Amazing Stats from Vegas for this Weekend’s NFL action:
Las Vegas, Nevada (November 9, 2012) - from RJ Bell of Pregame.com
Patriots have won 22 of 24 games against Bills (17-7 against the spread)
Tom Coughlin on road with Giants: 67% ATS
(not under .500 against the spread for even a single season)
Teams favored week after playing Mike Tomlin’s Steelers: 10-30 ATS
Tampa Bay has covered only 8 of last 31 home games.
Visitor in Dolphins games: 49-23 ATS
Dolphins have lost 10 straight ATS at home when favored by 6 or more points.
Seattle at home under Pete Carroll: 16-5 ATS
Russell Wilson at home: 9 touchdowns; 0 interceptions
Houston: Covered 16 of 19 with QB Schaub starting
Carolina has lost by more than 6 points only once this season.
Falcons coach Smith as a favorite: 31-14 against the spread.
Jeff Fisher is 60% ATS in his career as an underdog.
Eagles: Covered only 3 of last 15 home games.
Tony Romo has won 19 of 22 games in November
Underdog has covered 10 of 11 in Raiders games
Steelers have led in the 4th quarter of every game this season.
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Well done
Nate Jones, rookie pitcher for the Chicago White Sox (Pendleton Count/NKU) raised over $4,000 to feed the poor and provide Christmas gifts for the needy in Falmouth, Kentucky last night. His charity event was held at Edwardo's in Falmouth. 10% of earnings from food, drinks and tips were donated. There was also a silent auction with a lot of White Sox items. Nate signed autographs and posed for pictures with donations going towards the benefit. Nice job by Nate and his agent Joe Speed.
