Bracket racket
Joe Lundardi's latest bracket
ESPN
1 Kentucky
2 Ohio State
4 Louisville, Indiana
10 Purdue
Last 4 in: Cincinnati
First 4 out: Xavier
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Stuff
Video: Final minutes of Milan Miracle, Milan vs Muncie Central (1954)
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Bengals
The Bengals today signed Mark Carrier as defensive backs coach and promoted Paul Guenther to the position of linebackers coach.
Carrier is entering his seventh year as an NFL position coach. He spent the last two seasons (2010-11) as defensive line coach for the New York Jets and was defensive backs coach for the Baltimore Ravens from 2006-09. As a player, he was a standout safety over 11 seasons for Chicago, Detroit and Washington, earning three Pro Bowl selections. He was a first-round draft choice (sixth overall) by Chicago in 1990. He played in college at Southern California and is a native of Lake Charles, La.
“Mark is a great choice for us as he moves back to his old position, coaching the defensive secondary,” said Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis. “He experienced success as a coach with two fine NFL defenses, and he will do very well with our group.”
Guenther is entering his 10th season as an NFL coach, including the last eight with Cincinnati. In 2011, he was an assistant in a dual role, working with special teams and defensive backs. Guenther was also in a dual role from 2006-10, and those five seasons saw him working with special teams and linebackers. He played LB at Ursinus College and later was a record-setting head coach for four years (1997-2001) at Ursinus. His hometown is Richboro, Pa.
“Paul is very deserving of this opportunity to continue advancing and to coach a position of his own,” Lewis said. “Mike Zimmer (Bengals defensive coordinator) and I both have high confidence levels working with Paul, and we’re excited about what he can bring our defense in this new role.”
In 2011, Carrier’s defensive line helped the Jets finish fifth in the NFL in fewest yards allowed per game (312.1), fifth in fewest yards allowed per play (5.0) and seventh in fewest yards allowed per rushing play (3.9). In 2010, the Jets finished third in the NFL in fewest rushing yards allowed and third in fewest yards per rushing play. During Carrier’s term as defensive backs coach in Baltimore, the Ravens had the NFL’s second-most interceptions (93), with S Ed Reed performing as one of the league’s premier players.
Guenther last season helped coach the Bengals defense to a No. 7 NFL ranking (316.3 yards allowed per game). He has worked closely with Mike Zimmer, particularly on blitz techniques, and last season the Bengals ranked fifth in the NFL in sacks (45). In 2010, he helped tutor a starting LB trio that finished 1-2-3 on the team in tackles.
As defensive backs coach, Carrier replaces Kevin Coyle, who on Jan. 27 accepted the defensive coordinator position with the Miami Dolphins. As linebackers coach, Guenther replaces Jeff FitzGerald, who held the position for the Bengals from 2008-11.
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Reds
Driessen, key cog in Big Red Machine, enters Reds HOF
The Island Packet
Driessen almost didn't get the chance to be part of a Reds club that won consecutive World Series championships in 1975 and 1976. It was the Atlanta Braves who first responded to Young's letter, and the club promptly sent Driessen to a tryout in Greenwood.
He was the last man cut.
MLB offseason grades
The Sporting News
Seeing the teams ahead of them weakened significantly, the Reds made their move. They traded off parts of a strong farm system to add Latos to the rotation and Sean Marshall to their bullpen. They also signed Ryan Madson to close.
In an open NL Central, those moves could be enough to complement a good offense and bring Cincinnati its second division title in three seasons.
Grade: B.
MLB.COM: Ranking the starting rotations (Reds not in Top 15)
Show preview
6:05, Sports Talk
Topics
UC/XU/UK: Kind of have to address what exactly happened Saturday...right?
Lin-sanity: I know Cincinnati is not an NBA town, but, are you aware of what's going on? What/who can you compare it to?
Reds
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NCAA hoops
So...how was your Saturday?
XU and UC lost by a combined 30 points
Both teams allowed 47 first half points Saturday
UC allowed a season high 95 points...had been allowing 63 per game in Big East
UC's largest deficit was 19
XU's largest deficit was 23
The 17 points loss was UC's largest of season in Big East play
XU allowed a 16-0 run to Temple and went 7:28 w/o a basket
UC saw a 29 point swing in their game
UC went from leading 16-4 to trailing 47-35 at half
Xavier is 8-9 in the last 17 games
Did you know?
The last time XU went 8-9 in a 17 game stretch was '03-04 (Thad's final year)
XU then won 16 of next 17 before losing to Duke in Elite 8.
Blind Resume
Top 25 RPI record: Team A: 2-2/ Team B: 0-4
Top 50 RPI record: Team A: 3-3 / Team B: 2-6
Top 100 RPI record: Team A: 6-5 / Team B: 7-8
Road record: Team A: 6-4 / Team B: 5-5
Best RPI wins:
Team A: 13, 21, 40
Team B: 29, 48, 56
Worst RPI losses
Team A: 263, 153, 142
Team B: 201, 84, 71
Average RPI win
Team A: 175
Team B: 154
Average RPI loss
Team A: 92
Team B: 56
Non conference SOS
Team A: 324
Team B: 35
Bubble Tracker: Who is tourney bound?
USA Today
Xavier
IN
The Musketeers are one of the last teams in at this point. Xavier missed a chance at a resume-boosting win against Temple Saturday, but has three games left vs. teams with RPI in the Top 100. Musketeers need to keep winning.
Cincinnati
OUT
RPI and SOS numbers are too weak to get the Bearcats into the field.
Latest RPI
Jerry Palm, CollegeRPI.com
1 Syracuse
3 Kentucky
10 Ohio State
15 Indiana
20 Louisville
56 Purdue
57 Xavier
71 Dayton
92 Cincinnati
103 Ohio
228 Wright State
Former UC AD Mike Thomas took an hour of calls on radio Saturday.
He did not give a vote of confidence to basketball coach Bruce Weber.
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Reds
Top 101 prospects
BaseballProspectus.com
22. Billy Hamilton
24. Devin Mesoraco
38. Yasmani Grandal
86. Yonder Alonso
New-look Reds are ready to roll
Mark Sheldon, MLB.COM
For a team that won 79 games last season and possibly living on borrowed time with stars like Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips, the future has to be now for the Reds. Votto can be a free agent in two years. Phillips can be a free agent next winter.
"I feel much better with our club going to Spring Training now than at the end of last season," Jocketty said on Tuesday. "We feel this is an important year to win for a lot of reasons. These moves and decisions we made aren't only for the short term, but the long term."
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NFL
Tell the FCC: End sports blackouts
If you ever tried to watch your home team play, only to find that the game was blacked out... If you ever wanted to attend the game, but just couldn't afford the costs of tickets, parking and concessions, yet couldn't even watch the game on TV because the game didn't sell out...Or if you just think it's plain wrong for your government to be propping up the leagues' blackout policies...
Now is the time to be heard. Tell your friends and family and all the fans online to send their comments. If enough fans tell the FCC to end the sports blackout rule, we can win!
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Congrats
Jason Kokrak, ('07 Xavier grad) from Warren, Ohio, finished T-9th at Pebble Beach National Pro Am Sunday. More on his weekend.
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Mitch's Mission
It was great seeing so many UC student athletes giving their time and supporting Playdate with the Bearcat on Sunday. I'm not sure who was having more fun, the players or the kids! We ran into UC football coach Butch Jones as well. Great cause.
Nearly 500 people, includuing 120 student athletes showed up
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NFL
Remaining 2011 cap space, by team
ProFootballTalk.com
[Editor's note: With teams now able to carry over their excess cap space from one year to the next, here's a look at each team's remaining 2011 cap space, as of February 12, 2012.
Bengals: $17.59 million
Clip and Save
National Football Post: College Football Big Board
Check out the rankings, draft notes, grading scales
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NBA
A true Hollywood story
NY Daily News
Lin’s sphere of influence is widening with each win, and his name is being emblazoned across T-shirts and mesh jerseys as the great American marketing machine readies to push him through its maw. Already, T-shirts, featuring the Knicks’ logo topped by “LINSANITY” are available for pre-order ($24) in the concourses at Madison Square Garden. His Fathead is selling for $99.99 online.
Knicks' guard creating an international Lin-sation
USA Today
Only nine days ago he had scored 114 points in his entire NBA career. He's scored 134 in his past five games, including 109 in his first four starts — the most since the NBA-ABA merger of 1976-77.
Now he's a basketball rock star, whose Twitter followers went from 70,000 to 196, 709 in three days. According to Delivery Agent, which operates the Knicks' online store, traffic increased 3,000% last week.
10 lessons Jeremy Lin can teach us before going to work
(Eric Millwer/Reuters)
For Lin, Erasing a History of Being Overlooked
NY Times
The story of Lin’s college recruitment illustrates how talent evaluators overlooked his ability even when Lin was young. It is something that was repeated in the professional ranks as he moved from Golden State to Houston to New York, where he has infected Knicks fans with Linsanity, becoming a sensation over five transcendent games.
Lin has scored at least 20 points in five straight games, all of them Knicks victories, becoming an instant fan favorite. He is also the first N.B.A. player to have at least 20 points and 7 assists in his first 4 starts.
All of that would have been hard for some college coaches to have predicted while watching film of Lin as a skinny, average-shooting guard at Palo Alto High School, even though he was a standout for the modest program, leading it to a 32-1 record and an upset of the powerhouse Mater Dei in the 2006 state championship game
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How 'bout my Carmel Greyounds?
The Carmel High School girls swim team won their 26th consecutive state title on Saturday.
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The Big O
Oscar's latest victim: Cancer
Unnoticed then, Oscar's triple-double unparalleled
Tom Groeschen, Enquirer
At the time, Oscar Robertson had no idea that he averaged a triple-double for the entire 1961-62 basketball season. Robertson that winter was in his second NBA season with the Cincinnati Royals, and the 6-foot-5, guard/forward combo compiled what remains the only full “triple-double” season in NBA history:
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Whitney Houston
Her 10 most memorable songs
