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MARCH 2001
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March 31: It was a tale of
two games in the women's NCAA basketball semifinal between
Connecticut and Notre Dame. UConn roared to a 16-point
first-half lead, but the Irish made the biggest comeback in the 20 years of the women's Final
Four to win 90-75. They next play for the title against state
rival Purdue, which beat Southwest Missouri State, 81-64.
SWMO's superstar Jackie Stiles was held to 21 points, seven
under her average as she shot 33%.
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March 31: It didn't take Bob
Knight long to put his stamp on the Texas Tech basketball
program. Knight kicked three players off the team on Friday
for "some violation of team rules" and the school
granted a fourth player his release. The school wasn't
specific and the players said they were shocked. It's his way
or the highway.
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March 30: The Tulsa
Golden Hurricane garnered the distinguished title of the 66th
best team in the country, beating Alabama in the NIT Finals,
79-60. But, don't expect Tulsa to win the NCAA
Championship anytime soon: the last team to win the NIT
and then eventually win the NCAA Championship was UConn, who
won the NIT in 1988 and the NCAA in 1999. Only five
teams have done it in the last 30 years.
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March 30: The fan is
certainly to blame. But, when you're a professional
athlete, you've got to keep your cool. On Thursday,
Toronto Maple Leaf Tie Domi failed to do that,
showering a taunting fan with water while in the penalty
box. Chances are, he'll be spending even more time off
the ice than he had anticipated.
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March 29: "Baby
Shaq" was in the house last night. 6-foot-11, 290
pound high school senior Eddy Curry, nicknamed for
obvious reasons after the Lakers center, dominated the
McDonald's All-American game Wednesday night, putting up 28
points as the West rallied from 15 down to beat the East,
131-125. He shot 12-for-21 from the field and added
eight rebounds and four blocks.
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March 29: The Hondurans
must be crying tonight. For the first time in 12 years,
the United States soccer team won a qualifying round match in
Central America beating Honduras, 2-1 on a free kick by
Clint Mathis.
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March 28: Can you
believe what they're doing in medicine these days? First
San Antonio guard Sean Elliott came back from career-ending
surgery. Now Alonzo Mourning has returned from a
season-ending kidney disorder. And Robert Edwards of the
New England Patriots is considering a return after a gruesome
career-ending ligament injury in his legs. These are
just some of the latest miracles being performed by the men
and women who are our sports doctors.
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March 28: As if it
wasn't bad enough that they have driven the Anaheim Ducks into
the Western Conference cellar, The Walt Disney Company
announced on Tuesday that they will lay off 4,000 people in
the next few months. Now, if they'd only start with
Michael Eisner, the Ducks may have a chance to make the
playoffs this century.
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March 27: Tiger Woods is
getting hot again, just in time for the upcoming Masters.
Tiger won the rain-delayed Players
Championship on Monday for his second tour win in a row. Where
are all the naysayers now?
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March 27: The Curse of the
Bambino strikes again. The Boston Red Sox have not won
a World Series since trading Babe Ruth in 1918. And after
Monday's news it's wait until next year. Superstar shortstop Nomar
Garciaparra reportedly will undergo right wrist surgery
and could miss up to four months. He hurt the wrist in 1999,
played hurt last year but has finally given into the
realization that surgery was the best long-term cure. See
Nomar shirtless.
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March 26: Annika
Sorenstam is tearing up the LPGA Tour this season.
In the last three weeks she has won three tournaments, shot a
tour record 59 in one round, and won her first Major since
1996, the Nabisco Championship. For the 20 rounds she
has shot this year, she is a total of 69 under par.
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March 26: Pete Sampras
is a champion of champions. In the mid and late 90's,
Wimbledon was his own personal playground. But, on
Sunday, the defending Ericsson Open champion lost in the third
round of the tournament to rookie Andy Roddick, an 18-year-old
progeny who is just one year out of high school. He lost
in straight sets, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3.
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March 25: Hats off to the
Xavier women and the ACC men. Xavier stunned top seed
Tennessee, 80-65, to reach the women's tourney Elite Eight.
The Vols had been in the Final Four five of the last six
years. On the men's side, Maryland and Duke beat the Pac-10's
Stanford and USC, to complete an ACC sweep. They will play in
a national semifinal next week.
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March 25: It's time to say
it: the Stanford men's basketball team is resembling
the Buffalo Bills or Atlanta Braves. Great regular seasons and
high hopes that end in playoff flameouts. The top-ranked
Cardinal had what many considered the easiest path to the
Final Four but laid an egg in being outplayed by Maryland on
Saturday, 77-63. Two years ago Stanford was upset by Gonzaga,
and last year went in as a top seed and lost in the second
round to North Carolina.
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March 24: It's good to be
on top. For only the second time since the NCAA
Tournament went to 64 teams, all four #1 seeds are in
the Elite Eight. Never have all four been in the Final
Four. But, with wins on Saturday and Sunday, Stanford,
Duke, Illinois and Michigan State could change all that.
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March 24: Why has Texas
Tech hired Bob Knight as the head basketball coach?
Yes, the man has won his fair share of basketball games.
But, that was a long time ago. Before being ousted at
Indiana, he had lost five straight first round tournament
games - most of them upset losses. And, let's not forget
the 1/2 hour "highlight" reel of him screaming at
people and choking his players. The outcome on the
scoreboard remains to be seen. But, this move doesn't
look like a good one to us.
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March 23: Yes, USC's upset
was a huge win. But, it doesn't compare to the upset of
the day in women's lacrosse. Kristin Osborn of Amherst scored five goals,
including four consecutive in a span of 11 minutes, to rally the #2 Jeffs from down
6-3 to up 7-6 and hold on to defeat the top-ranked and defending national
champion College of New Jersey Lions. This was TCNJ's first loss at home since
1990 (76 games) and first loss in the regular season since 1991 (121 games).
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March 23: Lightning
can't strike the same place twice, right? Wrong.
For the second time in two Marches, Kenyon Martin broke
his right leg. He did it last year as a Cincinnati
Bearcat, before being the first pick in the NBA draft,
selected by the New Jersey Nets. The Nets, now
with the sixth worst record in the NBA, just might be headed
toward their second consecutive number one draft pick.
Coincidentally, Martin broke his leg last night as his
Cincinnati Bearcats were being knocked out of the NCAA
Tournament by Stanford.
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March 22: The last time the
New York Rangers beat the New Jersey Devils, Bill
Clinton was still in his first term. It was 23 games ago
that the Devils fell to the Rangers - and 12 games ago that
the Devils lost to anybody, which is just five games short of
the NHL record.
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March 22: How bad
could it possibly get if you're up 30-14 at home in the second
quarter? Ask the Boston Celtics. On
Wednesday night, they watched that 16 point lead evaporate
into a 97-77 loss to the suddenly hot-shooting San Antonio
Spurs.
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March 21: They may
have needed some help, but the lowly Los Angeles Clippers
beat the league-leading Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday,
88-77. Though the Sixers were missing their coach and
league leading scorer Allen Iverson, the Clippers, with the
league's seventh-worst record, will gladly take the win.
Lamar Odom, returning from a five game suspension for
drug abuse, led the Clips with 25 points.
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March 21: Why does a college newspaper
need to see autopsy
photos of Dale Earnhardt? We're all for freedom of the
press. And, we can see the Orlando Sentinel or other
major outlets wanting to see the photos to report on
them. But, the University of Florida's Independent
Florida Alligator? They should stick to recaps of
how their basketball team got trounced by 11-seeded Temple in
the second round.
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March 20: It's been a while
since Tiger Woods was a top, but he's back here
again. After falling behind to Phil Mickelson late in
the final round at the Bay Hill Invitational, Woods
rallied to win by one shot by birdying two of the last three
holes. On the final hole, as his drive looked to be
headed out of bounds, his ball hit a spectator - keeping the
ball inbounds and keeping Tiger on pace for the win.
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March 20: The XFL's matchup between the Las
Vegas Outlaws and the Birmingham Bolts picked up a 2.1 rating,
according to Nielsen, becoming the lowest-rated prime-time sporting
event in network television history. (Each rating point represents
roughly
1 million households.) The previous low was held by the National Hockey League,
whose Game 3 of the Stanley Cup aired last year on ABC and garnered a
2.3.
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March 19: The sport
of women's basketball is still in its infancy and, just as in
the earlier days of men's college basketball, upsets were hard
to find. So, when something like this happens in the
women's NCAA tournament, you know the sport is developing
nicely. In the East Region on Sunday, the 10-seeded Missouri
Tigers upset the second seed, Georgia. Consider also
that this game was played AT Georgia - not a neutral
site. A huge win for the Tigers, and a huge statement
for women's basketball.
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March 19: When we
first heard that Sacramento Kings guard Jason Williams
was accused of making ethnic and gay slurs we reserved
judgment. We wanted to know more.
What has emerged is enough to
convince us that Williams is an ignorant punk who has been
correctly fined $15,000 by the NBA for hurling slurs at a
Golden State Warriors' fan.
The player said the fan,
Michael Ching, called him a ``skinhead'' and ``racist,''
charges Ching denies. According to the Sacramento Bee, the
third-year point guard allegedly responded with the following:
"Are you a fag?" "Are you gay?" "Do
you remember the Vietnam War? I'll kill y'all just like
that." Williams then pretended to be aiming a rifle and
emitting a "rat-a-tat-tat" sound, according to
witnesses. "Just like Pearl Harbor," he is said to
have added.
This is the second time this
season Williams has been fined for verbally lashing at fans.
Kings' management said they won't tolerate any more outbursts
by Willaims.
His use of homophobic epithets
to Ching shows that calling someone a fag is still considered
to be the ultimate putdown on the playing field. Enough is
enough.
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March 18: Rutgers' Tasha
Pointer set an NCAA women's basketball tournament record
with 18 assists in Rutgers' first round 80-43 victory over
Stephen F. Austin on Saturday.
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March 18: The consensus No.
1 high school baseball team in the nation, Seminole High
(Fla.), was forced to forfeit 10 games after the Florida
High School Activities Association deemed the team's senior
shortstop, Bryan Bass, ineligible. The Association found
a glitch in the rules that made Bass's living with a host
family while at his previous school against the rules.
Bass will play football and baseball at Alabama next year.
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March 17: Annika Sorenstam
shot the lowest round in LPGA Tour history on Friday, putting
up a 13-under 59 in the second round of the Standard Register
Ping in Phoenix. She is only the sixth person, joining
five other men, to ever break 60 in a round in a professional
tournament.
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March 17: The Williams
clan made a big mistake. On Thursday, just minutes
before the Williams sisters, Serena and Venus, were scheduled
to meet in the semifinals at Indian Wells, Venus withdrew from
the tournament claiming tendonitis. When you pull out of
a match just minutes before it's supposed to start, you end up
with a stadium full of disappointed people. But, with
this situation, the Williams now have fueled the speculation
that their father, Richard, orchestrates the outcomes of the
matches between the two girls.
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March 16: After being
raked through the coals by a lot of "experts" for
not belonging in the tournament, the guys from the little
conferences did pretty damn well in the first round of the
NCAA Tourney, as the MAC beat the Big Ten, the MEAC beat the
Big XII, the TAAC beat the Big Ten, the A-10 beat the ACC, and
the Big West beat the Big Ten. Plus, America East's
Hofstra nearly toppled the Pac-10's UCLA, the Colonial's
George Mason almost got the ACC's Maryland, and little old
Holy Cross from the Patriot nearly got the conference's first
tournament win ever over the SEC's Kentucky.
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March 16: After watching 16
games in the course of about 12 hours, it was just baffling to
us how so many teams were unprepared for the
tournament. UCLA looked lost, Arkansas and Georgetown
looked like they were playing pickup basketball, Georgia got
blitzed, 15-0, by Missouri before their players decided to
show up, and Wisconsin just couldn't hit free-throws to save
themselves from being upset.
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March 15: It may have
taken 30 years, but Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier
are finally making up. One of the great rivalries in
sports in the early 70s, Ali-Frazier was "the greatest
show on Earth" - due in part to the jabs that Ali
relentlessly sent Frazier's way, calling him a gorilla and
saying he was too ugly to be champ. Now, in a New York
Times interview, Ali has apologized to Frazier, and Frazier
has accepted it. Now, if only their daughters could take
a lesson . . . .
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March 15: Elena Dementieva needs
to keep her mouth shut. After she got crushed by Venus
Williams, 6-0, 6-3, at Indian Wells, setting up a match-up
between Venus and her sister, Serena, Dementieva said, "I don't know what Richard
(Williams) thinks about [the sisters matching up]. I think he will decide who's going to win
tomorrow." Dementieva needs to stick to winning
matches and leave this speculation to the press.
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March 14: The St. Louis
Blues made a big push toward going far in the Stanley Cup
playoffs when they acquired Keith Tkachuk from Phoenix
from three young players and a draft pick. Tkachuk
had never made it past the first round while with Winnipeg
turned Phoenix. He'll have a better shot with the Blues.
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March 14: Things must be
getting slow in the NBA--the Michael Jordan comeback
story has struck again. Sports Illustrated reports that Jordan
is getting in shape for what's called a likely return to the
court next season. Jordan's agent denies it, with a key reason
being that Jordan would have to sell his part of the
Washington Wizards. Having Jordan back could be cool, but
let's hope these rumors don't become daily headline fare.
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March 13: Tim Duncan of the
San Antonio Spurs is the very definition of a quiet star. He
keeps his mouth shut and just gets the job done. In Monday's
Spurs' romp over the Clippers, Duncan had 28 points and 11
rebounds. Duncan leads the NBA with 51 double-doubles (at
least 10 points and 10 rebounds in a game).
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March 13: Not that we
would've expected anything better, but Bob Knight has
become just another money-grubbing shill. Knight is pimping
for Sandbox.com. getting $50,000 to make his NCAA picks (he
takes Stanford to win it all). Knight is still under
consideration to be Texas Tech's new coach, which tells us
they don't have a lot of sense in Lubbock.
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March 12: The selections of
the fields for the men's and women's NCAA basketball
tournaments were announced. And for one day 129 teams can
dream that they'll be No. 1.
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March 12: While we love the
NCAA tournaments, we've come to grow weary of the following terms:
``Bubble teams;'' ``RPI;'' ``March Madness,'' ``Road to the
Final Four;'' coaches endlessly yammering about how great
their ``kids'' are; Dick Vitale; Jim Nantz; obsequies praise
of what ``a great job the selection committee did;'' ``Big
Dance;'' ``Survivor'' promos.
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March 11: Shane Mosley reaffirmed
Saturday that he might be the best boxer in the world
pound-for-pound. Sugar ran his record to 37-0 (with 34 KOs)
with an easy decision over previously unbeaten Shannan Taylor.
``What can I say?'' Taylor said. ``Shane Mosley is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world and he showed it again tonight. He's awesome.''
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March 11: Gary Sheffield
now says he will honor his contract with the Los Angeles
Dodgers. After demanding a trade the past month, Sheffield
reversed himself and claims to bleed Dodger Blue. Who cares?
Just another overpaid, spoiled pro athlete who doesn't realize
how disconnected he is with reality. We could care less if he
ever plays again.
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March 10: It took him 17
years, but Doug Flutie finally has a starting NFL QB
job all his own without competition. The San Diego Chargers
signed Flutie to a 6-year contract, but expect him to start
for a year or two while Michael Vick gets ready. Flutie is a
treat to watch and he's already made the Chargers better by
signing.
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March 10: The Atlanta
Hawks continue to show why they've been NBA also-rans.
Since trading center Dikembe Mutombo, the Hawks have lost nine
in a row, including a 108-103 game to Mutombo's new team,
Philadelphia. Atlanta has the NBA's third-worst record.
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March 9: In the last
meaningful regular season game for a long time, the Pac-10
showed the rest of the country that it is not just relevant -
it's at the top of the basketball world. #7 Arizona beat
#1 Stanford on Thursday night in a seesaw battle that saw
double-digit leads erased, back-door cuts, long-range threes,
spectacular defensive plays, and a well-designed,
well-executed play that led to the Wildcats' 76-75
victory. It now looks like the Pac-10 will have three
Top 2 seeds in the tournament - as many as, if not more than,
any other conference. The Pac-10 will join the other
conferences next year with a conference tournament.
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March 9: Wow, these conference
tournaments suck. Who wants to see LaSalle vs. St.
Joseph's? Or Penn State vs. Michigan? Who
cares? Yes, it's cute to see some "Cinderella"
team come along and screw some Top 40 team out of an at-large
bid to the NCAA Tournament, but come on. And, no matter
how many times Pittsburgh beats Notre Dame to advance to the
next round of the Big East tournament, it just doesn't beat
having another weekend of regular season games that validate
the rest of the season. Hint to those planning things to
do on Saturday and Sunday morning: don't waste your time
in front of the TV until the brackets are announced - it's
all worthless fodder for Dick Vitale until then.
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March 8: This could also be a bottom, depending on which side
you’re on. The Sacramento Kings erased a 28-point deficit Wednesday against the Phoenix Suns and went on
to a 100-89 win. The Kings outscored the Suns, 60-25, in the second half. It was the largest comeback in the
NBA this season.
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March 8: Hang it up, Troy. The Dallas Cowboys waived
quarterback Troy Aikman to avoid a large hit to the salary cap. Aikman, who has not played a full season
since 1996 and seems to get a concussion every time
he’s hit, insists he will play this year. As a friend says, Troy is just one shot away from needing a drool
cup when he’s 50. It’s time for him to go. Aikman won three Super Bowls with the Cowboys.
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March 7: What a game.
In the finals of the Big East tournament on Tuesday, the #2
women's college basketball team in the country, UConn Huskies, knocked off the #1
team in the country, Notre Dame Irish, 78-76, with
last-second heroics from Sue Bird at the buzzer. Quite
possibly a preview of the National Championship game, it was
amazing to see the top two teams face off so late in the
season - and in the same conference.
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March 7: One of the nicest
things about the NCAA men's basketball tournament being on CBS
- no Dick Vitale. While all season long we have
to put up with Dicky V's rants and "diaper dandy"
this and "PTPer" that ringing in our ears, for the
best three weeks of the year, we don't have to hear his same
old tired schtick during games. Matt, a reader,
sent us this
link to an animated site where you can shut Dickie V up.
It's on the upper right side of the site and requires Flash
plugin.
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March 6: How does that
saying go - "The rich get richer?" Well, on
Monday, one of the "richest" teams in the NFL just
took a huge step forward. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers,
mired in bad quarterback play for years, signed Brad Johnson
to a five-year deal, resigning Shaun King to a backup
role. The Bucs, with one of the best defenses in the
League, just became one of the favorites to win the Super Bowl
with that acquisition.
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March 6: Man, it just
seems like the sports media can't get enough of Rick
Pitino. Every time he farts, it seems like there's a
story about it. "Rick Pitino reportedly farted
while sitting on his cardinal red sofa, so he must be headed
to Louisville next year." Enough already. The
season isn't even over folks - give the man, and the
prospective teams, a break - lay off.
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March 5: What a way to enter
the NCAA tournament. Up by one point with under 10
seconds remaining, then down by one point with 2.6 seconds
left, the UNC-Greensboro Spartans needed a miracle
play. Jay Joseph threw a 70 foot pass to David
Schuck, who was to look for a streaking teammate who would
then take the last shot. When Shuck saw no teammates
nearby, he quickly dribbled around his defender and tossed in
a lay-up with 0.4 seconds remaining to steal the Southern
Conference Championship and the conference's NCAA berth.
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March 5: Nothing's
wrong with Tiger Woods. Though, those doubters
certainly got some firepower on Sunday. Tied for the
lead with Thomas Bjorn at the Dubai Desert Classic going into
the last hole, Woods fell apart and shot a double bogey to
give Bjorn the tournament win and stay winless himself this
year. It was only the fourth time in his career that
Woods failed to win a tournament when he started the final
round in the lead.
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March 4: John Ruiz became
the first Latino to claim the WBA heavyweight title on
Saturday after he beat Evander Holyfield with a unanimous
decision.
March 4: It was a good
day to be a Panther as both the Georgia State Panthers
and the Eastern Illinois Panthers got the first bids to
the NCAA men's basketball tournament. We've started our tournament
coverage with a look at these two Panthers, plus some
Eagles.
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March 4: He plays a
hell of a game, but Stanford's Casey Jacobsen has
something funky going on with his hair. At the beginning
of the season, it looked pretty good - the bleached thing made
some nice highlights and really brought out his eyes.
But now - it's this orangish mess. Someone, please, get
the man some help before the tournament.
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March 3: Two home crowds got
treated to big wins on Friday. In Boston, the Celtics
beat the Jazz, 103-99, for the first time in Boston in nearly
10 years. And, in Los Angeles, the Clippers -
yes, the Clippers, topped the Sacramento Kings, 88-81, whom
they now trail by 19 1/2 games.
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March 3: How could any
college team rack up 36 NCAA violations in just two
years? Ask the Kentucky football program.
That's how many an internal investigation uncovered dating
back to February 1999, including academic fraud and paying for
prospective players' travel. The school will now be
instituting a number of self-imposed sanctions in hopes that
the NCAA will not levy any deeper penalties.
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March 2: Southwest Missouri
State's Jackie Stiles became the all time Division I
scoring leader on Thursday after scoring 30 points against
Creighton in a 94-59 victory. Stiles now has 3,133
career points, breaking the old record of 3,122 set by
Patricia Hoskins of Mississippi Valley State from
1985-89. Said Stiles after the game, "the
pressure's off. Now we can just concentrate on winning
basketball games. It's just a burden off my shoulders."
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March 2: No matter how
many games his team wins, he'll still be a little punk.
Last weekend, UCLA men's basketball coach Steve Lavin
was put on probation by the Pac-10 for a tirade against an
official in his team's game at Oregon State. In
Thursday's game against California, a Bruin was called for traveling
early in the game. So, what did Lavin
do? He clapped his hand over his mouth. We haven't
seen childish behavior from a coach like that since the junior
high school basketball games back home.
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March 1: The Philadelphia
76ers took a big step toward locking up the Atlantic
Division crown by beating the Miami Heat, 79-69. Pat
Riley had earlier supplied plenty of motivation for the 6ers
by accusing the team of not being loyal. The 76ers now
lead both Miami and New York by 8 1/2 games.
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March 1: Talk about a
decision with limited potential. Needing to cut
one of their quarterbacks due to salary cap issues, the Buffalo
Bills on Wednesday cut Doug Flutie and decided to bet the
future on Rob Johnson. Flutie's record as a starter for
the Bills is 21-9. Rob Johnson's is 8-10. Plus,
Johnson has, throughout his career, exhibited a tendency to
hold onto the ball too much and get knocked around - resulting
in many injuries and missed games. We're betting that
the future with Rob Johnson at the Bills' helm won't be so
bright.
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