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04/29/2008 - Charlotte, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Charlotte Bobcats introduced Larry Brown as their new head coach on Tuesday, bringing the 67-year-old to his ninth NBA team.
"I've been out of basketball two years as a coach, and I realized how much I loved it and how much I missed it," said Brown. "When Michael (Jordan) talked to me about coming here I thought it was a no-brainer."
Brown replaces Sam Vincent, whose honeymoon phase as an NBA head coach was a quick one, as the Bobcats relieved the first-year head coach of his duties on Saturday after a 32-50 season.
"We are extremely proud and fortunate to have in our organization the greatest basketball player that ever played the game in Michael Jordan, and one of the greatest coaches in the history of the game in Larry Brown," said Robert L. Johnson, majority owner of the Bobcats.
Jordan, like Brown a North Carolina alum, is a part-owner of the club.
"I think he's going to do a great job here, and I think we have the right places in piece here," said Jordan. Two of those pieces, forward Sean May and guard Raymond Felton, are also former Tar Heels players.
Brown has served 23 seasons as a head coach in the NBA, spending time with eight different clubs in that span, and holds an all-time mark of 1,010-800, making him the fifth winningest coach in league history.
"I guess I've coached almost everybody in the league, I've been around so much," he quipped about his well-known journeyman habits. Brown finally achieved the pinnacle of the sport with the Detroit Pistons, when he led the team to the 2004 title, and the 2005 NBA Finals.
But, like it often does at each of his stops, things went bad between Brown and management in Detroit, and the Hall of Famer then took over as coach of the New York Knicks for the 2006 campaign, but was fired after going 23-59.
The former Sixers coach rejoined the club in January 2007 in the advisory role, but had said multiple times through media outlets that he would like to get back into coaching. He resigned his post as executive vice president for the Sixers last Thursday.
Brown also spent time coaching in the college ranks, winning the 1988 national championship at Kansas, and reaching a final with UCLA, and is the only head coach in basketball history to win both an NCAA Championship and NBA title.
In his NBA career, which includes time as a player, he has also coached Denver, New Jersey, San Antonio, the Los Angeles Clippers and Indiana.
<< Eight Belles entered in Kentucky Oaks, may go in Derby
Louisville, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top three-year-old filly Eight Belles has
been entered to run in Friday's $500,000 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs.
However, Eight Belles is expected to take on the boys in this year's Kentucky
Derby o
<< Scott named NBA Coach of the Year
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Byron Scott was named the 2007-08 NBA
Coach of the Year Tuesday, after leading the New Orleans Hornets to a
franchise-record 56 wins, their first division title and their first playoff
appeara
<< New LPGA event headed to China
Haikou, China (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The LPGA, in conjunction with the China Golf
Association, IMG and Grand China Air announced the first-ever LPGA Tour event
to take place in China.
The Grand China Air LPGA will be played October 24-26,
<< This Week in Auto Racing May 2 - May 3
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With the IndyCar Series beginning their
month-long preparations for the Indianapolis 500 and the Formula One Series
off, NASCAR's Sprint Cup event will highlight a light racing week.
NASCAR
Sprint
Iginla, Malkin, Ovechkin named Hart Trophy finalists >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Calgary Flames right wing Jarome Iginla,
Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin and Washington Capitals left wing
Alexander Ovechkin were named finalists for the 2007-08 Hart Trophy on
Tuesday
Chicago signs Paraguayan defender Marmol >>
Bridgeview, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Fire signed Paraguayan defender
Lider Marmol on Tuesday, adding more depth to one of Major League Soccer's top
defenses.
Marmol, 22, last played for Hercules CF in Spain's second division. He st
Boston College names Crawley women's basketball coach >>
Chestnut Hill, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Boston College named Sylvia Crawley
head women's basketball coach on Tuesday.
Crawley was the head coach at Ohio University. She replaces Cathy Inglese, who
resigned earlier this month.
The head
Rays in an unfamiliar position >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Quick, raise your hand if you thought the Tampa Bay Rays
were going to be tied for first place at this point in the season. Raise your
hand again by the way if you thought that the Baltimore Orioles would be the
team they are
JUPITER, Fla. -- The Foorida Marlins are preparing for the likelihood that right-hander
Josh Johnson won't be ready when the season starts April 2.
Grapefruit League action starts Wednesday, but Johnson, penciled in as the No. 2 starter, hasn't even thrown off a mound at full speed since September. He's experienced some soreness in his right forearm.
MySportsbook.com have the Marlins listed with baseball betting lines at +800 to win the NL East this season .
''You guys know the math. If he's not on the hill then he becomes an opening day roster issue,'' manager Fredi Gonzalez said Saturday. ''We're borderline now.''
Johnson, who finished 12-7 with a 3.10 ERA in 2007, was supposed to throw on flat ground Saturday. That was canceled when he woke up with pain.
He played catch on Wednesday with no pain but felt discomfort in a throwing session on Thursday. He's expected to try again Sunday.
''Like we always said from the very beginning, we're going to take it easy on him,'' Gonzalez said. ''He didn't feel right, so we shut him down. We're going to take it back to step one and see where we're at.''
Among the candidates to take Johnson's spot in the rotation are left-hander Chris George and right-handers Yusmeiro Petit and Jose Garcia.
Right-hander Sergio Mitre, who missed most of last season with arm and shoulder problems, also is behind.
With Johnson's status doubtful, Gonzalez said right-hander Ricky Nolasco will stay in the rotation and no longer will be considered a candidate for closer.
Additional basbeall odds can be found at: www.MySportsbook.com
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My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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