5 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(04/06/10 5:22am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Duke’s “Big Three” weren’t going to be denied the championship they so desperately craved.As usual, they did most of the work by themselves — then got some timely help from their big man.The Blue Devils held on to beat Butler 61-59 Monday night for their first national title since 2001, and once again, their three stars did most of the heavy lifting.Kyle Singler scored 19 points, Jon Scheyer added 15 and Nolan Smith 13.But title No. 4 wasn’t secure until 7-foot-1 center Brian Zoubek got a hand in Gordon Hayward’s face on a missed shot with 7 seconds left, hit a free throw with 3.6 seconds to go and held his breath as Hayward’s half-court heave at the buzzer clipped off the glass and the rim.Once the Blue Devils exhaled, they were on top again.“It’s hard for me to say it, to imagine that we’re the national champions,” coach Mike Krzyzewski told the crowd.Maybe, but there’s no doubting that the “Big Three” made it all possible.They had to.The Blue Devils (35-5) relied on them so heavily all season that there were moments during the championship game when it seemed they might crumble under the weight of their teammates.The Singler-Scheyer-Smith trio, the nation’s most productive threesome, entered averaging 53.4 points per game and had scored 69 percent of the Blue Devils’ points this season.So it was no surprise that Duke went to its “Big Three” down the stretch.With less than 5 minutes left and the Blue Devils leading by one, the ball was inbounded to Scheyer.He swung it to Smith, who found Singler cutting to the left wing and passed to the junior sharpshooter.His jumper swished through to make it 58-55 with 4:46 left.The Blue Devils scored three more points the rest of the way, all on free throws.Duke’s bench went scoreless against Butler, and the guys who do the dirty work — Zoubek and forward Lance Thomas — struggled inside.The Bulldogs had outrebounded the Blue Devils by seven at halftime and threatened to become the first team in the tournament to hold a rebounding edge against the biggest team in Coach K’s three decades in Durham.The Blue Devils eventually eked out a 37-35 edge on the boards — perhaps none bigger than the one Zoubek grabbed after Hayward’s forced fall-away jumper in the final seconds.That, and Hayward’s last-gasp miss, helped put these Blue Devils in the elite company of players who hung title banners at Cameron Indoor Stadium: Laettner, Hurley, Hill, Battier.When it was finally over, the Cameron Crazies who made the trip to Hoosier Country broke out the “Four! Four! Four!” chant they usually save to taunt foul-prone opponents.But this time they weren’t counting whistles.They were counting titles, and they’re only one behind top rival North Carolina, which claimed its fifth tournament crown last year.Duke fans chanted “One more year” toward Singler, who hasn’t yet decided whether he will return for his senior season.And when Coach K finally clipped the final piece of championship net, he kissed it and held it aloft for the Duke fans to savor.“I love this team and it’s our last day together, and what a way to celebrate our last day together,” Krzyzewski said.
(10/04/07 4:00am)
Pearl Jam front man Eddie Vedder is no stranger to movie soundtracks, especially soundtracks for Sean Penn movies. Considering Vedder's past musical contributions to "Dead Man Walking" and "I Am Sam," in addition to him being an avid, eco-conscious naturalist, Penn's selection of Vedder to compose music for his film version of Jon Krakauer's novel "Into the Wild" seemed like a fitting choice.\nNot too much of a departure for Vedder, Into the Wild has plenty of ambient sounds that exude visions of a person taking a trip to a natural outdoor setting, especially for listeners familiar with Krakauer's book. The album's opener "Setting Forth," with its vibrant guitar-strumming and Vedder wailing in the chorus about "setting forth in the universe," has a steady beat that paints a good picture of Chris McCandless -- whose story the movie is based on -- hitchhiking his way to Alaska. \nThe banjo-plucking of "No Ceiling" seems to be a woodsman's ode to embarking on a journey into a natural environment. The soft, arpeggiated notes of "Long Nights" paint a tranquil nighttime setting of reflection and introspection. By the time the listener gets to the robust instrumental "Tuolumne," they can almost see visions of wooded hills and rolling brooks.\nThese songs aren't bad music per se, but they go by quickly without leaving much of an impression. The album's strongest tracks, the single "Hard Sun" and the quietly catchy "Society" ironically enough are songs not penned by Vedder. \nOverall, Into the Wild feels like an album written for a movie. The music is colorful and ambient. The songs are short (seven of the 11 clock in at about two-and-a-half minutes or less) and fitting to hang in the background of movie scenes. But without the visual aid of watching the film, the songs don't hold up as well. They serve as music meant for a movie, not for grabbing listeners.
(03/05/07 5:00am)
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Blood poured from his nose and onto his lip, chin and the court. The latest bruised face of college basketball’s nastiest rivalry belongs to North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough.\n“Just a little bump and bruise,” teammate Reyshawn Terry said. “Nothing that a little ice can’t handle.”\nHansbrough had 26 points and 17 rebounds before suffering an injury that looked worse than it really was in the closing seconds of the No. 8 Tar Heels’ 86-72 win against 14th-ranked Duke on Sunday, clinching the top seed in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.\nTerry added 15 points in his final home game for the Tar Heels (25-6, 11-5), who swept the regular-season series with the Blue Devils for the first time in 11 years, avoided their first three-game slide under coach Roy Williams and gave the homespun coach his 100th victory at his alma mater.\nBut perhaps the lasting image of the intense rivalry is Hansbrough’s bloodstained face, a scary-looking picture that evoked memories of center Eric Montross’ bleeding, shaven head after he took an elbow in 1992. The latest injury came with 14.5 seconds left, when Hansbrough leaped for a layup. After the ball left his hand, he was struck in the face by Gerald Henderson’s right elbow.\n“He got our guys in the air, and I came down on him,” Henderson said. “It’s unfortunate that it turned out like it did, but I wasn’t trying to hurt the kid or anything. It just turned worse than it was.”\nHansbrough crumpled to the ground, his nose bleeding onto the floor and down his face, before he jumped to his feet menacingly and had to be restrained from Duke’s players while he was taken to the locker room. The officials reviewed the play and ejected Henderson, then later said in a joint statement that under NCAA rules he would be suspended for one game.\nAfter the game, Hansbrough had cotton in his nose while he watched his teammates cut down the Dean Smith Center nets. Williams said team doctors told him the center’s nose was not broken, and though Hansbrough didn’t speak to reporters after the game, point guard Bobby Frasor said the player nicknamed “Psycho T” for his relentless focus had calmed down and was laughing about the near-confrontation.\n“He said, ‘Did you see me get up?’” Frasor said.\nGreg Paulus had 21 points before fouling out, and Henderson finished with 16 for the Blue Devils (22-9, 8-8).\nTy Lawson scored 12 points and Brandan Wright finished with 10 for the Tar Heels, who took control early with a hot start before a fired-up Senior Day crowd, dodged Duke’s second-half rally and pulled away late for their fourth win in their last five meetings with the Blue Devils.\nNorth Carolina led comfortably for most of the way before Duke made things interesting midway through the second half, closing to 50-48 on Paulus’ baseline jumper with 12:50 left.\nThe Blue Devils then forced Frasor to miss and had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead, but Marcus Ginyard intercepted Paulus’ pass to the interior.\nGinyard then started the fast break, and it led to a three-point play by Hansbrough. That play started the game-clinching 18-4 run, capped by Hansbrough’s free throw that made it 68-52 with 5:14 left.\nThat led to a win that, coupled with Virginia Tech’s loss to Clemson, gave North Carolina the top seed and a first-round bye in the ACC tournament that begins Thursday in Tampa, Fla. Had the Tar Heels lost, they would have been the No. 5 seed and would have had to win four games in four days to claim their first league tournament crown since 1998.
(08/31/06 4:01am)
Here's a bargain for a frustrated Duke University football fan: For $50, you can own the Web site where the name says it all -- FireTedRoof.com.\nThat's a steal. Similar sites calling for the dismissals of Bill Callahan at University ofNebraska or Sylvester Croom at Mississippi State University are five times as expensive.\nThe good news for the beleaguered Blue Devils coach? Nobody has bought it yet.\n"I guess that's a milestone, huh?" Roof said with a laugh.\nBut for most coaches, job security is no joke. With another season kicking off, an online cottage industry has emerged with Internet vendors copying football's most famous anti-coach Web site -- fireronzook.com.\n"Bobby Bowden said it every year -- if you don't have thick skin, in this day and age, you need to get out of coaching," North Carolina State University coach and admitted technophobe Chuck Amato said.\nOf course, technology has made it easier to blow off steam.\nGripe sessions formerly reserved for bars and barbershops now also take place anonymously in cyberspace, where, with a few keystrokes and a credit card, a disgruntled fan can set up a Web site and launch a grassroots campaign to have a coach canned.\nAnd now, one mysterious fan is trying to cash in on fans' frustrations.\nHe obtained the rights to nearly 30 fire-the-coach Web pages over the years and under the Redshirted.com banner is selling them for up to $250 apiece.\nSites naming Callahan, Croom and Roof are for sale there and so are those featuring Iowa's Kirk Ferentz, West Virginia's Rich Rodriguez and, inexplicably, Gerry DiNardo, who two years ago was fired by Indiana and now works as an analyst for ESPN.\nThe owner of Redshirted, in an e-mail to The Associated Press, would identify himself only as a technology worker from Austin, Texas, named Doug.\nHe calls the project an experiment in sports sociology and psychology and says he was surprised that schools or even the coaches themselves didn't think to secure those dot-coms first and prevent what he called "a future PR nightmare."\n"I'm not suggesting that (Nebraska officials) buying 'FireBillCallahan.com' would prevent disgruntled Nebraska fans from finding an outlet on the Internet to voice their opinions," he wrote. "It would, however, be an easy way to create an obstacle for a large segment of the public."\nHis Web site says factors which affect the price are a team's record, the size and veracity of its fan base, the expectations for success and any other team controversy.\nThe first site he sold was a fitting one -- FireUrbanMeyer.com.\nMeyer was hired at Florida to replace Ron Zook, the coach whose contentious hiring gave momentum to this whole dot-com phenomenon.\nSome Gator fans became so angry with Zook's 2002 hiring to replace Steve Spurrier that they created a Web site dedicated to the coach's dismissal. Fireronzook.com was born, and so was a new way for fans to vent their frustrations.\nTwo years later, those fans got what they wanted. Zook was fired soon after an embarrassing loss at Mississippi State but well after the coach was forever linked with the infamous Web site.\n"It's kind of ridiculous in a way that people get their kicks out of doing something like that," Zook said. "But I think coaches understand it's kind of the nature of the business. They don't give it a lot of credence. If you're going to let that bother you, you're not going to be long in this profession."\nSome fans go on the counteroffensive, snatching up fire-the-coach sites to protect them from others who want him gone.\nWilliam Nielson was a sophomore at Georgia four years ago when he bought FireMarkRicht.com for $20 to keep some other angry fan from copying the Zook site.\nThe only text on the site calls Richt the best thing to happen to Georgia football since Herschel Walker, and Nielson, a second-year law student at Loyola University in New Orleans, has no plans to develop it further.\n"I didn't even think anyone would read it. ... The amazing thing was how many e-mails I would get," Nielson said. "I used to get death threats from people, and it's a pro-Georgia site."\nRedshirted suggests other ways to electronically sabotage an opponent.\nWhat's to stop a zealous fan from creating a fire-the-opposing-coach Web site to crank up the pressure on a rival? Imagine a UCLA alum turning the heat up on the University of Southern California with a "Fire Pete Carroll" page or a University of Alabama grad viciously calling for Tommy Tuberville's job at Auburn University.\nOr how about this: If a fan thinks a rival has an incompetent coach, he could obtain the fire-the-coach Web site and urge that school to give him a lifetime contract.\n"For the price of a ticket to just a single game, you can influence the football world in ways you never thought possible," Redshirted's site declares.\nOr at least you can think you're influencing the football world.\nAs for Zook, he can laugh about his situation now.\nHe admitted taking some good-natured teasing from fellow coaches during his first year in Gainesville. Several NFL coaches visited to evaluate quarterback Rex Grossman, and Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher mentioned the infamous Web site.\n"He said, 'Zooker, you really screwed this profession up,'" Zook said. "I said, 'What are you talking about?' And he said, 'Well, now it's Fire Bill Cowher, Fire Jim Haslett, Fire Ron Zook.'\n"I said, 'Yeah, you know, I started that,'" Zook said.
(03/24/06 5:00am)
JACKSON, Miss. -- Mississippi's first NFL exhibition game in a decade will feature some significant ties to the Magnolia State.\nOn one sideline, a Manning. On the other, a player known here simply as Deuce.\nWhen the New Orleans Saints travel nearly 200 miles north to Jackson to play the Indianapolis Colts on Aug. 26, the focus will be on the two stars with the strongest local connections -- Peyton Manning and Deuce McAllister.\nThe Colts quarterback's father, Archie Manning, grew up in tiny Drew, Miss., and starred at the University of Mississippi before becoming the most famous player in Saints history. Peyton's younger brother, Eli, was a Heisman Trophy finalist at Ole Miss in 2003.\n"What I'm looking forward to finding out is which sideline Archie's going to be on," Saints coach Sean Payton quipped Thursday at a news conference announcing the game.\nMcAllister, a Lena native, starred at running back for Ole Miss before the Saints selected him in the first round of the 2001 NFL draft. He owns a car dealership in Jackson.\nAlso, receiver Joe Horn played at Itawamba Community College in Fulton and backup running back Fred McAfee is from Division III Mississippi College.\nThose connections, plus the state's close relationship with New Orleans, made Jackson an ideal choice to host the Saints' third game of the preseason, owner Tom Benson said.\nEarlier Thursday, the Saints announced they would play a Monday night exhibition game against the Dallas Cowboys on Aug. 21 in Shreveport, La., five days before the game in Jackson. Other cities considered were Lafayette, La., and Mobile, Ala.\n"Jackson, since it represented Mississippi, it represented what we needed to do in getting the whole state of Mississippi ... to be in our corner," Benson said.\nThe owner repeatedly referred to his team as the "Gulf South Saints" because he said the team plays for the multistate region -- not just New Orleans.\nThe players with Mississippi ties "really, sincerely feel and want to help with rebuilding this whole region, the whole Gulf South," Benson said.\n"We here in Mississippi and in Louisiana, the whole Gulf South, are committed," Benson added. "We can't just let the people in Biloxi or New Orleans commit. We all have to commit to make this thing better than it ever was before."\nBenson said the idea to play an exhibition game in Jackson struck last fall. It picked up momentum last month when Benson and NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue met with Gov. Haley Barbour in Jackson to thank him for his state's support after Hurricane Katrina.\nThe Saints scrimmaged in Jackson last August weeks before Katrina ravaged the region. When the killer storm struck, the team fled to San Antonio and split its home games between the Alamodome and Baton Rouge.\n"We've all been through this hurricane thing, and we know where sports is with regard to loss of life, loss of homes," Archie Manning said. "But 35 years ago, I left this great state and went to New Orleans and have been involved with the Saints for that period of time.\n"I can sincerely tell you that the Saints are an emotional part of, not only New Orleans, but the Gulf South," he added.