Legion of Angels News Archive

They are the NBA champions until otherwise noted, so let us begin with the Boston Celtics as the team to beat in the Eastern Conference.

Granted, there is no revelation there, not with the trio of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen back en masse, aging but presumably healthy and now with a better understanding of what it requires to win it all. Sure, they stumbled on the road in the playoffs during the first two rounds, but it also toughened them to dismantle the Detroit Pistons in the conference finals and the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals.

So considering what they accomplished with coach Doc Rivers, plus the presumed maturation of youngsters Rajon Rondo at point guard and Kendrick Perkins at center, the Celtics must begin as the favorites to repeat in the East when the regular season begins next week.

But they are not alone. The Philadelphia 76ers made the most dramatic offseason move in the conference by signing free agent All-Star forward Elton Brand, and considering how they finished last season, the Sixers become an instant factor. And even though the acquisition of point guard Mo Williams didn’t rock headlines coast-to-coast for LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, he does make them better with the Cavs still tasting the 2007 East title.

There are others who will contend, of course, including the ever-present Pistons, still on a streak of six consecutive trips to the conference finals, and the Orlando Magic with that monster in the middle — Dwight Howard — still getting better all the time. You might even throw the Toronto Raptors and Miami Heat in the mix, but it’s presuming an awful lot that Jermaine O’Neal remain healthy long enough to be the difference for the Raptors; and ditto for Dwyane Wade in Miami.

Nonetheless, that gives us at least seven teams that could make life miserable for the Celtics should they stumble. We’ll break it down 1-15, with a little explanation that should help you disagree even more fervently moving forward.

1. Boston Celtics

The Celtics exploded out of the gate last season and never looked back on their way to the top seed, then rode that home-court advantage to their first title in 22 years. Should they remain healthy, there’s no reason to believe they won’t be better this season. Age is creeping up on their terrific trio, but the depth and the confidence throughout the roster will help carry them to the best record in the conference again.

2. Detroit Pistons

For all of their failings to get through the conference finals and stumbling on the way there the past few years, the Pistons are still an elite team built around their backcourt of Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton, and it should be even better with Rodney Stuckey having a year under his belt. Will Stuckey and Jason Maxiell continue to improve? That may be up to rookie coach Michael Curry to figure out.

3. Philadelphia 76ers

The Sixers seemingly came out of nowhere to be a legit player in the East down the stretch. It earned coach Mo Cheeks respect and proved Andre Miller is still a high-level point guard, while Andre Iguodala and the other youngsters are growing up quickly. And now that Ed Stefanski stole free agent Elton Brand from the Clippers, they will become a factor in who wins the conference, if not the Atlantic.

4. Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cavs have too many issues to be serious challengers for the top seed, but with LeBron James, they are always a threat to win the conference title. This season, they’ll be even better with Mo Williams, a training camp with Wally Szczerbiak and healthy Daniel Gibson — all of a sudden the Cavs have some shooters. This may be their best group overall yet.

5. Orlando Magic

Nobody has a more offensively productive frontcourt than the Magic do with Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu, but the backcourt remains underwhelming. If Tony Battie could stay healthy, play power forward and allow Lewis to slip to a “3″ and Turkoglu to “2,” they would be much better. But those are huge ifs and their depth is still a problem.

6. Toronto Raptors

The Raptors are consistently one of those teams on the cusp, which probably explains why president Bryan Colangelo went out on a limb for Jermaine O’Neal, the former All-Star. If his legs are sound, they’ve got a chance to win the East with him next to Chris Bosh. Then again, Bosh has knee issues of his own. Jose Calderon is one of the best point guards nobody knows.

7. Chicago Bulls

It’s difficult to figure out what happened to the Bulls last season, other than they were turned upside down from contracts and the unhappiness of coach Scott Skiles. Well, there’s still Ben Gordon’s contract situation, but with Vinny Del Negro and veteran assistant coaches, they figure to be more consistent at both ends of the court, and certainly compete among those to get into the playoffs.

8. Atlanta Hawks

Conventional wisdom says the Hawks will ride the crest of taking the Celtics to seven games in the first round back to the playoffs. With Joe Johnson and Josh Smith, maturing Marvin Williams and Al Horford, plus a training camp with Mike Bibby, they should get there. Let’s see if the two-year extension signed by coach Mike Woodson helps them gain consistency.

9. Washington Wizards

Despite making the playoffs in each of the past four seasons, plus everyone returning for underrated coach Eddie Jordan, it’s hard to be sold on this injury-prone group. Who knows about Gilbert Arenas’ thrice-repaired left knee, Brendan Haywood’s wrist, Antawn Jamison’s right knee and anything else? They’re always injured, and that includes their incumbent tough guy Caron Butler. All things being equal, they’re in. Then again, all things are never equal.

10. Miami Heat

It’s hard to fathom a team with Dwyane Wade, Shawn Marion and top draft choice Michael Beasley not being in the playoffs, but rookie coach Eric Spoelstra will have his work cut out for him. Will Pat Riley deal Marion? More pressing is the health of Wade, who has missed 31 games in each of the past two seasons. He also missed 21 his rookie year. The acrobatics are killing his body.

11. Milwaukee Bucks

The Bucks are the sleeper in the bunch. Skiles always get his teams to overachieve his first year or two, and with the addition of Richard Jefferson and Luke Ridnour to Michael Redd and Andrew Bogut, they are certainly playoff contenders. Rookie Joe Alexander may help and GM John Hammond did plug in veteran depth. But the talent pool is still fragile on this club.

12. Indiana Pacers

Like the Bucks, the Pacers have the capability of slipping into the playoffs, with the underrated Danny Granger, Mike Dunleavy Jr. coming off his best NBA season, and Troy Murphy healthy and productive. But they lack power players and athleticism to go along with the running of T.J. Ford, Jarrett Jack and rookie Brandon Rush. Just who are they with coach Jim O’Brien?

13. New Jersey Nets

By mid-season it was apparent that president Rod Thorn was ready to rebuild again, so he dumped Jason Kidd and hopes Devin Harris can develop into the Eastern Conference version of Tony Parker. They are very young, and he’d also love to get rid of Vince Carter for some young talent. They’ll finish higher than this, but it’s just difficult to figure out where they’ll fit in.

14. New York Knicks

It’s almost impossible to get a handle on these mismatched players, bloated contracts and new coach in Mike D’Antoni. Foremost among the problems is Stephon Marbury, who stands out like a raspberry on the roster. If Donnie Walsh can somehow unload him and D’Antoni gets this wacky bunch to buy in, they could cause damage to somebody besides themselves for a change.

15. Charlotte Bobcats

Larry Brown is back, presumably for the last time as an NBA coach. L.B. in North Carolina with absentee president Michael Jordan make for strange bedfellows, not to mention this young team with little or no fan base. There is talent with Emeka Okafor, Ray Felton, Gerald Wallace and Sean May, but this is a bad franchise and that’s too much to overcome in a balanced East.

Source — FOX Sports

Lute Olson will step down immediately as head coach of the Arizona men’s basketball team, FOXSports.com has confirmed.

The news, which was initially reported by ESPN’s Dick Vitale, was confirmed by a source close to the program.

Olson has not officially informed the team yet. Associate coach Mike Dunlap, a former national championship-winning coach at Division II Metro State and an assistant with the Denver Nuggets, will take over on an interim basis.

It’s highly unlikely Dunlap will be named the head coach permanently until the end of the season at earliest, due to the debacle last season with Kevin O’Neill.

O’Neill had been hired as an assistant before last season, with the intention that he would take over for Olson when he retired. O’Neill was then pressed into interim head coaching duty when Olson took a leave of absence for personal reasons. When Olson decided to return to the program, a rift developed between the two and O’Neill was eventually let go.

Olson, 74, will retire 20 wins shy of 800 for his career. He won a national championship with Arizona in 1997.

Source — FOX Sports

He has until January to decide, but quarterback Colt McCoy says he’s already made up his mind to return to the University of Texas for his senior season.

“I’m going to play here for four years,” the junior, a favorite to win the 2008 Heisman Trophy, told the Sporting News. “I’ve been blessed to get to play here. Not very many people get to (start) here for four years, so what an opportunity.”

McCoy is having a big season, completing 81.2 percent of his passes for the top-ranked Longhorns and piling up 19 touchdown passes, but opinions vary widely on where he might be selected if he declares for the 2009 NFL Draft.

“He is not the premier NFL prospect you would expect,” one scout told the magazine. “He has an adequate arm to make most NFL throws but does not show the very strong arm to fit the ball into tight spots consistently in the NFL.”

Source — FOX Sports

New England quarterback Tom Brady has undergone two more procedures to clean out infection on his surgically repaired knee, the Boston Herald reported Thursday.

The newspaper said Brady is on a six-week course of intravenous antibiotics and will continue to have follow-up exams at the clinic in Los Angeles where he had the surgery.

Brady confirmed for the first time Saturday that he’d undergone two operations on his injured left knee. The Herald, citing an unnamed source familiar with his treatment, said he’s had two more since then because of infection.

If the infection is not brought under control, the Herald reports, the patellar tendon graft used to replace Brady’s anterior cruciate ligament could become compromised. If that happens, Brady could need to redo the surgery — likely delaying his rehabilitation.

New England Patriots spokesman Stacey James said Wednesday the team would let Brady comment on the status of his injury.

Brady was injured in the first quarter of the season opener on a hit by Kansas City Chiefs safety. He has been widely reported to have sustained a torn anterior cruciate ligament, but he and the team have not given specifics on the injury.

Source — FOX Sports

They play the same position, and play it similarly, but that doesn’t mean Daryll Clark and Terrelle Pryor are alike.

They aren’t.

That, the kid has done, directing Ohio State to five consecutive victories after a 35-3 smackdown at USC. It has not always been pretty, as it sometimes isn’t when a freshman takes control, but Pryor has committed only two turnovers and has proven every bit the double-threat he was billed, with 653 yards passing and 411 rushing so far.

Until Saturday at MSU, Pryor’s total offense had declined in each of his four previous starts. But he made the Spartans look hopeless, hapless and clueless with 116 passing yards and 72 rushing yards, accounting for a touchdown each way.

Not even close.

The quarterbacks who will start Saturday for third-ranked Penn State (8-0, 4-0) and No. 10 Ohio State (7-1, 4-0) followed dramatically different paths to this first-place showdown in the Big Ten, paths that began in the state of the teams they will oppose Saturday night in Ohio Stadium.

Clark, a junior from Youngstown, Ohio, couldn’t draw much more than a glance from OSU coming out of high school because of questionable skills and borderline grades that forced him to a prep school for a year before he could enroll at State College.

Pryor, a true freshman from Jeannette, Pa., has been Mr. All That since his junior year of high school and was so coveted by every major program that he kept them all waiting six weeks after National Signing Day before making up his mind.

Penn State coach Joe Paterno made a rare in-home visit to lure Pryor to Happy Valley, but not even the Legend’s charms could get Pryor to more than sniff at life as a Nittany Lion.

“Penn State isn’t the place for me,” Pryor said the day he declared for OSU.”It’s just not. I don’t like the area. It’s country-looking. I just don’t like that place.”

You’d think Pryor would be making nicey-nice now, running from that jab as adroitly as he did Michigan State defenders in the Buckeyes’ 45-7 blowout last weekend.

You’d think so, but you’d be wrong.

“I’m in Ohio now,” Pryor said Saturday, when he was really in East Lansing. “Jeannette is still my hometown, but this is where I’m at. I’m not at Penn State, I’m not in Pennsylvania. I’m not here to make Penn State happy; I’m here to make Ohio State happy.”

“Everyone thinks I’m overrated,” Pryor said afterward. “Wait and see. The time will come, and you’ll find out.”

Clark sat and watched Pryor’s recruitment with interest, wondering if he would even get the chance to show what he could do if the phenom showed up on campus.

As Pryor’s decision dragged on, more and more friends approached Clark’s father, asking if his son would transfer and try to play elsewhere in the two seasons he had left.

“That was frustrating to my dad, that was frustrating to me because people would go to my dad about that, and I really didn’t think that was fair,” Clark said.

He then weathered a competition with teammate Pat Devlin to win the job, finally getting his first start after four years of waiting.

Now Clark is in command of the Big Ten’s highest-scoring offense (45.4 ppg.), one that produces 482 yards per game, 160 yards more on average than Ohio State.

“I sat back on Sunday and reminisced on the start of everything,” Clark said. “My mind was blown away with that. We’re doing so well and I’ve been through a lot of things, but I remained patient and quiet through everything…I didn’t really know what to expect. I was a nervous wreck as the season was approaching. I didn’t know what was going to happen.”

As far as Saturday, he knows exactly what to expect.

“It’s everything you dream of when you come to a Big Ten school and you’re from Ohio,” Clark said. “You’re going against a coach that is from your hometown, Jim Tressel, a really good guy. And you’re going down into the Horseshoe, and that’s one of the most hostile places to play in.”

It certainly has been for Penn State, which is 0-7 in Ohio Stadium since joining the Big Ten in 1993.

The Lions have scored just five touchdowns in those seven games, while Ohio State’s defense and special teams alone have scored eight TDs.

Paterno’s worst loss in a 43-year career came at OSU in 2000 (45-6), and his teams have been beaten by an average of 21 points in their last seven trips to Columbus.

Clark gets the chance to end that frustration, while Pryor has an opportunity to extend it.

“We got Daryll; they got Terrelle,” Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Bradley said. “Everybody’s happy.”

Around the Big Ten

Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio is sticking with senior Brian Hoyer at quarterback entering a Saturday game at Michigan (2-5, 1-2), despite Hoyer’s woeful performance in a 45-7 loss to Ohio State. Backup Kirk Cousins directed MSU (6-2, 3-1) to its only touchdown and completed his first 10 passes once Hoyer departed because of a hard tackle by OSU linebacker James Laurinaitis. Medical exams have ruled out a concussion, so Dantonio says, “Brian Hoyer is still our quarterback.”

Purdue (2-5, 0-3) coach Joe Tiller doesn’t have much choice at quarterback now that backup Joey Elliott is likely out for the year with a shoulder separation. Elliott relieved an ineffective Curtis Painter for the second time in three games Saturday at Northwestern. Painter’s senior season has been a major disappointment, given his six touchdown passes and nine interceptions. Last season, he threw for 29 TDs, with only 11 interceptions. Sophomore Justin Siler, a running back who played QB in high school, will be Painter’s backup Saturday against visiting Minnesota (6-1, 2-1).

Everyone wondered how Illinois (4-3, 2-2) would replace Big Ten MVP Rashard Mendenhall at tailback. Turns out, the guy the Illini miss most is middle linebacker J Leman. Illinois enters a Saturday game at Wisconsin (3-4, 0-4) ranked second in the league in rushing (204.9 ypg), but it’s ninth in rushing defense (150.9 ypg). That’s a killer, since Illinois can’t get the ball back for its offense and leaves that unit no margin for error when it does have possession.

Indiana (2-5, 0-4) should have quarterback Kellen Lewis back from a sprained ankle for Northwestern’s (6-1, 2-1) visit to Memorial Stadium. Maybe that will spark an IU offense that went 3-of-16 on third down — with two of the conversions via penalty — in a 55-13 loss to Illinois. IU must win four of its last five to claim a second straight bowl bid.

Michigan faces the same challenge, winning four of its final five, to sustain a 33-year bowl streak. Three of those games are on the road, where the Wolverines are 0-2 so far, and the others are 6-2 Michigan State this week and 6-1 Northwestern on Nov. 15. Quarterback Steven Threat should be ready to start Saturday against MSU after missing several crucial series in the 46-17 loss at Penn State when his triceps tightened to the point where he could not grip the football.

Source — FOX Sports