PHOENIX — Almost every time he touches the ball, Bradley Beal does something special. His latest bit of basketball wizardry moved Florida a win away from the Final Four and set up Billy Donovan with a perfectly scripted matchup against his old coach and boss, Rick Pitino.
Beal, the freshman with NBA written all over him, scored 21 points on 8-for-10 shooting Thursday night to help the Gators to a 68-58 victory over Marquette.
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• Woods and Rose start well at Arnold Palmer Invitational
• Jason Dufner and Charlie Wi set the pace at six-under-par
Tiger Woods and Justin Rose finished three strokes off the lead on the first day of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill on Thursday.
The American Jason Dufner and the Korean Charlie Wi were the pace-setters with six-under-par rounds of 66.
Woods, recovered from the ankle injury which led to him pulling out of his last PGA Tour event a fortnight ago, is a six-time winner of the title.
With his only dropped shot coming as a result of three-putting the short 17th, Woods will draw a lot of confidence from a round that was four strokes better than that of Phil Mickelson.
“For some reason the course just fits my eye,” he said. “I was just solid all day – I drove the ball well, hit my irons decent and putted all right.
“I had two three-putts [one for par on the long 4th], but also made a couple of bombs out there.
“I took something off most of my drives. I didn’t really feel great with my tee shots, but I was getting the ball in play – and the ball is flying forever. Normal drives go about 310 [yards] or something like that.
“I’m in a position where I can hit it again. That’s something that’s been missing for a while and it’s all the work that Sean [his coach Sean Foley] and I have put together.”
Woods topped the leaderboard when he birdied three of his first six holes, reaching the green in two at both the 12th and 16th and making a 32-foot putt on the 15th.
Then came the setback at the 17th just before Anthony Kim had a hole-in-one there, but his only deviation from par on the front nine was an 18-foot birdie putt at the 6th.
Rose, winner of the Cadillac Championship in Miami on the same day that Woods quit after 11 holes, is trying to make it four European victories in a row in the United States. He was one over after five, but sank a 22-foot putt on the 15th and then had three more birdies in four holes from the fourth.
If he can win again Rose would go to a career-high fourth in the world behind Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood.
Rose’s playing partner Mickelson had double bogeys on the 18th and 3rd, but finished with three birdies in six holes to repair some of the damage.
Round in 71 playing with Woods was Ernie Els, who needs a top-three finish to have a chance of climbing into the world top 50 in time for the Masters.
Els, who blew last week’s Transitions Championship with two closing bogeys, started with 10 successive pars, then had a hat-trick of birdies to move into contention. Going in the water on the 555-yard 6th led to a six, he dropped another shot at the 8th and then on the last missed a four-foot birdie chance to bring back memories of his sad finish on Sunday.
The increased height in ball flight was recognisable almost instantly, but personally the flight for me was a bit too high and at times took off a bit of distance, while there was a tendency to hang the ball out to the right.
Think about the actual query, Individuals occupy Golf for a number of factors. Exploring the activity along with inexperienced attention, “Are Golf lessons Well worth the Cost?Inch It does not appear to be it's all regulated which challenging. The aim of the game is to buy the small golf ball in to the pit along with because couple of efforts as you possibly can. This particular appears like a comparatively simple objective then one running out of energy accomplish by themselves.
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — Brittney Griner took a pass from a teammate, stepped toward the basket, stretched out her right arm and slammed the ball through.
Then the Baylor star reacted in typically modest fashion.
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It’s time for the Devil Ball Power Rankings, our weekly look at who’s up and who’s down in the world of golf. Your panelists are an esteemed group of the world’s greatest golf journalists … or so our mothers tell us. Devil Ball Golf’s Jay Busbee and Jonathan Wall, CBS Sports/Eye on Golf’s Shane Bacon , and Golf Channel/Golf Talk Central’s Ryan Ballengee bring you these, our rankings. Enjoy.
T1. Rory McIlroy. All of a sudden, Rory’s got competition for the top spot. You know how to settle this, right? Pool cues and trash can lids. (Two first-place votes.) Last week: 1.
T1. Luke Donald. Luke needs a little something to fire him up. You know, like Luke Skywalker. Maybe the revelation that his father is a megalomaniac dictator would do it. ‘Cause the guy’s way too sweet now. Last week: T3.
3. Justin Rose. He followed up his WGC win with a T29 at the Transitions. Still, he’s knocking on the door of greatness. Not very loud yet, but still. Last week: 2.
4. Lee Westwood. Three touranments on Tour, two solo fourth-place finishes. Time is now, Lee. Last week: T3.
5. Phil Mickelson. When Phil is needling Tiger Woods, you know that the golf world is turned upside down. This is the world we live in now. Last week: 5.
6. Steve Stricker. He didn’t play last week but somehow jumped up three spots. Sometimes the best thing you can do to advance is just stand still. Last week: 9.
7. Hunter Mahan. The match-play winner didn’t tear it up at Doral and hasn’t played since, but that’s fine. Last week: 6.
8. Charl Schwartzel. Missed the cut at the Transitions one week after tying for fourth at Doral. Golf is a funny game. Last week: 7.
9. Mark Wilson. The busiest man on this list has already played in nine events this year. Something’s working; he’s fourth in FedEx points. Last week: NR.
10. Martin Laird. Solid start to the season. But if anybody else gets hot, he won’t be here for long. Last week: NR.
Also receiving votes : Johnson Wagner, Brandt Snedeker, Bubba Watson, John Huh, Martin Kaymer, Tiger Woods, Bill Haas, Bo Van Pelt.
All right, your turn. Thoughts on these rankings? Who belongs higher, who belongs lower? Have your say! Go!
Welcome to the new season of Teeing Off, where Devil Ball editor Jay Busbee and head writer Jonathan Wall take a day’s topic and smack it all over the course. Suggest a future topic by writing jay.busbee@yahoo.com , or hit us on Twitter at @jaybusbee and @jonathanrwall . Today, Mr. Wall is absolutely on fire about the PGA Tour’s new Q School plan.
Wall: This appears to be it, sir: After years of living with the same old seasonal schedule and player-development process, the PGA Tour appears to be on the verge of scrapping the entire system starting next year. I could go on a rant about this, but I won’t … at least not yet.
For now, let’s get into some of the details, including the decision to scrap Q-School, move the start of the season fall and go to a wraparound season, and make the Nationwide Tour the new pipeline for aspiring tour pros, thereby forcing up-and-coming college kids and European players to forget about their dream of obtaining a card the old-fashioned way. In my opinion, this is the equivalent to college football bypassing a play-in game and going to a 64-team playoff. I don’t know about you, but I think this idea is bound to fail.
Yani Tseng, from Taiwan, chips the ball onto the green during the second round of the LPGA Founders Cup golf tournament on Friday, March 16, 2012, in Phoenix.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Walter Offutt got a taste for what it was like to beat Michigan while he was at Ohio State. Clinching an upset win for Ohio over the Wolverines in the NCAA tournament is just a bit sweeter.
Offutt, who ended up at Ohio by way of Wright State, grabbed a loose ball, was fouled by Evan Smotrycz and sank both of his free throws with 6.8 seconds left to preserve Ohio’s 65-60 upset of Michigan on Friday night in the second round of the NCAA tournament’s Midwest Regional.
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Bruce Springsteen may have topped the Billboard charts this week with his new album Wrecking Ball — knocking Adele’s 21 out of the No. 1 spot after 23 nonconsecutive weeks — but chances are British boy band One Direction will debut at the top of the charts next week with their album Up All Night.
In case you haven’t heard, One Direction — comprised of Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne and Niall Horan — is currently taking over with teen girls across the U.S. falling for their British charms. The boy band was formed on the seventh series of the British singing competition “The X Factor,” after guest judge Nicole Scherzinger made a recommendation to Simon Cowell to put the five solo hopefuls together to compete in the competition as a group act.
Despite not winning “The X Factor,” One Direction quickly surged to the top of the charts in the UK. The band released their debut album Up All Night in November 2011, and it debuted at No. 2 on the UK charts, selling 138,600 in its first week. Up All Night went on to reach the top 10 in 15 other countries as well.
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It’s time for the Devil Ball Power Rankings, our weekly look at who’s up and who’s down in the world of golf. Your panelists are an esteemed group of the world’s greatest golf journalists … or so our mothers tell us. Devil Ball Golf’s Jay Busbee and Jonathan Wall, CBS Sports/Eye on Golf’s Shane Bacon , and Golf Channel/Golf Talk Central’s Ryan Ballengee bring you these, our rankings. Enjoy.
1. Rory McIlroy (4 first-place votes): Not a whole lot of doubt about RoMac’s status here at the top of the charts. Really, the only question is, how long will he stay here?
2. Justin Rose: Here’s a big difference between power rankings that track your current performance and the two-years-gone Official World Golf Rankings. Rose put a bow on a fine tournament at the WGC-Cadillac, and here he is.
T3. Lee Westwood: We’re coming around to the key part of the season for Mr. Westwood, the time when he has to actually step up and play big tournaments against real competition.
T3. Luke Donald: A bit of a slide, plus McIlroy’s rise, have bumped Donald down the ladder a bit. A major win in the next few months would go a long way toward restoring that pristine No. 1 rep, though.
5. Phil Mickelson: One win, one near-win and maybe, just maybe Phil is in line for another green jacket.
6. Hunter Mahan: Getting to be about time for the Golf Boy to make his move.
7. Charl Schwartzel: When he won the Masters, nobody really knew who he was. A year later, and … well, he hasn’t exactly taken the golf world by storm. But he’s got the game to grab a win at any time.
8. Bubba Watson: Surprisingly low ranking for Mr. Watson here, but if he can close a Sunday deal, he’ll be a lot higher. Anybody who drives the General Lee ought to motor up the rankings.
9. Steve Stricker: About time for Stricker to put together a decent run, isn’t it?
T10. Kyle Stanley: One of us (coughBaconcough) likes Stanley so much that one high ranking put him in the top 10. Does he deserve it? You make the call!
T10. Martin Kaymer: Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Come on, Martin! Remind us who won the PGA Championship when Dustin Johnson fumbled it away a couple years back!
Also receiving votes: Johnson Wagner, Tiger Woods, Mark Wilson, Bill Haas.
All right, your turn. Thoughts on these rankings? Who belongs higher, who belongs lower? Have your say! Go!
Welcome to the new season of Teeing Off, where Devil Ball editor Jay Busbee and head writer Jonathan Wall take a day’s topic and smack it all over the course. Suggest a future topic by writing jay.busbee@yahoo.com , or hit us on Twitter at @jaybusbee and @jonathanrwall . Today we touch the third rail of golf media: is Tiger Woods — gasp — overexposed?
Busbee: So Tiger Woods withdrew from the WGC Sunday, taking a cart from the 12th at Doral right to his car. And from there, things got weird: a full-fledged OJ Simpson-style low-speed blimp chase. Here’s my question: when is enough, enough? I know that we’re as guilty as anyone of hyping Tiger to the skies, but when we’re now viewing his departure from those same skies, at the expense of other players’ shots, has Woods mania gone too far?
Wall: Wait, so you’re telling me the blimp following Tiger Woods around at Doral wasn’t part of the weekly coverage? And here I thought tracking the guy’s every move was part of the plan. Honestly, nothing surprises me anymore when it come to Mr. Woods. Following the hydrant mishap in 2009, it seems like the entire world has a bead on him, so the fact that a blimp decided to follow him to his car and out of the parking lot doesn’t shock me. Heck, I’m still waiting for Perkins to sponsor a blimp that does nothing but sit over Tiger’s house and track his every move. I feel like we do that already. This is what happens when you’re the most talked about golfer on the planet, right?
With 20 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers hanging onto a one-point lead in a nip-and-tuck Sunday afternoon battle with their longtime nemeses, the Boston Celtics, just about everybody in the basketball-watching world was probably expecting Kobe Bryant to commandeer L.A.’s final possession. Just how good Kobe is in these late-game situations has become a favorite debate in some NBA-watching circles, with writers and fans tossing around numbers, quotes and opinions at a fever pitch seemingly every time the Lakers have the ball with the clock running down.
Some emphasize the fact that Bryant leads the NBA in fourth-quarter scoring and that polls of his peers have often identified him as the players’ pick for the league’s most respected closer. Others note that 23 other players this season have produced more “clutch” points than Bryant, that he’s shooting just 27.9 percent in such situations and that the Lakers as a team rank 23rd in the league in fourth-quarter efficiency .
The perception and momentum can swing not only game-to-game, but play-to-play — against the Detroit Pistons last Tuesday, Kobe coolly drained a 19-foot fadeaway at the buzzer to send the game to overtime (he’s clutch and a winner!), but then missed two 3-pointers late in the extra frame to give the Pistons the win (he’s bad in big moments and kills his team!).
Whatever your opinion on Kobe’s predilection toward hero ball , at this point, pretty much everyone expects to see it. Which is why, with the Lakers up 95-94 against Boston on Sunday, Bryant called an audible, according to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Times :
[...] he uttered four words the public hardly expects Bryant to say.
“Make me a decoy,” he said.
So on the Lakers’ final offensive possession of the game, leading by one, Bryant stood at the top of the key, while Metta World Peace threw an entry pass toward Andrew Bynum. The Lakers center backed into Boston forward Kevin Garnett. He picked up his dribble just as Paul Pierce cut down to double team. Then Bynum split both defenders and spun around to make a short right-handed hook.
The bucket gave the Lakers a three-point cushion that they’d hold onto with some stalwart defense during a frenetic final 15.5 seconds , sealing a 97-94 victory on Sunday. The combination of the Lakers win and the Los Angeles Clippers’ 97-93 loss to the Golden State Warriors later Sunday put Kobe and company back in the top spot in the Pacific Division.
Check out video of Kobe’s humble handiwork, plus more reaction to the deferral, after the jump.
