CHICAGO (AP) The Chicago Cubs and outfielder Jon Jay have agreed to an $8 million, one-year contract, likely signaling the end of Dexter Fowler’s time with the World Series champions.
Jay batted .291 with two homers and 26 RBIs in 90 games with San Diego last season. He made his major league debut with St. Louis in 2010 and is a .287 hitter in…
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) Grayson Allen keeps putting up huge numbers for No. 5 Duke. Imagine how much more impressive they might be if he were healthy enough to practice.
Allen scored 24 points, Luke Kennard added 20 and the Blue Devils beat Michigan State 78-69 on Tuesday night in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
Allen has been dealing with lingering foot injuries for the past two weeks, with coach Mike Krzyzewski saying he hurt his toe before the Penn State game on Nov. 19 and limped through the Rhode Island game the next day. He checked out of the Appalachian State game early three days ago when he reinjured the toe.
”Grayson does not practice one second,” Krzyzewski said. ”So when he’s out on that court, it’s a gutty performance. … That kid has played unbelievably, and he’s limping.”
Amile Jefferson had 17 points and 13 rebounds while freshman Frank Jackson finished with 11 points and keyed a timely 11-0 run for the Blue Devils (7-1), who won their fourth straight despite shooting just 27 percent from 3-point range.
Eron Harris scored 14 points for Michigan State (4-4). Playing their first game as an unranked team since March 2015, the Spartans had 18 turnovers – ”Too much AAU ball, not enough college ball,” coach Tom Izzo said. Star freshman Miles Bridges was held to 11 points – six fewer than his team-leading average – on 4-of-13 shooting.
”I didn’t think Miles played as hard as he’s been playing,” Izzo said. ”He’d been playing hard, and just got caught…
Just when it looked like Shreveport’s Camping World Independence Bowl would be forced to enlist a free agent, Vanderbilt came to the rescue.
The Commodores’ sizable upset victory against Tennessee on Saturday helped the Southeastern Conference secure enough bowl-eligible teams to fulfill its obligation to the Dec. 26 game at Independence Stadium.
Now, I-Bowl officials will wait to see how the selection process shakes down in both the SEC and ACC. The next several days will be nerve-racking and exciting.
“It’s a little bit of everything,” I-Bowl executive director Missy Setters said. “You spend your week considering a lot of what-ifs.”
The Independence Bowl has the ninth SEC selection after the College Football Playoff bowl system (two semifinal bowls, four access bowls).
The SEC wound up with 11 automatic qualifiers (at least six wins) and will get just two schools (Alabama and either Florida or Auburn) in the CFP system. Therefore, the I-Bowl is looking at the final bowl-eligible team.
The likely candidates are Vanderbilt and South Carolina — the only two SEC squads…
Roush Fenway Racing will cut from three to two Cup teams in 2017 and loan driver Chris Buescher to JTG Daugherty Racing, which will expand to a two-car operation next season.
The move allows Roush Fenway to keep Buescher under contract while trying to revitalize its performance for an organization whose proud history includes putting five drivers into the Chase in 2005, two Cup championships and 135 Cup victories. Winless the past two seasons, Roush Fenway put no drivers in the top 20 in the 2016 standings — Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished 21st in the points, while Trevor Bayne was 22nd and the recently released Greg Biffle was 23rd.
Stenhouse and Bayne remain as Roush Fenway’s full-time Cup drivers. The team’s charter (NASCAR’s version of a franchise) for what was Biffle’s No. 16 car will be leased to JTG Daugherty Racing for Buescher in 2017. Stenhouse will have a new crew chief in 2017, as former Biffle crew chief Brian Pattie will replace Nick Sandler, who will head the Roush Fenway engineering department.
“We have been able to shore up our plans for 2017 and we feel that this will continue to move us…
J.R. Smith is the best. Let me just reiterate that. He’s the best.
During Tuesday’s game against the Bucks, Smith went over to say hi to Jason Terry. He gave Terry a quick…
The outcome of the Ohio State-Michigan showdown had a significant impact on the College Football Playoff picture.
The overtime loss by the Wolverines was Washington’s gain as the Huskies moved into the No. 4 spot in the playoff committee’s rankings Tuesday.
Alabama continues its stranglehold on the top has it has for each of the last five weeks. Following the Tide are Ohio State and Clemson. The Wolverines, previously in the third spot, dropped to fifth
Rounding out the top 10 are Wisconsin, Penn State, Colorado, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
The last weekend of the season should clarify things. Washington and Colorado will meet in…
MILWAUKEE – Following a blowout loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday in a game in which J.R. Smith allowed a wide-open dunk because he was busy greeting a Bucks player on the sidelines while the ball was in play, the Cleveland Cavaliers guard pleaded ignorance when asked about the mistake.
“I wasn’t even paying attention,” Smith said of his hug with Jason Terry with 2:57 remaining in the second quarter that left Tony Snell with an uncontested path to the basket. “I don’t even remember that.”
The basket gave Milwaukee a 53-50 lead en route to its eventual 118-101 victory, snapping a four-game win streak for the now 13-3 Cavs.
The blunder certainly wasn’t the main reason Cleveland lost – it can blame its season-high 20 turnovers leading to 22 Milwaukee points and the 68 points in the paint it gave up for that – yet Smith maintained his charade of selective amnesia nonetheless.
“What play are you talking about?” Smith said when a reporter continued to ask him about the clip that had already gone viral before the game even ended.
When the reporter described the play in detail, Smith replied, “I didn’t even know I was in the game. My bad.”
During the interview Smith wore a ski mask style cover over his face, only making his answers more bizarre.
“It’s my alter ego,” Smith said. “It’s a gift from Ohio State, so I figure why not?”
Smith got the hood he during the Cavs’ trip to the Ohio State-Michigan football game over the weekend.
He was then asked if his alter ego had a name.
“Yeah,” he said.
What is it?
“I can’t tell you,” Smith said as LeBron James chuckled as he got dressed at the locker next to him, causing Smith to laugh as well.
Cavs coach Tyronn Lue was in a far less cheery mood after what was, unmistakably, his team’s worst loss of the season.
“I just didn’t like that we didn’t match their physicality,” Lue said after Cleveland saw an early 14-point lead turn into a double-digit defeat. “I…
LAS VEGAS — In a matter of months, former NHL player Murray Craven has gone from being the Montana-based golfing buddy of Bill Foley to calling Foley, the owner of the NHL’s newest expansion team, his boss. The 52-year-old Craven — who played 1,071 games for the Detroit Red Wings, Philadelphia Flyers, Hartford Whalers, Vancouver Canucks, Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks, and collected 759 points along the way — was a semi-retired hockey dad and businessman before he re-entered the game with a bang. Now, he oversees the building of a brand-new practice facility for the newly-minted Vegas Golden Knights, as well as getting his first taste of being an NHL scout.
I had sat down with Craven — who was officially named the 31st NHL franchise’s senior vice president in August — recently to talk about how he’s helping prepare the Golden Knights for their inaugural season next fall.
ESPN.com: How did you end up Montana?
Craven: I’m from Medicine Hat [Alberta]. Whitefish, Montana, was our vacation place. It’s a ski resort. And it’s beautiful. Skiing in the winter time. Great golfing and boating in the summer.
ESPN.com: How did you end up meeting Bill Foley?
Craven: Golfing. We belong to the same golf course there.
ESPN.com: Who’s better?
Craven: Me.
ESPN.com: How many strokes do you have to give him?
Craven: It’s kind of not fair. I have to give him quite a few now. He owns his own golf courses, though. He gets up there with the greens keeper and has the tees moved up to wherever it’s best for him. It’s not a fair fight anymore.
Before Murray Craven was our Senior Vice President, he was a @tigershockey rookie. #fbf #vegasishockey #isitoctober2017yet pic.twitter.com/ylJKFp6gd0
— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) October 22, 2016
ESPN.com: Do you remember the moment that Foley said, “I’m thinking of putting an NHL team in Las Vegas. What did you think?”
Craven: I remember it distinctly. He pulled up in his boat at my dock. We were playing golf later that day. We chatted about golf and then, as he was pushing off, he said, “Oh, and by the way, I think I’m going to try and put a team in Las Vegas.” And I said, “You are out of your mind. They will never let you do it.” As I walked away, I said to myself, “I think he’s serious about this.”
At that point it was just an idea, even for him. And it gained momentum and slowly picked up speed — now we’re sitting here in Las Vegas.
ESPN.com: At what point did you go from providing advice as a friend and former player to being part of team?
Craven: We never talked about it that much, mostly because there was so much uncertainty about the whole thing. Everyone thinks this was kind of baked in the cake, that we were getting this thing a long, long time ago. It really wasn’t like that. It was…
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Kemba Walker and Jeremy Lamb scored 21 points apiece, and the Charlotte Hornets built an early lead on the way to a 104-85 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday night.
Walker and Lamb were a combined 14 of 25 from the field, including 7 for 13 on 3-point attempts. The rest of the Hornets were 2 of 13 from outside the arc.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist had 14 points and Frank Kaminsky added 12 for the Hornets, who won their second straight after a four-game losing streak. Lamb grabbed nine rebounds.
Marc Gasol led Memphis with 19 points and eight rebounds. Mike Conley had 15 points before leaving in the third quarter with a lower back injury.
The Grizzlies have lost two of three.
The largest scoring discrepancy in the game was at the free throw line where the Hornets, who missed three of their first four, ended the game converting 23 of 31. Meanwhile, Memphis was 6 of 13, a difference that agitated the Grizzlies much of the night.
Charlotte, which already led by 19 points in the first half, extended the lead in the third as Memphis became unhinged complaining about calls and relying — mostly unsuccessfully — on 3-pointers to try to get back in the game.
Meanwhile, the Hornets steadily built the advantage with balanced scoring. Conley went to the locker room with an injury in the third quarter, leading…
HOUSTON (AP) — Brock Osweiler was supposed to be the man to end Houston’s years of quarterback woes. Instead, he’s thrown more interceptions (13) than touchdowns (12) and has often failed to move the offense.
So now the question for the Texans (6-5) is if Osweiler can improve and help Houston secure a playoff berth? Osweiler threw three interceptions on Sunday against the Chargers as Houston lost for the second straight week. Despite their recent tough stretch the Texans remain one-half game ahead of Tennessee in the AFC South.
Coach Bill O’Brien scoffed at the notion of benching Osweiler on Sunday and refused to criticize his quarterback on Monday. He also lamented that quarterbacks and head coaches take the brunt of the criticism when teams are struggling.
“Could Brock have done some things better? Absolutely,” O’Brien said about Sunday. “Could the offensive line have played better? Could I have coached better? Absolutely. It’s a team sport. Brock is our starting quarterback and that’s the way it is.”
He wasn’t interested in breaking down the play of his quarterback, snapping when asked areas in which Osweiler’s made progress and places he needs to improve.
“I’m not going to dissect … each player (and) what areas they need to do a better job in,” he said. “I mean, we could be here all day. Every player on our team — we have a great locker room. They’re all looking to improve in any way that they can.”
Though O’Brien blamed Houston’s offensive…