Hook’em: Longhorn-themed bar in Pakistan shows Texas’ global appeal

The University of Texas has always claimed to be a global brand and nothing says global like the opening of a Longhorns-themed bar in Karachi, Pakistan.

Shanil Ali, a 25-year-old Texas alum and native of Karachi, opened the "Longhorn Sports Bar" as an homage to his alma mater and as a place for Longhorn fans in Pakistan (which could be in the 10s) to go watch football and basketball games and enjoy the Tex-Mex dishes they had while in Austin.

"I attended UT-Austin and I became a fan of their basketball and American football team," Ali told Pakistani newspaper, The Express Tribune. "After a while, I became a typical 'Longhorn' and wanted to share their lifestyle and their love for sports."

The appeal of a sports bar in Pakistan isn't that far-fetched. Texas boasts students from all over the world, who often move back to their native countries to live and work. It's no different than a UT grad in upstate New York wanting a place to catch the game with his Longhorn brethren.

While the sports bar doubles as a nightclub, it embraces Texas' burnt orange and white colors in fluorescent lights. The Longhorn logo is displayed prominently while Ali also champions his native sports of soccer and cricket.

The menu is an eclectic mix of Tex-Mex favorites and tradition Pakistani food. Several of the menu items are named after Texas football and basketball players, but Ali also gave a shout out to his favorite athletes with the "Steve Nash Texan Beef Burger" and the "Maradona Royal Bacon Burger." And no, neither played at UT.

The bar also offers live music and Xbox and PlayStation games.

You have to think the advance of the Longhorn Network will make this place - or other places around the world - successful because it will be able to show Texas-related sports content 24 hours a day. The only problem will be trying to get people into the bar for live events because of the 11-hour time difference, especially if the Longhorns play afternoon games in the United States.

Source: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/Hook-em-Longhorn-themed-bar-in-Pakistan-shows-T?urn=ncaaf-wp2941

Kees van der Ven Javier Garcia Vico Ryan Villopoto Jacky Vimond Tallon Vohland

If Desmond Howard was Reggie Bush, he would not have returned his Heisman

Desmond Howard doesn't pull any punches as a college football analyst for ESPN, so why would the former Michigan Heisman Trophy winner soften his opinions when asked about rival Ohio State?

He wouldn't.

In a Q&A with the Omaha World Herald, Howard gave his thoughts on players selling memorabilia, Reggie Bush and of course, former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel.

"If Woody Hayes was around now, I'm thinking he would grab Jim Tressel by the collar and punch him in the throat," Howard said in reference to Tressel's indiscretions that ultimately led to him resigning from Ohio State.

While Howard didn't agree with Tressel covering up his players misdeeds, he did support athletes selling their stuff and said he didn't think it was as big of a deal as the NCAA was making it out to be.

Do I think any other student-athlete has sold something for some money? Yeah. Yeah. Is that a big crime? Not at all. It's not even relevant. In the (grand) scheme of things, it's only a cover-up because some guys sat in a room one day and decided, 'OK, this is going to be illegal.' Other than that, everybody else on campus can sell whatever they own. But because they're players, they can't sell anything they own. It's almost like they say, 'OK, you own that merchandise, but in essence we own you, so you can't do it.'

What people fail to realize is that the cover-up is what made it so heinous. Coach Tressel ? it baffles me ? he actually used a university email address that's in the university's system to try to cover up what his players had done. Now I don't think that's going on anywhere else in the country.

Howard, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1991, also defended former USC running back Reggie Bush, who was stripped of his Heisman after the NCAA found he had received improper benefits. Bush offered to give the trophy back to the Heisman Trophy Trust last September, but to this day, the Trophy has yet to make its way back to New York.

Howard said Bush should have never offered to give the trophy back in the first place.

I think some of the rules are in place to maintain the system of exploitation. So I didn't agree with the rule. I didn't think it should've been a major issue. Now, obviously, it is a rule. He broke the rule. I just don't think it had anything to do with his performance on the field.

If you told me he was taking some sort of (performance-enhancing drug), then that has a direct effect on the player's performance on the field. That makes sense to me. If it's about where his parents may have stayed, the NCAA doesn't give two cares where Reggie Bush's parents stayed if they staying were under a bridge in a cardboard box.

As long as that little boy was out there on Saturday scoring them touchdowns, everything was good. But if they stay in a nice home, it needs to be investigated. Now they need what's going on. It has nothing to do with the guy's athletic ability. It has more to do with them controlling the whole system and maintaining what they instituted when they first founded this whole model."

I thought he should've never given it back. I didn't think it should've been an issue. But that's definitely because I don't agree with all of the rules. I do agree with some of the rules, but I just don't agree with all of the rules.

Source: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/If-Desmond-Howard-was-Reggie-Bush-he-would-not-?urn=ncaaf-wp2851

Doug Dubach Ryan Dungey Vic Eastwood Daryl Ecklund Erik Eggens

U.S. play Women’s World Cup in kit resembling nurse’s uniform

The U.S. began their campaign for their first Women's World Cup title since 1999 on Day 3 of the tournament and they did it in a new kit.�The women are once again in their usual all-white home strip. But the new design, worn in their opening-match win against North Korea, already has some fans saying that it looks like a nurse's uniform.

When the new kit was first revealed�in April, Dr. Jennifer Doyle of From a Left Wing summed up the problem critics have with it:

A USWNT shirt can always be distinguished from the USMNT shirt by the two stars that the women's shirt prominently displays over the USSF badge - one star for each World Cup trophy they've won (1991, 1999). That difference is not enough for Nike and the USSF. They want you to know, for sure, that this is a not a man's shirt. So the FIFA #1 ranked women's team will go to Germany in a nurse's uniform.

This is quite simply the ugliest women's football jersey I have ever seen. It's central problem is the line someone has drawn down middle of the shirt - a purely decorous gesture meant to create the impression that the USSF would like its women to play in an open necked blouse.

The Nike press release says, "The kit is designed specifically for the female athlete, to enhance the range of motion and create a uniquely feminine silhouette." But for anyone fearing that the nurse look isn't intimidating enough for a side aiming to win the World Cup for the first time in 12 years, the black away kit (which has the same design) is "inspired by the beautiful but deadly Black Widow spider." So, deadly Black Widow nurse spiders. Got it.

Whatever it looks like, it certainly didn't hurt their performance as they beat North Korea 2-0 -- the largest margin of victory so far in the tournament.

Here are a couple of pictures of the two shirts on their own...

Top photo: Getty Images

Follow Yahoo! Sports on Facebook and be the first to know about the most interesting stories of the day.

Other popular Yahoo! Sports stories:
? Video: The best first pitch you will ever see
? NFL star's career could come to sad end
? Who Rory McIlroy's girlfriend is

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/blog/dirty-tackle/post/U-S-play-Women-s-World-Cup-in-kit-resembling-nu?urn=sow-wp2837

Jeff Alessi Mike Alessi Thomas Allier Håkan Andersson Victor Arbekov

Which Boston Bruins player had the Amstel Light? Our suspects

Please recall the Boston Bruins' hedonistic night at the SHRINE club at the MGM-Foxwoods Casino after their Stanley Cup parade, in which they rung up a $156,679.74 bar bill that included a $100,000 bottle of champagne, nine bottles of Grey Goose … and one lonely little Amstel Light.

In a move so ingeniously opportunistic that we're stunned it wasn't actually initiated by a minor league hockey team, Amstel Light has announced it's on the hunt for the Bruin who ordered that solitary brew ? and wants to give him free beer:

So who ordered the beer? Coming up, our suspects.

Tomas Kaberle, Defenseman: The non-aggressive, non-impactful trade-deadline acquisition is perhaps the most popular suspect, if only because one can picture him nursing his beer for two hours while the other Bruins are taking tequila shots and punching each other in the face.

Tuukka Rask, Goalie: At 169 pounds, the lightest player on the Boston Bruins roster. One doesn't keep that sort of figure pounding oatmeal stout.

Shane Hnidy, Defenseman: You may be wondering why Hnidy, a reserve defenseman, was specifically mentioned in the Amstel Light letter. This is because teammate Shawn Thornton (also mentioned) said on CSNNE that, "I don't think anyone on our team drinks Amstel Light" but that his top suspect was Hnidy.

Tyler Seguin, Forward: Ha, as if! This player is only 19 years old, and therefore wouldn't have had a drop of … oh, right.

Dennis Seidenberg, Defenseman: Original name of the company in 1892? "Amstel Bavarian beer brewery." Dennis Seidenberg? Born in West Germany. We don't know what you're smelling, we smell schnitzel.

Tim Thomas, Goalie: May have ordered it to water down his Johnny Walker Black. Again, in theory.

A Random Woman Partying With the Bruins: Not to be a party pooper here, but we're guessing that none of the Bruins actually consumed an Amstel Light at the bar, but rather ordered one for a random lovely who decided to hang with the champs.

That said, a Bruin should step up and accept responsibility for the purchase, whether he drank the beer or not. Because based on the offer, this is the difference between Amstel Light filling a child's swimming pool with beer during the day with the Cup and having to do it yourself, Lucic.

Letter via Bruins Blog.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Which-Boston-Bruins-player-had-the-Amstel-Light-?urn=nhl-wp8185

Jean Michel Bayle Pit Beirer Christian Beggi Mike Bell John van den Berk

How John Blake became the latest, and possibly greatest, NCAA outlaw

As navel-gazing offseason memes in college football go, 2011 has been dominated so far by the twin specters of oversigning and cost-of-attendance scholarships. But for a brief period in 2010, at just about this point in the summer, there could be no greater threat to the future of the sport than the corrupting influence of the pro agent. Nick Saban compared agents to pimps. Urban Meyer called agents "predators." Bob Stoops said agents have to be punished. Mack Brown was one of several high-profile coaches who discussed agents wit the NFL. The lengthy "confession" of an ex-NFL agent who claimed he'd paid off dozens of college players made the cover of Sports Illustrated. After agent-related activity in his own program started making headlines, North Carolina coach Butch Davis insisted that "there is no place for that in college athletics."

With that as a backdrop, then, here's the first of three formal charges against ex-North Carolina assistant John Blake outlined by the NCAA in the 45-page notice of allegations it delivered to Chapel Hill on Tuesday:

It is alleged that from 2007 to 2010, then assistant football coach John Blake partnered with Gary Wichard, National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) certified agent, and Pro Tect Management to represent individuals in the marketing of their athletic abilities in violation of NCAA legislation. Specifically, Blake was employed and compensated by Pro Tect Management to influence football student-athletes to hire Wichard to represent them in marketing their athletic abilities and reputations.

Which, if true, makes Blake arguably the single most flagrant offender of the modern, post-Death Penalty era of NCAA enforcement in football.

Since the Association turned SMU into a crater in the mid-eighties, the "rogue coach" has almost always been defined (officially speaking) by what he doesn't know. Even the shady good-ole-boy types who earned scofflaw reputations at schools that landed on probation in the immediate aftermath of the SMU scandal ?�guys like Jackie Sherrill at Pittsburgh and Texas A&M, Pat Dye at Auburn, Billy Brewer at Ole Miss, and Mike Dubose at Alabama ?�were accused of turning a blind eye to corruption, not facilitating it. They lacked control, in NCAA parlance, and perhaps willingly relinquished it. But it was always boosters and other third parties who occupied the smoke-filled rooms, operated the slush funds and handed over the keys to recruits. The "smoking gun" that cost Rick Neuheisel his job on NCAA grounds at Washington was a bracket in a basketball tournament pool. When the NCAA emerged from nearly a decade of dormancy to take on USC last year, its final verdict against the Trojans rested heavily on its contention that assistant coach Todd McNair "knew or should have known" about star running back Reggie Bush's longstanding partnership with a pair of wannabe agents in 2004-05, and that link ? the only direct charge that anyone at USC actually knew Bush was on the take ? was based entirely on circumstantial evidence.

By the same token, it wasn't the corruption that spelled Jim Tressel's doom at Ohio State: It was the knowledge. Tressel's fall from grace occupies a unique place in NCAA history not only because of the squeaky-clean persona he nurtured over the last decade, but because he violated the cardinal rule: He knew about likely violations involving several of his star players, and he simply didn't tell. By NCAA standards, it was the ultimate crime of omission, but one still defined by what the coach didn't do with the knowledge.

But the case against North Carolina is far too sprawling, touching too many people in too many different corners of the program, to allow for ignorance. If there's any charge the NCAA can't levy at Blake, it's inactivity in the face of corruption. On the contrary: By all accounts, he embraced the corruption with vigor. He took one of the most unambiguous, inviolable taboos in his profession, and made it a side job.

Compared to McNair (who's still battling to get his career back), the case against Blake is open-and-shut. The notice of allegations lists the specific dates and amounts of seven payments Blake allegedly received from Wichard between 2007 and 2009, adding up to $31,000, as largely outlined last year in multiple reports by Yahoo! Sports' Charles Robinson. Phone records released last week showed that Blake was regularly in contact with Wichard and with players Marvin Austin and Cam Thomas when they were in California to work out at Wichard's gym in the summer of 2009. (For his contact with undergrads, the NFL Players' Association saw fit to suspend Wichard for nine months last December.) At some point, Blake's pitches on Wichard's behalf apparently began to extend beyond his own school.

Short of the revelation of an unfathomably massive conspiracy to manipulate multiple witnesses, reporters, sources and documents for the sake of bringing down the defensive line coach at a basketball school, Blake has ? possibly singlehandedly ? redefined the genre of "rogue coach" on the Division I level.

For Butch Davis, the disappointment is personal: He once coached Blake as a young assistant at Sand Springs High in Oklahoma, later won a Super Bowl with him as colleagues on the defensive staff of the 1993 Dallas Cowboys and made Blake one of his first hires when he landed in Chapel Hill in late 2006. For his program, that decision may prove to have been the seed of destruction in the form of vacated wins, a postseason ban and heavily scholarship losses, all of which remain very much in play despite the absence of the dreaded words "lack of institutional control" in the official notice of allegations. That key omission may be enough to save Davis' job, but if the NCAA is as serious about the nefarious influence of agents on campus as it's always said it is, it can't save his team from one very determined hammer.

- - -
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

Source: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/How-John-Blake-became-the-latest-and-possibly-g?urn=ncaaf-wp2906

Shaun Simpson Joël Smets Jeff Smith Marty Smith Steve Stackable

Video: The Minnesota Timberwolves look like so much fun

Nobody ever accused David Kahn of drafting uninteresting talent. The Timberwolves GM might not be the savviest when it comes to dealing with the media or, heck, his own coaches; but he ably represents a great deal of NBAniks when it comes to drafting and/or acquiring everyone's second-favorite project.

That's not a backhanded compliment. Think about it -- Darko, Kevin Love, Michael Beasley, Ricky Rubio, Kosta Koufos, Sebastian Telfair, Sundiata Gaines ... Anthony Randolph? Come on! This guy is an NBA message board, come to life.

And this video, courtesy of Hooped Up (and, in our little break between posts, apparently those bone-giving mugs over at TBJ), we get a good look into everyone's second-favorite pro prospect, and more hope for what could happen�with for what has long been my second-favorite team, come�fall. Or winter. Or whenever the next NBA season starts.

Dig:

No website has given David Kahn more stick than this one. But that has rarely precluded us from tuning into Timberwolves games by habit at 8:30 Eastern just about every chance we could during the regular season, nor hoping for the best. And regardless of coach, this crew could lose 62 games next season, even in a 70-game season. It doesn't matter. Lots of kids, lots of talent, lots of fun.

Sure, this video could be the highlight of the team's season. You mad? We aren't.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Video-The-Minnesota-Timberwolves-look-like-so-m?urn=nba-wp5665

Victor Arbekov Les Archer Nicolas Aubin Rene Baeten David Bailey

06/22 (Pre-Draft) Quickie

Source: http://www.danshanoff.com/2011/06/0622-pre-draft-quickie.html

Bobby Moore Blair Morgan Gaylon Mosier Marvin Musquin Brian Myerscough

Vegas Watch Top 16: February (2011)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/VegasWatch/~3/zV3kor9TDpE/vegas-watch-top-16-february-2011.html

Shayne King Heinz Kinigadner Dusty Klatt Arne Kring Brad Lackey

Ohio State hypocrisy forces NCAA to explore where it fears to tread

If the ongoing collapse of Ohio State has given us nothing else over the last six months, at least we have our villains: To anyone who's followed the slowly unraveling threads since last December, it should be clear that coach Jim Tressel and star quarterback Terrelle Pryor cynically gambled away their own futures at OSU and put the entire program at risk for their own short-term gain, with full knowledge of the potential consequences. If their records stand ?�and it's not at all certain that they will, officially speaking ?�the asterisk that goes next to them is already burned deep into the same pages.

But that is only in the short term. Later, when the dust eventually clears from the meteorite the NCAA should be preparing to hurl at Columbus as we speak, the real legacy of the fall of the Buckeyes may be less as the case that disgraced a proud program than as the case that finally killed the NCAA's most sacred cow, "amateurism." At the very least, it should be the case that tips the idol off its pedestal, into the clutches of the angry mob that's massed against it.

Not that it took Terrelle Pryor putting his signature on a jersey in exchange for fabulous cash and prizes for people to start throwing stones at "amateurism" as a guiding principle. Other players have accepted much more, and the nature of the beast ensures that we don't know what we don't know about the presumably endless examples of schemes that have never seen the light of day. But at this point we do know that there has never been a case that exposes the irony, hypocrisy and backwardness of amateurism in all its outdated glory, or that exposes so clearly why it cannot stand.

The headlines out of Columbus have grown more preposterous and more damning by the day, to both Ohio State and to the archaic double standard it's supposed to have violated. Where else in America is it possible for certain individuals to be explicitly prohibited from trading on their name and likeness in pursuit of certain benefits, while the person directly in charge of enforcing that prohibition is allowed to flout it without repercussion:

COLUMBUS, Ohio ? Several of Ohio State's athletic administrators workers drive courtesy cars that are provided by local car dealers, including the director of NCAA compliance, 10 Investigates' Paul Aker reported on Thursday.
[…]
[Compliance director Doug] Archie's car comes from the Buckeye family, Aker reported.� He gets his car from Miracle Motor Mart, located at 2380 Morse Crossing.� Former 1980s-era Ohio State player Mike D'Andrea, who owns the lot, said he sometimes employs student athletes during the summer.

In exchange for the cars, D'Andrea said he received a pair of season tickets to Ohio State football games.

If that arrangement sounds familiar, it's because it's exactly the alleged arrangement that helped force Pryor's premature exit earlier this month, and that could still cost other players their eligibility pending the results of an ongoing investigation. When Terrelle Pryor trades his status at Ohio State for a discounted ride from a dealership, it's a fundamental ethical breach. When Doug Archie trades his status at Ohio State for a discounted ride from a dealership, it's just business. When Terrelle Pryor, DeVier Posey and Boom Herron sell their jerseys for a profit, it's a fundamental ethical breach. When Ohio State sells replica Pryor, Posey and Herron jerseys for $60 a pop, it's the free market at work. While Pryor is being exiled for selling his autograph, Ohio State is preparing to open up the bidding. Where else in America is that possible?

Not to get all Jason Whitlock here, but even street-level drug dealers who get roughed up or worse for skimming a little off their bosses' product get paid to prevent them from trying. To the extent that student-athletes are compensated for the "student" part in the form of a scholarship, for the kinds of players who tend to have an opportunity to take improper benefits ? i.e. the kind who are likely to be on their way to real paydays in the NFL or NBA ? the free education still doesn't equal their true value to the university, merchandisers or agents. Where there's a gap, it's going to be filled one way or another.

The hypocrisy is nothing new; as revenues have skyrocketed, the disconnect has become part of the background radiation that comes with following the sport. It' so ingrained in what the NCAA is and so ubiquitous in the way that it operates that fully documenting the two-faced reality of the enterprise would amount to a full-time job. (And a maddening one at that, if you actually enjoy college sports and are invested in their success). In Ohio State's case, though, in the spring and summer of 2011, the target is too large and the wounds on college sports are too raw for it to fade into the ether as corruption as usual. The hypocrisy should be so blindingly, grotesquely obvious that it's impossible to look away.

Reform is nothing new, either. (For decades, the athletic scholarship was considered an improper benefit in and of itself.) So far, the early returns from various lobes of college football's crudely evolved brain suggest that it recognizes a systemic problem. Arguably the three most powerful men in the business, the commissioners of the Big Ten, the SEC and the Pac-12, have all committed themselves to at least "exploring" the possibility of diverting their ever-expanding largesse to the players in the form of "cost of attendance" scholarships, in direct response to the conditions that entice athletes to stray into the "black market" in the first place. The new NCAA president is right behind them. Which, considering the status quo they all work in and help enforce on a daily basis ?�one in which "it's grossly unacceptable and inappropriate to pay players" ?�is a departure from the hard line the NCAA has toed for decades.

But it's only a small step, and one that quite obviously isn't going to stop recruits from accepting cash in exchange for their signature, or a star player who likes Gucci belts from taking the opportunity to earn the money to buy them ?�and in Terrelle Pryor's case, by any accepted definition of capitalism, he did earn whatever he was paid in exchange for his signature and memorabilia. His signature is worth something because of who he is. Until the NCAA figures out some way to acknowledge that, it's going to continue to drown in the gulf.

- - -
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

Source: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/Ohio-State-hypocrisy-forces-NCAA-to-explore-wher?urn=ncaaf-wp2739

Julien Vanni Pekka Vehkonen Marc Velkeneers Jaak van Velthoven Kees van der Ven

C-a-C Past Lives: In 2001, Kevin Garnett ponders the padding

Gotta get back in time ... Welcome to another edition of Create-a-Caption Past Lives.

"I mean, yeah, that looks soft enough, I guess. But say I come at it full speed, like after dunking or blocking a shot or whatever ? is that basket stanchion really padded enough to protect me from a head injury? Hmm. Maybe I should run a scientific test."

The rest, as they say, is history. Unless, of course, Kevin Garnett was mulling over something else entirely. What say you?

Best caption wins two Extra Strength Tylenol. Good luck.

In our last adventure: You can't deny that Derrick Williams points enthusiastically, but in terms of pointing quality and precision, he's no Trey Kerby.

Winner, JD: ... and that was when Derrick Williams started to scat.

Runner-up, Josh H.: Derrick Williams attempts an ambitious Kansas City Shuffle but unfortunately ends up on the Minnesota Timberwolves anyway.

Second runner-up, Eye of the Tiger: "Hey! Don't you play the same position as me? and you? ... AND YOU? ... YOU TOO?"

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/C-a-C-Past-Lives-In-2001-Kevin-Garnett-ponders?urn=nba-wp5669

Jeremy McGrath Andrew McFarlane Brett Metcalfe Heikki Mikkola Auguste Mingels

Murray embarrassed by mom’s swooning over opponent’s looks

Like most sons, Andy Murray gets embarrassed by his mother sometimes. Unlike most sons, it's because his mom's has been swooning over the good looks of a tennis player that Murray will play in the Wimbledon quarterfinals.

Murray's mother and coach, Judy, has jokingly referred to Spanish tennis player Feliciano Lopez as "Deliciano" via Twitter, a reference to certain aesthetic qualities Lopez has that of are of interest to the superficial female. (The ladies think he's handsome. The men too, for that matter.) The nickname has caught on and has gained Judy become a running gag during the fortnight at the All England Club. Lopez himself said it's funny while insisting that countryman Rafael Nadal has more female fans. Just about the only person who isn't laughing is Andy.

When asked about Judy's ogling of Lopez, the son responded:

"I think it's about time she stopped that nonsense. Makes me want to throw up. It's disgusting.

"I was practicing with him before the tournament and my mum was on the side. I shouted across the net, I said, 'Feli, if we sit down for a drink, if you could take a picture with my mom, because she thinks you're beautiful'.

"She went bright red. Refused to take the picture. Quite funny. Not like her."

Andy's comments were said in jest but his tone made it clear that he's not exactly a fan of his mom new status as president of the Deliciano fan club.

Judy's Twitter ogling has inspired British oddsmakers too. Some bookies in London are taking wagers on whether Lopez will blow Murray's mother a kiss during their match on Wednesday (10/1) or whether Judy will wolf whistle at the Spaniard (20/1).

Her Deliciano attraction will have to take a backseat on Wednesday, when Andy meets Lopez in a Wimbledon quarterfinal. There's little doubt about who Judy will be rooting for. After all, blood is thicker than eye candy.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/ten/blog/busted_racquet/post/Murray-embarrassed-by-mom-s-swooning-over-oppone?urn=ten-wp1921

David Thorpe Rich Thorwaldson Rolf Tibblin Sebastien Tortelli Ben Townley

Warriors Buy Dakota Wizards Of NBA D-League

Source: http://www.ridiculousupside.com/2011/6/27/2247247/golden-state-warriors-d-league-dakota-wizards

Velky Zdenek Bengt Åberg Greg Albertyn Jeff Alessi Mike Alessi

Yes, Oregon paid $25,000 for an obsolete recruiting list (unless that’s just what it wants you to think)

I know, I know, the way the last 12 months have gone, it's getting hard to keep all the dangling threads connected to various NCAA cases straight. But maybe this one rings a bell: Back in March, the NCAA requested documents from Oregon concerning a pair of overpriced recruiting services the Ducks had purchased from suspiciously connected sources in Texas and Southern California. Monday, the contents of those documents �? including the complete scouting report Oregon purchased from Houston-based "scout" Willie Lyles for a whopping $25,000 ?�was released to the public.

And as far as NCAA violations are concerned, frankly, it seems there's not a whole lot to see there: Oregon paid its money, and received its materials, as do many other schools that use recruiting services within NCAA rules. In fact, if the Ducks have anything to hang their heads over in the document dump, it's not the possibility that they broke rules, but rather the apparent realization that they vastly overpaid for egregiously outdated information:

A national recruiting package purchased by Oregon in February 2010 that included the player profiles for 140 players with the heading "Player Profile 2011" is made up of virtually all 2009 high school graduates.
[…]
Amid the documents released by Oregon related to the football scouting services inquiry were 140 recruiting profiles of high school players under the heading "2010 National High School Evaluation Booklet." Above each individual profile, however, reads "Player Profile 2011." The related invoice cites the "2011 National Package."

A search of all the players listed revealed that virtually all graduated from high school in 2009 with a few graduating in 2010 or 2008.

In short, Oregon paid $25,000 ?�significantly above the going market rate ?�for the names of recruits it could not recruit because they had already graduated from high school. As the Eugene Register-Guard's George Schroeder notes, the "2011 package" purchased from Willie Lyles appears to contain information on exactly zero 2011 recruits.

For a service with an allegedly national scope, Lyles' package is limited geographically, too: The Oregonian counts just five of 140 players in the report from outside the state of Texas (two from South Carolina, one each from California, Louisiana and Oklahoma), and a significant portion of the players are described as "Low Division I/Division IAA" or just "Division I AA," well below the standard of athlete who might plausibly wind up at a program like Oregon. One report evaluates a player as "an intelligent QB that does not make many mistakes" and "a great student in the classroom," followed immediately by a coach's comment that the same player "needs to work harder in the classroom." The verdict: Division I AA/II. (That player, Dallas Skyline quarterback Chris Frazier, committed to SMU in the summer of 2008, and signed with the Mustangs the following January, more than a year before Lyles sent his profile to Eugene.) One player who "plays with a huge heart" is listed as a "Division II/ JUCO" prospect.

For another example, the "2011" profile pictured to the right belongs to Kolby Gray, a Houston-area quarterback who committed to Pittsburgh in January 2009, spent two seasons there as a safety and is now looking to transfer to Baylor while also pursuing a country music career. Based on the purported timeline of the scouting report, Oregon learned about Gray, after he'd already been at Pitt for an entire year, for the purpose of potentially recruiting him for the upcoming season this fall ... when in reality he'll be a junior already on his second D-I school.

If this sounds too stupid to believe, well, that's because it probably is. The merely unflattering explanation is that Oregon was ripped off by a con man who stuck the Ducks with a shoddy product ? embarrassing, maybe, but there's no NCAA rule against being gullible. The more cynical assumption is the same as it was when Lyles' name first slithered up from the gutter of the recruiting trail in the spring: That Oregon found a loophole in the system that allowed it to "legally" funnel money to a middle man (Lyles) in exchange for access to certain recruits it already knew more than enough about.

In Lyles' case, he served as a friend and "mentor" to a pair of current Duck speedsters from East Texas, a) Heisman Trophy finalist LaMichael James, who invited Lyles to Orlando ?�on Lyles' dime ?�as a guest at the Home Depot Awards Show last December, and b) former five-star recruit Lache Seastrunk, with whom Lyles reportedly lived in the same house on at least a part-time basis during Seastrunk's senior year in high school. Those two, the Ducks kept pretty effective tabs on despite the distance. (Starting quarterback/Houston native Darron Thomas, too.)

The rest of Lyles' offerings? As far as legitimate recruiting is concerned, they were just ghosts. But that doesn't necessarily mean Oregon didn't get from them exactly what it paid for.

- - -
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

Source: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/Yes-Oregon-paid-25-000-for-an-obsolete-recruit?urn=ncaaf-wp2809

Goat Breker Sven Breugelmans Larry Brooks Mike Brown Rick Burgett

Grieving New Mexico safety hauled off plane, booked for baggy pants

The Transportation Security Administration identifies many, many official threats to our skies, from contact lens solution to gel shoe inserts to throwing stars. Even in the wake of the "Underwear Bomber," though, boxer shorts have been considered generally safe ?�unless, that is, as New Mexico safety Deshon Marman discovered Wednesday at San Francisco International Airport, airline personnel can see a little bit too much of them:

On Wednesday, San Francisco police got a call about 9 a.m. that someone was exposing himself outside a US Airways gate, Sgt. Michael Rodriguez said.

An airline employee spotted Marman before he boarded Flight 488, bound for Albuquerque, and complained that Marman's pants "were below his buttocks but above the knees, and that much of his boxer shorts were exposed," Rodriguez said.

The employee asked Marman to pull up his pants before he boarded the plane, but he refused, Rodriguez said. Marman allegedly repeated his refusal after taking his seat on the plane.

"At that point he was asked to leave the plane," Rodriguez said. "It took 15 to 20 minutes of talking to get him to leave the plane, and he was arrested for trespassing." Marman allegedly resisted officers as he was being led away.

Rodriguez told a local TV station that the 5-foot-11, 195-pound Marman, 20, "was not threatening anybody directly," but the airline's dress code forbids "indecent exposure or inappropriate" attire, and "being disruptive" in any fashion once on the plane may interfere with the crew. He was charged with trespassing, battery and resisting arrest, and was being held on $11,000 bail ahead of a scheduled arraignment Thursday afternoon.

Marman's mother told the San Francisco Chronicle that her son was in "an emotionally raw state" after attending the funeral of a recently murdered high school friend on Tuesday, and was targeted by authorities "because of the way he looks - young black man with dreads and baggy pants." She also said that Marman, an incoming juco transfer to New Mexico from the City College of San Francisco, hoped to honor his friend's memory by making it to the NFL. She�called him "a good kid trying to make it, and he's going through a lot. And then this happens." For what it's worth, his official New Mexico bio describes Marman as a "true leader with a winning mentality."

Thus ends the initial account of one of the dumbest incidents ever recorded on this site, which is saying a lot. There's plenty to go around. There's Marman, wearing a potentially provocative outfit in a very public place and (allegedly) defying people with the authority to haul him off a plane and into a cell over something as trivial as his pants. There's security, seemingly creating a very real problem with significant consequences from an exceedingly small or nonexistent problem that presented no real threat and could have been prevented much earlier. There's the predictable cesspool of racist comments beneath the story everywhere else it appears Thursday morning on the web.

Personally, I feel a little dumber for having spent a portion of my morning on it, and for actually feeling compelled to offer this parting advice, applicable to any situation you can possibly encounter in life: When in doubt, always pull your pants up.

- - -
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

Follow Yahoo! Sports on Facebook and be the first to know about the most interesting stories of the day.

Other popular Yahoo! Sports stories:
? Extremely sad news for ex-NBA star Robert Horry
? Mavs dislike owner's reward offer
? Photos: Shocking scene of mayhem after Stanley cup Game 7

Source: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/Grieving-New-Mexico-safety-hauled-off-plane-boo?urn=ncaaf-wp2673

Lauris Freibergs Paul Friedrichs Steven Frossard Eric Geboers Sylvain Geboers

Yes, Andrew Luck is your Heisman frontrunner. But does he pass the stiffarm acid test?

The summer in college football means the onset of preview season, and previews mean an endless stream of lists beginning to trickle in. This year, any and all Heisman hype lists mean Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck at the top, in deference to both his status as reigning runner-up for the trophy last year and the the unanimous hosannas of NFL scouts who only seem to want him more now that he's turned them down.

Of course, no race in sports is official until you can bet on it. So as of today, courtesy of Bodog.com, you can bet on it. The site's early Heisman list includes 38 names, headlined by the usual suspects:

Odds to win the 2011 Heisman Trophy (Bodog.com)
1. Andrew Luck, QB, Stanford (9/2)
2. Landry Jones, QB, Oklahoma (13/2)
3. Marcus Lattimore, RB, South Carolina (7/1)
4. Denard Robinson, QB, Michigan (15/2)
4. LaMichael James, RB, Oregon (15/2)
6. Trent Richardson, RB, Alabama (12/1)
7. Justin Blackmon, WR, Oklahoma State (15/1)
7. Kellen Moore, QB, Boise State (15/1)
7. Knile Davis, RB, Arkansas (15/1)
7. Ryan Broyles, WR, Oklahoma (15/1)

As a public service to gamblers everywhere, I now advise you to excise half that list from the area of your beleaguered brain that stores "potential Heisman candidates." I'm not an oddsmaker or a scout (or a Heisman Trophy voter, for that matter), but I do know something about who wins the Heisman Trophy, and it's not just anyone who might happen to be the "most outstanding player": It's the outstanding offensive star�of one of the two teams playing for the BCS championship. If you want to get even more specific, it's the quarterback of one of the two teams playing for the BCS championship.

Since 2000, nine of eleven Heisman winners have been scheduled to play in the title the following January. (The two exceptions: USC's Carson Palmer in 2002 and Florida's Tim Tebow in 2007, for a team that had won the BCS title the previous season and would win it again the following season.) Seven of those nine winners were quarterbacks. (The two exceptions: USC running back/return man Reggie Bush in 2005 and Alabama running back Mark Ingram in 2009, both of whom led top-ranked teams in the championship game.) In eight of those eleven seasons, the championship game featured both the Heisman winner and another finalist on the opposite sideline who finished second or third.

The last three seasons have all ended with a blockbuster Heisman showdown, between Oklahoma's Sam Bradford (winner) and Florida's Tim Tebow (3rd place) in 2008, Alabama's Mark Ingram (winner) and Texas' Colt McCoy (3rd place) in 2009 and Auburn's Cam Newton (winner) and Oregon's LaMichael James (3rd place) in 2010. In 2004, USC and Oklahoma contributed four of the top five Heisman finishers ahead of their championship clash in the Orange Bowl, including winner Matt Leinart; a year later, USC and Texas supplied the top three finishers before their epic shootout in the Rose Bowl. The last winner to play for a team ranked outside of the top 10 at the end of the regular season was Texas running back Ricky Williams in 1998, who was coming off a year in which he set the Division I career rushing record with 2,327 yards and 29 touchdowns on the ground alone. The only other winner in the BCS era whose team wasn't slated for a BCS bowl game was Tebow in '07, which had at least something to do with the fact that there were no championship-caliber teams that season.

What you're saying when you list a player as a Heisman candidate on the kind of hype list that might actually make someone some money, then, is not just that a player is good. Dozens of first-rate stars whose talents are widely appreciated will always be widely ignored by the Heisman. What you're saying, beyond the requisite individual success, is one of two things: a) This guy is a high-profile star for a team with a serious chance to play for the BCS championship, or b) This guy is on the verge of a season of such outrageous proportions that it is essentially unpredictable.

Given that b) is kind of hard to pin down before anyone has taken a snap, the first criteria leaves us with a handful of legitimate frontrunners going into the year:

? 1. Landry Jones. Now that he's fully emerged from his , Jones comes with the right numbers and right hype, and more importantly, with the right team: Oklahoma is the best bet to open the season at No. 1 in the preseason polls, and Jones is a sure thing to put up even more absurd numbers as a third-year starter as long as he's healthy. With virtually Oklahoma's entire offense back, Jones' situation in 2011 looks a lot like the one that helped propel Sam Bradford to the Heisman in 2008 at the head of the highest-scoring offense in NCAA history. No other quarterback is more likely to land in the championship game with anything approaching those kind of numbers.

? 2. Andrew Luck. Terrelle Pryor's early exit from Ohio State removed any conceivable competition Luck may have had this fall as the most recognizable player in college football, thanks largely to his default status as runner-up and the most coveted player by the next level. Luck's All-America persona ?�soft-spoken, clean-cut quarterback passes up big bucks in the draft to finish his degree ? will never go out of style with Heisman voters, either. As long as he leads Stanford past Oregon in its only really big game of the season on Nov. 12 to punch the Cardinal's ticket to the BCS Championship or Rose Bowl, no one has a wider margin error.

? 3. Trent Richardson. Richardson doesn't have superstar numbers to date, but finds himself in the same sweet spot that departed teammate Mark Ingram exploited en route to the trophy in 2009: He'll be the feature tailback for a national frontrunner, running behind a veteran offensive line and a new quarterback who won't tempt coaches to throw too much ? all opposite a rocking defense that will make the forward pass a luxury in low-scoring slugfests. The main caveat to Richardson's candidacy is whether incoming backs Dee Hart and/or Brent Calloway will siphon off too many carries for his numbers to enter the stratosphere.

? 4. LaMichael James. Increased competition for touches could also slow down James' assault on the box score, which earned him a third-place finish in last year's voting as the national leader in yards from scrimmage and touchdowns. James was also near the top of the list with just shy of 26 touches per game, a number that could come down with Oregon's bounty of blazing young backs in the wings and plenty of opportunities waiting in Chip Kelly's merciless, star-making spread scheme; quarterback Darron Thomas and multipurpose cornerback/kick returner Cliff Harris also have a chance to steal a little spotlight.

But James a known quantity and the go-to star for a high-profile team that will give him a great stage as the early favorite to three-peat as conference champion.

? 5. Brandon Weeden. All-everything receiver Justin Blackmon picked up more accolades last year in Oklahoma State's high-flying offense, and more interest from the pro scouts. But historically, prolific receivers who don't return kicks are inevitably overshadowed by the quarterback who's racking up big numbers throwing not only to them but to every other receiver. Few QBs put up bigger numbers last year than Weeden, who flew under the radar but should have more than enough profile to emerge as the face of an Oklahoma State title run.

And that's pretty much it. Kellen Moore? Unless he turns in a ridiculous effort against Georgia to start the season and Boise State's playing in the BCS title game to finish it, no. Marcus Lattimore? Unless he approaches 2,000-plus total yards for the surprise SEC champion, no. Denard Robinson? In a new, far less stat-friendly system, on a rebuilding team that lacks serious BCS ambitions? No. Baylor quarterback Ryan Griffin? On a team that's going to struggle again to break even with a bowl bid? No. Justin Blackmon? Unless his quota of eye-popping, acrobatic catches climbs into Larry Fitzgerald territory (and/or he adds big plays as a runner or return man), no. Ryan Broyles? Alshon Jeffery? Ditto.

All are good candidates to make it to New York as finalists, and the emergence of a darkhorse or two on a surprise contender (see: Mark Ingram and Cam Newton the last two years) is always a given. But the winner will almost certainly come from a contender, and if you're putting down money today, in mid-June, the disconnect between what the award says it is and what it actually is renders most of the hype wishful thinking before a ball is even snapped.

- - -
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

Source: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/Yes-Andrew-Luck-is-your-Heisman-frontrunner-Bu?urn=ncaaf-wp2598

Mickael Pichon Jim Pomeroy Christophe Pourcel Sebastien Pourcel Wyman Priddy

Apple tells component suppliers it wants a 10% discount

I would imagine in the computer component and hardware world, landing Apple for your firm is a big deal. I would also imagine when Apple asks for a price cut rather than lose the contract you probably render unto Jobs what Jobs wants and cut the price. Apple has reportedly demanded that its component suppliers [...]

Source: http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/ocA6N0iOTTg/

Donny Schmit Fritz Schneider Darrell Schultz Tommy Searle Gary Semics

Strikeforce’s Three Stars: Masvidal, Barnett and Cormier

The latest installment of Strikeforce's heavyweight grand prix delivered a bizarre night of fights that featured a no decision, a submission due to strikes, and a weird main event where neither fighter showed off his best work. But who did stand out?

No. 1 star -- Jorge Masvidal: As the non-heavyweights on the main card, Masvidal and K.J Noons had the tall order of showing what the little guys can do. Masvidal lived up to expectations, putting on a show with K.J. Noons' face on the unfortunate receiving end. A kick to the neck leveled Noons near the end of the first round, and Masvidal never looked back. Now, he wants a shot at Gilbert Melendez and the Strikeforce lightweight title.

No. 2 star -- Josh Barnett: After not fighting for nearly a year, Barnett had no problem disposing of Brett Rogers. He used catch wrestling to control Rogers before locking up an arm-triangle choke, and then launched into a speech that showed why fans still love Barnett. Next, he'll face Sergei Kharitonov in the semifinals of the Strikeforce heavyweight GP.

No. 3 star -- Daniel Cormier: You would expect a two-time Olympic wrestler to control a fight with takedowns, but Cormier chose to show off how much his stand-up game has grown in the two years that he's been training in MMA. He stayed away from Jeff Monson's submission game, and stuck to a gameplan that involved peppering Monson with combinations. Cormier told Cagewriter that he would like a chance against Chad Griggs, who put on an impressive performance of his own against Valentijn Overeem, or Shane del Rosario.

Honorable mention -- K.J. Noons: On a night where Valentijn Overeem tapped out from a fight because of strikes, and Fabricio Werdum oddly refused to engage Alistair Overeem, Noons showed true heart in continuing to give his all in a losing effort to Masvidal.

Who were your Three Stars from the weekend? Speak your mind in the comments or on Facebook.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Strikeforce-s-Three-Stars-Masvidal-Barnett-and?urn=mma-wp3717

Alex Salvini Donny Schmit Fritz Schneider Darrell Schultz Tommy Searle

My Last Royals Game (For A While)

Source: http://joeposnanski.blogspot.com/2011/06/my-last-royals-game-for-while.html

Victor Leloup Aigar Leok Tanel Leok Billy Liles Ove Lundell

Rory McIlroy turns in one of the greatest performances in golf history

-Follow Yahoo! Sports' Devil Ball Golf on Facebook and Twitter at @jaybusbee.-

When we watch an impressive sports event, we're prone to think that what we're seeing is exceptional, even incomparable. It's normal enough; we want to believe we're the ones lucky enough to be watching a moment of grand historical significance. More often than not, once the moment cools, so too does the belief that we've seen something transcendent. "Impressive" is not the same thing as epic; "outstanding play" alone doesn't make history.

That said ... we've just seen history made.

There aren't enough superlatives. Rory McIlroy, the Northern Ireland lad all of 22 years old, has just put the final touches on the most astonishing U.S. Open in golf history. Consider just a few of the marks he set on Sunday at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda:

? His 16-under finish for a total of 268 strokes shattered the records for lowest U.S. Open score in history, previously 272, and lowest score below par, previously 12-under.

? He's one of only five players to turn in all four rounds under par, and this is one of only six Opens where a player led from beginning to end.

? He scored higher than par on only four holes, and three-putted only once, on the second-to-last hole of the tournament.

? At 22 years and one month, he's the youngest U.S. Open winner since Bobby Jones in 1923, and over the last 80 years, there's only been one younger major winner than him: Tiger Woods in 1997 at the Masters.

? He didn't set a record for the widest distance between himself and the field -- that would be Tiger Woods' 15, set in 2000, and McIlroy was "only" eight strokes ahead -- but the outcome was almost never in doubt from sometime on Thursday.

[Related: Rory McIlroy is no Tiger Woods, but maybe that's a good thing]

McIlroy didn't have a single weak spot his entire week. His drives either reached the fairway or remained within reach of the greens. His approaches were so perfect that he rarely needed to putt very far. But when he did putt, he didn't miss.

He was simply flawless, this-doesn't-happen flawless, cheat-codes-in-the-video-game-enabled flawless. Indeed, the only reason why most of the golf world didn't just simply throw up their hands and give him the tournament Friday afternoon was McIlroy's infamous meltdown on the back nine of Augusta. That happened only two months ago, but it already seems like dusty history, so effective was McIlroy's demolition of this course.

Credit McIlroy's resilient mentality for this; he could have crumbled under the weight of that afternoon. But he shouldered the blame and demonstrated exceptional sportsmanship, even posing with winner Charl Schwartzel as Schwartzel wore the green jacket. And now, with one tournament, he's incinerated that "choker" label and scattered its ashes to the wind.

Generally, we're in too much of a hurry to crown players the "next Tiger," the "next Jordan," or the like. But we haven't seen this kind of domination on a major level since Woods himself. McIlroy has little in common with Woods besides overwhelming talent; where Woods is coolly remote, McIlroy is a rumpled, personable goofball. He's not the "next Tiger"; there won't ever be another. He's exceptional all on his own, and that's enough.

We may be talking of McIlroy for the next 30 years, or this may be the high point of his career. But on this day, he delivered one of the great moments in golf history. At this moment, he's the best in the game, and there's nobody even close.

Other popular stories on Yahoo! Sports:
? Denny Hamlin putting his early season troubles behind him
? NBC apologizes for omitting 'under God' from Pledge
? Dale Earnhardt Jr. is not happy with his teammate Mark Martin
? Bob Bradley's job as U.S. coach safe … for now

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/blog/golf_experts/post/Rory-McIlroy-turns-in-one-of-the-greatest-perfor?urn=golf-wp2929

Rene Baeten David Bailey John Banks Mark Barnett Jonathan Barragan

Guessing the Seeds 2011: Final Standings

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/VegasWatch/~3/SW8rKRjh-6c/guessing-seeds-2011-final-standings.html

Aigar Leok Tanel Leok Billy Liles Ove Lundell Sten Lundin

2011 Tourney: Day 4 Live Chat

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/VegasWatch/~3/AYUeZMfCuDE/2011-tourney-day-4-live-chat.html

John Draper Doug Dubach Ryan Dungey Vic Eastwood Daryl Ecklund

HP Pre 3 Tipped For Verizon And AT&T In July

The HP Pre 3 was first unveiled back in February when we got our hands on it and generally liked what we saw. Most recently, it’s been tipped that the Pre 3 will hit the UK by July 8 and now a new tip suggests that the handset will arrive stateside on Verizon and AT&T [...]

Source: http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/tMmxe6U4hEE/

David Bailey John Banks Mark Barnett Jonathan Barragan Andrea Bartolini

Trending Topics: Bruins GM won Cup by resisting temptation

Trending Topics is a new column that looks at the week in hockey according to Twitter. If you're only going to comment to say how stupid Twitter is, why not just go have a good cry for the slow, sad death of your dear internet instead?

Zdeno Chara lifted the Stanley Cup, then passed it to Mark Recchi who passed it to Tim Thomas and so on. Everyone on the Bruins got their turn with the greatest trophy in all of sports.

Every once in a while during the celebration, you'd see Peter Chiarelli standing in the background, clapping and hugging and beaming. The NBC broadcast didn't show when he picked it up himself, but he had nearly as big a role in getting here as anyone wearing a Spoked-B on their shirt this season.

Often, general managers get noticed for the things they do: sign guys, make trades, buy out others. Chiarelli deserves the most praise, instead, for the things he did not do.

Last summer, there were about a million questions facing the Bruins after they were historically bounced by the Philadelphia Flyers. Was this a team that could compete? What should he do with Tim Thomas? Would Claude Julien have to go?

The simplest answer, and therefore the one very few people advocated for, was to leave things be. The Stanley Cup Playoffs seem to be more random than other postseasons, where low seeds knock off favored teams seemingly with greater regularity than in any other North American sport. And the truth is, though few opted to view it that way, the Bruins were a bad change away from the Eastern Conference Finals.

But that temptation must have been there. The haul he would have gotten for Tim Thomas ? from Philly or from Tampa or from one of a handful of other rumored suitors ?�would have been sizeable; it's not every day a guy that won a Vezina two years prior goes on the market. Plus, Tuukka Rask had proven himself at least as capable a goalie as Thomas during that season. But he opted to hang onto Thomas and got an historic Conn Smythe-, Stanley Cup- and almost certainly Vezina-winning season out of the netminder who just nine months before had been aging, overpaid and coming off hip surgery.

And we probably don't know how close Julien came to losing his job.

(Coming Up: Steve Kampfer outs a fake Brad Marchand; the "Pumping His Tires" meme on Twitter; and your Pearls of BizNasty for the week.)

He's not the league's most electrifying coach. He doesn't swear in press conferences or get especially animated on the bench, and he's rarely praised as a genius like Mike Babcock, Guy Boucher or Dan Bylsma. And after you blow a 3-0 series lead, the prospect of dumping the coach responsible (if that's the word you want to apply here) must be alluring.

But Chiarelli stuck with his guy, seen by many of the team's younger players ? and Mike Ryder ?�as a father figure. The rewards were obvious from the second the season started, even if things got a little dicey in that series with the Habs and to a lesser extent, the Lightning. The team had systems that always looked ugly, but hummed beatifully when they were working, and that was all Julien.

But really, Chiarelli deserves credit for building this team right from the second he took the job. He was technically not allowed to participate in the Bruins' 2006 entry draft, but it's safe to assume he had more than a little sway. Three of the Bruins first four picks that year: Phil Kessel ?�who himself begat Tyler Seguin, Jared Knight and another top-10 pick whose identity we'll learn in two weeks ? followed by Milan Lucic and Brad Marchand.

Think those guys had something to do with this masterful regular season and playoff run?

A few weeks later, Chiarelli's first official move as GM was to sign a defenseman he grew to know well during his time in Ottawa: Zdeno Chara, Bruins captain and a now-perennial Norris candidate with three nominations and a win since 2008.

Chara worked in perfect concert with Dennis Seidenberg from October to June, shutting down every cycle they saw in this postseason like a cop who doesn't get the concept of Bike Week. (Seidenberg himself, of course, was shrewdly wrangled by Chiarelli from Florida with a prospect for another team's second-round pick and two players who haven't seen a day in the NHL since the end of last year.)

The other guy he signed that day was Marc Savard, which is interesting in itself because he built a Stanley Cup winner this season without being able to use much of Savard's $4 million-ish cap hit until the end of the season.

Since then, he's added to the team piece by piece, inexplicably pulling both 26-goal-scorer/Eastern Conference Final hero Nathan Horton and penalty killing wizard/supposed anti-suspension talisman Greg Campbell for Dennis Wideman and an unneeded first-round pick. And even if Horton didn't have much of a physical impact on the Finals, his awful injury early in Game 3 certainly galvanized the team into an indomitable hydra that won four of its next five games, outscoring the best offensive team and defensive team in hockey by a combined score of 21-4.

Dan Paille? Plucked for a third-round pick.

Rich "first-liner" Peverley? Rescued from Atlanta and Winnipeg for disused role players Blake Wheeler and Mark Stuart.

Chris Kelly? Had for just a redundant second-round pick.

Mark Recchi? Acquired two years ago with a second-round pick for two mediocre prospects, and re-signed on the cheap ever since.

Every one of those guys was crucial in getting the Bruins through to the Stanley Cup title. Almost miraculously, all of the aforementioned players are also signed for a title defense next year, except Brad Marchand who is a restricted free agent, and Mark Recchi, who is obviously retiring a hero.

Of course, you can criticize Chiarelli too, to some extent. Milan Lucic probably makes too much money, and the Tomas Kaberle trade won't be remembered for being terribly successful under a microscope. Savard's ongoing concussion problems makes that seven-year deal somewhat hard to swallow unless he retires. The Thomas contract looked like a problem until it wasn't, and could turn back into a pumpkin at any minute. Chara might have too big a cap hit considering his contract lasts through his age-41 season.

But for now, the only credibility he needs weighs 34.5 pounds, made out of silver and nickel. Chiarelli is the sport's unequivocal genius for at least the next few months, mastermind behind a ruthless, gutty and physical team with a surprisingly bright future given its current quality.

He has almost all of his team coming back, a remaining raft of picks in this year's draft (including the ninth and 40th overall) and about $7 million in cap space to play with.

Bad news for the rest of the NHL.

Steve Kampfer: Twitter detective

A pretty good indication that the Bruins were feeling good heading back to Boston after losing Game 5 and staring into the abyss of playoff elimination:

Occasional defenseman Steve Kampfer took the time to suss out a Twitter fake.

Do you follow the Twitter account @bradmarshy63? That guy pretends to be Brad Marchand, but he's not. How do we know? Because Kampfer proved it.

First he asked the bogus super pest to give up his account quietly, to which the fake responded by saying that it was Kampfer who was the imposter. Then Kampfer posted a picture of himself and Marchand together.

When the shamarchand persisted, saying that Kampfer had stolen his own picture, the real deal posted another picture.

As Kampfer said: "Game, set match."

#PumpingHisTires

Poor Roberto Luongo felt like Timmy Thomas hadn't done enough to "pump his tires," while Luongo had postively showered praise on the world's favorite lumberjack-looking netminder. Twitter users took it upon themselves to remind Bobby Lou of everything he's good at.

@bmenoza: Luongo could stop a comet hurtling towards downtown Vancouver because he would be in proper position.

@WanyeGretz: I've seen greasier people than Luongo in my life

@OvenChicken8: The Atlanta Thrashers moved to Winnipeg just to be closer to Roberto Luongo

@JSBMrevolution: Roberto Luongo is taller than Athurs Irbe

@edmontoncritic: If you look at Luongo's save percentage in terms of batting average, Pete Rose looks like the worst hitter in the league

@luhein24: Luongo is the best goalie in the NHL Playoffs to have been pulled four times

And your winner:

@ounyea: The goal lightbulb business has been booming

Pearls of Biz-dom

We all know that there isn't a better Twitter account out there than that of Paul Bissonnette. So why not find his best bit of advice on love, life and lappers from the last week?

BizNasty on pumping Lu's tires: "I wonder what Cory Schneider's doing right now?"

If you've got something for Trending Topics, holla at Lambert on Twitter or via e-mail. He'll even credit you so you get a thousand followers in one day and you'll become the most popular person on the Internet! You can also visit his blog if you're so inclined.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Trending-Topics-Bruins-GM-won-Cup-by-resisting-?urn=nhl-wp7438

Danny LaPorte Mike LaRocco Jason Lawrence Ron Lechien Jeff Leisk