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Jaromir Jagr sets New York Ranger scoring recordCongratulations to Jaromir Jagr for etching his name in the Rangers records books, as he breaks Hall of Famer Jean Ratelle for the single-season points record.  The front-runner of this year’s Hart Trophy winner (league MVP) so far is the league leader in points and is gunning for his sixth NHL scoring title.  He is also tied with with Adam Graves’ team record of goals in a season with 52.  The Rangers have eight games remaining and are trying to hold off the Philadelphia Flyers for first place in the Atlantic Division.


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Joakim Noah getting attention from NBA scoutsEver since Florida defeated Villanova to advance to the Final Four, the focus has been on Joakim Noah and his sound-bites.  First it started off with the backwards hat wearing, right out of the locker room celebration “The Gator boys are hot right now,” quote.  At that moment, he morphed from high-energy, fun to watch basketball player, to condescending, uppity-attitude rich kid who is garnering too much attention.  Ever since then, it’s been the you’ve guys only watched us three or four times, you don’t know me, why are you writing stories against us, me against the world attitude.  Hey Joakim, who is writing bad things about you and the Gators?  Mostly everyone is predicting the Gators to defeat George Mason and win in the title game.  This is one rising star where the sudden adoration and attention is definitely going to his head.


Kris and Anna Benson, on the FHM picutre shoot After seeing more and more media exposure to Anna Benson recently, people shouldn’t be shocked to see this happen despite being married for seven years.  Anna Benson seems poised to be become a huge celebrity and to come out of Kris’ shadow, if she hasn’t done so already.  The timing of this seems to be interesting considering her recent cover shoot on FHM magazine.  In the featured article, Anna interviews Kris and asks him where does he see the two of them in the future.  He replies by saying “probably divorced.”  It is not out of the realm of possibilities that the New York Mets traded Kris Benson because they did not want to deal with the media circus this year while they compete for the playoffs.  Anna Benson was very outspoken when the trade occurred and probably wanted to cash in the numerous opportunities that would have occurred by being in New York.  It looks like she will get her way because she could probably grab headlines wherever she is.


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Indiana Pacers great Reggie Miller hangs number 31 in the raftersReggie Miller was given the highest honor a team can give to one of it’s players, as his number 31 was retired.  Miller is the only NBA player of the Pacers organization to have his number retired, as the other Pacers are from the ABA days.  The ABA stars are Roger Brown, Mel Daniels and George McGinnis and former coach Bobby “Slick” Leonard.  On hand were some of Miller’s old teammates: Antonio Davis, Dale Davis, Derrick McKey, Chuck Person, and Mark Jackson - but sadly no Detlef Schrempf.  Miller was booed on drafted day by Pacers fans, but clearly Donnie Walsh made the right selection in the 1987 draft.  Want to compare some of the other players that came out of the draft after him?  Then G.M. Donnie Walsh and Reggie Miller made a career out of proving the critics wrong since draft day.


Maria Sharapova advances to the Nasdaq 100 finalIn a semi-final match last night Maria Sharapova received boos from the crowd and a tainted victory over Tatiana Golovin.  It is not often at tennis matches were the crowd outright boos a competitor, but that is what happened as Golovin made an impressive second set comeback down 5-1 at one point and forced a tie-break.  Sharapova eventually won the match because Golovin was unable to continue due to an ankle injury. Golovin was leading in the third set 4-3 at that point.  The boos came at the start of the third set, where Sharapova took an extended bathroom timeout which looked more like ploy to regain her composure after squandering a huge lead in the second half, and it appeared she was trying to slow down Golovin’s momentum.  Sharapova will face Svetlana Kuznetsova, who defeated Amelie Mauresmo, to reach the finals.  Sharapova is going for her second consecutive tournament win, the last even was the Pacific Life Open, where she defeated Elena Dementieva handedly.


I guess both teams getting knocked out in the third round Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament made the United States Basketball Writers Association unable to decide who deserved the award, as Adam Morrison and J.J. Redick both walked away with the Player of the Year honors.  The last time this happened was in 1979 when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were both named co-player of the year as well.  Most fans shouldn’t be up in arms about this, despite the fact Redick fans will argue that Redick and Duke played under tougher competition in the ACC rather than the WCC conference.  It won’t be a bad thing that their names will be linked together in history especially in the same sentence as Bird and Magic.


Renaldo Balkman holding the MOP trophyThe South Carolina Gamecocks did their job in making the SEC conference proud by taking home their second NIT Championship in a row.  South Carolina defeated Michigan 76-64.  SEC can hope for a LSU versus Florida match-up in the finals to make a SEC sweep.  Ironically this match-up featured the past two NIT winners.  In 2005 South Carolina defeated St. Josephs and in 2004 Michigan defeated Rutgers.  The Gamecocks were close to joining the big dance themselves by receiving an automatic bid by winning the SEC title but loss to Florida in the championship game 49-47.  Renaldo Balkman was named Most Outstanding Player of the Tournament.


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In a social concern far more important than sports, the Duke University lacrosse team has been suspended as the police continue their investigation of the rape of a North Carolina Central University who performed as an exotic dancer.  There are allegations against three white team members that she was pulled into a bathroom, beaten, choked and raped by three men according to the police.

This has raised racial tensions in Durham, North Carolina because the victim is black and the motive of the crime may have been a hate crime.  The city of Durham is predominantly a low income city aside from the influx of students of the neighboring colleges, Duke tuition costs about $43,000 annually.  Durham residents have been demonstrating due to the way the university’s handling of the case.

Read More | ESPN


Major League Baseball Sneakers by ReebokWow, I thought this was a pretty cool product that Reebok decided to cash in with.  Now fans can show their team pride on their feet, I’m just surprised this hasn’t been though of earlier.  Forget the traditional baseball cap or team jersey, your shoes will tell the story.  Especially good for the socially inept fans, where now your shoes can start a conversation with the girl you have been too nervous to talk to, an instant ice-breaker.  Or cool kids can have street cred by wearing a St. Louis Cardinal shoe not because they like baseball but because it’s the home-town of rap star Nelly.


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Final Four down to LSU, UCLA, George Mason and Florida All the experts and analysts are just dumb-founded, no one wants to go out on a limb and make a stance anymore now that Duke, UConn, and Villanova are out of the picture.  Although there are plenty of smug people that are now claiming that they foresaw UConn losing ever since their uninspired play in the first round - mainly this guy, Stewart Mandel.  No one wants to hear how smart you think you are, fans get enough of that crap from Woody Paige, Skip Bayless, Jim Nantz, Billy Packer and the rest of the lot.

Me, I haven’t have the slightest clue of who is going to win.  George Mason beat the best in UConn so are they now favorite?  Mostly everyone else is going with Florida because they too were a high-ranking team throughout the season.  This Florida Gator team reminds some people of the young Arizona Wildcats team that won it all with Mike Bibby, Miles Simon and Michael Dickerson back in 1997.  Although LSU looks like they have an inside combo of Glen Davis and Tyrus Thomas that looks too strong for teams to handle.  Finally, there is UCLA, who I’ll admit I haven’t seen play much, but sometimes you get that feeling that there are no basketball gods, and UCLA alumnus Bill Walton will get his way.


Read More | Stewart Mandel


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