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Aiken to coach defensive linemen for Oregon (Yahoo! Sports) : EUGENE, Ore. (AP) -- Oregon has hired Ron Aiken to serve as defensive line coach under new head coach Mark Helfrich.

Texas' Applewhite was disciplined in 2009 (Yahoo! Sports) : AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Texas offensive coordinator Major Applewhite acknowledged Friday night that he was disciplined by the university for an inappropriate relationship with a student during the Longhorns' trip to play in the Fiesta Bowl after the 2008 season.

Gallacher takes the lead in Dubai : Scotland's Stephen Gallacher achieves his best European Tour round and an eagle to take a three-stroke lead in Dubai.

Sources: Bosch injected A-Rod with PEDs : Several sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Bosch spoke openly about his relationship with the Yankee All-Star, and two sources said that documents they reviewed detailed the drug regimens and schedules Rodriguez received.

Jell-O to provide Super giveaway to losers' fans : The Super Bowl winners get to go to Disney World, the losers get Jell-O?

Jazz Season Ends, Boozer Questions Start : By J.A. Adande For some players it’s already time to analyze every facial expression and pronoun, so let the record show that as Utah power forward Carlos Boozer sat in front of his locker and absorbed the Jazz’s second-round sweep at the hands of the Lakers he used the first person plural. “We have to improve,” Boozer said. “We have to get better.” Does Boozer, who will be a free agent this summer, want to continue playing in Utah? “It would be nice if it worked out,” he said. And that’s about as much as he would discuss his future. It’s not strictly up to him of course, it’s a matter of the Jazz deciding how to allocate their resources, especially after the Portland Trail Blazers forced Utah to ante up $32 million on a four-year contract for Paul Millsap after the Blazers attempted to land the restricted free agent last summer. Millsap plays the same position as Boozer – and actually scored more points than him in a reser...

The Slovenian view of Goran Dragic : The Suns' Slovenian backup point guard sent shockwaves through the NBA by almost single-handedly destroying the Spurs in the fourth quarter of Game 3. On Valley of the Suns, Erik Vidmar describes playing youth basketball in Slovenia with Goran "Gogi" Dragic when he was 15: Before the game our coach warned us about some of their players, especialy about one player who was not so very tall, but extremely quick and dangerous for the basket. His name was Goran Dragic. We thought that our coach was overreacting. But when the game started we saw how quick he was and that even our best defensive players couldn’t stop him. He wasn’t the best shooter, but the way he attacked the rim was incredible. Nobody of our age could do something like that and his ball handling was very good. They won the match because we didn’t have the answer for him. And I still remember that I said that he can really achieve a lot, because in a few minutes of ga...

The second round in the Smackdown : Has the second round of the playoffs started yet? It's like somebody sneezed and three of the NBA's powerhouse teams of 2009-2010 -- the Jazz, Spurs and Hawks -- have all just been eliminated. Now there's just the annual Celtic thrill ride left before the Very Serious Business of the conference finals. It's all a little dizzying. Meanwhile, it's not so disorienting, apparently for the people in the TrueHoop Stat Geek Smackdown . With eight contestants, and four series, that's 32 second-round picks they made. So far almost everybody picked the right winners in every case. The exceptions: My mom had the Jazz. And Stephen Ilardi, Haralabos Voulgaris and Neil Paine had the Spurs. Nobody predicted any of these sweeps, however. So, as we sit here on Tuesday, John Hollinger remains in the lead, now with 59 points. Kevin Pelton is a mere three points back. Barring something really bizarre, the others in content...

Taking a balut for the team : Don't watch this if you're about to eat, or are squeamish. Huge thanks to Lucas Jansen for producing that video. There are a lot of ways this could have gone differently. But this is how it happened: Noah Galuten, a food blogger at Man Bites World, grew up a Suns fan. I grew up in Portland, supporting the Blazers. As the third and sixth seeds, respectively, those two teams met in the opening round of the playoffs. I predicted a Portland win, which almost nobody agreed with, including Noah. Noah suggested a friendly wager. I suggested we should make it so that the loser eats some food the winner picks. Noah instantly suggested balut, which I had never heard of. Portland lost. Balut, I learned from Google and several TrueHoop readers, is a fertilized egg, normally duck, but sometimes chicken. It matures to a certain point -- in this case, I'm told they were 18 days into becoming big adult ducks -- and then it is boiled (embryo...

The big disappointment : People in San Antonio, Dallas and Portland have taken significant time out of their busy days to skewer me, over the last couple of days, for naming Dirk Nowitzki, Brandon Roy and Tim Duncan as the most disappointing players of the NBA postseason. The anger is mighty! But misguided. We all see eye to eye that players like Richard Jefferson, Mo Williams and Jason Kidd  performed poorly, in a manner that hurt their teams. If we were naming a bad-compared-to-expectations team, they'd all make my short list. Similarly, if we were naming a needs-a-new-approach-to-the-game list I'd start with Michael Beasley, Shawn Marion and Rasheed Wallace. And I get that sticking someone on either of those lists would be kind of an insult, if not to the players, then at least to their play. But disappointing is different. It's almost like: Which player could most use a hug? Who just wants to forget these playoffs ever happened? That's somethin...

What happened to LeBron James? : Both the practical and symbolic significance of Game 5 between Cleveland and Boston couldn't be overstated. The rest of the NBA's elite made quick work of their conference semifinal opponents. Meanwhile, the 61-win Cavaliers were struggling with a Celtics team that was supposed to be creaky and ill-equipped for the long march into June. Game 5 in a knotted series is always pivotal, and that's particularly true for a team whose aspirations were as lofty as Cleveland's. The expectations of the Cavs and their fans are inextricably linked with LeBron James' future in Cleveland. Success would supposedly deter James from leaving Ohio, but if the Cavs were to do the improbable and lose to the fourth-seeded Celtics in the series, all bets were off. A Game 5 loss would've been especially devastating because it could've signaled James' last game in Cleveland as a member of the Cavaliers. Nobody on the planet had more contro...

First Cup: Wednesday : Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald: "Rumors of Paul Pierce’s demise apparently have been greatly exaggerated. The too old, too beat up, too unable to deal with LeBron James captain of the Celtics played the first four games of this conference semifinal series in, as the great philosopher Tony Allen put it, 'a funk.' Ah, but last night Pierce took one last sip of Geritol-flavored Gatorade, cast aside his walker and got a little funky on the Cavaliers. Pierce’s 21 points were a nice and needed touch, but it was his work at the other end of the gymnasium that was most influential in the Celtics’ stunning 120-88 clobbering of Cleveland that produced a 3-2 series lead. King James came into the game averaging 29.8 points on 50.6 percent shooting for the series, but last night his line was that of a commoner -- 15 points on 3-for-14 shooting. First coach Doc Rivers and then Pierce credited the team’s defensive approach. But that dismisses the critical cha...

Forget LeBron, what's wrong with Cleveland fans? : David Liam Kyle/NBAE/Getty Images The people in the front row weren't nearly as disappointing as the people missing from the rows behind. LeBron James is 25 years old, and has played 70 playoff games in which he has averaged 29 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. His career playoff PER is among the best in history -- up there with Michael Jordan's. Remember that Jordan's playoff PER wasn't marred by the Washington years. This is all Bulls. Leave the "is James better than Jordan" discussion for another decade. The message is that five seasons into his playoff life, James stacks up well against the very best ever, in terms of production, defense, playoff wins and anything else you can measure or see with your eyes. He almost never has bad games. Forgive me a detour: I remember being a kid at Blazer games in the old Memorial Coliseum. Those Clyde Drexler/Terry Porter teams inspired us...

Wednesday Bullets : John Krolik of Cavs: The Blog has strong thoughts about the Cavaliers' meltdown against the Celtics in Game 5 . It starts in the second quarter: "The Cavs looked to go inside early, establishing Jamison and Shaq down low and using some outside jumpers to keep the floor spaced for them. With 9:52 to go, the Cavs took an eight-point lead and Doc Rivers called timeout. The Cavs were outscored by 40 points after that time-out. I don’t know what Doc said in that huddle, but it must’ve been good." Krolik ends the post talking to Cavalier fans like this: "Until Thursday, try not to think about basketball." If LeBron James is looking for a role model in overcoming a very bad, very big game against the Celtics, look no further than Kobe Bryant . It means nothing, but just for fun: Guess which Cavalier starter had the best plus/minus last night ? David Thorpe hadn't seen those numbers when he called to say that the Cavaliers are losing this seri...

One woman's opinion: LeBron going to Knicks : By Chris Sheridan CLEVELAND - Her name was Melody, her taxi was actually a nice black SUV, and she provided a fine ride from the Hyatt to the airport today, the morning after what could go down as one of the worst nights in this snake-bitten city's professional sports history. She told me about her son, who recently left the Navy and became a semi-pro football player before blowing out his knee three months ago. The mother in her said she was secretly happy that her boy wouldn't be colliding with 300-pound monsters anymore. Melody also described herself as an amateur psychologist, and she said she believes LeBron James is going to sign with the New York Knicks next season because of the facial tics she noticed every time LeBron talked about free agency before he went on a self-imposed moratorium on the subject. Like many Cavs fans, she was fatalistic about the Cavs chances of surviving this series and retaining t...

First Cup: Thursday : Dan Duggan of the Boston Herald: "Kevin Garnett was with the Celtics [team stats] last postseason, but it was much different. Garnett was his typically manic self during games, talking trash to opponents and offering instructions to teammates. But Garnett’s words fell on deaf ears to some extent because a knee injury forced him to do all of his talking while wearing a finely tailored suit instead of his No. 5 jersey. 'Everybody was making a big deal about him being on the bench, but nobody listens to a player that’s not dressed,' Doc Rivers said. 'They just don’t. I don’t care how good they are, because you’re not out there with them and they know that. So obviously his impact is better because he’s in the uniform.' Garnett is back this postseason, and his presence has been felt. While defense will always be his focus, Garnett is averaging 18.2 points per game against the Cavaliers and he has been a valuable option in the post." Chris ...

Thursday Bullets : Video of the play that's already in the Cavs' playbook that can get LeBron James going . Big news for the Suns: It looks increasingly likely that Robin Lopez will be back in action . The Suns have been fantastic in the playoffs, but were at their best in the regular season when Lopez was in the starting lineup. A statistical suggestion that small forward may not be the best position to build around . It's almost taken as a given that the NBA would love to have big stars in big markets, but that's not what David Stern says . So, you want to be an NBA agent? Nasty little business, and hard to break into. The legal documents arising from a dispute between Kim Grillier and his former boss Henry Thomas will help disabuse you of the notion that once you start signing up big name clients your troubles will melt away. John Hollinger (Insider) : "In the backcourt, the biggest issue has been how to hide Mo Williams on defense. The best answer, it se...

LeBron to the Bulls? 3 GMs think so : Boston Celtics fans were chanting "New York Knicks" during Thursday's Game 6 every time that LeBron James went to the foul line.  Maybe they should've been chanting "Chicago Bulls." Within minutes of the Cleveland Cavaliers' elimination at the hands of the Celtics, the speculation about LeBron James' next destination resumed in full force. In the space of five minutes I heard from three NBA GMs via text, e-mail and phone.  All three said that based on the information they have, they believe LeBron will leave the Cavs. More surprisingly, all of them said they believe the destination will be the Chicago Bulls.  Two said they believe that John Calipari will be the Bulls' new head coach. One GM went a bit further in a phone call a few minutes later.  "I think the Bulls are really going to go for it.  Look for them to offer the Cavs Luol Deng in a sign-and-trade for LeBron.  That will allow th...

Offense the offender in Cavs' finale : For five games, it was Cleveland's inability to guard Boston that was the primary problem, culminating in the 120-point thrashing they suffered in Game 5. On Thursday, however, the Cavs actually defended well. Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo still broke loose, just as they have all series, despite the ineffectual maneuver of switching Shaquille O'Neal onto Garnett. However, Cleveland shut down the other Celtics to the tune of 94 points on 100 possessions. That's more than good enough to win the game -- even the best defenses surrender slightly more than a point per possession. Granted, this was done partly with Boston's help -- the Celtics missed 12 foul shots and shot 5-of-17 on 3s -- but the game was theirs for the taking if the offense did its part. Offensively, however,  the Cavs were disastrous, especially in the second half. Cleveland got to the break in decent shape thanks to a 20-point first half from Mo Williams,...

The game plan doesn't change in a day : Elsa/NBAE/Getty Images The summer of 2010 was always about finding the team with the best vision of the future. Everything about LeBron James' free agency plan changed as the Cavaliers were eliminated by the Celtics: No way he'd head back to Cleveland after that . Right? Wrong. It's hard to say with certainty that anything changed at all. While it's hard to quantify the stress and disappointment in the bloodstream of the Cavaliers' organization, surely the biggest lesson of the loss is not that Cleveland is cursed. It's not that, in a fit of pique, the best player in the game is set to slam the door and never look back on Northeast Ohio. "It's all about winning to me," James said after the big loss, and it's believable. If there's a lesson from losing -- James has been savaged and scrutinized even in his hometown -- it's that winning is more important than ever. That...

First Cup: Friday : Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: "To be the two remaining Western Conference teams, the Suns and Lakers had to excel at what they do best and those superlatives are unscathed. Something has to give now. When the conference finals start Monday, either the Suns' league-best 3-point shooting is going to be taken down a notch - or the Lakers' league-leading 3-point defense will snap. Phoenix can stake a claim to the best-ever 3-point shooting team with a 41.2 percent season that is second only to the 1996-97 Charlotte Hornets, who recorded a 42.8 percent record during a 3-year experiment that shortened the distance to 22 feet. The Lakers gave up a league-low 32.8 percent on 3-point shooting this season. Neither gave ground in getting to this point. Phoenix shot 41.7 percent on 3s in the first two rounds, making 10 per game. The Lakers surrendered 32.3 percent 3-point shooting, allowing six per game. 'We've won games where we didn't have to m...