MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — In dissecting two losses this season by a combined five points, West Virginia’s coaching staff emphasizes one commonality.
Deflections, or rather, the lack of them.
The No. 7 Mountaineers and their nonstop pressure defense typically produce nearly 50 deflections per game. Yet they managed only 39 in a Nov. 25 loss to Temple and 32 in Tuesday’s 77-76 overtime defeat at Texas Tech.
«We didn’t get any deflections, so we didn’t get any live-ball turnovers,» said coach Bob Huggins. «It’s hard to deflect the pass if you don’t bring your hands above your head. Texas Tech threw it out of the trap before there actually was a trap, but if you get your hands up, they’ve still got to throw it over your hands, which gives you time to make rotations. »
Huggins’ squad seeks to regain its edge Saturday against visiting TCU at Morgantown, W. Va.
Though both teams stand 12-2 overall and 1-1 in Big 12 play, West Virginia was picked to challenge Kansas for the conference title while coaches slotted the Horned Frogs to finish last. Under Jamie Dixon , however, TCU’s rebuilding effort shifted into warp speed, resulting in a No. 30 RPI entering the weekend. That’s 23 spots higher than the Mountaineers.
Dixon, who owned a 12-7 record against West Virginia during a 13-year tenure as Pittburgh’s coach, should expect plenty of intensity from fans — as well as the Mountaineers’ defense, which leads the nation by forcing 24.8 turnovers.
«Their turnover numbers are dramatic, to say the least,» Dixon said. «We’ve been working on a lot of drills and try and improve in that area. We’ve been a low-turnover team all year until the last two games. »
Those last two games (an 86-80 loss to Kansas and a 60-57 win over Oklahoma) saw the Horned Frogs commit 31 turnovers. Dixon is justifiably concerned about the adaptability of a backcourt rotation that features true freshmen Jaylen Fisher and Desmond Bane, and Texas A&M transfer Alex Robinson — none of whom have never faced the Mountaineers’ press.
Fisher has started 13 of his first 14 games after becoming the highest-rated signee in TCU history at No. 34 nationally by ESPN. He’s scoring 9.7 points per game and dishing a team-high 4.4 assists.
Robinson (11.2 points, 2.0 steals) and the drastically improved 6-foot-11 Vlad Brodziansky (11.2 points, 5.1 rebounds) are the top scorers, while 6-7 junior guard Kenrich Williams (9.8 points, 9.8 rebounds) is a double-double threat after recovering from last season’s knee injury.
Perhaps nothing speaks to TCU’s talent infusion more than the diminished roles of seniors Karviar Shepherd and Chris Washburn, frontline regulars during past seasons who are combining to average 21 minutes.
West Virginia, 9-0 against the Horned Frogs since joining the Big 12 five years ago, is paced by forwards Esa Ahmad (12.6 points, 4.9 rebounds) and Nate Adrian (10.4 points, 6.4 rebounds) and the guard tandem of Jevon Carter (10.3 points, 3.4 steals) and Daxter Miles (10.1 points, 1.7 rebounds).
Prediction
Deflections are key to the Mountaineers winning games, something they weren’t able to get a handle on during the team’s two losses this season. TCU, who many coaches expected to finish bottom, have shifted their rebuilding efforts into overdrive, but history is on the side of the Mountaineers who are 9-0 against the Horned Frogs since joining the Big 12 five years ago and will keep that streak alive.
West Virgina, 92, TCU 71

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There are few things on this planet which never disappoint. The World Darts Championship is one of them. Every year on the year, it bestows an unstoppable fortnight of dramatic brilliance, amplified by a bloody lot of bloody fun. There is nothing like it.
The game itself is simple, repetitive, comforting and compelling; sending a dart from hand to board is a rhythmic, hypnotic, idiosyncratic treat – the bass beat on contact complemented by the intellectual thrill of calculating scores and predicting outshots (the finishing sequences). Because it is immediately obvious what is going on, it is immediately absorbing, and because so many of us know how easy it is to play but how impossible it is to play well, we have a handy frame of reference to swiftly make it about ourselves.
Nor does it stop there. Darts is about far more than chucking a pointy thing at a flat thing; it tells a story of humanity that is animated and crystallised in close-up and high-definition. No other sport shows, simultaneously, action and reaction; on stage and on camera, there is nowhere to hide.
Brooking neither luck nor tactics, darts facilitates neither refereeing errors nor stalemates; excuses do not exist. Players can do nothing to affect one another. If things are going badly, no teammate will be along to save them, and there is no option to roll into the reds, deadbat a few or cover up on the ropes. Their only option is to throw better.
As such, there is no more exacting test of pressure, no examination of vertebrae more thorough. Under lights, on camera and in front of a crowd, perform a fine motor skill predicated on a steady hand and an empty mind – good luck with that.
“But is it a sport?” ask the kind of funsters who, in other scenarios, prattle on about the differences between indica, sativa, serotonin and empathogens. The correct answer, of course, is: “Who gives a shit?”
One of the most beautiful things about sport is that it allows us to share the most exhilarating, demoralising moments of people’s lives, entwining them with our own and supplying an intensity otherwise lacking – and darts takes that to another level. We see every expression of tension, fear, devastation and ecstasy – you might call it love – so feel that we know the players, and accordingly, can imagine that they know us too.
Because of that, darts offers a study in humanity to captivate not just those who like darts but those who like anything – its themes the same as those found in literature, theatre, cinema and art. Or, put another way, enjoying it is not a matter of taste; rather, there are those who do and those yet to discover that they do.
And, at the moment, darts is the best sport in the world. This is partly because others are regenerating; there are very few great teams and great individuals currently at their peaks. Darts, on the other hand, has never been played better. Michael van Gerwen won 25 tournaments last year, and 18 tournaments in 2015. He also set a new record for the highest three-dart average ever recorded on television, 123.40 .
Van Gerwen is not just the best dart player in the world but the best anything in the world; one of the best anythings in the history of everything. And he is only 27.
But, as with any great sportsperson, to assess van Gerwen by his numbers is to miss the point entirely. A wondrous bolus of uncut genius, his competitive charisma is startling – a mix of passion, intimidation, egomania, and the most distinctive phizog of all-time. He throws darts like flaming javelins, celebrates like a psychopath, and because it is impossible not to know how good he is, he makes no attempt not to know how good he is. He is perfect.
But he has won only one World Championship, in 2014 – the two since then taken by Gary Anderson, his good friend and polar opposite. A laidback, likeable Scot, Anderson is prone to miscounting and, until very recently, to mis-seeing. Only recently did he start wearing the glasses that he’s needed for years. Early in his career, Anderson was the man who faltered at crucial moments, but after working through family tragedy and adding another son to the two he already had, he convinced himself that it wasn’t important whether he won or lost and suddenly became the man who peaks at the right time.
The World Championship format is to his advantage. Generally, matches take place over legs, a succession of races from 501 to zero. But here, each forms part of a set, offering a margin of error to the inconsistent and absent-minded – playing legs against someone as relentless as van Gerwen is almost impossible.
And tonight, the pair meets in the dream final. Anderson, almost disquietingly relaxed, has sailed through his half of the draw, while van Gerwen recorded the competition’s highest ever average in last night’s win over Raymond van Barneveld. It is not unreasonable to anticipate as gripping a contest as has ever been played.
Yet Anderson and van Gerwen are simply part of a sprawling ensemble cast, the limelight shared not just with their opponents but the crowd. The simple genius of an affordable piss-up stretching the length of the piss-up season has created an experience unlike any other, part fancy dress party, part community singalong.
Nauseatingly cringeworthy though that sounds, the ethos of abandon cool all ye who enter here makes an enveloping, uplifting change from the self-conscious self-regard that compromises most other places of enjoyment. The atmosphere is partisan, but in support of everything; the feeling is tribal, but as one. At the start of 2017, we have never needed darts more.
Daniel Harris is a writer, and co-directed House of Flying Arrows, a documentary about darts, for Universal Pictures. Watch the trailer , and buy the film here. Harris tweets @DanielHarris.
If Westminster is, as Andrew Neil termed it, “a tiny, toy-town world beyond the reach of most of us,” then the House of Lords is that rare, discontinued train set, whose eBay bidding chain is made up of collectors with money to burn.
Arriving at the peer’s entrance – of course it has more than one entrance – the tall man in the tailcoat on the front desk asks: “If sir wouldn’t mind waiting in the lobby, please.” His sentence structure is as strange as his use of the third person. Several coat pegs have «reserved» written above them and the ceremony of the place is forthright.
Lord Ashdown, though, appears unfazed.
After a brisk march through a few echoing corridors, during which not one person says hello to him, the former Royal Marines captain gestures towards an enormously long table flanked by just two leather chairs. Ashdown was created a Life Peer in 2001 and has been an outspoken constitutional critic of the second chamber ever since; which begs the question, then, why did he accept the title in the first place?
He prefaces a confident answer with a shrug. “I came into this place to get rid of it. How else can you get rid of something unless you’re in the right place to vote to get rid of it, or at the very least for its reform? I think it is an affront to have an undemocratic second chamber. The principle of democracy is that those who make the laws have the power to do so because they have been conferred through the ballot box.”
While Ashdown might resent what he calls the “creature of the executive”, he isn’t entirely against all of that creature’s comforts. “I suppose if you want to keep it then alright, all this gold-plated stuff isn’t too uncongenial; but far too many of their Lordships get their feet under the table and lose whatever radical principles they had before. They get so seduced by being called Milord every other second that they want to keep the place going.”
So what should the second chamber look like, according to Ashdown? “My view is that it should be elected as it is elsewhere in the world. It should be geographically based, it should be based on regions, and it should be elected on a term different from the House of Commons. It should be elected by proportionate representation and if it was then it would have a wider diversity of people.
“Of course, the Commons has primacy but that doesn’t mean that it should have absolute primacy. This place does some of its job well; it’s a good revising chamber but it’s very bad at holding the government to account.”
The investment manager Gina Miller told the New Statesman last year that in campaigning to block the Conservative government’s move to invoke article 50 without reference to the Commons, she was “doing the Labour party’s job.” If reformed, as Ashdown insists is necessary, can the Lords provide an effective opposition when one is absent elsewhere? He explains: “The House of Commons is supposed to be the watchdog of the government, but in truth it’s more like a lapdog. You see it now, Labour failing to oppose the government on things that really matter – the interception bill, Brexit for example, where their position has been so weak. The House of Lords does, then, compensate for the failings of the Commons, but nowhere near as much as it should, and would do if it was elected. If you had a second chamber that successfully did its job in holding the executive to account, I would argue that you wouldn’t have had the poll tax, and you wouldn’t have had the Iraq war.”
Ashdown says that the second chamber should be elected but retain its power of veto; couldn’t that be viewed as a contradiction in terms? What would stop the Lords from preventing something that had been decided democratically in the Commons? What if the Lords wanted to block Brexit? Ashdown takes a deep breath. “I would caution against that. The people have voted and whether you like it or not, that is superior to both Houses. We must allow the government to enact Brexit, but that doesn’t mean that it should be allowed to go through completely unamended.”
In a democracy, the principle of a popular mandate ought to be sacrosanct; but if we restrict the second chamber’s role to scrutinising and amending legislation, are we missing an opportunity for better governance? Why not let the Lords have an originating function? Ashdown suggests that some degree of competition between two elected chambers could be healthy, noting the positives of plurality. “If you look at the model of other second chambers around the world — there are 84 by my count — only four are not elected. These are Belarus, Ukraine, Britain and Canada. Not very good company, is it?
“I think they all have a limited power of check. Now take, for instance, treaties. The government has the ability to introduce treaties, part of their own prerogative, not subject to parliamentary scrutiny at all. The Nato treaty is one, Brexit is another. I think that the House of Lords should have a particular role in the ratification of treaties. The present Salisbury Convention, which isn’t bad, could simply be translated into law very easily. In any case, I accept the primacy of the Commons, but it must not have total primacy.”
Ashdown’s politics are decidedly centrist, informed by the habit of compromise and in favour of coalitions. All things considered, his views on the Lords are perhaps unsurprising. But in a political climate that is so obtrusively partisan, how optimistic can he be about recovering the centre ground? Ashdown is emphatic: “There has never been a successful government that has not been of the progressive centre. Extreme governments, on either side, lead you to disaster. If you will not be receptive to the idea of coalitions then you can’t provide sensible government.”
Britain’s duopoly, Ashdown warns, is a dying concept. He adds with a finger wag: “The truth is that democracy is not divided in two. I mean, what do you know in the internet age when people have multiple choices? They want to have a bit of this and a bit of that. The world is not divided into Conservatives and Labour. There are people with a whole range of views and it is one of the remarkable things about our time. If our lives are pluralist, then how can you make our politics binary?”
This article originally appeared in the New Statesman’s Political Studies Guide for 2017.

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Overtime finally worked for the Ducks. It came on a baffling play by the opposing goaltender after Anaheim clawed for two points against one of the worst teams in the NHL that was missing three players in the final period.
The hockey gods saw to it that Ondrej Kase was the hero. Perhaps the Ducks’ most humble player scored with 35.6 seconds remaining in overtime to give the Ducks a 3-2 win against the Arizona Coyotes on Friday at Honda Center .
Kase whacked at a puck that Arizona goalie Mike Smith inexplicably held on to for several seconds and Kase converted it as Anaheim got its first overtime win this season.
“My stick broke and I didn’t get anything on it and it ends up in the back of the net,” Smith said of the goal. “I tried to do too much.”
“It’s amazing,” Kase said. “Every score is good. We needed this score.”
Kase, whose English is limited in media situations, usually lets his goal celebrations tell the story. His teammates surrounded him to share the joy. It was his fourth NHL goal and, by his account, his first overtime goal.
“He’s a funny kid,” Cam Fowler said. “He’s been working really hard. I can see the progression in his game, and how far he’s come. He’s been a big player for us. He scored some big goals. I was really happy for him tonight to get that one. It’s the first overtime winner, hopefully something he can remember.”
Anaheim appeared on its way to a win after Chris Wagner’s seeing-eye goal in the second period gave it a 2-1 lead, but the Coyotes tied it 3:12 into the third period and were in position to win it despite a rash of injuries.
The Coyotes lost forwards Martin Hanzal and Jordan Martinook and defenseman Jakob Chychrun, who took an elbow from Ducks wing Nick Ritchie in the third period.
Wagner wheeled around the right circle and threw the puck on net with Smith guarding the post. Wagner’s shot hit Smith’s pad and somehow found an opening to bounce into the net.
Factor in two goal posts that Arizona hit earlier and Anaheim seemed to have luck on its side.
But for most of the game, the Ducks found themselves in a deadlock with the Coyotes, who took a minus-42 goal differential, the second worst in the NHL, into the game. Arizona has been without forwards Max Domi, a noted Ducks killer, and Brad Richardson because of long-term injuries.
The Coyotes still have a top line with speed that tied it 1-1 off a rush 79 seconds into the second period. Hanzal went to the net and had Anthony Duclair’s pass redirect off his body and into the net. The goal ended goalie John Gibson’s shutout streak at more than 114 minutes.
The Coyotes might have taken a lead shortly after on a curious play when Ducks defenseman Brandon Montour appeared to throw his stick at Tobias Rieder to stop Rieder on a partial breakaway. Replays seemed to show that Montour did not touch the puck first before the stick left his hand. Rieder looked at the official — such a play usually results in a penalty shot — but no penalty was called.
Corey Perry ’s play has seen an uptick lately and he helped the Ducks get the game’s first goal. Rickard Rakell and Josh Manson set up Perry between the circles and Perry wristed a shot that went in off Joseph Cramarossa for Cramarossa’s third career goal.

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© Source: http://www.latimes.com/la-sp-ducks-coyotes-20170106-story.html
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Seattle Seahawks’ Thomas Rawls (34) leaps over Carolina Panthers’ Daryl Worley to score a touchdown in the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 4, 2016, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
By Case Keefer ( contact )
Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017 | 2 a.m.
We’re entering the third season of the annual South Point-lined Play of the Day competition, effective July 1.
Starting bankrolls have reset to $10,000, with the maximum bet being to win $1,000 and the minimum wager $300. Ray Brewer won the 2015-2016 season, after Taylor Bern prevailed in 2014-2015. Bern stepped away in the middle of the 2016-2017 season with a 16-12 record and $13,317 bankroll, with Mike Grimala taking his place.
In my preview column earlier in the week, I agonized over which teams to pick in both wild-card games with point spreads of more than a touchdown. Three days later, I’m wavering on one of the picks but feel fully confident in the other.
The Seahawks are the latter. The more I think about it, the more I have a hard time envisioning the Lions making this game competitive.
Detroit’s last three games, which it lost by a total of 49 points, are more indicative of its value as a team than all the close wins it snuck out in the middle of the season. And none of those games were in a venue as tough as CenturyLink Field.
The Lions didn’t even play a game on the West Coast all year, let alone in this part of the country’s most unforgiving venue. The Seahawks’ offense hasn’t been great, but this is a favorable matchup for it to get right.
The Lions have the second-fewest sacks in the league, and won’t be able to punish the Seahawks for their soft offensive line. They’re also weak in the secondary, and Russell Wilson should be able to take advantage by peppering Doug Baldwin and Jimmy Graham with passes.
Seattle will have a big lead in this game. A backdoor cover is the only thing that worries me, but it’s not a big enough worry to push me off the Seahawks.

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Cristiano Ronaldo began his year by scoring in the 5-0 demolition of Granada on Saturday in La Liga as Real Madrid tied Barcelona’s Spanish record of 39 games unbeaten in all competitions.
Francisco «Isco» Alarcon scored twice and Karim Benzema and Casemiro added a goal each at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
Madrid is six points ahead of second-placed Barcelona, which plays fourth-placed Villarreal on Sunday.
Ronaldo, who was rested in Madrid’s first-leg 3-0 win against Sevilla in the Copa del Rey on Wednesday, scored with a close-range header off a cross by Marcelo in the 27th minute.
«It was important to begin the year like this,» Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said. «We have to keep this pace the rest of the year. »
Madrid’s last setback was a 2-0 loss at Wolfsburg in the quarterfinal first leg of the Champions League in April. Since then, it has won 30 games and drawn nine under Zidane, a run that included three titles.
Zidane, who has lost only two games since taking over Madrid a year ago, had already matched the club record of 34 games without a defeat set in 1989 under coach Leo Beenhakker.
The Spanish record set by Luis Enrique’s Barcelona last season ended with a loss to Madrid at Camp Nou in April.
«It gives us great satisfaction to equal this record,» Zidane said. «We have no limits and we will do everything possible to keep this going. »
Madrid, which has won eight of its last nine league games, will have a chance to take the record outright in the second leg at Sevilla on Thursday.
Isco opened the scoring with a low shot from inside the area in the 12th after a mistake by the Granada defense while trying to move the ball forward, and Benzema — in an offside position — added to the lead in the 20th off the rebound of a shot by Luka Modric.
Benzema, who also was rested against Sevilla, has scored in seven consecutive games against Granada. He has a total of 10 goals in 11 matches against the team from southern Spain.
Ronaldo increased the lead after Marcelo cleared a defender in the left side before making a perfect cross into the area, and Isco netted again from close range after a low cross by Modric from the right flank for 4-0 in the 31st.
Casemiro scored the final goal in the 58th after a free kick by James Rodriguez, who entered in the second half after impressing against Sevilla midweek.
Madrid was still without injured defenders Sergio Ramos and Pepe, as well as forward Gareth Bale.
Granada remained second-to-last in the 20-team standings.
Third-placed Sevilla plays at fifth-placed Real Sociedad later Saturday, while sixth-placed Atletico faces Eibar.

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© Source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/article125136589.html
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OAKLAND, Calif. — Draymond Green didn’t speak highly of the Golden State Warriors ‘ fourth-quarter offense after blowing a 24-point lead at home and losing to the Memphis Grizzlies in overtime, 128-119, Friday night.
«Our fourth-quarter offense has been atrocious, and I don’t know if you could see,» Green said. «Everyone only notices in losses, but I actually pay attention to things when we win also. »
Golden State managed to score only 13 points in the final quarter. Before that, the defending Western Conference champs appeared to be on their way to their fifth straight victory. But the team says the offense became stagnant and movement became minimal.
Editor’s Picks Warriors stunned in OT after late collapse
Leading by as much as 24 points, the Golden State Warriors fell to the Memphis Grizzlies 128-119 in overtime.
In the midst of their offensive lull, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said he noticed something.
«I didn’t like our body language,» Kerr said. «That’s the main thing. I thought we were playing a really good, solid game through three quarters. We were taking care of the ball and defending, but the fourth quarter, once they made that run, our body language was bad. That can’t happen and that bothered me. »
Green made an argument that the poor body language surfaced in the third quarter, and admitted he was probably the main culprit.
Even though it was a colossal, embarrassing meltdown, Green said he was relieved they picked up their sixth loss of the season.
«I’m actually happy we lost today because there’s some things that we need to correct in order to win a championship, and that’s our goal,» he said. «So trying to win every regular-season game really don’t matter. I want to see us get better each and every time we step on the floor, and I don’t feel like that’s been happening for the things we need to get better at. So, I’m kind of thrilled that we lost because you usually make corrections when you lose. »
There was a play in the fourth quarter that summed up the Warriors’ frustration with their late-game offensive decisions.
The Warriors were up two with 22 seconds left in regulation. Klay Thompson collected an offensive rebound and kicked it out to Kevin Durant who dribbled some time off the clock and ended up shooting a contested 3-point from the top of the key that clanked off the rim.
Memphis gathered the rebound and called timeout. Green was furious as he stormed to the bench while shaking his head in disdain. As great as Durant is one-on-one, Golden State allowed Memphis to get its defense set.
«We had Kevin with an iso at the top,» Kerr explained. «He had Zach [Randolph] on him and I thought about taking a timeout, but I liked the matchup and so I let the play go through. »
Durant said Green was a little miffed that they didn’t work the pick-and-roll with Stephen Curry on that possession.
«We just stayed with it,» Grizzlies center Marc Gasol said. «We played together and shared the ball offensively, really unselfish. »
That defensive stop by Randolph on Durant was huge.
Out of the timeout, Mike Conley got Green to switch out on him and he penetrated and then hit a step-back jumper to tie the score before heading to overtime.
Memphis’ first lead of the game came in overtime, 113-111, and the Grizzlies never gave it up from there. Afterward, Green brought up Thompson, saying all he was doing was standing around during the latter parts of the game because the ball wasn’t moving.
He said that’s the team’s fault, not Thompson’s.
«We just haven’t executed very well,» Kerr said. «Maybe that’s something that we can do better as a coaching staff, trying to get guys in better position. We’ll look at the tape and continue to experiment and try different things. But we have to close games better and execute better offensively. »
Green agreed.
«We’ve got some things that we need to correct to be a championship team, and right now we’re not that,» Green said.

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Sentiment rank: -1.5

© Source: http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/18424098/golden-state-warriors-draymond-green-calls-team-fourth-quarter-offense-atrocious
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