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Manchester United striker Robin van Persie is willing to leave a huge £10m loyalty bonus on the table in order to exit the reigning Premier League champions at the end of the season. This according to reports in the Sunday Daily Mirror.
So much for what David Moyes said yesterday when he disputed the reports that RVP is unsettled and looking to leave. Van Persie must be at the very least somewhat disgruntled is he’s willing to forgo all that cash to in order to leave Old Trafford.
Arizona Cardinals running back Rashard Mendenhall will retire. Yes, at the tender age of 26. How’s that for a surprise to kick off NFL free agency?
ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter is reporting this development. Mendenhall battled turf toe for much last season. When he finally got to be 100%, Mendenhall scored five touchdowns in his final eight games. Rashard Mendenhall was “kind of a big deal” coming out of Niles West high school. As a five-star prospect, he was rated the No. 1 recruit in the state of Illinois by Scout.com. He committed to Ron Turner and the Illini where re-wrote the Illinois single season rushing record book.
Joachim Low is one of the rumored replacements for David Moyes at Manchester United. In fact, the odds-makers who speculate on such things were quite enamored with the idea at times. The Germany National Coach was considered a favorite. Well, it’s not going to happen.
First off, the “Moyes being sacked” rumors have quieted down. Second, Joachim Low himself has ruled it out.
Northwestern center Alex Olah seems to play his best college basketball versus the best competition. The sophomore 7-footer had one of his best games versus Noah Vonleh of the Indiana Hoosiers; a likely top ten pick in the NBA Draft this June. Olah’s career high in scoring came versus the Wisconsin Badgers, who have the best NCAA Tournament resume of anyone in the Big Ten.
And Alex Olah has shown how tough he is too. NU Coach Chris Collins said before the IU game that Olah had “a walking boot on both feet, I didn’t even know if he was going to play until an hour before tip off, yet he comes out and puts up 17, 11. versus a lottery pick.”
The Big East Tournament has produced some of the most memorable games in recent college basketball history. With a new-look conference though, the 2014 Big East Tournament lacks the headliners of year’s past. Only Villanova and Creighton are NCAA Tournament locks so there are numerous teams desperate for a win in hopes of padding their resume and improving their chances of getting into the tourney. Here is a preview and my predictions for the 2014 Big East Tournament. All games will air on Fox Sports 1.
Click here for The Sports Bank’s Bracketology.
Now that NFL free agency is underway, it’s always fun to look at Chicago Bears story links and rumors on the internet. And like the cliche says “it all starts with the quarterback.” Jay Cutler is obviously signed for the long term, but it was interesting to see what words and phrases Google associates with him, and some of the Bears other marquee players.
Sometimes the world of Google auto-completes is dull, sometimes it’s funny. Sometimes it’s brutally mean. Numbers indicate how many results were found in Google for that search string.
Corey Wootton and the Chicago Bears were not able to reach an agreement. The Northwestern product, best known for sacking/injuring Brett Favre on the final play of “the ole gunslinger’s” career will now test the free agent waters. Corey Wootton tweeted today:
Fran McCaffery and his #24 Iowa Hawkeyes are likely in the NCAA Tournament. They will fall out of the polls, deservedly, after losing a Senior Night game in which they were favored by 12. But I still think they’re good to go dancing even if they get knocked out of the first round of the Big Ten Tournament this week.
The Hawkeyes lost in dramatic fashion to an Illinois Fighting Illini team that has been playing very well down the stretch, winning four of their last five. Jon Ekey, or “3Key,” broke their hearts with a last second triple. And in the postgame media session, Fran McCaffery got a NCAA Tourney bubble question.
North Carolina big man James Michael McAdoo was as blue chip a recruit as blue chip can be. He was MVP of the 2011 McDonald’s All-American game in Chicago before he came to Chapel Hill. Back then he was known as James McAdoo, not James Michael McAdoo. His college basketball career has been a bit up and down. He hasn’t quite lived up to the enormous hype that accompanied him into Roy Williams’ blue blood program.
And one Duke Blue Devils fan took a very specific and very unique swipe at James Michael McAdoo tonight during the big rivalry game at Cameron Indoor.
With Zydrunas Ilgauskas night, the Cleveland Cavaliers are doing everything they can to try and supplant the Browns as the most pathetic sports franchise in Cleveland. And you thought the infamous “Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video 2″ made Cleveland a laughingstock.
We know the Browns are an organization that operates to the tune of Yakety Sax a.k.a. the Benny Hill theme, but the Cavs are right down there beside them.
The Green Bay Packers will keep Sam Shields in place next year as they try to revamp a beleaguered secondary. Pass defense was not exactly the Pack’s strong suit, and perhaps retaining Sam Shields will be a step in the right direction towards improving that. At least it does augment the concept of continuity on the defense.
Illini freshmen Malcolm Hill and Kendrick Nunn have been the main reason Illinois has rebounded somewhat from a disastrous season and moved closer towards respectability with a strong finish. Obviously, the Senior Night train wreck versus Michigan kind of dilutes that. However, even when you include the horrific showing versus the Wolverines on Tuesday, the Illini are 4-3 since John Groce decided to start Kendrick Nunn and Malcolm Hill instead of bringing them off the bench.
Just like, ahem, one prominent Chicago sportswriter, cough cough, had been calling for since February 1st. Now that 4-3 mark with Hill and Nunn starting is certainly an improvement over the 2-8 league record Illinois was sporting before Groce made the switch.
