Sports Poets Society

Secondo anno per la nuova Big East che potrebbe terminare, ancora una volta, con la vittoria finale di Villanova. In una conference molto equilibrata, di livello superiore rispetto a quella passata , però non sarebbe una grande sorpresa vedere una fra Georgetown e Xavier battagliare fino all’ultimo per il titolo . Senza dimenticare, ovviamente, Butler e St. John’s , pronte a stupire. Dovranno invece abbandonare i sogni di gloria, almeno per questa stagione, Creighton e Marquette , con De Paul impegnata a smentire, per la 7a stagione consecutiva , l’ultimo posto in graduatoria. LE MEDIE - CREIGHTON BLUE JAYS Doug Mc Dermott è uscito dal gruppo (quasi cit.). Battute a parte, i Bluejays devono fare i conti con la partenza di quattro quinti del loro starting-five . Oltre al nuovo giocatore dei Bulls , hanno lasciato Creighton anche Gibbs, Maniget e Wragger , tutti punti-cardine di un sistema che vedrà in Chatman l’unico reduce dalla scorsa annata .  McDermott padre, però,...

Former Marquette guard Travis Diener is No. 6 in school history with 1,691 points and third in assists with 617 È stato uno dei giocatori più amati del nostro campionato negli ultimi anni, grazie alle 4 stagioni con la Dinamo Sassari . Travis Diener ha lasciato il segno anche negli Stati Uniti: assieme a giocatori come Dwyane Wade e Steve Novak , ha portato Marquette alla semifinale nazionale NCAA – poi persa con Kansas – nel 2003 e in seguito ha giocato per cinque stagioni nella NBA.  Playmaker dalla fenomenale visione di gioco, Diener è sempre stato anche un ottimo tiratore dell’arco . Prima di ritirarsi quest’estate, l’ex playmaker della Dinamo è riuscito a vincere il suo primo trofeo italiano: la Coppa Italia . Dopo una carriera così intensa, terminata a 32 anni, Diener ha accettato subito di tornare a lavorare nel mondo del basket e più precisamente nell’ateneo con il quale aveva raggiunto traguardi straordinari. Marquette lo ha assunto a giugno come Directo...

http://espn.go.com/ncb/notebook/_/page/top50coaches23/no-23-creighton-greg-mcdermott Editor's note: Over the next five weeks, we will reveal the top 50 coaches in college basketball as decided by our ESPN Forecast panel. Today we unveil No. 23: Creighton's Greg McDermott. On Thursday, we release No. 22. Originally Published: June 4, 2014 By ESPN.com Where does Greg McDermott go from here? That's the big question many will ask about McDermott, the hangover to what was otherwise one of his best years as both a coach and a father. Now that Doug McDermott , one of the best and most productive players in college hoops history -- the runaway 2013-14 national player of the year and the sport's fifth-leading scorer all-time -- has graduated to the NBA, what will his father do at Creighton? It is not an unfair question. After all, before Doug McDermott transformed from a player his own father essentially passed on, Greg McDermott needed a lifeline o...

Austin Edward Chatman Position: Guard Height: 6'0" Weight: 175 Year: Senior Hometown: The Colony, Texas High School: The Colony Birthday: April 28, 1993 Parents: Vance and Paula Chatman Siblings: Lauren and Alexis Major: Entrepreneurship Favorite Meal: Steak and asparagus Favorite Musician: Jay-Z Sports Hero: Muhammad Ali Hoops Dream: NBA Occupation If Not Basketball: Venture capitalist One Dinner Guest: Picasso Hobbies: Shopping and cycling Dream Car: Lamborghini Diablo Best Summer Vacation: Aruba Favorite Book: The Great Gatsby Favorite Actor: Denzel Washington What Mom Cooks Best: Strawberry cake If I Was Coach: I would have a suit for every game Dream Date: Beyonce 2013-14: Junior at Creighton • Started every game for the second straight season. • Ranks 10th in Creighton history in career assists. • Led team in assists in 2013-14 with 155, which was second-most in BIG EAST. • Ranked 29th nationally in assist/turnover ratio, 65th in assists and 95th in assists...

Steve Wojciechowski wouldn’t leave Duke , where he spent 4 years as a player and 15 years as an assistant to Mike Krzyzewski , for just any job. When Marquette came calling shortly after Buzz Williams’ surprise departure for Virginia Tech , Wojciechowski finally found the right opportunity at the right school at the right time. He might have wanted to take one more look at the roster before he was introduced April 1 as the new head coach. After a season of underachievement in 2013-14, the Golden Eagles lost three of their top four scorers plus a valuable inside defensive presence and leader . Then nearly four months after Wojciechowski was hired, Todd Mayo (11.3 PPG), the team’s top returning scorer and best perimeter shooter, decided to quit the team and pursue an NBA career . So if you’re scoring at home, the Golden Eagles lost 71 percent of their scoring and 82 percent of their 3-point shooting . They begin the season with a roster of nine , not counting two transfers w...

Standing (l-r): 0 Leon Gilmore III, 4 Ronnie Harrell, 13 Cole Huff, 32 Toby Hegner, 41 Geoffrey Groselle, 31 Will Artino, 50 Mogboluwaga Oginni, 15 Rick Kreklow, 40 Zach Hanson. Sitting (l-r):  11 Tyler Clement, 23 James Milliken, 22 Avery Dingman, 1 Austin Chatman, 21 Isaiah Zierden, 10 Mo Watson Jr., 5 Devin Brooks, 2 Gabriel Connealy. FOUR THE AGES It was arguably one of the greatest senior classes in Creighton history.  The quartet of Doug McDermott, Grant Gibbs, Jahenns Manigat and Ethan Wragge put together an impressive run in its four seasons. The 29 wins three years ago set a single-season school record . The 57 combined wins from 2011-12 and 2012-13 set a two-year record . The 84 wins over the past three seasons and 107 wins in the previous four years also are program highs.  The four players combined for 5,964 points, 2,250 rebounds and 1,062 assists.  Doug McDermott  finished with 3,150 points , fifth-best in NCAA history , a...

AMAZON https://www.amazon.it/Hoops-Portraits-Ritratti-basket-americano/dp/1731583168/ref=monarch_sidesheet SPOTIFY https://open.spotify.com/episode/22i3JAfEdjaOVPoRj0446u di CHRISTIAN GIORDANO © SKY SPORT 24 © Due concetti saltano in mente accostando le parole "Dean Smith". "Quattro angoli" e "Dean-stia", giocando sull'assonanza del nome diventato icona del college basketball, di un intero Stato – il North Carolina – e della parte degli USA che vota per i Democratici più liberal . Che non si traduce con "liberali" e tantomeno con "liberisti". E infatti chi la politica la fa di mestiere ne definiva il pubblico appoggio come il "bacio della morte" sicuro per qualsivoglia candidato. È stato molto più che un semplice, per quanto fenomenale maestro di basket e di vita, coach Dean Smith. È stato l'essenza stessa dell'insegnante vecchia maniera, un punto di riferimento per cui persino il suo ex allievo predilett...

A look at the upcoming BIG EAST Men's Basketball season with the Marquette Golden Eagles. Nov. 12, 2014 The Big Picture:  New coach Steve Wojciechowski takes over a Marquette program that had an eight-year streak of NCAA appearances end last year. Wojciechowski comes from Duke where he was part of two national championship teams as an assistant coach and was a standout player as well. His first Marquette team will have two returning starters and six letterwinners. New faces, which include transfers, a redshirt and some freshmen are expected to contribute immediately. Who's Back:  Senior guard Derrick Wilson is the most experienced returnee with 100 career games under his belt. Last year, he averaged 5.0 points, 4.2 assists and 3.8 rebounds. He has a career assist/turnover ratio of 2.84. Senior forward Juan Anderson averaged 3.2 points and 3.3 rebounds in 19 starts. Guard/forward Deonte Burton made the BIG EAST All-Rookie Team after averaging 6.9 points. Si...

di Raffaela Lanza, La Stampa 3 febbraio 2005 Tre acquisti per la Pro Vercelli in chiusura di mercato. A Vercelli arrivano il terzino destro Matteo D’Alessandro , l’attaccante Davide Luppi e il centrocampista Jakub Hromada , della Juventus Primavera e capitano della Nazionale slovacca under 18 .  Matteo D’Alessandro già ieri si è allenato al Piola con i nuovi compagni: svincolato dal Monza , arriva in via Massaua a titolo definitivo. Classe 1989 , vanta trascorsi in serie B: ha vestito la maglia della Reggina in cadetteria, dopo aver debuttato tra i prof con la Reggiana .  Due stagioni fa è stato a Cuneo, in questa stagione ha indossato fino a poche settimane fa la maglia del Monza. A Vercelli ritrova alcuni ex compagni: il portiere Viotti , anche a lui nella società biancorossa fino a poche settimane fa. Poi Cosenza, con cui ha giocato nella Reggina , il portiere Russo, compagno di squadra nelle giovanili del Genoa , e Francesco Ardizzone e Luca Castiglia , a...

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/espn25/story?page=moments/22 Rick Weinberg Special to ESPN.com Every once in a while, everything comes together and basketball perfection is attained. Sometimes, by the most unlikely of teams. The Villanova Wildcats didn't finish in the top 20 of the final NCAA basketball poll in 1985. They finished third in Big East, after getting hammered by 23 points in the regular season finale, their 10th defeat of the season. But when they played their game, they were the kind of club that opposing coaches feared. That fear grew during the NCAA Tournament as the Wildcats knocked off Dayton, Michigan, Maryland and North Carolina to reach the Final Four, where they shocked Memphis State to reach the championship game against defending champion Georgetown. Georgetown, the team the nation loved to dislike, was an overwhelming favorite, led by center Patrick Ewing on the nation's best defense, which had held opponents to just 39 percent s...

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2014-15-ncaa-basketball-preview-the-big-east-villanova-wildcats-georgetown-hoyas-xavier-butler-creighton-marquette/ November 7, 2014 by Mark Titus Hey, speaking of 2010 McDonald’s All-Americans with weight problems … Before I offer my thoughts, let’s check in with the Georgetown fans to see how they felt about year one of the Joshua Smith Experience: [georgetownfingers...]. Yep, pretty much what I expected. What makes Smith so frustrating is that he’s so freaking good . Well, he’s good at being immovable , catching the ball, and putting it into the basket . Outside of that, he can be a huge liability. He’s an awful defender (especially at hedging on ball screens), he doesn’t rebound as well as he should, it takes him half the shot clock to get down the floor, he’s almost always in foul trouble , and he doesn’t have the stamina to play for more than half of the game . But holy smokes: When Smith has it going, he’s unstoppable . That’s ...

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2014-15-ncaa-basketball-preview-the-big-east-villanova-wildcats-georgetown-hoyas-xavier-butler-creighton-marquette/ November 7, 2014 by Mark Titus Halfway through last season, I thought JayVaughn Pinkston might have a shot to be named Big East Player of the Year over Doug McDermott . McBuckets had the national POY award locked up almost as soon as the season started. But, I wondered, what if Villanova dominated Creighton both times they faced each other (they didn’t), and what if Pinkston maintained his pace of 18 points and seven boards per game in Big East play (he didn’t)? Pinkston eventually wound up on the all-conference second team when his scoring numbers dipped over the second half of the season, and my hypothetical ended up looking ridiculous. But back in January, I swear you could’ve said, “ JayVaughn Pinkston is better than Doug McDermott ” and I wouldn’t have necessarily laughed you out of the room. So what happened to Pinkston? Well, n...

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2014-15-ncaa-basketball-preview-the-big-east-villanova-wildcats-georgetown-hoyas-xavier-butler-creighton-marquette/ November 7, 2014 by Mark Titus Smith-Rivera was named the Big East Preseason Player of the Year , so he isn’t exactly an unknown in the world of college basketball. But if you ask a college hoops fan who doesn’t follow the Big East closely to name someone from last year’s Georgetown team, and then you remind them that Otto Porter wasn’t on that team , my guess is that their answer would be either Markel Starks or Joshua Smith . Starks, after all, was the senior point guard who was first-team all-conference last season , and Smith was … well, we’ll get to Smith in a bit. In the meantime, check out this blind player comparison from last season:                    PPG     RPG      St/gm     TO/g...

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2014-15-ncaa-basketball-preview-the-big-east-villanova-wildcats-georgetown-hoyas-xavier-butler-creighton-marquette/ by Mark Titus November 7, 2014 There’s a fair chance that none of the Big East players in the 2015 NBA draft class will ever play a meaningful pro minute . That’s insane. I’ve held out hope that the Big East would get its mojo back after conference realignment. I mean, it ’s still called the Big East and DePaul is still at the bottom of the standings, so it can’t be that different, right? Well, yes, it can be. There are no noteworthy NBA prospects in the Big East. That is the world we live in. Dave Gavitt is rolling in his grave. If any Big East player this year has a chance to carve out an NBA career, it’s Darrun Hilliard . Before we explain why he has a shot, let’s start with the bad side of Hilliard’s scouting report. Even though he was Villanova’s second-leading scorer and was named the conference’s co-most improved playe...

New York Times Published: March 12, 1987 Gary McLain , a starting guard on Villanova's 1985 national collegiate championship team, said he used cocaine during the Final Four tournament in Lexington, Ky., that season and was high when the team visited the White House for a reception.  McLain, 23 years old, from Hempstead, L.I., told of his drug dependency and subsequent rehabilitation in a first-person story for the March 16 issue of Sports Illustrated magazine. McLain wrote the story with Jeffrey Marx, a reporter with The Lexington Herald-Leader . ''I had played well on coke, I had played bad on it,'' McLain said. ''It didn't seem to matter. So I did about a quarter gram of blow before the national semifinal in the bathroom of room 135 of the Ramada Inn, about three miles from Rupp Arena. In the locker room I was all quiet and subdued. Everybody was saying, 'You all right? You all right?' I said, 'Yeah, I'm with it.' B...

Villanova honors outstanding former players, coaches, and others by retiring their numbers or jerseys. For those honored, a replica jersey is hung in the rafters of the Pavilion. Uniform numbers of retired jerseys remain in circulation, while retired numbers are no longer used.  Paul Arizin's #11 is the only retired number.  As of 2011, 19 have been honored with a retired number or jersey, including 14 players, four coaches, and longtime trainer Jake Nevin. The honorees include: Al Severance, Coach. Jack Kraft, Coach. Rollie Massimino, Coach (1973–92). Jersey retired in 2005. #1 Jake Nevin, longtime trainer. Jersey retired in 1984. #2 Randy Foye (2003–06). Jersey retired in 2011. #11 Paul Arizin (1947–50). Number retired in 1994. #14 Larry Hennessy #14 Hubie White (1959–62). Jersey retired in 2001. #24 Wali Jones (1961–64). Jersey retired in 1995. #24 Tom Ingelsby (1970–73). Jersey retired in 2006. #25 Bill Melchionni (1963–66). Jersey retire...

https://www.tuttobiciweb.it/article/76344 Ha raggiunto e superato, in splendida forma, un importante e significativo traguardo Giovanni Mantovani, valido corridore degli anni ’80 con un palmarès di primo rilievo: il traguardo dei sessant’anni.  E’ nato a Gudo Visconti, zona agricola a sud di Milano, dove tuttora risiede, il 5 febbraio 1955.  Ha incrociato i pedali, già dalle categorie giovanili, con Giuseppe Saronni, quasi suo vicino di casa e più giovane di un anno e mezzo circa, con duelli accaniti, sia su strada, sia su pista. Pure le caratteristiche tecniche dei due erano simili: veloci, scattanti, provetti pistard e che tenevano sulle salite. Entrambi hanno esordito fra i professionisti nel 1977.  La carriera di Giovanni Mantovani ha subito due lunghi stop per gravissimi infortuni che ne hanno condizionato i risultati. E’ stato medaglia d’argento nella corsa a punti dei mondiali 1980 a Besançon, vincitore di due tappe del Giro d’Italia nel medesi...