My Sports News Digest

Deron Williams has not looked good. At all.

There is no sugar coating it. A few games in playing for Turkish side Besiktas, the biggest name in the NBA to sign overseas has not impressed anyone.

Williams led Besiktas into the EuroCup last week, which is a second tier tournament that took place in Belgium, and he had 7 points on 3 of 13 shooting with 6 turnovers. The man who should dominate at this level watched his team get eliminated fast.

Days before that in D-Will’s debut for Besiktas he was 3 for 15 shooting.

The man the Nets are talking about building around is getting bumped around, reports the New York Times. The physical play allowed in Europe seems to throw Williams off his game.

Asked if he was still adjusting to the European game, Williams said: “I mean, I’ve played in a lot of European basketball. I’ve played in the Olympics. But this is definitely different. The way the reffing has been going has been different for me, but I’ve got to adjust.”

Williams also looks out of shape, tweeted Jonathan Givony of Draft Express, something echoed by others watching the feed of the game.

It is all something that should concern Nets fans. It in no way is time to panic — he’s playing his way into shape and getting his skills sharp just being out on the court — but it’s something to watch. After playing through injuries last season and missing the end of the year, Williams is still trying to find his groove.

Three of the four Divisional Series are going the distance, as the Diamondbacks topped the Brewers 10-6 on Wednesday night to create a decisive Game 5 on Friday.

Both starters lasted exactly three innings in this offensive showcase.  Randy Wolf was pulled for a pinch-hitter in the top of the fourth having given up seven runs, and Joe Saunders was hit for in the bottom of the fourth having allowed three.

Micah Owings, who pitched scoreless fourth and fifth innings, was credited with the victory.

Ryan Roberts and Chris Young led the way for Arizona’s offense.  Roberts hit a grand slam in the bottom of the first, and Young immediately followed with the first of his two homers on the night.  Aaron Hill also homered for Arizona, and Paul Goldschmidt, Tuesday’s hero, went 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored.

Milwaukee’s lone homer came off the bat of the much-maligned Carlos Gomez.  Gomez, who didn’t even have an at-bat in the first three games of the series, also singled in his start over Nyjer Morgan.

Yuniesky Betancourt went 3-for-4 for the Brewers.  Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder both had lone doubles in four at-bats.

After combining to score 38 runs the last three games, the Diamondbacks and Brewers will get their aces back on the mound Friday in Milwaukee. Ian Kennedy and Yovani Gallardo are set for a rematch of the Game 1 that the Brewers claimed 4-1.

Notes

- If the Diamondbacks can come all of the way back, they’d be the first team since the 2003 Red Sox (vs. Oakland) to win a best-of-five after going down 0-2.

- The Diamondbacks are just the second team ever to hit grand slams in consecutive postseason games (Goldschmidt had one Wednesday). The 1977 Dodgers were the first.

- Young now has three homers in the series and five in 11 career postseason games. He has an extremely impressive .333/.458/.769 line in 39 at-bats overall in October.

- His two-homer game was the first in Arizona’s postseason history.

- Diamondbacks phenom Jarrod Parker struggled in his postseason debut. A somewhat surprising addition to the roster after just one regular-season appearance, he gave up one run and retired only one of the four hitters he faced in the sixth inning tonight.

- Arizona left fielder Gerardo Parra went hitless again, leaving him 0-for-15 with six strikeouts in the series. The Diamondbacks could make a change there in Game 5, perhaps going to Collin Cowgill in his place. Cowgill delivered a two-run single as a pinch-hitter tonight.

David Stern spent a lot of his post-negotiating session Tuesday trying to make a point — that the players walked away from a fair deal, a 50/50 split of “basketball related income.” It felt like spin at the time, in part because it was an informal concept and part just how Stern portrayed it.

Well, it was his spin. But a few reports from inside the bargaining room – particularly by Ken Berger at CBSSports.com — have leaked out and the reality of those informal conversations was that the owners and players made real progress. The two sides may only be a couple percentage points apart, meaning more like $ 80 million a year than the $ 240 million in the last formal proposals from either side.

Still, that may well not be enough to save the start of the season. There are a whole lot of hurdles in the way to make a deal a reality.

Here is how Berger describes what was discussed.

The league’s offer, according to three people familiar with it, came in a range of 49-51 — with 49 percent guaranteed and a cap of 51 percent, the sources said….

While the owners were caucusing, a member of the players’ group returned with a counterproposal — approximately 52 percent of BRI for the players with no additional expenses deducted. The players’ counterproposal followed the format presented by the owners — a 51-53 percent band with 51 percent guaranteed and a cap of 53. League officials rejected the offer, the sources said.

So while Hunter and Stern remained publicly entrenched in the economic positions of their most recent formal proposals — with the players asking for 53 percent and the league offering effectively 47, the reality is this: the gap has closed to 2 percentage points of BRI, the difference between the midpoint of the two offers.

For the record, union officials are ticked at Stern for taking a side conversation public.

There is hope there, if you’re feeling optimistic (50-52 percent range seems the middle ground, although how many expenses the owners get to take off the top impacts that number). That said, there are also a whole lot of hurdles between where the sides are late Tuesday night and where they need to be to get to a deal. Likely too many.

The primary one is that no talks are scheduled. David Stern sounded like a man who wanted to talk again and he is waiting until Monday to cancel regular season games in hopes the players union will make one more push, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo. However, union chief Billy Hunter sounded like he was in no rush to meet again saying talks may not resume until next month.

That was in part because of the constituency in the negotiating room. Agents and star players — guys like Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant who were there Tuesday, and LeBron James who was there last week — do not want the union to accept anything less than 53 percent of BRI. The entire rank and file does not feel the same way, but the stars are the hardliners and they likely can pull a majority with them right now.

Which brings us to the next big hurdle — Hunter and Stern both would really have to sell a deal like the one informally discussed. Hunter already has agents talking decertification of the union and sending letters out to clients telling them not to accept a deal they don’t like. The stars can afford to hold out and be hardliners. Hunter would have to convince a majority of players this was a good deal.

Stern has his own hardline owners, smaller market owners and ones who bought in at high prices and want a labor win. This deal would be a major labor win, but would it be enough of one to please most owners? There are some out there that want players to lose paychecks and feel the sting, expecting that to lead to a better deal for owners.

Then there are the system questions — if the players come all the way down to 52 percent of BRI they are going to demand a soft-cap salary system similar to what has been in place. That could be a hard sell with some owners in smaller markets that want to handcuff the spending power of larger markets.

That’s a big mountain still to climb.

But, they can climb it this week or they can pay a lot of lawyers a lot more money for a month or two then climb that exact same mountain later. It’s up to them. All that hangs in the balance is the NBA season and killing the momentum the league has built up in the past couple seasons.

To most casual hockey fans, Alex Ovechkin fell off the map last season. It’s tough to fault that mindset when you consider the fact that Ovi makes about million per year – not counting endorsements involving chocolate and magic powers.

The thing is, sometimes the bounces just don’t go your way. That’s exactly what happened to Ovechkin in 2010-11; the Washington Capitals superstar connected on a career-low 8.7 percent of his shots (the only time he’s ever been under double digits). To give you an idea of how big of a drop that is, Ovechkin took an almost identical amount of shots the last two seasons: 368 in 09-10 and 367 in 10-11, yet he scored 50 goals (13.8 percent) in 09-10 and 32 last season.

It’s fair to assume that at least some of that wasn’t related to luck – maybe Ovechkin was a little worn down, perhaps the Capitals’ decelerated system handcuffed him a bit – but the smart money is on a bounce-back season. In fact, online sports betting sites have not been fooled by Ovi’s off year; they gave him the best odds to win the Hart Trophy next season.

Here are their top six choices (with a tie for fifth):

Ovechkin 4/1 odds
Steven Stamkos 11/2
Sidney Crosby 13/2
Daniel Sedin 12/1
Henrik Sedin 14/1
Pavel Datsyuk 14/1

Interestingly, the Anze Kopitar bandwagon keeps getting more crowded, as the Los Angeles Kings’ previously underrated star was the next highest choice with 25/1 odds. It’s surprising – but delightful – to see the Kings’ marquee talent (not named Drew Doughty) get so much attention after sliding under the radar for quite some time. Maybe that has something to do with LA’s proximity to Las Vegas, but it’s still pleasant to see him get his due.

Here are the top three expected finalists for the Vezina Trophy:

Ryan Miller 5/1
Tim Thomas 7/1
Roberto Luongo 15/2

Looking down the list, Pekka Rinne (10/1) and Tomas Vokoun (18/1) are interesting dark horse choices, with Jonas Hiller (25/1) being an intriguing sleeper as well.

Moving on, here are their guesses for the Norris Trophy:

Shea Weber 4/1
Zdeno Chara 9/2
Nicklas Lidstrom 13/2

Interestingly enough, the Norris process is the only one with the same three anticipated finalists as there were last season. It’s honestly a bit surprising – but likewise delightful – to see Weber get the appreciation he deserves. As far as other awards, Bodog pegs Philadelphia Flyers center Brayden Schenn over 2011 top pick Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for the Calder Trophy and Stamkos tops Ovechkin for the Maurice Richard Trophy.

If you are a gambling fan, Vokoun at (18/1) sure seems appealing. Michal Neuvirth is likely to steal his fair share of starts, but that setup didn’t really hurt Tim Thomas in 2010-11. (Of course, Thomas put together a historic year, but don’t count out Vokoun for big numbers playing behind the first truly dominant team of his impressive career.)

There are plenty of ways to predict how the 2011-12 season will pan out, but looking at gambling odds can be an interesting way to gauge public opinion. So far, the oddsmakers seem like they know their stuff – for the most part, anyway. What do you think about those choices, though?

A little over two months ago, University of Georgia senior Harris English won as an amateur on the Nationwide Tour. Less than a month into his professional career, English was one stroke away from a second Nationwide win.

English played his way into a sudden death playoff with Danny Lee after 72 holes at the WNB Golf Classic in Midland, Texas. Aided by a third round 62, English tied Lee on 18-under, the two went to extra holes. Lee won the title with a par on the first hole of the playoff.

Lee won ,500 with the title, but was already assured of making it to the PGA Tour in 2012 by finishing inside the top-25 in the tour’s money list. English won ,700 for his effort. The Bulldog finished T-49 in his pro debut last week at the Soboba Golf Classic, earning ,587. He will be inside the top-75 on the money list.

Curiously, Lee won as a 19-year-old amateur on the European Tour in 2009 at the Johnnie Walker Classic. At the time, he was the youngest player to ever have taken a title on that tour. Matteo Manassero surpassed his record with a win at the 2010 Castello Masters.

The Toronto Maple Leafs go into the 2011-12 season with plenty of wild cards. From James Reimer backing up his breakout season to their unexpected top line keeping it together and plenty of health questions, the Leafs really could go either way.

Even with some rather big “ifs” floating around, Matthew Lombardi’s battle with post-concussion syndrome ranks as one of the most mysterious (and potentially difference-making). Lombardi scored a great contract to become a significant checking center for the Nashville Predators, but he instead just played in two games before a concussion ended his season in Tennessee.

In what some might consider a surprisingly quick recovery (or semi-recovery), Lombardi will make his preseason debut with the Leafs tonight. Who knows if he’ll really be able to stick with the team from a health and fitness standpoint off the bat, but the Maple Leafs aren’t easing him into the action. He’ll center a line with Joffrey Lupul and Phil Kessel during the Nashville Predators on Saturday.

While he practiced in full-contact drills for a week, this still seems like a surprisingly quick phase in his comeback. Lombardi knows that physical challenges will come sooner or later, too.

“I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time,” Lombardi said on Saturday after a pre-game skate at the Air Canada Centre. “It’s going to be a weight lifted off my shoulders…to get this first game in and then move on and put everything behind me.

“I’m definitely going have some nerves going on but it’s good…It’s been so long. I’ve been so anxious the last couple of weeks. It’s finally here. Getting into a game and putting all the bad stuff behind me and moving forward…

“Mentally, I’ve been preparing to play. I had it in the back of my mind (since being cleared for full contact this week).”

(snip)

“I’m confident I’m healed,” he said. “We play in a game that is physical. There’s always a risk even if I never had a concussion. That’s the way it is.”

Lombardi drew attention during his last season with the Phoenix Coyotes in 09-10, as he scored 19 goals and 53 points while exhibiting great speed and strong versatility. His concussion problems almost made him seem like a throwaway in the deal to bring Cody Franson to Toronto, but the shift-skating center could be significantly more valuable if he can stay healthy.

Of course, the Maple Leafs have plenty of “ifs” going into the season, but a healthy Lombardi could Toronto a more balanced team. We’ll see how things go for him during the next few days to see if that claim is valid, though.

After what was undeniably the most incredible night of baseball I’ve ever seen (are you over it yet? Are you believing it? I’m neither), I can confidently and aggressively say: Get me to the start of the college basketball season as soon as possible.

That ridiculous torrent of unlikely events that gushed out of your TV from St. Petersburg, Atlanta and Baltimore freakishly resembled — in a metamorphosed way — the early rounds of the NCAA tournament. Wasn’t it great? So familiar it made you tingle? I’m so ready for a new season of college hoops that tingle irritated my five-month-dormant itch. The bug has awoken and begun to crawl within. The hunger has become a ravening.

Baseball has always done that to me, though. The postseason is a comforting thing; it’s almost muscle memory, the way its arrival renews a seasonal clock inside of me. It reminds me with each passing night that the sport I love is ever so closer to coming back. And October hardball’s not so hard on the eyes, either. There are millions of worse ways to pass the time.

We still have five weeks to mill until college basketball begins, but I’m bringing this up now not just because last night’s regular-season finale of baseball spurred a yearning. No, the truly fortuitous aspect of the 2011-12 season is its unique existence, and I’m fully acknowledging that privilege already.

There will be little, or no, NBA to compete with. Thank you, David Stern God.

Plenty of people cross over between the two sports, but the collective fan bases of the NBA and college basketball have always been at odds to a certain extent. It’s a much colder acknowledgment of existence than what pro and college football fans have. There’s a rivalry of styles, an argument of aesthetics. This year, college hoops heads stand a good chance of watching their sport steal most of the attention on the hardwood.

The opportunity is rare, and we should bask in it for as long as the NBA owners and players care to nickel and dime and filibuster each other into next year. The way I see it, the NBA lockout is going to be the best thing to happen to college basketball since Indiana beat Duke in the 2002 Sweet 16. And oh what a night that was.

With all the what-ifs of a delayed start to the NBA season, we haven’t seen a lot of discussion about what it means for college. It’s going to be great, I tell you. Absolutely, undoubtedly great. Truth is, there isn’t a better season for this to happen to NCAA basketball than 2011-12.

The prospect of a clipped — or altogether aborted — NBA campaign has been pondered over, worried about and speculated on amongst writers and fans for far too … short a time, if you ask me. My apologies to NBA devotees, but your sport’s misery is mine’s benefit. We will absolutely see an uptick in interest if NBA fans have no LeBron James to tune into and hate by mid-November. As an unrelenting college basketball honk, I’m rooting for a full-on halt to the NBA season. Give me one year of this, and I’ll never complain about the abundance of iso sets at the pro level again.

I get my hopes up now over a shortened or eliminated NBA season because Ken Berger reported the dour nature of the latest labor talks Wednesday, and judging by the reaction from the men in charge it doesn’t look like anything positive is cresting with the two sides, who make a fight between me and an ex-girlfriend look like a marriage reception.

If you’re a fan of the young’uns, I ask you: Have you ever been this excited for a season? The offseason has always felt long (that’s because it is, and I love it; I’m starving for the sport by the time the season arrives in November), but this one has been particularly excruciating with all the conference realignment clogging up the spirit of the game and the sport. Football dictates the shifts, but basketball feels the effects all the same.

So let’s have this ornery lockout drag on through 2012, shall we? Give this year, the perfect year, all to college hoops. Let’s have a regular season where American basketball is mandated to prop its spotlight on the NBA stars of tomorrow. They deserve it. The sport deserves it. A throwback year, where Kentucky and North Carolina — two of the four greatest programs in the sport’s history — will likely stare each other down all season atop the polls. Those two teams probably have 10 future NBA players, combined. When they meet on Dec. 3 in Lexington, Ky., that will effectively be the first pro game of the season.

You’re never going to convert the diehard NBA guys and gals, obviously, but there’s a crowd of basketball fans that will have no choice but to turn to college basketball to get its roundball fix. There was a time when college basketball really had a grip on the American sports landscape. It has never dominated it, not outside of March, but for a majority of the ’80s and’90s, this country cared a lot about college hoops from December through the spring. Then too many players left early for the NBA, the sport became too much of a diluted television product, and all the talented big men vanished from the game.

I still love college basketball with all my heart, but it’s nothing compared to what it was 20 years ago in its mainstream appeal. This season presents a confluence of events inside and outside the sport that can truly make it a hallmark year. After plenty of defections from last year’s draft, a truckload of talent is back. We have more identifiable players and many traditional programs in the chase for top-tier seeding in the bracket.

At least that’s what we expect. The anticipation for this season is growing, and when it gets here, we’re likely to find a cluster of teams and gaggle of players combining to create the most compelling year of college basketball we’ve seen in a long time. Eliminate the NBA season, and college hoops gets an unintentional assist from big brother, the kind of look the sport has needed for a long time.

Even though the clock was nearing midnight in the East by the time an agreement was made, there wasn’t a shortage of quotes flowing from all sides as the Kings organization reacted to Drew Doughty’s contract agreement. The 8-year deal worth a total of million makes his annual salary the highest on the team—something the team repeatedly refused to discuss. But at the end of the day, the team got the longer term deal they were looking for and the player got the higher salary that he desired.

With the deal in the rearview mirror, all sides are speaking out. There’s a lot of love and happiness flowing nowadays—if all the negotiations were this amicable, why wasn’t this deal done in July?

Drew Doughty expressed that it was important to him that he joined the team for their opening games in Europe. Of course, his heart was always in L.A. and he never had any intentions of playing anywhere else:

“I definitely didn’t want to miss that. This was never in mind, even being out for this long at all, but I knew I had to be there for the start of the season. I missed the boys a lot, and missed being in L.A., and this just felt like time to get it done and I’m really happy and really excited.”

He also said there was never a question of signing anywhere else.

“I’ve been a Kings fan since I was a kid, and I was never thinking about going elsewhere,” he said. “I knew it was just a matter of time before it got done. I hope we can win many Stanley Cups in that time, and I’m going to do everything I can to help lead us to that.”

Kings’ governor Tim Leiweke continued with the theme and spoke about how Doughty is a great person and how the negotiations were just part of the business. Again, everyone loves everyone:

“Look, he’s a special kid and he’s a good kid. These things are never easy, and sometimes people take them personally, but I think he’s going to be fine. I guarantee you we’re fine. I’m happy that we got it done. I think Dean did a great job and I respect Drew and Don (Meehan). They had the right to work through this the way they worked through it. So the important thing is that we have this kid locked in for eight years. I just want to go win Cups. Drew is going to help us do that. What the fans should understand is, this kid is a warrior. I’m glad he’s on our side. I’m glad he’s here for eight years and I’m glad we got it done, because I think the world of him.”

Kings’ head coach Terry Murray also spoke to Rich Hammond from LA Kings Insider and brought some of the best perspective of the bunch. It’s business, people go through it, and you just have to hope that everyone can get back to normal after the process is over. Sometimes, that can be easier said than done—but that’s the situation the Kings and Doughty face as they make their final preparations for the upcoming season.

“That is a part of the business that I think everyone in it today understands, and realizes that this is part of the process sometimes. It’s been out there now for quite a few years and other players have gone through it. You go through it and you come out the other side and hopefully it works out for both sides and everybody can shake hands at the end of the day and can move by it and just start to play hockey again. That’s the way it is for me. I’ve been through this with other players. With Drew, I’m real happy. I’ll give him a big hug and say, `Let’s get back to playing the game that you love to play.”‘

Getting back to the game must be music to everyone’s ears. With all of the contract talk out of the way, the Kings players, management, and fans can now look forward to their season that is filled with potential. With Doughty in the mix, the Kings have arguably their best lineup in the last two decades. Some would tell you it could be the best team in the 44-year history of the organization. Leiweke explained that the Kings’ organization is spending the money to allow the team to compete this season—and in the future.

“We are sending a very strong message to our fans. We’re committed to winning, and we just proved it again.”

“When you look at the commitments that we made this summer, when you add this to Mike Richards and his long-term deal, and Jack Johnson and the commitment we tied up there, and then going out and adding Simon Gagne, we spent more money this summer than in the history of this franchise. We always said, if we get close, we will come with our guns blazing, and we just blazed. I’m glad it’s done. I want our fans to understand that now, this is all about creating an environment to win the Cup, and that’s what Drew is going to help us do. We don’t look back. We only look forward now, and eight years is a good forward.”

With everyone sharing their feelings, it almost feels like a high-priced group therapy session. Now, the talking ends and the work begins. Is Drew Doughty going to be the missing piece to the team that has bonded in training camp to help the Kings get out of the first round (and beyond)?

We’ll all find out soon enough. But as of tonight, optimism is at an all-time high.