Weekly A-Z non-NFL Edition - From Aston Villa to Zak Whitbread

A is for Aston Villa. Robbie Keane made his debut for Villa today coming on as a substitute in the 80th minute in their 1-1 tie with Everton and his L.A. Galaxy teammate Landon Donovan. Keane, currently on loan from the Galaxy, will be with Villa until the 25th of February. Aston Villa goalkeeper Shay Given was back in net for the first time since suffering an injury against Manchester United on December 3rd relegating American Brad Guzan back to his role as backup.

Photo Credit: uk.eurosport.yahoo.com

B is for Bryant. Quite a week for Kobe as he scored 172 points in 4 games. Bryant went for 48 against the Suns, 40 against the Jazz, 42 points against the Cavaliers and then 42 more tonight in a losing effort against the Clippers. Tonight aside, the Lakers won all of those games. Bryant entered play tonight averaging a league high 31.2 points per game.

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C is for Carlos Bocanegra. Bocanegra scored another goal today, only this one was against his own team. Still, the Rangers overcame the miscue thanks to a late goal by Croatian striker Nikica Jelavic giving them a 2-1 win over St. Johnstone. Bocanegra and Maurice Edu both played the full 90 minutes for Rangers while fellow American Alejandro Bedoya was an unused substitute. Rangers remain in second place, two points behind Celtic atop the Scottish Premier League.

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D is for Dudu Aouate. The Israeli keeper held the top team in Spain scoreless for 72 minutes as Mallorca nearly pulled off an improbable upset over Real Madrid. Real Madrid needed late goals from Gonzalo Higuaín and José Maria Callejón to steal a win and remain comfortably ahead of 2nd place Barcelona. Aouate, 34, has been with Mallorca since 2009. They are currently in 15th place in La Liga.

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E is for Everton. Landon Donovan set up Nigerian striker Victor Anichebe with the equalizer in the second half as Everton was able to salvage a 1-1 draw with Aston Villa today. Donovan, playing as a right side midfielder, now has two assists in his first four appearances since starting his loan. Tim Howard started in net once again and made 6 saves.

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Fis for Florida State basketball. Someone forgot to tell 3rd ranked North Carolina that they had a game today. The unranked Seminoles blew the Tarheels out of the building 90-57, their worst loss since 2003 when Steve Blake and Maryland beat them 96-56. Senior Deividas Dulkys had the game of his life for Florida State draining 8 3-pointers and finishing with a career high 32 points. Dulkys had scored 32 total points in the 9 games leading up to this one. North Carolina never led in this one as it was all Florida State from the opening tip until the final whistle. It was Florida State's first win over a ranked team this year.

Photo Credit: cfnews13.com

G is for the Ginger Prince. 37 year old Paul Scholes, who recently unretired and rejoined Manchester United, started for the first time in a Premier League game since May and scored the game's first goal in Man U's 3-0 win over Bolton Wanderers today. It was Scholes' first goal since he scored against Fulham in August of 2010 and his first goal at home since scoring against Manchester City in January of 2010 in the Carling Cup. The win pulls Manchester United level with Manchester City on points at the top of the Premier League table. City plays at Wigan Athletic on Monday.

Photo Credit: soccer.indonewyork.com

H is for Heat. Feels like we've been here before. The Miami Heat have lost 3 in a row after starting the season 8-1 and suddenly the team that everyone was touting to be the favorite to win the NBA title is having problems closing out games again. First, against the Warriors they blew a 17 point lead and shot just 2 for 17 in the fourth quarter in an overtime loss. Then they missed 14 free throws, including 7 in the fourth quarter in an overtime loss to the Clippers. And then they went into Denver and got pummeled 117-104. And to top it off, Dwyane Wade suffered an ankle injury leaving him a bum foot on one leg and a bum ankle on the other. The only bright spot is that the Heat are off until Tuesday so they have some time to recover from what was a brutal road trip. The schedule doesn't get any easier though with upcoming games against the Spurs, Lakers and 76ers.

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I is for Iowa. Florida State wasn't the only unranked team to knock off a ranked opponent today. Iowa easily handled 13th ranked Michigan 75-59, Northwestern beat 7th ranked Michigan State 81-74, and Oklahoma dropped 18th ranked Kansas State 82-73. Matt Gatens led the Hawkeyes with 19 points and held Michigan's Tim Hardaway junior to just 9 points on 2 for 13 shooting.

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J is for Janet Evans. As we discussed yesterday 40 year old Janet Evans has qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials in the 400 meter freestyle at the Austin Grand Prix. Evans won her preliminary heat with a time of 4:17.27, but failed to improve upon it in the B final where she finished last her heat with a time of 4:18.15. Both of those times, however, were good enough to get her to Trials as she just needed to swim under a 4:19.39. Evans will swim in her main event, the 800 meter freestyle, tomorrow. For more on the Austin Grand Prix, click here.

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K is for Kerry Wood. The Chicago Cubs and Kerry Wood have agreed to a one-year contract with a club option for 2013. Wood, who returned to the Cubs in 2011, appeared in 55 games last year and had a 3.35 ERA with 21 holds. Unless the Cubs move incumbent closer Carlos Marmol, Wood should return to the setup role he had last season.

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L is for Leroux. With the first pick in the 2012 WPS Draft, the Atlanta Beat selected UCLA striker Sydney Leroux. The Beat, who finished a league worst 1-13-4 last year, should have their attack bolstered by the 5'7" Leroux who scored 16 times for the Bruins this past season. Leroux scored 30 goals for the U.S. U-20 Women's team between 2008 and 2010 and made her debut with the Senior National Team last year.

Photo Credit: dailybruin.com

M is for Mempis. Really Chris Broussard? "Mempis"? Guess those whiteboards don't come with spell check. 

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N is for Nowitzki. Dirk scored the 23000th point of his NBA career on Friday night in a 102-76 win over the Milwaukee Bucks. Nowitzki becomes just the 23rd player in NBA history to score at least 23000 points and joins Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett as the only other active players with at least that many points. Dirk and the Mavs have bounced back from a slow start and are 8-2 after losing their first three games.

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O is for Omar Gonzalez. The 2011 MLS Defender of the Year underwent surgery Friday in LA to repair a torn ligament in his left knee suffered while on loan to Nuremberg in Germany. Gonzalez, who will start rehab at the end of the month, will be unavailable to the Galaxy for at least the next 7 to 9 months.

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P is for Pachuca vs Puebla. José Torres, a member of the U.S.'s 2010 World Cup team and Pachuca knocked off Puebla and his National Team teammate Damarcus Beasley in Mexican First Division Action tonight by a score of 3-1. Torres started and played the full 90 for Pachuca while Beasley came off the bench for Puebla.

Photo Credit: mlssoccer.com

Q is for Queasy. Which is how Kings fans must have felt after watching their team score just 23 points in the first half of their game against the Mavericks tonight. Jason Thompson was the only King out of the eleven who got into the game to shoot 50% from the field as the Kings collectively made just 25.6% of their 86 shots. Sacramento is now just 4-9 to start the season.

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R is for Ricky Rubio. The 21 year old Spaniard appears to be adjusting to the NBA game just fine. Rubio has already become a starter in Minnesota and has had double digit assists in 5 of his first 12 games. Rubio entered play tonight ranked 8th in the league with 8.0 assists per game. More than just a good passer though, he's also shown an ability to score points and tonight set a career high with 18 against the Hawks. He also added a career high 5 steals.

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S is for Staples Center. The Lakers and Clippers share the Staples Center, but the Clippers owned it tonight knocking off the Lakers 102-94 behind 33 points from Chris Paul. The 33 points were a season high for Paul, and the new-look Clippers appear to be coming together reeling off back-to-back playoff atmosphere victories against the Heat and Lakers this week. The Clippers still have some depth issues, their bench scored only 11 points tonight, and Paul left the game late with a strained hamstring, but either way the Clips are now 6-3 and 5-1 at home.

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T is for Toronto. That's the site where the Chicago Bulls became the NBA's first 12-game winner tonight after a 77-64 defensive battle with the Toronto Raptors. Derrick Rose had 18 points and 11 assists to lead the offense and 3 different Bulls big men had at least 12 rebounds. The Raptors were without their leading scorer Andrea Bargnani and his absence showed as the Raptors shot just 34.9% from the field. Perhaps most embarrassing though was the fact that they made just 1 of 7 free throws.

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U is for Unbeatens. #1 Syracuse, #4 Baylor and #14 Murray State all stayed unbeaten with wins today. The Orange (19-0) knocked off Villanova 78-55, Baylor (17-0) completed overwhelmed Oklahoma State 106-65, and Murray State (18-0) beat Tennessee Tech 82-74.

Photo Credit: blog.syracuse.com

V is for Victory. And it's something the Washington Wizards have only tasted once in 12 games after they lost yet again today, this time to Philadelphia 103-90. There were a few bright spots this time though. JaVale McGee had 23 points 18 rebounds and 5 blocks (all season highs),  Nick Young scored a season high 27 points, and John Wall just missed a triple double finishing with 14 points 9 rebounds and 9 assists. Still, to call the season anything other than a huge disappointment at this point would be lying. The schedule doesn't get any easier either with games against Houston, Oklahoma City, Denver and Boston next week.

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W is for Winning Streak Snapped. Notre Dame's 29 game home winning streak was snapped today by the 16th ranked Connecticut Huskies. UConn trailed at the half, but Notre Dame's outside shooting failed them after the intermission. After connecting on 5 of 11 3-point attempts in the first half, they hit just 1 of 15 after the break. Shabazz Napier led the Huskies with 16 points.

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X is for X-hibition Game. The U.S. Men's National Team scrimmaged the U-23 team yesterday as both teams get ready for upcoming competitions. As you would expect, the Senior team buried their younger opponents 4-0. Chris Wondolowski opened the scoring, and the Senior team added goals by Benny Feilhaber, Teal Bunbury and Graham Zusi all before the intermission. Brek Shea caused all sorts of problems for the U-23s using his size and speed to overwhelm them on the left side and assisted on two of the goals. The two sides are set to play one more time on Tuesday before the U-23s head to Costa Rica for more exhibition matches and the USMNT prepares for next Saturday's friendly with Venezuela.

Photo Credit: soccerchris.com

Y is for Yakubu. Blackburn Rovers had their leading scorer Yakubu Aiyegbeni sent off in the 23rd minute but still defeated Clint Dempsey and Fulham 3-1 today behind goals from Morten Gamst Pedersen, David Dunn and Mauro Formica. The win was a huge one for Rovers as they move out of the relegation zone and into 17th place in the Premier League.

Photo Credit: telegraph.co.uk

Z is for Zak Whitbread. Finally healthy again, Whitbread has carved himself into a nice little nitch with Norwich City. After going a full 90 minutes today at center back in the City's 2-1 win over West Bromwich Albion, Whitbread has now started and played the entire match in 7 straight contests for the Canaries. And now after today's win, Norwich City is 7-7-7 and in 9th place in the Premier League ahead of Everton, Aston Villa and Fulham. It will be interesting to see if Whitbread will be the beneficiary of Omar Gonzalez's injury with regards to attention from the U.S. National Team. Whitbread, 28, played for the U.S. U-20 team back in 2003, but has never been capped by the Senior Team.

Photo Credit: dailymail.co.uk