Quick Hits

MUAMBA RECOVERING

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Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba is showing significant signs of recovery after suffering a cardiac arrest during Saturday's FA Cup match against Tottenham Hotspur. The 23 year old spent two days in intensive care following his collapse on the field at White Hart Lane, but is now reportedly breathing independently and responding to family members. Still Muamba isn't out of the woods yet, as his condition remains serious and he'll continue to be monitored in the hospital. Bolton's match against Aston Villa scheduled for tomorrow has been postponed as a result of the tragedy. Fellow players have shown a tremendous outpouring of support over the past few days highlighted by former teammate Gary Cahill unveiling a Pray 4 Muamba shirt from under his jersey after scoring against Leicester City on Sunday.

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VONN COMES UP JUST SHY IN QUEST FOR 2000 POINTS

Photo Credit: chicagotribune.com

American Lindsey Vonn needed just a 13th place finish on Sunday to become the first female skier to earn 2000 points in a single World Cup season. Unfortunately, the 2012 overall champion didn't have luck on her side as she lost a pole at the start of her final run and ended up finishing in 24th earning no points. The disappointing finish to the season should in no way diminish what Vonn did this year though. Vonn won 12 of a possible 37 races, and won the Downhill title, Super G title and the Combined title en route to her record 1980 points. Vonn has captured the women's overall title in four of the past five years.

NCAA HOCKEY TOURNAMENT SEEDINGS OUT

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Boston College (Northeast), North Dakota (West), Union (East) and Michigan (Midwest) are your four number one seeds in the 16-team 2012 NCAA Hockey Tournament. Last year's champion Minnesota-Duluth is the number 2 seed in the Northeast region. No school will be making its first-ever NCAA tournament appearance, but UMass-Lowell is in the national tournament for the first time since 1996 and Ferris State qualified for just the second time in school history and the first since 2003. If you're like me and have no idea where Ferris State is, it's in Big Rapids, Michigan which isn't to be confused with Grand Rapids, Michigan. Click here for a look at the rest of the bracket and the schedule. The first round starts Friday with the championship game in Tampa, Florida on April 7th.

ISNER A GIANT GIANT KILLER

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Big John Isner is finally starting to get recognized for more than just being really tall (he's 6'9") and for having played in the longest match in the history of Wimbledon. Over the past month and a half, Isner has defeated both Roger Federer (at the Davis Cup) and world number one Novak Djokovic (at the ATP BNP Paribas Open), a feat that no other player in the world can claim in 2012.  The 26 year old former Georgia Bulldog has seen his ranking rise all the way to a career best #10 in the world.

DID YOU EVEN KNOW THE U.S. HAD A CRICKET TEAM?

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The U.S. fell to 1-5 at the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifiers after getting thumped by Kenya this morning. The U.S. has one match remaining in Group Play where they'll take on Scotland (4-2) before they likely head to the 11th to 14th Place Play-Offs. If the current standings remain in place, that'll pair them up with Uganda, Hong Kong and Bermuda. The U.S.'s only victory in Group B came over Oman, the only team in the tournament yet to win a match. Afghanistan (6-0 Group A) and Namibia (6-0 Group B) lead their respective groups. The top two teams in the tournament qualify for the T20 World Cup held in Sri Lanka this September and October. The ten Full Member Nations of the ICC (Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe) have already automatically qualified.

TORRES BREAKS OUT OF SLUMP WITH BRACE

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Spanish striker Fernando Torres broke out of a 26-game goal-less stretch with 2 goals and 2 assists on Sunday as Chelsea defeated Leicester City in the FA Cup quarterfinals 5-2. Torres had not scored a goal in any competition since scoring a pair of goals against Belgium's Racing Genk on October 19th in the Champions League. Since that last goal, Torres had been on the field for 25 hours, 41 minutes without scoring. Chelsea has now won four straight since Roberto Di Matteo took over as interim manager after Andre Villas-Boas was fired.

HARPER DEBUT PUT ON HOLD

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Those of you waiting to see Bryce Harper take the field for the Washington Nationals are going to have to wait a little bit longer. The 19 year old über-prospect was optioned to AAA Syracuse on Sunday where he will start the year. Harper certainly didn't play poorly this spring hitting .286 with a pair of doubles in 28 at bats, but he did strike out 11 times including 4 times against the Tigers on Sunday. Harper has just 109 minor league games under his belt in which he's hit .297 with 17 home runs and 26 stolen bases, and his lack of experience may have played a roll in his getting sent down. Still, despite the demotion, the Nats are still very high on Harper and he still figures to be their everyday centerfielder, possibility as soon as later this season.

Simply Vonntastic

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With just one race remaining in the 2012 Alpine Skiing World Cup, Lindsey Vonn finds herself just a 13th place finish away from becoming the first women to ever eclipse the 2000 point mark in a single season. Vonn broke the women's record of 1970 points set by Croatian Janica Kostelic back in 2006 when she finished 8th in today's slalom event in Schladming, Austria. She now has 1980 points on the season, and if she can finish 12th or better, in addition to hitting the 2000 point plateau, she will set a new mark for skiers male or female for points in a single season. Austrian great Hermann Maier finished with 2000 season with exactly 2000 points. Tomorrow's race is the giant slalom which she's historically fared well in winning her most recent one in Sweden a little over a week ago. She ranks second on the season through eight giant slalom races with 455 points trailing only Germany's Viktoria Rebensburg.

Vonn Captures 4th Overall Title

27 year old Lindsey Vonn became the first American skier to win four overall World Cup titles when she clinched the 2012 title after winning her 52nd World Cup race today. Vonn edged Italy's Federica Brignone by 0.48 seconds in the giant slalom at Åre, Sweden and now trails only Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell who won six titles between 1971 and 1979. Moser-Proell is also the all-time leader in World Cup wins with 62.

Photo Credit: espn.go.com

Vonn won the overall title three straight years from 2008-2010 and just missed another title in 2011 falling just three points short when she was edged out by German Maria Hoefl-Riesch. Vonn left no doubt this year though clinching the title despite the fact that five races still remain on the schedule. Vonn is now setting her sites on becoming the first female skier to eclipse 2000 points in a single season. Skiers earn points based on where they finish in a race. The top 30 finishers in each race earn points with 100 for the winner, 80 for second, 60 for third, 50 for fourth, 45 for 5th all the way down to 1 point for 30th. She currently sits at 1808 points, so she's well within striking distance. Doing a little math, five 6th place finishes (40 points each) will get allow Vonn to reach 2000. The next event is the slalom tomorrow in Åre however Vonn has not won a slalom event since 2009. The season's remaining 4 events will be in Austria next week.

Sunday Six Pack

T.O. SCORES 3 TOUCHDOWNS IN INDOOR DEBUT

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Terrell Owens is playing football again just probably not at the level he was hoping for. Owens made his debut with the Allen Wranglers of the Indoor Football League last night and was named the MVP of the Game catching 3 passes, all of them touchdowns, for 53 yards as the Wranglers defeated the Wichita Wild 50-30. 5711 fans were in attendance at the Allen Events Center, and while that may not seem like a lot, it surpassed the total attendance of their entire inaugural 2011 season. Next up for T.O. and the Wranglers is a trip to Washington on the 1st of March where they'll take on the Everett Raptors.

ZUMAYA OUT FOR YEAR AGAIN

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This guy just can't catch a break. After missing all of 2011, Minnesota Twins reliever Joel Zumaya's latest comeback attempt is over before it really even began. Zumaya threw 13 pitches on Saturday in his first live bullpen session since signing an incentive-laden one year deal with the Twins, but cut the session short after experiencing pain in his elbow. The reliever got the official bad news today as he was diagnosed with a torn ligament in his right elbow meaning yet another season will be lost for the hard-throwing right-hander. Zumaya had not thrown a pitch in a Major League game since June 2010 after breaking his elbow while pitching for the Tigers.

VONN WINS RECORDS 18TH SUPER-G

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Lindsey Vonn won the World Cup Super-G event in Bansko, Bulgaria today giving her a record 18 super-G titles in her career. Vonn entered Sunday tied with Austria's Renate Goetschl with 17 titles, but edged out Liechtenstein's Tina Weirather by 0.05 seconds to take sole possession of the record. The 27 year old Vonn now has 51 career World Cup victories including 10 this season.

JONES/TORRES LIKELY TO MISS ITALY MATCH

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Injuries to Jermaine Jones (strained calf) and José Torres (pulled muscle left leg), leaves Jurgen Klinsmann's squad suddenly short on midfielders for the U.S's upcoming friendly against Italy. Klinsmann didn't opt to make any additions to the squad following Jones' injury, but it remains to be seen if he'll do anything now that Torres may be out as well. Klinsmann will have Maurice Edu, Michael Bradley, Fabian Johnson and Danny Williams at his disposal with versatile strikers Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey able to fill in on the wings as well and that may be enough. Otherwise this may be a great time to give Anderlecht's Sacha Kljestan a call.

LIVERPOOL WINS THE CARLING CUP

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Cardiff City nearly pulled off a shocking upset in the Carling Cup Final today, but in the end fell just short losing on penalties to Liverpool. Cardiff City took an early 1-0 lead in the match on a goal by Joe Mason, but Liverpool was able to equalize in the second half when Martin Škrtel punched home a rebound following a corner kick. With the score tied after 90 minutes, the two teams went to extra time where Liverpool took their first lead of the match in the 108th minute on a goal by Dutchman Dirk Kuyt. They appeared to have the match in hand, but 10 minutes later with the clock winding down, Cardiff equalized on a goal by Ben Turner when he punched a loose ball through Pepe Reina's legs following a corner of their own. The game then went to penalties, but Cardiff twice struck the woodwork and eventually Anthony Gerrard, cousin of Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard, missed wide left to clinch it for Liverpool. The victory gives Liverpool their first major title since winning the 2006 FA Cup.

ALTIDORE BAGS BRACE AGAINST HEERENVEEN

American Jozy Altidore found the back of the net twice today for AZ Alkmaar as they played to a 3-3 draw with Heerenveen. Starting for the first time in 2012, Altidore scored on each side of the intermission giving him 9 goals in Eredivisie Play and 13 goals across all competitions for his Dutch club this season. The 22 year old striker now heads to Italy with the U.S. team as they get set for Wednesday's match with the Italians.