U.S. Men and Women Set Rosters for Upcoming Matches

Both the U.S. Men's and Women's Soccer Teams have matches in Europe next week with the men getting ready to face 8th ranked Italy and the women off to Portugal to defend their Algarve Cup Championship. Here's a look at the rosters for both teams:

Photo Credit: espn.go.com

Noah Gets First Triple Double in Win

Photo Credit: cbssports.com

What do LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, Deron Williams, Derrick Rose and Kobe Bryant all have in common? As of this moment, they all have fewer triple doubles on the season than Joakim Noah. The Bulls' 6'11" center scored 13 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and dished out 10 assists to become the first Chicago center in roughly 35 years (Artis Gilmore accomplished the feat in December 1977) to accomplish the feat as the Bulls routed the Milwaukee Bucks 110-91 last night.

Photo Credit: sports.yahoo.com

Clearly the hair is a necessity. Probably why Luc Longley never recorded a triple double. Noah becomes the 7th player to notch a triple double this year joining what is really quite an interesting group of names:

Only Boston's Rajon Rondo has more than one triple double so far this season. Rondo is also the only player on this list headed to the All Star Game after being added as an injury replacement for Atlanta's Joe Johnson.

Do You Believe in Miracles? YES!

32 years ago today the U.S. Men's Olympic Hockey Team pulled off one of the biggest upsets in sports history. Less than two weeks after a crushing 10-3 exhibition loss to the Soviet Union, the U.S. found themselves once again pitted against the heavily favored Soviets in the medal round of the 1980 Winter Olympics. The Americans fell behind by scores of 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2, but kept battling back eventually taking the lead for good on a goal by captain Mike Eruzione and held on for the improbable 4-3 victory propelling them to the Gold Medal game against Finland which they would go on to win. In the midst of the Cold War and with the U.S. going through troubling times, the victory captivated an entire nation in a way we may never see again.

For more on this game, check on this excerpt from USA Hockey: A Celebration of a Great Tradition. I'd also recommend checking out the movie Miracle starring Kurt Russell or watching the game itself if you're ever given the opportunity. If you can sit through Al Michaels' call at the end of the game without getting goosebumps, you're probably dead inside.

Binghamton Snaps 27 Game Losing Streak

Photo Credit: usatoday.com

Twenty-six times the Binghamton Bearcats had trotted out onto the court this season only to wind up on the losing end every single game. It'd been almost a year since they defeated the UMBC (University of Maryland-Baltimore County) Retrievers this past March in the first round of the America East tournament for their last win. There weren't a lot of reasons to be optimistic last night either as the were hosting the Vermont Catamounts, a team on a 10 game winning streak that entered play tied for first place atop the America East Conference. That's why you play the game though. Sophomore guard Robert Mansell scored 18 points and freshman forward Ben Dickinson chipped in 16 points and 11 rebounds as Binghamton pulled off a stunning upset 57-53 snapping the longest losing streak in the country. The Catamounts struggled from the floor all night shooting 39% and made just 4 of 20 3-pointers while the Bearcats held Vermont's leading scorer on the year, Four McGlynn, to a mere 3 points in the game on 1 of 9 shooting. Binghamton will now try for 2 wins in a row, something they haven't done since last January when they rattled off 3 straight, tomorrow night when they host Albany.

Photo Credit: pressconnects.com

With the win, Binghamton also avoids the possibility of equaling Towson's mark for futility set earlier this season. When the Towson Tigers beat UNC-Wilmington last month, it snapped a 41 game losing streak, the longest in NCAA Men's Division I history. Both streaks however pale in comparison to the Caltech Beavers who lost 207 consecutive games in Division III between 1996 and 2007 before defeating Bard College to end their skid.

Mardi Gras Mailbag

Jeremy Lin: the next Nash or Rondo or someone else? - Garret M., Boston, MA


A whole lotta hype around Jeremy Lin. In your opinion is he the real deal? - Cory L., Raceland, LA

Photo Credit: businessinsider.com

Figured I'd answer both of these questions together. Is Jeremy Lin a legitimate NBA point guard? Absolutely. Is he among the Top 5 point guards in the league? No. At least, not right now. The name that draws the most realistic comparisons with Lin is probably Steve Nash. While Nash is a much better shooter, Lin's game is similar and their styles of play are both ideal for a Mike D'Antoni offense. In 4 years with D'Antoni in Phoenix, Nash led the league in assists three times, won two MVPs, made 4 all star teams, won 3 Pacific Division Titles and twice made it to the Conference Finals. I'm not suggesting that Lin is going to be a future NBA MVP, but if he ends up somewhere in the 16 points 8 assists per game range (over his last 10 games he's averaged 24.6 and 9.2), that'll be enough to keep him in the league for a long time. The one real knock on his game right now is the turnovers (so far he has a 9 turnover game, two 8 turnover games, a 7 turnover game, and three 6 turnover games), so he's going to need to clean that up. But you have to assume that some of that will improve with experience so at this point I wouldn't worry about it too much.


Is La Liga the most lopsided league in Europe, or am I crazy? - Cory L., Raceland, LA

Photo Credit: football-soccernews.blogspot.com

With Barcelona and Real Madrid as dominant as they are, there's certainly an argument that that's the case, but I'm going to throw another league out there instead: The Scottish Premier League. Glasgow clubs Rangers and Celtic have combined for 96 titles in league history while no other team has ever won more than four. The two teams have combined to win the last 26 titles in Scotland and Celtic appears to be pretty much a lock to win the league again this year. Since the Premier League was founded prior to the 1998-99 season, there's only been one time where Celtic and Rangers didn't both finish in the top 2 (Hearts finished second in 2005-06), and even then Rangers still finished in third. There's a similar disparity in Spain with Real Madrid and Barcelona combining for 52 league titles while no other team has reached double digits, but the gap in Scotland between the haves and have nots is much greater.


Was that the first time a team managed to score THREE own goals in a game? I'm speaking of Brighton and Hove of course - Cory L., Raceland, LA

Photo Credit: bleacherreport.com

Actually, no. In 2002 in Madagascar's THB Champions League, AS Adema defeated SOE Antananarivo by a score of 149–0 when SOE scored 149 own goals in protest of a referee's decision. AS Adema did not get possession of the ball at any point between the 1st and 149th goals. Other than that, three seems to be about the maximum highlighted (or lowlighted) by Stan van den Buys scoring a negative hat trick in 1995 while playing for Belgian team Germinal Ekeren. Van den Buys was responsible for all 3 of Anderlecht's goals in a 3-2 loss.



With John Terry projected to be out for 6 weeks after knee surgery, what does this mean for Chelsea's Champions League hopes? - Cory L., Raceland, LA

Photo Credit: soccerplay.net

After today's 3-1 loss to Napoli, it probably doesn't matter. The reality is that Chelsea hasn't been playing good football following their win over Manchester City in mid-December. They've won just two Premier League matches in 10 tries, and recently failed to beat Birmingham at home in the 5th Round of the FA Cup. So the reality is Chelsea getting blown out by Napoli today shouldn't come as much of a surprise. What The Blues needs to be concerned about is the fact that they're currently in 5th place in the Premier League which means a spot in the 2012-13 Champions League is in serious jeopardy. Terry's absence will hurt them, but ultimately Chelsea needs to get more out of strikers Fernando Torres and Didier Drogba who have combined to score just 5 goals this season. Just two seasons ago those two combined to find the back of the net 47 times.


Special thanks to all those who wrote in this week. Got a question for the mailbag? Email us at smittysports.blogspot@hotmail.com.

Tuesday Trivia

Last week's question:

Despite recently scoring a pair of goals against Liverpool, Wayne Rooney still finds himself a distant second behind Dutchman Robin van Persie for the English Premier League scoring title. Who was the last Englishman to actually lead the English Premier League in scoring?

Answer:

Photo Credit: safc.com

Sunderland's Kevin Phillips scored 30 goals during the 1999-2000 season to lead the Premier League in scoring, making him the last Englishman to lead the league. Here's a list of the league leaders since Phillips' title:

This week's question:

Photo Credit: sportszone850.com

Rajon Rondo's ejection against the Pistons on Sunday gives him a team high 7 technical fouls in just 22 games this year. At that rate, Rondo would accumulate 26 technicals in 82 games, enough to easily lead the league most seasons. Who was the last Boston Celtic who led the league in technical fouls in a season?

Weekly Top Tens - 2/21/12

NHL POINTS LEADERS

1. Evgeni Malkin - Pittsburgh - 71
2. Claude Giroux - Philadelphia - 68
3. Steven Stamkos - Tampa Bay - 67
4. Jason Spezza - Ottawa - 65
5. Henrik Sedin - Vancouver - 64
6. Phil Kessel - Toronto - 63
7. Daniel Sedin - Vancouver - 61
7. Joffrey Lupul - Toronto - 61
9. Pavel Datsyuk - Detroit - 59
10. 3 players tied with - 58



NHL TOP GOAL SCORERS

1. Steven Stamkos - Tampa Bay - 40
2. Evgeni Malkin - Pittsburgh - 32
3. Phil Kessel - Toronto - 30
4. James Neal - Pittsburgh - 30
5. Jonathan Toews - Chicago - 29
5. Corey Perry - Anaheim - 29
7. Radim Vrbata - Phoenix - 28
8. Scott Hartnell - Philadelphia - 27
8. Marian Gaborik - Rangers - 27
8. Jason Spezza - Ottawa - 27



FIFA MEN'S RANKINGS (2/15/12)

1. SPAIN
2. GERMANY
3. NETHERLANDS
4. URUGUAY
5. ENGLAND
6. PORTUGAL
7. BRAZIL
8. ITALY
9. CROATIA
10. DENMARK


OUT: ARGENTINA (11)



FIFA WOMEN'S RANKINGS (12/23/11)

1. USA
2. GERMANY
3. JAPAN
4. BRAZIL
5. SWEDEN
6. FRANCE
7. CANADA
8. ENGLAND
9. KOREA DPR
10. AUSTRALIA



NCAA MEN'S COLLEGE BASKETBALL RANKINGS - AP Top 25
(Records through Sunday Night's Games)
*ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll in Parentheses

1. Kentucky 26-1 (1)
2. Syracuse 27-1 (2)
3. Missouri 25-2 (3)
4. Kansas 22-5 (5)
5. Duke 23-4 (4)
6. Michigan State 22-5 (6)
7. North Carolina 23-4 (7)
8. Ohio State 22-5 (9)
9. Georgetown 20-5 (8)
10. Marquette 22-5 (10) 



NCAA WOMEN'S COLLEGE BASKETBALL RANKINGS - AP Top 25
(Records through Sunday Night's Games)

1. Baylor 27-0
2. Stanford 24-1
3. Notre Dame 25-2
4. Connecticut 24-3
5. Miami (FL) 24-3
6. Maryland 23-4
7. Duke 22-4
8. Ohio State 23-3
9. Delaware 24-1
10. Tennessee 20-7



MEN'S TENNIS RANKINGS (2/20/12)

1. Novak Djokovic (Serbia) - 13630 points
2. Rafael Nadal (Spain) - 10435 points
3. Roger Federer (Switzerland) - 8330 points
4. Andy Murray (Great Britain) - 7150 points
5. David Ferrer (Spain) - 4595 points
6. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) - 4410 points
7. Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) - 3950 points
8. Mardy Fish (USA) - 2915 points
9. Janko Tipsarevic (Serbia) - 2770 points
10. Juan Martin del Potro (Argentina) - 2705 points



WOMEN'S TENNIS RANKINGS (2/20/12)

1. Victoria Azarenka (Belarus) - 9260 points
2. Maria Sharapova (Russia) - 7680 points
3. Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic) - 7220 points
4. Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark) - 6310 points
5. Samantha Stosur (Australia) - 5825 points
6. Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) - 5500 points
7. Marion Bartoli (France) - 5160 points
8. Vera Zvonareva (Russia) - 4690 points
9. Li Na (China) - 4450 points
10. Andrea Petkovic (Germany) - 3880 points



ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE LEADING SCORERS

1. Robin Van Persie (Netherlands) - Arsenal - 22
2. Wayne Rooney (England) - Manchester United - 17
3. Demba Ba (Senegal) - Newcastle United - 16
4. Sergio Agüero (Argentina) - Manchester City - 15
5. Yakubu Aiyegbeni (Nigeria) - Blackburn Rovers - 13
6. Edin Dzeko (Bosnia-Herzegovina) - Manchester City - 12
7. Clint Dempsey (USA) - Fulham - 10
7. Emmanuel Adebayor (Togo) - Tottenham Hotspur - 10
7. Steven Fletcher (England) - Wolverhampton - 10
7. Danny Graham (England) - Swansea City - 10



LA LIGA (SPAIN) LEADING SCORERS

1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) - Real Madrid - 28
2. Lionel Messi (Argentina) - Barcelona - 27
3. Gonzalo Higuaín (Argentina) - Real Madrid - 14
3. Radamel Falco Garcia (Col.) - Valencia - 14
5. Karim Benzema (France) - Real Madrid - 13
6. Roberto Soldado (Spain) - Valencia - 12
6. Fernando Llorente (Spain) - Athletico Bilbao - 12
7. Miguel Pérez Cuesta (Spain) - R. Vallecano - 11
9. Cesc Fábregas (Spain) - Barcelona - 9
10. Arouna Koné (Ivory Coast) - Levante - 8
10. Alexis Sánchez (Chile) - Barcelona - 8



SERIE A (ITALY) LEADING SCORERS

1. Antonio Di Natale (Italy) - Udinese - 17
2. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden) - AC Milan - 15
2. Edinson Cavani (Uruguay) - Napoli - 15
4. Germán Denis (Argentina) - Atalanta - 12
4. Miroslav Klose (Germany) - Lazio - 12
4. Diego Milito (Argentina) - Internazionale - 12
4. Rodrigo Palacio (Argentina) - Genoa - 12
4. Stevan Jovetic (Montenegro) - Fiorentina - 12
9. Fabrizio Miccoli (Italy) - Palermo - 11
10. Emanuele Calaiò (Italy) - Siena - 10



GERMANY BUNDESLIGA LEADING SCORERS

1. Mario Gomez (Germany) - Bayern Munich - 18
1. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Neth.) - Schalke 04 - 18
3. Lukas Podolski (Germany) - FC Cologne - 15
3. Claudio Pizarro (Peru) - Werder Bremen - 15
5. Robert Lewandowski (Pol.) - B. Dortmund - 14
6. Marco Reus (Ger.) - B. Monchengladbach - 13
7. Mohammed Abdellaoue (Norway) - Hannover 96 - 11
7. Raúl (Spain) - Schalke 04 - 11
7. Martin Harnik (Austria) -VfB Stuttgart - 11
10. Papiss Demba Cisse (Senegal) - SC Freiburg - 9



NBA LEADING SCORERS (points per game)

1. Kobe Bryant - Lakers - 29.0
2. LeBron James - Miami - 27.9
3. Kevin Durant - OKC - 27.7
4. Kevin Love - Minnesota - 25.5
5. Russell Westbrook - OKC - 23.4
6. LaMarcus Aldridge - Portland - 22.3
7. Monta Ellis - Golden State - 22.3
8. Deron Williams - New Jersey - 22.2
9. Blake Griffin - Clippers - 21.2
10. Dwight Howard - Orlando - 20.3



NBA LEADING REBOUNDERS (per game)

1. Dwight Howard - Orlando - 15.3
2. Kevin Love - Minnesota - 14.2
3. Andrew Bynum - Lakers - 12.8
4. Anderson Varejao - Cleveland - 11.5
5. Blake Griffin - Clippers - 11.3
6. DeMarcus Cousins - Sacramento - 11.3
7. Pau Gasol - Lakers - 10.7
8. Kris Humphries - New Jersey - 10.5
9. Marcin Gortat - Phoenix - 10.3
10. David Lee - Golden State - 10.0



NBA ASSIST LEADERS (per game)

1. Steve Nash - Phoenix - 11.0
2. Rajon Rondo - Boston - 9.5
3. Jose Calderon - Toronto - 8.8
4. Chris Paul - New Orleans - 8.6
5. Ricky Rubio - Minnesota - 8.4
6. Deron Williams - New Jersey - 8.2
7. Tony Parker - San Antonio - 7.9
8. Kyle Lowry - Houston - 7.7
9. Derrick Rose - Chicago - 7.7
10. John Wall - Washington - 7.5



2012 FEDEX CUP STANDINGS

1. Kyle Stanley (USA) - 889
2. Johnson Wagner (USA) - 840
3. Phil Mickelson (USA) - 807
4. Bill Haas (USA) - 729
5. Brandt Snedeker (USA) - 648
6. Mark Wilson (USA) - 602
7. Steve Stricker (USA) - 530
8. Keegan Bradley (USA) - 457
9. Ben Crane (USA) - 453
10. Martin Laird (Scotland) - 364

Out: Spencer Levin (12), John Rollins (14)




Photo Credits (in order of appearance):


zimbio.com
zimbio.com
justsoccerjerseys.com 
palmbeachpost.com 
sports.desktopnexus.com
bleacherreport.com 
tennisnow.com
zimbio.com
zimbio.com
zimbio.com
zimbio.com
zimbio.com
zimbio.com
zimbio.com 
zimbio.com
armchairgolfblog.blogspot.com

Follow us on twitter @smittysports1. 
Got any questions/comments/requests? Email the blog - smittysports.blogspot@hotmail.com
Oh, and like us on facebook under Sports & Such!