Adam Schein hosts the Sirius Blitz on Sirius NFL Radio from 11-3 ET. He also co-hosts Loudmouths on Sports Net New York every weeknight at 6 ET. He is a weekly columnist, files weekly video reports and makes NFL picks video style for FOXSports.com.
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Post Sports Live: Wholesale changes in store?
By Washington Post editors
Dan Steinberg, Sally Jenkins and Rick Maese joined Jonathan Forsythe on this week’s webcast to discuss the pending suspensions to Redskins’ Fred Davis and Trent Williams, preview the upcoming season for the Wizards and talk NHL realignment.
Post Sports Live streams live on washingtonpost.com every Tuesday at noon; archives can be found at washingtonpost.com/postsportslive .
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The United States lost to Denmark, 2-1, in tennis Hopman Cup in Perth, Australia, on Monday, with late-arriving Caroline Wozniacki and Frederik Nielsen beating Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Mardy Fish, 7-5, 6-3, in the deciding mixed doubles match.
Fish gave the United States an opening victory in this Australian Open tune-up, defeating Nielsen, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4. The top-ranked Wozniacki, who made it to the tournament only four hours earlier on a flight from Thailand, beat Mattek-Sands, 7-6 (4), 6-2, to tie the best-of-three series before the Danes combined to win mixed doubles.
Serena Williams admitted shes dreading another season, but still cant live without tennis after taking just 68 minutes to get by Chanelle Scheepers, 6-2, 6-3, at the Brisbane International in Australia.
Williams was asked after the match whether her four-month layoff after her US Open defeat means shes fallen out of love with her sport.
Ive never really liked sports – I never understood how I became an athlete, she said. If it involves sitting down or shopping, I am excellent at that. I dont love tennis today . . . but I cant live without it, so I am still here.
In the first round of the Chennai Open in India, Dudi Sela routed sixth-seeded Fabio Fognini, 6-0, 6-1, while fifth-seeded Ivan Dodig rallied past Vishnu Vardhan, 4-6, 7-6 (8), 6-1. Yuki Bhambri, a former top-ranked junior, upset Karol Beck, 6-2, 6-3.
In Auckland, New Zealand, Sabine Lisicki beat Virginie Razzano, 6-4, 6-4, in the first round of the ASB Classic. Former world No. 4 Jelena Dokic suffered a setback in her preparation for the Australian Open, falling, 7-6 (5), 6-1, to unseeded Mona Barthel. American Christina McHale beat Alexandra Dulgheru, 6-2, 6-3.
SOCCER: Independence goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart and forward Amy Rodriguez, and Delrans Carli Lloyd are among the 29 players called up by US coach Pia Sundhage for a training camp before paring the roster to 20 for Olympic womens qualifying. The group will train in Carson, Calif., from Jan. 7 to 15 and then head to Vancouver for the regional qualifying tournament.
In London, Bobby Zamora scored in stoppage time to give Fulham a 2-1 victory over Arsenal and knock the Gunners from the English Premier Leagues top four.
Chelsea moved into fourth with a 2-1 win over host Wolverhampton, with Frank Lampard hitting the winner.
HOCKEY: Markus Granlund scored twice and older brother Mikael Granlund added a goal to lead Finland to an 8-5 quarterfinal win over Slovakia at the world junior mens hockey championship in Calgary, Alberta. The Finns advanced to face Sweden in a Tuesday semifinal.
COLLEGES: Temple forward Anthony Lee was named the Atlantic Ten rookie of the week. The 6-foot-9 redshirt freshman averaged 8.5 points and 7.5 rebounds in victories over Buffalo and Delaware.
WNBA: The Seattle Storm traded all-star Swin Cash and forward Lecoe Willingham to the Chicago Sky for the No. 2 pick in the 2012 draft.
FIGURE SKATING: Yahoo! Sports reported that Coatesville native Johnny Weir, a former US champion and Olympian, officially married boyfriend Victor Voronov on New Years Eve. Weir later tweeted that the actual wedding ceremony will take place in the summer, according to the New York Daily News.
– Staff and wire reports
To get the latest sports news from USA TODAY, including game results, columns and features, follow us on Twitter at @USATODAYSports.
But his efficiency dropped off, too. His field goal percentage plummeted from an impressive 58.1% to a middling 52.7%. He also fell off badly in rebounds per-36 minutes, going from 9.3 to 7.9, so it wasnt just his shooting that suffered. Before you think I am probing the possibility of Marc Gasol falling in drafts, there are a lot of things that still need to be taken into consideration
First off, what will Gasols role be in the offense this season?
The Grizzlies did very well in the 2011 NBA Playoffs without max contract All-Star Rudy Gay. His return makes a lot of experts wonder if the Grizzlies will still be the same team that shocked the Spurs last year and hung with the Oklahoma City Thunder for 7 games before falling on the road to the more talented Thunder.
Whether or not Gay is a part of the picture going forward dramatically affects the makeup and the offensive focus of the Grizzlies team. When Gay is in, the ball will be on the perimeter more and it will leave Gasol relegated to mostly scoring garbage buckets. Since his offensive rebounds fell off from 3.0 per game to 2.1, that means roughly 2 less points than he had in 09-10, and he is going to have to find a way to get his field goal percentage back up over 55%, like a talented big mans should be.
Zach Randolph emerged as more than just a solid player last season and had a career year. Mike Conley began to become more than just a mediocre point guard, also posting a career season. Free agent signee Tony Allen worked out brilliantly, providing great defense, while sophomore Sam Young provided a spark off the bench, as well, not to mention the shot jacking scoring prowess of Darrell Arthur and the leadership skills of Grevious Vasquez. In all, Memphis had a very deep and very good team.
But all in all, Gasols role probably wont change much. His primary reason for being on the court is to provide effective defense (1.9 blocks per game, 1.0 steals per game), and his scoring is pretty decent too. Neither I nor most others ever expect Marc Gasol to reach the levels of his brother Pau, but maybe that goes without saying. I dont think well ever be looking at any kind of top 25 player in Marc, but that isnt to say he doesnt have a lot of value. Its just that all things considered, we probably cant expect much of a change one way or the other for Marc Gasol next year.
If Gay is on the team, maybe 12 points per game versus 14 if Gay departs, but that is a factor that may or may not be even as pronounced as I am making it sound here. Its just about the only consideration, other than an increase in minutes. If Gasol could go back to seeing 35 minutes a game, or even just 33, it would help his value a lot more than the mere 31 he saw last season.
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The owners of the Mets, needing cash and unable to turn to Major League Baseball for more financial help, received a $40 million loan from a major bank in the past six weeks.
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Jose Reyes left the Mets and signed with the Marlins for $106 million over six years.
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The team described the arrangement as a bridge loan, meant to aid the team as it tries to raise money through the sale of minority stakes in the club.
The loan marks the second time in a year that the Mets have received an infusion of cash. A year ago, the team’s owners, Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, received a $25 million loan from Major League Baseball, but they have not been able to repay it. Meanwhile, Sandy Alderson, the club’s general manager, said last week that the organization had lost $70 million in 2011 alone.
Earlier this year, the team’s owners appeared to have a plan to address their financial problems: selling a roughly $200 million stake in the team to the hedge fund tycoon David Einhorn. But after months of negotiations, the owners called off the deal in September, in part because they did not want to give Einhorn a path to becoming the team’s majority owner.
At the time, Wilpon and Katz said that “ownership has provided additional capital to cover all 2011 losses and is moving forward with the necessary resources to continue to operate the franchise.”
And the owners said they were confident they could easily raise the $200 million they needed by selling 10 minority shares in the team for $20 million each.
The $200 million was going to be used, they said, to pay off debts to their banks and to Major League Baseball, and to finance team operations.
The recent $40 million loan suggests that the effort to sell minority shares in the team was not generating the cash that the owners needed in the near term. The owners, through a spokesman, said the loan had been approved by Major League Baseball and the other banks to which they are already indebted. Bank of America was the source of the $40 million loan, according to a person with knowledge of the deal.
This month the club lost the free-agent shortstop Jose Reyes, widely considered its best player, to the Miami Marlins, and its extremely modest player acquisitions in recent weeks suggest the team is not operating like a big-market, marquee team.
The implications of the team’s latest outside financing are not easy to forecast. But two people with knowledge of the team’s finances said that if a full lineup of minority stake investors was not in place by next spring, and cash not in hand, Wilpon and Katz might have to confront the prospect of selling the team entirely.
The men first had to face that possibility last December when they learned they were the target of $1 billion lawsuit brought by the trustee representing the victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s fraud. The trustee has accused the men of having turned a blind eye to the possibility that Madoff was a fraud while they enriched themselves with his steady, outsize investment returns.
Wilpon and Katz are facing a possible jury trial this spring at which they could be forced to explain themselves, and their years of investing with Madoff. Their potential liability could be hundreds of millions of dollars.
People familiar with the team’s situation have said the owners had firm commitments from at least seven investors interested in buying a small share of the team for $20 million apiece. Still, until all are sold, none of the investors have had to turn over cash. Vince Gennaro, a consultant to several major league teams, said that the $40 million loan “says to me that their finances continue to be tight, that there is a cash pinch.”
He added: “The team underperformed, and this tides them over until they get their money. They need cash flow.”
Now, Gennaro said, between the bridge loan and the $25 million owed to baseball, “the first $65 million has to go out the door” should the owners sell an adequate number of shares in the team.
Joseph Ravitch, a veteran sports banker who is a partner in the Raine Group, said the ability of the team’s owners to secure another $40 million in loans established that the team was still considered a valuable holding.
But, Ravitch added, a bridge loan usually carries a high interest rate, and he said that bridge loans were very clear “about their ability to recover the loan against an asset.”
BELLEFONTE, Pa. — Jerry Sandusky, the disgraced former assistant football coach at Penn State, is scheduled Tuesday to face the public testimony of at least half of the 10 boys he is accused of sexually molesting.
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In a preliminary hearing in this town of 6,100, located about 10 miles northeast of the Penn State campus, a district judge will determine whether prosecutors have provided sufficient evidence to send the case to trial. The hearing could last two days.
Sandusky, who will be 68 next month, has been charged with more than 50 counts of sexual abuse involving 10 boys he met through a nonprofit organization, Second Mile, he founded in 1977 that worked with disadvantaged children.
Sandusky has admitted in interviews, including one with The New York Times, that he showered and wrestled with young boys as a mentor who treated the youths like extended family but has said he never sexually abused them.
He posted a $250,000 bond and was released from jail last week after facing charges by two additional accusers. Sandusky is confined to his home and must wear an ankle monitor.
Among the accusers expected to testify at the preliminary hearing is a 17-year-old known as Victim 1. According to prosecutors, he met Sandusky when he was 11 or 12 and was given gifts like golf clubs, a computer and cash and taken to professional and college sporting events. The boy was also victimized repeatedly in Sandusky’s home, prosecutors said.
The molestation charges have brought perhaps the greatest scandal ever witnessed in college sports. Forced out at Penn State were its longtime football coach Joe Paterno and the university president, Graham B. Spanier. Athletic Director Tim Curley and the university vice president Gary Schultz, who was in charge of the campus police, have been accused of lying to a grand jury.
Until now, Bellefonte, where the Centre County Courthouse is located on the town square, has been a sleepy place known for its Victorian architecture and as the home to five Pennsylvania governors from the 1800s. But about 200 members of the news media were expected to cover the preliminary hearing. On Monday night, traffic on the town square was closed pending the arrival of 29 television satellite trucks.
Wilkinson ends his glorious career with England
Jonny
Wilkinson, whose drop goal won England the 2003 World Cup final, last night announced his retirement from playing international rugby. The
fly-halfs career ended with 91 caps, making him the second most-capped
player in England history, and with 1,179 points, nearly three times as
many as the next highest scorer. To [announce my retirement] fills me with great sadness, but I know that I have been blessed in so many ways to have experienced what I have with the England rugby team, he said last night. The time has come, however, for me to realise
that I have gone as far as I can go with this England team and that the
time is right for others to enjoy the same honour and pride that I have
felt over the past 15 seasons and beyond. Lewis Moody praised his former team-mate. Im humbled to have played alongside him, he said. Im saddened but his contribution over the years, his work ethic,
professionalism and commitment, has been immense. Interim England coach Stuart Lancaster described Wilkinson as a model sportsman, down-to-earth and hard-working. MORE
Chelsea fight back to defeat City
Chelsea came from behind to inflict Manchester Citys first defeat of
the season last night. Mario Balotelli put the league leaders ahead but
Raul Meireles equalised before Frank Lampard scored a penalty. Gaël Clichy was sent off for City. MORE
Redknapp likely to escape FA charge
Spurs manager Harry Redknapp is likely to escape censure from the Football Association today for his criticisms of Chris Foy after Sundays defeat at Stoke City. It is believed the FA will be lenient as Redknapp did not imply any bias on Foys part. MORE
Arsenals Santos out until March
Arsenal left-back Andre Santos will be out for three months after surgery on ankle ligaments damaged last week. The 28-year-old returned to Brazil for the operation. Santoss understudy Kieran Gibbs is still some weeks away from fitness. MORE
Baxter and team to stay at Exeter
Exeter Chiefs head coach, Rob Baxter, and his team have signed contract extensions to keep them at Sandy Park until the end of the 2014-15 season. Baxter took over Exeter in the summer of 2009 and got them promoted to the Premiership in his first year.
Donald plans for 2012 major win
Luke Donald is focused on winning a major in 2012 after winning both the US and European money lists, and has given himself more time off before them: Obviously, a major is the only thing missing from my rÃsumà and Im excited about 2012. MORE
Champion Trump to stay on attack
Judd Trump, who won the UK Championship on Sunday night, has insisted
he will keep his attacking style in the future. I dont care who Im playing. Im not scared of reputations, its about my game, said the 22-year-old. Im not going to change it.
Simpson and Percy keep lead in Perth
Olympic champions Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson kept their lead after
the second day of racing in the star class at the World Championships in Perth. Their fifth and fourth-place finishes yesterday allowed them to move 12 points clear overall.
Wigan sign Gelling from Auckland
Wigan have signed 21-year-old Anthony Gelling from the Auckland Vulcans. The Cook Island international centre, who has joined his team-mates in Florida, is a replacement for Joel Tomkins, who has gone to play rugby union for Saracens. MORE
Kauto Star will go for King George
Kauto Star will race in the William Hill King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day, aiming to win the race for a record fifth time. Sam Waley-Cohen will ride Long Run, a repeat of last years winning pair. MORE
Opinion: James Lawton
Tony Puliss Stoke City have many admirable qualities, but their win over Tottenham was a triumph for anti-football. It was a superbly marshalled version of the dark force, and will never replace the allure of real football. MORE
Tevez and City discussing absence
Carlos Tevez failed to attend a meeting at Manchester City yesterday despite being ordered to return from Argentina. Tevezs representative, though, said that there were a series of meetings and conference calls
with the club at the weekend over his absence. MORE
Federer: Schedule to thank for success
Roger Federer believes that pacing himself was behind his recent wins
in Basle and Paris. In hindsight it was good scheduling, said the 30-year-old. I always plan in the long term. I hope also in some ways I
can educate some other players. I know how tough it is. MORE
Lawsuit puts NBA season at risk
The entire 2011-12 NBA season is under threat after the National Basketball Players Association yesterday rejected the NBA team owners latest proposal and announced that it will file an anti-trust lawsuit against the league.
Celtic face Uefa action over chants
Celtic face disciplinary action from Uefa over illicit chanting during the 3-1 Europa League win over Rennes earlier this month. Celtic will be called before Uefas control and disciplinary panel on 8 December. The club were already looking into the claims. MORE
England flanker Worsley retires
Joe Worsley yesterday announced his retirement after eight months of trying to overcome a neck problem. I have been following medical and rehab advice but it hasnt worked, said the 34-year-old flanker who won
78 England caps. It was obvious I couldnt continue. MORE
Opinion: James Lawton
The England team has not for at least a decade been so free of the trappings of an old boys club. For the likes of Jack Rodwell and Adam Johnson the possibilities under Fabio Capello have never been so fluid. MORE
Dunne: Money cant buy Irelands thrill
Richard Dunne is not interested in any bonus payment ahead of the Republic of Irelands likely passage to Euro 2012 against Estonia tonight: Footballers want to play in tournaments. To go and represent Ireland is going to be something money cant buy. MORE
Morley vows to keep playing
Adrian Morley will become Britains most capped player in the Four Nations final on Saturday, with 50, but wants to keep going. It all depends on your club form, but as long as Im playing well enough and England want me, Ill always put my hand up, he said. MORE
Capello happy for Terry to captain young side tonight
Fabio
Capello is comfortable, absolutely with John Terry leading out an experimental England side against Sweden at Wembley tonight. The Chelsea centre-back, who is under investigation following accusations of
racism, did not play in the defeat of Spain on Saturday. I am comfortable, absolutely, said Capello yesterday. You know what I decided. Its finished. You know why? Because, guys, innocent until [proven guilty]. Terry will be one of the few experienced members
of a side featuring eight changes from Saturday. There will be a first start for Kyle Walker at right-back, while Jack Rodwell, Bobby Zamora and Danny Welbeck should all play. The likely XI will have just 208 caps between them, the second-lowest total under Capellos reign, with 174 of those coming from four players: Terry, Gareth Barry, Stewart
Downing and James Milner. MORE
U-21s defeated in stoppage time
England Under-21s lost their Euro 2013 qualifier to Belgium 2-1 in Mons last night. Liverpools Martin Kelly had put Stuart Pearces side ahead but Jens Naessens equalised for the hosts and Omar El Kaddouri struck the winning goal in stoppage time. MORE
Test Championship delayed until 2017
The World Test Championship will not begin until 2017, International Cricket Council chief executive Haroon Lorgat said yesterday. It is no longer going to happen in 2013, he said. I am disappointed but it is a
reality of the commitments we have already got. MORE