Sports fodder for a Friday morning . . . David Carter, like Trent Johnson and Mark Fox before him, simply knows how to win basketball games. The rookie Nevada Wolf Pack men's basketball head coach has done an outstanding job with a young and thin team, guiding them to 16 victories in their first 25 games. This is not a great or even a deep Wolf Pack team. On some nights they are not even a good team. But they win. They learn quickly from their mistakes. And they compete and fight every night. Carter is squeezing every victory possible out of this team and that's all anyone can expect out of a coach.
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The Wolf Pack has a good chance to win 23, 24 games this year. It would be their most victories since a guy named Nick Fazekas was on the roster. And don't be shocked if you are filling out your NCAA Tournament bracket in March and see Nevada as an 11th or 12th seed. Next year, if Carter avoids a rollercoaster offseason like the one he experienced last spring, will be even better for the Pack. It will be the best Pack team since Fazekas and Ramon Sessions left after 2006-07. Malik Story and Olek Czyz will be eligible to suit up and Armon Johnson, Luke Babbitt and Dario Hunt will be a year older. Think legitimate Sweet 16 contender, Pack fans.
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Tiger Woods is supposedly going to sit in front of a television camera on Friday morning, read a prepared statement and appear to be sorry for embarrassing his family, sponsors and the PGA Tour. The media will not be allowed to ask questions. Woods will admit he cheated on his wife, stare at the camera and shed a tear or two and then deny that cheating on his wife helped his performance on the PGA Tour. Oh, wait, that was Mark McGwire. It doesn't matter what Woods says publicly on Friday. The only people he needs to apologize to are his wife and children.
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This whole Woods scandal has been blown totally out of proportion. He is certainly not the first famous athlete to cheat on his wife. Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Steve McNair, Alex Rodriguez, Babe Ruth all were found to be lousy husbands at one time (more likely a thousand or so times) or another. Who really cares? Do you really think Tiger is the only PGA player who has cheated on his wife? If every current professional athlete who has cheated on his wife was forced to read a statement in front of a camera, your basic cable package would include a channel called Cheater TV.
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Does it really surprise anyone that the media who have been invited to listen to Tiger in person won't be able to ask any questions? What else is new? The golfing media is accustomed to being a bunch of robots fawning over professional golfers. They sit in a tent all day eating piles of free food and don't even watch the event they are supposedly covering. Coaching third base for the San Diego Padres is a more grueling job than being a golf writer. The only questions the golfing media know are: Could you talk about your round? How did the course play? When is dinner being served? It shouldn't surprise anyone that the Woods scandal wasn't broken by a golf writer.
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Watching the Winter Olympics is like watching auto racing, hockey, the American Idol tryouts or sitting on an overpass and looking down on a freeway. You're just waiting for the crash, fight or meltdown. I'm waiting for Bob Costas' overly moussed hair to catch fire from a stray spark from that roaring fireplace behind him on the NBC set. Hey, it beats looking at Simon Cowell in his tight T-shirt.
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What's going on with the Oregon Duck running backs? Last fall LeGarrette Blount punched a Boise State player in the head on national TV and was suspended for a few games. And now LaMichael James is facing domestic violence charges. Who is advising these guys? Pacman Jones? LeGarrette, LaMichael, LaTiger? Hey, it's nothing that a prepared statement read in front of a TV camera couldn't fix.