Fredette an AP All-American, Robertson Trophy winner

The 2010-11 college basketball awards season began in earnest Monday with BYU’s Jimmer Fredette collecting two huge prizes for his outstanding play in leading the Cougars to their first NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearance in 30 years.

Fredette was selected as the winner of the Oscar Robertson Trophy by the United States Basketball Writers Association, given annually to the best player in college basketball by the 900 or so journalists who belong to the USBWA.

The senior guard was also named Associated Press first-team All-America, earning 64 of the 65 first-team votes for the honor. Duke’s Nolan Smith, Purdue’s JuJuan Johnson, UConn’s Kemba Walker and OSU’s Jared Sullinger also made the first team.

Fredette is BYU’s first All-American since Danny Ainge in 1981.

“If you go out and play your game and have confidence in yourself, you can accomplish great things,” Fredette said. “That’s what I’ve always said in my head, and it has worked out.”

The AP said the voting was done before the NCAA Tournament.

“I think that it is a great accomplishment. Unbelievable,” BYU coach Dave Rose said. “It shows how good his work ethic is. He’s a player who has worked his way into an All-American. What he’s meant to our program over the last four years — it is really kind of immeasurable.”

The Robertson Award will be presented to Fredette by Oscar Robertson himself in Houston on Friday in conjunction with the Final Four.

The other three major national player of the year awards — the Naismith College Basketball Player of the Year, the Associated Press Player of the Year and the John Wooden Award — will be presented in April.

Fredette is the second Robertson Trophy winner from the Mountain West Conference. He joins Utah’s Andrew Bogut, who won the award in 2005.

Utah State’s Tai Wesley and Utah Valley’s Isiah Williams were named Honorable Mention All-Americans.

Sprint Cup: Kyle Busch wins again at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn. — The situation was perfect for Carl Edwards to issue some payback on Kyle Busch.

Instead, Edwards passed on a chance to knock Busch out of the lead over the closing laps at Bristol Motor Speedway.

As Busch pulled away for Sunday's win — his fifth straight dating to August in major NASCAR races at the Tennessee track — Edwards regretted not racing harder to potentially steal the victory. The two have a history at Bristol, and Edwards is still smarting from contact between the two last month at Phoenix that he believed wrecked a car capable of winning.

"I told him after Phoenix that I still owe him one, but I'll save it up," Edwards said. "I thought I'd be able to race with him harder for those last 15 to 20 laps, but he took off and I just couldn't get back (near) to him to race."

That Edwards considered revenge was a surprise to Busch, who seemed mystified that Edwards could be holding any sort of grudge against him.

"I have no idea what I'm owed from, you'd have to ask Carl," Busch said, later adding when asked specifically about Phoenix, "Carl says what Carl says. I don't know. And when and where it comes, I do not know."

It didn't come Sunday after Busch beat Edwards and Jimmie Johnson off pit road following the final pit stops on Lap 430 of 500. That gave him the lead over all but one of the final 70 laps in the Jeff Byrd 500. The racing at the beginning of each restart was intense, but Busch consistently pulled away.

Edwards briefly grabbed the lead on Lap 474 after side-by-side racing, but Busch took it back for good the next lap.

"I was trying to drive away from him so he wouldn't have the opportunity to get to me," Busch said of his strategy with Edwards. "When he got to me that one time, I'm like 'Oh, man. That was your shot. Nice try. You didn't get it done.' "

Busch did, pulling away to complete a sweep of the weekend — he also won Saturday's second-tier Nationwide series race. Busch has five Cup wins at Bristol, which ties him with older brother Kurt in NASCAR's top series, and has 11 victories spanning the three national series at the 0.533-mile bullring.

Kurt Busch, who came in tied for the Sprint Cup points lead, took sole possession of first, one point ahead of Edwards.

Kyle Busch, who drives a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, dedicated the win to the manufacturer and employees in Japan trying to recover from the recent earthquake and tsunami.

Johnson, the defending race winner, finished third and said he waited for a dustup between Busch and Edwards that could have given him the win.

"We were all running really hard, and there were a couple moments where I thought I might be given a big gift," Johnson said. " … There was nowhere for me to go if I got up in there and raced with those guys."

Kenseth, Edwards' teammate with Roush Fenway Racing, was fourth followed by Richard Childress Racing teammates Paul Menard and Kevin Harvick.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was flagged for speeding on pit road, which might have cost him a top-10 finish. He was 11th, coming back from one lap down.

There were no tire issues despite concern when Goodyear's product struggled through Friday. The supplier called for almost 1,300 new right-side tires to be shipped from North Carolina, and they were distributed before Saturday's practices. NASCAR called a competition caution at Lap 50 to check the tires, and there were no noticeable issues.

NCAA tournament selection process doesn't have to be right, but it shouldn't be a secret

The problem with the NCAA tournament bracket that was unveiled Sunday night isn't the product.

Debate over who got in and who didn't is going to occur every year whether the field consists of 64 teams, 68 teams or the 96 teams the NCAA will someday shove down our throats.
And while only one member of this year's tournament selection committee has actually coached Division I basketball - Stan Morrison, who last did so in 1998 -
the process isn't necessarily the issue either.

The problem is accountability - specifically, the committee's utter lack of it. Without it, we have no way of knowing whether the process was fair or not.
Something is rotten in Indianapolis.
Through the years, the tournament selection committee, especially whomever is chairman, has mastered the art of the non-answer. Ask a committee member whether the sun will set in the west today, and you will be told that a very careful study will be done on that question and the committee will do a great job coming up with the answer and that the sun is extremely well-coached but it may or may not have enough votes to set in the west.
This year's committee chairman, Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith, who probably should have resigned that position last week to tend to his day job in Columbus, wouldn't answer the simplest and most obvious questions Sunday night.
Why didn't Virginia Tech make the field? Smith's answer, once you filtered out all the babble about "quantifiable criteria" and how well-coached the Hokies are, was this: The Hokies didn't get enough votes.
No kidding, Mr. Chairman.
When Smith was asked whether the ACC tournament championship game between Duke and North Carolina had decided who got the final No. 1 seed, he went off on a body-of-work tangent and claimed one game didn't decide the last No. 1 seed.
Does he seriously think anyone believes that? Is he saying that if North Carolina had beaten Duke for the second time in the past eight days and had lost one game in two months, Duke still would have been the last No. 1 seed? If so, then the committee is doing an even worse job than people think.

The committee's hypocrisy is in trying to keep all its decision-making processes secret while at the same time claiming "transparency."

Smith says Virginia Tech didn't get in because it didn't get enough votes. Fine. Who voted for the Hokies? Who voted against them? If members of Congress have to vote publicly on tax increases or whether or not to go to war, why in the world shouldn't tournament selection committee members have to explain why they voted for or against teams? All the voting is done by computer now; every single vote should be made public.
Committee members have absolutely no problem with accepting the many perks that come with their roles, but they don't seem to own the responsibility. No one forces anyone to be on the committee. If you want to be a member, you should have to explain what you did and why.
Here's another question that should be answered: Who was responsible for scouting the ACC this season? Before the season, each committee member is assigned three conferences (presumably someone takes four because there are 31 altogether). The NCAA supplies each member with satellite TV and any game tapes necessary to keep track of the leagues throughout the season.

So, who was the ACC's scout this season? Did he vote for or against Virginia Tech? What did he say about Virginia Tech in the room? Who was the scout for Conference-USA? What did he say that got UAB into the field? Is the scout for the Big Ten being given a "man-of-the-year" award by Comissioner Jim Delaney for somehow getting seven teams into the field?


In an e-mail response to two questions directed to Smith on Monday - who was assigned to the ACC this season and who voted for and against Virginia Tech? - NCAA spokesman David Worlock wrote that the committee does not release the results of any vote taken or who scouts which conference but did-at great length-explain all the information that is available to the committee members.

The committee has an absolute right to get it wrong. No one is perfect, although it doesn't appear anyone in power cares about improving the committee's basketball IQ. This summer, Smith and Morrison will be replaced by two men who have never been Division I coaches. That means there will be zero ex-coaches on next year's committee.

What the committee does not have the right to do is act as if honest answers regarding the selection process would somehow jeopardize national security. It is worth noting that the last thing the committee does Selection Sunday afternoon is prepare the chairman by agreeing on answers for the questions most likely to be asked. Saying Virginia Tech didn't have enough votes isn't an answer, though; it's a dodge.

Anyone familiar with the term "Watergate" knows the cover-up is always worse than the crime. After the past week, Smith should know better than anyone. (See: Tressel, Jim).

Every year, several schools believe - often correctly - that their being left out of the NCAA tournament field is unfair. One can make the case even the most egregious omissions are mostly the results of honest mistakes.

But the refusal to be accountable for such mistakes is anything but honest. And there's not an excuse for allowing it to continue.

Ravens Union Representative Says Extension Means Progress Toward NFL Deal

Chris Carr, a players’ union representative from the Baltimore Ravens, said he’s optimistic that the National Football League and its players union resume efforts will make progress this week toward a new labor contract.

League and union officials -- arguing over how to divide $9 billion in revenue and avoid a work stoppage in the U.S.’s most- watched sport -- on March 4 agreed to a seven-day extension of their current collective bargaining agreement.

Had last week’s deadline had passed without agreement or an extension, the owners could have locked out the players and shut down the sport a month after the Super Bowl championship game drew the biggest audience in U.S. television history. That a lockout hasn’t happened is a sign that an agreement can be reached this week, Carr said.

“If they thought the best strategy was to lock the players out, they would not delay,” the Ravens’ cornerback said in an e-mail. “I am optimistic.”

George H. Cohen, head of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, said the extension would end the evening of March 11. Cohen, NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell all declined to discuss specifics of the talks when they left mediation on March 4.

“There’s a commitment on both sides to engage in another round of negotiations at the request of the mediation service,” Smith told reporters in Washington. “We look forward to a deal coming out of that.”

Antitrust Lawsuits

The union could have abandoned its role in the talks and become a trade association, starting a process that would let individual players file antitrust lawsuits against a shutdown of the sport. The union used the same legal tactic after a 1987 strike broken by replacement players, spawning about 20 lawsuits -- including one that helped create free agency.

It’s a “good sign” that the union hasn’t decertified and the owners haven’t instigated a lockout, Carr said.

“The owners go about their business in a way that’s very conducive to getting a deal done, the players as well,” said Carr, who’s in his seventh NFL season. “I know the union has been doing everything they can to get a deal.”

Asked how he gets opposing sides to agree on issues, Cohen, who brokered a contract agreement last year between Major League Soccer and its players, said it’s not easy.

“The answer is based on longstanding -- look at my gray hair -- experience in collective bargaining negotiations,” he told reporters outside his office.

Negotiating Topics

Along with how to divide the league’s record revenue, negotiation topics include health-care for retirees, extending the regular season to 18 games from 16 and limiting salaries for rookie players.

The week-long extension came three days after U.S. DistrictJudge David Doty in Minneapolis ruled that team owners improperly negotiated $4 billion in television rights fees they might have tapped in a work stoppage. He will consider damages in a yet-to-be-scheduled hearing.

Doty, ruling on March 1, upheld a union complaint that the NFL improperly negotiated to receive about $4 billion from its most prominent television partners -- CBS Corp. (CBS), News Corp. (NWSA)’s Fox, Comcast Corp.’s NBC, Walt Disney Co. (DIS)’s ESPN and DirecTV (DTV) -- even if a work stoppage cancels games in 2011.

Repaying Stadium Bonds

A day after Doty’s ruling, the rating company Standard & Poor’s halved, to one year, a two-day-old estimate on the impact of a work stoppage on the ability of the NFL to repay stadium bonds.

A lockout that extends into the season, which begins in September, would empty stadiums financed with a combined $7 billion in taxpayer money, interrupt the schedules of the largest U.S. broadcasters and leave fans without the sport that last season was watched by a record 207.7 million viewers.

The league estimates the labor dispute has cost $120 million in ticket sales and sponsorship revenue, and that the total would increase to $1 billion if it takes until the scheduled start of the season in September to reach agreement.

Every week of lost games would diminish revenue by about $400 million, according to Jeff Pash, the league’s chief negotiator, and Eric Grubman, the NFL’s executive vice president of business ventures.

Owners voted in 2008 to opt out of the deal, saying it didn’t account for costs such as those of building stadiums. They want to double the amount of revenue set aside for expenses before paying players, according to the union. Under the current agreement, about $1 billion is deducted before player payrolls are calculated, for costs related to stadiums, marketing, NFL.com and the NFL Network, according to Smith.

Paid Too Much

Grubman, a former executive at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), said the deal gives players too much money before accounting for costs. New stadiums raise league revenue, for example, thus increasing income for players. Meanwhile, owners bear the finance and operation costs.

The NFL’s popularity historically has bounced back from work stoppages. Paid attendance was about 13.6 million the season before a 57-day strike in 1982 and 13.3 million the season after. It reached a then-record 13.9 million three years after the 1987 strike, the most recent work stoppage.

The possibility of a lockout leaves governments that have subsidized NFL stadiums wondering if those facilities will stand empty during the season. Mayors and city officials of Houston, Miami, Minneapolis, San Diego and Kansas City, Missouri, have written the NFL saying a lockout may cost millions in revenue and wages for workers at stadiums, hotels, restaurants and other businesses that depend on games.

Pash said he wouldn’t be surprised if owners attend talks this week.

“I think there has been enough discussion and enough substance to the discussions that the mediators thought it makes sense to come back and keep at it,” he said.