David Stern is worried about flopping in the NBA. So is Indiana Coach Frank Vogel, who called the Miami Heat “the biggest flopping team in the NBA.” So the Heat have a tendency to be a bit dramatic, just because their stars were introduced amid smoke and (perhaps) mirrors, and their players occasionally appear at news conferences in what appear to be disguises? Hard to imagine. Read full article > >

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NBA commissioner could use a stern talking-to

It was another bad day at the office for Tiger Woods as he shot a two-over-par 74 in his opening round at the Players Championship Thursday.

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Tiger: I shot myself in the foot

Four players, including linebacker Jonathan Vilma, were suspended Wednesday by the NFL for their roles in the New Orleans Saints’ bounty program. Vilma was suspended for the entire 2012 season. The other three players, two of them no longer with the Saints, received lesser penalties. Read full article > >

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NFL suspends four players for roles in New Orleans Saints bounty scandal

Standing on a makeshift platform at midcourt and surrounded by the players who had just given him the sixth Final Four berth of his career , Louisville Coach Rick Pitino accepted the West Region title trophy Saturday and remarked that “outside of my six children, this is the happiest day of my life.” Read full article > >

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NCAA tournament 2012: A changed Rick Pitino leads Louisville into Final Four

New England head coach Stuart Lancaster says he wants his players to play with pride as he plans for the 2015 World Cup.

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Lancaster sets out England vision

Coach Dale Hunter said it before the puck dropped on the opening faceoff Sunday afternoon: Every set of points is “huge” for the Washington Capitals in the waning days of the regular season. That fact is omnipresent for the players as they work to ensure themselves a playoff berth. And by dispatching the struggling Minnesota Wild , 3-0, at Verizon Center, they aided the cause. Read full article > >

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Capitals vs. Wild: Holtby, Ovechkin lead Washington over Minnesota, 3-0

Had a bounty for injuring other players.

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Saints to Be Penalized March 26

Randy Edsall summoned Danny O’Brien and Max Garcia to his office early Wednesday morning for what became, according to two individuals familiar with the discussion, an easygoing, 15-minute conversation. The Maryland football coach explained he was lifting his earlier restriction that barred the players from transferring to 16 schools, including Vanderbilt . Edsall then wished them well. Read full article > >

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Maryland football lifts transfer restrictions on Danny O’Brien, files complaint against Vanderbilt

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Jim Boeheim got his milestone victory. But the Georgetown men’s basketball team made Syracuse ’s longtime coach and his players work overtime to get it. Orange senior Kris Joseph sank a three-pointer with 29 seconds remaining in overtime, and Jason Clark committed a turnover with 4.9 seconds showing on the clock Wednesday at the Carrier Dome, where second-ranked Syracuse held on for an exhilarating 64-61 victory and the crowd of 27,820 serenaded Boeheim after he moved into sole possession of third place on the all-time Division I wins list. Read full article > >

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Georgetown vs. Syracuse: Hoyas fall in overtime, moving Jim Boeheim into third place in NCAA career wins

The Washington Wizards are off to their worst start in franchise history, and with each loss Coach Flip Saunders and his players find it harder to explain or excuse the struggles. They are the third-youngest team in the NBA, with an average age of 25.02, and eight players on the roster have less than three years of experience. But while youth and inexperience have contributed to Wizards’ 0-8 record, several scouts and league executives believe the problems run much deeper than the usual bumps that come from rebuilding. The Wizards, they argue, suffer from a lack of overall talent and a toxic culture of losing that has prohibited the growth of its developing players. Read full article > >

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Wizards’ woes stem from from lack of talent and losing culture, executives say

CHARLOTTESVILLE — Shortly after finishing the 2010 season at 4-8, Virginia football Coach Mike London told Jon Oliver, the school’s executive associate athletic director, that he felt his players needed to be tougher, more accountable and more disciplined. “In my mind, listening to [London], I felt like it was coming down to a lot of what was happening in the weight room,” Oliver said. Read full article > >

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Virginia football learns the price of strength

Chelsea reject a proposal from their players to wear T-shirts in support of captain John Terry.

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Terry T-shirt support ruled out

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish defends his players after they were criticised for their public backing of Luis Suarez.

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Dalglish defends team over Suarez

I will miss Bruce Boudreau, and not just in the plethora of commercials he starred in while coaching the Washington Capitals . Boudreau had a dry wit and did not suffer fools, at least among the media contingent at Kettler and Verizon Center. He was never dull, and for a columnist, that’s great. But coaches don’t have to please columnists; they have to please general managers, and owners, and fans. Increasingly, Boudreau was failing to do that. And he certainly wasn’t pleasing his players, at least some of them. It’s no great secret in sports that coaches are hired to be fired. It’s no great secret that when a coach clashes with a player making $9 million a year, a player who used to be regarded as the best in hockey — and a player who probably still regards himself as the best in hockey — that coach is the one who’s going to be hitting the bricks, not the player. Read full article > >

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Bruce Boudreau became the something that had to be done

BALTIMORE — John Harbaugh aggressively pumped his fist when Joe Flacco converted a big third-down throw. He jumped on the back of linebacker Jameel McClain as he ran off the field after a key sack in the fourth quarter, and he gave several of his players hugs after receiving the first of two celebratory Gatorade baths. Read full article > >

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Baltimore Ravens top San Francisco 49ers in the Harbaugh bowl