San Jose State hosts Wyoming in battle of bottom-feeders Wednesday night

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Photo credit: @SJSUMBB

By: Ana Kieu

San Jose State men’s basketball has been slated to host another conference foe, the Wyoming Cowboys, in the Event Center Wednesday night. This time, the Spartans vs. Cowboys matchup will be a battle of bottom-feeders, but only one of these two teams will prevail in the end.

Here’s what you need to know before Wednesday’s conference matchup:

This Week
San Jose State (4-24, 1-15 Mountain West) hosts Wyoming (6-23, 2-14 Mountain West) Wednesday at 7 pm PST before traveling to Fresno State for a rivalry game Saturday at 4 pm PST. Wednesday night’s game will also be Senior Night as Oumar Barry will be honored prior to the game.

Last Week
The Spartans picked up their first Mountain West win of the season with an 89-82 victory over New Mexico at home last Tuesday. The Spartans then suffered a loss at San Diego State 84-56 Saturday night.

Spartan Stat
Spartans junior forward Michael Steadman tallied his third-straight double-double at San Diego State Saturday in Viejas Arena. Steadman finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Steadman’s double-double was his 10th of the season, which was also the third most in the Mountain West.

Spartan Facts

Sacramento Kings podcast with Charlie O: Knicks were a no brainer, Celtics will be a tougher task on Wednesday night

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Photo credit: @SacramentoKings

On the Kings podcast with Charlie O:

#1 The Los Angeles Clippers got a seven-point win over the Sacramento Kings (33-31) 116-109 on Saturday night in another game that was a cliff hanger.

#2 On Monday night, the Kings host the New York Knicks and the Kings held a ten-point lead over the Knicks for most of the game. It showed how well they were coached to hold such a lead.

#3 The Knicks are struggling this season at 13-51 for the Kings. It was like taking candy from a baby at Golden One on Monday night.

#4 The free throws made the difference for Sacramento 81.5% and for New York 60.0%

#5 On Wednesday, March 6th, the task doesn’t get easier as the Kings host the Boston Celtics (38-26).

Sacramento Kings podcasts with Charlie O is heard each Tuesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Golden State Warriors podcast with David Zizmor: Will Durant go to Boston? Irving and Durant to meet tonight at Oracle

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photo from sfgate.com: Kyrie Irving #11 of the Boston Celtics and Kevin Durant #35 of the Golden State Warriors greet each other prior to the start of their NBA basketball game at ORACLE Arena on January 27, 2018 in Oakland, California.

On the Warriors podcast with David:

#1 David talks to us about his thoughts on the Warriors acquiring Andrew Bogut

#2 It’s the Boston Celtics (38-26) tonight at Oracle Arena and David sets tonight’s game up

David does the Warriors podcast each Tuesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Kings Press Row Podcast: Can they make the playoffs?

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press row podcast

Hosts: Jordan “Chape” Chapin and Charlie O

  • The Kings have been trapped in ninth place in the Western Conference and need to win at least 11 of their final 19 games to make the playoffs
  • SAC made the first step to the playoffs by downing the Knicks 115-108 on Monday night. The Kings may have played down to the NYK level.
  • The boys run down the stats from the win on Monday night – the good, the bad and the ugly!
  • Chape and Charlie O look ahead to Wednesday night and the game with the Celtics
  • The guys also make their predictions on wins and losses for the 19 remaining games. Will the Kings make the playoffs? Chape and Charlie O say it is going to be very, very close!
  • Turn up the volume and let’s talk all things, Kings!

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Kings In No Mood For Losing: Beat Knicks and Stay Above .500

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By Morris Phillips

SACRAMENTO — The Kings are still in the Western Conference playoff race, but nothing states that fact better than a win.The Kings were fortunate enough to survive the pesky New York Knicks on Monday at Golden 1 Center.

Sacramento never trailed after the first quarter, but they never felt comfortable, even the last minutes of the fourth when the Knicks were still in range, and capable of stealing the middle stop of their three-game road trip.

“We didn’t make the shots that we usually make but we were able to get them to turn the ball over,” De’Aaron Fox said. “They usually don’t do that.”

Fox was one of five double-digit scorers for the Kings, who didn’t play a great deal of defense, but kept the pace, and shared the basketball against the team with the NBA’s worst record. 

While the Knicks have been atrocious in losing 22 of 25, the Kings have been downright frustrated, losing 5 of 6, with all the losses by seven points or less. Moreover, their playoff chances have dwindled as a result, but their disdain for falling below .500 at this late date in the season by losing to a beleaguered opponent at home may have been their biggest motivational factor on Monday.

Now their hope is that same motivation carries them in their game against the free-falling Celtics on Wednesday, then again in the rematch with the Knicks in Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

Regardless the Kings face and uphill battle trying to catch the Clippers and Spurs for the coveted, eighth spot. Both teams won Monday, keeping their edge over Sacramento at three games.

Baer to take leave of absence; Will Baer step down from CEO position?

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Photo credit: @KNBR

by Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco Giants CEO Larry Baer has released a statement that he will be taking a leave of absence the leave of absence started on Monday following last week’s physical altercation with his wife Pam in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley. The two were recorded when Baer reached for his phone which Pam was holding. Baer stood up to get the phone out Pam’s hands and she fell over in the chair she was seated in. Baer stood over his wife and walked away in the video.

Here is the statement released by the San Francisco Giants and Baer today: “The Board of Directors of San Francisco Baseball Associates is closely monitoring the matter involving Giants President and CEO Larry Baer. Pursuant to League policy, Major League Baseball is taking the lead in gathering all facts surrounding the situation. The organization is cooperating fully with the process. Mr. Baer has acknowledged that his behavior was unacceptable, apologized to the organization and is committed to taking steps to make sure that this never happens again. He has also requested, and the Board has accepted, his request to take personal time away from the Giants beginning today (Monday). The Board has asked the Giants executive team to manage the day-to-day operations of the Club during this period, reporting directly to the Board. As leaders in the community, we at the Giants hold ourselves to the highest standards and those standards will guide how we consider this matter moving forward. We have no further comment at this time.”

MLB has suspended MLB players in the past Adroldis Chapman pitcher of the New York Yankees and Jose Reyes of the Colorado Rockies for domestic violence. The talk of a double standard was starting if baseball or the Giants didn’t do anything to Baer to discipline him for domestic violence in a public place. There has been talk about Baer stepping down from his CEO post and MLB suspending him, which is to be determined. If Baer were to step down he would most likely remain a minority owner, but he will not have input on the day to day operations of the club.

The Giants have had some other bad off-the-field issues during the off season the Giants majority owner Charles B Johnson donated $2700 to Republican Mississippi U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith’s political campaign. Hyde-Smith had said in front of a group of supporters that she would want a front row seat to a public hanging and she was photographed with a Confederate army hat on holding a Confederate rifle.  The blow back forced Johnson to request his money back from Hyde-Smith, while Johnson pleaded that he had no knowledge that Hyde-Smith was a racist.

The Giants family suffered the loses of some key high profile people first with the death of former Giants radio play-by-play announcer Hank Greenwald, followed by former Giants superstar Hall of Fame slugger first baseman Willie McCovey, and most recently, the death of Giants partner owner Peter Magowan.  The Giants had replaced former General Manager with Bobby Evans with Farhan Zaidi after Evans took what same say the blame for the teams woes over the last two seasons. Former Giants first baseman and Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda fell at a golf course and had a close call, but has recovered.

The Giants have suffered losing records for the last two seasons. As a result, it has been grueling on Giants manager Bruce Bochy, who announced his retirement concluding this season. Since the Baer altercation, none of the players, coaches, or front office people have made a statement regarding Baer or his situation. Only Bochy would say that Baer is a friend and has respect for the work he has done for the organization.

Jeremy Harness is a San Francisco Giants beat writer at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Cal Bears basketball podcast with Morris Phillips: After two straight wins, Cal prepares for Stanford Thursday

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photo from yahoosports.com: The Cal Bears defense was all over the Washington Huskies last Thursday at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley the first of two wins for Cal

On the Cal Bears podcast with Morris:

#1 The Cal Bears are coming off two wins against the mighty Washington Huskies and the Washington State University Cougars. Morris talks about Cal’s motivation to win their first two Pac-12 games.

#2 Getting two wins in the Pac 12 after nearly going winless has to build confidence going into the Pac-12 tournament.

#3 Now 7-22 coming off a 76-69 win, was the game against WSU a game where the Bears could see improvement in ball movement and getting their shots?

#4 Darius McNeill led Cal with 17 points for a big offensive day. Cal also distributed the ball well.

#5 It’s off to Stanford Thursday night, a 8:00 PM tip. Could the Bears come in with momentum and possibly get this game?

Morris does the Cal Bears podcasts each Monday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Sharks Beat Blackhawks 5-2, M. Karlsson Scores 2

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Photo credit: @SanJoseSharks

By Mary Walsh

SAN JOSE — The San Jose Sharks beat the visiting Chicago Blackhawks 5-2 Sunday night. Despite the absence of Erik Karlsson, the Sharks still got three goals from Swedish players in the third period. Melker Karlsson scored two and Marcus Sorensen scored one. Tomas Hertl and Timo Meier added two more for the Sharks. Martin Jones made 28 saves for the win. Dylan Strome and Erik Gustafsson scored for Chicago and Cam Ward made 29 saves in the loss.

Both Erik Karlsson and Evander Kane missed a second game in a row with injuries. After the game, Sharks Head Coach Peter DeBoer talked about winning without them in the lineup:

Take out two critical pieces like that out of somebody’s team and you’re in tough. But I thought our fourth line was excellent tonight, I thought Tim Heed’s been playing great hockey for us. That’s what good teams do on nights when guys are out or nights when a line is off a little bit, another line picks it up. I thought Tommy Hertl and his line were real good tonight so, you know, that’s part of winning hockey.

Tomas Hertl gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead at 12:16 of the first. He carried the puck into the zone, pestered somewhat by Duncan Keith, and when Cam Ward went down to block the shot, slipped the puck around him. Tim Heed got the assist.

Chicago tied it up in the final minute of the period with a goal from Dylan Strome. A few good offensive shifts from Chicago was followed by a neutral zone turnover by the Sharks. That gave the Blackhawks a two on one of Dylan Strome and Alex DeBrincat. Strome looked like he would pass, but he shot and beat Jones on the blocker side. DeBrincat and Brent Seabrook got the assists.

At the end of the first, Chicago held the lead in shots 11-7. The Sharks had won 67% of the face-offs.

Early in the second, Timo Meier gave the Sharks the lead back. He started by sending the puck around the boards to Tim Heed before moving to the slot. Then, from above the hash marks, he tipped Heed’s shot, sending the puck just under the goalie’s glove. Tomas Hertl screened Ward so the goalie really had no chance to see the shot coming. Assists went to Heed and Joonas Donskoi.

Erik Gustafsson tied it back up at 6:40. After a little give and go up by the blue line with Jonathan Toews, Gustafsson moved to the middle of the ice and took a shot right up the middle, going through three skaters aligned in a perfect screen. The puck brushed the underside of Jones’s sleeve as it went in. Assists went to Toews and Keith.

The Sharks outshot the Blackhawks 14-12 in the second period, but their face-off win percentage dropped to 53%.

4:27 into the third, the Sharks took the lead back with a great shot from Marcus Sorensen skating to the net. Joe Thornton and Joonas Donskoi had spent a spell around the net and boards. Thornton and Donskoi got the assists.

During a delayed penalty against Chicago, Melker Karlsson extended the lead to 4-2. It was a well-deserved goal for a fourth line that had been close to scoring several times in the game. Karlsson tipped a Brent Burns shot tipped from the hash marks. The time of the goal was 8:16, with assists going to Burns and Micheal Haley.

Karlsson scored again at 17:38. The Chicago net was empty when Karlsson picked Goodrow’s clearing shot out of the air. He broke away and took his shot from the Chicago blue line. Assists went to Goodrow and Haley.

The Sharks killed three of three penalties, one per period and had one power play during which they did not score. They allowed eight shots on the three penalty kills and got one on the power play. The final shot count was 34-30 Sharks and they won 51% of the face-offs.

The win puts the Sharks just three points behind the Pacific Division and Western Conference leaders, the Calgary Flames.

The Sharks next play on Thursday against the visiting Montreal Canadiens at 7:30 PM PT.

Washington escapes Maples with a 62-61 win over the Cardinal

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Photo credit: @StanfordMBB

By: Eric Epstein

PALO ALTO, Calif. — The Stanford Cardinal fell to the Pac-12-leading Washington Huskies by 1 point on Sunday afternoon. KZ Okpala’s missed 3-point attempt as the buzzer sounded would have given Stanford the win had it been good, but with its miss, Washington walked away with a narrow victory.

Coming off a 3-point loss to Cal, yet still clinching the Pac-12 regular season title on Thursday, Washington was never able to fully pull ahead from Stanford and establish itself as the dominant team. In the first half, Stanford held a single-digit lead for the first seven minutes, until Washington took over and held a lead for all but a minute and a half of the remainder of the period. In the second half, Stanford managed to grab some brief leads throughout the first 15 minutes, but the scoreboard was still mostly controlled by Washington. However, down the stretch, the teams traded off buckets and experienced 4 lead changes—no margin higher than 3 points. 2 straight jumpers by sophomore Husky guard Jaylen Nowell in the final minute and a half of play proved to be too much for Stanford to come back from as they could only scrape together one basket in the rest of regulation.

Washington outscored Stanford 29-33 in a slow-paced first half that featured 17 total turnovers and a combined 29.8% shooting percentage from the field. Sophomores KZ Okpala and Oscar da Silva, as well as senior Josh Sharma, saw limited playing time in the first period as they all picked up 2 personal fouls.

Out of the 10 players that saw first-half time for the Cardinal, only 5 recorded points, and only 4 of those connected on any of their field goal attempts.

The teams played much cleaner basketball in the second half, shooting a combined 52% from the floor, including a remarkable 56% from downtown.

The Pac-12 leader in field goal percentage in Josh Sharma led the second half in total points with 10. He also pitched in 6 rebounds to finish with game-leading 16 points and 14 rebounds. Freshman guard Cormac Ryan caught on fire during the second half, shooting 3-4 from deep, finishing with 13 points. Da Silva was the third double-digit scorer for Stanford, totaling 15 points on 5-8 shooting along with 9 rebounds and 3 assists.

Overall, Stanford shot 40% from the field and after going 0-8 on threes in the first half, they shot 6-9 from deep in the second period to bring their percentage up to 35%.

Nowell, who finished with 13 points on 6-11 shooting, was the leading scorer for Washington. Disturbed by primary ball handler and point guard David Crisp’s assist-less effort, Washington did not pass the ball well at all and finished with only 7 points at 14 turnovers.

Like Washington, the Cardinal also dealt with passing and playmaking struggles. Stanford played the whole game without their starting point guard in sophomore Daejon Davis, who is still hurt from a foot injury that he suffered in Stanford’s last game against Washington State. The Cardinal greatly missed Davis’ playmaking abilities, as they tallied a terrible assist to turnover ratio at 10:19.

To round out their regular season and make one final push for Pac-12 tournament seeding, Stanford will host Cal on Thursday evening at Maples.

NHL podcast with Matt Harrington: Kings snap 10 game skid; Lightning tie NHL record for 50 wins; Oilers Koskinen stops 30 shots for shutout; plus more

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photo from yahoo.com: Kings beat Blackhawks 6-3 to halt 10-game losing streak on Saturday night at Staple Center against the Chicago Blackhawks

On the NHL podcast with Matt:

#1 The Los Angeles Kings finally snapped out of it and won a game after losing ten games straight the Kings Andre Kempe scored a goal and an assist as the Kings beat the Chicago Blackhawks 6-3. Kings head coach Willie Desjardins said it’s been a long time and it feels good just to win.

#2 The Tampa Bay Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov led the Bolts with a goal and an assist as they won their 50th game in 66 games defeating the Ottawa Senators 5-1. With the win the Lightning tie the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings for the fastest team to win 50 games in a season.

#3 The Edmonton Oilers Mikko Koskinen stopped all 30 Columbus Blue Jacket shots and the Oilers Leon Draisaitl got a goal and two assists for the 4-0 win.

#4 Brad Marchand got the Boston Bruins only goal and B’s goaltender Tuukka Rask stopped all 20 New Jersey shots in the Bruins 1-0 shutout of the Devils.

#5 The Toronto Maple Leafs had an offensive extravaganza from John Taveres and Mitch Marner who scored a goal each and had two assists in the Leafs 5-2 win over the Buffalo Sabers. It was Toronto’s fourth win in five games.

Matt does the NHL podcasts each Saturday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com