An accepted premise: The toughest thing about competing in the Mountain West for basketball is the travel. The second toughest thing: Preparing for such a variety of offenses.
Sports Columns
If there is a betting storyline the public hates to hear more than any other, this is it. The squares are on Peyton Manning and the sharps are on the underdog. The battle line has been drawn.
Two weeks ago, I wrote about the potential loss of slot subsidy within the horse racing industry. Then, as if on cue, a legislator in Pennsylvania wants to pass a bill that takes a $250 million slot subsidy away from horse racing and uses it to fund education.
The checkmarks never end. He must be in control, play with a purpose, be clever, lead by example, attack the key and create plays that can be made within it, have as good a ball fake as vision, calm others in the face of chaos.
Auto racing has the shortest off-season in sports. After NASCAR Champion’s Week here in December, the gentlemen shut down their engines for about six weeks, ostensibly so Las Vegas native Kurt Busch can find a new job, and so NASCAR can fiddle with the rules some more. Then I get a text from my pal Charlie, saying he’s on his way to Daytona for the Rolex 24, or that he’s already there.
Do something long enough and sooner or later you will find yourself on the bad end of an unplanned situation. Proof of that can be seen in the missing digits, or parts thereof, on the hands of your friends or acquaintances who spend a lifetime working with power saws and lumber. All it takes is one small mistake, a simple miscalculation or a momentary lapse of judgment and your circumstance can be changed dramatically.
You might have missed it amid all the Super Bowl weather reports, but Bushwacker the bull — the baddest bucking bull on the planet — announced his retirement in Oklahoma City the other day.
Much is being said about the two teams, but one quarterback is the topic of all of the talk, and it’s not Russell Wilson. Maybe that’s a positive sign for the Seattle Seahawks, and maybe Wilson will sneak up on everyone.
These were my thoughts a couple of years ago upon witnessing USA Sevens Rugby at Sam Boyd Stadium for the first time:
I always felt the best comedians were ones who didn’t need to use profanity to make a point. The ones who relied more on imagination than indecency.
He is from Wisconsin, and if truth be known, his sports uniform of choice probably would be a wrestling singlet, given he once was an All-America grappler at the university in Madison. But come the first week of every December, Las Vegas Events president Pat Christenson dons a cowboy hat to celebrate the National Finals Rodeo coming to town. He has been donning that cowboy hat for so long that he almost looks good in it.
It was 7 p.m. on the nose when Kevin Durant, Tiger Woods and various other nonfootball stars became Super Bowl betting subjects. The giant board went dark for a few seconds, then suddenly it lit up like a fireworks show on New Year’s Eve as hundreds of proposition bets scrolled.
The 15th annual Daily Racing Form/National Thoroughbred Racing Association National Handicapping Championship will be contested today through Sunday at TI.
Like the lunatic fan everyone despises but tolerates because the home team wins when he attends the party or the nutcase who retires to his basement to create more good luck for his favorite side, UNLV should immediately enroll in a local hotel’s rewards program.
One of the biggest thrills I have experienced in the outdoors is being at my daughter’s side when she bagged one of Nevada’s wild turkeys. Calli shot the gobbler as he walked out from behind a juniper tree where he had been strutting his stuff for the ladies. When he stepped into the open, the turkey was busy looking for the hen that was squawking sweet nothings. The hen turned out to be a box call.