TALKING POINTS
Editor’s Note
Due to an earlier deadline of 8 p.m. throughout the pandemic, some stories may not make it into the print edition of your Valley Press. You can find the following story online at www.avpress. com: NFL — Steelers at Bengals.
Clippers sign guard Luke Kennard to multiyear extension
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Clippers have signed guard Luke Kennard to a multiyear contract extension.
Kennard was acquired as part of a three-team trade on Nov. 19. He averaged a career-high 15.8 points, 4.1 assists and 3.5 rebounds in 28 games for Detroit last season. The 6-foot-5 guard was selected by the Pistons as the 12th overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft out of Duke.
Kennard averaged 7.3 points, 1.7 assists and 3.0 rebounds while playing 19 minutes in the Clippers’ three preseason losses. They open the season Tuesday against the NBA champion Lakers as the visiting team.
Lawrence Frank, the Clippers’ president of basketball operations, called Kennard “a fantastic fit” for the organization and said the 24-year-old’s versatility and maturity is impressive.
Peoples sets bowl rushing mark, App State tops North Texas
CONWAY, S.C. — Camerun Peoples ran for a bowl-record 319 yards and tied a record with five rushing touchdowns as Appalachian State beat North Texas 56-28 Monday in the Myrtle Beach Bowl to start college football’s pandemic- affected bowl season.
Peoples, a sophomore, surpassed the 307 yards rushing of Georgia Tech’s PJ Daniels in the 2004 Humanitarian Bowl. Peoples also became the seventh player to run for that many scores in a bowl game, a list that includes Oklahoma State’s Barry Sanders and Toledo’s Kareem Hunt, as the Mountaineers (9-3) remained perfect in bowls since joining the Sun Belt Conference in 2014.
North Texas (4-6) of Conference USA fell behind 28-7 and had no answer for Peoples or the App State rushing game, which finished with 508 yards.
Silver confident that NBA season can be pulled off safely
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Monday he is confident that the league’s health and safety protocols will allow teams to get through the season even as the coronavirus pandemic continues.
Silver spoke on the eve of the seasonopening doubleheader — Golden State visiting Brooklyn and the Los Angeles Clippers playing against the
defending champion Los Angeles Lakers — and warned that he does not expect this season to go as smoothly as the games did last summer in the restart bubble at Walt Disney World.
That said, he added that if the league didn’t believe its plan would work, the season wouldn’t be starting.
“We do anticipate that there will be bumps in the road along the way,” Silver said.
Teams will play a 72-game regular season, down from the customary 82-game slate. The season is starting two months later than usual and the playoffs are set to stretch into July, all with players and coaches being tested daily and with nearly 60 players having already missed some time with their teams during training camp and the preseason because of positive COVID-19 tests.
And as was the case at Disney, social justice initiatives will remain top priorities for the league, Silver said.
“I think there’s also been in a new awakening among the players in the league as to the impact they can have when they use the platforms they have to speak out on issues that are important to them,” Silver said. “So, I think it’s a combination of the collective action that the league will be taking together with its players and coaches, and on top of that players realizing the enormous reach they have with their voices.”
Packers, Seahawks, Ravens, Chiefs each have 7 Pro Bowlers
Led by their star quarterbacks, the Seattle Seahawks, Kansas City Chiefs and Green Bay Packers each had seven players selected to the Pro Bowl.
The Baltimore Ravens also had seven players chosen.
Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes joins Buffalo’s Josh Allen and Houston’s Deshaun Watson as the AFC quarterbacks. For the NFC, it’s Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers, Seattle’s Russell Wilson and Arizona’s Kyler Murray.
Mahomes and Rodgers are the starters, though there will be no actual game this season because of the COVID-19 pandemic. On Jan. 31, the players will be celebrated during two Pro Bowl-themed shows airing on an ESPN/ ABC simulcast, with a virtual Pro Bowl experience within the Madden NFL 21 video game.
Roster selections were determined by votes of players, coaches and fans.
The other Chiefs are DE Frank Clark, OT Eric Fisher, WR Tyreek Hill, DT Chris Jones, TE Travis Kelce, and SS Tyrann Mathieu.
Baltimore has OT Orlando Brown, DT Calais Campbell, LS Morgan Cox, CB Marlon Humphrey, LB Matthew Judon, FB Patrick Ricard, and PK Justin Tucker.
For Green Bay, the other six representatives are WR Davante Adams, CB Jaire Alexander, OT David Bakhtiari, G Elgton Jenkins, RB Aaron Jones, and LB Za’Darius Smith.
Seattle has SS Jamal Adams, special teamer Nick Bellore, FS Quandre Diggs, WR DK Metcalf, LS Tyler Ott, and LB Bobby Wagner.
Other notable selections include Titans running back Derrick Henry, the NFL’s leading rusher, and highly productive receivers Keenan Allen of the Chargers and Stefon Diggs of the Bills for the AFC’s offense. On defense, linebackers T.J. Watt of Pittsburgh and Darius Leonard of Indianapolis, Miami ball-hawking cornerback Xavien Howard, and Cleveland end Myles Garrett made the squad.
For the NFC, such standouts as Arizona wideout DeAndre Hopkins, Minnesota running back Dalvin Cook, New Orleans RB Alvin Kamara, and Philadelphia center Jason Kelce made it. So did New Orleans DE Cameron Jordan, Los Angeles Rams DT Aaron Donald, San Francisco LB Fred Warner, Rams CB Jalen Ramsey, and Arizona SS Budda Baker.
Washington rookie DE Chase Young made the NFC squad, as did another 2020 first-round draft pick, Minnesota WR Justin Jefferson.
In all, there were 26 firsttime Pro Bowlers.
Five teams have no Pro Bowl players: the Jaguars, Jets, Bengals, Cowboys and Panthers.
USC women unleash 12 3s to beat Cal
LOS ANGELES — The USC women’s basketball team exploded in the second quarter to create some distance between the Trojans and visiting Cal, landing five 3-pointers in that frame to fuel up for an eventual 77-54 victory over the Golden Bears at Galen Center. USC improves to 2-4 overall and to 1-4 in Pac-12 play with the win. Cal goes to 0-7, 0-4.
USC poured out 13 straight points across the first and second quarters while piling up seven 3-pointers in the first half to craft a comfortable lead over Cal, up 45-26 by halftime. The Trojans were shooting 55 percent from the floor in those first 20 minutes, thanks in part to an incredible 5-of-6 effort from 3-point range in the second quarter. By the final buzzer, USC had shot 47.6 overall, going 12of-26 from 3-point range and outrebounding Cal 40-35. The Golden Bears shot 36.5 percent from the floor and was 1-of-11 on threes.
USC had four players finish in double digits, led by grad transfer Jordan Sanders’ new USC-high of 22 points on 5-of-7 shooting from beyond the arc. Endyia Rogers was next for USC with 18 points, with Desiree Caldwell adding 12 and Amaya Oliver delivering 11 points. Caldwell also served up a career-high seven assists. Cal had three Bears in double digits: Michelle Onyiah with 16 point and Evelien Lutje Schipholt and Dalayah Daniels with 11 each. Daniels also had 11 rebounds for Cal.
La Russa resolves DUI case, feels ‘deep remorse and regret’
CHICAGO — White Sox manager Tony La Russa says he doesn’t have a drinking problem. He also says he has to prove that with his behavior.
The 76-year-old La Russa pleaded guilty Monday to a lesser charge to resolve misdemeanor drunken driving charges stemming from his arrest nearly 10 months ago on a freeway in metro Phoenix.
La Russa also pleaded guilty to driving under the influence in Florida in 2007 after police found him asleep inside his running SUV at a stop light and smelling of alcohol. After the 2007 case was resolved, La Russa accepted responsibility and said it would never happen again.
La Russa’s Arizona arrest occurred Feb. 24, but the charges were filed Oct. 28 — one day before he was hired to manage the Chicago White Sox. He pleaded guilty to reckless driving in Maricopa County Justice Court and was sentenced to one day of home detention, a fine of nearly $1,400 and 20 hours of community service.
“I know I don’t have a drinking problem, just like I know I made a serious mistake in February,” La Russa said on a conference call with reporters, “and where I am right now is to prove that I don’t have a drinking problem and to prove it every day off the field that I’m going to handle it and what’s painfully clear to me is if I have a drink I will not drive. There’s always an alternative.”