Budget nominee Tanden withdraws nomination
Youth movement looks good in third game of spring slate
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden’s pick to head the Office of Management and Budget, Neera Tanden, has withdrawn her nomination after she faced opposition from key Democratic and Republican senators for her controversial tweets.
Her withdrawal marks the first high-profile defeat of one of Biden’s nominees. Eleven of the 23 Cabinet nominees requiring Senate approval have been confirmed, most with strong bipartisan support.
Tanden’s viability was in doubt after Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and a number of moderate Republicans came out against her last month, all citing her tweets attacking members of both parties prior to her nomination.
The withdrawal leaves the Biden administration without a clear replacement.
Other names mentioned include Ann O’Leary, a former chief of staff for California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Gene Sperling, who served as a top economic adviser to both Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
BRADENTON, Fla. — Willi Castro took a shot at the tiki bar on Monday afternoon and then went on a leisurely stroll around the park.
OK. Relax. Not one of those shots.
Castro hit an impressive home run into a tiki bar beyond the right-center field fence — more than a 400-foot blast — helping the
Tigers to a 6-1 win against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday at LECOM Park.
It was his second home run in three games. Castro also hit a double.
Not a bad day — 2-for-2.
Shots all around.
Tork’s first game
You wanna know how good Spencer Torkelson is? He appeared on second base, making his spring training debut, without picking up his bat.
Torkelson, who has recovered from a cut on his finger on his right hand, got into his first game as a pinch runner on Monday. He finished the game playing third base.
Torkelson had one plate appearance, taking a couple of strong cuts before earning a sevenpitch walk.
The funny thing?
The scoreboard radar gun was on the fritz and showed the pitches were in the 150 mph range.
A wee bit off.
Torkelson scored on a JaCoby Jones double. Hinch said he plans to continue to use Torkelson.
“I have a start for him later this week,” Hinch said. “I’ll be creative, getting him in the game.”
Any game action that Torkelson gets this spring is a tremendous benefit, just getting him comfortable, not to mention, as Hinch did, facing “higher-end competition.”
“This camp will be good for him still,” Hinch said.
Much Baddoo about ...
It will hard for the Tigers to keep Rule 5 draftee Ail Baddoo.
Not unless one of the outfielders gets hurt. But Baddoo has made a strong first impression. He had a solid opposite-field RBI double on Tuesday.
He is just 22 years old and is 6-foot-1 and 215 pounds. He is bound to get bigger, stronger and produce more power. In short, he just looks like a talented player.
You have to give him credit: It’s still early but he’s off to a strong start.
The future warming up
One of the coolest moments at this game actually happened before it started.
During warm ups.
Casey Mize was warming up with catcher Dillon Dingler, playing catch in the outfield.
Not far away, Torkelson and Riley Greene were playing catch.
Yeah, not too hard to think of them all player together in Detroit.
Mize started and pitched two scoreless innings, striking out three batters and walking three.
“He threw the ball well,” Hinch said. “I think he got a little bit excited to try to punch a few guys out and got a little erratic late. He did a good job of getting to two strikes.”
Then, Hinch added something interesting.
“He has the ability of any of our guys to be the most unpredictable given that he’s got a lot of weapons and when to use them,” Hinch said.
The long and Short of it
The Tigers are still missing second baseman Jonathan Schoop, who has visa issues.
That has opened up some innings in the infield, and Zack Short is making the most of it.
Short has shown his versatility, starting Tuesday’s game at second base and then moving over to shortstop.
He also showed that he has some pop, hitting a double.
He continues to impress.
Struggling catcher has sense of humor
Jake Rogers catcher job.
But he’s had a rough start, with four at-bats and four strikeouts.
But the cool thing is, he still has his sense of humor.
“I just heard him talking about it,” Hinch said. “He said the object’s to hit the white ball. He hasn’t done it yet. So he’s at least poking fun of himself. But ... contact is your friend and he’s gonna continue to get out there.”
Hinch plans to continue to play him.
“I’ll play him over the next couple days and get him get him something put in play,” he said. “I’ll make him feel a lot better, but it’s obviously been a rough couple of bats.”
It was interesting how Hinch dealt with Rogers’ struggles with comedy, making light of the situation, almost taking pressure off Rogers with the media, instead of dwelling on it.
It shows how he will manage this team, trying to take heat off of his players, protecting them as best he can.
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/ jeff-seidel/.
is in a
fight
for the backup
No. 3 Baylor 94, No. 6 West Virginia 89: Jared Butler scored 25 points before fouling out, Davion Mitchell hit the go-ahead basket in overtime and Baylor (19-1, 11-1 Big 12) beat host West Virginia (17-7, 10-5) to clinch the Bears’ first Big 12 regular season championship.
Baylor bounced back in a big way from its only loss of the season at No. 13 Kansas on Saturday. Baylor struggled in its two previous games coming off a nearly three-week layoff because of COVID-19 issues in the program.
After managing just 58 points against the Jayhawks, the Bears maintained their energy and scoring touch until the very end against the Mountaineers.
Baylor coach Scott Drew jumped on Mark Vital’s back and pointed a finger in the air after the title was secure. Butler ran onto the court to hug every teammate in sight.
Mitchell scored four of Baylor’s 13 points in overtime and finished with 20. Matthew Mayer had a season-high 18 points for the Bears.
Taz Sherman came off the bench to score a career-high 26 points for the Mountaineers. Miles McBride added 19 points and Sean
McNeil scored 18, including 15 after halftime.
West Virginia managed just one field goal in overtime.
Baylor jumped out to a quick double-digit lead and for a time the game was looking like a rout. But the Bears went scoreless for nearly six minutes before halftime, allowing West Virginia to keep it close the rest of the game.
Butler’s layup with 2.7 seconds left in regulation sent the game into overtime tied at 81. But he fouled out with 1:15 remaining in overtime and West Virginia’s Taz Sherman hit one of two free throws to put the Mountaineers ahead 89-88.
Mitchell’s layup with 59 seconds left in overtime put Baylor ahead to stay. He then took a charge against McBride with 27 seconds left, and Mitchell hit two free throws with 18 seconds left for the final margin.
No. 12 Arkansas 101, South Carolina 73: Moses Moody tied his career high with 28 points and No. 12 Arkansas won its 10th straight in the Southeastern Conference with a victory over South Carolina.
The Razorbacks (20-5, 12-4 SEC) did it with the long ball, hitting 15 3-pointers to continue its longest league win streak to match the 1994 national champions who won their last 10 SEC regular-season games that year.
Moody had four 3-pointers as Arkansas reached 20 victories for a second straight year under coach Eric Musselman.
The Razorbacks got going from way outside in the first half to open a double-digit lead that South Carolina (6-13, 4-11) could not overcome.
MAC men
Central Michigan 81, Toledo 79: The Chippewas won’t be going to the MAC tournament in Cleveland next week, as they finished outside the top eight, but they got a taste of March Madness on Tuesday afternoon in Mount Pleasant as they finished with a 21-8 run in the final 5:39 to upset the top-seeded Rockets. Meikkel Murray hit the winning layup with two seconds left after pulling in the rebound of Matt Beachler’s missed 3-pointer.
Murray finished with 24 points (on 11-for-17 shooting) and nine rebounds. Caleb Huffman led CMU (6-15, 2-12 MAC) with 26 points and added four rebounds and four assists. Ralph Bissainthe had a double-double for the Chips, with 11 ponts and 10 rebounds.
Ball State 100, Eastern Michigan 65: The Eagles (5-12, 2-11 MAC) allowed 50 points in both halves in their season finale. Ty Groce led EMU with 21 points (on 6-for-14 shooting) and added seven rebounds and two assists. EMU has already been eliminated from the MAC tournament in Cleveland next week.
Western Michigan 73, Northern Illinois 63: The Broncos (5-15, 4-11) finished their season on a high note, doubling their five-point halftime lead. B. Artis White led WMU with 15 points and added seven rebounds. The Broncos have already been eliminated from next week’s MAC tournament.
Michigan could have clinched the Big Ten title Tuesday night.
Instead it suffered a surprising blowout loss on its home court.
The Wolverines were manhandled by Illinois in a 75-53 loss, even though the Illini were without star guard Ayo Dosunmu, the team's leading scorer and a candidate for National Player of the Year.
Illinois set the tone early in the first half and established an 11-point halftime lead. Then it used an 8-0 run as soon as Hunter Dickinson left the court with his third foul to double the lead to 16 — and never looked back.
It was a dispiriting loss for Michigan considering the stakes of the game and the competition (Illinois is ranked No. 4 and is the secondplace Big Ten team). Even worse, Isaiah Livers rolled his ankle in the second half.
Illinois plays stifling defense
The Illini won this game because of their defense. Michigan entered the game with the nation's fifth-most efficient offense but you could count the number of quality looks it generated with both hands. Illinois played tremendous ball-screen defense, shutting down the main source of the Wolverines' scoring.
The Illini funneled everything inside to center Kofi Cockburn, who played drop coverage and created problems at the rim with his size. The defensive strategy induced an endless parade of difficult "in-between" 2s from Michigan — looks that the Wolverines usually force themselves on defense, but were stuck taking (and missing). Michigan's usually efficient and lethal offense devolved into a series of desperate post-ups. The Wolverines had just four assists on 17 made baskets.
Rebounding a major problem
Illinois played far from a clean game on offense, turning it over on 22% of their first-half possessions. But while Michigan may have limited shot quality, it struggled with the Illini's shot quantity: Illinois recorded 12 offensive rebounds, scored 22 second-chance points and attempted 14 more field goals.
This wasn't a simple issue of one team wanting it more. Illinois excelled at getting to the rim, which pulled Michigan defenders out of position. But, again, that was a testament to the stellar game played by the Illini: The Wolverines are typically one of the better rebounding teams in the conference (and nation). But they allowed Illinois to rebound over 40% of its misses before garbage time began and the benches emptied.
Status of Livers
With the postseason rapidly approaching, this would be a terrible time for any team to lose a key contributor due to injury, which means Michigan will have to hope that Livers' ankle injury doesn't become a lingering issue. The senior wing was rolled up upon while trying to grab a rebound with just over 15 minutes remaining in the second half and immediately came up limping and asking for a substitution. Livers received attention on the sidelines and eventually returned to the game. But he did not look like he was playing at full strength or full speed — especially during on 2-on-1 fast break when he immediately passed the ball off to Eli Brooks and struggled to keep up on the rolled ankle.
Livers is one of Michigan's most indispensable players because of his shooting, experience and off-ball defense; the Wolverines know just how difficult life can be without him after Livers' injury-plagued junior season. While his ability to re-enter the game was a positive sign for Michigan, the health of his ankle will be worth monitoring going forward considering his history of ankle injuries.