BOWL TEAMS HAPPY TO BE WINTERING IN MOTOR CITY
detroit» Football teams from Maryland and Boston College are meeting Monday in the Motor City after quite a turnaround this year.
The Terrapins (6-6) and the Eagles (6-6) bounced back with relatively strong seasons after slumping to 3-9 records last year.
While a trip to Detroit in the winter may not seem like much of a reward in college football’s bowl-filled postseason, Maryland and Boston College seem thankful they did enough to earn berths in the Quick Lane Bowl.
“It’s a measuring stick for the amount of success in a year,” said Boston College’s Steve Addazio, who joined Jack Bicknell as the only coaches in school history to lead the Eagles to a bowl game in three of their first four seasons.
Maryland also is in the postseason for the third time in four years, this time with first-year coach DJ Durkin. Durkin started seven true freshmen at some point this season, but he credited his outgoing players with helping the program win again.
Avila returning to Tigers
B detroit» The Tigers brought back Alex Avila to play behind starting catcher James McCann, giving him a one-year contract worth $2 million.
Avila’s father, Al Avila, is Detroit’s general manager.
“I don’t think he was even part of (contract) negotiations,” the younger Avila told The Associated Press.
Alex Avila spent this year with the Chicago White Sox, then became a free agent for the second straight offseason.
Strome playing in world juniors
B toronto» Dylan Strome didn’t plan to be here. Team Canada’s captain at the world junior hockey championship imagined he’d be playing for the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes right now.
But just over a month ago, after spot duty with the club that drafted him third overall in 2015, Strome was sent back to the Ontario Hockey League. The 19-year-old, who said he felt “done with junior hockey” in July, was suddenly back.
“It’s something that I’ve obviously never really done before,” Strome said about having to return to the Erie Otters for a fourth season. “It’s kind of just weird coming back to a situation that I’ve been in for three years. It’s not really weird, but at the same time it is just because you haven’t been there.”
Big Ten basketball wide open.
Men’s basketball in the Big Ten Conference may not be as good as it has been in recent years. But it looks like the race for the Big Ten title this season will be interesting anyway.
The Big Ten didn’t have a men’s team ranked in the national top 10 in the most recent AP poll, with Wisconsin, Purdue and Indiana ranked Nos. 14, 15 and 16 respectively.
Teams such as Michigan, Ohio State, Minnesota and Northwestern — Northwestern! — have a shot at pushing for a top-three finish, and Michigan State can’t be counted out no matter how banged up the Tom Izzo-coached Spartans are.
Maryland is 12-1, Illinois has bounced back after losing three in a row and Iowa appears to have turned a corner after an ugly start.
The title picture is very muddled heading into conference games, which start Tuesday.
Footnotes. Jack Purchase made five 3-pointers and scored 17 points as Hawaii snapped a four-game losing streak with a 60-46 victory over Southern Mississippi in the seventhplace game of the Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu . ... Duke started the men’s basketball season as the nation’s top-ranked team and Atlantic Coast Conference favorite. Yet as the start of league play arrives, little has gone to plan for the fifth-ranked Blue Devils. And that could make for an interesting race for the ACC regular-season crown, with No. 8 North Carolina, No. 10 Louisville and No. 12 Virginia lurking.