Sports Morning Headlines - Friday, 4/6/12

Details: Created on Friday, 06 April 2012 04:15; Last Updated on Thursday, 16 May 2013 07:51; Written by MVPTexas Morning Sports Report

Cuban wants players in college longer - Add Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to the list of NBA folks who would like to see college basketball players stay in school longer than one year. Before the start of the Mavericks' game Wednesday night in Dallas, Cuban said he'd like to see players forced to wait three years after high school before becoming eligible for the NBA Draft. "It's not even so much about lottery busts," Cuban told The Dallas Morning News. "It's about kids’ lives that we’re ruining. Even if you’re a first-round pick and you have three years of guaranteed money -- or two years now of guaranteed money -- then what? Because if you’re a bust and it turns out you just can’t play in the NBA, your 'rocks for jocks’ one year of schooling isn't going to get you far.   READ MORE

Ian Mahinmi steps up as Brendan Haywood recovers - Ian Mahinmi repeated the same phrase over and over after the Mavs' win over the Grizzlies on Wednesday night: It's all about trust. The backup center is earning it while Brendan Haywood continues to see fewer minutes as he recovers from a knee injury. "Between me, [Haywood], and Brandan Wright, we have that trust that if something happens to one of us, one of us is going to have their back," Mahinmi said. "We have a great relationship and that trust has been good to us."   READ MORE

What To Take Away From The Spurs Win Over The Celtics - I think we would all agree that it would be great to sit and bask in that 87-86 victory over Boston yesterday -- so that's just what I'm gonna do. The game last night was tense, exhilarating, frustrating, infuriating, and finally so, so very sweet that I just had to throw about a thousand words at it. That's just what it called for. Ugly is in the eye of the beholder too -- Yes it was ugly at times. Yes there was a lot of defense from Boston. Yes with the big lead that you would've liked to see the Spurs to continue to add to, but this was a playoff atmosphere game, and in playoff games often times the quality of play goes down. Just take a look at any box score from any of your favorite Game 7 playoff games. Field-goal percentage goes down. Turnovers go up. Tons of open shots get missed. That's what happens in games like the one the Spurs were in last night.   READ MORE

Corporate Knowledge: Kawhi Leonard is not Bruce Bowen - That’s another thing about Leonard, probably one of the things that the Spurs loved about him: He works hard. Really, really hard. He’s very much about going about his business, and his business is basketball. There are no outside distractions or secondary pulls on Leonard. He simply wants to continue to get better and help his team. When you watch Leonard play, the thing that jumps at you is just how hard he works on every possession. Offense, defense, it doesn’t matter. While most players get an extra burst of energy when they’ve got the ball in their hands, Leonard has one gear and it’s always dialed, whether he’s chasing his opponent around the perimeter, sneaking in to grab an offensive rebound or is handling the ball, ready to make something happen.”   READ MORE

Rockets prove they can play on Lakers’ level - Though there was no disputing the difficulty of facing the Lakers tonight in Staples Center, Rockets forward Luis Scola said the challenge is not to play at another level. He cited road wins against Chicago, San Antonio, Denver and Oklahoma City as examples of the Rockets playing on that level and said the trick is to stay there. “They have two or three superstars, which is two or three more than we do,” Scola said. “That’s always a concern. But we’ve been winning big games. We’ve been winning big games on the road, too. “I think we have done a good job playing good games. We need to find a way to be the team we want to be, the team that won those games. It’s been a challenge for us the whole season to be consistent every day. We got better.”   READ MORE

Courtney Lee says a Rockets teammate hit him, which Kevin McHale denies - NBA practices are supposed to get players ready to play games, but they can also become pretty intense affairs. It's not a big surprise: put a dozen or so competitive athletes in a basketball context and they're likely to mix it up a bit. There's no use in injuring a player in practice, though, and players are expected to rein in their physicality to avoid causing harm to teammates. Unfortunately, Houston Rockets guard Courtney Lee suffered a swollen eye during Wednesday's practice and claimed someone had elbowed him. Head coach Kevin McHale had other ideas. From Jonathan Feigen for the Houston Chronicle: Just minutes after Wednesday's practice ended, the swelling above Courtney Lee's right eye was already obvious — the result, he said, of a wayward elbow.   READ MORE

Rangers building for long-term success through core stability - Jon Daniels wanted to make one phone call when the Texas Rangers clinched their second consecutive division title last year. He had appreciated what the Atlanta Braves had done under John Schuerholz, but never fully understood the magnitude of the accomplishment. Schuerholz, the Braves' GM from 1990-2007, was the architect of a team that won 14 division titles from 1991-2005 (a strike wiped out the '94 postseason). "It hit me when we clinched the division in '11, and how much work goes into that," Daniels said. "Then to think the Braves did it 14 out of 15 years? What a monumental accomplishment that is. I don't think that gets enough play, and I called John Schuerholz because it just hit me."   READ MORE

MLB experts' Rangers season predictions - Many sports sites have released their predictions for the 2012 MLB season. The two-time defending American League champion Rangers are being given lofty expectations as a team, and rookie starting pitcher Yu Darvish is also receiving some impressive individual projections. Some have Darvish winning AL Rookie of the Year honors and others have gone farther, suggesting he will throw the first no-hitter this season and even win the AL Cy Young Award. Have a look at some that we've gathered.   READ MORE

Rockies, Astros ready to see changes put to work - For the Astros, it was a natural outgrowth of an ownership change. For the Rockies, it was a conscious decision to change standard operating procedure. By different roads, two teams that have undergone significant cultural shifts will arrive at the same place on Friday: Minute Maid Park in Houston for Opening Day. After the Rockies took a step backward each year since making the playoffs in 2009, general manager Dan O'Dowd took a long look at how the organization had been going about its business. He decided that too often talented young players were brought along a little too quickly without enough veteran presence to help them find their way.   READ MORE

Crane eyes sellout in first game as owner - On the eve of his first game as the owner of the Astros, Jim Crane dropped by Minute Maid Park on Thursday afternoon and stopped to talk to reporters in the home dugout while the team was wrapping up its final workout. Crane, who led a group that purchased the team in November from Drayton McLane, said he thinks the Astros will sell out their opener Friday against the Rockies. At the end of business Thursday, a couple hundred seats and standing-room-only tickets were all that remained. "The whole staff's been working very hard on it, to make sure we get a sellout on the first day," he said.   READ MORE

Troy Aikman, Tony Dorsett praise former Cowboys assistant coach Joe Avezzano - Two former Cowboys took to Twitter on Thursday to praise former assistant coach Joe Avezzano on the day that he died suddenly in Italy. Tony Dorsett said, "Coach Joe's lines helped make me a 4 time all american. Great coach, great friend, will be greatly missed."   READ MORE

Jason Garrett comments on Coach Joe - The Dallas Cowboys released a statement Thursday night from coach Jason Garrett talking about the passing of former special teams coach Joe Avezzano. Garrett played for the Cowboys from 1993-to-1999 and of course was around with Avezzano. "Joe Avezzano was a great football coach, but, more than that, he was an outstanding human being. The impact that he had on me and the hundreds of other players and coaches who had the good fortune to be around him was significant.   READ MORE

McNair eases Texans fans' nerves about moves - Texans owner Bob McNair said the combination of salary cap limitations as well as a plan to retain several key players in the future explains most of the club's moves this season, including the shedding of a couple of established veterans. Beyond losing Mario Williams to the Buffalo Bills, the Texans traded linebacker DeMeco Ryans and cut tackle Eric Winston. Guard Mike Brisiel signed with the Raiders.   READ MORE

Texans re-sign Demps - The Houston Texans have re-signed free agent S Quintin Demps, it was announced today. Terms of the contract were not disclosed. Demps posted career highs of 22 tackles, two interceptions and four passes defensed in nine games with the Texans last season after signing with the team in October. The fifth-year veteran also returned five kickoffs for 169 yards (33.8 average), including a team-long 50-yard return against Carolina. He originally signed with the Texans in December of 2010, playing in the final two games of the season.   READ MORE

Stars eliminated from playoffs in loss to Preds - Pekka Rinne made 28 saves for his fifth shutout of the season, Francis Bouillon scored at 4:28 of the third period, and the Nashville Predators beat the Dallas Stars 2-0 on Thursday night to grab back control of their playoff slot with their third win in four games. With the win and Detroit losing 2-1 to New Jersey, Nashville moved back into fourth in the Western Conference, a point a head of the Red Wings. Now the Predators need only wrap up the regular season Saturday night at Colorado with a win to start the playoffs at home and finish ahead of Detroit for the first time in franchise history. READ MORE

Dallas Stars Playoff Hopes Evaporate With 2-0 Loss To Nashville Predators - Four straight seasons of no playoff action for the Dallas Stars became a reality tonight as the Stars couldn't find any offense against the stingy Nashville Predators. The fact that this team, predicted to finish dead last in the entire league by some, and last in the western conference by most, came into game 81 of 82 with a shot at the playoffs is more than many expected at the beginning of the season. READ MORE

---Staff and Wire Reports contributed to this story

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