Sports

The NCAA tournament does not always deliver the best team to their marquee event, the NCAA Final Four. In 2011 the Final Four will have zero number-one seeds in Houston to prove it. Is that a major problem? With number-one Ohio State 38-3, Kansas 35-3 and San Diego State 34-3 at home? Legendary former Georgetown […]

Onika Nicole Craven -Photo by Charles Hallman Crystal Flint – MSR file photo My March Madness reached an all-time vertical high this year. Every NCAA men’s tournament game was broadcast live on one of four networks — 26 games on CBS, 16 on TNT, 13 on truTV and 12 on TNT — while the women’s […]

Marving Singleton Siyani Chambers Zach Lofton Joe Coleman – Photos by Mitchell Palmer McDonald Hopkins, led by MARVING SINGLETON, JOE COLEMAN, SIYANI CHAMBERS, and ZACH STAHL, led the Royals to their third consecutive Class 4A title in the boys’ state basketball tournament last weekend. And an interesting tournament it was. Defending 3A champ and top […]

Jeff Phelps Brian Anderson Melvin Rice Photos courtesy of the U of Minnesota Melvin Rice photo by Scott Walstrom, NIU Media Service DAVID M. WINFIELD, the executive vice president/senior advisor of the San Diego Padres, is expanding his duties at the ESPN program Baseball Tonight. He will be seen mostly on Sundays and Mondays. The […]

It’s always been about team and winning as far as I’m concerned, and basketball, remember, can play only five guys at one time. But a dominant team leader can take you a long way. The last two years, the NBA’s MVP has been LeBron James. He was the man in Cleveland, as you know; however, […]

Perhaps the best storyline not being discussed or written about during this year’s NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournament is this: Do these players graduate? This is “the elephant in the living room” or TEIR question that hoops fans and pundits annually ignore or simply won’t ask. The mainstream print media has been “shockingly quiet” […]

Brianna Williams Nia Coffey The girls’ basketball state tournament was certainly one to remember. BRIANNA WILLIAMS, NIA COFFEY, SYDNEY COFFEY, EBONY LIVINGSTON, MIKAALA SHACKLEFORD, TT STARKS, JULIA WEIMER and GRACIA HUTSON led Hopkins past Eden Prairie, led by AUBREY DAVIS, JACKIE JOHNSON, SHAYNE MULLANEY and MORGAN VAN RIPER-ROSE, 67-45 for the Class 4A crown. DeLaSalle […]

LISA LISSIMORE, former St. Paul Central, Grand View (IA) and Gopher hoopster, did a magnificent job directing the Minnesota Girls’ Basketball Tournament last weekend. Among her able assistants were LINDA ROBERTS, FELICIA FULLER and SHLYNN HAYES. JIM ROBINSON, supervisor of officials, had former University of Minnesota women’s basketball standout CRYSTAL FLINT as the referee in […]

U.S. District Court Judge David Doty of Minneapolis, a Ronald Reagan conservative, delivered a huge victory for the NFL players’ union. He ruled the NFL owners were in violation: The lockout insurance to the owners from the TV networks of $4 billion was a no-no. His ruling on punitive damages is soon to come in […]

By Charles Hallman Staff Writer Even before the bids were announced Sunday afternoon, nonstop talk about this year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament began and continues on both television and radio.  However, barely an hour, plus a second on another channel, was devoted to the 2011 NCAA women’s team selections on Monday, nearly 24 hours after […]

Whenever I heard this week’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament referred to as “The Big Dance,” my annoyance meter blasted into the red. But after reading Thabati Lewis’s new book, Ballers of the New School (Third World Press), I have a new perspective. Just three years ago, 34 participating schools earned an average of $9.4 million […]

According to recent erroneous reporting, WILT CHAMBERLAIN’s astounding National Basketball Association professional career record of between 220 and 230 double-doubles was allegedly broken by KEVIN LOVE last week. This is a record that was never mentioned until recently when, supposedly held by the great MOSES MALONE, it was about to be recognized by the professional […]

Journalism Professor Marie Hardin Penn State Coach Coquese Washington Photos by Charles Hallman Gender equity has to some degree existed in sports for some time, but not where March Madness is concerned. For women’s basketball followers such as me, it’s more like March inequity, which makes me mad. The annual month-long hoop-a-thon officially began last […]

Shortly before the boys’ basketball season got started, Minneapolis Washburn Coach REGGIE PERKINS indicated that his team would make a little noise before it was all over. The Millers did more than that. The City Conference champs made a profound statement by defeating defending Class 3A champ St. Paul Johnson 85-80 in the Twin Cities […]

Official Minnesota often supports and licenses the hate visited upon Black athletes. The normal and general hostility that Black athletes face is the reason they are cited more than non-Black athletes for misdeeds when found in similar situations. America has a dismal record in all areas of humanity. Each and all of us underestimate the […]

By Charles Hallman Staff Writer From the film The Mighty Macs With the nation’s hoop fans’ attention directed to the season’s cumulating event — crowning a national championship — three new basketball films, all based on true events, are set to premiere. The Mighty Macs tells the true story of Immaculata College’s women’s basketball team […]

It’s really a shame how poorly the Minnesota men’s basketball team have played in February; their record this past month is 1-6. It’s very possible that they have allowed a certain NCAA tournament bid to slip from their grasp. They have lost seven of their last eight games and four in row at home. The […]

Where are the Black voices or Black faces in local sports electronic media — radio and TV? On one sports station, there’s Henry Lake, whose weekly show airs during the most segregated hour in America — Sunday mornings at 11 — and Trent Tucker, who’s relegated to second banana to an overzealous Green Bay Packers […]

With the possible closing of Minneapolis North, I wanted to give a historical perspective on their dominance in boys’ and girls’ basketball. The Polars were so dominant that they can claim six players who have been named the state’s top player following their senior seasons. REDD OVERTON (1981), BRETT MCNEAL (1985), DEREK REUBEN (1988) and […]

By Charles Hallman Staff Writer One of this year’s WNBA “A” free agents, Taj McWilliams-Franklin says, “A lot of teams expressed interest in my services,” but ultimately she signed with Minnesota. The Lynx signed McWilliams-Franklin, a six-time all-star and 12-year veteran, on February 18. She began her professional career in 1996 and played three seasons […]