Roundup: Arizona State football creating offseason buzz
As Tyler Lockman of FOX Sports Arizona lets us know, Arizona State football is creating a lot of offseason buzz. Both Sporting News and Athlon Sports have the Forks in their preseason top 20 rankings.
Speaking of buzz, Brian Howell notes that there is excitement building around Colorado incoming freshman men’s basketball player Dominique Collier. His focus right now is putting on some bulk.
No bueno here: The Buffalo Bills fear that linebacker Kiko Alonso has a torn ACL. Alonso reportedly injured his knee working out in Oregon. He had a heck of a rookie season with the Bills in 2013.
While much of NBA free agency this July is all about Carmelo Anthony (and of course those guys from Miami), Steve Aschburner of NBA.com writes that 2015 NBA free agency will be all about Kevin Love. The “Summer of Love,” if you will.
Cool concept – CBS Sports held a college football program draft in which writers would select football programs in an NFL draft-type format, and USC went sixth overall to Jerry Hinnen. Also making the list of 32 selections (because there are 32 NFL teams) are Oregon (No. 7 to Chip Patterson), Stanford (No. 15 to Jeremy Fowler), UCLA (21st to Chip Patterson), Washington (27th to Jerry Hinnen) and Arizona State (31st to Tom Fornelli).
In Stewart Mandel’s last mailbag for Sports Illustrated, he mentions that Andrew Luck was his favorite interview over the last 15 years while working for SI. Mandel is moving on to write for FOX Sports.com.
Former Oregon State women’s basketball player Khadidja Toure is transferring to East Carolina. She will sit out next season and be eligible in 2015-16. According to this report from The Oregonian (welcome, Mike Richman), East Carolina is pulling a Dana Altman and adding seven transfers to the 2014-15 roster.
Bruce Jenkins of the San Francisco Chronicle believes that the next Cal athletic director faces a big challenge.
The Pac-12’s Coach K announced that Tommy Connor has been named associate head coach for Utah men’s basketball. Connor will be going into his fourth year this time around on Utah’s staff (he was also an assistant for Rick Majerus in the ‘90s, not to mention being a four-year starting point guard for the Runnin’ Utes).
U-Dub alum Scott Suggs will play for the Orlando Magic in the Orlando Pro Summer League and the Miami Heat in Las Vegas. Suggs was one of the few bright spots on a losing Erie BayHawks team in the D-League last season, averaging 18.5 points per game.
This is kinda cool – Rich Rodriguez’s former strength coach Mike Barwis is the lead guy on “American Muscle,” a new reality TV show produced by the Discovery Channel. Richard Sherman will be on the pilot episode as well (July 9 at 6 p.m. PT).
Preview “Timelines” Washington State style. Women’s basketball is the focus of the promo.