2011 November at BetLM

Expect Just Two Preseason Games Per Team in Shortened Camp

I will warn you now — those mar­quee Christ­mas Day NBA open­ing day games are going to be sloppy. Same with the likely dozen games to fol­low the next day and a lot of the games over the next month or so. Teams are going to have a 16-day train­ing camp and just two pre­sea­son games, reports John Schuh­mann at NBA.com. The dates and games are not yet know, but if you are won­der­ing who your team will play in those cou­ple exhi­bi­tion games, pull out a map and see what teams are near­est and you pretty much have your answer. Early on expect vet­eran teams that have not seen... 

America Wants ‘Mayhem’ Miller to Punch Michael Bisping in the Face

The fine folks at Ranger Up cre­ated a short film express­ing a desire that is present in so many proud Amer­i­cans: the wish to see Michael Bisp­ing punched in the face. Over the course of this sea­son of “The Ulti­mate Fighter,” Bisp­ing has endeared him­self to few peo­ple. His “pranks,” dis­like of Miller’s dog, and use of a mole to try to find out inside infor­ma­tion on his oppo­nent add on to to tar­nish the image of a man who isn’t exactly loved in the U.S. as is. Miller will get the chance to make Amer­ica happy on Sat­ur­day at “The Ulti­mate Fighter”... 

Bills’ Gailey Upset Over Johnson’s TD Dance, and Told Him So

Buf­falo Bills coach Chan Gai­ley always seems to let peo­ple know right where he stands. It’s a good bet that Ste­vie John­son has a very clear idea right about now. One day after Johnson’s ill-timed touch­down cel­e­bra­tion con­tributed to the Bills’ 28–24 loss to the New York Jets, Gai­ley still wasn’t happy. Mostly, though, the coach lamented that his receiver’s cel­e­bra­tion is all any­one is discussing. “I think it was wrong. I told him so,” Gai­ley told reporters Mon­day. “What I hate is that game is remem­bered for his one action rather than a lot... 

Kubiak Confirms Leinart Done for Season, Won’t Rule Out Favre

Kubiak con­firms Leinart done for sea­son, won’t rule out Favre Posted by Josh Alper on Novem­ber 28, 2011, 5:00 PM EST It came as no sur­prise that Tex­ans coach Gary Kubiak con­firmed quar­ter­back Matt Leinart will miss the rest of the sea­son dur­ing his Mon­day press conference. Every­one knew that was com­ing. They also know that the Tex­ans are down to T.J. Yates and Kellen Clemens at quar­ter­back, leav­ing them­selves awfully short at an awfully impor­tant posi­tion for the stretch run. That’s led to rumi­na­tions about vet­eran quar­ter­backs like Sage... 

UCLA Fires Neuheisel After 4 Seasons

LOS ANGELES — UCLA fired coach Rick Neuheisel on Mon­day after four dis­ap­point­ing sea­sons in charge of his alma mater. Neuheisel will be allowed to coach the Bru­ins (6–6, 5–4 Pac-12) in Friday’s Pac-12 title game at Ore­gon, ath­letic direc­tor Dan Guer­rero announced. Offen­sive coor­di­na­tor Mike John­son will be the Bru­ins’ interim coach if they receive a bowl berth. Neuheisel is 21–28 since tak­ing over the pro­gram in Decem­ber 2007, never build­ing the momen­tum he needed to reach his goal of chal­leng­ing South­ern Cal­i­for­nia for city supremacy.... 

Raycroft Ready to Face Old Mates With Lehtonen Out

DENVER — The Dal­las Stars will have to make do with­out top goalie Kari Lehto­nen for at least three weeks as he recov­ers from a groin injury. It’s a big loss, as Lehto­nen has started 19 of the Stars’ first 23 games while post­ing a 13–4-1 record with a 2.34 goals-against aver­age and .926 save per­cent­age. He was injured Sat­ur­day against Phoenix, under­went an MRI on Sun­day in Dal­las and has been placed on injured reserve. “Kari will be out at least three weeks,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said after this morning’s skate at the Pepsi Cen­ter, where his team... 

Astros Fire Team President and GM

FOX Sports Jon Paul Morosi and Ken Rosenthal Updated Nov 28, 2011 3:29 AM ET The Hous­ton Astros announced early Mon­day morn­ing that they have fired team pres­i­dent Tal Smith and gen­eral man­ager Ed Wade, con­firm­ing a Sun­day night FOXSports.com report. The changes came less than one week after new owner Jim Crane took con­trol of the franchise. The Astros will be the sev­enth fran­chise to name a new gen­eral man­ager this off­sea­son, mark­ing a period of sweep­ing change within the indus­try. The Ori­oles, Red Sox, Twins, Angels, Cubs and Padres have named... 

Pic to Drive for F1 Team Marussia Next Year

PARIS — Charles Pic will drive for Marus­sia in For­mula One next year,replac­ing Bel­gian dri­ver Jerome d’Ambrosio. Vir­gin Rac­ing will be known as Marus­sia Vir­gin Rac­ing next sea­son. Itannounced on its web­site that the 21-year-old French­man will drive along­sideTimo Glock of Germany. D’Ambrosio drove with Glock at last weekend’s Brazil­ian Grand Prix in thefinal race of the sea­son. Nei­ther scored a point dur­ing the entire F1 season. Pic impressed dur­ing the young dri­vers’ test held dur­ing the Abu Dhabi GP.He spent the past two sea­sons com­pet­ing... 

Vettel’s Sense of History

There was a won­der­ful moment in the Brazil­ian Grand Prix today when Sebas­t­ian Vet­tel again showed how spe­cial he is as a dri­ver. Sure, the race pro­vided a happy end­ing to the sea­son with the vic­tory scored by Mark Web­ber, Vettel’s team­mate at Red Bull. But as Vet­tel went around the track with a bro­ken gear­box, he said over his team radio that he felt like Ayr­ton Senna at this same track in 1991, when he had a prob­lem with his gear­box — but won the race. It is refresh­ing to see such a young dri­ver with a sense of his­tory of the sport. There are... 

Q-School Finals for PGA Tour, LPGA Begin Wednesday

The final qual­i­fy­ing tour­na­ments in the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour Q-Schools begin on Wednes­day, the PGA Tour at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif., and the LPGA at LPGA Inter­na­tional in Day­tona Beach, Fla. The LPGA con­cludes on Sun­day (five rounds) while the PGA Tour con­cludes on Mon­day (six rounds). PGA TourThe top 25 play­ers at the con­clu­sion of play earn full sta­tus for 2012. David Duval is the name that will get the most atten­tion. The for­mer world No. 1, 2001 British Open win­ner, 14-time PGA Tour win­ner is back at Q-School finals after mak­ing it through...