The Bounce: Time to move on, says Pennell
by Steve Rivera on Feb. 24, 2009, under Sports
<h4>Serious practice in Marana </h4>
Brendan Jones hits from the ninth tee during a practice round at the World Golf Championships Accenture Match Play Championship Monday in Marana.
Hair today, gone tomorrow.
It looks like Arizona interim basketball coach Russ Pennell will get rid of his facial hair, which has been a goatee for the past two weeks after he had a short-cut beard the first week.
Pennell had decided to grow facial hair and some of his players followed along, deciding not to get a shave until UA lost.
Sunday was that day as Arizona fell 70-68 at Arizona State.
“It’s time to move on from that,” Pennell said, smiling.
He said late Sunday that he wasn’t sure if he’d keep the goatee, but on Monday he quipped it had been dark at the house and he “didn’t want to cut himself.”
Guard Nic Wise said he wasn’t sure what he was going to do. Some of the other coaches and administrators kind of liked the hairy look.
Heck, Pennell said, there had been talk of sporting Mohawks.
“We talked about crazy stuff,” Pennell said. “What if we won the Pac-10? Mohawks?”
He said he thought, “I would (get one) if it makes you play better.”
Barkley could serve time
SCOTTSDALE – Charles Barkley will serve time in jail after pleading guilty Monday to charges of driving drunk.
According to Scottsdale court records, the 45-year-old former NBA star pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges related to the same drunken driving arrest.
Barkley, who works as a TV analyst, is set to begin a five-day jail sentence on March 21. The Hall of Famer must pay more than $2,000 in fines and attend an alcohol treatment program. Under Arizona law, he’ll also be forced to install an ignition interlock device on his vehicles.
His attorney was not immediately available for comment.
Barkley was stopped by police Dec. 31 shortly after leaving a Scottsdale nightclub. He was arrested after failing a field sobriety test. He had a blood-alcohol level of .149 percent, nearly twice the legal limit of .08 percent in Arizona when he was pulled over.
After a six-week leave of absence, Barkley resumed his studio analyst role for TNT last week.
“This is just my bad, no excuses,” Barkley said in an interview with TNT colleague Ernie Johnson posted on NBA.com before he returned to work.”I think that a DUI is unacceptable,” he added. “That can’t happen and I’ve got to challenge other people, not just celebrities or jocks. You have to really think before getting behind the wheel after you’ve been drinking.”
The Associated Press
Lasorda souring on A-Rod?
MIAMI – Tommy Lasorda’s relationship with Alex Rodriguez goes back nearly two decades, all the way to when the teenage A-Rod decided in high school that he wanted to sign his first contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Lasorda’s affinity for the Yankees third baseman waned considerably recently.
In Miami to promote the upcoming World Baseball Classic, Lasorda said Monday that Rodriguez’s recent admission that he took a banned substance from 2001 through 2003 while playing for the Texas Rangers was a stunner.
“I never thought about him ever taking steroids,” Lasorda said. “So when it did, that just shocked me. Shocked me. I didn’t think he would do that.”
Lasorda may be baseball’s hardest-working ambassador these days, his calendar routinely filled by stops at various dinners to either deliver keynote addresses, pick up awards, or both in some cases. And he never turns down a chance to discuss the World Baseball Classic, which he puts on par with the Olympics in terms of the impact it could have on the collective fan base of a nation.
But everywhere he goes now, the A-Rod question is looming.
“Sure, it changes my perception of him as a person and what he did, absolutely,” said Lasorda, the former Dodgers manager who’s entering his 60th year with the organization. “And I feel so bad about that. The guy, he was always somebody special.”
The Associated Press
Coach at Marbury hearing
NEW YORK – Nearly three months after the season started, and long after he was told to stay away from the team, Stephon Marbury is about to cause another distraction for the New York Knicks.
Coach Mike D’Antoni said he will miss practice Tuesday, forced to appear at an arbitration hearing to discuss Marbury’s grievance against the team.
D’Antoni will tell his side of the story about what happened Nov. 26 in Detroit, when the Knicks contend Marbury refused the coach’s request to play when the team was short-handed. The Knicks suspended him a game and fined him nearly $400,000, claiming it was the second time he declined to play.
D’Antoni’s first season in New York has occasionally been overshadowed by Marbury, who hasn’t appeared in a game – some by the coach’s decisions, some perhaps by Marbury’s.
The Associated Press
Pennell sheds woolly look after loss
QUOTABLE
'My biggest goal was to get out there and walk off in one piece.'
JASON SCHMIDT,
Dodgers pitcher, on throwing Monday in an attempt to come back from a shoulder injury
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ON THIS DATE
1985: Jim Kelly of the Houston Gamblers passes for a USFL-record 574 yards and five touchdowns in a 34-33 comeback win over the Los Angeles Express. Kelly, completes 35 of 54 passes, including three for touchdowns in the final 10 minutes.
2008: Tiger Woods wins the Accenture Match Play Championship in Marana, his fifth straight tournament victory. Woods overwhelms Stewart Cink with 14 birdies in 29 holes for an 8-and-7 victory, the largest margin in the final in the 10-year history of this tournament.
The Associated Press
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SPORTS SOUND-OFF
Rivalry not one for long?
Re: UA loses to ASU in basketball
• We lose by two in Tempe during arguably the worst season in 25 years, AND when ASU’s having its best in 25 years? I’m comfortable with that. We’ll see where the “rivalry” goes in the next 5-10 years.
BUTTHEAD89
• I like the UA’s chances to gain a split in Washington and sweep the Bay Area teams to finish out 3-1. That would give them a 21-10 record and 11-7 in the Pac-10. If that’s the case, they’re in.
CATINLV
• Man, my broom is getting tired of all of this sweeping. Talk all the trash you want, you know it is killing you to lose four in a row in basketball to ASU. Sendek is a good coach, too. ASU is not going to turn to garbage again. You are fooling yourself if you think that.
KYLO76
