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Iverson granted leave from Grizzlies

Per ESPN…

Allen Iverson was granted permission to leave the Memphis Grizzlies to deal with a personal matter, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported on Saturday.

Iverson had a meeting with Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley Friday night after the team lost 114-98 to the Los Angeles Lakers, the newspaper reported.

Iverson met with Heisley again Saturday morning and then left for Atlanta, the Commercial Appeal reported. Iverson lives in Atlanta during the offseason.

Iowa’s magic finally runs out

College football pundits and fans alike have been waiting for this day for weeks: Iowa finally fell. Northwestern topped the No. 6 Hawkeyes 17-10 on Saturday and dashed Iowa’s slim national title hopes.

From FOX Sports.com:

With that said, there’s no excuse for a loss at home to Northwestern, just as there was no excuse for such a lousy performance against Indiana. It’s not as if the Hawkeyes were playing the world-beaters, and it’s not as if the game were over after losing Ricky Stanzi to his ankle injury. Of course, not having the leader and No. 1 quarterback matters, but 1) Iowa was still winning when he got knocked out, 2) Northwestern also lost its starter, and 3) It … was … Northwestern.

This is a Wildcats team that sputtered and coughed against Eastern Michigan, one of the five worst teams in college football, and this is a team that can’t get a score without it being wrapped in a nice gift basket. If Iowa really were a national title-caliber team, it would’ve pounded away on the mediocre Wildcats D and come up with a point over the final 50 minutes. Pat Angerer and Jeremiha Hunter did their part, combining for 27 tackles, but the offensive line that did such a great job against Indiana struggled to get the running game going and James Vandenberg was miserable in place of Stanzi. And that’s it. That’s the difference between an all-timer of a season and being among the mere mortals.

As the article points out, does anything really change here? Even if Iowa ran the table, it would have had a hard time convincing voters that it deserved to play for a national title with teams like Florida, Alabama and Texas atop the rankings. So now the Hawkeyes can fight for the Big Ten title and the chance to play in the Rose Bowl.

Obviously the outcome today was a massive disappointment. But not all is lost.

Iowa’s Stanzi hurt against Northwestern

Iowa quarterback Ricky Stanzi left the Hawkeyes’ game against Northwestern early in the second quarter with an apparent foot injury.

Stanzi was hurt when Wildcats’ defender Corey Wootton sacked him in the end zone. He fumbled and Nwest Marshall Thomas recovered the ball in the end zone for a Northwestern touchdown to cut Iowa’s lead to 10-7.

Backup quarterback James Vandenberg immediately came in and threw an interception to set up another Wildcats score. Northwestern is currently up 14-10 at halftime and at least for the moment, No. 6 Iowa is once again in trouble.

Although hey, they’re always in trouble at halftime; they’ve trailed at halftime in almost every game this season.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Line of the Night (11/6): Jason Richardson

Jason Richardson dropped 34 points and snagged 10 rebounds to give the Celtics a rare loss at the TD Garden. He was 10-16 from the field and 6-7 from long range. The Celtics shot almost 52% from the field and still lost, mainly because they allowed the Suns to shoot 54% from 3PT, bolstered by J-Rich’s hot night.

One defensive weakness that the Celtics have is at off guard. Ray Allen has never been known as a great defender, and as he’s gotten older, he’s getting worse. To compensate for this, Boston usually game plans for the league’s premier shooting guards, but above average players like Richardson don’t get that kind of attention until it’s too late.

With the win, the Suns are 5-1 and in a tie for first place with the Lakers in the Pacific Division. Along with the Heat (5-1) and the Rockets (4-2), the Suns are one of the most surprising teams early in the season.

Boise State won’t silence critics after marginal win over LA Tech

No. 7 Boise State beat Louisiana Tech 45-35 on Friday night. Outside of three minutes in the first quarter when the Bulldogs held a 7-3 edge, the Broncos never trailed and are now 9-0 for the fourth time in six years.

But their performance was hardly enough to convince doubters that they should play for a national title. Boise held a 27-7 lead at halftime after absolutely dominating Tech (who didn’t have a first down the entire period) in the second quarter and they had a chance to come out in the second half and show a national audience just how impressive they can be. Instead, Tech got right back into the ball game thanks to a horrible decision by quarterback Kellen Moore, who was intercepted by Josh Victorian who returned the gift 75 yards for a touchdown to cut the Broncos’ lead to 27-14 early in the third.

Tech then found a way to cut the deficit to 30-28 early in the fourth thanks to some great running by Daniel Porter, a renewed sense of confidence by quarterback Ross Jenkins, an onside kick and some failures on the Broncos’ part.

One of those big failures was Boise’s inability to turn red zone opportunities into touchdowns. They settled for field goals three times on the night because their spread attack was neutralized close to the goal line. And with their inability to run the ball consistently between the tackles, Tech’s defense found a way to contain them and stay in the game.

Boise head coach Chris Peterson doesn’t want to talk about style points because he’s focused on winning games, which is the way it should be. But when his team has a 27-7 halftime lead on an inferior opponent in their house, they have to be able to finish. The Broncos had a similar issue against Tulsa earlier this season in which they allowed their opponent to get back into the ball game in the second half.

There’s nothing Boise can do about its weak schedule. They can’t schedule decent non-conference opponents because nobody wants to play them. But what they can do is take care of business on the field and unfortunately given their situation and the way the college football system is set up, simply winning games just isn’t enough.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

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