Sonstiges » er, they won three

If there is one man responsible for the sumptuous buffet of college football on the menu for this weekend, it would be Dave Brown, who has been to college football scheduling what LeBron James is to the Cleveland Cavaliers -- the one person indispensable to the subject at hand. Brown may have a low profile outside the business of the sport. But few people in intercollegiate athletics can get a phone call to an athletic director or head football coach returned faster than Brown.Brown for years was in charge of scheduling college football games for ABC and ESPN (he now is a consultant on college football scheduling with proprietary software that makes the complicated business much easier for his clients). As such, the remarkable array of nonconference games during Kickoff Week -- including Alabama-USC, LSU-Wisconsin, Texas A&M-UCLA, Georgia-North Carolina, Clemson at Auburn, Notre Dame at Texas and Florida State-Ole Miss -- are by and large the work of Brown and the staff with whom he worked at ESPN.People will always put themselves out there and play one really big game, Brown said. Thats it in a nutshell. Thats what happened.Well, thats not exactly what happened. Take LSU and Wisconsin playing Saturday at Lambeau Field (ABC, 3:30 p.m. ET), the home of the Green Bay Packers. They originally were scheduled to play next season. The Badgers had been scheduled to play Virginia Tech in Week 2. Virginia Tech agreed to move a home-and-home with Wisconsin to 2019-20, 11 years later than the two programs first agreed to play. By the way, that freed up the Hokies to play Tennessee in the Battle at Bristol in Week 2. Tennessee was supposed to play Nebraska on Sept. 10. However, that home-and-home is now scheduled for 2026-27.Your head starting to hurt yet?We had to move around a lot of things to get it done, Brown said.There are logistics and there is desire. A tip of the hat to the College Football Playoff is necessary here. The CFP selection committees emphasis on schedule strength has dissolved the objections of coaches against playing difficult nonconference opponents. It can be like feeding spinach to children -- not many of them ask for seconds.You cant ask people to do something thats over and above what everybody else is doing, Brown said. Everybody else is playing one tough nonconference game? Thats what you can ask people to do.You call and you ask, you listen and you call back, you propose and maybe you wheedle. You call and you ask again. Brown has earned the trust of coaches to the point that they would call him to complain when they didnt like ESPNs coverage, which was not at all his bailiwick and put him in an awkward position. But he is the first to recognize the limits of what he can achieve.They really want seven home games, Brown said. Out of 12 games, with four on the road in the league, you are dealing with a pretty fixed set of scheduling parameters. You cant call somebody up and say, Do you mind going down to five home games? You dont even ask those kinds of questions.So you figure out which buttons to push. Texas A&M wanted to showcase the newly expanded Kyle Field. UCLA is coming to College Station, the first time the teams will play in the regular season in 61 years.The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, which lost its ACC-SEC matchup when it became part of the New Years Six bowls, wanted to bring the two leagues together in its Kickoff Game. Hello, North Carolina and Georgia this year (and Alabama and Florida State next year).And the Crimson Tide wanted to open against a nonconference opponent at a neutral site, and is doing so for the fifth consecutive year (Michigan, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Wisconsin, USC). Note that list of opponents completes the full set of other Power 5 conferences.You put the puzzle together, and sometimes you get a piece of art that hangs in a museum. Thats what Brown did for the opening week of the 2016 season. Tony Parker Jersey . -- Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson asked his players a simple question during Fridays morning shootaround: How many of them had ever been on a team 14 games over . Lonnie Walker Jersey . There are some early surprises in the race for the Hart Trophy, but two of the contenders are the leagues biggest stars over the past decade. There are many more players in contention for the awards than just the three that Ive named, and a good or bad week can easily alter the landscape, but through the first 20 or so games of the NHL season, this is how the awards races look to me. https://www.spurslockerroom.com/Chimezie-Metu-City-Edition-Jersey/ . The 20-year-old Pelicans big man glanced up and smiled widely at the well-wishers -- a fitting end to a day he wont soon forget. Davis responded to his selection earlier in the day as a Western Conference All-Star with 26 points and 10 rebounds, and the New Orleans Pelicans overcame a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves 98-91 on Friday night. Tim Duncan Spurs Jersey . "Jeff is a hard worker who was an important special-teams contributor for us last season," said Stamps GM John Hufnagel. Dejounte Murray Jersey .B. -- The Baie-Comeau Drakkar took over sole possession of first place atop the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League on Thursday with their sixth straight win.LOS ANGELES -- Kobe Bryant isnt sure hell be ready to play when the Los Angeles Lakers open the season on Oct. 29, although he remains ahead of schedule in rehabbing his surgically repaired Achilles tendon. Bryant turns 35 next week and he vowed that his 17-year career is "definitely not over." "I just want that jewelry," he said, referring to the possibility of claiming his sixth NBA championship. "People just dont understand how obsessed I am with winning." Bryant made his comments to late night host Jimmy Kimmel during "Kobe Up Close," a one-on-one conversation with the NBA superstar on Thursday night at Nokia Theatre across from Staples Center. He had a one-word answer when Kimmel asked whether he would finish his career with the only team hes ever played for: "Yeah," Bryant replied. The 7,100-seat venue was full of Bryants fans that cheered, jeered and interrupted freely during the one-hour program. Ticket proceeds benefited the Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation, which works to help end homelessness. In keeping with the reason for the event, Kimmel asked, "If there was only one homeless person in the world, would you be happy if it was Dwight Howard?" The audience roared, mere weeks removed from Howards decision to leave the Lakers for Houston after one season. "Dwight is a great kid," Bryant said, nearly drowned out by boos. "We have different perspectives on what it takes to win." Kimmel kept the questions light while touching on a variety of topics well known to Bryants most ardent fans. Bryant recalled that before he was drafted in 1996 by Charlotte and then traded to the Lakers, he worked out for Boston and the Clippers. "I had a really fun and good workout with the Clippers," he said. "They told me, This is the best workout weve ever seen." But he said the team told him it wouldnt be drafting him out of high school. "We want to turn things around with our organization and we felt like if we drafted a 17-year-old kid, the city of L.A. wouldnt take us seriously," Bryant said the Clippers told him. Kimmel retorted, "They always make the best decisions." Bryant said Chris Paul should have ended up with the Lakers instead of the Clippers. The NBA office, which owned New Orleans at the time, decided against a deal team officialls had agreed to with the Lakers.dddddddddddd. "Chris called me and told me it was a done deal," Bryant said. "Then he calls me back 30 minutes later and says, You wont believe it. David Stern killed the deal." Before Bryant jumped directly from high school to the pros, he said he was recruited by Duke, North Carolina, Kansas and West Point. The military academy sent him his first college letter. If he had gone to college, Bryant said he likely wouldve chosen North Carolina because Vince Carter had gone to Chapel Hill the previous year, and Bryant would have wanted to compete with him at practice every day. As a teenager with a lucrative NBA contract, Bryant said he wasnt interested in big expenditures. "The game consumed me," he said. Bryant recalled his first meeting with Shaquille ONeal over dinner at a Beverly Hills restaurant. "I thought it was the coolest thing in the world that he had a cellphone that was the biggest in the world," he said. Together, they won three consecutive NBA titles from 2000-02. But they eventually fell out and ONeal was traded after the Lakers lost in the 2004 finals. "It was a tough period. He and I just werent going to play together anymore," Bryant said. "I had to prove I could win without him." It would take a while, though. Bryant and the Lakers didnt capture another NBA title until they won two straight in 2009 and 2010. Bryant credited Michael Jordan for giving him "phenomenal advice" on how to elevate his teammates. "My demeanour and my temper probably calmed down a little bit," he said. "I go into games today looking at what are my guys going through, who is struggling, what can I do to help." Among the famous faces in the audience were Lakers owners Jeanie and Jim Buss, general manager Mitch Kupchak, Hall of Fame baseball player Dave Winfield and former NFL receiver Terrell Owens. Jeanie Buss was visibly touched when Bryant spoke about why so many Lakers players loved her late father, Jerry. "He knew exactly what his vision was," Bryant said. "He was very patient, he was very understanding. He allowed me room to grow as a person." Bryant said his daughters, ages 10 and 7, are playing sports, although he didnt specify which ones. He described them as "insanely, insanely competitive." ' ' '