Tag: reaction

Rockets likely to begin season with Bruno Fernando starting at center

Bruno Fernando, not Alperen Sengun, appears likely to start at center for the #Rockets in Wednesday’s regular-season opener, per @KellyIko of The Athletic.

When the Houston Rockets traded Christian Wood in June, the assumption by many was that part of the motivation was to clear a starting spot for second-year prospect center Alperen Sengun.

Though trading Wood to Dallas could still open more frontcourt minutes for Sengun, the widespread assumptions about him automatically starting in Wood’s place appear to have been misguided.

From Kelly Iko of The Athletic:

Jalen Green, Kevin Porter Jr., Eric Gordon and Jabari Smith Jr. are lineup locks, but, barring a last-minute change, Bruno Fernando has also emerged as a strong possibility to start at center instead of Sengun on opening night, The Athletic understands. Both have been used with the first team recently in practice. Fernando has made impressions with the team for his physicality and improving defense, rebounding ability and rim running — well-equipped athletically to play in Houston’s up-tempo system.

Jonathan Feigen, Rockets beat writer for the Houston Chronicle, wrote earlier in the week that Sengun could be a better fit off the bench due to having more post-up opportunities in that role. In the piece, Feigen said Sengun’s overall minutes played per game would be very similar, regardless of whether he starts or comes off the bench.

With Fernando likely in the starting lineup, Houston begins its 2022-23 regular season on Wednesday night in Atlanta. Tipoff between the Rockets and Hawks is set for 6:30 p.m. Central.

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NBA Twitter reacts to Steph Curry’s 33-point performance in opening night win vs. Lakers

After the Warriors surged past the Lakers on opening night, NBA Twitter was buzzing with different reactions.

It didn’t take long for the defending champions to get back to business on the opening night of the NBA season. After raising the 2022 championship banner into the rafters and receiving their rings, the Golden State Warriors quickly reminded everyone why they were crowned champions last season. 

Steph Curry helped the Warriors cruise to a victory over the Lakers with a game-high 33 points on 10-of-22 shooting from the floor with four made triples. The reigning NBA Finals Most Valuable Player added seven assists, six boards and four steals in 33 minutes. 

Along with Curry’s dazzling performance, a barrage in the third quarter from the Warriors helped Golden State surge past Los Angeles. The Warriors outscored the Lakers 32-19 in the third quarter alone. 

While the Lakers attempted to get back into the game late, Andrew Wiggins buried three triples in the final frame to seal Golden State’s win over Los Angeles, 123-109.

Following the Warriors’ win on opening night. NBA Twitter was buzzing with reactions. Here’s a look at what fans, players and analysts were saying about the Warriors and Lakers on Tuesday night.

This post originally appeared on Warriors Wire! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter! 

Warriors Notebook: 3 thoughts from the Warriors’ 123-109 win vs. Lakers on Tuesday

After the Warriors cruised to a victory over the Lakers on opening night, here’s a look into the notebook for three thoughts from Tuesday night.

After unveiling their new championship banner and receiving their rings in a pregame ceremony, the Golden State Warriors still had business to handle against the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2022-23 season opener on Tuesday night.

The Warriors showed no signs of a championship hangover against the Lakers. Despite a fierce double-double with 21 points on 12-of-25 shooting from the field and 14 rebounds from LeBron James, the Warriors cruised to a 123-109 win over the Lakers.

Steph Curry fueled an impressive first impression from the Warriors with a game-high 33 points on 10-of-22 shooting from the field with four made triples, seven assists, six rebounds and four steals in 33 minutes.

Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole all added double-figure scoring performances as the Warriors secured a victory to start the season, 1-0.

With game one in the books, here are three thoughts from the notebook on Tuesday night.

This post originally appeared on Warriors Wire! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter! 

Ranking SEC quarterbacks after Week 7: A new No. 1 emerges

SEC QB rankings after Week 7

There’s plenty of movement in my SEC quarterback rankings following a thrilling Week 7 of college football.

For starters, Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker made a big leap after taking down Bryce Young and the Alabama Crimson Tide. Will Levis returned for Kentucky in a winning effort against Will Rogers and Mississippi State. As did Arkansas‘ KJ Jefferson, who led his team to a win over BYU and put up fantastic numbers. Georgia’s Stetson Bennett had his best game in a few weeks in a win over Vandy. Meanwhile, LSU’s Jayden Daniels continues to impress after accounting for six touchdowns against Anthony Richardson and the Florida Gators. Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart keeps performing well and had a nice showing in a win over Auburn.

SEC quarterback rankings, plus their Heisman odds (courtesy of Tipico Sportsbook), after Week 7:

James Franklin wants Michigan football to change its tunnel after team spat

This is just sour grapes galore. Worry about your own erector set stadium, Frames.

After Michigan football and Penn State got into a bit of a jaw session in the Lloyd Carr tunnel at halftime of Saturday’s game, PSU head coach James Franklin is placing the blame on the policy of having both teams go up the tunnel almost simultaneously, instead of anything his team may have done.

According to Michigan players after the game, it was the Nittany Lions who started the spat, and the only other team that’s ever managed to get into any in-tunnel antics has been Ohio State.

Despite most teams not having a problem, and it not being Franklin’s home turf, he’s insisting the Big Ten step in and change things at Michigan Stadium due to what happened.

“Again, I prefer to talk about these things in the off-season, but the one tunnel is a problem,” Franklin said. “It’s a problem and has been. To me, we need to put a policy in place from a conference perspective in my mind that’s going to stop — we’re not the first team to kind of get into a jawing match in the tunnel. For me, I want to focus on getting my team into the locker room and not jawing back and forth.

“Get my team get in the locker room and their team get in the locker room. There really should be a policy that first team that goes in, there is a buffer. If not, this team starts talking to this team, they start jawing back and forth, and something bad is gonna happen before we put in the policy.

“All there has to be a two-minute or minute buffer in between the two teams. This team is in before that team gets close and however we want to do it. But we’re not the first team that’s had issues like that. To me, under the current structure we won’t be the last. To me, there is a really easy solution. We got to do it.

“But for me, I want to get our team in the locker room. That’s my concern.”

Usually I don’t go first person on these pages, but I was there and witnessed what happened. I don’t know who started the in-tunnel banter, but Penn State was holding Michigan up, as the Michigan locker room is past where the visitor locker room’s entrance is. There are reports that Penn State players were throwing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at Michigan players, further corroborated by Michigan left guard Trevor Keegan on Tuesday.

“I didn’t get a sandwich thrown at me, but R.J. (Moten) came up to me and said, ‘I just got a P.B.J. in the face,'” Keegan said. “So I guess they were. I didn’t see that but that’s what he told me.”

Regardless, while Franklin is honorably defending his team, he needs to take a look in the mirror and recognize that his side of the aisle is culpable here, even if Michigan is also culpable. Also, to insist that a conference step in and do something to another team when it really was much ado about nothing at the end of the day is absurd. No one physically got hurt, and if Penn State had rallied to win the game, assuredly that would have been pointed to as an impetus for the second-half surge. But his team lost, so this comes across as sour grapes.

Worry about your own team and your own stadium, James. Besides your loss, everything is OK.

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There are 9 remaining undefeated teams in college football

There are nine remaining undefeated teams in college football. Can you name them?

Through seven weeks, we have nine remaining unbeatens in college football. Four big ones fell this weekend: Oklahoma State, Penn State, Alabama and USC.

Coastal Carolina and James Madison also experienced their first loss of the season.

Here are the nine undefeated teams remaining, plus their national championship odds (courtesy of BetMGM), in order of where I had them in my top 25:

Updated Heisman Trophy rankings after Week 7 of college football

Heisman Trophy rankings after Week 7

In most cases, the Heisman Trophy is a quarterback’s award. Alabama quarterback Bryce Young looks to repeat in 2022, but he has stiff competition from Ohio State’s CJ Stroud and Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker, who just took down Young and the Tide in Knoxville. There’s also UCLA’s Dorian Thompson-Robinson and, despite losing to Utah, USC’s Caleb Williams is still in the hunt.

But let’s not forget about Michigan running back Blake Corum, who has been on an absolute tear over the last five games. He just posted 166 yards and two touchdowns in a win over Penn State. Also finding his way into the rankings is Tennessee wide receiver Jalin Hyatt, who had a five touchdown performance on Saturday.

I also wanted to highlight some guys you’ve maybe never heard of but are top-five nationally in key stats: running backs Israel Abanikanda (Pitt) and Chase Brown (Illinois), and receivers Ali Jennings (ODU) and Keylon Stokes (Tulsa). There are also defenders putting up really nice sack numbers; I included them as well.

My top 25 Heisman contenders, including their odds (courtesy of Tipico Sportsbook) after Week 7:

Michigan football’s top 10 defensive players from Week 7 vs. Penn State according to PFF

That interior D-Line graded well! #GoBlue

Penn State had two touchdowns against Michigan on Saturday, but only one of those came from the offense. The Nittany Lions went into the game wanting to run the ball effectively, but the Wolverines held Penn State to 111 run yards and the maize and blue cruised to a 41-17 victory.

It was tough sledding for the Penn State offense against the Michigan defense. The Nittany Lions had one long play, which came from the legs of Sean Clifford. On third and one, Clifford kept a read-option — it shocked the entire state of Michigan — and he ran the ball 62 yards down inside the Michigan five-yard line. PSU later scored its only offensive score a few plays later.

Penn State gained 268 yards of total offense and had 10 first downs during the entire game.

After the Michigan defense suffocated the Penn State offense, you may wonder which Wolverines graded out the highest on defense. If so, we have you covered.

Here are the top 10 Michigan defensive players according to Pro Football Focus after defeating Penn State. This article has a 15-snap minimum.

Michigan football’s top 10 offensive players from Week 7 vs. Penn State according to PFF

The No.1 player had a huge grade! #GoBlue

Michigan football moved to 7-0 on Saturday after dominating Penn State thoroughly on both sides of the ball. The Wolverines defeated the previously unbeaten Nittany Lions, 41-17.

The Michigan offensive line manhandled the Penn State defensive line and opened up some gaping holes for both Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards to run through. The Wolverines rushed for 418 yards against the then No. 5 run defense.

Edwards ran for his career-high of 173 yards and Corum continued his monster season after rushing for 166 yards. Both of them scored two touchdowns each.

J.J. McCarthy wasn’t asked to do too much on Saturday throwing the ball 24 times. He completed 71% of his passes and he threw for 145 yards. The sophomore did throw an interception, but that was a fluky play that bounced off a Penn State helmet and landed in linebacker Curtis Jacobs’ hands.

If you were wondering which players graded out the best on offense for Michigan after defeating Penn State, we have you covered.

Here are the top 10 Michigan offensive players from Week 7 according to Pro Football Focus. We do base this on a 15-snap minimum.

ESPN’s Paul Finebaum ranks the four best CFB teams

Where are the Georgia Bulldogs and Tennessee Volunteers in Paul Finebaum’s college football rankings?

ESPN college football analyst Paul Finebaum has named his top four teams in college football following a crazy Week 7. Four ranked and undeafeated teams lost in Week 7. Let’s recap the top action from last week.

Tennessee got a monster, 52-49, home win over Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide. It is the Volunteers’ biggest win in a long time. As expected, the Georgia Bulldogs dominated Vanderbilt. Clemson won at Florida State. Michigan dominated Penn State. USC lost a thrilling game to Utah. TCU won an overtime game against Oklahoma State.

College football has several more enticing games in Week 8. How does Paul Finebaum rank his top four teams?