ABCDE GOLF
A thirst for more Three-time major winner Padraig Harrington, right, finds trying to win a fourth a real grind. D3
D.C. SPORTS BOG Doing the body good
Goalie Braden Holtby is among several Caps prospects keeping close eyes on their diets. D2
These days, Tour riders take the bus to work
SPORTS “
tuesday, july 13, 2010 BLOGS, MULTIMEDIA AND CHATS
washingtonpost.com/sports
First Things First Today, 9:30 a.m. Tracee Hamilton starts your day by discussing the hottest sports topics. Wizards & NBA Check out video of John Wall during the rookie’s summer league debut in Las Vegas. Nationals Journal Follow Dave Sheinin’s updates leading up to the All-Star Game in Anaheim, Calif.
BASKETBALL
Dazzling effort While John Wall was the main attraction, JaVale McGee wound up turning some heads in Las Vegas, too. D3
Sound complicated? It is. That’s because what makes sense is a 64-team tournament, with four 16-team brackets.” John Feinstein, on the 68-team field. D4
Luxury accommodations offer a ‘sanctuary’ before and after brutal stages
by Jon Brand
morzine, france — In the not so dis- tant past, the Tour de France starting line was a simple affair. Riders arrived each day in the backs of cars and changed into spandex suits at local high schools, be- hind trees or even in plain view of specta-
NCAA’s revised format is
by Eric Prisbell and Steve Yanda
Charged with structuring its ex- panded 68-team men’s basketball tournament, the NCAA’s 10-member selection committee initially consid- ered three options before deciding on a fourth model: a compromise in- tended to address concerns of schools from conferences big and small. “We felt there was an opportunity to do something a little bit different,” said Dan Guerrero, the committee’s chairman. “The hybrid-plus or hy- brid-hybrid model, or whatever you want to call it, really takes the input from all the constituents out there.” Adding three teams to what had been a 65-team tournament means playing four preliminary-round games. The issue: which teams should play in those games — small conference tournament champions or at-large teams? The committee’s answer: both. Starting in 2011, two of the games will match the four worst seeds — champions from small conference tournaments — against one another, with the winners playing No. 1 seeds in the round of 64. The other two games will match the last four teams to earn at-large berths against one another; the winners will be slotted as Nos. 10, 11 or 12 seeds in the round of 64 and will play Nos. 5, 6 or 7 seeds. Reaction around college basketball is mixed. Virginia Tech Coach Seth Greenberg questioned whether the unusual format compromises the in- tegrity of the bracket. “Those final four at-large teams, where are you going to put those teams?” Greenberg said. “If you are a five [seed], would you want to play that game after they have had one game underneath their belt? I think you are compromising the integrity of the bracket to some extent. I don’t know to what extent.” Xavier Coach Chris Mack said it is a
“great compromise” but added that if his team were a No. 5 seed, “I’d rather know who we are going to play and have a locked-in 12-seed, but I don’t see it being a huge advantage or dis- advantage.” Jerry Palm, who projects the NCAA tournament field on his Web site
www.collegerpi.com, said it is a “bad compromise” because “they could not make up their minds so they did it halfway.” Making teams that earn the last four at-large berths play in the first round is wrong, Palm said, be- cause “if seeding means something, you don’t make teams in the middle of the bracket [at-large teams] have to play an extra game.” Starting next season, there will be 31 automatic berths and 37 at-large berths. Because most teams that earn at-large berths hail from the six pow- er conferences, the format last season
ncaa continued on D4 J. MERIC/GETTY IMAGES MOUND MASTERS: Tampa Bay’s David Price, who will start for the American League, brings a 12-4 record and 2.42 ERA into the All-Star Game in Anaheim, Calif. . . .
tors. Today’s scene is more like a rock con-
cert than a bike race. Teams drive to the start in huge buses adorned with colorful designs and sponsor logos. Fans hover around, hoping to catch a glimpse of their favorite cyclists. Outside some bus- es, such as Lance Armstrong’s Radio- Shack vehicle, bodyguards in dark sun- glasses scan the crowd. Inside, cyclists take advantage of the
privacy before each day’s stage. Some send e-mails or Tweet; others enjoy the air conditioning. During last week’s heat wave in France, simply sitting in the bus
was a welcome treat before a long day in the saddle. “It’s our sanctuary,” said Garmin-Tran-
sitions’ Ryder Hesjedal. “I don’t think we could function without them now.” At this year’s Tour de France, a three-
week race that ends July 25 in Paris, all 22 teams are ferrying riders to and from each stage in diesel-powered coaches that are customized inside and out. Much like decorating a house, there are critical design decisions to be made. “You can go for high style or function-
ality,” Team HTC-Columbia owner Bob Stapleton said, showing a Post corre-
a trade-off New 68-team tournament bracket tries to appease small and large schools
spondent around his bus in Gueugnon last Friday. “We’ve chosen functionality.” HTC-Columbia’s bright yellow and white vehicle has all the baseline trap- pings of a typical Tour team bus: televi- sion screens, a bathroom, a washer and dryer and a small kitchen with a coffee machine, which is perhaps the most es- sential accessory. Staff and cyclists brew an estimated 100 cups of coffee each day. One conspicuously absent detail is a
shower, something most teams install. There wasn’t room for one, according to
tour continued on D3 JON BRAND FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
There’s activity outside the team bus, probably a relaxing rider inside.
D S
GARRETT ELLWOOD/GETTY IMAGES . . . But Colorado’s Ubaldo Jiménez can top that, with a 15-1 mark and 2.20 ERA (including a no-hitter) earning him starting honors for the National League. A stacked all-star deck, aces on top
In what has been a year of dominant pitching, National League hopes to end its run of losses
by Dave Sheinin
anaheim, calif. — The parade of pitchers who will take the mound for the National League in Tuesday night’s All- Star Game will begin with the first pitch- er in a decade to reach the all-star break with 15 wins. Next could be a guy with a 1.70 ERA, followed by a guy with seven complete games and a perfect game in the first half, followed by the reigning Cy Young winner and league leader in strikeouts. The National League has not won an all-star game since 1996, but never in the years since has it owned a pitching staff quite like this one. And if the Senior Cir- cuit is to end its 13-season run of futility — and earn home-field advantage in the World Series for its champion this fall — it likely will be won on the backs of its pitchers, beginning with Colorado’s Ubaldo Jiménez, and likely continuing, in some order, with Florida’s Josh John- son, Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay and San Francisco’s Tim Lincecum. “Obviously, I’m not real excited about”
Midsummer Classic
All-Star Game National League vs. American League When: 8 p.m. TV: WTTG (Channel 5), WBFF (Channel 45)
All-stars weigh in on the Nats’ Stephen Strasburg. D6
facing them, said New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who is playing in his 13th all-star game. “They definitely have some tremendous pitch- ing. It’s the best pitching I’ve seen them have in all my years.” This has been the year of the pitcher in baseball, with the games and the head- lines dominated by the men on the mound. Across both leagues, 18 pitchers with enough innings to qualify for the ERA title reached the break with a mark below 3.00—compared with 11 all of last season, and only one as recently as 2007. The aggregate NL ERA of 4.10 is the low-
all-star game continued on D6 THOMAS BOSWELL U anaheim, calif.
baldo Jiménez, the Rockies pitch- er with the 100-mph fastball and the 15-1 record, Josh Johnson, the
6-foot-7 Marlin with the 1.70 ERA, and Tim Lincecum, the Freak from San Fran- cisco with two Cy Young Awards, are here at the All-Star Game already. Next year, this power-pitching trio
may be joined on the National League staff by Mat Latos, 22, the intimidating Padre giant who looks like Don Drysdale but with tattoos, and Stephen Strasburg, 21, who already leads baseball in jerseys sold. Asking the All-Star Game to grant us an NL victory for the sake of competitive
Senior Circuit’s ‘big arms’ may level the playing field
balance is like beseeching the World Cup final to provide a few goals for the sake of cheesy entertainment. Every dozen years, you may get it. But don’t hold your breath. However, the time may finally be ap- proaching when the NL can break its mid-summer jinx and not only win its first all-star game since ’96, but reassert itself as a separate but roughly equal league, rather than as an American League occupied territory. “There are a lot of big-name young pitchers in our league now,” said Lince- cum, 26. “It makes us want to push our- selves even more because they seem so young, so fresh, so nasty.” When he thinks of Tuesday, he imagines the NL bullpen opening and, one after another, every pitcher “just comes in blowin’ gas.” The all-star game’s whole history has been a bizarre sequence of streaks in which one league hexed the other for ri- diculous lengths of time. In ’83, when the NL held a 23-2-1 lead since ’60, NL
boswell continued on D6
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