ABCDE SPORTS wednesday, december 8, 2010 COLLEGEBASKETBALL


Lineup is a place to start Nine games into the season, and with a 6-3 record, Maryland men’s Coach Gary Williams is still in search of his best starting five. D5


HIGHSCHOOLS


An offseason of change Everything’s different about WCAC girls’ basketball except the size of the ball. Preview, preseason Top 20. D10


BLOGS,MULTIMEDIAANDCHATS washingtonpost.com/sports First Things First Today, 9:30 a.m. Tracee Hamilton starts the D.C. sports day with a question-and-answer chat. Redskins Insider Our blog has all the fallout from the team’s decision to suspend lineman Albert Haynesworth. Football Insider 2010 Now for Android, the app is available for download in the Marketplace.


PROBASKETBALL


Wizards play late Washington’s road game against the Los Angeles Lakers ended too late for this edition. For full coverage, go to washingtonpost.com/sports


As bad as this game was, it counts for one loss. It may feel like three losses. But it counts as one.”Jets Coach Rex Ryan, on his team getting back to work after a crushing 45-3 loss to the Patriots on Monday. D6


T


lineman AlbertHaynesworth for the remainder of the season without pay was a logical conclusion to one of owner Daniel Snyder’s most illogical player-personnel moves. By severing ties with


HAYNESWORTH, OVER AND OUT W


The never-ending drama ends


heWashington Redskins’ decision Tuesday to suspend defensive


ON FOOTBALL Jason Reid


Haynesworth, CoachMike Shanahan reaffirmed his grip on the organization— providing the most powerful example to date of his authority—and signaled a


WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES


symbolic end to Snyder’s way of building a team. Regardless of the outcome of the inevitable appeal,Haynesworth appears to have played his final game for the Redskins less than two years after Snyder lured him to Washington—over the objections of some on the football staff—with a contract that included a then-record


on football continued onD7 Albert wins and everyone loses


hen Prima Donna Player vs. Taskmaster Coach finally ended


after 11-plus gruelingmonths, Mike Shanahan’s extra, beet- red complexion spared the ringside judges any work. AlbertHaynesworth won—


by technical knockout. He got hismoney. He got out of doing a job for


which he said his unique talents were unsuited. Hemade the employer bend


tomeet his needs instead of the company’s. And with his Redskins


MIKE WISE


career ostensibly over after being suspended for the remainder of the season, Haynesworth incredibly pulled off the parlay:He also gets the holidays off.


wise continued onD7


l An inability to coexist with Coach Mike Shanahan leads the Redskins to suspend their highly paid defensive star. Albert Haynesworth, who played 20 games forWashington, plans to appeal. Story, A1


Nats are setting market prices


Zimmerman could benefit from Werth’s windfall contract


BY ADAM KILGORE


lake buena vista, fla.—Base- ball’s offseason has become very much about the Washington Na- tionals, about their mega-deal with Jayson Werth, their pursuit of Cliff Lee, their inquiring on most every significant free agent available, their desire to turn their franchise from a punch line intosomething thatmust be reck- oned with. At the moment, it is not about


Ryan Zimmerman. As Stephen Strasburg overshadowed him in the summer,Werth has overshad- owed him in the winter. In the near future, though, the ramifica- tions of this offseason could reso- nate as much for Zimmerman as any other player. Zimmerman again reiterated


his desire to finish his career in Washington last weekend, and the Nationals are effectively forced to fulfill it. “That’s a guy they have to sign,” one baseball source said. “That’s the fran- chise.” Zimmerman is currently signed through the 2013 season, when he turns 29, and two new contracts in the past week have directly influenced Zimmerman’s next round of negotiations with theNationals. First, the Colorado Rockies


gave a massive contract extension worth a total of $157 million over 10 years to homegrown shortstop TroyTulowitzki, perhaps the clos- est comparison to Zimmerman in the major leagues. And on Sun- day, of course, the Nationals add- edWerth for seven yearsand$126 million. The league set a rough market value for Zimmerman, and then the Nationals, if any- thing, raised it. If Werth signed for $126 mil-


lion, just imagine what Zimmer- man could command. Zimmer- man has proven to be even more


nationals continued onD3 TONI L. SANDYS/THE WASHINGTON POST Alexander Semin leads the Capitals with 18 goals and is in the final year of his contract, from which he earns $6 million. BY KATIE CARRERA O


n the evening he scored his third hat trick of the season, Alexander Semin stood in the Washington Capitals’ dressing room enveloped by a horde of


reporters. Amid the sound of whirring fans drying sweaty equipment, Semin was asked if he can ever predict such a successful performance. Given an opportunity to offer insight


or make a joke, the 26-year-old Russian sharpshooter chose one of his typically guarded answers. “I’m not going to say anything,” he


said through an interpreter. “That’s in- side me. I’mnot going to share that with you guys.Why should I revealanything?” A third of the way through his sixth


season with the Capitals, Semin is on pace for a career-best campaign statisti- cally, and although teammates say he’s gradually revealing more of his reserved personality in the locker room, he is still amystery to the outside world. Whether Washington is a long-term fit for Semin, whose contract is set to expire at the conclusion of the season, remains to be seen. “Everything is going well here,” Semin


said through an interpreter in a rare one-on-one interview. “I want to contin- ue winning, to stay here. I want to win the Cup here. It’s a good team, with good coaches and training staff. I’mnot think-


semin continued onD5 The steadily rising Semin


2010-11 (29 games) 33points (5th in league, 2nd on team) 18 goals (3rd in league, 1st on team)


2009-10 (73 games) 84 points (13th in league, 3rd on team) 40goals (7th in league, 2nd on team)


2008-09 (62 games) 79 points (19th in league, 3rd on team) 34goals (16th in league, 2nd on team)


Russian mystery in the District


Capitals’ Semin produces on the ice, is quiet off of it


D EZ SU


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