Page 28 - Florida Sentinel 12-8-17

Sports
Winston Has To Limit Mistakes Against Lions
Derrick Rose Apologizes To Teammates
DERRICK ROSE
Cavaliers star guard Der- rick Rose apologized to his teammates at shootaround on Wednesday for his recent ab- sence and referenced frustra- tion with his left ankle injury as the cause for his nearly two- week exile.
Rose's comments were brief and delivered to the team on the court before the Cavs beat the Sacramento Kings 101- 95 for their 13th straight win, the source said.
Several of Rose's team- mates, LeBron James in- cluded, already had said publicly that Rose did not owe them an apology for the time he missed. However, the three- time All-Star took it upon him- self to clear the air.
Man Charged In 2010 Murder Of NBA Player Lorenzen Wright
LORENZEN WRIGHT AND BILLY TURNER
Billy Turner, 46, was in- dicted Tuesday on a charge of first-degree murder, according to the Shelby County District Attorney General. He is being held on $1 million bond.
Wright, who was 34-years- old when he died, played for the Memphis Grizzlies and four other NBA teams as a forward and center over 13 seasons be- fore retiring in 2009.
His badly decomposed body was found in Memphis on July 28, 2010, 10 days after his family reported him missing. He was visiting Memphis from his home in the Atlanta area when he disappeared.
Police said last month that they had found a gun used in the killing in a lake in Missis- sippi.
Clemson, Oklahoma, Georgia And Alabama Will Vie For National Championship
Jameis Winston re- turned, and it wasn’t enough for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Their playoff hopes are just about done after a 26-20 over- time loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.
A season that started with rising expectations seems to be ending in a painfully familiar way for the franchise — in last place in the NFC South with dim prospects for the postsea- son.
Still, Winston refused to focus on anything but getting better for next week’s game against Detroit this Sunday at 1 p.m. at Raymond James Sta- dium. The quarterback missed Tampa Bay’s three previous contests with a shoulder in- jury.
“I can’t really tell you about the future right now,” he said. “No one in this room can pre- dict the future right now, so we’ve just got to keep building and getting better every single day. I have to limit my mis- takes against Detroit.”
Statistically, the offense had a decent day for Tampa Bay (4-8). Peyton Barber ran for 102 yards on 23 carries with starter Doug Martin sidelined by a concussion.
Winston was 21 of 32 for 270 yards and two touchdown
JAMEIS WINSTON
passes to tight end Cameron Brate.
“I thought Jameis played good. He did a good job except the one play,” coach Dirk Koetter said.
“I don’t even know how the ball came out,” Winston said. “When I reared it back (my arm) hit something.”
Winston refused to blame his offensive line for poor pro- tection, though there were a couple communication issues with Smith. He was a last- minute replacement at center after starter Joe Hawley was scratched due to illness.
Two other starters on the offensive line were placed on injured reserve earlier in the week.
“So I don’t think it’s right to be able to say that they did subpar when they overcame so much in this day,” Winston said.
After months of anticipa- tion, we have our four College Football Playoff teams.
1. Clemson (12-1) – For the third consecutive year, Clemson has made the Col- lege Football Playoff. It is the second time the Tigers have been the No. 1 overall seed, as they also claimed the top spot in 2015. A decisive 38-3 ACC Championship victory over Miami sealed the deal for Clemson, which only has one blemish on its resume, a 27- 24 road loss to Syracuse in a game in which Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant was injured.
2. Oklahoma (12-1) – Even after a home loss to Iowa State, Oklahoma has re- mained within striking dis- tance of the top four spots in the playoff rankings. The
Sooners haven't been ranked worse than No. 5 since the se- lection committee unveiled their initial 2017 rankings in Week 10.
3. Georgia (12-1) – The Bulldogs made the jump fromNo.6toNo.2afterade- cisive victory over Auburn in the SEC Championship. They avenged their only loss of the season, a 40-17 defeat at Auburn on Nov. 11. Georgia put itself in position to make the playoff after a road win over Notre Dame in Week 2.
4. Alabama (11-1) – There was no way the com- mittee could leave out a one- loss Alabama, right? Before the Crimson Tide's road loss at Auburn, they had been ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in every edition of this year's playoff rankings.
Lakers Enforcing ‘LaVar
Ball Rule’ At Staple Center
In what many employees at Staples Center view as the "LaVar Ball rule," this season, the Los Angeles Lakers are en- forcing a policy that no longer allows members of the media to congregate in a section of the arena among family and asso- ciates of players after games.
Family, friends and agents wait for players in the seats be- hind the basket closest to the visiting team's locker room at the end of games. Interviews conducted in that designated area and near the tunnel lead- ing to the arena corridors are now forbidden. The team claim the enforcement is a ‘privacy issue’.
Daddy Ball Withdraws UCLA Son From School; He’s Going Pro
The elder Ball pulled his son LiAngelo out of UCLA on Monday afternoon, less than a month after LiAngelo was one of three UCLA players arrested and indefinitely suspended for shoplifting in China.
None of the three sus- pended players have appeared
A policy that has been in place for a while, but is now tagged as the ‘LaVar Ball Rule’ by the Los Angeles Lakers is being enforced due to Ball hold- ing court with the media at his son’s games.
in a game yet, and there is no timetable for their return to the court.
Daddy Ball made the deci- sion to withdraw LiAngelo without notifying UCLA head coach Steve Alford or any of his assistant coaches.
LaMelo Ball, the youngest of the three brothers and the seventh-ranked prospect in the 2019 class by ESPN, is still committed to play at UCLA.
LaVar said the plan is still for him to play for the Bruins - - but multiple sources have ex- pressed doubt LaMelo will ever step foot on campus.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2017 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 17-A