SPORTS
Saturday, January 28, 2017
East Oregonian
Golf
Page 3B
Hockey
A short return and a missed cut for Woods NHL
By DOUG FERGUSON
Associated Press
SAN DIEGO — Tiger Woods
returned to the PGA Tour after 17
months and lasted only two days.
Woods never got anything going
after starting with a birdie Friday
in the Farmers Insurance Open and
didn’t come close to making the cut.
He missed a 12-foot birdie putt on
his final hole on the North Course
for an even-par 72 and missed the
cut at Torrey Pines for the first time
in his career.
“I just didn’t make enough
birdies,” Woods said.
He finished at 4-over 148,
missing the cut by four shots. It was
the third straight time that he failed
to complete 72 holes at Torrey
Pines, the course where he has won
eight times in his PGA Tour career.
Woods missed the 54-hole cut in
2014 and withdrew after 11 holes
with tightness in his back in 2015.
Expectations were different this
time, except for Woods.
“It’s frustrating not being able
to have a chance to win the tourna-
ment,” Woods said. “I didn’t make
the cut.”
Woods at least kept good
company. Jason Day, the No. 1
player in the world, again struggled
to make cuts and shot a 74 to miss
the cut for the first time since the
Farmers Insurance Open last year.
Also in his group was U.S. Open
champion Dustin Johnson, who
shot 74 and missed the cut.
Woods was coming off the
longest layoff of his career as he
recovered from two back surgeries.
Woods last played the PGA Tour
Farmers Insurance
Open Leaderboard
Second Round
1) Justin Rose
2) Adam Hadwin
2) Brandt Snedeker
4) Ollie Schniederjans
4) Keegan Bradley
6) Robert Streb
6) Brian Harman
6) Zac Blair
6) Kevin Streelman
6) Cheng Tsung Pan
AP Photo/Gregory Bull
Tiger Woods reacts as he finishes the second round of the Farmers
Insurance Open on Friday at Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego.
in August 2015 at the Wyndham
Championship, where he tied for
10th. He played in the Bahamas
the first week of December in an
unofficial event with an 18-man
field and no cut.
This was different.
More than dealing with the
Pacific morning chill and the
thick, wet rough on the South and
North Course, Woods faced a full
field under the pressure of making
the cut. He would have needed a
round of 68, and he never looked as
though he would get there.
After an opening tee shot over
the gallery’s head on the right side
of the 10th fairway, he managed
to get up-and-down for birdie.
Two holes later, he blasted too
long out of a bunker and down the
ridge, leading to a bogey. Just like
Thursday on the South Course,
birdie chances didn’t come along
very often. He was rarely pin-high,
and when he did have a chance, his
birdie putts slid by the hole.
“I hit a lot of beautiful putts that
didn’t go in, but I hit it much better
today, which was nice,” he said.
His biggest concern? A 17-hour
flight that awaits to Dubai, where
he will play next week. Still to be
determined was whether Woods
was going home to Florida first
instead of leaving from the West
Coast to the Middle East.
He has not played in Dubai since
2014, two months before the first of
his three back surgeries. Woods said
his body held up fine for two days at
Torrey Pines, where he had to wear
extra layers to keep warm and slash
out of the rough far too often.
-8
-7
-7
-6
-6
-5
-5
-5
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“Flying out here was something
I hadn’t done in a while,” he said.
“So now we’ve got a pretty good
jaunt.”
After Dubai, Woods has a week
off before playing back-to-back
weeks on both ends of the country,
Los Angeles (Genesis Open) and
Florida (Honda Classic).
This is the eighth straight season
Woods has played that he has
missed a cut, after having missed
only four cuts in his first 13 years
as a pro. Patience has never been
one of his hallmarks, though Woods
was taking a long view of what he
wanted out of his game.
It’s all about the Masters, the
major he has won four times but not
since 2005.
“Just like everybody, I’m trying
to get ready for the first full week in
April,” Woods said. “That’s where
eventually I want to have every-
thing come together. That’s the
plan. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a
chance to win this golf tournament
on the weekend. But I have next
week.”
Men’s College Basketball
The fabulous freshmen: Talented and prepared
By JOHN MARSHALL
Associated Press
PHOENIX — From Lonzo Ball
and Markelle Fultz out West to
Dennis Smith Jr. and Kentucky’s
future NBAers back East, the players
who will likely be one and done have
dominated the college basketball
spotlight.
So how do freshmen who are
18 and 19 years old play so well so
quickly?
Talent, obviously. But preparation
might also play a big role.
Many of the top incoming
freshmen have been groomed for
immediate success through years of
high-level coaching and competi-
tion, being in the public eye from a
young age and playing year-round
schedules.
They often arrive on campus with
a basketball age much higher than
their actual age.
“The freshmen are no longer
freshmen,” North Carolina coach
Roy Williams said. “I think they’re
more worldly and more competitive.
They’ve had more opportunities.”
There was a time — we’re talking
back to the Lew Alcindor days at
UCLA — when freshmen were not
even allowed to play on the varsity
team.
Freshmen began to fill more
prominent roles through the years.
Carmelo Anthony led Syracuse to a
national title and Pervis Ellison did
the same at Louisville. Texas’ Kevin
Durant became the first freshman
Naismith and Wooden Award
winner. The Fab Five led Michigan
to the 1992 national title game.
Freshmen have taken starring
roles more often in recent years and
The 2016-
17 college
basketball
season
has been
led by
freshmen,
from the
cast of fu-
ture NBA
players
such as
UCLA’s
Lonzo
Ball.
AP Photo/Mark
J. Terrill
this season they have been among
the headliners.
John Calipari annually produces
recruiting classes filled with future
NBA talent at Kentucky and this
season has been no different with
De’Aaron Fox, Bam Adebayo and
Malik Monk, who scored 47 points
against North Carolina in one of the
year’s best performances.
The do-everything Ball has
put on a show just down the road
from Hollywood while leading No.
8 UCLA. Washington has been
mediocre this season, but Fultz has
not; his 23.4 points per game puts
him on pace to be the first freshman
to lead the Pac-12 in scoring since
California’s Shareef Abdur-Rahim
in 1995-96.
Arizona’s Lauri Markkanen
has been one of the country’s best
players. Josh Jackson has thrived
at No. 2 Kansas. Smith has been
unstoppable at times at N.C. State.
Miles Bridges has been superb at
Michigan State, Jonathan Isaac at
Florida State, Justin Patton has made
Women’s College Basketball
Oregon State women
beat Oregon for 12th
straight time
Associated Press
EUGENE — Sydney Wiese scored 12 points,
including a 3-pointer with 1:36 to play, Katie
McWilliams had a steal in the final seconds and No.
11 Oregon State beat Oregon 43-40 on Friday night
to win its 12th straight over the Ducks and fourth in
a row overall.
Wiese made four of Oregon State’s five
3-pointers. Kolbie Orum, Gabriella Hanson and
Breanna Brown had nine points apiece.
Maite Cazorla scored four points during an 8-0
run that put Oregon (14-7, 4-5 Pac-12) up one with
2:47 to play. Marie Gulich made 1 of 2 free throws
to end Oregon State’s scoring drought of 4:19 and
make it 37-all 27 seconds later. After the Beavers
got a stop on the other end, Wiese hit a 3 from the
corner and then made a steal before a layup by
Brown made it 42-37 with 51 seconds left.
Lexie Bando answered with a 3-pointer eight
seconds later but, after Brown missed a jumper,
McWilliams stole it from Cazorla and then hit 1 of 2
free throws to cap the scoring.
Sabrina Ionescu had 14 points, Cazorla scored 12
and Ruthy Hebard grabbed 11 rebounds for the Ducks.
Oregon State (19-2, 7-1) shot just 18.5 percent (5
of 27) and scored 13 points before the break — its
lowest scoring half this season. The Beavers have
five points in the second quarter, the fewest points
in a quarter in school history.
a name for himself at Creighton —
the list seemingly goes on and on.
“These guys are 17, 18 years old
and we are putting them in positions
that are extremely stressful and
many are demonstrating an ability to
deal with it at high levels,” said Mark
Hollis, chair of the NCAA’s Division
I men’s basketball committee and
Michigan State’s athletic director.
In a way, it’s as if these preco-
cious freshmen have been preparing
for this stage all their lives.
Basketball, as much as any sport,
identifies young talent at a very early
age.
Young players who show poten-
tial are tracked and graded from
middle school on, in some cases.
Once they’ve been identified, they
are groomed by club-level coaches,
invited to elite camps to hone their
skills. The players at the highest end
of the spectrum are then brought into
the USA Basketball fold, receiving
instruction from some of the best
coaches in the country while facing
the best competition in the world.
They also play LOTS of basket-
ball, sometimes far more than even
college players. And not just in their
own backyard — across the country
and the globe.
“I can remember 100 years ago I
recruited a kid and said once every
four years we’ll take you to Hawaii,
and now high school teams go to
Hawaii,” Williams said. “I mean,
geez, they’ve got more exposure
and play against better competition.
I recruited one kid who played 61
games in the summer. We used to
never see that.”
But with all the grooming, some
aspects of the game do slip past
them. Players who have had every-
thing laid out in front them face a bit
of an adjustment at college, where
some things are taken care of but the
demands are higher and self-suffi-
ciency is required.
“In my generation, we learned
other valuable lessons when we
grew up on the playgrounds or
attended camps or clinics that taught
the fundamentals of the game,”
Nevada coach Eric Musselman
said. “On the playgrounds with our
buddies, the losers had to sit and
sometimes, if you lost, you’d have to
sit for an hour. It taught us that every
possession mattered and every game
mattered.”
These fabulous freshmen are far
from finished products in many areas.
Just watch as coaches like Calipari or
Arizona’s Sean Miller light into one
of their star freshmen for making an,
um, freshman mistake.
Even so, their foundations are
solid, putting them in position to
succeed on the big stage of college
basketball right away and, in some
cases, get even better.
BLAZERS: McCollum scores 18 for Portland
Continued from 1B
Lillard gave Portland a
97-96 lead with a step-back
jumper with 5:40 left, then
added a 3-pointer to extend
it. Randolph answered with
a layup for the Grizzlies, but
Lillard hit another 3 to push it
to 103-98.
After Mike Conley made
a 3-pointer for the Grizzlies,
Lillard added his third straight
3 to give Portland a 106-103
edge with 3:45 to go.
Conley made a pair of free
throws with 1:31 remaining to get
the Grizzlies to 110-109 before
CJ McCollum’s floater provided
the final margin. McCollum
finished with 18 points.
Portland was without Ed
Davis for the third straight
game because of a left wrist
injury. Maurice Harkless
missed his second game with a
calf injury.
The Grizzlies had starters
JaMychal Green and Chandler
Parsons back in the lineup after
both missed a 101-99 victory at
home over Toronto. Both had
left knee issues.
Memphis was without
rookie Deyonta Davis because
of personal reasons.
Al-Farouq Aminu, in a new
role coming off the bench,
All-Stars
converge
on LA
By GREG BEACHAM
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES —
Sidney Crosby only took a
few steps into the lobby of
his downtown Los Angeles
hotel Friday before he
was besieged by a bevy of
sprinting fans. The Pitts-
burgh Penguins captain
signed what he could and
slipped away.
From Crosby and Mario
Lemieux to the sneakiest
autograph hounds, every
part of the hockey world has
converged on Hollywood for
a weekend of sun, fun and
celebration.
“The game is in better
shape today than it’s ever
been,” said Wayne Gretzky,
who called Crosby the
best player in the current
game. “These players, from
Auston Matthews to Connor
McDavid,
they’re
just
tremendous players. Every-
body has a hand in it, and we
all feel very privileged that
we’re a part of the National
Hockey League.”
One of the NHL’s most
fundamental recent changes
will be front-and-center
Sunday: The 3-on-3 format
that has been adopted for
regular-season overtimes is
back for the All-Star Game,
which became a four-divi-
sion tournament of high-
scoring hockey last year.
“It’s a lot of fun, but it’s
a little tiring for a defen-
seman,” said Drew Doughty,
the Kings’ All-Star defen-
seman and Norris Trophy
winner. “That’s the way it is
in the regular season, too. I
can’t even imagine being a
goalie in that.”
The NHL is arriving
just in time for a gorgeous
weekend of beach weather
and a welcome respite from
the heavy rainstorms that
have hit the California coast
in recent weeks.
After a celebrity game on
Saturday, the skills compe-
tition will include the usual
festivities, such as events
determining the hardest
shot and the fastest skater.
The NHL has added a Four
Line Challenge in which the
stars will take increasingly
difficult shots from increas-
ingly far away — similar to
those fan promotions that
turn hockey into a version of
miniature golf for the chance
to win a pickup truck.
The All-Stars haven’t
visited LA since 2002, and
celebrities will be every-
where: The league recruited
nearly anyone in Hollywood
with a Canadian passport or
any level of hockey fandom
to turn out.
NFL
Pro Bowl
tickets
sell out
Associated Press
AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer
Portland Trail Blazers guard C.J. McCollum, center, drives
to the basket past Memphis Grizzlies guards Mike Con-
ley, left, and Andrew Harrison, right, during the second
half of an NBA basketball game Friday in Portland.
hit a 3-pointer that gave the
Blazers a 37-28 lead. Lillard
added a long, step-back jumper.
Evan Turner’s reverse layup
extended the lead to 53-37.
Vince Carter’s 3-pointer
pulled the Grizzlies to 59-50.
There was a scary moment
when Lillard slipped on the
floor late, but he continued
playing and returned to start the
second half.
Trailing 62-56 at the break,
the Grizzlies closed to 64-60 on
Conley’s 3-pointer. Memphis
narrowed it again to 76-74 on
Gasol’s jumper, but Crabbe
answered with consecutive
3-pointers for the Blazers.
Carter made the second of
two free throws that finally
gave Memphis the lead at 86-85
early in the fourth quarter.
Crabbe matched his career
high with his sixth 3-pointer to
put Portland up 90-88 with 10
minutes left. The Blazers held
onto the lead until Randolph’s
layup put Memphis back in
front 94-93.
Conley finished with 17
points and 10 assists.
ORLANDO, Fla. — The
Pro Bowl will be played in
front of a capacity crowd at
Camping World Stadium on
Sunday night.
The NFL announced
Friday that the Pro Bowl will
be played in front of a sold
out crowd at the stadium.
Standing
room-only
tickets are available for $20
each, which is an indication
that interest in the NFL’s
all-star game is picking up in
its year in Orlando.
The Pro Bowl is Sunday
night at 8 p.m. and will be on
ESPN.
Most of the recent Pro
Bowls at Honolulu’s 50,000-
seat Aloha Stadium were
announced as sellouts or
close to capacity.
When the Pro Bowl was
played at Miami’s Sun Life
Stadium in 2010 the crowd
was announced at 70,697.
And the attendance was
63,225 when the Pro Bowl
was in Glendale, Arizona, in
2015.