Sports News

Banks, who was born in Southfield, is a smart, tough and experienced fighter with good speed and power. Saturday is his 31st birthday and he'd like nothing better to dispatch Mitchell again in their Showtime-televised fight.

Police at the scene and prosecutors would not comment on the actions while Sports Illustrated, citing an unidentified source, reported that Hernandez was not believed to be a suspect in what was being treated as a possible homicide. Police had spoken with Hernandez, the magazine said.

Some crazy-close voting results in the second round, including the first tie in the history of Freep Sports brackets: the 1990 Pistons vs. the 1997 Michigan football team. Finding no official tiebreaker in the Freep Sports Brackets Rulebook, we decided to advance the higher-seeded team, which was the Wolverines.

The Grand Rapids Griffins won the Calder Cup for the first time in franchise history with a 5-2 victory over the Syracuse Crunch Tuesday night at Syracuse, N.Y.

Like Steve Yzerman, like Nicklas Lidstrom and Tomas Holmstrom, like Henrik Zetterberg and Niklas Kronwall down the road, Datsyuk will be a Wing for life.

The Indianapolis Colts don't typically get a whole lot of attention in west Michigan, but that's changing this week, as 26 of the team's cheerleaders invade the lakeshore.

Lou Dawkins hasn't felt peace in four years. He doesn't anticipate it's coming anytime soon.

Tahir Whitehead's first reaction when he heard about the NFL wanting to put a team in London was positive.

'I think Michigan State got a really good kid, probably a better kid than they even realize they have,' said Earl White, Copeland's high school coach.

Long regarded as one of the two or three best coaches currently working in the NBA, it was Popovich instead who wound up on the hot seat. He had to answer for pulling his two best players, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, at the start of the fourth quarter, when the Spurs led by 10 and one more surge might have put the game out of reach. And why he played a cat-and-mouse substitution game with both over the final few possessions, when Duncan's presence inside might have stopped Miami from snagging the rebounds that set up those three-pointers, and how Parker's absence left Manu Ginobili - playing erratically, in one of his worst playoff efforts ever - trying to make the big plays down the stretch.

Then then Lions have two young quarterbacks in Kellen Moore and Thaddeus Lewis. Moore is similar to Hill in many ways: smart, accurate but lacking an elite arm. Moore is the winningest quarterback in NCAA history and improved steadily last preseason. Lewis was a three-year starter at Duke and started one game last year for Cleveland. The Browns lost, 24-10, but he played extremely well against the top-ranked Pittsburgh Steelers pass defense.

Staying out of trouble for the next month won't guarantee the Lions 10 victories in the coming season.

The Milwaukee Bucks have lost their leading scorer.

LeBron James led a title-saving charge, and now his crown will be on the line one more time in Game 7.

Brian Holberton homered, Trent Thornton pitched a strong seven innings and No. 1 national seed North Carolina extended its stay at the College World Series with a 4-2 victory over LSU on Tuesday in Omaha, Neb.

Central Michigan is the latest casualty of the Big Ten's switch to a nine-game conference schedule in 2016: Ohio State dropped its Sept. 24 game against the Chippewas at Ohio Stadium.

Hossa's surprise scratch from Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals - and the one-word explanation, 'upper,' for the part of his body that was injured - is part of a long-running cat-and-mouse game NHL teams play on the theory that any information about injuries is a competitive disadvantage.

The Wings' development camp is not usually for 26-year-olds who already are established in the NHL, but then, it hasn't been a usual season for Darren Helm.

ESPN NBA draft analyst Chad Ford has Trey Burke staying in the state of Michigan in his new mock draft.

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