Kritik und Lob » ans Nick Ritchie gets another ru

TAMPA, Fla. -- Frank Martins uneasiness about how No. 16 South Carolina might respond to its first loss of the season was unfounded.PJ Dozier and Duane Notice assured that, stepping up in the absence of leading scorer Sindarius Thornwell to help the Gamecocks (9-1) shrug off cold shooting and pull away to a 77-66 victory over South Florida on Saturday.Dozier scored 11 of his 23 points in the closing minutes and Notice gave South Carolina a spark by contributing 14 of his 15 points after halftime to help the Gamecocks bounce back from last Mondays 67-64 loss to Seton Hall.It was my concern for this basketball team coming into this game, coming off our first loss, being so young, that some guys wouldnt handle it (well). Losing is an epidemic, and losing is not good. And young people dont know how to handle losing, Martin said.It was our first experience as a team to go through it. I think we kind of came out and played the first half like somebody took our dog. We didnt have our enthusiasm, the fight that weve played with every single day out, Martin added. But Im equally as pleased, I thought we played well in the second half as a basketball team. Different guys doing things. Obviously PJ continues to grow as a player here and do unbelievable things. But like I told him, its also his challenge.The Gamecocks (9-1) improved to 2-1 without Thornwell, who has been suspended indefinitely for violating athletic department policy.With Sind being out, we had only two seniors out on the floor. So as Coach said, were young. Were a young team and were just looking to grow, Dozier said.We came out first half a little sluggish. We make our offense out of our defense and wasnt doing that the first half, the 6-foot-6 sophomore guard added. We went into the locker room and Coach gave us that word that we needed and came out with the intensity we should have started with.Jahmal McMurray led USF (5-4) with 25 points. Malik Fitts had 12 points and Geno Thorpe finished with 11 points and nine rebounds for the Bulls, who led 37-31 at halftime.South Carolina began the second half with a 17-9 burst to take a 48-41 lead. Dozier and Notice keyed the initial surge and Dozier took over down the stretch, when the Gamecocks led by as many as 13.We got, maybe, a little bit complacent. Didnt come out with the fire that we had in the first half, McMurray said. The second half, we just have to ... come out with the same fire.THE BIG PICTURESouth Carolina, which has its highest ranking since being No. 14 in the final poll of the 1997-98 season, obviously misses Thornwell, who leads them in assists, as well as scoring and rebounding. With Notice missing the first eight shots he attempted, including six from 3-point range, the Gamecocks trailed at halftime for the first time this season.Not surprisingly, South Florida faded down the stretch. Luis Santos made a layup to trim South Carolinas lead to 64-61 with 7 minutes left, however the Bulls didnt score again from the field until Bo Zeiglers basket with 29 seconds left.FIRST BIG TESTSouth Carolina is only Power 5 opponent USF is scheduled to face this season. The Bulls fell to 0-4 against ranked opponents under coach Orlando Antigua and have dropped 20 consecutive games to Top 25 opponents since knocking off No. 15 Louisville on the road on Feb. 29, 2012.POLL IMPLICATIONSThe Gamecocks may lose some ground in the next AP poll, however, rebounding on the road -- albeit against an opponent thats had its share of problems against a weak schedule -- will likely keep the Gamecocks in the Top 25.UNIENDO LOS TOROSUSF designated Saturday as Uniendo Los Toros, which in English translates to Uniting The Bulls. The game featured two of three Hispanic-American head coaches in NCAA Division I in South Carolinas Martin and USFs Antigua. Miamis Jim Larranaga is the third. Early arrivals among the announced crowd of 2,489 at the Sun Dome received white T-shirts commemorating the occasion.UP NEXTSouth Carolina: Returns home to face intrastate rival Clemson on Wednesday.South Florida: Faces Northern Illinois at home on Tuesday.---More AP college basketball: www.collegebasketball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25. Nike Air Max Norge . But now that hes in the NHL, the Calgary Flames centre showed big improvement in that department by scoring the winner in the eighth round of a 5-4 shootout victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Monday. Nike Air Max Salg . 10 Texas Rangers jersey for one last time. Young formally announced his retirement Friday after returning to Rangers Ballpark, his baseball home for all but the last of his 13 major league seasons. http://www.nikeairmaxnorge.com/ . Once again, DeLaet finished tied for second at a PGA Tour stop on the weekend, this time at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. The pride of Weyburn, Sask. Nike Air Max Nettbutikk . Sgt. Eric ONeal says most of the arrests at Monday nights game were for public drunkenness, though one person was taken into custody on suspicion of trying to steal a seat from the stadium. Nike Air Max Net . -- Al Jefferson found a groove just in time for the Charlotte Bobcats. Fantasy hockey is not above dualism. While we had a rough week in mid-November in which fantasy superstars were injured left, right and center, this past week seems to have made up for the negativity.We saw both Taylor Hall and Johnny Gaudreau return earlier than anticipated from their injuries, in addition to the return of Alexander Steen and Jack Eichel. Thats not to mention the return of less-heralded contributors Chris Kunitz and Bryan Little. Heres more on the fantasy impact of each respective players return:Hall returned to a team that had recently found a scoring line groove featuring Travis Zajac, Michael Cammalleri and Kyle Palmieri. That allowed Hall to play on a second line with Adam Henrique and P.A. Parenteau. Hall notched a goal and two assists -- including a helper on Cammalleris overtime winner -- as the Devils clawed their way back to beat the Nashville Predators on Saturday. These two line combinations look very friendly to fantasy owners and, outside of Hall and Palmieri, the four other forwards are available in 37 percent or more of ESPN leagues.Gaudreau returned with a flourish, and has given coach Glen Gulutzan plenty to think about going forward. In an effort to ease Gaudreau back into the lineup, he returned to the second line instead of the first. The result? The Flames exploded for eight goals against the Anaheim Ducks. Gaudreau looked inspired playing with Sam Bennett and Alex Chiasson. Including power-play points, the trio combined for eight points in the win. Meanwhile, Sean Monahan, Troy Brouwer and Kris Versteeg stayed involved, accounting for six points of their own. Perhaps the solution all along to the early-season doldrums of Gaudreau and Monahan was to separate them. Well have to wait to see if Gulutzan keeps them apart; if so, that changes how we view those other forwards in fantasy.Steen took off a couple of weeks with an undisclosed upper-body injury, which wed wager had something to do with his offseason shoulder surgery that originally came with a timetable for a December return. As we know, he returned in time for the start of the season -- the early end of his recovery schedule -- and struggled through the first month and a half of the campaign. Now two games back, Steen has four points and is flying on a line with Vladimir Tarasenko and Robby Fabbri. Heres hoping his return from an injury, coupled with a return to form, means hes healthy and back in business for fantasy owners.Eichel returned to the Sabres on Tuesday and had two points in his season debut. He followed it up with a two-goal performance on Thursday, before finally being silenced on Saturday against the Boston Bruins. Still, the quality performances in his return signal good times ahead for the fantasy owners. Sam Reinhart and Evander Kane are playing with Eichel at even strength, while Reinhart, Ryan OReilly and Kyle Okposo join him on the power play. That should give owners a good idea of who to consider while Eichel helps drive production for his teammates.Kunitz missed six games with a lower-body injury and was back on the ice Saturday with Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel. His fantasy contributions may be muted while compared to a few seasons ago, but dont underestimate his periphery stats. Last season was far from a banner campaign for Kunitz, yet he finished among the top 100 fantasy skaters on the ESPN Player Rater. Hes available in 75 percent of ESPN leagues.Littles return gives the Winnipeg Jets a much more legitimate No. 1 and No. 2 center combination, assuming Mark Scheifeles injury is short term. When Little and Scheifele were in the lineup together briefly last week, it was Scheifele with fellow youngsters Patrik Laine and Nikolaj Ehlers, while Little was flanked by Blake Wheeler and Drew Stafford. With Scheifele out the past two games, Little is playing with Laine and Ehlers. The result has been four points in four games for Little. While he was drafted late (179.7 ADP), Little was drafted in most leagues for a reason. Hes now available in 60 percent of ESPN leagues following his extended absence.Forwards rising and fallingLeon Draisaitl, C, Edmonton Oilers (up 22 spots to No. 183): Our bad. It turns out that nobody should be declared dead to us for fantasy in an Oilers lineup that can move a player from third line to Connor McDavids side with the stroke of a pen. Draisaitl, who had quietly sunk into fantasy irrelevance for an entire months stretch from mid-October to mid-November, is back in business and racking up points next to McDavid on the top line. Weve seen a gamut of wingers move in and out of the plum spots next to McDavid, including Jordan Eberle, Milan Lucic, Patrick Maroon, Jesse Puljujarvi and now Draisaitl. If theres one takeaway, it would be that none of the wingers have quite as much value as you might first perrceive, but they have more value than they might otherwise deserve.dddddddddddd In other words, ride the hot hand and dont drop any of them just because they arent playing with McDavid right now.Josh Bailey, LW/RW, New York Islanders (up 18 spots to No. 218): Already coming on strong as John Tavares settled into a groove, Bailey has maintained his recent hot play as Brock Nelson settled in as the the third member of the top line. Bailey has seven points in the past seven games, including a goal and two helpers in the past three with Nelson at his side. Bailey can keep up respectable scoring numbers as a member of the top line, a status which will not be in question this season.Defensemen rising and fallingTorey Krug, D, Boston Bruins (up 22 spots to No. 97): Patience has paid off for Krug owners, with the Bruins top rearguard getting back down to business of late. Hes peeled off just shy of two-thirds of his points this season in the past eight games alone. We knew the dam would break for Krug eventually, as he has been playing all the important minutes and driving more than enough offense at the opposing net. Although teammate Patrice Bergeron still slides a bit on our rankings this week, we expect a similar turnaround for him sooner than later.Dougie Hamilton, D, Calgary Flames (up 25 spots to No. 164): Its been a little over three weeks since Hamilton switched defense partners and started playing with Mark Giordano on a regular basis. So its no coincidence that Hamilton is the No. 2 fantasy defenseman overall in the past 15 days. Playing more minutes, taking more shots and getting enough points to make a difference has Hamilton behind only Brent Burns on the ESPN Player Rater for the past 15 days among defensemen. Hamilton has been on a see-saw in our rankings this season, as we try to cling to hopes of a breakout campaign. His play in recent weeks may be indicative that the breakout will stick.Goaltenders rising and fallingCam Ward, G, Carolina Hurricanes (up 13 spots to No. 140): This run of exceptional ratios from Ward of late came as no surprise, as the Hurricanes were playing a dominant possession game against opponents since the start of the season. A little bad luck and a bad bounce here or there led to Ward struggling out of the gates. But after posting a 3.64 goals-against average in October, Ward just closed the books on a November with a 1.74 GAA. The goal support will be lacking for his wins column at times, but overall Ward makes a nice addition to your fantasy tandem -- and hes available in 60 percent of ESPN leagues.Steve Mason, G, Philadelphia Flyers (up 31 spots to No. 190): Masons numbers while Michal Neuvirth was healthy and competing with him for starts: a 2-5-2 record, with a 3.56 goals-against average and .874 save percentage. Masons numbers since Neuvirth was injured and hes had the crease all to himself: a 7-3-1 record, with a 2.14 GAA and .927 save percentage. Some guys are better being pushed, some guys are better when they know the job is theirs to keep. Put Mason in the latter camp, and get him on your fantasy rosters while Neuvirth remains out of the picture.Quick hitsWith Corey Crawford sidelined for up to three weeks, his owners should feel comfortable leaning on backup Scott Darling. The Chicago Blackhawks two losses this past weekend likely have more to do with missing Jonathan Toews than Darlings presence in the crease.Speaking of Toews, he hit the injured reserve with his back ailment, but it doesnt sound like hes expected to miss much beyond another week. Marian Hossa owners can bench him in shallower leagues until Toews returns.Rickard Rakell is on the shelf for the Anaheim Ducks, which means Nick Ritchie gets another run on the top line with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf. If we get word that Rakell will miss more than a couple games, Ritchie becomes interesting as a short-term asset.The Los Angeles Kings are giving Marian Gaborik every opportunity to succeed, placing him on the top line with Anze Kopitar and Trevor Lewis. Gaborik has a couple of assists to show for his efforts in four games, and has 14 shots in the past three of those games. His ice time has also increased every outing and was at a nice 17:25 in Sundays matchup.Top 250 rankingsHere are the updated rest-of-season, top 250 rankings of forwards, defensemen and goalies, including position ranks.Note: Sean Allens top 250 players are ranked for their expected performance in ESPN standard leagues from this point on. ESPN standard stats include goals, assists, power-play points, shots on goal, plus/minus, penalty minutes and average time on ice for skaters, and wins, goals-against average and save percentage for goalies. ' ' '