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SALT LAKE CITY — The Mountain West Conference has grown to be a dominant force in NCAA basketball, with No. 16-ranked San Diego State leading the charge for the conference.
San Diego State's Jamaal Franklin, the conference preseason MVP, had a great night Wednesday as the Aztecs took on Fresno State. Franklin scored 20 points and had a career-high 18 rebounds in a 65-62 victory over Fresno State.
And while his statline was impressive, it was his amazing dunk in the second half of the game that has everyone amazed. On a fastbreak, Franklin quickly dribbles to his three-point line before launching the ball at the glass. Franklin continues to the basket, catching his own ball for a self-assisted alley-oop dunk.
Any alley-oop dunk is difficult, but a self-assisted dunk from the three-point line is pretty impressive. Trust me, I've tried it on an eight-foot hoop, it's not easy.
Following the game, Franklin said he was grateful for his teammates for letting him do the dunk.
"That was just me being myself," he said. "A lot of players won't do that, but I'm real thankful my teammates have confidence in me."
New York Times goes blank
The New York Times is known for its very professional journalism, with few, if any, gimmicks included in the paper or online. However, after the Baseball Writers Association of America elected to send no one to the Hall of Fame this year, the New York Times decided to make a statement.
On Thursday's front page of its sports section, the New York Times led with the headline, "Welcome To Cooperstown," with a majority of the page blank. Following the announcement of Hall of Fame inductees, the paper generally highlights the players with large photos that take up the front page. Wednesday's shutout announcement was the first time since 1996 that a player was no inducted to the Hall of Fame.
Missy Franklin competes in high school
Imagine looking into the next lane and seeing Missy Franklin, only an Olympic swimmer who brought home four gold medals in the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Sure, you've got this one in the bag you tell yourself. After all, she's just 17. For some reason she looks nervous, so you should easily have the advantage, right? Nice try, but you're wrong.
Franklin owns you. Even though she has four medals (Hey, it's nothing compared to Michael Phelps, but who's counting?), maybe she'll go easy on you. Maybe she'll do it with a blindfold?
On Wednesday, Franklin competed in her first high school meet of the season, taking on Highlands Ranch. And while Franklin performed before a worldwide audience at the Olympics, she said she was nervous before competing in her high school meet.
"All my teammates were like, 'What is wrong with you?'" Franklin told the Associated Press. "I was so nervous and I love that. It shows me that the excitement of the sport is still there, no matter where you go. It can be here or the Olympics, but I still get so excited to get in the pool every single time.
Franklin easily qualified for state in all four events.
Stalling for commercial time
In Wednesday night's game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Los Angeles Lakers, a hot mic caught NBA referee Billy Kennedy describing a timeout. Kennedy is seen speaking to Spurs coach Gregg Papovich and Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni, saying he was "stalling" the game because ESPN thought the Lakers had called a 20-second timeout when they had called a full timeout. ESPN, however, did not take a commercial break because it was a 20-second timeout and they planned accordingly.
