take an honest assessment and capitalize on the positives, create optimism and instill a culture of selflessness and commitment to the cause.The young Americans are great players. They need a captain to set the tone so USA Hockey can start building a consistent tradition and not just rely on these lig

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- James Blackmon Jr. made five 3-pointers, scored 23 points and grabbed seven rebounds, while Robert Johnson added 16 points, as No. 6 Indiana sailed to a 100-78 victory over UMass Lowell on Wednesday night.Blackmon made four 3-pointers and scored 20 of his 23 points in the first half of Indianas regular season home opener.The Hoosiers (2-0) were playing their first game since beating No. 3 Kansas in the Armed Forces Classic and had to overcome a slow, sloppy start. Indiana outscored UMass Lowell (1-2) 32-15 over the final 8:24 of the first half. Indiana shot 60 percent from the field (21 of 35) in the first half. The Hoosiers found scoring opportunities with sound passing, scoring 23 of their field goals off an assist.Big men OG Anunoby and Thomas Bryant contributed to Indianas onslaught. Anunoby scored 15 points and Bryant added nine. The Hoosiers outrebounded UMass Lowell 46-24. The 19 offensive rebounds helped the Hoosiers score 15 second-chance points.Jahad Thomas finished with 16 points and Tyler Livingston scored 14 for the River Hawks.---No. 21 RHODE ISLAND 79, BROWN 72KINGSTON, R.I. -- Jared Terrell scored 18 points and E.C Matthews added 17 as Rhode Island won in Round Two of the Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off.Hassan Martin added 12 points and Kuran Iverson had 11 as the Rams (3-0) defeated the Bears (1-2) for the 19th time in their last 21 meetings.Rhode Island built a 36-21 lead late in the first half but Steven Spieth keyed a rally that enabled the Bears to pull within 41-33 at halftime.The Rams scored 20 points off 13 Brown turnovers which offset the fact the Bears outrebounded Rhode Island 38-31.Brandon Anderson had 16 points for Brown while Tavon Blackmon and Travis Fuller chipped in with 11 apiece.Wholesale Custom Stars Shirts .Y. -- Buffalo Bills coach Doug Marrone has drawn on his Syracuse connections once again by hiring Rob Moore to take over as receivers coach. Gump Worsley Jersey Large . Already owning gold from competition in Vancouver in 2010, Loch posted a combined four-run time of 3:27.526. That included a track-record third run of 51. http://www.customstarsjersey.com/ . Neymar curled home a free kick from just outside the area to put the 2014 World Cup host ahead in the 44th minute. Three minutes after the break, a simple through pass from Paulinho freed Oscar and the Chelsea star rounded goalkeeper Jung Sung-ryong to extend Brazils lead. Cheap Stars Jerseys . Coach Tom Thibodeau says the former MVP will probably start travelling with the team in the next few weeks. Rose tore the meniscus in his right knee at Portland in November and was ruled out for the remainder of the season by the Bulls. Authentic Custom Stars Jersey . 4 Villanova with a 96-68 drubbing on Monday. Wragge hit 9-of-14 from behind the arc, matching Kyle Korvers school record for 3-pointers in a game set in 2003, as Creighton (16-3, 6-1 Big East broke a conference record with 21 treys in the rout.Have you heard of Buccis Overtime Challenge? Well, this is Buccis Hat Trick Challenge. Whats the challenge part? Regularly coming up with three hits about the World Cup of Hockey. Wednesdays games are Team North America versus Team?Sweden?(3 p.m. ET, ESPN) and Team Europe versus Team Canada (8 p.m. ET, ESPN2).1. Why Team USA never had a chance against Canada: While sitting high above the Air Canada Centre ice here in Toronto on Tuesday night, I watched as Team USA was, ironically, melting on the ice below. It was like an ice cream cone on a humid day. You cant really tell that its getting soft at first. Then suddenly it pours over the side and onto your fingers. Do you lick it? Do you run and wash it off? Or do you just sit here, with a dazed, defeated?look of confusion, and let the wet ice cream dry on you?Hockey is hard. And playing hockey against Canada, in Canada, is the hardest. The Canadians had a 90 percent chance to win the World Cup when the rosters were announced. Sweden, Team North America and maybe Russia were the only others teams in the field with a real chance.The over/under on Hall of Famers on this years Canada roster is about nine. No other country can approach that. I went back and quickly looked at the 1996 World Cup rosters. Canadas number for that team was 11 Hall of Famers. I think the number of Hall of Famers on the 96 U.S. roster will end up being seven, so you can see how Team USA had at least a chance. Yet, it was still such an upset for the Americans to win two games in Montreal as slight underdogs. This years USA roster might have two future Hall of Famers. So thats Canada 9, United States 2. That is too big of a disparity to overcome. That explains the outcome in the most simple way.2. Kessel could have helped:?Pittsburgh Penguins?right winger?Phil Kessel (who was tied for 45th in NHL scoring last season) is probably not going to make the Hockey Hall of Fame. But given his speed and the fact that hes always a threat to score, Kessel should have been on Team USAs roster.In some ways, Kessel is the NHLs version of the Cleveland Cavaliers J.R. Smith. Hes kind of out there, unique, unintentionally funny, does his own kind of thing. But he has the kind of talent that can help you beat other talented teams. You deal with his limitations (bad shots, in Smiths case; no body checking by Kessel) and hope that he picks up his defensive intensity with that speed he has. Both players did that last spring for their respective teams -- and both the Pens and Cavs won titles they would not have won without Smith and Kessel.In the end, its like when you picked sides on the playground or gym class when you were a kid. In most cases, you knew which team was the best right away. Occasionally, a team with slightly less talent -- like, say, the U.S. team that won the 1996 World Cup -- could win with great individual efforts (like Mike Richters in 96) and a collective push. If the disparity got too big, however, the more talented and skillful woould win 99 percent of the time, as long as they tried and didnt scream at each other.ddddddddddddComing off his Stanley Cup playoffs performance, Kessel was an obvious World Cup choice who, in retrospect, might have been able to Team USA that extra individual effort. His tweet Tuesday night was pure Kessel snark at its finest:What a year for Phil! He won a Stanley Cup, then body-slammed a USA Hockey organization that many feel needs to be dredged and refocused. And he produced a funny and poignant tweet that got more action and traction than did the commentary of many of the writers whom he despises. Give Phil a Pulitzer, too.3. But help is on the way for the USA: Team North America was a great idea, and I love it, but it hurt Team USA. Six or seven American players on Team North America -- which was limited to players 23 or younger -- would have made Team USA had they been eligible. The U.S. does not have the depth of Canada, so the U-23 team hurt them even more than not getting Connor McDavid?hurt Canada.So, not only will the USA have the youngsters for best-on-best events in the future, but more are coming.This current crop of young, U.S.-born players includes some great kids. But they need a person -- and group of people -- to guide them and mold them. Pat Lafontaine, Chris Drury, Jerry York, David Quinn, Nate Leaman, Don Granato, Jon Cooper, Peter Laviolette and many more talented/competitive hockey minds are out there and ready to either lead or contribute to a new day, to be part of a Continental Congress of USA Hockey that will create a road map and one-page outline. Not as a reaction or overreaction to what happened Tuesday night against Canada, but to take an honest assessment and capitalize on the positives, create optimism and instill a culture of selflessness and commitment to the cause.The young Americans are great players. They need a captain to set the tone so USA Hockey can start building a consistent tradition and not just rely on these lightning-storm moments of 1980 and 1996. The foundation is there. It can be done. The USA is winning lots of international hockey events with teenagers. It should continue as they become NHL players.Hockey is expensive, and the challenge of the sport is to keep it from becoming elitist -- either in who it attracts and/or how it molds people into that type of destructive, introverted, tired, selfish thinking. Some passionate people at USA Hockey are fighting for change and are doing good work. But, overall, the organization has a tired, elitist feel to it. Everyone goes to their own room and the kids are all staring at their phones.Team Canada feels like a local youth hockey weekend tournament, where some of the parents get a little carried away but everybody is at the same hotel bar and the kids are all playing knee hockey in the hallway. Everyone is all in. And its fun. ' ' '