Sports this 'n' that

UCLA freshmen Cody Riley, Jalen Hill, & LiAngelo Ball have returned home from China, only to find that their troubles aren't over yet.

After it got out that the trio had shoplifted from 2 other stores in the vicinity of their hotel, it took the intervention of President Trump to bring them home. After the narcissistic, attention-addicted Chief Executive wondered publicly on Twitter if the kids should thank him, they held a press conference yesterday to do just that. However, UCLA has decided to indefinitely suspend the trio until the full investigation is completed.

To paraphrase Simon & Garfunkel, nearly 50 years ago, "any way you look at it, they lose".
=======================================
Despite increasing demand from fans and media alike, the owners of the NY Giants aren't about to send 2nd year head coach Ben McAdoo packing despite a dismal 1-8 start. They're loathe to change coaches in mid-season, and you'd have to go back about 40 years for the last time they did. The Giants are 10 point home underdogs vs. Kansas City on Sunday, the first of a 2-game swing in the Meadowlands for the Chiefs (they stay in town to play the Jets after Thanksgiving). Big Blue has already been eliminated from playoff contention, the earliest that's happened in years.

All I can say is, they're better off doing it now, or no later than Monday, and start with a clean slate after Thanksgiving. Part of the problem is that McAdoo is unwilling to give rookie Davis Webb a chance to show what he can do. By the same token, the Jests have the same problem, as 3rd year coach Todd (Pro) Bowles has similarly used the "best chance to win" defense to avoid using 2nd year QB Christian Hackenburg (Penn State) or 3rd year signal caller Bryce Petty, who actually has some game experience, to replace aging stop-gap Josh McCown, because while the Jests have overachieved beyond fan expectations, McCown has shown his age at times, and so has Eli Manning with the Giants. The future is now, guys. It can't hurt.
==========================================
New York's worst sports owner, James Dolan, is putting the WNBA's NY Liberty up for sale. We'd all be better off if he also decided to divest himself of the Knicks, Rangers, Radio City Music Hall, AMC, and Madison Square Garden, and just go away.
===========================================
All 5 Section II football champions have reached the state semi-final round, but only two of them will be on TV this weekend. Burnt Hills (Class A) on Friday, and Troy (Class AA) on Saturday, with both games announced Wednesday as airing on Spectrum News (cable channels 1, 9, or 200). The others (Cambridge, Holy Trinity, & Glens Falls) will have their games streamed online on Spectrum News' sports site.

Add Troy. QB-DB Joe Casale will stay close to home for college, like his predecessor, John Germinerio (Union). Casale gave a verbal commitment to UAlbany on Wednesday. I guess he doesn't want to change the color of his gym bag (UAlbany's color scheme includes purple, just like Troy.). However, Casale will be strictly a defensive player for the Great Danes, which will ensure some playing time as a freshman, unlike Germinerio, who's carrying a clipboard for the Dutchmen this season.
============================================
Just when you thought it was over, it apparently isn't.

It would be the embargo Troy High had placed on The Record, prohibiting the hometown paper from interviewing players & coaches. The embargo had apparently been lifted last month, but the paper's account of the Troy-New Rochelle game revealed that Coach Bob Burns, newly elected to the Rensselaer County Legislature three days before the game, was not allowed to talk to The Record, although players did. Burns' run for his first political office went under-reported to begin with, suggesting that he and the school didn't want it to be a distraction of any sort, and I can respect that (Burns finished 4th in the balloting). You wonder, though, if being elected hasn't become a sore spot for the school board or THS administration, and that would explain not allowing Burns to be interviewed by The Record.......