NEWS » am.BEST PROGRAMSMichigan appeared in 98

The Golden State Warriors shrugged off the absence of the injured Steph Curry with an emphatic 114-81 victory over the Houston Rockets to book their place in the second round of the Western Conference play-offs.The Warriors lost Curry after he suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament during Game Four against Houston on Sunday.However the reigning NBA champions dispelled the gloom as they routed the Rockets to complete a 4-1 series victory over the Texas outfit.The Warriors will now play either the Portland Trail Blazers or the injury-ravaged Los Angeles Clippers in the next round, with the opening game in the best-of-seven series set for Sunday.Curry is likely to miss all of that series as he struggles to recover from his knee injury.The star point guards place in the starting line-up was taken by veteran Shaun Livingston and the 30-year-old scored 16 points with seven-for-eight shooting against the Rockets.The template for the game was set early in the first quarter, with the Warriors jumping out to a 37-20 lead that they never looked like relinquishing.Rockets star James Harden had 18 points in the quarter but his team-mates never made a hoop in 12 minutes, with the only other Houston points coming from Dwight Howards two free throws.Harden top scored with 35 points, six rebounds and six assists, but it was not enough against the Warriors all-round game.Klay Thompson led the Warriors with 27 points, including seven of 11 three-point attempts.Draymond Green added 15 points with nine rebounds and eight assists.The Trail Blazers lead the Clippers 3-2 in their first-round series after claiming a 108-98 victory in Game Five at the Staples Center.CJ McCollum scored 27 points for Portland, while Damian Lillard bagged 16 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter against the Clippers who were without Chris Paul and Blake Griffin.In the Eastern Conference, the Charlotte Hornets notched their third straight win as they defeated the Miami Heat 90-88 to take a 3-2 lead in their first-round series.NMD XR1 Triple Black Canada . -- Matt Kuchar and Harris English ran away with the Franklin Templeton Shootout, shooting a 14-under 58 on Sunday in the final-round scramble to break the tournament course record. Ultra Boost Canada Sale . Just not the game. Kyle Palmieri scored two straight goals in the third period to rally the Anaheim Ducks past the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 on Tuesday night. http://www.nmdshoescanada.com/nmd-cs2-cheap-canada.html . The 43-year-old closer, in his 19th and final big league season, has said hed like to play the outfield. Yankees manager Joe Girardi says hes thinking about allowing Rivera to do it this weekend, when the Yankees finish their season with a three-game series at the Houston Astros. NMD R1 Canada . The Celtics closed out their first preseason under Stevens on Wednesday night with a 101-97 victory over the Brooklyn Nets, who rested a lot of their lineup including former Celtics Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. Ultra Boost Cheap Canada . Soukalova missed only one target and completed the 15-kilometre course in 40 minutes, 32.6 seconds for both victories in this seasons individual discipline. Darya Domracheva of Belarus was second, 34.WEST POINT, N.Y. -- When Army coach Jeff Monken kicks back in his office chair, he can stare out the massive side window at Michie Stadium and the sign that hangs above Blaik Field on the home side -- National Champions 1944, 1945, 1946 -- and imagine Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside running rampant.I think thats awesome, said Monken, the latest Army coach to use films of the programs glory days as motivation for todays players. Its a great thing to be proud of.Army briefly became king of the hill in the decade of the 1940s after Earl Red Blaik was hired as head coach in 1941, and Notre Dame became its foil in the biggest rivalry in the nation. A series that began in 1913 had been dominated by the Irish -- 20 wins with three ties in the first 26 games -- and reached its zenith in intensity in the 1940s.Notre Dame defeated Army 13-0 and 26-0 in Blaiks second and third seasons before the Black Knights struck with a vengeance. Felix Doc Blanchard, aka Mr. Inside, and Glenn Davis, aka Mr. Outside, led the charge. Army intercepted eight passes and trounced the Irish 59-0 at Yankee Stadium.It still ranks as the worst defeat in Irish history and remains a source of pride for the Long Gray Line.Talking to players who actually competed in those games, they were bitter, bitter rivals, said Army executive athletic director Bob Beretta, whos worked at West Point for three decades. They were challenging for the place of the most elite program in the country. The Associated Press college football poll was created in 1936 to try to answer the simplest yet most divisive question in sports: Whos better? The poll helped give a regional sport more of a national scope and helped define the Army-Notre Dame rivalry.It (the poll) absolutely was a factor. I think it was a happening, Beretta said. All the eyes of the college football world were on New York City and Yankee Stadium for Army-Notre Dame. That was probably going to be the game to determine the national champion. It wasnt a game. It was an event. It was must-see football.Notre Dame was ranked No. 1 three times from 1936-39 and another 30 ttimes in the 1940s, when the Irish won four of their eight national championships.dddddddddddd Army was not ranked from 1936-39 but earned the top ranking 22 times in its special decade under Blaik, which included five unbeaten seasons.Army followed that 1944 trouncing with a 48-0 victory over Notre Dame the next year as the Black Knights hit their zenith under Blanchard and Davis, who each won the Heisman Trophy.We were the top dog at the time. It was very important to continue that status, said 92-year-old Arnold Tucker, standout quarterback on those Army teams. We wanted a third.The rivalry would culminate in one of the great games of the 20th century -- a 0-0 tie in 1946. Both were unbeaten and untied coming in.That was the game of the century. Always intense, said 88-year-old Bill Gompers, a halfback on that Notre Dame team who nearly scored, getting run out of bounds at the Army goal line on fourth down by Blanchard. To play in a game like that was out of this world for each of us.The big thing was the rivalry. That was the biggest because of the national championship, Gompers said.Notre Dame was voted national champion, but Army still considers that team a title team.BEST PROGRAMSMichigan appeared in 98.86 percent of all polls taken.Notre Dame, 96. 59 percent.Penn, 81.82 percent.BEST RIVALRYHow intense was the Army-Notre Dame rivalry? The series entered a 10-year hiatus after the 1947 game at Notre Dame when the Irish won easily 27-7. Blaik and the Army brass thought the rivalry had become too heated and the Irish, not Navy, had become Armys biggest rival.MAIN TAKEAWAYThe AP poll didnt necessarily make the games between the teams bigger, but it helped place more tangible stakes on the big games -- the No. 1 ranking and national title.---AP College Football Website: www.collegefootball.ap.org---AP Sports Writers Ralph Russo in New York and Tom Coyne in South Bend, Indiana contributed.---Follow Kekis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Greek1947 ' ' '