Rams reportedly “targeting” Carson Wentz now that they have top pick

Now that they own the first pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, the Rams can have any quarterback they want.
And they seem to have a preference.
According to Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times, the Rams are “targeting“North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz in making the deal with the Titans for the top pick.
While Cal’s Jared Goff is considered by many a more turn-key player, Wentz may have more potential.
If nothing else, Hollywood loves a good story, and dropping a kid from an FCS school who was born in Bismarck into the middle of the league’s return to Los Angeles will be a good one.
We’ll find out if it’s the right one, but Case Keenum’s hold on that starting job was tenuous anyway.
UPDATE 10:00 a.m. ET: Farmer has followed up by saying Goff is “still heavily in the mix,” and the Rams are “leaning” Wentz.

Source :Profootballtalk.nbcsports.com

Read More

Villanova Wipes Out Oklahoma and a Record to Reach the Title Game

The junior Josh Hart (3) shot 10 of 12 from the field and led Villanova with 23 points. The Wildcats, seeking their first national title since 1985, limited the Oklahoma star Buddy Hield to 9 points. Credit Eric Gay/Associated Press

HOUSTON — In a 95-51 demolition of Oklahoma on Saturday night, Villanova not only punched its ticket to the national title game but also set a standard for Final Four blowouts. Through 78 Final Fours — dating to the first, in 1939, which also featured the Wildcats and the Sooners — 44 points is the largest margin of victory.

That includes games involving the U.C.L.A. teams that were part of seven straight national championships; Bob Knight’s great Indiana teams; the high-scoring 1991 Nevada-Las Vegas team; the Duke team that beat that U.N.L.V. team. Whichever great college team is sepia-sketched in your memory as historically dominant, know that it did not do what Villanova did Saturday.

Consider Bill Russell. Bill Bradley. Bill Walton. Many great college basketball players not named Bill: Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, Christian Laettner, Anthony Davis. None have participated in so spectacular a rout.

“They made shots,” Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield said after his final college game. “We were trying to find a way to make shots. They just played terrific tonight.”

The second-seeded Wildcats (34-5) indeed made shots: 11 of 18 3-point attempts, a 61.1 percent accuracy rate, and 35 of 49 over all from the field, or 71.4 percent. Villanova’s field-goal percentage was the second highest in Final Four history, surpassed only by that of the 1985 Villanova team, a No. 8 seed that upset Patrick Ewing and Georgetown in the title game.

Hield entered Saturday’s game as the second-leading scorer and most effective 3-point shooter in Division I. In his senior year, he built on catch-and-shoot wing play that had led to his being named the Big 12 player of the year as a junior. Hield added the ability to create shots off the dribble, whether by driving to the hoop or by taking step-back 3-point jumpers that have drawn comparisons to Stephen Curry’s game.

But nearly as impressive as Villanova’s offensive attack was its defensive performance. The Wildcats held Hield to 9 points — his second-lowest total of the season — on 4-for-12 shooting, with just one 3-pointer.

Photo

Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield, left, on Saturday. Villanova, seeking its first national title since 1985, limited him to 9 points. Credit Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Villanova’s frantic defense — sometimes pressing, sometimes man-to-man, sometimes zone, always aggressive — flustered the Sooners.

Hield seemed to receive more open looks in the second half, but he struggled to convert them, missing all three of his 3-point attempts.

Oklahoma (29-8) was not exactly a surprise entrant in the Final Four. It was a No. 2 seed that had already knocked off No. 3-seeded Texas A&M and No. 1-seeded Oregon. The Sooners had even beaten Villanova by 28 points in December. On Saturday, with Villanova creating 17 turnovers and holding Oklahoma 29 points under its average of 80 per game, that earlier game felt as if from the Mesozoic Era.

Villanova players had spent several days telling anyone who would listen that no matter how well known the team’s four-guard, perimeter-oriented offensive sets were, and no matter how much flashier 3-pointers and fast breaks might be, defense was what made the Wildcats tick.

“We don’t care too much about offense,” Mikal Bridges, a redshirt freshman, said recently, adding: “Us stepping up on defense is just the biggest thing. I’d rather have that than just making shots.”

After Saturday’s game, the junior Josh Hart said: “Obviously we love when we can hit shots. But this program is really built on just dialing in defensively, being tough.”

Source: Nytimes.com

Read More

Stakes High as Tesla Gets Ready to Pull the Wraps Off Model 3

Tesla fans around the world queued up to add their names to a reservation list in anticipation of Tesla Motors' planned Thursday night unveiling of its Model 3. The long-awaited new addition to the Tesla line is a more affordable sedan that targets not just early adopters, but a larger audience of luxury car owners.

Company founder Elon Musk has shared key details in advance of the reveal. The Model 3 will offer a 200-mile range and will come with a US$35,000 sticker price -- which could drop to around $27,500 after tax credits.
The Model 3 is expected to arrive by late 2017.

Electrifying the Masses

The Model 3 is poised to be a game changer for the company, which has developed a cult following but so far has failed to break out to the masses. Tesla reportedly sold just 42,000 vehicles in the United States in 2014 and 2015, and while it has announced plans to sell some 90,000 Model S and Model X cars this year, it is still far from going mainstream.
The Model 3 could change that, according to Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.
"This is Tesla's first affordable car falling into a segment and size far more attractive to a far wider range of buyers," he told TechNewsWorld.

"This takes them far closer to a mainstream auto company," Enderle said.
"So the hope is this breaks them out," he added. "The risk is that this far higher volume will overwhelm the existing stressed charging ecosystem, particularly the critical -- for Tesla drivers -- superchargers."

Taxing Issues

Tax credits are meant to entice early adopters, but they aren't open ended. Nor is Tesla alone in utilizing the federal tax credits to help attract buyers to electric vehicles. Moreover, the tax credits are available only for the first 200,000 vehicles from a manufacturer and are phased out as sales increase. Thus, Tesla's potential success could impact those credits and the savings for its buyers.
"There is still space in the market, but this vehicle has the potential to be higher volume in sales," said Stephanie Brinley, senior analyst at IHS Automotive.
"It is an important point but could be a ways before we see the credits go away," she told TechNewsWorld.
More importantly, the $30,000 price point would apply only to the most basic models, so many would-be buyers should expect to pay more for added features.
"As with any luxury automobile, there can be a price ladder that means a $15,000 to $18,000 increase from base to top," Brinley added. "As a result, the entry level may not be the largest-selling vehicle anyway."

High Expectations

Despite the fact that the costs for the Tesla Model 3 could exceed the budgets of many consumers, there is still the potential for considerable interest.
"Tesla has become the Apple of the motorcar industry; just as people trust Apple with the latest thing, Tesla is filling that space when it comes to cars," said Peter Harrop, chairman of IDTechEx.
"For the masses, it has been that only rich people could buy one, but now the Tesla is becoming something closer to what they can afford," he told TechNewsWorld.
"There is still excitement because this is about a Tesla that is more affordable than the other models," noted IHS Automotive's Brinley. "However, it may be difficult to maintain the hype after the initial orders have been placed, and that pace may be hard to maintain."

Beyond the Luxury

For Tesla to succeed, it has to widen its potential audience, especially as it seeks to reach profitability, she added. The Model 3 could set the automaker on the right path, but it could still be a long road ahead.
"It would be less critical if it wasn't aimed at the mainstream, but right now Tesla is at a point where it has to reach profitability sooner than later," Brinley said.
"One of the important things is for Tesla to generate buzz and cash flow, but to succeed they have to bring in non-luxury buyers -- especially in 2019 and 2020 when the hype from the Model 3 dies down," she noted.
That presents another challenge for the automaker.
"This means coming from upmarket to downmarket, and that doesn't immediately work because they don't have the economy of scale to do something for the everyman," said Harrop.
"It will be interesting to see if Elon Musk can manage to do this, which is a major leap for any luxury brand," he added. "In industrial terms, companies normally upmarket from a downmarket, and for Tesla it means going from luxury to masses -- and that will be tricky to pull off."


Source: www.technewsworld.com

Read More