NEWS RELEASE – The Duke women’s basketball team has been predicted to finish atop of the 2010-11 ACC Women’s Basketball standings for the first time since 2005. The predictions, announced today, were made by a vote of the Blue Ribbon Panel, consisting of national and local media, as well as school representatives.

The Blue Devils, who earned 24 of a possible 33 first-place votes, are coming off a 2009-10 campaign in which they were regular season ACC co-champions and won their sixth league Tournament title. Duke posted an 8-4 record against ranked opponents last season and was listed in the Top 25 of the AP Poll for 206-straight weeks, which marks the longest current streak in the ACC and is third nationally.

Following Duke is North Carolina with six first-place votes, 2009-10 regular season ACC co-champion Florida State, which received two first-place votes, and Maryland. Georgia Tech was picked to finish fifth, followed by NC State in sixth, which received one first-place vote. Boston College, Miami, Wake Forest, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Clemson rounded out the selection order.

The Preseason All-ACC Team is highlighted by Duke guard Jasmine Thomas, who enters her senior season having started 60 consecutive contests. Thomas earned All-America honors as a junior and has been named a preseason candidate for the John R. Wooden Award and has been chosen for the State Farm Wade Trophy Watch List. She has connected on 115 three-pointers and has averaged 2.0 steals per game in her career. Last season, Thomas became just the eighth player in Duke history to register over 1,000 points, 300 rebounds, 300 assists, and 200 steals. She is one of two Blue Devils to notch 100 or more steals in a single season.

Joining Thomas on the Preseason All-ACC team are Boston College senior center Carolyn Swords, Florida State senior guard Courtney Ward, Miami junior guard Shenise Johnson, and North Carolina senior forward Jessica Breland.

NEWS RELEASE – University of North Carolina senior cornerback Kendric Burney has been cleared to play and will make his 2010 debut Saturday against William & Mary.

A native of Jacksonville, N.C., Burney missed the previous seven games. He was suspended six games for violations of NCAA agent benefits and preferential treatment rules and was held out of the Miami game while the University worked with the NCAA to determine his eligibility status.

Raleigh native Josh Hamilton has gone from phenom to junkie to MVP of the American League Championship Series and probably of the American League. At least one reporter has followed Hamilton’s entire career and has a unique perspective on the timeline of his life.

In today’s News & Observer, Tim Stevens writes, “Writing about the career of Josh Hamilton has been joyous and sad. From baseball phenom derailed by substance abuse to major league star and playoff MVP, his life has been filled with moments of candor and deception.”

To read more, please click here.

To check out a photo gallery, please click here.

For some unknown reason, Fox Sports has had former Dallas Cowboy quarterback Troy Aikman doing color commentary on Washington Redskins games this year… and Redskins fans aren’t happy about it.

In Sunday’s 17-14 victory over the Bears, Aikman several times lobbied for calls that would help Chicago. For instance, he kept saying that DeAngelo Hall should have been penalized for excessive celebration for going down to both knees after a 92-yard interception return for a TD (which ultimately was the game winner). See the accompanying photo.

A guy makes a one-handed catch and runs 92 yards with it for a score and he wants to talk about his going to his knees. With all the jerk celebrations that go on around the league, he says it would have been ok had he gone down on one knee but not two. “Going to two knees there, I think that should have been a flag,” he said.

A couple of years ago, Boomer Esiason called out Aikman for being pro Cowboys. “You would have thought the Arizona Cardinals weren’t even in the building,” Esiason said. “The bias that was coming from him yesterday was stunning. I couldn’t believe some of the things he was saying.”

He particularly blasted him for propping up Dallas QB Tony Romo.

One Redskins fan from Greensboro had this to say online. “He is a forever a Cowboy, We are the Redskins. I would hate to think I had to commentate a Cowboys game. I would totally suck. Hate would prevail.”

Others say the play-by-play guy Joe Buck is even more anti-Redskin than Aikman and that Daryl Johnston, another former Cowboy who covered a lot of Redskins games in past years, is the worst of the three. I suspect a lot of announcers, even if they aren’t ex-Cowboys, don’t like the Redskins because of controversial owner Dan Synder.

I actually like Aikman as a person but he does seem to be rooting for the other team sometimes when calling Redskins games. I understand that Buck, Aikman and Pam Oliver are considered the top announcing crew and the Redskins have been in some big games against good opponents. Other than that, I’m not really sure why Fox insists on having ex-Cowboys doing Redskins games. I doubt very seriously that Cowboys fans would put up with Joe Theismann doing their games every week.

Quarterback David Carr finally has helped the Panthers – three years after playing with them. Carr came in to relieve San Francisco’s Alex Smith, who was injured, and threw an interception late in the game with the score tied. The Carolina Panthers moved in close enough for John Kasay to kick a game-winning 37-yard field goal.

Carolina moves to 1-5 while San Francisco falls to 1-6.

Carr came in at the third quarter and threw a well underthrown pass on third down. He finished with a 58 quarterback rating going 5 of 13. When he was with the Panthers in 2007, he threw five interceptions and three touchdowns.

Richard Marshall intercepted the pass that set up the game-winning field goal by Kasay, who earlier hit a 53 yarder.

The Panthers, trailing 20-13 late in the game, tied the score when rookie David Gettis, who earlier dropped a pass in the end zone, made a diving TD reception with 1:53 left.

Panthers’ QB Matt Moore finished 28 of 41 for 308 yards and two touchdowns and an interception.

Things won’t be easy for the Panthers as they play only two teams with losing records the rest of the way, including the 3-4 St. Louis Rams next week.

While neither team is happy with its season, 49er fans seem to be particularly distressed as the 49ers were expected to be a contender for the playoffs.

As David Fucillo, a Bay Area contributor for SB Nation, wrote, “Well, just when I was wondering how the 49ers could find a new way to kick us in the junk, they do it. The 49ers dropped another nail-biter 23-20 to the Carolina Panthers thanks to an incredibly soft secondary and the loss of Alex Smith to a sprained shoulder. While I do think the 49ers probably win this game if Alex Smith does’t get hurt, I also think the team could have still won the game if the defense, and the secondary in particular, showed a little bit of aggression on those last couple drives.”

The Buffalo Bills, overtime losers to the Baltimore Ravens, are now the only winless team left in the NFL.

After four straight impressive wins, it appears the suspensions and injuries have finally caught up with the Tar Heels as Miami crushed North Carolina 33-10.

The Tar Heels actually had a 10-3 lead early and should have been up by more except for a fumble in the end zone. But then, on the heels of losing tight end Zack Pianalto for the season, the injuries started piling up. Five Tar Heels went down including Pianalto’s replacement Ryan Taylor.

Miami, which probably would have won the game regardless of the injuries, reeled off 30 straight points. Several big plays came through the air against the depleted Carolina secondary, which was playing three freshmen and another player, Da’Norris Searcy, who had been knocked woozy earlier.

With nine players having been dismissed, suspended or otherwise held out just in case, it was going to be a tough task at Miami without the four injuries last week and five during the game.

Some players who had previously only played on special teams got to see action for Carolina. The four defensive backs playing at the end of the game were the last four defensive backs on the team.

Despite leading questions, UNC coach Butch Davis didn’t sulk about the injuries. He praised Miami as a good football team and said the Tar Heels had a chance to get some points early and didn’t come through.

“The kids tried as hard as they can,” Davis said, finally alluding to the shorthandedness. “Like I tell them, you never know when your number is going to be called. A lot of kids had to play tonight and hopefully we’ll be better for it next week.”

Carolina has a homecoming game against William & Mary next Saturday before traveling back to Florida to play Florida State, a team that handled Miami easily a couple of weeks ago.

Raleigh’s Josh Hamilton, who has struggled with alcohol and drug abuse, was awarded the American League Championship Series MVP Award following his team’s 6-1 victory over the New York Yankees.

The win clinched a trip to the World Series. Instead of popping the cork on traditional champagne, Hamilton’s teammates sprayed ginger ale on each other out of respect for Hamilton and his issues with alcohol.

Hamilton hit .350 in the series while hitting four home runs and driving in seven runs. “First of all, all glory goes to God, Jesus Christ,” Hamilton said. “Secondly, i love my teammates. Any of these guys could have gotten this award… I don’t want to talk about myself – I want to talk about them.”

Hamilton said the Rangers are in this position because the players “don’t know how to fail” and there is great team chemistry. “The guys love each other and support each other,” he said.

Hamilton, whose voice was cracking as he was being interviewed about what he means to win the MVP after all his struggles, said in the final inning he was in the outfield tearing up, trying to hold it all together in case the ball was hit to him. “It means a lot with everything i’ve been through and what God has brought me through to this point with this group of guys,” he said. “I’m so excited and I feel blessed.”

He has 26 tattoos that he now tries to hide and which he got while drinking and doing drugs in Florida early in his professional career. “My first drink – my first drink ever – was at a strip club down there, with the tattoo guys,” Hamilton said a few years ago. “Pretty soon, I started using. First the powder. Then crack. I was 20. I wasn’t playing. I was hurt. My parents left and went back home. I was by myself for the first time.”

The whole world is with the popular Hamilton now and many are rooting for him and his Rangers team as they go to the World Series to play the winner of the Giants-Phillies series.

For the second time in as many weeks, my record of predicting area high school football games was a perfect 10-0, making the season total now 72-18, which is 80 percent accuracy. Here are 10 football games that are within driving distance in the Triangle area this Friday night. After today’s rain, Friday night’s weather is nice with virtually no chance at rain. Most games are at 7:30 p.m. You might want to check with local officials as some games start at 7. In bold below are the predicted winners.

Apex at Green Hope

Fuquay-Varina at Athens Drive

Garner at Southeast Raleigh

Millbrook at Leesville Road

Panther Creek at Middle Creek

Sanderson at Wake Forest-Rolesville

Wakefield at Enloe

Southern Durham at East Chapel Hill

J.F. Webb at Chapel Hill

North Raleigh Christian at Wake Christian

Check the scores in our Sports Roundup on the left navigation bar.