>> coming up on espnews, game three, nba final, the imagine nick a must-win situation down 2-0 to the lakers. stephen strasburg, the flame-thrower from san diego state goes number one to the nationals. >> hey there. welcome to espnews. glad you could be with us here. ryan burr along with michele lafountain on what is a

monster day and night in the sports world. we got nba final, lakers-magic, game three. pittsburgh with their backs against the wall, game six, stanley cup finals at the igloo in pittsburgh. pens need to win to stave off elimination and not be embarrassed again and have the red wings skate around on their home ice with that stanley cup thing, plus major league baseball draft currently going under way. but it's all been trumped by breaking news out of southern california, and the college basketball team at u.s.c. >> that's right. so unexpected news as tim floyd has resigned this afternoon. according to the clarion ledger, the basketball course at southern california a month after being accused of giving $1,000 to man who helped steer sharpshooter o.j. mayo to u.s.c. floyd submitted a one-paragraph letter of resignation to u.s.c. athletic director make garrett. this is what it says:

>> senior college basketballteom writer for espn "the magazine," espn.com andy andy katz., lesta andy, let's start with this. a how big of a shock was it for floyd to resign today from.c u.s.c.? >> the fact that he is apparently making the decision, that comes as a surprise, nota , the fact that he's out at u.s.c. for weeks there's been rumorsdng that he's out, but coming fromad u.s.c., as they deal with allegations about whether or not he paid o.j. may yes's handlerar rodney guillory for walkingmo around money for the nba w all-star game. that was part of the larger o.j. mayo investigation.uris i talked to close friends of tim

floyd, and they are surprised already that he made this m decision because the information i was given through them wasin a that he was going to fight this. now, floyd has not at all been accessible outside of making a couple of cameos at some trojana booster functions. and he has definitely let it be known at least publicly in those settings that he's very frustrated that players aren defecting from the program. they not only lost demar derozan, daniel hackett, taj gibson but even recently renardo sydney, it was a mutual, understanding for him to get out, and noel johnson, a major impact player with u.s.c. he got out of his national letter of intent because ofer these accusations. all these things starting to wear on tim floyd, and that's one of the things that led himwe to this decision, releasing tos statement to a good friend ofhi his in the jackson clarion ledger. >> what to watch for tonight, yes, the nba finals game three. lakers-magic. phil jackson the man who already

owns nine rings at the podium an hour and a half away from tip-off. we take you out to orlando. >> i don't think anybody mentioned that one. but that was... he got his hand caught in the rim on that one, no doubt about it. pau did, yes. >> should have that been a goal tending technically? >> basket interference according to the rules, yeah. >> next question for coach. >> second row, over there. >> phil, with the point guard rotation, you've been bringing shannon in a lot, just in the fourth quarter. that's been his run in the first few games system there something specific you like from that, or is it just how it worked out? >> i'm just giving them both a feel for the game. jordan can energize us with his

speed, quickness, his offensive ability out there. shannon is a little more on the defensive aspect of the game? >> on the other side? >> phil, make sure you understand correctly, you think pau was goal tending on the last play of regulation? >> it's called basket interference what it's called. even if you hit the net supposedly in the process, that's part of it, but that rule is kind of archaic. it isn't called in this day and age as much, but when we were in high school, you're a little older than i am i know, bill, but when we were in high school, that was something a high school ref might call, basket interference. >> next question on this side. >> the other part of that rule, though, is supposedly whether he rattled the rim or made it have a different bounce. do you think it met that criteria? >> he didn't interfere with the shot basically. so that was not something that

destroyed the shot. >> same row. >> phil, can you imagine a game ending on a goal tending call? have you ever seen, that heard of that on think level anywhere? >> i'm sure it's happened. but, you know, i haven't seen it. we had one situation very similar to that against the vancouver grizzlies a few years ago that was not called. >> so you feel like the correct call was made? >> according to the rules, it was not. >> any other questions? all right. thank you, coach. >> thank you. >> orlando magic coach stan vann gundy will address the media shortly, as well, and we'll bring you that press conference from amway arena right here on espnews.

♪ ♪ who's watching? ♪ tell me who's watching. (muffled music) ♪ who's watching... (announcer) it's right here. it's easy. ♪ i always feel like somebody's watching me. ♪ it's the money you could be saving with geico. are you insured? do you know when your beer is perfectly cold? or do you risk drinking a warm one? if you have the new coors light cold-activated can, you're covered. because now every can turns blue when your beer... is as cold as the rockies.

it's cold insurance, only from coors light. cold beer: that's our policy. frost-brewed coors light. the world's most refreshing beer.

>> suspended nfl star michael vick has a deadline of july 2nd to tell a bankruptcy judge how he plans to pay back his creditors. a federal bankruptcy judge in virginia has set a new date this afternoon. >> bengals wide receiver chad ochocinco reported to organized team activities today, took a physical and was expected to be on the practice field. practice was closed to the media. ochocinco took an all-night flight from los angeles to cincinnati to arrive and he showed up earlier than the team expected. the player formerly known as chad johnson happy to be back in cincy. he tweeted this earlier today when he arrived in his locker room:

apparently fame equated to your name being on the locker. all right, and terrell owens back in practice with the bills. owens and co-wide receiver lee evans running every route in the playbook with buffalo quarterback trent edwards, working hard to become comfortable with his two main receivers. t.o. said after practice he's ready to put last season and his past mistakes behind him. >> you know, i'm a professional, and, you know, you should go in the game every game prepared and, you know, there were some drop, and that's just part of it. but i'm pretty sure i would assess my performance and say, i could have played better, but that wasn't the case. there's no pressure on me at all. i know what i'm capable of. i'm very thankful and gracious for the opportunity the bills have given me, and i'm going to embrace it. i feel good. you know, i can play this game, and i know here, turk is going

to throw the ball down the field. i feel very confident in the guys that we have in the rotation on the offensive side of the ball, and i know i don't talk much about the defense, but those guys fly around. i'm looking for some big things from those guys. so they're going to be very, very instrumental in some of the things we do on offense. so the defense is going to be very, very key for us. >> stephen strasburg as predicted goes number one overall in the major league baseball draft. he goes to the washington nationals. some call him the best pitching prospect ever. he's hit 103 on the radar gun. great control, above average breaking ball goes to the nats number one now. they have to try to sign him. >> questions for coach? >> we take you out live to orlando. orlando coach stan van gundy speaking prior to game three, lakers-magic. amway arow narcotic we take you live -- amway arena.

we take you live on espnews. >> i'm not going to get into calls. calls didn't decide that game. >> next question for coach. right here in the second row. do you have a question? >> you know, stan, you were in college, you were the leading free throw shooter in your school still to this day. have you done anything in the last couple days to help your players maybe concentrate at free throw shooting. >> hey, look, the one thing you have to understand about my free throw shooting is in four years i probably got to the line 120 times. i mean, i wasn't good enough to get on the court most of the time, and that was playing for my father, okay. so that tells you how good i was. and when i was there, i certainly wasn't beating anybody off the dribble and going into the paint. and drawing a lot of fouls. so while i appreciate that, i was an awful player, and no, i have not done anything

differently with our guys in terms of free throw shooting lately at all. >> you were 152-171. >> there you go. i played four years, 171 free throws. there you go. that's not a lot of free throws. >> it probably should have been at least 175 free throws. i remember two distinctly where i got fouled. >> go ahead, mark. >> i don't want to stop him. >> flying back across country, how much chance do you have to work with your team to change anything if you want the change? >> oh, yeah, i mean, you know what, actually, we have played, mark... everybody's a little different in their approach. we have played most of the playoffs. our cleveland series, just like l.a.'s denver series, there were never two days in between. we really didn't practice at all in that series. we did all of our work on game day. we did film work on the days in

between, and when we had flying day, we didn't do anything. then we did it all on game day, and nba players are very, very intelligent. i think it's the thing that is overlooked more than anything about them as a group and that they get the least credit for. and in a one-hour walk-through in a film session, you can make adjustments and they can pick them up and do them. so there's (ty -- plenty of time to prepare and do what you want to do. >> over here on this side. >> stan, some coaches this time of year that don't like to make a lot of changes in lineups from game to game or like to stick with the same seven or eight guys. you've talked a lot about not being afraid the make chamber of commerce. why are you that way and how do you think that's worked out so far? >> first of all, a lot of it for us in the postseason was sort of dictated by necessity, suspendings and courtney's

injury. we were into the boston series then and we didn't change, but it wasn't a long-standing lineup with j.j., so it was fairly easy to make moves. and i think... i'm like every other coach quite honestly. i would rather never change a lineup or a rotation, but at the same time, when you have a feeling and really have a strong feeling on what would be best for your tame, give your team the best chance to win, i mean, you've got to do it. and i think any coach would, too, so that's precip tainted with everything we've done. >> jonathan? >> you mentioned after the last game your guys got ample looks, good, open looks. >> i didn't really say that. i said we got better looks. they're still doing a very, very good job defensively, and obviously 20 turnovers, we've got some... i just want to make that clear. i didn't say we had ample looks.

>> obviously removing the turnover, as well. if you were to get roughly the shots you were getting last game, if you were to know, that would you feel good about your chances here? >> i don't know. uho know, i think that if you eliminate the turnovers, probably in terms of the shooting, i thought our shots were better in game two than game one, but you can't eliminate the 20 turnovers from that equation. we need to play the game a lot better offensively than we have in either of the first two games. and, you know, again, i want to be clear. we have the play it against a very good defense. i think they're doing an excellent job defensively. so we need to play the game at a higher level. >> front middle. >> stan, do you think courtney has taken a lot of undue heat the last couple days for game two? >> he hasn't taken any heat from us. and i haven't read or heard what you guys are writing or saying.

i'm not one to say i never read the newspaper, but i certainly haven't the last two days. i haven't had time. i don't know what you guys are saying. so i really have hard time answering that. he hasn't... that shot was not an easy shot, okay. it was certainly a good opportunity with six-tenths of a second to go. you just are hoping to get an opportunity, and we got one. but that was not an easy shot. and he hasn't taken any heat from us. >> rachel in the third row. >> phil was just in here talking about that, and he said that it was goal tending by pau because of where his hand was on the baskets. what did you get from that? >> they already brought that up, rachel. look, calls didn't decide that game. i didn't think his hand being there or not being there had anything to do with the shot going in or not. your just not going to get a complaint from me on that call. >> any other questions?

all right. thank you, coach. >> okay. >> we'll have a press conference here in a few minutes. >> all right. major league baseball. the indians trail the royals 2-0. angels on top of the rays 2-0. the orioles beating the mariners 3-0 and then the big score of the day, the red sox at fenway park up 2-0 on the yankees. big papi in the lineup and producing a two-run home run, his third of the year. quickly keith law, if you were in charge of the red sox, would big papi have been in your lineup tonight? >> they were reaching the point where they had to think about benching him. i guess it worked out for one night. >> this might buy him a little more time as he's under .200. >> major league baseball draft as expected, steve strasburg the number-one pick of the washington nationals. the product out of san diego state above average fastball, great breaking ball, superb control this year, and his

strikeout-to-walk ratio was something legends are made of. i guess he's a bit of a, at least some of the scouts speak of him in that tone. joined by keith law to break down the major league baseball draft. everyone expected strasburg to go number one. even with scott boras and the crazy numbers that are being thrown out there, you think at the end of the day, the nationals will be forced to sign him. >> right. i think it will probably happen on august 17th, the deadline probably at 11:55 the night, the norm the last couple of years. as they get to the deadline and everyone says we're not going to sign our guys. we get to 11:50, 11:5 and i get a bunch of phone calls saying we got our guy done. i expect that pattern to hold, not just with stratburg, probably with ackley and tate and handful of other guys we've seen taken in the first round. the issue with strasburg is people talk about the nationals have to sign him, the team is so bad, they need a p.r. boost after a tough off season on the public relations front, but there is a leverage issue for boras and for strasburg, and

what's your alternative to signing? if the nationals offer you $20 million, are you going to turn that down and potentially go back the school or go pitch in independent ball or there are rumors that he or crow or shepherd could pitch in japan. the fact is if you go one of those alternate routes, you leave that money on the table and expose yourself to risk. stephen strasburg's value will never be higher than today. there is always the risk he gets hurt or for whatever other reason his velocity starts to drop. i think that limits the leverage that scott boras and strasburg vas have. ultimately they are going to have to come the terms with washington. expect it to come at the last minute. expect to hear some rumors they're not going to get the deal done. we've seen the vast majority of these players, even if they want well above, they do sign. >> interesting for sure. we'll wait and see how that plays outment you mentioned dustin act leerk number two overall to the mariners out of north carolina. even right before the draft there was a question whether the mariners would go this way

because of his signability. testify word was, and he is looking for more than pedro alvarez got last year with the second pick going to the pirates because ackley is a better hitter than alvarez in terms of pure bat, ackley has more tools i think than alvarez, who has much better power, but the question was could he make a lot of contact. >> ackley leaves north carolina after three years. donovan tate was scheduled to go to north carolina for next three years, and he's picked number three by the padres some carolina probably loses the present and the future in the second and third picks of the draft. tony sanchez a reach pick by the pirates for signability. a catcher out of boston college goes number four. interesting after that. the first high school to go by the orioles. pick a name out of here, five, six, seven or eight, that you can see being a bona fide player in the major leagues. >> i love zack wheeler. i love a couple guys on this list, but zack wheeler,

right-hander, a swerve, it's usually a negative thing. he has a sharp pitch, good depth and angle on it, really good delivery. i like the athleticism, like the body. he projects as a number two, maybe a chance to be a number-one starter. >> how about signability? >> he's signable because he was signed to a division one school that just transferred out of division two, but it's in the a tough-time school. >> let's go nine through 12 now and take a look at the latest picks from the major league baseball draft. keith law and we see jacob turner. you had him slated to go to the tigers. that's exactly where he goes. drew storen, the nationals' second president clinton, and you love what the rockies did. >> matzek is one of the best value picks. third guy on my board. high school lefty. up to 98. i saw him at 94 on a night he threw a seven-inning no-hitter

on a night i was. there four pitches, really good command. for a high school pitcher, he's got the command of a big leaguer. when you add that to the velocity, a four-pitch repertoire and a really good body and delivery, just about everything you want to see in a high school arm. >> greg, if we can bring the full screen back up, aaron crow, he was the number one pick, the ninth pick overall by the nationals last year. >> correct. >> did not sign. he now gets redrafted. what has this guy done for the past year? he goes number 12 to kansas city. >> it's just a couple of times in an independent league, which is... >> in a year. >> just didn't start pitching until the beginning of may. >> and didn't get paid. >> did not get paid. turned down offers of about $3 million from the nationals at the deadline. he was a guy that went to the deadline and actually didn't sign ultimately. he took the independent rout. heavily attended by scouts in may in the independent league,

but there are issues, questionable competition. it's hard to compare a guy like that in may to college pitchers who have been pitching since the end of february. so scouts have started to be sceptical of those guys who take that independent league route. >> so there is a guy that was drafted last year in the top ten. chose not to sign. then he comes back and is redrafted again. we take a look now, 13 through 16. grant green the first shortstop to go to the a's. matt perk, alex white, pitcher from north carolina coming off one of his best college world series. any of these names jump off the page? >> alex white is really interesting. if we had a conversation in february, tell me who you think will be the second or third pick in the draft, white would have been a name i mentioned. he was the second best college starter in the draft pool coming into the season. he had a lot of ups and downs this season with his velocity and performance. i saw him about three weeks ago against d.c. actually topped out at 92, touched 93 once for me.

threw a lot of off-speed pitches, which is called from the bench. you can't blame that on a pitcher. but you like to see a pitcher who can establish the fastball and pitch off of it, use the off-speed pitch as secondary stuff. he tends to pitch a lot with the splitter which makes some scouts nervous because you just don't know. can he pitch with the fastball? maybe he can, but we don't have a good feel for it. so a guy who comes into the season two or three, for him to slide as far as he did, i think that's a bargain pick. >> a big day for carolina, a couple players drafted into the top 15. a busy week for the carolina players as the major league baseball draft rolls on. keith law, as always, we appreciate your time here and keeping us up to date on the draft. >> my pleasure. >> some breaking news, ed werder reporting the vikings have at least temporarily suspended their pursuit of brett favre after the retired quarterback failed to report to organized team activities that began tuesday as head coach brad childress mandated according to team and league sources. the vikings inform favre's agent

bus cook via phone call. royals, indians and kansas city, miguel olivo with the homer and david dejesus with an r.b.i. triple. meanwhile, angels leading the rays 2-0. big papi waking up, a two-run homer for the red sox in the great rivalry against the yankees. phillies-mets at citi field. and david wright with a homer after saying he was joking telling chipper jones he was afraid and frustrated with citi field. pirates leading the braves 1-0, and the cards 3-0 over the marlins, but albert pujols 0-2 so far in a slump.

announcer: the perfect hotwire getaway-- shop till you drop, relax by the pool at a four-star hotel for a two-star price from hotwire.com. when hotels have unsold rooms, they use hotwire to fill them... so you get them at prices lower than any other travel site, guaranteed.

like four stars in chicago. travelocity price, $179. hotwire hot rate, just $95. hotwire.com. four-star hotels, two-star prices. ♪ h-o-t-w-i-r-e ♪ hotwire.com save big on car rentals, too, from $13.95 a day!