Leelanau Sports Guy’s World

The Record Eagle’s Mark Urban has compiled his latest look at local stars in college and several former Leelanau County athletes are doing quite well especially Leland’s Alisha Glass…

The top-ranked Nittany Lions beat No. 20 Illinois (25-16, 25-19, 25-12) on Saturday and No. 19 Purdue (25-12, 25-15, 25-21) on Friday to increase their record to 14-0. Penn State has yet to lose a set in any match this season.

Leading the Nittany Lions is junior setter Alisha Glass (Leland). Glass had 36 assists, two kills, two digs and one block while helping PSU hit .453 against Illinois and had 34 assists, two kills, four digs and two blocks against Purdue.

Read College Notes: Perfection for Glass in the Record Eagle

As fans are still celebrating the firing of Matt Millen, we can start to speculate on his future replacement. For now it’s being covered by Tom Lewand and Martin Mayhew, but one prominent former GM has spoken. Free Press sports writer George Sipple spoke with former Tennessee Titans GM Floyd Reece. Here’s what I like to hear…

Sounds like you. Are you interested?

A:“If I had Williams Clay Ford’s number, you’d be hearing a dial tone right now. I’m in a unique situation. I’ve been in the league 32 years. … I could be in Detroit tomorrow.

“One of the real uncut gems in the NFL is Detroit. It has a great owner. He’s got a lot of money. He wants to win very badly, and he’s not one of those guys that’s on the sidelines. He just wants to find someone that can help him win.”

I would have no problem with someone like Floyd Reece coming in and overseeing the overhaul of the franchise. He helped build Tennessee into a solid team who is competitive every year. They even made it to a Super Bowl. At this point, if someone wants to come to Detroit, I would definitely call them up!

Read Former Titans GM interested in Lions’ job: ‘I could be in Detroit tomorrow’ in the Freep

Also here’s an article from the Free Press that has information about the leading candidates…

Read The watch list: 18 names for the president/GM job opening in the Freep

Detroit Lions fans everywhere are now rejoicing as Matt Millen is finished as GM. I’ve been busy at work this morning and just heard about it now, but YEAH!

Read It’s over. It’s all over. Millen is no more. at The Wayne Fontes Experience
Read Matt Millen removed as Lions team president, CEO at ESPN.com

Update: Here’s a video from Chris Mortensen…

Here’s the details…

Coach Michael Curry will lead a Detroit Pistons contingent that will be in Traverse City today for a pep rally from 3-6 p.m.

The Traverse City stop is part of a six-city tip-off tour for the NBA team. The tour will also include Scott Perry, vice president of basketball operations; guards Rodney Stuckey and Arron Afflalo; and broadcasters George Blaha and Greg Kelser.

The Pistons year-round hoops truck, featuring interactive games, will be on hand at the corner of Union and Front streets for the outside pep rally. The Pistons’ dance team “Automotion” will perform. Blaha and Kelser will host a short program previewing the upcoming season with Curry, Stuckey and Afflalo addressing the crowd. The traveling party will also be available for autographs.

The event is free and open to the pubic.

Read Pistons tour stops in Traverse City today in the Record Eagle

After two seasons as head coach and one as hitting instructor, Jonathon Cahill won’t be back with the Traverse City Beach Bums. Cahill’s contract wasn’t renews after a 50-46 season and finishing 1 game out of the playoffs. His teams were 96-96 in his two seasons as manager.

“It was a hard decision,” General Manager Leslye Wuerfel said. “Jonathan is a great guy. It isn’t that he did anything wrong, it’s just that we didn’t get where we wanted to be.

The Beach Bums will begin a search immediately.

Read Cahill not coming back to Bums at Record-Eagle.com

Yahoo! Sports Ross McKeon is previewing each team for the upcoming 2008-09 NHL season. Today it’s the Detroit Red Wings. Here’s McKeon’s three keys to the Red Wings season…

The reincarnation of goaltender Chris Osgood is inspiring, but there is no plan to have a 1A/1B goaltending tandem like last season. The Red Wings went out and signed a competent backup in Ty Conklin, who saved Pittsburgh’s bacon when Marc-Andre Fleury missed extended time in the second half last season, but it’s clear this is Osgood’s net. The 35-year-old has to prove his leading the league in save percentage during both the regular season and playoffs was no fluke.

Second, and you really have to nitpick to find something wrong with Detroit last season, but the Red Wings want to have more success against the teams in their division. Detroit ran away with a 24-point edge in the Central Division, but it was on the strength of its record against nondivision rivals. Inside the division, the Red Wings had only the third-best point total, and they were just four points better than last place-finishing St. Louis.

Third, Detroit’s best players have to continue to be its best players. Nicklas Lidstrom is 38, and his defense partner Brian Rafalski will be 35 when the season starts. It all starts on defense with Detroit, and the top pair set the bar high. The physical duo of Niklas Kronwall and Brad Stuart need to hit, and that should give Detroit a top-four on the blue line that possibly only Anaheim can rival.

They’re basically not changing anything and should be one of the favorites. As always is the case with the Red Wings, goaltending will be the biggest issue as we see if Chris Osgood can repeat his amazing success of last year.

Read Wings poised for another title run at Yahoo! Sports

Mitch Albom sat down with Detroit Pistons and Detroit Shock owner Bill Davidson recently and Davidson shared his thoughts on former players, his Hall of Fame induction, and much more in this great interview with one of the best owners in the history of Michigan sports.

Read Hall-bound Bill Davidson on all the banners and all the bummers in the Freep