Allgemeines » s at the championship press conferences.Stewart told Edward

NEW YORK -- One of the Kentucky freshmen stepped up big from the outside while the rest of the Wildcats took care of things with defense.Malik Monks 23 points on 7-for-11 shooting from 3-point range and the second-ranked Wildcats defense that held No. 13 Michigan State to 32.8 percent shooting combined for a 69-48 victory Tuesday night in the State Farm Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden.These guys took some pride defensively here, Kentucky coach John Calipari said. Michigan State they run great stuff. They iso and do things that forced us to prepare beyond where we are.The Wildcats (3-0) averaged 90 points in their first two games but this time it was defense that did it as the Spartans (0-2) shot 32.8 percent from the field (20 of 61) including 5 for 26 (19.2 percent) from beyond the arc.Relying on another talented freshman class, Kentucky was able to up the tempo enough and keep the tenacious defense going that the Spartans committed 20 turnovers which the Wildcats turned into 24 points.Freshman DeAaron Fox added 12 points for Kentucky, which snapped Michigan States two-game winning streak in the series that the Wildcats lead 13-11.We knew they were going pack it in. I just had to be prepared, Monk said. They set me up well. I was just able to knock down the shot.Kenny Goins and Cassius Winston led the Spartans with nine points each. Freshman Miles Bridges was held to six points on 2-for-11 shooting but he grabbed 12 rebounds.We did a couple of things knowing that if he got going he would be a beast, Calipari said of Bridges. He had 12 rebounds, but the way we played, we just made it really difficult for him to just play basketball.Spartans coach Tom Izzo said, Im actually a little embarrassed. I felt like we competed defensively for the most part, we just didnt do anything offensively. We looked like a team that was an AAU team, we just went 1-on-1 didnt move the ball and got frustrated.The Spartans were coming off a 68-65 loss to No. 10 Arizona in Honolulu.I was very disappointed in the way we were kind of `deer in the headlights but you know you have four freshmen playing at Madison Square Garden and coming off the Hawaii trip, that was the way we played. Well get better.Kentucky led 34-26 at halftime and the Wildcats opened the big lead with a 16-7 run that made it 51-37 with 12:04 to play. Michigan State continued to struggle from the outside and the Wildcats led by as many as 23 points.Its the same freshmen that played against Canisius and we were down with three minutes in the half, Calipari said. Weve got a long way to go. This shows us what were capable of and now we have to build from this. You have to convince them that if we become a great defensive team.BIG PICTURE:Kentucky: The Wildcats freshman class is as loaded with talent as any recruited by Calipari and this group has size. ... Last season the Wildcats had trouble setting any kind of presence inside but with freshmen Ban Adebayo and Wenyen Gilbert grabbing 11 rebounds between them. Kentucky was able to stay on the glass with the Spartans only being outrebounded 44-40.Michigan State: The Spartans played in Honolulu on Friday and then headed across the country for this game. Michigan State will travel 13,600 miles by Nov. 29 and in a 21-day span they will face at least three Top 15 opponents. ... Michigan State wont be at full strength for a while as they wait for Gavin Schilling and Ben Carter to return from injuries.ALL ALONE:Monk was the only Wildcat to make a 3-pointer. The rest of the team was 0 for 7. Nobody on Michigan State made more than one 3.You have to give Monk credit he was 3 for 13 going in and hit some big 3s early, unguarded on the break, Izzo said.FOUL SHOOTING:Kentucky was 16 of 20 at the free throw line while the Spartans were 3 of 9.SITTING PRETTY:In the row behind the Kentucky bench were Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Larry Brown who was Calipari boss at Kansas and Bruiser Flint, the coach who succeeded Calipari at Massachusetts. Also sitting in a good seat was New York Knicks guard Carmelo Anthony. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski went over and gave Anthony a big hug before the second game. The two were part of the last Olympic gold medals for the U.S.UP NEXT:Kentucky: The Wildcats return to Rupp Arena to face Duquesne on Sunday.Michigan State: The Spartans finally stop traveling to go home and play Mississippi Valley State on Friday. Nike NBA Jerseys China . Pettersen, winner of last years Evian Championships, had nine birdies and three bogeys, holding off a series of challengers led by Marion Ricordeau of France. The second-ranked Norwegian made her season debut after missing the LPGA Tours opening event last month in the Bahamas because of a shoulder injury. NBA Jerseys Outlet . Calgary scored on the first shift, and Michael Cammalleri scored twice as the Flames cruised to a 5-2 win over the Washington Capitals on Saturday. https://www.nbachinajerseys.us/ . Shot outdoors against the stunning backdrop of Banff, Alta., the networks 30-minute original production airs tonight at 8pm et/5pm pt on TSN2. The four All-Star teams will play for $100,000 in prize money during TSNs annual skins game, airing live this weekend on TSN from The Fenlands Banff Recreation Centre. Stitched NBA Jerseys . -- The plastic that was taped across the lockers in Oaklands clubhouse came down and the champagne that was on ice went back into the cooler. Cheap NBA Jerseys . Inter president Erick Thohir says in a club statement on Wednesday that Vidic is "one of the worlds best defenders and his qualities, international pedigree, and charisma will be an asset. HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Carl Edwards detests social media.He prefers his followers have sharpies and photos instead of egg avatars and his only likes are NASCAR victory celebrations.I enjoy normal, social interaction, Edwards said. Its hard once you get down the path of social media.Edwards recalled a time his brother handed him a phone and insisted he read Brad Keselowskis tweets. Keselowski, who has tweeted from his car during a race, was the first NASCAR media darling on the social network. He uses his 140-character forum as a bully pulpit, and Edwards was curious.It was like a time warp, he said. I handed the phone back an hour later. I went across the entire Twitter-verse. I feel like life is short. I dont want to spend it staring at my phone.Edwards is willing to make a notable exception to his blackout and deal with the scrolling and trolling of the digital age under one condition: If he leaves Homestead-Miami Speedway as the champ.Thats right. Edwards will end his holdout and join Twitter should he win the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship.Ill no longer be Twitter-less Carl, he said.NASCAR champ seems like a pretty cool line in a Twitter bio.The title has eluded Edwards in 12 full seasons at the Cup level. He finished third in his rookie season of 2005 and is a two-time series runner-up -- though his stinging loss to Tony Stewart on a tiebreak in 2011 has gone down as the greatest finale finish in the Chase era.The 37-year-old Edwards can ease some of that disappointment if he defeats six-time champion Jimmie Johnson, 2015 champ Kyle Busch and Joey Logano on Sunday and brings home the trophy for owner Joe Gibbs. The first to finish out of the four contenders is the 2016 champion.With the way everyones been running with this group, I think youre going to have to win the race, Edwards said.Under the best-finish format the last two years, Kevin Harvick and Busch did indeed clinch their championships with a victory at Homestead. The statistics say Edwards may have the best shot. He won Homestead in 2008 and 2010 and his 9.2 average finish at the track is the best of the four drivers.This is the best opportunity Ive had in a long time, Edwards said.Hed have to stretch back five years for his head-to-head showdown with Stewart to find a better one.Edwards, then driving for Jack Roush, had seemingly checked all the boxes needed to win a championship. He started the race with a three-point lead in the standings, and did everything he could from the minute he arrived in Florida. His Roush Fenway Raciing team put his Ford on the pole, he led a race-high 119 of the 267 laps and still finished second to Stewart.ddddddddddddtewart and Edwards finished tied in the final Sprint Cup Series points standings -- a first in NASCAR history -- and Stewart took the tiebreaker based on his five victories to Edwards one.Those couple of weeks leading up, I could tell Tony and those guys were on a roll, Edwards said. It was the most fun Id had in racing since Ive been in NASCAR. Everything we did, every lap, every qualifying session, every pit stop mattered. It was real easy to focus.Edwards also insisted he wasnt rattled by Stewarts trash-talking in the lead-up to the race. Stewart, who retires from NASCAR on Sunday, agitated Edwards with a series of verbal jabs at the championship press conferences.Stewart told Edwards he could visit the Cup trophy at the victors banquet in Las Vegas and that hed talk to his hero A.J. Foyt after we win on Sunday. Edwards says he was simply outdueled by the better car on the track, not by barbs on a dais.I knew as soon as Tony started talking trash, I knew he was giving 100 percent effort, Edwards said. He knew what it was going to take. He was putting everything out there that he could. That made it really special. I feel like I got to race Tony at his absolute best. I could tell how much it meant to him to win that championship.Edwards recently gave his helmet from the race to Stewart as a retirement gift.It was neat to see how excited he was about it, Edwards said. If thats something that was important to him, really special to him, I was really happy to be able to do that for him.Edwards won this season in the No. 19 Toyota at Bristol, Richmond and then a rain-shortened Chase race at Texas that clinched him a berth in the title race. Edwards is in his first season paired with crew chief Dave Rogers, and the two will have to fend off JGR teammate Busch and crew chief Adam Stevens to win.We try to help each other and we talked about it, Rogers said. This is a scenario we talked about long before this race. How do we race? Once we get to that final race, how do we race, and our agreement all year was nothing changes.Because of that rain at Texas, Edwards failed to perform his traditional victory backflip off the car. Hes ready for a leap into the NASCAR record book.Thatll be a fun backflip to do, he said.And then would come the plunge on Twitter. ' ' '