Miami would pursue a trade for Rocketsstar James Hardenif the opportunity arises, a source tells Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. The former MVP reportedly expanded his list of preferred optionsthis week, with the Heatand Bucks joining the Nets and Sixers.

According to the source, at least two members of Miamis management team have substantial interest in adding Harden and theres no significant opposition to the move. Outsiders have raised concerns that Hardens ball-dominant style might not fit the Heats philosophy, but the belief among the front office is that Harden plays that way because thats how the offense in Houston is structured.

The Rockets havent committed to putting Harden on the market, but the source says the Heat would be among the teams to make an offer in Houston moves in that direction. The source adds that Miami would be willing to include Tyler Herroto get a deal done. The Heat prefer to keep Herro, who made a huge impact during his rookie season, but recognize that players of Hardens caliber are hard to obtain.

Assessing the situation this week, ESPNs Zach Lowe suggested Herro is better than any single player that Brooklyn would be willing to part with, though he believes the Rockets would lean toward Ben Simmonsif Philadelphia makes him available. Lowe adds that he doesnt think any substantive talks have happened with any teams regarding a Harden trade.

Jackson notes that Miami has financial restrictions to consider. Because the Heat are above the salary cap, they would have to send out close to the $41.2M that Harden earns this season. League rules state that Miami can take back as much as 125% of the salaries it parts with in the deal, plus $100K. Andre Iguodala($15M) and Kelly Olynyk($12.6M) would likely have to be included in any offer, Jackson states.

Goran Dragic, Meyers Leonardand Udonis Haslem, who all re-signed with the Heat over the offseason, have veto power over trades and cant be moved before February 6. Free agent additionsAvery Bradley andMaurice Harkless also cant be traded until that date.

Jackson sees Miamis best offer as Herro, two players from the group ofPrecious Achiuwa, Kendrick Nunnand Duncan Robinson, along with Olynyk and Iguodala to match salaries and first-round picks in 2025 and 2027. The Heat and Thunder would have to remove protections on the first-rounder Miami owes Oklahoma City in 2023 for that deal to be possible.

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Heat would be interested in James Harden trade - Yardbarker

Mariah Careys modern classic All I Want for Christmas Is You finally hit No. 1 (after 25 years) last holiday season, surely inspiring more songwriters to try their hand at a well-worn but welcome annual tradition. Our pop and jazz critics surveyed the latest releases and picked out 20 that offer worthy additions to your seasonal playlists.

Here are three veteran jazz musicians who understand the joys of a firmly pressed swing rhythm, and how far it can take you. The pianist Jackie Warren, the bassist Amy Shook and the drummer Sherrie Maricle have released three albums as the 3D Jazz Trio (it stands for 3 Divas), which grew out of their work in Maricles DIVA Jazz Orchestra. The latest flaunts the kind of powerful locomotion that drives the DIVA big band, steaming through 10 holiday tunes Warrens buoyant improvising right hand leading the way. GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO

The singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and virtuoso whistler Andrew Bird riffles through moods and genres on his holiday album: Hes wistful, sardonic, jaunty and pensive by turns. Along with Bird himself, the songwriters include Schubert, Irving Berlin, John Prine and John Cale. Bird mingles songs of his own with idiosyncratic takes on the standards: whistling a wordless O Holy Night over pizzicato strings, toying with bossa nova and Hot Club jazz in the Vince Guaraldi Peanuts tune Christmas Is Coming, bringing Western swing to Auld Lang Syne. Birds Greenwine is a gruesomely comic rewrite of Greensleeves, while Nights Falling and Alabaster offer comfort through long winter nights. JON PARELES

Greg Kurstin, a hitmaking producer with Adele, Sia and others, has been recording breezy, slyly retro pop since 2005 with the singer and songwriter Inara George as the Bird and the Bee. Their holiday album has a multitracked George harmonizing coolly with herself on songs like Sleigh Ride and Deck the Halls, and enlists Foo Fighters Dave Grohl to supply the hefty beat on Little Drummer Boy. Kurstins productions for The Christmas Song and Christmastime Is Here collapse the decades between blurry old movie scores and digital glitches. And two of their own songs, You and I at Christmas Time and Merry Merry, celebrate domestic comforts amid playfully meandering chords. PARELES

The cozy yet polished Southern California sound of Laurel Canyon in the mid-1970s returns on the holiday album by Karla Bonoff, whos entitled to it. She got her songs recorded in the mid-1970s by Linda Ronstadt and Bonnie Raitt, among others. The guitars are burnished, Bonoffs piano offers hymnlike chords and the vocals are natural and intimate. She sings old carols, Joni Mitchells River and a song she wrote with Kenny Edwards, Everybodys Home Tonight. PARELES

Barnaby Bright is Becky and Nathan Bliss, a married couple. She sings lead, hes the producer and occasional backup singer; both write songs. Their holiday album, Bleak Midwinter, explores various production styles Beach Boys in their own Star-Crossed Christmas, chamber-pop piano and cello in their If We Listen, booming drums and arena-scale reverberations in the English carol In the Bleak Midwinter, electronic percussion with big-band horns in Please Come Home for Christmas. Becky Blisss voice can be breathy and confiding, but she also has reserves of power when production drama ramps up. PARELES

Over the last two years, Fuerza Rgida has emerged as one of the leading trap corridos bands, blending nimble musicianship and attitudinal singing. Holiday music is perhaps too plainly joyful a medium for the group, but on Navidad con la Rgida it proves game, whether its the chipper tuba on Feliz Navidad or the brassy singing on Ven a Mi Casa Esta Navidad. But the album closer is closer to home: a heart-rending cover of the unerringly mournful Cada Diciembre by Los Plebes del Rancho de Ariel Camacho, on which the frontman Jess Ortiz sounds almost dizzy with sadness. JON CARAMANICA

The keyboardist and producer Chilly Gonzales mostly offers familiar songs, from Good King Wenceslas to All I Want for Christmas Is You, as restrained instrumentals, usually piano solos. He has fun with reharmonizations, sometimes switching major keys to minor ones, as he does in Jingle Bells and Auld Lang Syne: every so often, additional instruments twinkle into the mix. The standout tracks have guest vocalists: Feist tiptoeing through a new song she wrote with Gonzales, The Banister Bough, and Jarvis Cocker and Feist sharing a fondly observant song by David Berman, Snow Is Falling in Manhattan. PARELES

Goo Goo Dolls cling to the earnestness of classic rock, but also step outside it, on their Christmas album. One of the two originals, This Is Christmas, splits the difference between Simon & Garfunkel and Billy Joel, with a waltz that praises Not the things that you buy but the love that you bring. The other, You Aint Getting Nothing, looks back to Cab Calloway, with horns, a swinging bass line and wry lyrics: You think the seasons merry but you better think twice. They also resurface Tom Pettys Christmas All Over Again and a swinging Louis Prima obscurity, Shake Hands with Santa Claus. Its a music fans album, cognizant of a long past. PARELES

Cory Henry has shake-your-head-in-disbelief-level talent, and on this self-produced EP he mixes holiday-centric originals with classic carols taken in a gospel-pop style thats recognizable if you know his work with the Funk Apostles. At an NPR holiday concert held earlier this month at the Kennedy Center in coronavirus-conscious fashion, Henry sat alone at a grand piano and played a short set including Stevie Wonders Someday at Christmas, an anthemic social justice plea, as well as two of the seven songs included on the EP. RUSSONELLO

After many years stuck in the purgatory of a bad record contract, the 29-year-old singer JoJo is making up for lost time: December Baby is her second release of 2020, following the confessional R&B of Good to Know. A mix of old classics, sleek originals, and personality-driven interstitials (does anybody carol anymore?), the modern-yet-tasteful album showcases JoJos silky voice and intuitive phrasings. Bought a last-minute plane ticket so I could see you not just through a FaceTime, she sings on Coming Home, a dreamy new song that certainly conjures the Ghost of Christmas Present. But December Baby is at its best when JoJo updates familiar songs like Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and Silent Night with her signature sass and pop-R&B cool. LINDSAY ZOLADZ

The pair of standout songs on this compilation from the Atlanta-based LVRN (Love Renaissance) imprint couldnt be more different. The wondrous, wise R&B melancholic Summer Walker leans into a damp, deliberate version of Santa Baby. And on 12 Days of Bhristmas, the charismatic female rapper OMB Bloodbath tackles the first half of the calendar, crashing a car and hitting the club and the mall, while Westside Boogie closes out with chaos, including a detour on day 10: Dont ask me bout the 10th day/got too drunk inside the daytime. CARAMANICA

Even the Leslie Odom Jr. albums that arent about the holidays almost feel like they are. On the heels of his breakthrough role playing Aaron Burr in Hamilton, Odom brought that Broadway ebullience into the studio in 2016 with a self-titled debut album. But it was Simply Christmas, released later that year, that sent him up the Billboard charts, establishing a niche beyond his stage persona. Two releases later, The Christmas Album mixes traditional gems (Little Drummer Boy, O Holy Night) with contemporary classics (George Michaels Last Christmas, Sara Bareilless Winter Song) and a couple of his own tunes (the jingle-jangly, synth-bass-driven Snow and the power ballad Heaven and Earth). RUSSONELLO

Yes, Dolly Parton admits on a hilariously hammy spoken-word bridge of the opening track, the idea for the title predated this album. Holly Dolly is just Partons second solo-billed holiday album, and her first since Home for Christmas, a collection of 10 traditional covers from 1990. The new LP features six of her own compositions: Christmas on the Square is a warm, rollicking bluegrass number; Cuddle Up, Cozy Down Christmas is a characteristically randy duet with a very game Michael Bubl. Aside from Jimmy Fallon on All I Want for Christmas, the other guests make the most of their appearances: Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus; Dollys brother Randy Parton; and, most effectively, Willie Nelson, joining with Parton to sing his own stirring 1963 holiday tear-jerker, Pretty Paper. ZOLADZ

One of the years unique holiday albums, Jordin Sparkss Cider & Hennessy is full of Christmas originals that temper tradition with modern twists. The title track is up-tempo R&B about a mother letting her hair down after a long December day, and Trapmas Medley smears Maybach and Birkin dreams over rat-tat-tat percussion. But the most radical song might be the most traditional: A Baby Changes Everything, a tender track about the trials of a teen mother (who just happens to be Mary, mother of Jesus). CARAMANICA

Maddie & Tae, the spirited duo best known for Girl in a Country Song, bring their twangy, angelic harmonies to four standards and two new songs on their festive EP We Need Christmas. The originals are a mixed bag: The mawkish We Need Christmas contorts itself to be timely (any song that contains the lyric now more than ever is probably gunning a little too hard for commercial placement), but Merry Married Christmas is a genuinely sweet ode to a newlywed couples first holiday season together. The highlight is their cover of Darlene Loves Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), which slows the tempo and draws fresh emotion from a familiar tune. ZOLADZ

Can I interest you in some Wholesome Content? Savanna Shaw and her father, Mat, became a quarantine-era YouTube success story for their acoustic duets of religious-esque songs that were pinpoint precise, verging on stern. Things are moving fast this Christmas EP is their second release in the last three months, all sung in the mode of Bocelli and Groban. Their rendition of Mary, Did You Know? is poignant and elegantly spacious, almost nervy in its conviction, and I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day has an unlikely echo of Extremes More Than Words. Throughout, Savanna sings with airy sweep, and Mat booms like a drill sergeant on Thankful, father and daughter harmonize into billowy bliss. CARAMANICA

Tinashe treats familiar Christmas songs the way hip-hop producers treat samples: as springboards for commentary, moods, tangents, associations, sonic transformations. While the track list for Comfort & Joy looks familiar from God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen to Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas Tinashe ricochets off the familiar material, adding verbal responses or surreally warping arrangements, using synthetic rhythms and her gravity-defying voice to change and challenge expectations. PARELES

Doesnt every Meghan Trainor song already sound like a Christmas song? So it should be no surprise that her originals here the frisky Naughty List, the swinging I Believe in Santa could have easily fit in on her other, yuletide-free albums. Mischievous misbehavior, hope beyond hope, belief in the impossible: Trainor, one of pops least self-conscious stars, focuses on them the other 364 days, too. CARAMANICA

The first holiday album from country musics reigning vocal assassin comes full of promise. Bombastic ballads, bring em on! Hardcore hymns, thou shalt be exalted! And yet My Gift is placid, light on melodrama. Restrained. Nice. Underwood duets with her son Isaiah, who is 5. And for most of the rest of the album she sings gently enough that he might be able to sing along. Bummer. CARAMANICA

In 1986, stars of Latin pop, mostly Mexican, recorded Eterna Navidad, a collection of Christmas songs in Spanish that became a hit across Latin America. Eterna Navidad Celebremos revisits its track list and adds a few including John Lennons Happy Xmas (War Is Over), translated as Lleg Navidad and sung by Manuel Carrasco, from Spain performed by a newer assortment of stars. The lineup features Juanes (with a hard-rock version of Little Drummer Boy) and the rapper Pitizion from Colombia along with Mexican performers including Alejandro Fernndez, Gloria Trevi, Kurt and Banda el Recodo. While the original album reveled in a contemporary, synthesizer-happy 1980s sound, the new one is more self-conscious and rootsy, placing accordions, acoustic guitars and brasses upfront, even in songs written in the United States or Britain, like Dulce Navidad (a version of Jingle Bells), Blanca Navidad (White Christmas), Diciembre (Wham!s Last Christmas) and Rodolfo El Reno (Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer), which gets turned into a cheerful cumbia by Los Tigres del Norte. Throughout the album, the voices scratchy, husky, chirpy, floating are vividly committed. Time will tell if, in 34 years, this album will sound as dated as Eterna Navidad does now. PARELES

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20 Albums That Put a New Spin on the Holidays - The New York Times

What's the state of the Line of Succession at the end of The Crown season 4 and how does it compare to today's line-up of British Royals?

What did the British Line of Succession look like at the end The Crown season 4 and how does it compare to the present day? The most recent batch of episodes following the ins and outs of the Windsor family covereda somewhat turbulent era in British history, one that saw the rise Thatcherism, an uptick in social unrest, and the entrance of Princess Diana. The season, which spannedthe years 1979 through 1990, also featured a handful marital unions and births which would shape the Royal Family for decades to come.

Creator Peter Morgan's dramatization of Britain's mostfamousclan has often been preoccupiedwith the business-like (and often coldly detached) distribution of power, influence, and titles. The hierarchy within the Royal Family also tends to play into the psychology of its members at least the versions ofcreated for the show. In The Crown season 3, after Charles wonders why he,as heir to the throne, is treated so much more harshly than his sister, Anne replies bluntly, "Because I'm irrelevant. I rather wish she would be like that with me. It would suggest I have significance." Princess Margaret's journey throughout the quartet of seasons has largely revolved around this concept, as well, as she falls further down in the Line of Succession and more responsibilities are stripped from her. In season 4, episode 7: "Hereditary Principle,"she learns that young Prince Edward will take her place as one of the six Counsellors of State, Margaret angrily confronts her sister, shouting, "I asked you for one thing. Work! A purpose, dignity!"

Related:The Crown Season 4: What Every Character Looked Like In Real Life

In the context of the show, the Line of Succession is shownas a potent force able toinfluence the lives and emotional states of its characters and Morgan appears to be investigating the very system itself; a system which often teeters between practicality and cruelty. Here's the royal pecking-orderwhen viewers left the Windsors at the end ofThe Crown season 4and a look at where they are ranked today.

Of course, as The Crown is more-or-less conceived as a deep-dive into Queen Elizabeth's historic reign, and the monarch, played by Olivia Coleman (who wrapped her two-season run on the show), is still on the throne. However, it is easy to forget that her rise to sovereign was an atypical one, relatively speaking.Queen Elizabeth II's storyis a somewhat unusual in that she is able to remember a time in which, as a young girl, she was unlikely to rise to the throne - adetail explored ina handful of The Crown's flashbacks. After all, her father King George VI only came to the throne after his brother King Edward VIII controversially abdicated it, irrevocably changing young Elizabeth'slife as well as the nation's future. Still on the throne after a whopping 63 years, Queen Elizabeth's reign hasthe distinction of being the longest in her nation's history.

Prince Charles' status as heir apparent is rather straight-forward. As the queen's first born child and son, the Prince of Wales is next in line to assume the throne. Because of his mother's historically-long tenure as ruler, he has had, correspondingly, the longest-serving heir apparent in British history. The Crown season 4features many discussions of what kind of king Charles will be and how impactful his decisions will be on his eventual rule, so it is therefore ironic that he is yet to become monarch in the present day.

The entrance of Princess Diana marked much of this season's action and intrigue, unsurprising due to the royal-turned-humanitarian's sensational popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. However, her arrival also played into the updating of the Line of Succession and this last batch of episodes sees her giving birth to Charles' two sons Prince William and Prince Harry.Prince William has been second in line to the throne since his birth and his younger brother Harry is third by the time season 4 concludes.

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The Crown's Line Of Succession After Season 4 (Compared To Today) - Screen Rant

The Las Vegas Raiders are the most confounding team in the NFL. If you dont believe me, just look at whats transpired over the past three weeks.

On November 22, Jon Grudens team pushed the defending champion Chiefs to the brink, nearly knocking off Kansas City for the second time this season before ultimately succumbing to more late-game heroics from Patrick Mahomes. Fans and analysts alike wondered aloud if these Raiders now in their third season under Gruden had finally arrived. That if somehow this 6-4 team and its potent, top-10 offense could emerge from a muddled group of AFC contenders and mount the best challenge to Mahomes and friends come playoff time. In the moment, it felt like a reasonable question. Then the next two weeks happened.

Las Vegas followed its strong showing against Kansas City with a grotesque performance against the Falcons in Week 12. Derek Carr turned the ball over four times against a resurgent Atlanta...

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The Raiders are the NFL's most confusing team - The Athletic

Could Facebook be forced to spin off WhatsApp and Instagram? Thats what the U.S. government is seeking in a long-awaited antitrust lawsuit filed Wednesday, the same day dozens of states sued the social media giant on similar grounds. Whatever happens, experts expect a long-drawn out battle that Facebook is prepared to defend vigorously and with enormous resources.

Lawmakers of both major parties are also calling for stronger oversight of Facebook and other tech-industry giants. They argue that the companies massive market power is out of control, crushing smaller competitors and endangering consumer privacy and choice. Facebook insists that its services provide useful benefits for users and that complaints about its power are misguided.

Here are some questions and answers about what the government actions against Facebook mean.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

The short answer is: We wait.

The battle initiated by the Federal Trade Commission and the states could take years to resolve. At the moment, experts think its unlikely to end in a settlement, so it may be a fight to the verdict. And the two sides could spend months arguing over issues such as document disclosure before the trial even starts. Once it does, expect a slugfest.

Facebook has been well aware of the possibility for this antitrust challenge for some time and they have the resources to make this a formidable challenge for prosecutors, said George Hay, an antitrust expert and law professor at Cornell University. The one thing that is certain is that the demand for antitrust lawyers and economists will increase.

ARE APPLE AND AMAZON NEXT?

Justice Department prosecutors are pursuing a separate antitrust case against Google, one that mirrors its case against Microsoft 20 years ago. Microsoft lost that one, although it escaped a breakup when an appellate court disagreed with the trial judges order.

Its possible that more cases could follow. Congressional investigators spent months digging into the actions of Apple and Amazon in addition to Facebook and Google, and called the CEOs of all four companies to testify. The FTC and the Justice Department reportedly have been investigating Amazon and Apple, respectively.

So no one can rule out the possibility that three or even all four of these companies could end up in court.

WILL FACEBOOK HAVE TO DIVEST INSTAGRAM AND WHATSAPP?

Government prosecutors are asking for exactly that. But it could be harder than it sounds.

The FTC argues that Facebook has engaged in a systematic strategy to eliminate its competition, including by purchasing smaller up-and-coming rivals Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014. Facebook called the governments claims revisionist history that punishes successful businesses and noted that the FTC cleared the Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions years ago.

Thats true, although experts say it doesnt really matter at least not legally. The FTC approvals years ago dont preclude re-examining or even reversing those acquisitions. Still, its complicated.

It may be that, if the court agrees with the governments theory of the case, divestiture is the only way to cure the anticompetitive harm, said Daniel A. Lyons, a law professor and antitrust expert at Boston College. But courts traditionally break up companies only as a last resort, because unwinding two merged entities is difficult. In this case, it would involve undoing over a decade of integration.

Facebook doesnt operate the three companies as separate businesses and has been integrating functions of Instagram and WhatsApp with its main platform. For instance, users can now access messages sent on either app in Facebooks Messenger app.

WOULD A BREAKUP BE GOOD FOR USERS?

In the short term: probably not. In the medium-to-long term: maybe.

Any spinoff would involve undoing years of technical integration, and thats not easy to untangle. And a split would almost inevitably create issues that could annoy users, ranging from the loss of features added by Facebook to technical problems as engineers muck around with the apps internal code.

When Facebook bought Instagram, the photo-sharing app was a fraction of its current size, with just 30 million users; today is has well over 1 billion. It offered a simple app that users really liked, although it didnt make any money. Facebook has since added a bevy of new features, such as chats, disappearing stories and the ability to shop and create and watch longer videos.

While some original Instagram users deride the additions, others have come to appreciate them and might miss them if they were to disappear.

WhatsApp has stayed truer to its origins, although Facebook has big plans underway for the messaging app as well. For instance, shopping. Facebook argues that neither app would be where they are today if it hadnt thrown vast resources at expanding features, beefing up security and moderating content.

But a post-breakup Facebook might be so busy trying to fill Instagram- and WhatsApp-sized holes that startups formerly under its shadow could spring up with their own innovative services. Which could be good for everyone.

GIVEN ALL ITS PROBLEMS, WHY IS FACEBOOK STILL GROWING?

Facebook has 2.7 billion users, most of them outside of the U.S. In 2012, when it bought Instagram, it had 1 billion. While growth has slowed, nothing not privacy concerns, not abuse and misinformation, not criticisms about the giants power and dominance, not even unproven claims about bias against conservatives have been able to reverse this trend.

Even when people declare they are leaving Facebook, they often end up returning. And there are still enough people in the world, especially outside of the U.S. and Europe, who join and make up for anyone who flounces.

Of course, acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp has also helped Facebook fold more people into its family of apps. Its easy to join Facebook and not as easy to leave both technically and because everyone you know is on there, not to mention photos, memories and the ability to keep tabs on exes and former classmates.

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Q&A: What's next for Facebook in the antitrust case? - The Associated Press

Regardless OF whether you like your IPAs dry, bitter, and pilsner-clear, or dense, soft, and opaque with polyphenol haze, youre sipping them because of how they leverage the wondrous hop flower. No other beverage so effectively captures the myriad aromas and flavors contained within those pungent catkins. Short of packing a vaporizer with a bowl of freshly rubbed hops, IPA is your best bet for experiencing the surreal expression of what hops are.

Bob Kunz, founder and brewmaster of Highland Park Brewery in Los Angeles, dropped that surreal expression line on me while discussing his approach to IPA brewing. His teams target varies with each new IPA they brewtheir output ranges from classic West Coaststyle to new-school soft and hazy ales to the more recent attempts to find a middle groundbut Kunz says his ultimate goal is to maneuver all the knobs available in the brewery to fully realize my vision.

When brewing IPA, Kunz envisions a beer that not only provides the pure experience of hops, akin to sticking your head in a fresh sack of hops, but also a beer that contains a through-line of hop expression, from the initial pour to the sensations that linger even beyond the beers finish. He wants his beers to tell the hops story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. To establish the plot, he adds hops throughout the brewing process with time-tested techniquesincluding doses of aroma hops added to the whirlpool after the boil.

In designing the brewhouse at Highland Parks second location, Kunz got help from Tim Heath. The former engineering director at Premier Stainless, Heath now helps breweries design new systems and processes. Heath breaks down the design of late-hop-friendly whirlpool vessels into three aspects: getting wort in, the geometry of the vessel itself, and getting wort out. The goals are high velocity, good hop contact, the development of a dense cone of solids, and efficiency in separating the wort from those solids.

Its hard to move a static body of liquid, and you want to get the mass moving as quickly as possible, Heath says. The swirling inside the vessel is created by a high-velocity stream of liquid at the inlet of the whirlpool. Ideally, the flow from the kettle doesnt lose any velocity at the whirlpool inlet, and the exact position, direction, and size of this port is crucial to whirlpool performance. The hardest work a pump sees in the brewhouse is pulling dense, 212F [100C] liquid out of the kettle, he says, to illustrate the importance of rugged, high-velocity pumps. Once the wort is transferred and swirling inside the tank, centripetal force pulls any solids into the center of the whirlpool and deposits them as a cone. Ports ideally positioned along the sides of the tank, just above that cone, draw off the clarified wort. Some whirlpools have a barrier between the cone and the draw-off ports to help prevent solids from leaving with the wort.

In the world of cutting-edge IPAs, little tweaks to processes can make big changes in the finished beer. Heath says hes seen brewers scale back their focus on whirlpool-hop additions in recent years. The brewers I spoke to agreed, often putting more emphasis on dry hopping. Sam Richardson from New Yorks Other Half Brewing says his late-hopping regimens for IPA are fairly minimal, rarely more than a pound per barrel. I think you see more whirlpool additions on the West Coast, he says. Hops bring bitterness to beer no matter when theyre added, but the intensity and character of that bitterness changes depending on many factors. Each hop dose adds more variables to the brewing equation, and big charges of hops in the whirlpool can quickly push the bitterness out of balanceespecially for hazy IPA brewers looking to minimize bitterness while maximizing hop impact.

You can see some negative flavors from big whirlpool additions, says Tim Sciascia, co-owner and head brewer at Cellarmaker Brewing in San Francisco. Cellarmaker is a lauded California IPA brewery whose products have evolved as the style diverged from the West Coast paradigm. Big whirlpool additions were common in the seven-year-old brewerys early IPAs, but the increased focus on dry hopping can overshadow the impact of whirlpool hops. Whirlpool additions are a big part of the complete hoppy experience but not as big a factor as we thought they would be, Sciascia says.

So why bother with whirlpool additions at all? It goes back to Kunzs through-line and brewery knobs. Adding hops post-boil, but still on the hot side, maximizes the amount of volatile aroma compounds extracted, but it minimizes the bittering that occurs at higher temperatures. It provides a sensory link between the structure of the hops added to the boil and the aromatic impact of dry hopping. If you layer hops in the process, you get a more layered character in the finished product, Kunz says. Late hopping is an opportunity to bring another layer to an IPA. Controlling the wort temperature and contact time during these hop additions are two more levers that a skilled brewer can pull to change the final flavor and aroma of their brews.

For Van Havig at Oregons Gigantic Brewing, late-hop additions are crucial even though he doesnt have a dedicated whirlpool vessel in the brewhouse. The brewery uses all whole-cone hops, making whirlpool hopping logistically impractical. Instead, the brewery whirlpools in their 15-barrel kettle and then pumps the hot wort into a 21-barrel hopback vessel, which is stuffed with 10 to 40 pounds of whole-cone hops. Not only does this hop addition provide a boost of flavor and aroma, but the hop matter acts as a filter bed to catch the trub, hot break, and hop particles from the kettle.

The process at Gigantic starts with wort just off the boil and lasts for about 70 or 80 minutes of total contact time with the hops. They have dialed in the process to make the most of the whole-cone hops, and Havig has another trick up his sleeve for when they want to focus on the more delicate volatiles in the hopsflavors and aromas that dont survive the hotter wort temperatures and longer time in the hopbackor when they want to minimize additional bitterness via isomerization: Its called dip hopping.

Havig describes dip hopping as a technique borrowed from Spring Valley Brewery in Japanpart of Kirins craft division. It combines lower-temperature late-hop additions, this time in the fermentation vessel, with exposure to active fermentation (and that brewers buzzword: biotransformation).

The Gigantic process is straightforward: load the late-hop addition into the empty fermentation vessel, purge the tank with CO2, then add some hot liquor at your target extraction temperature to create a concentrated hop tea in the tank. Hopping rates are similar to whirlpool additions0.75 to 1 lb (340 to 454 g) per barreland a half barrel of hot liquor is used for each 11 lb (5 kg) of hops. Target temperatures are 150170F (6677C), and the hops steep for about an hour before the brewers pump cooled wort into the tank and pitch the yeast. Havig says that between the lower-temperature hop extraction and the effect of active yeast on the hop matter, the aromas and flavors produced are vibrant and complex.

The processes at Gigantic touch on the biggest challenges for whirlpool-hop additions. First, of course, theres the need to have a whirlpool vessel. Gigantic gets around it with both a hopback and their novel dip-hopping method. Once the main hardware is sorted, brewers have to deal with the disparity between wort at almost 210F (99C) and the ideal extraction temperatures for whirlpool additions (150195F/6691C). There are two common methods for getting the wort into the target temperature zone: transferring through a heat exchanger or watering back the wort with cold liquor to hit the target temperature. The latter method will of course reduce the gravity of the wort, so a stronger wort must be made with this dilution in mind. Depending on the temperature of the cold liquor, a substantial volume of water may be needed to drop the temperature enough, and the mineral content of the cold liquor can impact the flavor of the cooled wort. It is a resource-inefficient method that adds more variables and complexity, but it doesnt require much extra equipment (though the mash tun must be sized to handle the higher-gravity wort production).

The heat-exchanger solution is similar at first blush, but unfiltered wort from the kettle is full of hot break, trub, and hop particles that will quickly clog a common plate-and-frame heat exchanger. A separate in-line filter is required before the heat exchanger to catch the solids before they block the flow of wort and cause significant maintenance issues.

In Portland, Oregon, Breakside Brewery has a custom shell-and-tube-style heat exchanger from JV Northwest. Not prone to clogging the way plate-and-frame units are, the shell-and-tube units have higher throughputs, an important consideration for Brewmaster Ben Edmunds. He says that the unit will drop the temperature of 10 barrels of hot wort by 30F (17C) in about 10 minutes. We could go lower, Edmunds says. Some breweries have great success with whirlpooling at around 160F [71C], but any lower than 180F [82C], and our quality assurance team gets nervous.

While more pivotal variables in recipe and process might overshadow them, whirlpool additions and other late hot-side hopping techniques provide fastidious brewers with more knobs to turn in their search for the most expressive beers. And while we may not all agree on the specifics of the perfect IPA, we can all get behind brewers developing their skills to extract the most out of every hop flower that goes into their beers.

The four-vessel brewhouse at Breakside Brewery's Slabtown Pub was specifically designed for flexibility in brewing hop-forward beers.

Adding post-boil hot-side hops to a batch of homebrew is comparatively simple. The smaller batch sizes and hop doses minimize many of the challenges of whirlpool additions at the commercial scale. Of course, you probably dont have a dedicated whirlpool vessel in your garage brewery, but here are three options for boosting the aroma of your custom IPAs.

If you use an immersion counterflow chiller in your brew kettle, you can add a hop dose while your wort is cooling. Its a time-tested method for homebrewers to add big charges of flavor- and aroma- boosting hops, but Sam Richardson from Other Half suggests using a mesh bag or some other way to contain the hop particles, lest you have a messy slurry to deal with alongside decreased wort yields.

You could repurpose a carboy or other vessel as a hopback between the kettle and your fermentation vessel (or make your own hopbacksee DIY: Make Your Own Hopback, beerandbrewing.com). Youll also need a pump to move the hot wort and a way to chill the liquid in the kettle to your target temperature (try about 180F/82C to start). Just add your dose of late hops to the hopback and rack the wort onto the hops. Give it between 45 and 60 minutes of contact time, then rerack the wort into your fermentor. Be mindful of wort temperature when you pitch your yeast thoughit might be necessary to rack to an intermediate vessel with an immersion chiller to further cool the wort.

Oregons Gigantic Brewing uses a technique called dip hopping when they want to focus on the more delicate volatiles in the hops or when they want to minimize additional bitterness via isomerization. The hardest part about adapting the process to the homebrew scale is the math, but for a 5-gallon (19-liter) batch, it works out to about 2 oz (57 g) of hops steeped in 20 fl oz (591 ml) of hot water.

Begin by loading your late-hop addition into your empty fermentation vessel. Purge the fermentor with CO2, if possible, then add hot liquor at a target extraction temperature of 150170F (6677C). Let the hops steep for about an hour before you add the cooled wort and pitch the yeast. Make sure to adjust your gravity calculations to account for the extra liquid, watch your sanitization practices, and be careful to minimize oxygen pickup from splashing water or wort.

See more here:
Hop It Like It's Hot: Whirlpools, Dip Hopping, and More Ways to Squeeze Out Aroma - Craft Beer & Brewing

LOUISVILLE, Ky. The Miller Transportation bus was idling in the parking lot at noon Thursday as Scotty Davenport reached into his car and stuffed things into an already-full duffle bag. A couple shirts were squeezed in. A belt went in the side compartment.

The journey of a coaching lifetime was about to begin.

Think of all the years in that gym, Davenport says, cocking his head toward Knights Hall a few feet away. Think of all the hoursaround the clock sometimes, literally. And think of where were going now.

Davenport paused, blue eyes sparkling above his maroon mask. It can be done, he says. It can.

Where the Bellarmine University Knights are going now is Cameron Indoor Stadium. Their first game as an NCAA Division I basketball program will be Friday night against none other than the Duke Blue Devils. After decades at the Division II level playing in nondescript, Great Lakes Valley Conference gyms around the Midwest, the DI baptism will come in the games cathedral.

Bellarmine is one of four 2020 additions to D-I, alongside Tarleton State, UC San Diego and Dixie State. That swells the ranks to 357. But only one of the newcomers is opening like this, finding an opponent suitably grand to match the ambition that got Bellarmine here.

Bellarmine University's men's basketball team prepares for its first season of Division I basketball.

Matt Stone/Courier Journal-Imagn Content Services, LLC

The school is new to Division I, but Davenport is nothe was an assistant to Hall of Famers Denny Crum and Rick Pitino at Louisville before getting the Bellarmine head-coaching job in 2005. Davenport put his connections to work when constructing the teams original schedule.

In July, the opener was going to be on different sacred ground in the sport: UCLAs Pauley Pavilion. Davenport arranged that through Bruins coach Mick Cronin, who also was on Pitinos staff at Louisville in the early 2000s. The second game was Duke, a matchup that came to be with the help of assistant coach Nolan Smithhis late father, Derek, was a standout for Louisville when Davenport was a walk-on junior varsity player in the early 1980s. A trip to Gonzaga also was on the slate.

But as everyone in college hoops knows, summer schedules became as disposable as cocktail napkins. Everything was torn apart and has been pieced back together. As recently as Wednesday morning, Davenport was still hoping the game against Duke was on for Friday, with a second game in Cameron Sunday against Howard.

To Bellarmines elation, the schedule held.

As the sun crept into the morning sky Thursday, Davenport went out for his daily run. The 62-year-old logged four miles around the Crescent Hill reservoir, puffing clouds of breath into the 27-degree air, as his mind raced. When he got to the office, Davenport wrote a thank you note to Mike Krzyzewski for scheduling the game, hoping to hand-deliver it Friday.

Then the Knights practiced Thursday morning in their own gym before embarking on the eight-hour bus ride to Durham. (They opted not to fly to minimize contact with the outside world and keep their team healthy.) After practice, Davenport read his team a text he received from a retired Louisville Metro Police officer, George Rodman, whose son and fellow officer, Nick, was killed in the line of duty in 2017:

Coach D, in this crazy world, life experiences are invaluable. When you experience a tragic loss youre always searching for a ray of sunshine in life. Please tell the team theyre more than basketball players, they are the ray of sunshine that helps us put one foot in front of the other. They give us something to be excited about! We will be watching and cheering. Have a great year!

Scotty Davenport couldnt get through reading it to his team without tears.

Bellarmine men's basketball head coach Scott Davenport watches a recent practice.

Matt Stone/Courier Journal-Imagn Content Services, LLC

If the baptism is Friday, conception came in June 2019. Thats when the small Catholic college in the Highlands neighborhood of Louisville was announced as a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference. (Davenport received a congratulatory call then from Pitino, who touted him for the Bellarmine job.) Official delivery date was July 1, 2020, when school president Susan Donovan hit send on the paperwork to NCAA offices.

On that day, the Birth of a Program, Davenport walked into a darkened Knights Hall, sat down in Section 208 and cried.

The winningest coach in Bellarmine history took over a program coming off five straight losing seasons and by year four had the Knights in the Division II tournament sweet sixteen. In 2011, Bellarmine won the D-II national championship, then made three subsequent Final Fours. Davenport built the thing, and July 1 was the emotional payoff.

The coach doesnt just wear his emotions on his sleeve; he wears them on his trousers, his collar, his forehead everywhere. North Carolina coach Roy Williams has declared himself the corniest man in college basketball, but he better make room for the new guy. The guy whose ring tone on his phone is One Shining Moment. The Louisville lifer who will tell stories for hours about growing up here and wanting to make his hometown proud.

If a guy like me can get right here, right now, he says, anyone can.

Davenport lived at 1508 Central Avenue, just a few blocks from Churchill Downs, in Louisvilles gritty South End. (There are few things he loves more than holding court in the mornings of Kentucky Derby week in the Churchill barn area.) His father, Lawrence, died of a heart attack on Halloween when Scotty was 9 years old. Raised by his mom, Evelyn, who had a sixth-grade education and worked for 43 years as a hair stylist, he rode the city bus to junior high. He was not blessed with abundant athletic talent, but had an unquenchable love of basketball and played at Iroquois High School.

That quickly channeled him into coaching after college. The first job was as a graduate assistant to Crum, then as an assistant coach for one season at Virginia Commonwealth, then back home as the head coach at Ballard High School.

In his first two seasons, Ballard was part of two epic state championship games. The Bruins, led by sophomore and future NBA star Allan Houston, lost the 1987 title in overtime to Clay County, a rural school from deep in Appalachia led by future Kentucky guard Richie Farmer. In the 1988 rematch, Ballard withstood a 51-point barrage from Farmer to gain revenge.

The second game garnered national attention and brought ESPNs Scholastic Sports America show to town to cover it. The fresh-faced reporter on the story for ESPN: Chris Fowler, the current face of college football for the network. After Ballard won, Davenport cajoled Fowler into joining the victory party at Gerstles Tavern, and convinced the owner to keep the place open all night.

Crum brought Davenport back to his staff in the mid-1990s, and Pitino wisely chose to keep him on staff for institutional memory when he took over in 2001. But that job came with one condition: Davenport had to lose weight. Pitinos famous preoccupation with his players conditioning didnt stop when it came to his staff.

Think of all the things your dad never got to see you do, Pitino said to Davenport before putting him on a workout regimen.

At the time, Davenport weighed 249 pounds. Within a year, hed lost 78. Hes kept the weight off ever since.

As with most Pitino staffers, there was always a chance for upward mobility. When Bellarmine opened, Davenport jumped at the chance to be a college head coach in his hometown. He set the same hard-work expectation for his players that had guided his life, and told them that meeting expectations might require some extra hours.

The back door [to the gym], Davenport says, if you yank it hard enough, sometimes it opens. And the ball rack, I set it right by the office door for a reason. I can tell if theyve been used.

The wins piled up, and Bellarmine found its niche in a basketball-mad city preoccupied by rival powers Kentucky and Louisville. The Knights were Switzerland. And a fun Switzerland at that.

Everyone in this town can argue every day about red and blue, and one side hating the other, Davenport says. But they can all like us. Two guys sitting in an office arguing all day can say, Lets go watch Bellarmine, and eat popcorn together and cheer for the same team.

What few people ever saw comingincluding Davenportwas Division I status. Lacrosse actually paved the way, moving to D-I in 2005. Given the basketball programs prowess, the school gradually started envisioning the entire athletic program joining the big-time.

Sitting in Section 208 on July 1, Davenport had one more reason to be emotional. A few feet away was a plaque honoring his late mother, who sat there in her wheelchair in later years for home games. If Lawrence and Evelyn could have seen him then

Bellarmine men's basketball head coach Scott Davenport smiles while talking with his team during a recent practice.

Matt Stone/Courier Journal-Imagn Content Services, LLC

On July 5, Bellarmine welcomed its first Division I basketball team back to campus. They had physicals, checked players into dorms, and had a meeting on COVID-19 protocols. Then Davenport herded all the players into Section 208 for a quick talk.

The theme: privilege and opportunity.

What about those Cincinnati soccer players? he asks, referencing a program that had just been eliminated. You think theyd like to be you? What about all the players that came before you here? You get a chance to win the first Division I game in school history, and when that happens Im going to shake the other coachs hand and then sprint to watch you.

You feel lucky now? Nobody in the history of this place is going to do what you get to do.

Davenport asks the veteran players who their opening opponent was in 2019.

Northwoods, comes the response.

Oh! He shoots back. This year its UCLA.

(Or was.)

Then he asks who the second opponent was in 2019.

Saginaw Valley.

Oh! This year its Duke.

The players dispersed to play pickup, while Davenport went into his office. He and his wife, Sharon, had spent the previous night at Costco buying snacks for the locker room, laying out practice gear, putting new name plates on the lockers. At a D-I startup, the head coachs duty list is long.

These guys left here last spring disappointed they didnt get to play in the D-II tournament, Davenport says. They come back staring UCLA and Duke in the face. You think things changed in your life in the pandemic? Ill see you and raise you one.

That was in the swelter of a Louisville July. By early December, when it was time to get on the bus and actually stare Duke in the face, everyone was wearing coatseveryone but Davenport, bustling around the parking lot in a T-shirt that said, RISE.

A son of Louisvilles gritty South End has risen, and brought a basketball program with him. Next stop is the first stop in a newborn Division I basketball programs slightly miraculous journey: Cameron Indoor Stadium.

See the article here:
The Rise of the Bellarmine Knights: How a Rick Pitino Disciple Built a Division I Basketball Program in His Hometown - Sports Illustrated

Amazons Lord of the Ringsseries just announced their second wave of casting and we are excited by the twenty (yes, 20!) new additions to the epic series set in Middle Earths second age. These actors join the first group announced in January of this year. With alumni from beloved series likes Spartacus and Westworld, the list is seriously impressive, and it also includes some new faces you havent heard of.

Firstly, the folks we know: At the top of the list is Cynthia Addai-Robinson, who I absolutely adored in Starzs Spartacus series and who also played Amanda Waller on Arrow. Another Spartacus alum, Simon Merrells, who played Ceasar on the series, is also joining the cast. Sir Lenny Henry is a well-established British actor and comedian who co-founded Comic Relief and was seen in Broadchurch andHarry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Peter Mullan, who has impressed genre audience on Westworld and more recently on Netflixs Cursed is also joining the cast, and I cant think of a better actor to play a corrupt king of men, though Im just guessing there.

Other established names joining the cast are: Maxim Baldry (Years and Years), Maxine Cunliffe (Power Rangers Megaforce), Trystan Gravelle (A Discovery of Witches), Thusitha Jayasundera (Broadchurch), Fabian McCallum (You, Me & The Apocalypse), Geoff Morrell (Grassroots), Lloyd Owen (Apollo 18), Augustus Prew (The Morning Show), Peter Tait (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, as an Orc), Alex Tarrant (The Other Side of Heaven 2: Fire of Faith), Benjamin Walker (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) and Sara Zwangobani (Home and Away)

The new batch also includes several New Zealands actors and relative newcomers for American audiences: Ian Blackburn, Leon Wadham, Kip Chapman, Anthony Crumwho we will see in Amazons upcoming series The Wilds.

What I love about this casting list isnt just that its clearly a group of talented actors, but that it is inclusive and diverse. We have actors who provide a wonderfully wide range of representation, which is something we really didnt get in the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings films.

The series will be set in Middle Earths second age, when Sauron was still hanging around with mortals pretending to be just a nice friend, and when the Island of Nmenor hadnt yet been cast into the sea (again, thanks to corruption from Sauron). So yes, theres totally a chance one of the announced actors is playing hot Sauron. This series promises to be an epic (and maybe even more adult?) story, and we cant wait to return to Middle Earth.

(via Entertainment Weekly, image: New Line Cinema)

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Amazon's Lord of the Rings Series Adds TWENTY New Cast Members - The Mary Sue

Parkour organizers are opposing the sports addition to the 2024 Olympics over a sport governance dispute with some intriguing parallels to swimming.

Parkour Earth is a group that organizes the sport of parkour, or free-running, on an international level. The groups site says it was established by an agreement of six national parkour federations in the summer of 2017. Parkour Earth describes itself as the International Federation for Parkour/Freerunning.

But Parkour Earth has been publicly critical of what it calls a hostile takeover of parkour by the international governing body for gymnastics: FIG. This AP story from 2018 details the conflict, in which FIG recognized parkour as a new discipline within gymnastics and scheduled a parkour world championship event. FIG has now begun lobbying the International Olympic Committee to get parkour added as an Olympic sport for the 2024 Olympics.

But parkour practitioners have complained about the gymnastics federations maneuvers, arguing that the gymnastics body was trying to co-opt the sport of parkour to make money off of a younger fan base.

They are completely whitewashing our sport, its integrity, its history, its lineage, its authenticity, said Parkour Earth headEugene Minoguein that 2018 story. They want to codify it, they want to monetize it. Its about money, about influence, about power, about control. Its about having a seat at the table.

The AP reports this week that Parkour Earth has urged the International Olympic Committee to reject parkours addition to the Olympics, criticizing FIGs encroachment and misappropriation of our sport.

Why am I reading about a parkour dispute on a swimming news website, one might wonder? Aside from the Olympic connection (the IOC is finalizing its program for the 2024 Olympics this week, and additions of new sports or new events within a sport are all somewhat interdependent), the parkour debate comes as swimming explores its own debate about who owns a sport on the international stage.

FINA has governed swimming on an international level since 1908. But criticism and corruption allegations leveled at that organization have come to a head recently with the introduction of the International Swimming League, which runs its meets outside of the FINA umbrella.

Established international federations like FINA or FIG (established in 1881) have accumulated enough size and power to make it difficult for smaller, less-established governing bodies like Parkour Earth to operate. Early in the International Swimming Leagues formation, FINA leaned on its authority over Olympic swimming to threaten two-year bans on athletes who competed in meets not approved by FINA among them, the Energy for Swim 2018 meet put together by the same organizers who were working to launch the ISL.

Ultimately, organizers canceled that Energy for Swim event rather than forcing athletes to decide whether to withdraw or risk an Olympic ban. But the ISL did launch the following year and just wrapped up its second competitive season.

More:
Parkour Organizers Oppose The Sport's Addition To 2024 Olympics - SwimSwam

Chris Bowie|Boonville Daily News

The Prairie Home Panthers basketball team did something that many teams can only dream about last year.

Although the loss to Jamestown in the district championship game was disappointing to say the least, the Panthers still walked away with their second straight conference title.

Of course Prairie Home wasnt half bad in the win column last year, either. At 18-9 overall and 3-1 in the Cooper County Activities Conference, the Panthers look for a three-peat in 2020-21 with two returning starters and seven returning letterwinners under head coach Trever Huth.

Im really excited about coaching these boys again this year, Huth said. Ive had them for four years through baseball season and now two seasons of basketball and I think everyone is excited for the upcoming year. After winning the conference the last two years, we look forward to trying to repeat that long with another good season. I thought we played a tough schedule last year and really performed well throughout the season. This year we have a lot of seniors and juniors, that look to lead the team throughout the year.

Huth added that the Panthers will have over 10 guys that can go out there and give quality minutes every game. He said all 10 can shoot the ball and get to the basket when they want. With that, he said, the Panthers also have several kids that play defense really well and can shut down opponents on nights.

Im very excited to start this season with another competitive schedule that will prepare us for districts, stated Huth.

As for the CCAA conference, Huth said the favorite will be either Prairie Home or Jamestown. He said Jamestown will be a tough and long team to guard this season. They always play great basketball with very athletic kids and shooters around the floor, he said.

Other than Jamestown, Calvary Lutheran will be another tough team to go along with Higbee, who is always very well coached and doesnt make very many mistakes, Huth said. Our team will look to be at the top of the stack along with Jamestown, followed by Calvary Lutheran and Higbee.

If the Panthers are going to have success this season, Huth will have to have great seasons from his two returning starters in seniors Blane Petsel and Jason Burnett.

While earning all-conference first team last season for Prairie Home, Huth said Petsel is a very active player that will need to take a big step this year and be a leader for the Panthers. He likes to play high tempo with a lot of energy, Huth said. We look for him to play great defensive and hit his open shots. With Blane on the floor, we have a lot of options that will make us very versatile.

As for Burnett, he also played a significant amount of minutes last season for Prairie Home while averaging 13.4 ppg, 2.8 rpg and 1.7 spg. Burnett also finished the season shooting 51 percent from the field, 43 percent from the three-point arc and 65 percent from the foul line.

Huth said Burnett is a very good shooter that he will look to for leadership. We need Jason to score at a high level this year, Burnett said. He is a good defender that plays hard every minute he is on the floor.

Other players that will have to help out offensively and defensively this season for Prairie Home are seniors Ty Walker, Hunter Shuffield, Dillon Alpers and Ryan Small, junior Oliver Lock and sophomore Tripp Kendrick.

Huth said Walker is a player that will be very versatile this season for the Panthers. Hes big enough to and skilled enough to play in the post, Huth said. He also can stretch the floor to the three-point line with a great jump shot to match his post game. Ty has a lot of basketball smarts and uses it to his advantage really well.

As for Shuffield, Huth said Hunter is a player that comes to practice and works hard every day. He said Shuffield has a great mid-range jump shot to go along with a great drive game. He plays good defense, very quick on the floor and will look to him for some fast break points, Huth said.

As for Alpers, Huth said Dillon is a player that plays the game hard. He said Alpers plays a lot bigger than 6-0 on the floor. He rebounds the ball well to go along with great defense, Huth said. He will be another kid that we will look to run the floor to get some quick and easy layups.

As for Lock, Huth said Oliver will look to get a lot more varsity time this year. He said Lock shoots the ball very well and just plays the game the right way. Oliver runs the offense really well and plays good defense to back it up, Huth said.

As for Small, Huth said Ryan will be player to look at varsity time this year. He said Small gets the ball to the hole well. He is a long armed kid that blocks shots well on defense, Huth said. If he plays the way we think he can play, he will help us out a lot this year.

As for Kendrick, Huth said Tripp still has some learning to do but has come a long way from last year. We will need him to play well on the defensive side of the ball and make open shots on the offensive side, Huth said. Tripp is a big kid that we look to get a lot of rebounds and be a force in the paint.

Other key additions this season for Prairie Home are Payton Pitts, Layne Brandes, Landon Case, Grant Milne.

The Prairie Home Panthers basketball team will play three games in three days to start the season. After the December 2 game at Pilot Grove, the Panthers will play Green Ridge at Bunceton on December 3 and then closeout the week on December 4 on the road against Norborne.

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Prairie Home boys like their chances of three-peating in the CCAA conference in 2020-21 - Boonville Daily News