Lansing State Journal from Lansing, Michigan • Page C1

WEDNESDAY 05.11.16 LANSING STATE JOURNAL LSJ.COM/SPORTS SPORTS 1C Robinson got a crash course in Lions history from his roommate at Alabama, Christopher Posa, an unabashed Lions fan and walk-on offensive lineman who went to high school at Orchard Lake St. lessons were mostly about the modern-day franchise, but Robinson and he rest of the rookie class spent part of their morning Tuesday learning everything from the Ohio roots to its longstanding Thanksgiving tradition from senior vice president of ommunications Bill Keenist. thought it was pretty Robinson said. never knew any of that stuff about the Detroit Lions, about them being in Ohio. I thought it was pretty cool that Bill enlightened us about that and to know happened and the tradition came along about Thanksgiving.

Honestly, to be enlightened is pretty cool and to be into this tradition now hough the history class all- encompassing around here going to be positive offensive tackle Taylor Decker said both Decker and Robinson said it helped give them an understanding of what walking into with their new team. The Lions are coming off a 7-9 season and won a playoff game since 1991, but general manager Bob Quinn and others have said they expect to contend in the NFC North this year. know I had said it before, playing on the opposite side of the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry, I know how passionate people are up here about football, about their said Decker, a three-year starter in college at Ohio State. excited I have an appreciation for people who love football. I love football.

I ave an appreciation for that and sure the fan base on game days is LIONS Rookies get history lesson New to NFL, they learn about Ohio roots and the well-known Thanksgiving Day game tradition DAVE BIRKETT DETROIT FREE PRESS DUANE A'Shawn Robinson and his fellow rookies got ahistory lesson at camp Tuesday. WASHINGTON Andrew Romine drove in the tiebreaking run on a play that withstood a replay challenge under he new slide rule, Miguel Cabrera tacked on a pinch-hit RBI, and the Detroit Tigers overcame Ryan Zimmer- two homers to beat the Washington Nationals 5-4 on Tuesday night, ending a seven-game losing streak. Bryce Harper came up as the potential go-ahead run in the ninth, but closer Francisco Rodriguez intentionally alked the reigning NL MVP to put two men on with one out for cleanup hitter Zimmerman. Rodriguez struck out Zim- merman swinging, then got Daniel Murphy to fly out to center for his eighth save. The Tigers trailed 3-2 before scoring three runs in the sixth off Joe Ross (3-2).

After James RBI single ied it, Romine came up with the bases TIGERS 5, NATIONALS 4 ROMINE HELPS TIGERS TOP NATS NICK Wilson Ramosis tagged out at home by Detroit catcher James McCannduring the eighth inning of Tiger victory. K-Rod strikes out Zimmerman to end 7-game losing streak HOWARD FENDRICH ASSOCIATED PRESS Brandon Wood is reuniting some of Michigan hooping royalty for a hance to win a ransom. million payday, to be exact, in an event simply called The Basketball Tournament. feel like we have a good group of said Wood, who organized the partan Heroes team for the third-annual tournament. was looking through those teams, and definitely going to be some high-level competition.

Especially when that the line, going to up the compe- ition even he Basketball Tournament is a March Madness-style, one-and-done event. There will be a 64-team field that is divided into four regions the MSU entry will compete in the Chicago region from July 16 to 17 at The Shannon Center at St. Xavier University. The other regionals are in Los Angeles, Charlotte and Philadelphia. From there, the Super 16 teams remaining advance to Philadelphia University for two more rounds on July 21 and 23.

The semifinals and finals will held July 31and the finals Aug. 2 at ordham University in New York. The purse has doubled each year, rom $500,000 in 2014 to $1million last ear. Links beef jerky is a primary sponsor, and the championship ame will be shown on ESPN. A group Notre Dame alumni won the first year, while Okemos High graduate Trav is Bader was on last Overseas Elite winning team.

Anumber of former NBA players have formed teams in the open tourna- MSU HOOPS Alums reuniting for $2M ourney Ex-stars get into 64-team event across country CHRIS SOLARI LANSING ST A TE JOURNAL LANSING STATE JOURNAL FILE PHOTO Brandon Wood will lead a number of ormer MSU stars in The Basketball ournament this summer. The Spartan eroes team will be competing for a $2 million, winners-take-all purse in the March adness-style tournament. The Michigan State golf team as made it to the NCAA regionals for he first time since 2009 and the first ime under fifth-year coach Casey Lub ahn. he Spartans will try to earn a trip to the NCAA finals, something that has nly happened twice for MSU since 1971, at the regional in Stillwater, Oklahoma, eginning Monday. The partans will need to fin- i sh in the top five out of 14 teams at the three-day re- ional to reach the finals May 27-June 1in Eugene, Oregon.

been building his for a long Lub ahn said. got some uys who are experienced and have nown this is where we were going a To see them accomplish this, and have a team that could really do ome things in the next week, pretty am Weatherhead, a junior from rand Rapids, said been a gradual rocess. Lubahn had a really solid oundation of guys coming in when I was making my college said Weatherhead, who is tied with senior itch Rutledge and junior Josh Heinze or the team lead with three top-five inishes this season. came in with hree others and I knew a couple of hem were good players and he already ad good players here. built a pretty solid MSU GOLF Spartans aim for spot in NCAA finals Men head to regionals for first time since 2009 ZACH BARNES FOR THE LANSING ST A TE JOURNAL Casey Lubahn.