College basketball Gators win just another game [Times photo: John Pendygraft] TAMPA -- A crescendo of hype, the larger-than-life presence of Dick Vitale and Warren Sapp, a national television audience, a record crowd and students camping out on the Sun Dome lawn made Saturday's Florida-South Florida game perhaps the most-anticipated sports event in school history. Without a leader, FSU falls to W. Carolina TALLAHASSEE -- Florida State needed a player to emerge as a leader Saturday against Western Carolina. No one stepped forward. Florida too much for USF TAMPA -- In the first half of Saturday night's game, South Florida stayed a beat behind the No. 20-ranked Lady Gators.

Hubert Mizell
Time to enjoy Winter Olympics buzz -- American style
Every four years, America gets the Winter Olympics mega woo. We get schooled on luge. Tutored on bobsled. Names of Norwegian cross-country skiers, Russian ice dancers, Swedish ski jumpers, German biathlon gunners and even U.S. speed skaters are force-fed into our consciousness.

Bucs
Dungy's staff will get heat
TAMPA -- Shortly after Mike Shula was fired as Tampa Bay's offensive coordinator at the Pro Bowl two years ago, another Bucs assistant pointed out that the maneuver probably spared the other members of the offensive staff.

A Key paradox: Success comes with a catch
TAMPA -- The cosmopolitans spilled over martini glasses as women in black cocktail dresses and men talking through their cuban stogies lined up to meet Tampa's new restaurateur.

Fans still searching for wide-open attack
What is the philosophy of the Bucs braintrust that causes it to run for cover just when it looks like a pretty good drive might culminate in a legitimate, honest-to-God offensive touchdown?

Bucs sideline
The first word

Monte & Clyde
Bucs defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin

Profiling Mike McMahon
Ed McMahon? Jim McMahon? Please, don't tell us Vince McMahon is back in football? Not the case. New Lions quarterback Mike McMahon will start his first game in the NFL against the Bucs.

Kicking back with Karl Williams
The word on Bucs receiver/returner Karl "The Truth" Williams is that he is one of the more reserved members of the team and one of the more genuine. So, on a myriad of topics, we present the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth.

College football
Heisman awarded to Crouch
NEW YORK -- Eric Crouch must be glad he didn't quit the team.

Title game is still thriving a decade later
ATLANTA -- Roy Kramer might be the subject of ire because he is the architect of the Bowl Championship Series. But few can find fault with another of his creations, the SEC Championship Game.

LSU muddles BCS with upset
ATLANTA -- There was nothing for them to do, but you could almost sense the lords of the Bowl Championship Series wanting to wave Tennessee pompoms and raise the Georgia Dome roof with their versions of Rocky Top.

Bowl matchups
BCS games

Outback must play the waiting game
TAMPA -- Want to know who No.22 Ohio State will face in the Outback Bowl on New Year's Day? So does the Outback Bowl selection committee -- but it will have a clear picture today.

Lightning/NHL
Backup bounces Lightning
OTTAWA -- At least Vinny Lecavalier scored.

No Lecavalier deal after all
OTTAWA -- In the end it came down to assets. Not enough coming in and a very big one going out.

Keenan keeps Blue Jackets out in cold
Mike Keenan is as demanding as they come, and the Panthers' new coach plays it to the hilt.

Letters
Lecavalier is not the problem
Maybe it's time for Rick Dudley to sit back in a comfortable XO Club seat and smell the prime rib. He has a goaltending tandem that's tough to beat but an offense that rivals the Bucs.

NFL
Uh-oh, it's getting late in Denver
There's a sinking feeling in Denver these days. Actually, sinking is putting it mildly. Total collapse would probably be more accurate.

NFL notebook
Lions at Bucs.

Devil Rays/Baseball
Financial constraints to limit Rays
Chuck LaMar can't increase payroll, meaning deals at the winter meetings are unlikely.

Financial restraint opens trade route
Against the backdrop of economic woes painstakingly detailed by commissioner Bud Selig, executives of the 30 teams will gather in Boston this week for the annual free-agent auction and salary dump-fest known as the winter meetings.

The heat from the hot-stove league

Olympics
A man, a medal dream, and baby makes three
Derek Parra, who lives part-time in Orlando, is focused on the Olympics -- and a child due soon.

Rings and things
A CURLING LOVE AFFAIR: With his sister, Erika, on a curling team that was preparing for the 1988 Olympics, 12-year-old Craig Brown was asked by a CNN reporter about his thoughts on the sport. Among the highlights:

Et cetera
Highs and lows

Outdoors
Daily fishing report
Red Tide in lower Tampa Bay has killed many mullet, shad, pinfish and catfish.

Now is good time for sheepshead
With large incisor teeth protruding beyond its lips and molars on the sides of its mouth, it's no wonder the sheepshead was named so.

Preps
Season to savor
Things were looking bad for Chamberlain after the first two weeks of the season. The Chiefs were 0-2 and seemed to be struggling to find some sort of rhythm heading into their first district game. But first, they had to deal with the trauma of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and endure a span of two tough district games in one week.

Bucs just keep getting better
WESLEY CHAPEL -- Gulf scratched past Wesley Chapel and Mitchell on Saturday to earn a spot in the finals of the 17-team Wesley Chapel Duals Tournament.

Mitchell's Potter makes history
SEMINOLE -- The Okeechobee girls and Miami Coral Reef boys won state championships Saturday at Seminole Lanes in a day highlighted by the first perfect game in the 30-year history of the event.

Late mistakes doom Lecanto
DUNNELLON -- There wasn't any one thing that kept Lecanto from beating Dunnellon on Saturday.

Gulf holds early lead, tops TC
TAMPA -- It was a long road trip away from home for a non-district, non-conference game that, quite frankly, didn't offer Gulf much to play for en route to the Tampa Catholic gym Saturday evening.

Cougars prove theory with title
SEMINOLE -- The formula for winning wrestling tournaments is simple in theory but difficult in practice: advance as many as possible into the finals, and consider championships bonuses.

Manatee rebuilds quickly
PINELLAS PARK -- When Bradenton Manatee 140-pounder Jeremy Nance played the national anthem on his trumpet, it marked the only time the Hurricanes blew their own horn at the Jerry Mita Invitational.