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Sports 1B Friday January 24, 2014 Pro Bowl pits teammates on teammates PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck is disappointed he's not teammates with Robert Mathis during the Pro Bowl. But the Colts linebacker says if he gets a shot at Luck during Sunday's game, he'll take it. ''I'm going to bust him,'' Mathis said Thursday after practicing for Team Rice, drawing laughs from a crowd of fans while signing autographs. Luck versus Mathis is just one of several head-to-head matchups made possible by a new Pro Bowl format modeled after fantasy sports and schoolyard pickup games. The teams were drafted by Hall of Famers Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders. Arizona wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald could line up against teammate Patrick Peterson. Chicago's wide receiver tandem of Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery might have to face off against cornerback Tim Jennings. And Kansas City quarterback Alex Smith could be sacked by linebacker Tamba Hali or defensive tackle Dontari Poe, or intercepted by safety Eric Berry. Nearly 30 of 88 players in the Pro Bowl have a reasonable chance of facing their NFL teammates on Sunday during the game at Aloha Stadium. Marshall said practicing against Jennings throughout the season has given him inside information he plans to use during the game. ''I know what he likes, I know what he doesn't like,'' Marshall said. ''I know what he bites on so I'm going to give him some double moves, give him some triple moves and I'm going to run right by him a few times.'' Asked if Jennings could say the same about him, Marshall said: ''I don't think so, man. I don't give away a lot.'' ''I'm a good actor out there,'' he said. Rice and Sanders split up the Pro Bowlers in an ''unconferenced'' format earlier in the week. Players on six NFL teams — Baltimore, the New York Jets, Houston, New Orleans, Tampa Bay and Washington — ended up with their teammates only on the same Pro Bowl side. All five New Orleans Saints players ended up on Team Rice, which he built around quarterback Drew Brees. ''I love having my guys — I know they can all play,'' Brees said Thursday. ''And I definitely don't want to go up against any of them.'' His teammate, tight end Jimmy Graham, said Brees was the mastermind behind makings sure the Saints ended up together. The players practiced in front of a military crowd on Thursday at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, next to an airfield with a Boeing C-17 Globemaster on the tarmac and service members and their families in a crowd on a track and field named for Amelia Earhart. ''You made my day,'' 12-year-old Sam Grazzini shouted toward Brees after the Saints' quarterback posed for a picture with him and signed an autograph in a spiral notebook. Sanders, after trading barbs with Rice many times in the weeks leading up to the game, practiced with his team's cornerbacks, wearing football gloves and doing positional drills. ''I feel good, man. This is fun,'' said Sanders, who has pushed to square off against Rice in the game. Rice did not appear to be at his team's practice. He was scheduled to appear at a mall opening in west Oahu with Eddie DeBartolo, Jr., the mall's developer and former 49ers owner. Central Tehama Little League The next sign-up date is 3:30-6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 29 at the Los Molinos Elementary school library. Also, there will be a sign-up sheet at Lane's Tractor in downtown Los Molinos through Jan. 31. Tryouts will be 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Feb. 8 at Mill Creek Park. Questions can be sent to centraltehama@gmail.com. Nor Cal Starz Girls Fastpitch Tryouts will be held Feb. 1 at Hooker Oak Park in Chico. 12U at 10 a.m. 14U at noon 16/18U at 2 p.m. For more information, call Tim Drury at 530-5670028 or email him at timdrury2000@gmail.com Tehama Tracker Today's schedule BOYS BASKETBALL Red Bluff at West Valley, 7:30 p.m. Corning at Central Valley, 7:30 p.m. Mercy at Los Molinos, 7:30 p.m. GIRLS BASKETBALL Mercy at Los Molinos, 6 p.m. BOYS SOCCER Foothill at Red Bluff, 4:30 p.m. Central Valley at Corning, 7:30 p.m. GIRLS SOCCER Red Bluff at Foothill, 6 p.m. WRESTLING Corning at Tim Brown Tournament in Sacramento NBA Indiana at Sacramento, 7 p.m. Minnesota at Golden State, 7:30 p.m. Sports on TV BOXING 6 p.m. ESPN2 — Light heavyweights, Thomas Williams Jr. (15-0-0) vs. Cornelius White (21-2-0), at Shelton, Wash. 7 p.m. FS1 — Heavyweights, Dominic Breazeale (8-0-0) vs. Homer Fonseca (10-6-3); featherweights, Julian Ramirez (9-0-0) vs. Derrick Wilson (10-5-2); welterweights, Antonio Orozco (18-0-0) vs. Miguel Angel Huerta (27-11-1), at Indio, Calif. NBCSN — Thabiso Mchunu (14-1-0) vs. Olanrewaju Durodola (15-1-0), for vacant NABF cruiserweight title; middleweights, Curtis Stevens (25-4-0) vs. Patrick Majewski (21-2-0), at Atlantic City, N.J. EXTREME SPORTS 7:30 p.m. ESPN — X Games, at Aspen, Colo. GOLF 8:30 a.m. TGC — LPGA, Bahamas Classic, second round, at Paradise Island, Bahamas Noon TGC — PGA Tour, Farmers Insurance Open, second round, at San Diego 1:30 a.m. TGC — European PGA Tour, Qatar Masters, third round, at Doha, Qatar MEN'S COLLEGE BASKETBALL 4 p.m. ESPNU — Rider at Manhattan 6 p.m. ESPNU — Vermont at Stony Brook MEN'S COLLEGE HOCKEY 4:30 p.m. NBCSN — Northeastern at Notre Dame NBA BASKETBALL 5 p.m. ESPN — L.A. Clippers at Chicago SOCCER 11:30 a.m. FS1 — FA Cup, fourth round, Coventry at Arsenal TENNIS Midnight ESPN — Australian Open, women's championship, at Melbourne, Australia AP file photo Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry (30) passes around Dallas Mavericks center Samuel Dalembert (1) during the second half during an NBA basketball game in November in Dallas. Curry gets All-Star starter nod NEW YORK (AP) — Stephen Curry, Kevin Love, Paul George and Kyrie Irving were voted NBA All-Stars Thursday, putting four first-time starters in the Feb. 16 game in New Orleans. Kobe Bryant was elected by fans to his 16th All-Star game, second-most in NBA history, but this one is shaping up as a kids' game. Curry, perhaps the biggest snub last season, will join him in the Western Conference backcourt. Love passed Dwight Howard in the final days of voting and will start in the frontcourt along with Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant and the Clippers' Blake Griffin. LeBron James was the leading vote-getter with 1.4 million and Miami teammate Dwyane Wade also was voted in Thursday. George, who has led Indiana to the league's best record, and New York's Carmelo Anthony are the other East forwards, and Irving will start at guard. Bryant has been limited to just six games this season because of injuries and will be out until at least early next month, but remains one of the league's most popular players with fans. Only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, with 19, was selected to more All-Star games. But even Bryant could finish only second to Curry among West guards, a remarkable turnaround for the Golden State sharpshooter. He was the highest-scoring player not chosen last year, but moved past the Clippers' Chris Paul in the third returns of balloting, then passed Bryant in the final days to finish with more than a million votes and become the Warriors' first All-Star starter since Latrell Sprewell in 1995. Love also made a late move to surge into the top three, finishing about 8,000 votes ahead of Houston center Dwight Howard to become Minnesota's first All-Star starter since Kevin Garnett in 2007. ''I was hoping for the best and preparing for the worst, and knowing the worst was I was going to still probably end up in the All-Star game (as a coach's pick) and represent the West and the Wolves and the Twin Cities.'' Love said. ''Right now, I'm very happy.'' Indiana hadn't had one since Jermaine O'Neal a year earlier, but now George will get to play for Pacers coach Frank Vogel, who has already clinched the East's coaching spot. ''It means a lot because that means the fans are really watching us as a team,'' George said. ''For us to have the No. 1 record in the league, and playing at a high level, I think the fans are starting to follow us as a whole and I think that's the biggest thing with me being a starter.'' The reserves will be announced next Thursday. Head coaches in each conference will vote for two guards, three frontcourt players and two players regardless of position. Tiger opens with a 72 on tough South Course SAN DIEGO (AP) — The best score belonged to Stewart Cink. The best round belonged to Pat Perez. Tiger Woods didn't come close to claiming either Thursday in the Farmers Insurance Open, where the seven-time champion failed to break par in the opening round for first time in his career. Cink ran off three straight birdies late in his round on the easier North Course at Torrey Pines for an 8-under 64. That gave him a one-shot lead over Gary Woodland, who also was on the North, which is more than 600 yards shorter. Perez was on the South Course, host of the 2008 U.S. Open and with greens so firm this year that it felt like a major. Perez had a 67, the best score on the South by two shots, and even more astounding is that he played bogey-free. The South played nearly four shots harder than the North. Woods, making his 2014 debut, failed to birdie any of the par 5s and had to settle for a 72. ''Even par is not too bad, but I didn't play the par 5s worth a darn today,'' Woods said. ''Obviously, that's (tantamount) to try to get any kind of scoring on the South Course. You've got to take care of the par 5s because there's not a lot of holes you can make birdie here. Subsequently, I didn't finish under par.'' Even at eight shots behind, he wasn't worried about a chance to win at Torrey for the ninth time — including a U.S. Open. The courses are so different than it's difficult to gauge where anyone stands until everyone has had a crack at both courses. The weekend rounds are on the South. ''I'm going to have to go out there and get it a little bit tomorrow to not be so far behind come Saturday or Sunday,'' Woods said. Cink did what he was supposed to do. The rough is up on the North, too, so it was important to get the ball in play. He did that, allowing him to take on some pins. ''You want to really take advantage of the North Course because it will yield to you a little bit, and the South Course will not,'' Cink said. ''I did a great job of going out there, just playing shot-by-shot, not really AP photo Tiger Woods sends a divot flying at during Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament Thursday in. getting too caught up in, 'I have to birdie these holes.' As a consequence, I actually made a few birdies and it felt great.'' Phil Mickelson, meanwhile, felt awful. He was coping with a back locked up on him, unusual for Mickelson because he doesn't have a history of back pain. It got so bad at one point that Mickelson thought about withdrawing from his hometown event, especially after his 4-iron on the par-5 18th at the North Course nearly went out-of-bounds. Mickelson used his short game to make birdie, and then made another birdie on the next hole and he scratched out a 69. ''Never thought about not starting, but around the turn I thought about maybe taking this week off and seeing if I could get a little bit better,'' he said. ''I kind of fought through the back nine and gave myself a chance.'' He described it as a muscular problem and was hopeful treatment would help. Mickelson swung easy on the North. Players have to swing for the fences on the 7,698-yard South Course, where the average score Thursday 74.45.