Fast Break
Arena football
Look who’s in the af2
Former NFL quarterback Quincy Carter has signed with the Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings, an indoor team playing in the Arena Football League’s secondary circuit, af2.
Carter, 29, has not played in the NFL since 2004, when he appeared in seven games for the New York Jets. He started all 16 games for Dallas in 2003.
“I know quite a few players who have moved from the outdoor game to the AFL and af2, and even more that have moved from arena football to the outdoor game,” Carter said.
“I see af2 as a place to begin the process of getting back to the National Football League.”
Snowboarding
Holland brothers a dynamic duo
Sandpoint native Nate Holland, who competed at the 2006 Winter Olympics, won gold in the Snowboarder X at the Winter X-games in Aspen, Colo., last weekend. Now there is another Holland on the scene – Nate’s brother Patrick, who reached the semifinals of the event and ended finishing 11th.
The brothers are members of the U.S. team that will travel to compete in Japan in a World Cup race on Feb. 17.
College basketball
Iona finally in the W column
All season long, as the losses mounted without a victory, Iona basketball coach Jeff Ruland told his players to hang in and focus only on their next game.
“The kids have been great. They’ve taken it one game at a time, and kept playing hard,” said Ruland, after the Gaels ended their distinction as Division I’s only winless team by defeating Rider 69-57 Saturday in New Rochelle, N.Y.
Iona, 1-22, had lost 23 in a row dating back to the first round of last season’s NCAA tournament.
NBA
Phil Jackson: Tour guide
A funny thing happened to the Los Angeles Lakers on the way to their morning shootaround in preparation for their game Saturday night in Washington against the Wizards. They took a tour of the nation’s capital instead.
Sleepy-eyed from a 3 a.m. arrival as they prepared for their fourth game in five nights, the players and coaches clambered on the team bus expecting to head to practice. Instead, they got a 45-minute sightseeing trip.
Coach Phil Jackson told no one in advance – except for the bus driver.
“Our bus driver couldn’t narrate,” Jackson said, “because he isn’t licensed.”
The driver offered Jackson the microphone, but the coach demurred.
“Just tell them what the five-sided building is,” Jackson told him as they passed the Pentagon.