Thursdays heavy rains that caused some flooding in parts of the
area also put a soaking on the evenings high school sports
schedule, leading to the postponement of wrestling matches and
basketball games.

In seven road contests this season, the Devils have only produced one win (62-53 at USC on January 5). But there is hope as ASU split their home series with the Washington schools, beating WSU 71-67 and losing by only six points to the Huskies.

Then again, these arent the same Huskies.

Washingtons victory over ASU back in late January was part of a streak that propelled them into a tie for first place in the Pac-12 after winning six of their last seven. The worst news of all though? The Huskies (17-8) still have guard Tony Wroten, who tore up the Devils in their last outing to the tune of 22 points, six rebounds and four assists on 9 of 12 shooting. Wroten has cooled off since then, not breaking the 20-point barrier once while shooting 36.6% from the field. But Head Coach Herb Sendek still knows that hes a national freshman of the year candidate for a reason and would be wise to try to contain him accordingly.

Two things from last game going in the Devils favor is the fact that they managed to hang tough with a much larger Husky lineup, almost matching them on the glass with 34 rebounds to their 35. The other is that they held Washington (second best in the Pac-12 in PPG) to 22 first half points. Sure, they scored 56 in the second, but one has to think that the addition of Trent Lockett, who missed their first match up, will only tighten their defense.

As for Washington State game on Saturday (6:00 pm), the Devils have good reason to be more than just hesitantly confident. Round one between these two marked the first time ASU won the turnover battle all season (16 to 18) and I could definitely see that happening again, especially with how easily the Devils moved the ball against the Cougars defense (18 assists). Yes, odds are ASU wont get career-highs again like Jonathan Gillings seven assists or Chris Colvins 16 points but its also highly doubtful that Brock Motum gets anywhere close to the career-high 34 points he put up last time around too.

With as well as ASU matches up against Washington State, Im predicting another split in the series. It would be nice if the WSU game was first so the Devils could build up some confidence but then again, maybe it will be a blessing that its last. Fans of the maroon and gold certainly know that the Devils could sure use some momentum going into the last three home games of the season.

Alan King believes the extra couple of furlongs of the Betfair Novices’ Chase at Newbury on Friday can see Walkon in a better light.

This is the third attempt to stage the Grade One race officially recognised as the Scilly Isles, which should have been held at Sandown on February 4 and then at Newbury a week later but both were lost because of the weather.

King, who won the previous renewal with Medermit, is expecting a better effort from Walkon, who was the Triumph Hurdle runner-up as a juvenile but suffered injury before starting off over fences this season. He won well at Exeter but struggled behind Cue Card and For Non Stop over an extended two and a quarter miles at Newbury on December 31.

He faces a rematch with Nick Williams’ For Non Stop and Walkon’s trainer told www.alankingracing.co.uk: “Walkon runs in the Scilly Isles Chase, and the step up in trip will definitely help him.

“Everything was happening a bit fast for him up the home straight against Cue Card in the Hallowe’en Chase at the New Year meeting, causing him to make a few jumping errors, but, hopefully, he will be able to get into more of a rhythm over this longer distance.”

Nicky Henderson throws Mossley into the mix but Paul Nicholls should have a gauge against him as he was second to the champion trainer’s Join Together at Cheltenham last time.

Nicholls, who managed to win this race four times in a row, has three contenders on this occasion and Ruby Walsh has picked lightly-raced course winner Cedre Bleu over other successful novices Pacha Du Polder and Picture This.

Andrew Turnell’s experienced Micheal Flips goes back into Graded level after winning a handicap at Taunton last time and his trainer is in no doubt of what is required.

Turnell said: “I think the trip and the ground will suit him well but it’s a competitive race and he’d meet one or two of them on better terms in a handicap. However, it’s good prize money, the owner is very keen to go, and if he puts his best foot forward, he is entitled to be there.”

Donald McCain’s Our Mick, a prolific and tough grey, completes the line-up along with Evan Williams’ Lancetto.

Copyright © 2012 The Press Association. All rights reserved.

It’s always good to know what one’s regional neighbours are up to, which is why we have extended our gaze eastwards — to see what our Indian counterparts are brewing. With Mumbai’s Lakme Fashion Week right around the corner, we take a look at some of India’s contending designers and the looks/trends to watch out for.

January has been a bumper month on the sporting calendar in Bendigo, with several major sporting events helping to significantly boost the city’s economy.

Since the calendar ticked over to 2012, Bendigo has hosted the: Victorian Country Athletics Championships; Victorian Country Long Course Swimming Championships; annual Country Week cricket carnival; Victorian Agricultural Show Saddlehorse Championships; and Bendigo Pacing Cup; while the Bendigo Junior Classic basketball tournament finishes today.

The City of Greater Bendigo estimates those sporting events have brought more than 10,000 people to Bendigo and injected at least $2 million into the city’s coffers.

“It’s a very difficult thing to quantify, but conservatively we can assume somewhere in the order of $2 million would have been injected as a result of these sporting events that have been held in Bendigo in January,” council’s director of city futures Stan Liacos said yesterday.

“A local community event is fantastic for community spirit, but what these big events such as the swimming and basketball do is provide significant economic yield.

“You look at money spent on accommodation, restaurants, pubs, petrol stations and supermarkets… there’s a constant presence of additional economical spend within our community with such events.

“I would say that our sporting events alone would easily bring at least $5 million each year into our economy.”

However, the benefits of Bendigo hosting such major sporting events as those this month aren’t just economical.

“The intangible benefit, which is harder to measure, is that these events expose beautiful Bendigo to so many people, which sends the promotional message,” Liacos said.

“Usually, the vast majority of people leave Bendigo with a very positive impression, which ultimately repays with increased tourism and investment over the medium and long-term.

For the second year in a row, Doritos had the most-talked-about ads on Twitter. Doritos Super Bowl commercials generated 48,687 tweets, which was up from 34,063 tweets last year. Even sentiment was up significantly from last year when Doritos earned just a plus-6 percent Sentiment Rating which differentiates between positive and negative tweets. This year, they received a solid plus-29 percent. Still, there was something America loved even more than cat murder and child endangerment Mamp;Ms! According to MarketWatch.com, the candy, which introduced their new brown Mamp;M earned plus-41 percent positive feedback on Twitter. (Unsurprisingly, GoDaddy.com was the least liked of the evening with minus-10 percent Sentiment.)

Hamp;M couldnt quite come up with a victory, but David Beckhams briefs certainly got them noticed. They placed second overall with 43,536 tweets and a plus-14 percent  Sentiment from viewers. (That said, they had a helluva strategy, didnt they?) The bare Beckham was far from a bust, though. According to television analysts Bluefin Labs, the spot made over 190,000  media comments were made, controversial or otherwise, about the underwear ad. Meanwhile,  a more dressed-up Chrysler, Pepsi, and Chevrolet rounded out the top 5 of the top BrandBowl scorers.

So how much did the controversial pregame airings or buzz-building of the Super Bowl commercials help or hurt advertisers? BrandBowl winners Doritos wisely used their consumer-generated Crash the Super Bowl” campaign again, but it turned out it was Super Bowl newcomer Dannon who really benefited the most from their pregame strategy. According to Reuters, the yogurt company had the largest Impact Media Value percentage increase over the last two weeks thanks to the chatter they created when they announced John Stamos would be appearing in the spot for their Oikos Greek Yogurt.

On the other hand, Hondas Ferris Bueller-inspired commercial, which became available online last week (Jason Sperling, the executive vice president at RPA, the ad firm that made the ad, told EW, We wanted to get it out there and start the hype) finished third overall, behind Samsung and Coca-Cola in the greatest impact Media Value gains by pure dollars per day. ($4,869,341 for Hondas Matthew Broderick vehicle.) Then again, is anyone really talking about that ad this morning? Its fair to assume most Super Bowl parties were split by people who had already seen it, and those who hadnt and waited to see what all the fuss was about. While the plan to air their commercials before the Super Bowl wasnt a total miss for all advertisers, that strategy certainly indirectly benefited the likes of Dannon, Doritos, and Hamp;M, who used the element of surprise to generate commercial buzz.

Do you think the preemptive release of some Super Bowl commercials helped most advertisers in the long run? Or was it just the better spots that prevailed as winners? Had you already watched most of them online before the game began? Did it hinder your enjoyment of the Super Bowl at all? Share in the comments section below, PopWatchers.

Read more:
Super Bowl 2012: Best and Worst Commercials
Super Bowl commercials 2012: Your complete guide
Super Bowl ads: Should they air before the Super Bowl?

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More From Businessweek

• Lehman Crisis Veterans Say EU Shouldn’t Push Greece Too Far
• Greek Rescue in Prospect as Ministers Meet to Solve Disputes
• Greek Bailout Edges Nearer After Germany Signals Backing
• Germany Aims to Avoid Two-Step Vote on Greek Aid, Debt Swap
• Merkel, Monti, Papademos Confident on Greek Rescue, Germany Says

By Patrick Donahue

(Updates euro in sixth paragraph, adds Roesler in ninth, Chinese government in 12th. See EXT4 for more debt-crisis news.)

Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) — European finance chiefs get the second chance in a week to pull Greece back from the brink of collapse after lawmakers in Athens approved the austerity measures demanded for a financial lifeline.

Greece “will be saved in one way or another,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told newspaper Welt am Sonntag yesterday, though the country must “do its homework.”

Euro-area finance ministers will convene in Brussels on Feb. 15 for an extraordinary meeting called after they declined to ratify the 130 billion-euro ($172 billion) package in a special session on Feb. 9. Frustrated after two years of missed budget targets, the European authorities demanded Greek officials put their verbal commitments into law.

The Greek parliament passed the legislation in the early morning hours today as rioters battled police and set fire to buildings in downtown Athens. Still, Schaeuble told German lawmakers on Feb. 10 that Greece was set to miss deficit goals, suggesting that the measures may fall short.

“I’m really wondering now whether so much damage has been done that this marriage no longer can be rescued,” Erik Nielsen, chief global economist at UniCredit SpA in London, wrote in a note to clients. He predicted that the measures would be approved and that Greece will be able to make a 14.5 billion- euro bond payment on March 20.

Euro Gains

Global stocks and the euro rose after the vote in Athens. The euro gained 0.5 percent to $1.3262 at 10:21 a.m. in Berlin, edging back up toward a two-month high against the U.S. dollar that it lost on Feb. 10 after the finance ministers’ decision.

European finance ministers ended their meeting last week with Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker saying Greece must turn budget cuts into law, flesh out 325 million euros in reductions and have major party leaders sign up to the program so they don’t retreat after elections as soon as April.

Chancellor Angela Merkel plans to ask German lawmakers to vote on the next bailout on Feb. 27, pending the terms for securing aid being met by Greece. Other euro governments including the Netherlands and Finland have yet to schedule a date for parliamentary votes.

Schaeuble told legislators that current plans would leave Greece’s debt as high as 136 percent of GDP by 2020, according to two people in the meeting. That compares with the 120 percent foreseen in the second bailout, down from about 160 percent last year. Schaeuble was briefing on estimates from the so-called troika of international creditor assessing Greece’s program.

Awaiting Troika

Germany, as the largest contributor to euro-area bailouts, wants to see the latest report on Greece’s record of implementing measures compiled by the troika of the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund before a majority can be mustered in parliament, Economy Minister Philipp Roesler said today on ARD television.

The Greek vote “was a necessary condition but implementation of these measures is what counts,” Roesler said. “We’re waiting for the troika report on what progress Greece has made.”

More than two years after the debt crisis emerged in Greece, European leaders face international pressure to do more to tackle the source of contagion that threatens to drag down the global economy. Group of 20 nations have signaled they won’t reach a consensus on crisis aid for Europe via the International Monetary Fund at a Feb. 24-26 meeting of G-20 finance chiefs until Europe increases the size of its firewall.

‘Critical Juncture’

The sovereign debt crisis is at a “critical juncture,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said at a briefing in Beijing today, urging Europe to move beyond contingency measures. The European Union needs to “take active measures to respond to the European debt issue,” Liu said.

In Athens yesterday, Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos yesterday urged lawmakers to “choose the bad to avoid the worst” after Greek party leaders over the weekend backed the measures to secure the 130 billion-euro package and avoid a disorderly default.

Before the final debate started, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos appealed to Greeks to support new measures, including a 22 percent reduction in the minimum wage, smaller pensions and immediate job cuts for as many as 15,000 state workers.

“We are looking the Greek people straight in the eye with full knowledge of our historical responsibility,” he said in a televised address. “The social costs that come with these measures are contained in comparison to the economic and social catastrophe that will follow if we don’t adopt them.”

Debt-Swap Deadline

Part of the rescue included a bond swap intended to slice Greece’s debt load. The swap for new 30-year bonds with an average coupon of as low as 3.6 percent would cut 100 billion euros off more than 200 billion euros of privately held debt. Venizelos said the country needs to make a formal offer to private bondholders for a debt swap by Feb. 17.

The ECB also came under pressure to extend relief. President Mario Draghi last week left open the possibility of passing up profit on Greek debt held by the central bank, though he rejected selling it to the European bailout fund at a loss.

Greece has stumbled over the last two years in meeting reform targets in return for aid, citing a deepening recession now set to worsen. Unemployment climbed to 20.9 percent in November, as industrial production falls.

Joachim Fels, chief economist at Morgan Stanley, in a note to clients repeated his assessment that policy makers shouldn’t rule out the “really, really bad scenario” of Greece leaving the monetary union.

“I’m more than unhappy with the political cliffhanger taking place in Greece over the past few weeks,” German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told this week’s edition of Der Spiegel magazine.

–With assistance from Maria Petrakis, Marcus Bensasson, Tom Stoukas and Natalie Weeks in Athens, Simon Kennedy in London, Rainer Buergin and Brian Parkin in Berlin and Michael Forsythe in Beijing. Editors: James Hertling, Alan Crawford

To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net

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READER DISCUSSION

The Chinese vice president Xi Jinping toed the line set by the man he is to succeed as Communist Party chief in the autumn, Hu Jintao, who made a grand US state visit a year ago.

Mr Xi, who is expected to become president next year, made clear that China wants a deeper relationship with the US and even welcomes its engagement in the Asia-Pacific, as long as it respects China’s interests and concerns in its own neighborhood.

“It was a scripted trip without surprises,” said Jeff Bader, East Asia policy director during the first two years of the Obama administration.

“He obviously wasn’t here to make policy, or make decisions or alter positions on issues. He is not the No 1 yet and he doesn’t want to prejudice his chances of being No 1.”

But while Mr Xi, 58, has said little new – and did little to narrow the gaping differences that exist between the US and China on issues such as human rights – he made a conscious effort to appear less remote than the stiff and aloof Mr Hu.

“He’s more interactive than past Chinese leaders.He looks you in the eye, and you feel he’s conversing with you,” said Mr Bader, who spoke briefly with Mr Xi on Wednesday.

Mindful that Mr Xi likely will lead China for the next decade, Washington pulled out the stops to make him feel welcome.

He held a long meeting with President Barack Obama and received a 19-gun salute at the Pentagon – unprecedented for a visiting vice president.

John Park, an expert on East Asia and research fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center, said Mr Xi will face many internal challenges when he takes the helm in China and a change in leadership style won’t necessarily mean a new chapter in US-China relations.

“There’s been a lot of reading into the fact he spent some time in Iowa. Maybe that was something of a formative experience,” Mr Park said. But he added that it does not mean Xi will be a reformer.