Jeff Hart

About this time a year ago, Matthew Stafford was a mess of a freshman quarterback. He wasn't always sure where to throw the ball. He was winging it with the play-calling. And his passes kept going to the wrong team. Then suddenly it all clicked.

At the end of last season, the Gainesville boys basketball team ran into one of those teams no one wanted to play at the end of the season falling to Villa Rica in the opening round of the Class AAA playoffs. This year coach Jerry Davis is hoping to be on the other side of the upset.

A solid start to the 2006-07 season for the West Hall boys basketball team was cut down just as the Spartans were ready to take off. Two players were lost to grades and another suffered a season-ending knee injury three seconds into his first game as the starting point guard. So entering the current season with just one returning starter does not scare coach Warren Sellers.

After enduring a rough 3-21 campaign last season, the West Hall girls basketball team can only go up as it prepares for the 2007-08 season. And coach Lynn Jarrett believes her young squad should be up for the challenge.

Record-wise 13-17 wasn

Despite losing his three top players from last year

Lewis Clinch has a lot to make up for, just like his team. The junior guard led Georgia Tech in scoring through the first 10 games last season, then was suspended for violating the school's academic honor code. All he could was watch the rest of the way, learning a valuable lesson about staying on top of his studies and not looking for shortcuts.

So much is right in Jamaal Anderson's life as a professional football player. Instead of taking classes as a senior at Arkansas, Anderson is a 21-year-old millionaire starting at defensive end for the Atlanta Falcons. The sudden influx of cash, however, hasn't kept the NFL's No. 8 overall draft pick from lacking accomplishment. Anderson still seeks his first sack.

Tommy Bowden worried all week that Clemson was in for yet another uninspired visit to Duke. For a while, he was right - until the offense finally gave the Tigers some breathing room. Cullen Harper's short scoring run set off a momentum-shifting burst of 16 points in 39 seconds that carried No. 25 Clemson to a 47-10 rout of the Blue Devils on Saturday.