Paul Johnson isn't a fan of coaches leaving right after signing day

While assistant coaches leave for different positions at different schools all the time, this year we saw several coaches make sure a program’s recruiting class was secure before bolting for a new job, leaving prospects feeling betrayed.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution asked Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson about these occurrences. He didn’t hold back.

“I don’t think I would want to do business that way as a head coach,” Johnson said.

“You can’t tell me they didn’t know. I’m sure in that situation, they (head coaches told the assistants who were about to leave) said ‘OK, you need to stay with me until signing day. Let’s finish this thing up.’ Then that’s the on the individuals, too.”

While it happened all across the country, one of the more notable cases involved an Atlanta-area prospect in Johnson’s neck of the woods. Macon County (Ga.) linebacker Roquan Smith announced his commitment for UCLA on National Signing Day, but later signed with Georgia after former UCLA defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich took a job with the Atlanta Falcons.

Johnson says he would never lead a prospect on if he knew an assistant who was heavily involved in the recruitment had one foot out the door.

“I would have a hard time personally misleading guys like that,” Johnson said. “I wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t let somebody working for me do it – if we knew that they weren’t going to be here (after signing day).”

Johnson’s Yellow Jackets are coming off a big season that included 11 wins and an Orange Bowl victory over Mississippi State. The team will play its spring game on April 17.

For more Georgia Tech news, visit JacketsOnline.com.

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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!

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Report: Bitcoin won't sponsor 2015 St. Petersburg Bowl

The BitCoin St. Petersburg Bowl's place in bowl history looks to be a fleeting one.

According to CoinDesk, the 2015 St. Petersburg Bowl will no longer have Bitcoin as its title sponsor. BitPay had originally signed a three-year deal to have BitCoin be the title sponsor of the game.

BitCoin is a peer-to-peer online currency system without a central authority. Because of its structure, it's come under scrutiny, especially for its security. The value of a BitCoin fluctuates and when we wrote about the sponsorship announcement, a BitCoin was worth over $600 according to this website. Now, it's worth less than $250.

The St. Petersburg Bowl website already reflects the change in branding as BitCoin is no longer gracing the bowl's logo. The @BitCoinBowl Twitter handle is also gone if you search for it on Twitter while @StPeteBowl exists.

BitCoin is the second new-in-2014 bowl sponsor to not return for 2015. Duck Commander is no longer the title sponsor of the Independence Bowl. However the game was not played with a sponsorship contract and the name of the company was used as an attempt to leverage other companies into sponsorship agreements with the bowl.

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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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Indianapolis letting Final Four teams know it's home to IndyCar

There was an interesting-looking car involved in Michigan State's police escort in Indianapolis on Wednesday night.

The Spartans arrived for the weekend's Final Four and part of the escort entourage included a two-seater IndyCar.

Michigan State's police escort into downtown Indianapolis on Wednesday night included an Indy race car... http://ift.tt/1yChjGy

— Spartan Basketball (@MSU_Basketball) April 2, 2015

...And MSU Athletics Director Mark Hollis was in the second seat of the Indy race car...welcome to the Final Four! http://ift.tt/1BR11de

— Spartan Basketball (@MSU_Basketball) April 2, 2015

We're incredibly jealous of Hollis, though we would be itching to go faster than police escort speed. He should have hijacked that baby and driven over to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a few hot laps. It's not like the speedway is currently being used for anything.

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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MLB bullpen depth

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American League

Baltimore Orioles – Zach Britton (D. O'Day, T. Hunter)

Boston Red Sox – Edward Mujica (J. Tazawa); Koji Uehara injured (hamstring)

Chicago White Sox – David Robertson (Z. Duke, J. Petricka)

Cleveland Indians – Cody Allen (B. Shaw)

Detroit Tigers – Joe Nathan (J. Soria, B. Rondon)

Houston Astros – Luke Gregerson (C. Qualls, P. Neshek)

Kansas City Royals – Greg Holland (W. Davis, K. Herrera)

Los Angeles Angels – Huston Street (J. Smith)

Minnesota Twins – Glen Perkins (C. Fien)

New York Yankees – Dellin Betances, Andrew Miller (D. Carpenter)

Oakland Athletics – Tyler Clippard (F. Abad); Sean Doolittle injured (shoulder)

Seattle Mariners – Fernando Rodney (D. Farquhar, Y. Medina)

Tampa Bay Rays – Brad Boxberger (G. Balfour, E. Frieri); Jake McGee injured (elbow)

Texas Rangers – Neftali Feliz (T. Scheppers, R. Mendez)

Toronto Blue Jays – Brett Cecil (A. Loup, M. Castro)

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National League

Arizona Diamondbacks – Addison Reed (B. Ziegler)

Atlanta Braves – Craig Kimbrel (J. Grilli)

Chicago Cubs – Hector Rondon (P. Strop, N. Ramirez)

Cincinnati Reds – Aroldis Chapman (J. Diaz, S. LeCure)

Colorado Rockies – LaTroy Hawkins (A. Ottavino, R. Brothers)

Los Angeles Dodgers – J. Peralta, Y. Garcia, P. Rodriguez; Kenley Jansen injured (foot)

Miami Marlins – Steve Cishek (M. Dunn, AJ Ramos)

Milwaukee Brewers – Francisco Rodriguez (J. Broxton)

New York Mets – Jenrry Mejia (J. Familia); Bobby Parnell injured (elbow)

Philadelphia Phillies – Jonathan Papelbon (K. Giles)

Pittsburgh Pirates – Mark Melancon (T. Watson, A. Bastardo)

St. Louis Cardinals – Trevor Rosenthal (J. Walden)

San Diego Padres – Joaquin Benoit (K. Quackenbush)

San Francisco Giants – Santiago Casilla (S. Romo)

Washington Nationals – Drew Storen (A. Barrett)

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Celtics' Kelly Olynyk accidentally reveals nature of Dougie Hamilton's injury

When it comes to injuries in the NHL, the details are usually shrouded in mystery. Bum shoulder? That’s an “upper-body” injury. Sprained ankle? “Lower-body” injury. “Mid-body” injury and just plain old “body” injury has been used by coaches and teams to hide exactly what’s afflicting a player.

Well, no one told Boston Celtics forward Kelly Olynyk about the NHL’s injury policy, which is why he accidentally revealed the nature of Boston Bruins defenseman Dougie Hamilton’s “upper-body” injury on Wednesday.

Sporting a nice black eye after taking an elbow to the face during a morning shootaround, Olynyk responded to a question about his playing status by joking he would be playing because he didn’t want to hear any guff from his buddy Hamilton.

Via CSNNE:

“I remember two days ago I was texting Dougie Hamilton and he told me he broke his ribs and he’s trying to come back before the playoffs," Olynyk said. "I was like, ‘Man I can’t sit out, he’s gonna rip me' . . . all those hockey guys would have killed me so I had to do it.”

Last week, the Bruins head coach Claude Julien ruled Hamilton out “indefinitely” with the “upper-body” injury, putting the the remainder of his season in doubt. Boston currently holds the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference and is three points up on the Ottawa Senators.

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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy

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No further WWE plans for Ronda Rousey after her WrestleMania appearance

UFC champion Ronda Rousey sent the sports entertainment world into a tizzy with her well-publicized in-ring appearance over the weekend at WrestleMania 31.

Unfortunately for fans (of the WWE at least), they won’t be seeing Rousey in a squared circle again anytime soon.

Rousey’s agent, Brad Slater, told UFC Tonight on Wednesday that no further plans were being discussed for her to take part in any WWE programming, now, or in the future. Slater made clear that Rousey is focused and currently preparing for her looming showdown with Bethe Correia at UFC 190 later this summer in Brazil.

The news puts to rest days of speculation after Rousey teamed with legendary performer Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson on Sunday’s year-end spectacular. “Rowdy” was pulled from the crowd to confront antagonists Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. What ensued was a fun bit of back and forth between everyone, ending with “Rowdy” showcasing some of her signature judo skills on the bad guys.

After the surprise appearance, on what some may call ‘competitor’ television, speculation ran wild as to Rousey’s future intentions with the WWE. Furthering fodder were dual social media posts from The Rock and Rousey teasing at a potential pairing down the line at some point. The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported that a possible in-ring tag-team of the entertainment behemoths was even being discussed for next year’s WrestleMania 32 in Dallas, Texas.

But if the WWE is looking to get 100,000 fans in Dallas next spring, as publicly stated, they likely will not be doing it with the UFC superstar’s help.

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Anthony Davis says he'd vote for James Harden as the NBA's Most Valuable Player

You know how you can tell Anthony Davis is a good egg? Given the chance to name himself as the person he'd vote for as the NBA's 2015 Most Valuable Player — a case that's certainly got its merits, what with the league-leading Player Efficiency Rating that's tied for the ninth-best ever , the insane "clutch" numbers, the elite shot-blocking and top-notch rim protection, the fact that the only two bigs in NBA history this productive this young were Shaq and Bob McAdoo, and so on — he didn't do it. (What a nice young man.)

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Instead, during a Monday visit to "The Dan Patrick Show," the New Orleans Pelicans big man cast his hypothetical MVP ballot for Houston Rockets shooting guard James Harden.

"You know, it's tough," Davis said. "There's a lot of guys playing out of their minds. James Harden, Russ[ell Westbrook], Steph[en Curry], you know, LeBron [James]. But ... [long pause] I mean, James Harden. It'd probably have to be James. He's out of his mind. He's definitely playing out of his mind. We talk about this with my team every day. Like, every day."

Davis gave Harden his nod due in large part to the burden the bearded playmaker has had to carry in propelling the Rockets to a 50-24 record despite the laundry list of injuries that Houston has suffered this season, headlined by the right knee injury that has limited star center Dwight Howard to just 35 games this season.

"I think, with him not having Dwight for as long as he did, he's still competing, still winning games for them," Davis said. "It's unreal. We kind of say, you take one player out of each team and see who would have the most effect [to figure out] who would be MVP. I think just the way James is playing, I think he'd definitely get his way."

Not that it's an easy decision, of course.

Stephen Curry continues to stand out as the best player on not only the best team in basketball, but a historically good Golden State Warriors squad that ranks first in the league in both offensive and defensive efficiency, and is outscoring its opposition by nearly twice as much as the next-closest contender. (Plus, he's killing teams early enough to make fourth-quarter numbers sort of meaningless.)

Russell Westbrook puts up regular triple-doubles and has averaged just under 31 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds per game over the past two months for an Oklahoma City Thunder team that's been even more beset by injuries than Harden's Rockets and still has to fight tooth and nail just to scrape its way into a playoff spot.

There are a bunch of worthy candidates, all of whom merit serious consideration, as Davis understands.

"It's tough," Davis repeated. "It's going to be great to see who gets it. All three guys — James, Steph and Russ — are playing out of their minds right now. Especially Russ."

And that doesn't even factor in two veteran regulars in the MVP chase who've got great arguments, too. LeBron James ranks third in the league in scoring, seventh in assists and fifth in PER; the Cleveland Cavaliers are 46-18 with him in the lineup and 2-9 without him. Chris Paul leads one of the NBA's two-best offenses, might be the league's best perimeter defender, carried the Los Angeles Clippers through five weeks without Blake Griffin, and has scarcely gotten any recognition for it. And Davis himself, as noted above, is having one of the most remarkable individual campaigns for a man of his size and age ever, even as his likewise-injury-plagued Pelicans seem likely to find themselves outside the West's top eight.

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There seem, then, to be quite a few defensible positions when it comes to making your MVP pick. Whether enough voters share Davis' view to make Harden the first Rocket to hoist the Podoloff since Hakeem Olajuwon in 1994, though, remains to be seen.

Hat-tip to James Herbert at Eye on Basketball.

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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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