Joe Johnson’s 35-point performance last night in the Atlanta Hawks win over the Boston Celtics was spectacular to watch but not that surprising. We wrote a feature on Johnson for SportsUnlimited’s Nov./Dec. Issue about how he has been a winner his whole life.

[Taking Off: In his third year, Joe Johnson is ready to turn the Atlanta Hawks into a contender again]

A crowd of Catholics pack into the Nationals new ballpark today for Mass with Pope Benedict XVI. Here is a video showing the ballpark's converstion into a church [The Washington Times]

News
We all remember receiving scholarship letters from obscure Division III colleges. [Baltimore Sun]

Today marks the year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings. [Richmond-Times]

According to Jerry Tipton, Billy Gillespie will remain Kentucky’s basketball coach. [Lexington-Herald]

After Pyro’s loss this Saturday, the Kentucky Derby field appears wide open. [Courier-Journal]&l ...

Charleston is not a sports city. Its only professional sports team is the Yankees Single-A club, the Charleston RiverDogs. Tourists flock to the city for the historical sites, old homes and some of the best restaurants and bars in the Southeast, not for the sporting events.

The only exception is this week.

When sumag.com was launched in the fall, the purpose of this blog was rather ambiguous. The posts were intermittent and provided links to Southeast sports news. Occasionally a column or story would appear but it was more experimentation than anything else. Over time, though, we’ve learned how to narrow our goals and expectations for this blog, and become more in tune with our reader, the Southeast sports fan.
    The Southeast sports fan…wishes college football was played year-round…religiously follo ...

Since Jim Leavitt started winning games in Tampa, he has been a part of the coaching rumor mill. Yesterday USF silenced any addtional talk about the 51-year-old coach by signing him to a seven-year, $12.6 million contract, making him the highest paid coach in the Big East conference.

"Leavitt, 51, picked up his second significant raise in little more than two years: His 2008 salary of $1.5-million is nearly triple the $537,680 he made in 2005, and that salary will increase by $100,000 each year in the deal ...

"Swede Robin Soderling fired 16 aces and put on a flawless display in defeating top seed Andy Roddick 7-6(6), 6-3, on Friday night in the quarterfinals of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships.

Soderling improved to 9-2 on the season by reaching the semifinals for the second straight week. Last week in Rotterdam he lost in the final in a third set tie-break to Frenchman Michael Llodra.