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Richmond, VA (SportsNetwork.com) - The 23rd-ranked Northern Iowa Panthers are hoping to match the best start in school history when they pay a visit to the Rams of VCU on Saturday evening. Northern Iowa comes in at 9-0, its best start as a Division I program, and a win tonight would tie the program record for the best opening to a season with the 1963-64 squad that won its first 10 games en route to a 23-4 overall record. The Panthers were most recently in action at Denver on Wednesday night, and they used a record-setting shooting performance to knock off the Pioneers, 65-55. VCU had begun the season as a member of the Top-25, and after opening with three straight wins, the team has lost three of five, with the most recent being a 74-57 setback to a ranked Virginia squad last Saturday. The Rams other defeats came against another Top-25 foe in Villanova (77-53), as well as to regional rival Old Dominion (73-67). This is the first of two straight, and four of the next five VCU will play at home. The series between these two teams is knotted at 1-1, with both meetings taking place over the last two years. VCU won at home in 2012, 77-68, while UNI returned the favor last year with the identical score. Northern Iowa set a Missouri Valley Conference record for shooting percentage in a half in Wednesdays win at Denver, as it knocked down 15-of-17 (.882) field goal attempts in the opening 20 minutes en route to a 70 percent shooting effort for the entire game. The Panthers also impressed at the foul line (19-of-23, .826), while logging a 21-13 edge on the glass. Seth Tuttle paced UNI with 12 points, Deon Mitchell and Wes Washpun added 11 each, and Paul Jesperson pitched in with 10. Tuttle has been a man possessed for the Panthers here in the early going, as he is netting 64 percent of his total shots in averaging a team-best 15.9 ppg. He also is among the club leaders in rebounds with 6.4 rpg, trailing only Marvin Singleton (6.6 rpg) in that department. Washpun (10.6 ppg, 3.3 apg) is the only other double-digit scorer for a team that is putting up 67.4 ppg while doing a masterful job at the defensive end in yielding only 55.2 ppg. Mitchell is averaging just 6.4 ppg, but he is just three points away from reaching 1,000 for his career. Poor shooting and a lack of effort both on the glass and at the defensive end proved to be the Rams undoing in their recent loss to Virginia. VCU hit only 38.3 percent of its total shots, while the Cavaliers were successful on a gaudy 68.3 percent of theirs. The Rams suffered a 35-21 rebounding deficit, and had only two players score in double figures. Trevon Graham hit for 17 points thanks to a 5-of-9 showing from 3-point range, while Melvin Johnson added 15 points. Briante Weber only finished with five points, but he handed out five assists and was credited with five of the teams 12 steals in the game. Graham continues to pace the Rams in scoring with his 17.4 ppg, but Johnson is right there at 16.9 ppg. The team as a whole is netting 74.8 ppg, but the defensive stance, which has been a mainstay of VCUs stellar effort in recent years, hasnt performed up to par as foes are generating 70.2 ppg in hitting close to half of their field goal attempts (.473), and better than 40 percent of their 3-point tries (.408). Fake NHL Jerseys . PAUL, Minn – The clock lingered for what seemed like an interminable two minutes and 51 seconds before Mark Fraser finally escaped to the bench during a wildly one-sided first period of an eventual loss to Boston. Cheap Adidas NHL Jerseys .com) - Minnesota Vikings fans would surely concede Teddy Bridgewater is not Peyton Manning. http://www.cheapnhlcustomjerseys.com/ .“I always did my stuff ahead of the deadline. 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However, arriving flights were still trying to catch up.Super Bowl Sunday got off to an inconvenient start for hundreds of passengers trying to get to Phoenix for the game.OAKLAND, Calif. -- Catcher Yan Gomes finds no issues in making a long-term commitment to the Cleveland Indians. He is confident the franchises strides in a turnaround 2013 season will carry over to future success starting this season. Gomes and the Indians completed a $23 million, six-year contract Monday after his breakout performance last season. "It goes into what it means to be in this organization. Youve got younger guys like ourselves just wanting to be here," Gomes said. "Were potentially signing a big amount of our careers. Theres not another place I would want to be with, especially from the top to the bottom here. Its the organization you want to be with." That feeling is mutual, even if Gomes provided a small sample size of the impact he can make behind the plate and with the bat. Assistant general manager Mike Chernoff and others in the front office are impressed with Gomes constant work to better learn Clevelands pitchers so they all find a comfort zone together. Gomes deal includes club options for 2020 and 21 that could bring the total to $42 million over eight years -- or even $48 million with escalators. "This is the organization I want to be with, that actually made it pretty easy," Gomes said before the scheduled opener in rain-soaked Oakland. "Im so thankful for that. My wife and I are excited to be Cleveland Indians for a while now. ... We got a little taste of the post-season last year. Thats what we play for." Gomes hit .294 with 11 homers and 38 RBIs in 88 games last season, his first with the Indians. The Indians went 49-30 when Gomes started, and manager Terry Francona went with Gomes during crucial games down the September stretch. "Its kind of been the motto of my career -- Ive always had to battle. Its not going to stop," Gomes said. "This is a huge blessing getting a contract like this, but now were talking about taking this team to another level." His new deal supersedes a previous one-year contract for 2014. The deal replaces a contract he agreed to in early March calling for a $513,000 salary in the majors and $281,000 in the minors. Gomes receives a $500,000 signing bonus, payable within 30 days of the contracts approval, and salaries of $550,000 salaary this year, $1 million in 2015, $2.dddddddddddd5 million in 2016, $4.5 million in 2017, $5.95 million in 2018 and $7 million in 2019. Cleveland has a $9 million option for 2020 with a $1 million buyout, and if that is exercised the Indians would have an $11 million option for 2021. The options may escalate by up to $3 million each based on MVP voting, Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards, and All-Star appearances. "Hes shown us that hes worth this contract," Francona said. "We have that much faith in him, and thats pretty amazing for a young kid with that kind of track record, or lack of track record, for us to buy in that much. So thats a pretty good compliment to him." Negotiations began during spring training. The deal with Gomes will keep Clevelands young core together for years to come. "You hope that these deals are win-win deals," Chernoff said. "They all want to be here. Its an environment, a culture, that people want to be a part of." The 26-year-old -- the first Brazilian-born player in the majors -- began last season at Triple-A Columbus, but after being brought up in April he stayed the rest of the year and was a major contributor as the Indians made the playoffs for the first time since 2007. Gomes was acquired from Toronto on Nov. 2, 2012. "He is the guy that, in spring training as were having these talks with him about a long-term contract, hes putting in more and more time to try to get to know the pitchers to build on where he was last year," Chernoff said. "Hes also a great organizational story. Our scouts worked really hard to identify Yan with Toronto and find a way to get him in a deal." Gomes was set to start and bat ninth in the season opener. Francona expressed his gratitude for the process. "I got a chance to maybe have a little bit of a front-row seat and it was kind of cool," he said. "Because those things just dont happen, in todays game especially, with the amount of dollars were talking about. ... To see them kind of work through it was really interesting. Its kind of a proud moment for our organization, because we got a guy that we really think a lot of tied up for a long time. Hes going to be a big part of what we do." ' ' '