ese kids graduating with a very meaningful, vital degree that can benefit them for the next

CHICAGO -- It wasnt that they finally lost a road game and had their shot at a record dashed.No, what bothered the San Antonio Spurs was the disturbingly slow start.Dwyane Wade scored 20 points and the Chicago Bulls handed the Spurs their first road loss after a 13-0 start, hanging for a 95-91 victory on Thursday night.San Antonio fell one win shy of matching the NBAs best road start set by the Golden State Warriors last season. The Spurs cut an 18-point deficit midway through the third quarter to four in the closing minutes, only to come up short.Streaks are a good sign when theyre positive and theyre a bad sign when theyre negative, but at the end of the day, it doesnt give you anything else, said Pau Gasol, the former Bull.Hes more concerned that the Spurs keep struggling early in games. It could be San Antonio is still adjusting after a busy offseason that included the retirement of Tim Duncan and the addition of several new faces to complement Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge. Even so, the Spurs need that to change.Our opponents have outplayed us physically and execute-wise in most first halves for most of the season, and somehow we pull it together in the second half and play harder and smarter than we did in the first half, coach Gregg Popovich said. We got it to four, then some execution mistakes. Thats the disappointing part, that were not a very consistent team and we havent learned as a group the game is 48 minutes.Leonard scored 24 for San Antonio. Patty Mills added 16 points, hitting 4 of 6 3-pointers. Gasol had 13 points and 10 rebounds in his first game in Chicago since signing with San Antonio in the summer, but the Spurs lost a road game for the first time since Oklahoma City knocked them out in the Western Conference semifinals last season.Jimmy Butler scored all of his 13 points for Chicago in the second half. Rajon Rondo added 12 points, nine assists and 10 rebounds, and Chicago picked up the win after dropping three in a row and six of nine.The Bulls have beaten two of the NBAs best teams in the past week in the Spurs and defending champion Cleveland. But they also lost to Denver, the Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas and Detroit during this slump.Its a long season, Wade said. We have time to fix it. We could play with good teams in this league home or road, but we still have time to fix that. As long as we understand what we need to do, what we have 60 games left, whatever it is, we have a lot of games to fix that so hopefully we can.STREAK ENDSThe Spurs had won 14 straight regular season road games since Denver beat them on April 8. But after a big push down the stretch, they couldnt pull out this one.The Bulls led 65-47 midway through the third following a surge by Butler, who scored seven in a 54-second span after missing his first six shots. But the Spurs jumped back into it in the closing minutes of the quarter.They went on an 11-2 run that Mills finished with a 3 to cut it to 72-66 just under a minute into the fourth.Things got real tight when Gasol nailed a 3 to pull San Antonio within 88-84 with 3:24 left. Doug McDermott then hit three free throws after being fouled by Tony Parker, and the Bulls hung on.WELCOME BACKGasol spent two seasons with Chicago and forgot for a moment where to go when he arrived at the United Center. The six-time All-Star was halfway to the Chicago locker room when he realized his mistake and turned around. The Bulls showed a video tribute to Gasol during a timeout midway through the first quarter.TIP-INSSpurs: Parker had eight points and five assists after missing a game because of a bruised left knee. ... For the second straight game, the Spurs set a season low for first-quarter scoring. They had 17 points after managing 19 at Minnesota on Tuesday night.Bulls: McDermott scored eight points after being sidelined because of a concussion since Nov. 12. ... Butler had scored 20 or more in 15 consecutive games, the longest streak by a Bulls player since Michael Jordan did it in 24 straight during the 1995-96 season.UP NEXTSpurs: Host Brooklyn on Saturday night.Bulls: Host Miami on Saturday night. Vapormax Plus Wholesale . DAmigo scored twice in regulation and added the shootout winner as the Toronto Marlies edged the San Antonio Rampage 5-4 in American Hockey League action. Vapormax Plus Womens Ireland . The Hall of Fame defenceman told Landsberg that he believes fighting still has a place in todays game, but thinks staged fighting needs be outlawed. http://www.outletvapormaxireland.com/ . -- Anaheim Ducks captain and leading scorer Ryan Getzlaf has been scratched from Sunday nights game against the Vancouver Canucks because of an upper-body injury. Vapormax Plus White Ireland . If ever they start actually putting pictures beside words in the dictionary, the Blue Jays left-handers mug will appear beside “Consistency. Cheap Vapormax Flyknit Ireland .ca! Hi Kerry, Its another day and here we are looking at another dubious hit to the head. In this case Blue Jackets forward Brandon Dubinsky elbowed Saku Koivu in the head about a second after he dished off the puck to a teammate, knocking him unconscious. SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The NCAA announced Tuesday that 77 percent of black mens Division I basketball players who entered college in 2009 earned a degree within six years, up five points from a year earlier and a record high.That improvement helped the overall Graduation Success Rate match last years record of 86 percent of athletes graduating within six years, the NCAA said. Of all black Division I student-athletes, 74 percent graduated within six years. NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a news release the improved rates were hugely significant.Over the last 15 years, the overall Graduation Success Rate has dramatically improved, but the really good news is how college sports helps more and more minority students, especially those playing our highest-profile sport, earn a degree that will help them long after their athletics career is over, he said.The graduation rate for black basketball players is up 31 percentage points over the past 15 years, the NCAA said . Overall, all black male athletes have increased their GSR by 19 percentage points to 70 percent during that time. Black female athletes improved their rate 13 points to 84 percent over that same time.For all Division I athletes, the rate increased 12 percentage points during the past 15 years.B. David Ridpath, an associate professor and sports business and president of The Drake Group, an NCAA watchdog, said the GSR provides only a partial picture, pointing to reports of athletes at North Carolina taking courses aimed at boosting their GPAs in a department popular with athletes.Are we essentially practicing eligibility maintenance, potentially in a major with friendly faculty? he said. Are these kids graduating with a very meaningful, vital degree that can benefit them for the next 50 to 60 years of their life? In some cases, yes, this is happening. But all too often -- aand I know this because I worked in college athletics -- were essentially pushing these kids through, keeping them eligible and in cases where they do graduate they might not be graduating with the requisite skills.ddddddddddddAmong football teams in The Associated Press Top 25 , the only teams with a GSR 65 percent or lower were No. 25 Troy at 65 percent and No. 13 Oklahoma State at 50 percent. Among Top 25 mens basketball teams , No. 4 Oregon had a GSR of 38 percent, No. 25 California 40 percent, No. 5 North Carolina, No. 18 Syracuse and No. 24 Cincinnati all had GSRs of 50 percent, and No. 13 Michigan State has a GSR of 63 percent.The University of Connecticut mens basketball team had one of the lower graduation rates at 22 percent, according to the latest results. But those 2009 numbers were actually a big improvement over previous years. The teams GSR rose from just 8 percent in 2006, 17 percent the following year and 20 percent in 2008.School spokesman Mike Enright said the poor graduation rate reflects the same time period for which UConn was sanctioned by the NCAA and missed the 2013 postseason because of an another indicator, the Academic Progress Rate, which measures whether players are in good academic standing.The school has reported perfect or near perfect APR scores since 2012-13 and is expecting similar numbers this year, Enright said. He also said all current members of the basketball team are on track to graduate.The academic achievement of our mens basketball team has been outstanding the past several years and I have a full expectation that this will continue, athletic director David Benedict said.---AP Sports Writer Pat Eaton-Robb in Storrs, Connecticut, contributed to this report. ' ' '