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Running shoe and apparel brand Asics signed track star Jarrion Lawson to an endorsement deal Thursday.Terms were not disclosed but a source familiar with the deal told ESPN the deal was the largest signed for a male track athlete by Asics.Lawson enters this weeks Olympic trials with a shot to qualify for the Olympics in three events. He won the 100 and 200 meters and the long jump at the NCAA outdoor championship earlier this month, the first to win three events since Jesse Owens accomplished the feat in 1936.If you are looking for track endorsers to generate return on investment dollar for dollar, they wont do that, Asics America CEO Gene McCarthy said. But we are looking to make our brand younger and faster, and signing people who are younger and faster is one way to do that.Aside from the 22-year-old Lawson, Asics signed 16-year speedster Candace Hill in December to a 10-year deal.Asics, which has the second highest market share in performance running behind Nike, has spent a lot of money sponsoring marathons and marathon runners, but McCarthy said that the average age of marathon participants is 38.McCarthy said the brand will continue to invest in marathons, but said he felt the need to attempt to make the brand more youthful.At Arkansas, Lawson was required to wear Nike and he hasnt worn Asics in his career, but he said that the companys commitment to him throughout their talks comforted him, even though hed only have a couple days to get used to the products before the Olympic trials.Im comfortable with the long jump shoes and I really feel ready to go in my sprint spikes, Lawson said.Lawson said the bonuses in the Asics contract, which pay him more if he wins more, serve as extra motivation to perform.The brand is relying on a boost after one of its biggest endorsers, Lolo Jones, dropped out of the trials Wednesday. 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Emery skated the length of the ice and fought an unwilling Holtby during the third period of the Flyers 7-0 loss Friday night in Philadelphia. He was given 29 penalty minutes, including a game misconduct. But Emery did not face even a disciplinary hearing with NHL senior vice president of player safety Brendan Shanahan because rules 46. Over a two-week span, were answering the following question for college basketballs 10 best conferences: Which venue in each conference is the toughest place to play? A number of factors, not just capacity and attendance, could affect a venues placement in the order. Where does your school fall?The Pac-12 finished sixth among the six major basketball conferences in average attendance last season, but its venues run the gamut from quirky to historic to gleamingly modern, and back again. And one of them is one of the best, loudest and most intimidating gyms in all of college basketball.12. Washington State Cougars: Beasley Coliseum, opened in 1973 In a vacuum, theres no shame in an average attendance figure of 2,856. Division I hoops programs, and the gyms they play in, come in all shapes and sizes. But when youre drawing under 3,000 to an arena that seats 11,671, you might as well play in a literal vacuum.Fun fact: Beasleys construction featured one of the first-ever commercial uses of surround sound able to digitally mimic the acoustics of an opera house or a cathedral, which must have been pretty mind-blowing in 1973.11. Stanford Cardinal:?Maples Pavilion, opened in 1969 You dont need a powerful imagination to conceive of Maples Pavilion at its rowdiest. Just Google Stanford-Arizona Tiger Woods to see a home Cardinal crowd in full throat as the worlds most popular athlete fist pumps like its Sunday at Augusta. That was 2004. It somehow feels even longer, for everyone involved.Fun fact: Until a renovation in 2004, the original Maples floor was the only floor in the country that actually bounced up and down. The idea was to prevent injuries; it may have had the opposite effect.10. USC Trojans:?Galen Center, opened in 2006 Galen Center is, by all accounts, a beautiful facility, highlighted by large end windows that provide a classic view of the downtown Los Angeles skyline ... which is hardly enough to entice Angelenos to actually darken its doors. The basketball has to be good. Last season it mostly was, and the Trojans saw the 23rd-highest single-year average attendance increase (from 3,552 to 4,606) in Division I.Fun fact: Before Galen Center opened, USC had various plans -- with varying degrees of seriousness -- to build its own on-campus arena for more than 100 years. Thats legendary procrastination.9. Oregon State Beavers: Gill Coliseum, opened in 1949Oregon State just got back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1990. The program seems to be trending in the right direction under third-year coach Wayne Tinkle, so it stands to reason the Gill Coliseum atmosphere will be gathering steam in turn. Theres potential here.Fun fact: When one of the best moments of your programs past 20 years is an unlikely College Basketball Invitational title -- for which OSU hung a banner! -- fans can be forgiven for steering clear.8. Arizona State Sun Devils:?Wells Fargo Arena, opened in 1974 With sporadic exceptions (such as the James Harden era), Wells Fargo Arena has never been a particularly feared destination among Pac-12 opponents. Its layout has some built-in disadvantages; fans feel too far away from the floor. But any place that births the Curtain of Distraction unto the world deserves serious bonus points on this list.Fun fact: That was really Michael Phelps.7. UCLA Bruins:?Pauley Pavilion, opened in 1965 The most banner-bedecked arena in the country shouldnt be this much of a bummer. Late-arriving, half-filled crowds are not unusual at Pauley. Filled seats and fully engaged fans are not the norm. The facility itself is great, from the open-air concessions areas to the constant nods to the programs glittering past. But when nearly 6,000 seats are empty -- on average! -- nostalgia only goes so far.Fun fact: The original center circle that hosted so many wins from 1965 to 1982 was, much to UCLAs chagrin, privately owned memorabilia for years. In 2013, UCLA finally snagged it at an auction for a cool $325,000. Why UCLAs court design motif ever deviated from this work of sheer beauty is a mystery that may never be fully understood.6. Oregon Ducks:?Matthew Knight Arena, opened in 2011 No matter what you think of the floor design, theres little question the arena dedicated to the son of Nike CEO Phil Knight is among the most luxurious in the sport. That said, the Ducks averaged 7,466 attendees in a 12,364-seat gym last season, one in which they swept the Pac-12 titles and were a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. More than anything, MKA is tough to play in because Oregon is really good.Fun fact: Tinker Hatfield -- the iconic Nike designer responsible for most of the best sneeaker designs ever, from the Air Max 1 to the Air Jordan XI -- also designed the Ducks Deep in the Woods court, which looks cool in and of itself but cannot be forgiven for the wave of gaudy floor silhouettes it has inspired in the years since.dddddddddddd5. California Golden Bears:?Haas Pavilion, opened in 1999Cal was one of 43 Division I schools to average more than 10,000 attendees per game in 2015-16. The Bears drew 182 more fans per game than national title contender Oklahoma, which also featured player of the year Buddy Hield. Thats no mean feat for a place with great weather, endless Bay Area entertainment alternatives, and as much -- if not more -- of a cultural emphasis on elite academics and dogged political activism as sports. It helps that Haas Pavilion is an intimate hoops fieldhouse with minimal frills or distractions.Fun fact:?Its more than double the size of the old Harmon Gym, a fact which led designers to situate the last row of bleacher seats just 88 feet from the floor and completely omit sound-baffling devices of any kind.4. Utah Utes:?Jon M. Huntsman Center, opened in 1969 The downside of having a 15,000-seat gym is that you can pack in 13,000 people and still have a noticeable number of unoccupied seats. So it is at the Huntsman Center, which averaged 12,997 fans at home games in 2015-16 -- 24th-most in the country -- and still rarely boasted a sellout. Even so, the successes of sixth-year coach Larry Krystkowiaks tenure have done wonders for the atmosphere, and Utah fans require minimal encouragement in the first place.Fun fact:?Then known as the Special Events Center, it hosted the 1979 Final Four, the one where Larry Bird and Magic Johnson more or less changed the face of college basketball forever -- back when Final Fours were staged in actual basketball gyms.3. Colorado Buffaloes:?Coors Events Center, opened in 1979 An informal panel of Pac-12 people frequently mentioned Colorados home gym. Despite the Buffaloes historical lack of sustained success, the crowds are healthy, the building is loud, and the mountainous elevation -- and the burning lungs it induces -- is a sheer fact of physiology.Fun fact: The CEC doesnt have a ton of divergent touches to it, but one of its best quirks is the way the basketball hoops lower down from the rafters on long steel trellises, just like they did in high school.2. Washington Huskies:?Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion, opened in 1927 Recent years have hardly been the best of coach Lorenzo Romars 14-season tenure. The Huskies last went to the NCAA tournament in 2011. Theyve lost at least 15 games in each of the past four seasons and havent topped the .500 mark in league play since 2012. Yet Hec Edmundson remains one of the toughest venues in the Pac-12, thanks in large part to a devoted, rambunctious student section. It is also the leagues most historic venue, opened one year before Minnesotas Williams Arena and Butlers Hinkle Fieldhouse. After a major renovation in 1999, which restored much of the arenas original character (while removing huge view-obstructing pillars from the upper bowl), it shows.Fun fact: In 1974, the Grateful Dead recorded their longest-ever version of Playing in the Band -- all 46 minutes and 26 seconds of it -- in front of a soldout Hec Ed crowd, a piece of trivia the Conference of Champions marquee television analyst was surely already familiar with.1. Arizona Wildcats:?McKale Memorial Center, opened in 1973 The best sign of an elite venue is when a home loss feels like an abject disaster. In January, an 83-75 home loss to Oregon -- an otherwise forgivable defeat to a team that would go on to sweep the Pac-12 titles and earn a No. 1 tourney seed -- prompted one of the most scathing postgame news conferences of Sean Millers career and a public apology by senior forward Ryan Anderson. Why? It was the programs first loss at McKale Center in three calendar years. The Wildcats sell out 14,655 seats every night, theyre almost always good, and they almost never lose at home. Venue-wise, nowhere in the Pac-12 comes close.Fun fact: The 49-game home streak the Ducks snapped in January was the nations longest at the time, but only the third-longest in Arizona history and a distant second to the best streak (71 wins, from 1987 to 1992) since McKale opened. Throw in the Wildcats best-ever home win streak (81, from 1945 to 1952, pre-McKale) and Arizona is the only program with two of college hoops 10 longest home winning streaks on the books. Not too shabby. ' ' '