• Lighter moments at practice for the NCAA Men's Final Four

    Mark Humphrey / AP

    By Meredith Birkett

     Virginia Commonwealth's Toby Veal holds up Joey Rodriguez to help him dunk during a practice for a men's NCAA Final Four semifinal college basketball game Friday, April 1, in Houston. VCU plays Butler on Saturday.

    Streeter Lecka / Getty Images

    Head coach Shaka Smart of the Virginia Commonwealth Rams huddles with his team at practice prior to the 2011 Final Four of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at Reliant Stadium on April 1, 2011 in Houston, Texas.

    See images from the NCAA Tournament

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  • Mark Dadswell / Getty Images

    Drummers perform during the Opening Ceremony for the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on October 3, 2010 in Delhi, India.

    Prakash Singh / Getty Images

    Indian athletes wave during the opening ceremony of the XIX Commonwealth Games. India's Commonwealth Games, plagued by months of chaos and embarrassing blunders, confidently threw off its troubles in a glittering opening ceremony. Prince Charles officially declared open the 11-day event which features 7,000 athletes from 71 nations competing in 17 sports. A crowd of 60,000 packed into a steamy Jawharlal Nehru Stadium to soak up the showpiece ceremony which was aimed at celebrating India's 8,000 years of history as well as its recent, headlong rush towards commercial power.

    Feng Li / Getty Images

    Entertainers perform during the Opening Ceremony for the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

    Anupam Nath / AP

    An Indian family watches a TV showing the opening ceremony for the Commonwealth Games at home in New Delhi, India, Sunday, Oct. 3, 2010.

    2010 Commonwealth Games begin

    After weeks of chaos and billions of dollars, India launches the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Read the full story here.

  • Saurabh Das/AP

    Indian Sports Minister M.S. Gill, left, holds a vuvuzela for sale, as Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi looks on at a merchandise shop of the Commonwealth Games Village in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2010.

    Revenge of the vuvuzelas

    I can maybe forgive the organizers of the Commonwealth Games for collapsing bridges, filthy accomodations, even monkeys as security guards, but vuvuzelas? No way.

  • Mustafa Quraishi / AP

    An Indian worker carries construction material past an under-construction Metro station near the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the main venue for the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India, Sept. 24, 2010. Frantic last-minute preparations for the Commonwealth Games were paying off, international sports officials said Friday, with armies of cleaners making progress at the fetid athletes' village and foreign teams announcing they planned to attend the troubled competition.

    Last minute preparations for the Commonwealth Games

    NBC Sports.com story: IOC chief says give India a chance

    Associated Press

    LONDON - India's potential for hosting future Olympics should not be written off before giving embattled New Delhi organizers a chance to pull off the Commonwealth Games with a "last-ditch" effort, IOC president Jacques Rogge said in an interview Friday.

    Rogge told The Associated Press that he hopes India can come through, just as Greek organizers overcame "doomsday scenarios" to stage the successful 2004 Athens Olympics despite severe construction delays and political wrangling.

  • Adnan Abidi/Reuters

    Indian security personnel stand guard in front of a collapsed pedestrian bridge outside the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi September 21, 2010. The perilous state of athletes' accommodation for next month's Commonwealth Games in Delhi has shocked visiting teams and prompted the Games' federation chief to demand authorities urgently fix a raft of problems. Complaints from team officials ranging from cleanliness to Internet access at the athletes' village have further embarrassed organizers of the October 3-14 Games, amid blown construction deadlines, corruption scandals and security concerns following a tourist shooting on Sunday.

    Parivartan Sharma/Reuters

    Laborers rest inside their makeshift tents outside the boundary wall of the 2010 Commonwealth Games athletes village in New Delhi September 21, 2010.

    Mansi Thapliyal/Reuters

    Laborers pull a hand cart loaded with bricks and sacks of sand in front of boards advertising the 2010 Commonwealth Games, over a flyover in New Delhi September 21, 2010.

    Parivartan Sharma/Reuters

    Rag pickers try to right their overturned cycle rickshaw near the 2010 Commonwealth Games athletes village in New Delhi September 21, 2010.

    Race to the finish

    Hosting a major international sporting event like the Olympics or the World Cup is usually a chance for a country to put its best foot forward in the eyes of the world. India's preparations for the Commonwealth Games have been plagued with problems with less than two weeks to go before the opening ceremony. The collapse of an under construction footbridge today added to the list of problems.