Veteran North Melbourne forward Drew Petrie continues to enjoy the strong backing of coach Brad Scott despite his run of indifferent form.By his own admission, the 33-year-olds return of 19 goals from 15 games this season has been below expectations.But Scott left little doubt where he stands on Petries place in the AFL side when asked if he had considered dropping him.Not for one second, Scott replied.But (our forward) unit hasnt been working to the level that we would expect (of late) ... Drews only a part of that. Hes a significant part but hes only a part nonetheless.So were looking at all of our forward line players to improve and to work a bit better together but the baseline of Drews game is the way he defends and that is just incredibly underrated outside our football club. But its incredibly highly rated inside it.Any external comments about Drew are irrelevant to us.North have been in free fall recently, losing five of six games to go from top of the ladder after 12 rounds to eighth heading into round 17.The Roos face an improving Port Adelaide at Etihad Stadium on Saturday, with the Power their nearest challenger three games behind in ninth.Key trio Daniel Wells, Jarrad Waite and Nick Dal Santo return from injury and illness in a significant boost to the side.But Scott confirmed emerging forward Mason Wood will miss up to two months of football after undergoing knee surgery. Cheap Raptors Jerseys . The injury bothered Bledsoe in the Suns victory over the Clippers on Monday and he sat out the teams home loss to Memphis on Thursday night. Jose Calderon Jersey . After dropping their final six games of December, the Wild opened the new calendar year with four consecutive wins. Following a loss to Colorado on Saturday, Minnesota rebounded the following night to blank Nashville 4-0, but then had the tables turned on them Tuesday. https://www.cheapraptors.com/763a-malcolm-miller-jersey-raptors.html . Aside from the trilogy main event title fight, there are a number of intriguing matchups in the heavyweight, welterweight and lightweight divisions. Muggsy Bogues Jersey . Vettel, who has already clinched his fourth straight F1 title, enters the finale with a chance to equal Michael Schumachers 13 victories in a year and match the record of nine consecutive wins by Alberto Ascari in the 1952 and 1953 seasons. Kawhi Leonard Jersey . Houston won 3-0 to advance to face New York in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Last in the game, Di Vaio and Romero got into a shoving match with several Houston players. Romero appeared to elbow and kick Houston defender Kofi Sarkodie. Despite its 68-62 overtime win over Old Dominion ending after midnight early Thursday, No. 10 Louisville wont get any extra time to prepare for a showdown against Wichita State at 2:30 p.m. ET on Thursday (ESPN) in the Battle 4 Atlantis at Paradise Island, Bahamas.The Cardinals (4-0) will need to fit in showers, sleep, breakfast, team meetings and lunch before they return to the court 13 hours later vs. the feisty Shockers.We wont make any excuses, Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. Well just have to adjust on the fly and see what happens. But we have no prep time.The Shockers (5-0) advanced to Round 2 with a dominant 82-47 win over an outclassed LSU team Wednesday afternoon at Imperial Arena. Wichita State handed the Tigers their biggest loss since 1997 and their worst nonconference defeat since 1994.The first challenge of playing against competition of that caliber, we passed, and thats all Ill say, Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall said.The Shockers scored the first nine points, never trailed and held LSU to 28 percent shooting for the game. Wichita State led by 27 at halftime and had a 10-0 run early in the second half.They did a great job of punching first, LSU coach Johnny Jones said, and we didnt do a great job of responding there in the first half.After resting their starters in the second half during a game that was played earlier in the day, Wichita State certainly has an advantage over the Cardinals. The Shockers pressure defense could spell trouble for a Louisville team that shot 29.7 percent from the field against Old Dominion on Wednesday night.Louisvillee star sophomore Donovan Mitchell said he and his teammates were hunting shots in the first half.ddddddddddddThats not really what you want to do, especially coming out here and playing in your first real tournament like this, Mitchell said. You just have to settle down and let the game come to you.Shot selection could be a key for Louisville on Thursday. The good news for the Cardinals? They have studied the Shockers since the bracket was announced.Were familiar with them, and we watched a lot of video of them to get ready for this tournament, Louisville assistant coach Kenny Johnson said. Hopefully well have some tricks up our sleeve for them.Wichita State is off to a perfect start despite losing a pair of All-Americans, Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet, from a team that was 26-9 last season. The Shockers returned only wing Zach Brown and power forward Shaquille Morris from last seasons starting lineup.Louisville is unbeaten despite losing three starters from last season, all three of whom were among the teams top four scorers. Power forward Jaylen Johnson is averaging a team-best 13 points, and Mitchell is contributing 11.8 points per game. Point guard Quentin Snider scored a team-high 18 points against the Monarchs.The Cardinals and Shockers met in the Final Four in Atlanta in 2013. Wichita State led in the second half before a late barrage lifted Louisville into the title game, and the Cardinals went on to beat Michigan for the championship. ' ' '