Sacramento Kings star Rudy Gay is remembered his roots, his college basketball roots that is, when it came to pimping out his $50,000 Dodge Challenger earlier this year.
The former UConn Huskies stud had his car customized with UConn logos on different parts of the vehicle as well as his own logo. He even had the car painted in a color very similar to UConn’s national flag blue main color.
Watch the below video from the Bleacher Report to see what exactly Gay had done to the car.
Paw Prints is our daily look at the happenings for the UConn Huskies football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball teams as well as the other sports the student-athletes engage in. We will do our best to bring you the links from all of the media that covers the Huskies on a DAILY basis.
Thank you for stopping by and making SOX & Dawgs your home for UConn Huskies news.
To open the links up in a new tab or window, use Control+click
UConn Football links
Video: Diaco “Crushed” By Tayo Ashiru Comments [sox & dawgs]
Video: UConn DT B.J. McBryde’s Basketball Starting Five From Team [sox & dawgs]
Breaking Bread with Bob: 12/2/14 [sox & dawgs]
UConn Huskies Depth Chart For SMU Mustangs [sox & dawgs]
Melifonwu out, Diaco talks stability [john silver – sny uconn]
UConn football notebook: Diaco says team progressing [ct post]
UConn Will Honor Its 14 Seniors Before Game With SMU [hartford courant]
Ashiru’s Father Had Harsh Words, And Diaco Was ‘Crushed’ [hartford courant]
UConn football seniors didn’t expect this ending [new haven register]
UConn Women’s Basketball links
Jefferson Kicked It Up A Notch In Win Over Green Bay [rich elliott – ct post]
Mosqueda-Lewis, Stokes Could Be On Sun’s Radar For WNBA Draft [hartford courant]
UConn notebook: Dangerfield hits 1,000 [sny uconn]
Gulf Coast Showcase makes big strides in second year [ft. myers – news-press]
UConn Men’s Basketball links
UConn Men: Update On Boatright, Calhoun And Purvis Injuries [hartford courant]
Huskies need time to heal [the day]
Other UConn related links
W. Lacrosse. Huskies To Host 2015 Big East Women’s Lacrosse Tournament [uconn huskies]
M. Ice Hockey. UConn on the Road at #7 UMass Lowell Wednesday Night [uconn huskies]
M. Ice Hockey. UConn Hopes Offense Improves For Game With UMass Lowell [hartford courant]
W. Soccer. Four Huskies Earn All-Region Honors From NSCAA [uconn huskies]
The Boston Red Sox will introduce a weekend getaway of hot stove fun for fans and families January 23-25. “Baseball Winter Weekend” at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut includes a Town Hall Meeting with Red Sox leaders, autographs with Red Sox players, and round-table discussions on a variety of baseball topics. It also includes a full baseball festival for fans of all ages and clinics for kids.
Tickets and weekend packages, including the option for discounted hotel accommodations, went on sale today at redsox.com/winterweekend. A pass for all three days is $50 per adult and $10 for children 14 and under. Toddlers under three are free. A one-day pass for Saturday, when the bulk of the activities are scheduled, is $40 per adult, $10 for children. Season Ticket Holders’ prices (for adults) are reduced by $10. Their children’s price for the three-day pass is $8.
The entire Red Sox roster, including coaches, has been invited to attend. Red Sox alumni and Wally the Green Monster will also be in attendance.
“We look for innovative ways to foster player-fan interaction,” said Red Sox President/CEO Larry Lucchino. “Having a convention of Red Sox Nation families, together with our players of today and yesterday, is an appealing concept. With pitchers and catchers scheduled to report to Spring Training just a few weeks later, it’s also a warm way on a winter weekend to look forward to the upcoming baseball season.”
The weekend will begin Friday night with the introduction of the participating players, followed by a fan-interactive Town Hall Meeting with Red Sox Principal Owner John Henry, Chairman Tom Werner, President/CEO Larry Lucchino, Executive Vice-President/General Manager Ben Cherington, and Manager John Farrell. The event will be televised by NESN.
Throughout the day on Saturday, fans will have an opportunity to meet players and receive autographs, take photographs with the three World Series Trophies, and see such Red Sox artifacts as Silver Bats, Gold Gloves, MVPs, and Cy Young Awards.
Fans can test their fastball at the Red Sox pitching booth, meet Wally the Green Monster, and attend hour-long discussions from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on such topics as “Breaking into Broadcasting,” “The Rise of Statistical Analysis,” and “1975: A Magical Season.”
Winter Weekend concludes Sunday with a series of baseball clinics on hitting, pitching, baserunning, and coaching conducted by Red Sox coaches and alumni.
“This is a very exciting event for us at Foxwoods,” said Jason Guyot, Vice President of Resort Operations for Foxwoods. “What better way to kick-start the New Year than with a 3-day winter celebration among the Red Sox Nation. The property will be awash in a sea of red and white as we host some of the greatest Red Sox baseball players of yesterday and today. This is another great example of how Foxwoods is focused on bringing fun and dynamic events for the whole family to enjoy.”
A list of players and coaches that are expected to attend as well as a preliminary itinerary of Baseball Winter Weekend events is attached. Fans can check redsox.com/winterweekend for updates in the coming weeks and follow @RedSox on Twitter for scheduling updates and announcements using #SoxWinterWeekend.
UConn LB Jefferson Ashiru (32) stops Boise State RB Jay Ajayi (27) for a loss in the second quarter at Rentschler Field on September 13, 2014.
Last week, Brian Koonz of the Hearst Connecticut Media Group wrote a story entitled “UConn football player deserved better from Diaco“.
In the article, Koonz spoke with Tayo Ashiru, the father of former UConn LB Jefferson Ashiru who had left the team after seeing his role reduced. The younger Ashiru had lost his starting role to Junior Joseph a few weeks earlier.
Here’s what the elder Ashiru had to say:
“I asked him, `Is this true? Are you tired of football? What is the story?’ I wanted to know what was going on.”
He told me, `No, Daddy. I love football.’ That’s what he told me.
“He said Diaco and the coaches were coming up to him at practice, yelling at him, and asking him, `Do you love football?! Do you love football?!’ He said, `They want to get rid of me.’ When he went back to his room, he told me he cried in a way he had never cried in his life.”
According to Diaco, who talked about it about his press conference on Tuesday, this simply wasn’t true. He said he was “crushed” when he saw the comments in the article and told everyone there what happened in his own words.
As I said to someone last week in a text exchange when I saw the original article, this was going to be a case of he said, they said. It turns out that I was right.
Having been around this football program since Day 1 of the Diaco era, I’ve never seen one thing from him or ever heard him say anything that would make me believe all of what Ashiru told his father.
Anyone who’s been to his press conferences knows he wants players who love the game. So the one thing I can be sure of is that Ashiru was asked that. Could he have embellished the rest? Sure, he could have.
Could Diaco not be telling the truth? It’s possible but I highly doubt it based on what I’ve seen and heard.
The younger Ashiru made a decision to leave that could have been rash. He could have simply finished out the season and found another school to finish up his career at. Or he could have stuck it out and fought to win his job back.
With the culture that Diaco has created there and what we’ve heard about it from the players, it seems to me that Jefferson didn’t believe in what Diaco was trying to do there.
Otherwise, how can you explain him leaving his brothers, the ones he said he loved before the season started?
Watch and/or listen below as Diaco explains his feelings and talks about what happened. UConn senior WR/QB Deshon Foxx talks about his experiences as far being given a chance.
photo credit: ©2014 Ian Bethune
It’s that time of year where MLB teams need to make a decision on their arbitration-eligible players in regards to tendering or not tendering a contract to them.
For the Boston Red Sox, they had three players in Juan Francisco, Daniel Nava and Junichi Tazawa.
Unfortunately for Francisco, he was non-tendered by the Red Sox making him a free agent. Francisco had been designated for assignment when the Red Sox signed Hanley Ramirez last week.
Tazawa should get around $2 million while Nava should get around $1.9 million according to MLB Trade Rumors.
The Red Sox also tendered contracts to 26 other players, basically the guys on the 40-man who aren’t arbitration-eligible or have long-term contracts. Their salaries will be determined by the Red Sox.
Here’s the full release from the Red Sox:
BOSTON, MA-The Boston Red Sox today announced that the club will not tender a 2015 contract to infielder Juan Francisco. As a result, he will become a free agent. Boston tendered 2015 contracts to the other 28 unsigned players on its major league roster.
Executive Vice President/General Manager Ben Cherington made the announcement.
Francisco, 27, was designated for assignment on November 25 when the Red Sox and left fielder Hanley Ramirez agreed on a four-year contract. The left-handed batter had been claimed off waivers from the Toronto Blue Jays on November 19. In 106 major league games in 2014, all for Toronto, Francisco hit .220 (63-for-287) with 16 doubles, two triples, 16 home runs, and 43 RBI. Over his big league career, the Dominican native has hit .236 (235-for-996) with 50 doubles, four triples, 48 home runs, and 152 RBI in 404 games for the Cincinnati Reds (2009-11), Atlanta Braves (2012-13), Milwaukee Brewers (2013), and Blue Jays (2014) between third base (197 games, 161 starts) and first base (87 games, 77 starts).
With this move, Boston’s 40-man roster remains at 40.
UConn Huskies head football coach Bob Diaco held his final weekly pregame press conference on Tuesday afternoon in anticipation of Saturday’s season finale against the SMU Mustangs and talked about a myriad of things.
Diaco kicked things off by congratulating Memphis on their conference title. He also said they are a great template to follow as they are in year three of their plan. He said the Memphis players believed in the plan and followed it.
As I wrote about last night, Diaco said the main story line was the penalties.
He said Memphis started with the ball on six plus field drives but only scored on two. He talked about the fumble by Tim Boyle when it was 13-3 that gave Memphis the short field.
He said the defense had defended 50 plays by halftime. Most teams run about 60-70 in a game. He said they need to do a better job on third down.
Diaco stated he was pleased with the play of LT Andreas Knappe who for the second straight week looks like an offensive lineman. He also singled out the efforts of RB Ron Johnson, WR Geremy Davis, who is back to 100% health, Brice McAllister, Julian Campenni, Graham Stewart and Jamar Summers.
He said McAllister won both of their special teams awards for the week.
He stated it’s been a long but appropriate season. He said the bad thing is they didn’t get to go to a bowl which would have given them 15 more practices and one game which they could really use.
He said there is a little extra heart beat this week for the seniors. He’d love to send them out with a win, basically end their careers with a celebration.
He then talked about SMU. He said they have a great punter as well as a good returner in Deion Sanders Jr. He said that their QBs especially Matt Davis pose a problem. Davis can run like a running back.
He said they have a talented WR corp led by Der’rikk Thompson who according to Diaco is very talented and hard to cover.
He said they have a strong front led by Jonathan Yenga and Stephon Sanders as well as Zach Wood and Mason Gentry.
He said with the season ending, he wasn’t concerned about losing the momentum of the growth. He said they’ve seen growth in all areas and everyone is upset with the record. He said they are physically and mentally better. They interact as a team much better than before. He said their skill developments are much better from when they started.
He said they need to work on the same developmental things. They are close to reaching their competitive goals and they will reach their ultimate program goals.
He stated the leadership is getting better. The sights and sounds are what you would hear from a championship program.
Next week is finals week and he’ll make sure that the players will be accommodated with what whatever they need to finish up.
He went over the offseason plan which is they’ll be on their own for six weeks, then when they get back it’ll be winter conditioning. Once signing day is over, they’ll go back to working on skill development in anticipation of spring practice which begins he thinks on March 7, 2015.
He said the recruits they are looking all fit the model of their program. It’s an excellent collection of talented, achievement oriented young men.
He stated that Obi Melifonwu is out for the final game and will undergo surgery on Friday. He’s been playing hurt and the injury against Memphis was the final straw. He expects to him to be ready for spring practice but expects Obi to be limited in contact drills.
He said that Ellis Marder has returned from his injury. He’s just needs to get back in the mindset of cutting it loose which isn’t easy after an injury.
He said he was “crushed” by the comments from Jefferson Ashiru‘s father that were posted in the CT Post last week (We’ll have more on this very shortly after this post).
Diaco said he’s gotten better with time management, prioritization of things.
He said the record is frustrating they’ve improved so much they can see the bucket of success in front of them.
He said that Chandler Whitmer has done a great job being a mentor, coach and a friend to Tim Boyle. Whitmer had said he wanted to go out the right way and he’s done that according to Diaco.
He said he likes to think of himself as a problem solver not a problem identifier and said that the problems they are having/have had will be solved.
He said of the 65 guys on the roster, five will be redshirting this year.
He gave some advice to the new SMU coach who takes over at the end of the season as well as talked about Byron Jones a bit. Basically, Jones is around when he can be.
He finished up by talking about Casey Cochran and how he’ll be honored before the game. Cochran will be done with the program but will always be family like any other player who finishes their career at UConn.
We’ll have more this week. There won’t be as much player stuff as only three players came to the media availability.
The College Football Playoff Committee has released their rankings for the sixth week of the poll and we find the Alabama Crimson Tide on top for the third straight week.
With Mississippi State losing to Ole Miss, there is a change in the top four of the poll.
The Crimson Tide are followed by the Oregon Ducks, TCU Horned Frogs and Florida State Seminoles. TCU jumped up to No. 3 while FSU falls one spot.
The Ohio State Buckeyes are on the outside looking in at No. 5.
The best part to me at least, is that the committee isn’t showing any love to Florida State who I think is very overrated.
The College Football Playoff Selection Committee will announce the Playoff Semifinal pairings and site assignments live on ESPN this Sunday, December 7 at 12:45 p.m. ET.
At 2:45 p.m. ET, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee will announce the Cotton, Fiesta and Peach Bowl pairings, as well as the final top 25 rankings. At this time, the Orange Bowl pairing will also be announced.
| College Football Playoff Rankings (Dec. 2) | |||
| RK | TEAM | REC | PREV |
| 1 | Alabama | 11-1 | 1 |
| 2 | Oregon | 11-1 | 2 |
| 3 | TCU | 10-1 | 5 |
| 4 | Florida State | 12-0 | 3 |
| 5 | Ohio State | 11-1 | 6 |
| 6 | Baylor | 10-1 | 7 |
| 7 | Arizona | 10-2 | 11 |
| 8 | Michigan State | 10-2 | 10 |
| 9 | Kansas State | 9-2 | 12 |
| 10 | Mississippi State | 10-2 | 4 |
| 11 | Georgia Tech | 10-2 | 16 |
| 12 | Ole Miss | 9-3 | 19 |
| 13 | Wisconsin | 10-2 | 14 |
| 14 | Georgia | 9-3 | 9 |
| 15 | UCLA | 9-3 | 8 |
| 16 | Missouri | 10-2 | 17 |
| 17 | Arizona State | 9-3 | 13 |
| 18 | Clemson | 9-3 | 21 |
| 19 | Auburn | 8-4 | 15 |
| 20 | Oklahoma | 8-3 | 20 |
| 21 | Louisville | 9-3 | 22 |
| 22 | Boise State | 10-2 | 23 |
| 23 | Utah | 8-4 | 25 |
| 24 | LSU | 8-4 | NR |
| 25 | USC | 8-4 | NR |
| Dropped from rankings: | |||
| Minnesota 18, Marshall 24 | |||
The NCAA women’s basketball rankings are out and the South Carolina Gamecocks remain on top of the AP Poll while the Notre Dame Fighting Irish reign supreme in the USA Today Coaches Poll.
South Carolina is followed by Notre Dame, the UConn Huskies, Texas Longhorns and Texas A&M Aggies in the AP Poll. In the Coaches Poll, Notre Dame is followed by South Carolina, UConn, Texas and Texas A&M.
There is no one from the American Athletic Conference joining UConn in the top 25 of either poll. The South Florida Bulls are the only team from the conference among the others receiving votes in both polls.
| AP Top 25 | USA Today Coaches Poll | ||||||
| RK | TEAM | REC | PTS | RK | TEAM | REC | PTS |
| 1 | South Carolina (20) | 5-0 | 854 | 1 | Notre Dame (19) | 7-0 | 780 |
| 2 | Notre Dame (13) | 7-0 | 845 | 2 | South Carolina (10) | 6-0 | 771 |
| 3 | Connecticut (1) | 5-1 | 788 | 3 | Connecticut (1) | 5-1 | 739 |
| 4 | Texas (1) | 5-0 | 771 | 4 | Texas (2) | 5-0 | 689 |
| 5 | Texas A&M | 7-0 | 751 | 5 | Texas A&M | 7-0 | 683 |
| 6 | North Carolina | 7-0 | 688 | 6 | North Carolina | 7-0 | 598 |
| 7 | Louisville | 7-0 | 613 | 7 | Louisville | 7-0 | 587 |
| 8 | Stanford | 5-2 | 605 | 8 | Duke | 5-1 | 574 |
| 9 | Duke | 5-1 | 580 | 9 | Stanford | 5-2 | 570 |
| 10 | California | 6-0 | 513 | 10 | Maryland | 6-1 | 458 |
| 11 | Baylor | 4-1 | 505 | 11 | Baylor | 4-1 | 457 |
| 12 | Nebraska | 6-0 | 470 | 12 | California | 6-0 | 436 |
| 13 | Kentucky | 6-1 | 462 | 13 | Kentucky | 6-1 | 421 |
| 14 | Tennessee | 4-2 | 455 | 14 | Tennessee | 4-2 | 407 |
| 15 | Maryland | 6-1 | 421 | 15 | Nebraska | 6-0 | 399 |
| 16 | Michigan St | 4-1 | 367 | 16 | Michigan St | 4-1 | 281 |
| 17 | Oregon St | 5-0 | 303 | 17 | Oklahoma St | 5-1 | 242 |
| 18 | Rutgers | 6-0 | 224 | 18 | Oregon St | 5-0 | 220 |
| 19 | Georgia | 7-0 | 187 | 19 | Iowa | 6-1 | 164 |
| 20 | Oklahoma St | 5-1 | 184 | 20 | Rutgers | 6-0 | 155 |
| 21 | Syracuse | 4-1 | 165 | 21 | West Virginia | 4-1 | 147 |
| 22 | Iowa | 6-1 | 156 | 22 | Syracuse | 5-1 | 139 |
| 23 | Mississippi St | 6-0 | 151 | 23 | Georgia | 7-0 | 136 |
| 24 | West Virginia | 4-1 | 107 | 24 | Depaul | 4-2 | 90 |
| 25 | Depaul | 4-2 | 70 | 25 | Mississippi St | 6-0 | 85 |
| 25 | Arkansas | 6-0 | 70 | – | |||
| Dropped from rankings: | Dropped from rankings: | ||||||
| none | James Madison 23 | ||||||
| Others receiving votes: | Others receiving votes: | ||||||
| South Florida 17, Green Bay 16, Arizona St 9, Northwestern 6, Princeton 5, Washington St 5, James Madison 3, Florida St 2, St. John’s 2, Minnesota 2, Western Kentucky 1, Washington 1, Chattanooga 1 | James Madison 71, South Florida 18, Arkansas 16, St. John’s 16, Florida St 12, Green Bay 8, Western Kentucky 7, Seton Hall 5, Northwestern 5, Vanderbilt 4, Dayton 3, Arizona St 3, George Washington 1, Washington 1, Albany 1, Arkansas-Little Rock 1 | ||||||
For the final time this season before Tuesday’s press conference for Saturday’s final game of the 2014 season against the SMU Mustangs, UConn Huskies head coach Bob Diaco has released his final depth chart of the season and there are a few changes to it from last week’s depth chart against Memphis.
The first change is that Ryan Crozier is listed as the starter at left guard now with Gus Cruz the backup. The second change is Tim Boyle is listed as the starter with Chandler Whitmer moving to the backup.
Both of those changes we’ve already seen on the field over the last few weeks.
Obi Melifonwu is out for the final game of the season and will undergo shoulder surgery on Friday. Junior Lee takes over as the starter and he’ll be backed up by Ellis Marder who is now healthy.
Brandon Steg makes an appearance on the two deep for his final college game as the backup to Junior Joseph.
Offense
LT: 71 Richard Levy (RSo., 6-6, 305)
74 Paul Nwokeji (RJr., 6-6, 287)
LG: 63 Ryan Crozier (Fr., 6-4, 297)
65 Gus Cruz (RSr., 6-4, 296)
C: 73 Alex Mateas (RSr., 6-4, 309)
70 Kyle Bockeloh (RSo., 6-3, 284)
RG: 60 Tyler Samra (Jr., 6-2, 288)
77 Trey Rutherford (Fr., 6-5, 289)
RT: 53 Andreas Knappe (RSo., 6-8, 300)
62 Thomas Hopkins (RFr., 6-6, 298)
TE: 49 Sean McQuillan (RJr., 6-3, 239)
80 Tommy Myers (RFr., 6-5, 238)
WR: 85 Geremy Davis (RSr., 6-3, 216)
8 Thomas Lucas (RFr., 6-2, 198) OR
5 Noel Thomas (So., 6-1, 187)
QB: 14 Tim Boyle (So., 6-3, 216)
10 Chandler Whitmer (RSr., 6-0, 192)
FB: 34 Jazzmar Clax (RFr., 5-11, 241)
36 Matt Walsh (So., 6-1, 227)
TB: 22 Arkeel Newsome (Fr., 5-7, 180) OR
3 Ron Johnson (Fr., 6-0, 217)
44 Max DeLorenzo (RJr., 5-11, 210) OR
26 Joshua Marriner (RFr., 5-9, 193)
WR: 4 Deshon Foxx (Sr., 5-10, 172)
1 Dhameer Bradley (So., 5-9, 166)
Defense
DE: 95 Kenton Adeyemi (RJr., 6-4, 268)
57 Cole Ormsby (RFr., 6-3, 248)
NG: 90 Julian Campenni (RJr., 6-0, 299)
92 Mikal Myers (RSo., 6-1, 312)
DT: 97 B.J. McBryde (RSr., 6-5, 304) OR
93 Folorunso Fatukasi (RFr., 6-4, 307)
DE: 47 Reuben Frank (RSr., 6-4, 246)
10 Cameron Stapleton (RFr., 6-4, 226)
LB: 46 Marquise Vann (RJr., 6-0, 226)
55 Jon Hicks (RSo., 6-2, 236)
LB: 39 Junior Joseph (RFr., 6-1, 242)
41 Ellis Marder (RSr., 6-2, 221)
LB: 2 Graham Stewart (RJr., 6-1, 227)
59 Vontae Diggs (Fr., 6-4, 207)
CB: 21 Jamar Summers (Fr., 6-0, 180)
7 John Green (RSo., 5-10, 179) OR
11 Javon Hadley (So., 5-10, 164)
S: 22 Andrew Adams (RJr., 6-0, 197)
28 Jordan Floyd (RSo., 6-0, 206)
S: 23 Junior Lee (RJr., 6-0, 214)
19 Ellis Marder (RSo., 6-1, 193)
CB: 6 Jhavon Williams (RSo., 5-10, 190)
33 Brice McAllister (Fr., 5-11, 191)
Special Teams
K: 17 Bobby Puyol (RSo., 5-10, 174)
94 Chase Briley (Fr., 5-11, 165)
P: 42 Justin Wain (RSo., 6-3, 204)
94 Chase Briley (Fr., 5-11, 165)
HL: 82 Blake Feagles (RFr., 5-10, 205)
42 Justin Wain (RSo., 6-3, 204)
KR: 22 Arkeel Newsome (Fr., 5-7, 180)
26 Joshua Marriner (RFr., 5-9, 193)
PR: 4 Deshon Foxx (Sr., 5-10, 172)
18 Brian Lemelle (So., 5-10, 165)
LS: 66 Dominick Manco (RJr., 6-0, 213)
67 Adam Mueller (RSr., 6-1, 212)
There was a nice light moment today when UConn Huskies defensive tackle B.J. McBryde was asked by John Silver of the Journal Inquirer and SNY UConn about his starting five for basketball from the football team.
If you didn’t know, McBryde was a basketball star in high school and didn’t start playing football until his senior year. Five years later, he’s ready to graduate and pursue an NFL career.
Watch and/or listen below as McBryde and Silver talk about his starting five for basketball from the team. You’ll never believe who McBryde says should be his point guard.