Desmond Conner of the Hartford Courant spoke with former UConn Huskies offensive lineman Zach Hurd earlier on Tuesday and Hurd told him he wasn’t playing in the Senior Bowl on Saturday due to a calf injury.

“Yeah, I hurt my calf a couple of weeks ago and I just want to be OK for the [NFL] Combine,” Hurd said. “I’ll be ready, definitely.”

Even though Hurd won’t be playing, UConn will still have linebacker Lawrence Wilson representing them there as he looks to improve his stock for the 2011 NFL Draft.

Here’s what Scouts, Inc. (Day 1, Day 2 – ESPN Insider Links) have had to say about Wilson during the first two practices of the week.

Day 1 – Monday

Tough start
Connecticut LB Lawrence Wilson looked stiff laterally during the bag work. He slipped on the bag at one point.

Day 2 – Tuesday

Basic instincts
UConn’s Lawrence Wilson is showing great instincts. He sniffed out the screen and stuffed Maryland’s Da’Rel Scott in the backfield. Then on the next play he diagnosed the reverse and made the play.

Not in a zone
UConn LB Lawrence Wilson showed good instincts earlier, but he didn’t look as sure of himself dropping into zone coverage. He got caught drifting with one route that took him out of position and allowed another receiver to come in behind him.

Strugging to catch the ball
Linebackers Mason Foster (UCLA), Mark Herzlich (Boston College) and Lawrence Wilson (Connecticut) are fighting the ball during individual drills. Ohio State’s Ross Homan made a clean catch on one pass, but dropped the next one.

You can catch Wilson and the rest of the nation’s top seniors in the Senior Bowl on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. on the NFL Network. I’ll have an update again on Thursday.

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 some of the other sports. We will do our best to bring you the links from all of the media that covers the Huskies on a daily basis. As always, links can be found by clicking on the read more button below.

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

It’s gameday for the UConn Huskies men’s basketball team as they are in Milwaukee, WI to take on the Marquette Golden Eagles at the Bradley Center. Tip is scheduled for 9 p.m. and the game will be televised locally here in snowy Connecticut on SNY. If you can’t catch the television broadcast, you can always listen to the game on the WTIC/UConn Radio Network.

UConn Men’s Basketball links

Shabazz Napier’s Shoes … And His Scoring [Mike Anthony – Hartford Courant]

Jim Calhoun To Coach 1,200th Game [Mike Anthony – Hartford Courant]

A Few Thoughts From Jim Calhoun [Mike Anthony – Hartford Courant]

Mike also answered a few questions in his mailbag [Mike Anthony – Hartford Courant]

Huskies living the High Life [Neill Ostrout – CT Post]

It is YouTube Christmas for UConn fans [The UConn Blog]

UConn versus Marquette preview [UConn Huskies Basketball]

Marquette a Big East reality check for No. 5 UConn [CT Post]

UConn Faces Challenge At Marquette [Hartford Courant]

Schedule gets more familiar with Big East [New Haven Register]

Okwandu starting to provide solid contributions to Huskies [Norwich Bulletin]

Huskies back in their own BE neighborhood [The Day]

Huskies moving forward [The Republican-American]

Marquette will try to slow UConn’s Walker [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

UConn Women’s Basketball links

Practices Will Still Be Tough, Even Though UConn Is Down To 9 [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

Samarie Walker Has Friends In Kentucky [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

Doty’s Trick Shots Getting Plenty Of Hits [Rich Elliott – CT Post]

Geno Making Sure He Doesn’t Wear Down Players [Hartford Courant]

Caroline Doty talks about her collection of trick shots [New Haven Register]

Perfect timing for freshman center Dolson [The Republican-American]

UK women land ex-Huskies forward [Lexington Herald-Leader]

UConn Football links

Most improved players in 2010 [Brian Bennett – ESPN.com]

Offer out to Jones; Foley staying [Chip Malafronte – New Haven Register]

UConn Gets Commitments From Ashiru And Hemingway [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

Major UConn donor demands return of $3 million [The Day]

Other UConn related links

UConn’s deplorable exploitation of Jasper Howard’s death [The UConn Blog]

W. Ice Hockey. Garcia Named WHEA Defensive Player Of The Week [UConnHuskies.com]

I just got word from the public relations department at Cox Cable that SNY HD will be available to subscribers on Wednesday, January 26th. SNY HD will be available on channel 786.

My understanding is that when the Big East Network broadcasts basketball games that most but not all of them will be available in HD. With that being said, the UConn Huskies men’s basketball team has four games remaining on SNY. They are as follows:

• 1/25 – at Marquette
• 1/29 – Louisville
• 2/13 – Providence
• 2/16 – Georgetown

I do know for fact that UConn’s game against Marquette on Tuesday night is in HD but since Cox won’t have SNY HD until Wednesday, it doesn’t do us any good.

For football games, it is my understanding that only the Big East Game of the Week is available in HD but I’ll have to do a little more digging to find more information.

This is also good news for the state’s New York Mets fans who have Cox as their cable system as y’all will be able to watch the Mets in HD all season long.

To see the full release from Cox, click on the read more button below if you’re on the home page.

Manchester, CT – Cox Communications announced today that it will add SportsNet New York (SNY) HD throughout its service area in the entire state of Connecticut.

SNY is the new television home for UConn football and men’s basketball – and annually features more than 300 hours of UConn programming – including 120 hours of Huskies game coverage. SNY will be on channel 786 beginning on Wednesday, January 26. The first men’s basketball game available on SNY HD to Cox customers will be the UConn-Louisville game at noon on Saturday, January 29 – which will re-air at 8:00pm.

SNY is also the official television home of the New York Mets, Jets and the Big East Conference. SNY features unparalleled, exclusive access to the New York Mets with more than 130 live telecasts each season, as well as other Emmy Award winning Mets entertainment programming – all produced in HD.  As the official TV home of the New York Jets, SNY delivers more than 300 hours of exclusive year-round content in HD devoted to Gang Green.  In addition, SNY is the official TV home of the Big East Conference – airing more than 125 Big East football and basketball games – as well as other critically acclaimed BIG EAST programming.  All of SNY’s Big East studio programs are produced in HD as well as select games.

As New York’s leader in local sports TV coverage, SNY delivers the most comprehensive access to all of the Tri-State area’s professional and collegiate sports teams through five nightly sports and entertainment programs – broadcast in state-of-the-art HD.  SNY’s programming roster also includes select critically acclaimed original entertainment shows and exclusive interview and magazine programs produced in HD. 

About Cox Communications

Cox Communications is a broadband communications and entertainment company, providing advanced digital video, Internet, telephone and wireless services over its own nationwide IP network. The third-largest U.S. cable TV company, Cox serves 6.2 million residences and businesses. Cox Business is a facilities-based provider of voice, video and data solutions for commercial customers, and Cox Media is a full-service provider of national and local cable spot and new media advertising. Cox is known for its pioneering efforts in cable telephone and commercial services, industry-leading customer care and its outstanding workplaces. For six years, Cox has been recognized as the top operator for women by Women in Cable Telecommunications; for five years, Cox has ranked among DiversityInc’s Top 50 Companies for Diversity, and the company holds a perfect score in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index. More information about Cox Communications, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises, is available at www.cox.com and www.coxmedia.com.

The Kentucky Wildcats women’s basketball program has announced the arrival of former UConn Huskies freshman forward Samarie Walker after her transfer from UConn.

Here’s the release:

Former University of Connecticut forward Samarie Walker (pronounced suh-MAHR-ee) has transferred to play at Kentucky, Wildcats head coach Matthew Mitchell announced Monday.

Per NCAA transfer rules, the 6-foot-1 Walker will be permitted to practice but will not be able to participate in games or travel with the team. She will be eligible for games following the fall semester of the 2011-12 season.

“I am very happy that Samarie has joined the Kentucky program,” Mitchell said. “She is a fine young woman who I got to know well while recruiting her during her high school career. Samarie is a talented player who will have an excellent opportunity to make a significant impact at Kentucky on and off the basketball court.”

Walker, a native of West Carrollton, Ohio, played in 17 games for UConn this season, averaging 6.2 points and 5.8 rebounds in 18.8 minutes per game. She hit 58.7 (44-of-75) percent from the field and posted double digits in five games, including a career-high 15 pts vs. St. John’s. She grabbed double-figure rebounds twice, pulling down 11 vs. South Florida and a career-high 13 boards vs. Marquette.

Walker averaged 16 points, 10 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game as a senior at Chaminade-Julienne High School in Dayton, Ohio. She was ranked as the No. 10 overall prospect and No. 5 among forwards by ESPN Hoopgurlz and the eighth-best recruit nationally by Blue Star and No. 10 by the All-Star Girls Report. She was honored as a First-Team All-American by ESPN Rise while also earning a spot on the McDonald’s All-America Team with UK freshman Jennifer O’Neill (Bronx, N.Y.). She also earned Parade Magazine Second-Team All-America honors, was voted onto the USA Today All-USA Third Team and was a Division II All-Ohio First-Team selection. She earned a spot on the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association All-America Team and posted a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds in the WBCA All-America Game.

She will have three years of eligibility remaining, beginning at the conclusion of the fall semester in December 2011.

No. 17 Kentucky (15-4, 4-2 Southeastern Conference) plays again Thursday at Ole Miss. Tip-off is set for 9 p.m. EST and will be televised live on FSN and broadcast live on the Big Blue Sports Radio Network with Neil Price.

HARTFORD, Conn. (January 24, 2010) – Connecticut Public Television (CPTV) has announced that the UConn women’s basketball game against Rutgers on Wednesday, January 26 at 7:30 p.m. will not be available on its online streaming service, Hoop Streams. The game will only air as a television broadcast on CPTV.

Since the game is being played in Piscataway, New Jersey, Rutgers as the home team controls the TV and streaming rights for their women’s basketball games which are available for local production. While CPTV was granted permission to broadcast the game, the company which holds the rights to this game has decided not to permit CPTV to stream the game on its Hoop Streams service. Representatives from the statewide public television network fervently appealed the decision, but to no avail.

“We are very disappointed by this turn of events,” commented Harriet Unger, Executive Producer of UConn Women’s Basketball for CPTV. “It has always been CPTV’s goal to broadcast and stream every UConn women’s basketball game that is made available to us. Unfortunately, this is a game to which we have not been given full access.”

Hoop Streams is CPTV’s live and on-demand source for CPTV-produced UConn games, The Geno Auriemma Show, and archived games. During the 2010-2011 basketball season, Hoop Streams has more subscribers than in any time in its history.

New York Life is the Presenting Sponsor for Hoop Streams.

UConn Huskies freshman guard Jeremy Lamb found himself on the bench just a few games ago. But over the past three games, he has stepped up his play on both ends of the court. And now people in the Big East are taking notice of his improved play.

Lamb was named to the Big East Men’s Basketball Weekly Honor Roll for his contributions in a 2-0 week for the Huskies. He averaged 15 points and 6.5 rebounds in the wins over the Villanova Wildcats and Tenessee Volunteers.

In UConn’s 61-59 over the Wildcats last Monday, Lamb had 14 points, eight rebounds, two assists and two steals. In Saturday’s 72-61 win over the Volunteers, Lamb had 16 points, five rebounds and two bloocked shots. It’s the first time this season that Kemba Walker hadn’t led UConn by himself in scoring.

UConn now will play their final 12 games of the season in the Big East Conference. The first of the final 12 will come on Tuesday night when the Huskies head to the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, WI to take on the Marquette Golden Eagles. Game time is scheduled for 9 p.m. and the game will be televised locally here in CT on SNY.

Photo credit: John Woike – Hartford Courant (No. 12)

It’s probably time for the Big East Conference to stop honoring UConn Huskies All-American Maya Moore and freshman sensation Bria Hartley as the Big East Player and Freshman of the Week. Instead they should probably just stick with the Weekly Honor Roll and hand out the end of the season Big East Player and Freshman of the Year awards to Moore and Hartley respectively.

For the second straight week and third time this season, Moore has been named the Big East Player of the Week while Hartley was named the Big East Freshman of the Week.

In a 2-0 week for the Huskies, Moore had two double-doubles as she averaged 27 points, 10.5 rebounds and three assists per game.

In UConn’s 83-57 win over the UNC Tar Heels last Monday, Moore had 26 points, 10 rebounds and two assists. In the 66-46 win over the Pitt Panthers on Saturday night, Moore had 28 points, 12 rebounds and four assists. Moore is the NCAA’s active career scoring leader with 2,628 career points.

Hartley averaged 12 points, four rebounds and six assists in the two games.

In the win over UNC, Hartley had 11 points, five rebounds and eight assists while in the win over Pitt, she had 13 rebounds, three rebounds and four assists. The eight assists in the Pitt win were a career-high for Hartley.

Moore, Hartley and the rest of the UConn women are back in action on Wednesday night when they’ll head to the RAC to take on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. The game is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. and will be televised locally in Connecticut on CPTV.

Photo credit: AP Photo (No. 7)

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 some of the other sports. We will do our best to bring you the links from all of the media that covers the Huskies on a daily basis. As always, links can be found by clicking on the read more button below.

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 Women’s Basketball links

No CPTV HoopStreams From Rutgers [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

Huskies Hang In, Pull Away Late Against Pitt [Rich Elliott  – CT Post]

Geno Reminds Team: Struggles Part Of The Game [Hartford Courant]

Stefanie Dolson responds well to added responsibility [New Haven Register]

Huskies have no margin for error [The Day]

Mitchell mum about possible transfer of ex-UConn player [Lexington Herald-Leader]

UConn Men’s Basketball links

UConn-Tennessee redux [Neill Ostrout – CT Post]

UConn Men More Than A One-Man Show [Hartford Courant]

Roscoe Smith locking down opponents [New Haven Register]

Walker provides more heroics in latest win [Norwich Bulletin]

Huskies proving they’re trustworthy [The Day]

Observations from the week [Andy Katz – ESPN.com]

The NBA’s sculptor [Boston Herald]

UConn surpassing all expectations [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel]

UConn Football links

DC answered a bunch of questions in his mailbag [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

Other UConn related links

W. Soccer. Brittany Taylor Earns First National Team Start [UConnHuskies.com]

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 some of the other sports. We will do our best to bring you the links from all of the media that covers the Huskies on a daily basis. As always, links can be found by clicking on the read more button below.

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 Women’s Basketball links

More on Samarie Walker [Jim Fuller – New Haven Register]

Looking back at Pittsburgh game [Jim Fuller – New Haven Register]

The Walker Timeline [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

Pittsburgh’s Pat Coyle Takes Liberty From The WNBA [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

Some Thoughts On UConn’s 66-46 Win Over Pittsburgh [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

Geno Auriemma Tells His Team It’s OK To Feel Human [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

Walker To Kentucky: A Timeline Of Her Decision To Leave UConn [Rich Elliott – CT Post]

Walker’s timeline for leaving the Huskies for Kentucky [Roger Cleaveland – The Republican-American]

Walker’s decision to transfer to Kentucky catches Auriemma by surprise [Vickie Fulkerson – The Day]

Moore scores 28, UConn pulls away from Pitt [CT Post]

Source: Walker, UConn coaching staff weren’t unified [CT Post]

UConn women’s basketball report card [CT Post]

Moore Leads UConn Past Pittsburgh [Hartford Courant]

UConn Women’s Notebook: Ex-WNBA Coach Happy At Pitt [Hartford Courant]

UConn Women’s Extras [Hartford Courant]

Samarie Walker Transferring Immediately To Kentucky [Hartford Courant]

Huskies finally put away Pitt late [New Haven Register]

Samarie Walker transferring to Kentucky [New Haven Register]

UConn women struggle vs. Pittsburgh [The Day]

Huskies have Moore than enough to dump Pitt [The Republican-American]

Connecticut women defeat Pitt, 66-46 [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

Samarie Walker’s Departure From UConn Leave Many Astonished [Swish Appeal]

UConn Men’s Basketball links

The Beat Goes On [David Borges – New Haven Register]

UConn sends Tennessee to a rocky topple [Ed Daigneault – The Republican-American]

Watch Calhoun’s post-game video [Gavin Keefe – The Day]

UConn outlasts Tennessee, completes perfect non-conference run [Neill Ostrout – CT Post]

Video View: Postgame Following The Win Over Tennessee [Shawn Courchesne – Hartford Courant]

No one trick pony here [UConn Huskies Basketball]

UConn beats Tennessee for perfect non-conference record [CT Post]

Kids are all right, and UConn is thriving [CT Post]

UConn men’s notebook [CT Post]

Lamb, Oriakhi Step Up As UConn Beats Tennessee [Hartford Courant]

Maturing Smith On Target [Hartford Courant]

Coach Pearl Enjoys Break From Game Exile [Hartford Courant]

UConn Men’s Notebook: Lamb Roars [Hartford Courant]

UConn Men’s Extras … [Hartford Courant]

Kemba Walker gets help as Huskies knock off Volunteers [New Haven Register]

Freshmen take another big step forward vs. Vols [New Haven Register]

Freshmen deliver for UConn [Norwich Bulletin]

Huskies are more than a one-man show [The Day]

Freshmen make contribution against Vols [The Republican-American]

No. 8 Huskies looking up in Big East [The Republican-American]

Huskies make win over Vols a joint effort [The Republican-American]

UConn shows depth in win over Tennessee [Andy Katz – ESPN.com]

After preseason snub, Jim Calhoun, Kemba Walker have Connecticut basketball rolling early in season [NY Daily News]

Vote for Andrew Porter of our friend The UConn Blog for the Big East’s biggest fan [BigEast.org]

UConn Football links

UConn Football Recruiting Update [Hartford Courant]

Other UConn related links

W. Ice Hockey. Murphy’s Two Goals Leads UConn Over Maine, 3-1 [UConnHuskies.com]

M. Ice Hockey. Men’s Hockey Earns 5-5 Tie With Air Force [UConnHuskies.com]

Believe me y’all, the final score was not indicative of how close this game was for about 30 minutes. The Pittsburgh Panthers came to play on Saturday night against the No. 2/2 UConn Huskies women’s basketball team and they made the Huskies earn their win.

Maya Moore’s double-double of 28 points and 11 rebounds led the way for the Huskies as they survived a tough test from the Panthers in a 66-46 win in front of 9,767 at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, CT.

Since losing to Stanford on 12/30/10, the Huskies have run off six straight wins to improve to 17-1 (7-0 Big East). The Panthers fall to 9-9 (1-4). It’s also the 26th straight victory for UConn over Pitt.

Moore also had four assists, two steals and two blocked shots and even had some nifty moves when she played center for a few stretches during the game. Bria Hartley chipped in with 13 points, three rebounds, four assists and one steal. Despite first half foul trouble, Stefanie Dolson finished with 12 points and six rebounds.

After her 29 point performance in the win over North Carolina, Tiffany Haye ended up with nine points, eight rebounds, three assists and four steals. Even though she didn’t have her best game, Kelly Faris had four points, five rebounds, three assists and led the Huskies with three blocked shots.

Taniesha Harrison led Pitt with 16 points and had three rebounds. Chelsea Cole chipped in with a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds to go along with two steals and four blocked shots. Jania Sims led the Panthers with five assists while scoring six points.

We’re used to seeing UConn put games away coming out of the gates but this simply just wasn’t the case on Saturday night.

Pitt kept it close for the first 3:35 and took a 9-6 lead on a Harrison three-pointer. Then the Huskies did what we’re used to seeing and went on a 16-0 run to open up a 13 point lead at 22-9.

Normally, we’re used to seeing UConn to continue to put away their opponents after a big run but the Panthers weathered the storm and fought back.

With UConn leading 32-19, the Panthers went on a 9-0 run to cut the lead to four. A Moore layup would give the Huskies a 34-28 lead at the half.

After what I’m sure was an epic Geno Auriemma halftime rant, the Huskies came out and scored the first four points. But the Panthers weren’t backing down. They continued to fight getting the score down to five points at 42-37 with 17:13 to go in the game. Over the next four minutes, the Huskies would use a 6-0 run to get the lead up to 11 points.

The Panthers would get the lead down to six points at 49-43 but the Huskies would use a 17-3 run over the final 11:39 to put the game away and probably temporarily bring Auriemma’s blood pressure down.

Having last played on Monday, the Huskies definitely looked a little rusty early on. And given everything that happened with Samarie Walker this week, they might not have been focused early as well. But like any Auriemma coached team, they fought through it, made adjustments and were able to pull out the win.

Plus I think it was a good test to see how they’ll do with a shorter bench which means a smaller rotation. I thought they did play a lot better with Moore in the center spot but obviously when you have a talent like Dolson that’s not going to happen for a full game. They’re definitely going to have to work to win their third straight NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship but as long as they have Moore on the floor, anything is possible.

The Huskies will be back in action on Wednesday night when they go to where Auriemma is loved the most (sarcasm), the RAC, to take on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. Game time is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and the game will be televised locally here in Connecticut on CPTV.

To continue reading, click on the read more button below if you’re on the home page.

Notes and musings:

Pittsburgh Panthers @ UConn Huskies 1.22.11 box score

Here are quotes from UConn head coach Geno Auriemma, Maya Moore, Stefanie Dolson and Pittsburgh coach Agnus Berenato.

The starters for UConn were Bria Hartley, Tiffany Hayes, Kelly Faris, Maya Moore and Stefanie Dolson.

The last time the Huskies lost to the Panthers since February 24, 1993 when they fell 76-74 in Pittsburgh. They haven’t lost to the Panthers at home since January 18, 1986.

UConn increased its home winning streak to an NCAA Division I women’s basketball record 72 games.

The Huskies have won 57 straight Big East games.

With her 28 points, Maya Moore now needs 151 points to tie former Louisville All-American Angel McCoughtry (2,779) for first place among the Big East’s career scoring leaders.

The Huskies shot 43.1% (25-58) from the floor while the Panthers shot 34.5% (19-55).

UConn had 18 assists on their 25 made baskets.

The Huskies were an abysmal 2-of-13 (15.4%) from three-point land. The Panthers were 5-of-15 (33.3%).

UConn shot 70% (14-20) from the charity stripe. Moore was 10-of-11. Pitt only got to the line four times, converting three of them.

The Huskies dominated the glass holding a 43-29 advantage.

The only bench player to score a point was Pitt’s Asia Logan who made one free throw.

UConn outscored Pitt 32-24 in the paint.

Both teams had eight points on the fast break.

The Huskies held a 13-2 advantage on second-chance points.

UConn had 17 points off of 18 Pitt turnovers. The Panthers had eight points off of 14 Huskies turnovers.

Photo credits: Cloe Poisson – Hartford Courant (No. 8, No. 5)