Here are the final rankings for the 2006-2007 season.

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Pokey Chatman has longtime friend and colleague, Carla Berry, to thank for snitching on her alleged relationship with a former player according to Wright Thompson at espn.com.

According to the article, Berry first reported the alleged affair to university officials not affiliated with the athletic department. They then investigated the tip and determined no current LSU players were involved then they passed along the information to the athletic department. Their investigation concurred with the university’s that no current players are involved.

The best part of the article is that as of Thursday that Chatman was confiding in Berry. So what is the deal with this whole situation. Were Berry and Chatman having a relationship and she found out about the alleged misconduct? Or did Berry have her own agenda feeling slighted for getting passed over when Chatman became the head coach.?

If Chatman had an involvement with the former player, the only thing she has done wrong is if it happened while that player was playing at LSU. Other than that, does it really matter what people do in their personal lives.

For the first time since 1987, the UCONN Men’s Basketball program will not be participating in any postseason tournaments. This officially closes the book on what amounted to a lost season for the Huskies. Lacking a proven scorer and having 9 first year players, the Huskies were plagued with youth and inexperience most of the season. One of the main reasons for the Huskies dismal season was their poor free throw shooting. This cost them a lot of wins and any of those games they could have won when they missed free throws may have helped their chances to gain a place in postseason.

Now the offseason talk begins. Having no scholarships available, Coach Jim Calhoun will need people to transfer or leave for the NBA. The only one with a remote chance to go the NBA right now is Hasheem Thabeet. But after watching him get schooled by Roy Hibbert of Georgetown in the regular season finale, in my humble opinion, he needs at least another year. He needs to bulk up and just play more, be more assertive on the offensive end, develop some post moves and continue to work on his defense.

As far as the transfer candidates go, the one I could see leaving for sure is sophomore Rob Garrison. Garrison went from playing a lot last year to riding the pine padded seats. My other potential transfer candidates are freshman Ben Eaves, Doug Wiggins, Stanley Robinson, and quite possibly Jonathan Mandeldove and Gavin Edwards. Those two could change based on what Thabeet does.

As far as what I’d like to see, I would like to see a stronger early season schedule. This year’s schedule was very easy as evidenced by the Huskies breezing through the first 11 games at home. Their first road game of the year was in Morgantown, West Virginia at West Virginia University in what is probably the toughest arena to play in in the Big East. So for me a few games against stronger opponents and a few games on the road. I think that will help the Huskies next season in the ever so tough Big East. That and the experience, the young players got this season will help too. UCONN will still have no scholarship seniors next season either.

She is the reason why Carl Pavano missed his scheduled spring training start on Friday night. Now if you had her at home, you’d probably have gone home too.

In all seriousness, Pavano missed the start because his girlfriend, Gia Allemand, had a serious medical condition. Pavano said that she is doing well from her “unknown medical condition.” Pavano said he was having trouble deciding whether or not to pitch that night but Joe Torre and other members of the Yankees coaching staff and front office gave him permission to miss the game.

If you don’t know who she is, she was with him when he got into the accident last season that he didn’t tell the Yankees about. Pavano is now being sued for his role in the accident.

“It was definitely weighing on me,” Pavano said. “There was definitely a little bit of struggle about me wanting to pitch. I needed a voice of reason because my head was going in both directions. Sometimes there’s things you’ve got to take care or that take precedent over the situation at hand.”

It’s tough situation being a professional athlete and having a life outside of it. There are times when something has to give. Do you pitch or do you tend to your ailing loved one? With Pavano not telling the Yankees of the accident last year and his injured ribs, you can see why he struggled with the decision. He really hasn’t lived up to the big money contract that he signed because of injuries and now he is trying to win a spot in the Yankees rotation after not having pitched in the big leagues since June 27, 2005. Did he make the right decision? Well, we will see as spring training progresses.

I just had to point this out to the UCONN fans. Free throws win games. If you were fortunate enough to watch the ACC Championship Game with North Carolina facing North Carolina State, you saw a clinic on how to make free throws by North Carolina. North Carolina won the game 89-80 on the strength of their free throw shooting. They made 23 of 24 free throws in the game. That is how you win games UCONN fans. Make your free throws.

Think back to February 15th when Japanese phenom, Daisuke Matsuzaka had this to say about playing catch with Tim Wakefield:

(Question in Japanese: Have you found a throwing partner here? Have you found someone you like to catch with?)

The easiest person to throw with is Mr. Okijawa. I want to maybe catch with Wakefield – I want to try to catch his knuckleball.

A few days later, Wakefield said he would be willing to teach Dice-K the knuckleball. So on Saturday, Wakefield was breaking in a new catcher, Matsuzaka. They were playing catch when Wake decided to break out the knuckler.

Matsuzaka wasn’t in a full catcher’s crouch per se, nor was he wearing any gear. At first he was standing, then he was in a half-crouch trying to get his glove on the darn thing. Most of the time, his feet were going one way, while his glove hand went the other.

Then Matsuzaka would break out in a huge grin and laugh after he finally caught the ball. No doubt, Wakefield was giggling on the other end, although he’s probably seen worse.

After the session ended, Matsuzaka and Wakefield bowed and shook hands. Before the workout concluded, Dice-K walked over toward the fence where Japanese photographers were filming his every movement and attempted to recreate what just happened. He was animated, using his hands to try to describe the movement on Wakefield’s pitch.

Later, he told the Japanese press he was “awed” by the pitch, and that it “moves on a whim.”

“All of the balls didn’t come back the same way,” Matsuzaka said through a translator. “The movement on the ball is different every time.”

He told Japanese reporters the ball went so slowly he could see the stitching of the laces.

Once a very good hitter, Matsuzaka was asked if he thought he could get a bat on the ball. His answer? “It’s impossible.”

Matsuzaka has expressed an interest in learning how to throw the pitch, to go along with his half-dozen others, but the mechanics don’t quite fit with his delivery.

“I can’t throw that pitch,” he said, shaking his head as he listened to the translation.

I would have paid any amount of money to see that happening at Red Sox camp. I’ve caught knuckleballs before but I know that they were nowhere near as good as Wakefield’s. On another level, I think this is a great thing in the transition to the Red Sox for Matsuzaka. He is showing he can be just one of the boys and with the Red Sox you need that. Gone are the “self proclaimed idiots” but there is still a cohesive group in the clubhouse.

There was a little action at the Red Sox-Tigers game on Saturday afternoon. Josh Beckett of the Red Sox struggled a little bit with his command of his pitches, hitting Gary Sheffield and Magglio Ordonez. Then Todd Jones being the veteran he is, threw a pitch behind J.D. Drew. This brought the benches to the field but thankfully no punches were thrown.

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I really don’t think he was trying to hit either Sheffield or Ordonez. Sheffield was not pleased when he got hit and was jawing at Beckett. I also think the breaking ball got away from him when he hit Ordonez’s helmet. Ordonez was ok and ended up with a headache from being hit.

Jones did the right thing in protecting his teammates. Although I think that reciprocation could have been done when the Tigers face the Sox during the regular season. It will be interesting to see if any bad blood boils over to the regular season series.

If you thought the robotic beer launcher was a cool item to have, you might like this one too. For only forty bucks over at redenvelope.com, you can own the USB Beer Cooler. It’s simple to use. Just plug it into your USB port on your computer and put your favorite frosty beverage in. A must have for a late night at the office.

Thanks to my dad for the tip.

On Thursday, DirecTV and MLB announced that their 7 year $700 million deal is done. It still needs the approval of the owners but more than likely those greedy bastards will approve it.

The deal includes provisions to allow InDemand and the Dish Network to remain providers for a certain cost. Bob DuPuy, MLB COO had this to say about the situation:

“In response to those concerns of our fans, baseball has negotiated with DirecTV to offer the package to the incumbents,” DuPuy said. “I hope that those fans who have been directing their concerns to us over the last several weeks will now encourage their cable carriers to in fact enlist for this package.”

Just another way for big brother to rape the cable companies. I personally think the whole deal is ridiculous. It is just MLB’s way of controlling who gets to see out-of-market games. I’d much rather subscribe to MLB.com and watch the games on the internet. To me, the deal is similar to what the NFL is doing with the NFL Network. Another thing is I don’t see the point of offering it to the previous providers and also hosting it on DirecTV. Why not leave the deal the way it was? I’d like to know where this $700 million is going to go.

Here is a look at the news and happenings of 10 random spring training camps.

Very sad day for the Phillies as they lose one of their long time coaches to cancer. You can also see Curt Schillings thoughts about John Vukovich here.

The Chicago White Sox’s 5th spot in the rotation is still not decided.

The D-Train, Dontrelle Willis, is pitching like it is midseason right now.

Former New Haven Raven Dave Bush started out as a catcher before becoming a pitcher.

Kerry Wood gave up a grand slam on Thursday but says his stuff was better this time out.

Johan Santana hopes to resign with the Twins providing they resign the the core players.

After returning from Tommy John surgery, Braves pitcher Mike Hampton will miss at least a month after hurting himself swinging a bat.

Tony Womack took his release from the Nationals like a true professional.

Scott Kazmir is shaking off the rust of not pitching and was more proud of his bat on Thursday.

Chris Spielman was at Indians camp on Thursday and he was in a NFL Indians uniform.