Both myself and Steve have pointed this out already, Maya Moore is the real deal. I know that these first two games were exhibitions but she’s shown herself to be very poised on the court. Is she going to make mistakes? Of course she is. Is Geno Auriemma going to let her here about them? Of course he is. Could she end up being better than Diana Taurasi was at UConn? Only time will tell.

Former Tennessee guard, ESPN analyst and women’s National Team member Kara Lawson saw Moore first hand last Friday and came away impressed. She also added her insight about the UConn/Rutgers rivalry.

3. Big East supremacy: Rutgers/UConn

I always am very hesitant to jump on any player’s bandwagon, let alone one that hasn’t even played a college game. But if there is one statement that had to be in my story lines in some form or fashion, it is this: Maya Moore is the real deal. The UConn freshman’s skill level, athleticism and relentless nature are impressive. I love a player with a good motor. Those are very hard to find.

So what does Rutgers do for an encore? The Scarlet Knights were one of the best stories of the tournament last season and return all significant players. Look for Kia Vaughn and Essence Carson to build off of consistent seasons on both ends. Matee Ajavon is the best shot getter in the women’s game today. What I mean by that is give her the ball and she can get off her shot on anybody. That’s a very nice luxury for C. Vivian Stringer to have down the stretch of games. I’m thrilled we are guaranteed two matchups between these two teams (at Rutgers on Feb. 5 and at Hartford Civic Center on March 3) — and very likely three or four before the season is complete.

The only scarier thing is that a lot of national pundits are saying that Elena Delle Donne is an even better player than Moore. Times are definitely looking up for the UConn women.

The Big East Conference announced today that all members of the conference will be invited to play in the postseason Big East basketball tournament starting in 2009. This will take place in both men’s and women’s basketball.

Since the 2005-06 season, the Big East has only taken the top 12 from the 16 teams in the conference when they expanded the conference.

“Our presidents performed a very thorough review of the tournament format. And after extensive deliberation, it was decided that inviting all the teams would provide a special opportunity to every men’s and women’s basketball student-athlete,” said Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese.

With the expanding of the tournaments, each of them will start a day earlier. The top 4 teams will receive byes into the quarterfinals. The teams that are seeded 9 through 16 will play on the first day and then be reseeded to play the 5-8 seeds. Then the quarterfinals will begin. I guess we will wait to see how that works because I am already confused.

This is a big thing for the lower tier schools in the conference. This still allows them to play on the national stage since ESPN has coverage of the men’s tournament and ESPN2 covers most of the women’s. This will help these teams out with recruiting.

Notes from around MLB:

Sources close to the Mike Lowell negotiations told the Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo that Lowell would need a third year guaranteed and if he gets it he is likely to take a “hometown discount”.

According to Cafardo the market for Lowell hasn’t been as hot as expected as Phillies GM Pat Gillick stated that he will not devote a lot of his resources toward a third baseman but will earmark the money toward pitching. Yankees GM Brian Cashman expects Lowell to stay put.

With Curt Schilling in the fold Cafardo says the Twins and A’s are interested in some of Boston young pitching talent. The Twins may dangle Johan Santana while the A’s are reported willing to move Dan Haren if the right package comes along.

Boston Red Sox DH David Ortiz had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Tuesday. The Sox says the surgery won’t interfere with his off season training program.

Despite knee and shoulder injuries Ortiz played 149 games hitting a career high .332 with 35 HR’s and 117 RBI. He also played 14 post season games hitting .370 with 3 HR’s and 10 RBI in helping the Red Sox win their second World Series title in four seasons.

Washington Nationals 3B Ryan Zimmerman broke a bone in his left wrist last weekend while swinging a bat and will have surgery today. The recovery is expected to take four to six weeks making him available for spring training in February.

Zimmerman led the Nationals with 24 HR’s and 91 RBI while hitting .266 in his second major league season.

Continue reading →

Lots of news out of Red Sox Nation yesterday as the Curt Schilling deal became official and Kevin Youkilis won the his first Gold Glove. We also heard that the knee surgery for David Ortiz was a success and he should be fine for the upcoming season. And as Keenan pointed out in a previous comment, the Red Sox are trying to get a deal done with Mike Lowell but are not ready to add a third year to the deal. If Lowell is was given the guaranteed third year, he would take a hometown discount. I expect that they will get this worked out so Lowell remains a part of a great Red Sox team for 2008. You can check out that article in the links below.

Schilling stays; Sox pitch with Lowell [Boston Globe]

Give Curt credit: He put money where his mouth is [Boston Herald]

Ortiz on the mend after surgery [Pro Jo]

Curt’s Not Playing The Heavy [Hartford Courant]

It’s a first: Youkilis has that golden touch [Boston Globe]

Sox make play at third [Boston Herald]

For more headlines and stories, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Providence Journal, and Hartford Courant websites.

The UConn women wrapped up the exhibition slate of the season by whipping defending Division II national champions Southern Connecticut 119-58 in front of 9,303 fans at the Hartford Civic Center.

Sophomore Tina Charles nearly had a double-double as she led 5 Huskies in double figures by tallying 24 points and 9 boards despite fouling out, while freshman Maya Moore continued to show she is the real deal with 21 points 5 rebounds, four assists and three blocks. Also in double figures were senior Mel Thomas who had 17 points and was 4/4 from beyond the arc, senior Ketia Swanier and junior Kalana Greene each chipped in 11 points.

The Huskies shot 66.3% from the field, out rebounded SCSU 51-27 and had 6 blocks to none for the Owls.

All 14 players saw game action by half time and 13 of the 14 scored points in the win as only Kaili McLaren went scoreless in 12 minutes of play.

The Huskies open up for real at Gampel Pavilion Sunday at 2 p.m. against Stony Brook.

Grady Alexander Rivers Sr., 76, the father of Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers passed away on Sunday and Rivers left the team prior to the game with Toronto to fly to Chicago to be with his family.

The team has announced that Rivers will coach the Celtics tonight against the Denver Nuggets in Boston and Friday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks. He will return to Chicago after Friday’s game for the funeral on Saturday.

Rivers has chartered a plane to take him to New Jersey for Saturday night’s game against the Nets but said his emotional state will determine if he takes that flight or not.

The Celtics are 2-0 with wins against Washington at home and Toronto on the road.

World Series MVP Mike Lowell and leader of the bullpen pirates Mike Timlin both filed for free agency today.The Red Sox will still be able to negotiate exclusively with Lowell and Timlin until November 12th.

Both have stated that they want to return to the Red Sox next season although with Timlin being 42 at the start of next season, odds are he would be offered a 1 year deal. He did prove he can still pitch with his performance in Game 4 of the World Series.

Lowell is at that age (34) where the Red Sox don’t like to make long-term deals. Lowell is probably in the market for a 4 year deal but I think he would accept a 3 year deal with an option for a fourth.

Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein has stated that it’s the teams’ top priority to get Lowell re-signed.

 “With respect to third basemen, signing Mike is our clear priority,” Epstein said. “We’re going to work hard at that and really hope to get something done. I hope this doesn’t come to pass, but if he eventually signs somewhere else, then we’ll explore other options, but really, right now, we’re focused on trying to sign Mike.”

I guess that means if Lowell signs somewhere else, we might have to go after *gulp* Alex Rodriguez. That is if he hasn’t signed for a billion dollars somewhere else like maybe the Dodgers.

UConn men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun was on ESPN’s First Take to talk about the Huskies upcoming season as well as his new book, “A Passion To Lead”.

If you are interested in purchasing the book, click here.

The American League Gold Glove winners were announced today and guess who won the Gold Glove at first base. It was Kevin Youkilis. It was a much deserved honor as the Red Sox first baseman didn’t make an error at first base during the regular season. He had 1,080 total chances and 990 putouts during the season for the World Champs.

Youkilis is joined by four other first time Gold Glove winners on the 9-player team, second baseman Placido Polanco of the Tigers, third baseman Adrian Beltre from the Mariners, Grady Sizemore from the Indians and pitcher Johan Santana from the Twins. Tigers catcher Ivan Rodriguez snagged his 13th Gold Glove, while Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki and Twins outfielder Torii Hunter each snagged their 7th consecutive Gold Gloves. Angels shortstop Orlando Cabrera won his second Gold Glove but first in the American League.

The 2007 National League Gold Glove winners after the jump.

Continue reading →

Curt Schilling got permission from Theo Epstein to make the announcement that his deal is official on his blog, 38 Pitches.

The Sox will issue an official announcement at some point today, but Theo said it was ok to post here so I am. We agreed to a 1 year contract late last night. Today was the MRI, which I passed.

Still trying to soak it all in.

The deal looks like this.

$8 million in guaranteed base salary

$2 million in bonuses for 6 separate weigh ins.

I inserted the weigh in clause in the 2nd round of offers, counter offers. Given the mistakes I made last winter and into Spring Training I needed to show them I recognized that, and understood the importance of it. Being overweight and out of shape are two different things. I also was completely broad sided by the fact that your body doesn’t act/react the same way as you get older. Even after being told that for the first 39 years of my life. Now I can’t get on Dougie anymore, which sucks, and I am sure the clause will add 15-100 more jokes to Tito’s Schilling joke book.

$3 million in IP incentives based on IP totals.

$1 million for receiving a Cy Young vote, any vote.

Some miscellaneous things were agreed upon as addendum as well.

To me this is the coolest thing that he’s posting the updates about the whole process. Now onto the other matter at hand. Theo, please get Mikey Lowell a contract.