Boston Celtics: Trailing 83-82, Doc Rivers gave the ball to Paul Pierce and he drove to the basket with 3.8 seconds left only to have Superman Dwight Howard block his shot. After the Magic made a foul shot, Pierce missed a three-pointer giving the Orlando Magic an 84-82 win over the Boston Celtics to take over second place in the Eastern Conference on Wednesday night in Orlando. The win also clinched the Southeast Division for the Magic. Pierce led the Celtics with 26 points while former UConn Husky Ray Allen added 16 points and Kendrick Perkins had 11 points and 11 rebounds. The Celtics were missing Kevin Garnett at the end as he was on the bench and finished with just 4 points in 16 minutes. Howard had a monster game with 24 points and 21 rebounds while Rashard Lewis chipped in with 21 points. The Celtics will stay down south as they head to Atlanta to take on the Hawks on Friday night. [ESPN.com]

The Original Dirt Dog: The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is reporting that Milwaukee Brewers have released former Boston Red Sox outfielder Trot Nixon. He played with the New York Mets last season seeing action in 11 games before being put on the disabled list. Nixon was trying to make it as a backup outfielder for the Brew Crew. Could the Red Sox take a flyer on him and sign him to a minor league deal for some depth. [Brewers Blog]

This could be the funniest thing I’ve seen on a car in a long while.

As I was taking the dog on his afternoon walk, we were cutting through the parking lot where I reside and I noticed this funny license plate.

Normally you see things like this on a fake license plate or some other novelty item or even on a license plate down south. And being a UConn Huskies fan who had to suffer through a last second buzzer-beater by Duke, I can definitely appreciate this.

Sorry for the quality of the photo, my cell phone doesn’t take the best pictures.

According to a report in Yahoo! Sports, the UConn Huskies may have committed some major recruiting violations in the recruitment of former although brief Husky Nate Miles.

The report states that Nate Miles was provided with lodging, transportation, restaurant meals and representation by Josh Nochimson, a professional sports agent and former UConn student manager, between 2006 and 2008. It also states that five different UConn coaches traded at least 1,565 phone and text communications with Nochimson, including 16 from head coach Jim Calhoun.

The players in the Yahoo! Sports investigation are Miles, Nochimson, Calhoun, former assistant and now Quinnipiac coach Tom Moore, Sean Patterson (Miles’ guardian) and Jerry Easter (Miles’ “uncle”).

As an alumnus and former associate of the men’s basketball program, Nochimson is defined by the NCAA as a representative of UConn’s “athletic interests.” As such, NCAA rules say he could “not be involved in the recruiting process” and could “not make any contact, including telephone calls and letters, to a prospect or the prospect’s family, on or off campus.”

That UConn was aware of the improper Nochimson-Miles relationship could be a further violation, according to the NCAA. Under NCAA rules, UConn is culpable for contact and benefits provided by any representative of its athletic interests regardless of the school’s knowledge. In this case, Moore not only admitted to Yahoo! Sports, “I know that Josh contacted Nate a couple of times,” but documents show pages upon pages of phone and text correspondence.

This is huge folks. If this report turns out to be true, which it seems it will, the Huskies will face major sanctions from the NCAA which could include probation, being barred from the NCAA Tournament and loss of scholarships among other things.

I highly suggest that you read the whole Yahoo! Sports article to get the full grasp of what happened.

UConn officials had no comment on this investigation and you can bet that this will be the big subject of conversation when UConn holds it press conference this afternoon in anticipation of tomorrow night’s game against the Purdue Boilermakers.

Probe: UConn violated NCAA rules [Yahoo! Sports]

UConn Huskies men’s basketball head coach Jim Calhoun was on ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike In The Morning this morning and talked about his health, the first two wins for the Huskies in the NCAA Tournament and would he retire if UConn wins the title.

Hit play below to listen:

[flash https://soxanddawgs.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/calhoun.mp3 w=110 h=30]

Boston Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka will return to Ft. Myers a champion and as the World Baseball Classic MVP. And he has his Japanese teammate Ichiro Suzuki from the Seattle Mariners to thank.

Ichiro had 4 hits but none bigger than a 2-run single in the 10th inning that helped Japan to a 5-3 win over their archrival South Korea to win the WBC for the second straight time.

Japan held a 4-3 lead heading into the bottom of the 9th and had young Japanese phenom Yu Darvish on the mound. He got the first player he faced Keun-Woo Jeong to strikeout and then walkied Hyun-Soo Kim and Tae Kyun Kim to put runners on first and second with one out. Darvish then struck out Shin-Soo Choo and Bum Ho Lee singled to left, driving in the tying run.

Chang Yong Lim was on the mound for Korea in the 10th inning who gave up a lead-off single to Seiichi Uchikawa. Atsunori Inaba moved him up a base with a sacrifice bunt. Akinori Iwamura followed with a single to Uchikawa to third. Yasuyuki Kataoka was pinch-hit for by Munenori Kawasaki and Lim got him to popout to shortstop for the second out.

This set up Ichiro’s heroics and it was a battle.

On the 8th pitch of the at-bat, Ichiro lined a single up the middle to score Uchikawa and Iwamura, who had taken second on fielder’s indifference.

Darvish walked the leadoff batter in the bottom half of the inning but he then struck out 2 of the final 3 batters to secure Japan’s second straight WBC title.

For Matsuzaka, it’s his second straight WBC MVP. In this year’s WBC, he went 3-0 with a 2.45 ERA and is now 6-0 with a 1.98 ERA in 6 starts in both of the WBC’s.

According to Ron Borges of the Boston Herald, the New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills will open up the 2009 season on Monday Night Football on ESPN.

This season marks the 50th anniversary of the American Football League and the 40th anniversary of Monday Night Football. In an effort to meld the two, ESPN and the NFL agreed to a marquee game between not only two of the original eight AFL teams but also one of the league’s most popular (and in some corners most hated) teams – the Patriots – pitted against one that arguably made the loudest off-season noise – the Bills and their signing of wide receiver Terrell Owens.

Very interesting to see that Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and his new $1 billion dollar stadium didn’t get the nod.

Sources: Patriots-Bills slated for Monday Night Football opener [Boston Herald]

UPDATE: Fang’s Bites has the press release confirming the details.

The baseball writers and the rest of the world will have five months to discuss this but now that former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling has officially announced his retirement, are his numbers Hall of Fame worthy?

His twenty year MLB career took place with five organizations, the Baltimore Orioles, Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, Arizona Diamondbacks and the Red Sox. During those 20 seasons, he compiled a record of 216-146, with a 3.46 ERA, and 3,116 strikeouts. He also won 3 World Series rings, two with the Red Sox and one with the Diamondbacks.

So folks are those numbers Hall of Fame worthy? Let me know what you think and be sure to take a moment and vote in the poll below.

[polldaddy poll=1480536]

The UConn Huskies women’s basketball fans are rejoicing tonight for two reasons.

1. The Huskies easily took care of their business in their first round matchup with the Vermont Catamounts.
2. The Tennessee Volunteers LOST to the Ball State Cardinals in their first round matchup.

That is not a typo or anything like that. The mighty Pat Summitt-led Volunteers have fallen out of the tournament after having won the last two NCAA Women’s Tournament titles. Don’t believe me, check it out for yourself.

Tennessee had gotten to the Sweet 16 in every year in the history of the NCAA Women’s Tournament (started in 1981-82 season). And now they will be heading home early. They are also the first defending champion to be knocked out in the first round.

Wherever he is tonight, I’m sure UConn head coach Geno Auriemma has a nice little smirk on his face.

Mel Thomas: The Seattle Storm of the WNBA announced today that they have signed former UConn Huskies women’s basketball player Mel Thomas to a training camp contract with the team. Thomas is finishing up her season in Ireland with the Bausch and Lomb Waterford Wildcats. She is averaging 22.3 points which is good for the 4th in Basketball Ireland’s  Superleague. Seattle already has former Huskies Sue Bird and Swin Cash on their roster. [Seattle Storm]