Beatty Impresses At NFL Combine

While Charlie Casserly was not totally impressed with former UConn Huskies offensive lineman Will Beatty, the rest of the NFL Network panel was.

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Beatty finished as a top performer in the 40-yard dash, vertical jump, broad jump and the 3-cone drill.

40-yard dash Vertical Jump Broad Jump 3-cone drill
Name Time Name Height Name Distance Name Time
Murtha, Lydon 4.89 Bright, Travis 35.5 Caldwell, Antoine 9’3″ Murtha, Lydon 7.06
Meredith, Jamon 5.03 Murtha, Lydon 35 Fulton, Xavier 9’3″ Fulton, Xavier 7.35
Fulton, Xavier 5.04 Walker, Brandon 34 Monroe, Eugene 9’2″ Unger, Max 7.39
Beatty, William 5.12 Slauson, Matt 34 Slauson, Matt 9’2″ Cooper, Jon 7.46
Cadogan, Gerald 5.12 Beatty, William 33.5 Murtha, Lydon 9’2″ Shipley, A.Q. 7.46
Luigs, Jonathan 5.14 Fulton, Xavier 31 Walker, Brandon 9’1″ Smith, Jason 7.53
Bell, Joel 5.15 Luigs, Jonathan 31 Bell, Joel 9’1″ Bell, Joel 7.55
Britton, Eben 5.16 Shipley, A.Q. 31 Bright, Travis 9’0″ Wood, Eric 7.56
Walker, Brandon 5.17 Levitre, Andy 30.5 Beatty, William 8’11” Olsen, Seth 7.59
Cooper, Jon 5.18 Wood, Eric 30.5 Cooper, Jon 8’9″ Beatty, William 7.62
Smith, Jason 5.22 Brewster, Robert 30.5 Meredith, Jamon 8’9″ –
– Oher, Michael 30.5 –

Will Beatty NFL Combine Profile

Cassel Highest Paid Patriot

Matt Cassel: With the New England Patriots highly unlikely to pay big money for anyone during free agency,  quarterback Matt Cassel will most likely be the highest paid member of the team at $14.6 million. That’s over double what Randy Moss makes ($6.4 million) and almost triple what the starter Tom Brady will make ($5 million). Amazing what one good season will do for you. [Reiss’ Pieces]

Boston Red Sox News & Notes – 2/22

Ortiz (left) and Lowell (right) watched the flight of a ball hit by teammate Lugo (not pictured). (Jim Davis / Globe Staff)

It’s been a relatively quiet spring training for the Boston Red Sox so far in Ft. Myers as the only really big news to come out is Big Papi’s involvement with ARod’s trainer. Other than that, there’s not much happening. Sure there’s the nagging injury or two but that’s to be expected.

After talking about his involvement with Angel Presinal on Friday night with Comcast SportsNet New England, Big Papi met with the assembled masses to reiterate what he said then.

“We had this facility, five minutes away from my house, and he’s one of the guys that trains everybody,” said Ortiz. “That’s what everybody does. It’s in the center of the city, right in the middle where everybody lives, like an Olympics place where everybody goes to work out, do hitting, running, and other stuff.”

“I only see him when I’m down there working out, like everyone else,” said Ortiz. “It’s not his facility but he knows how to train people and teaches us how to do exercise and things like that. But, like I said, you are the owner of your own decision. It’s sad that he’s involved in things like this.”

As long as ARoid is still involved, this story involving Big Papi and Presinal won’t go away. Big Papi did the right thing in talking about it immediately because this is a case of guilty by association.

Yesterday we learned who will be starting the first six games for the Red Sox in the exhibition games that are set to start on Wednesday. Here’s how it shapes up:

Wednesday vs. Boston College: Josh Beckett
Wednesday at Minnesota: Tim Wakefield
Thursday vs. Pittsburgh: Jon Lester
Friday at Tampa Bay: Michael Bowden
Saturday vs. Northeastern: Kris Johnson
Saturday vs. Cincinnati: Clay Buchholz

Remember folks, we won’t see Daisuke Matsuzaka pitch during spring training until probably the end of March. It’s highly unlikely we’ll see John Smoltz pitch during spring training either but I do expect we’ll see Brad Penny.

The Red Sox will be busy today as it’s the annual picture day [Extra Bases]

Ortiz talks about trainer [Boston Globe]

Michael Bowden’s debut didn’t please all [Boston Herald]

Daniel Bard blows away Sox with dominating BP session [Providence Journal]

Asset freeze isn’t that chilling for Ellsbury [Boston Globe]

New arms have Red Sox stacked in ‘pen [redsox.com]

Lowell progressing [Projo Sox Blog]

Concerns about the Sox Future ST Digs [Spring Training ’09]

Paw Prints – The Daily Roundup – 2/22

Paw Prints The Daily Roundup

It’s game day for the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team as they play host to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at the XL Center. Tip is scheduled for roughly 2 PM and the game will be shown on ESPNU.

UConn women’s basketball links

UConn’s Doty, ND’s Peters reliving ACL nightmares [New Haven Register]

Greene to return for fifth year? [New Haven Register]

UConn women’s gameday [Connecticut Post]

Greene plans to return for another year [Connecticut Post]

Irish will have hands full with Moore, Huskies [Norwich Bulletin]

Irish’s McGraw Impressed With Huskies [Hartford Courant]

UConn’s Greene To Return For Her 5th Year [Hartford Courant]

No. 1 UConn vs. No. 24 Notre Dame [Hartford Courant]

Injured Greene to return for 5th year [Waterbury Republican-American]

UConn senior Cassie Kerns has talent beyond the court [Waterbury Republican-American]

Hayes has provided a major boost [New London Day]

What’s best for women’s game is playing the tournament in Hartford [New London Day]

UConn men’s basketball links

Price gives Huskies a lift [New Haven Register]

UConn rotation shrinking [New Haven Register]

UConn rolls past South Florida [Connecticut Post]

UConn men’s notebook [Connecticut Post]

Price, Huskies shake of Bulls [Norwich Bulletin]

Huskies grind out 25th victory [Journal Inquirer]

Thabeet Leads UConn Past USF, 64-50 [Hartford Courant]

UConn Men’s Extras [Hartford Courant]

798, 799 . . . [Hartford Courant]

UConn gets needed victory, but it’s ugly [Waterbury Republican-American]

Huskies Get Wake-Up Call In Time [New London Day]

UConn Football Links

NFL Combine Q & A: UConn’s Cody Brown [Hartford Courant]

UConn hockey links

The UConn women’s hockey team fell 4-3 to New Hampshire [UConnHuskies.com]

The UConn men’s hockey team beat Canisius 4-3 in overtime [UConnHuskies.com]

Other UConn related links

Song Puts Fight Into Huskies [Hartford Courant]

The UConn women’s lacrosse team lost to Vermont 14-11 [UConnHuskies.com]

The UConn men’s baseball team lost 6-4 to Ohio State [UConnHuskies.com]

The UConn women’s softball team beat Kentucky 5-4 [UConnHuskies.com]

Local Reporter Pisses Off Calhoun

You had to figure that UConn Huskies men’s basketball head coach Jim Calhoun might be a little irritated after the way the Huskies played on Saturday afternoon. But of course when you’re asked about something that is not relevant to the game itself, you expect Calhoun to be a little perturbed especially when it’s about his salary.

A local freelance journalist, Ken Kreyeske, asked Calhoun about his $1.6 million dollar salary with the state of Connecticut facing a $944 million budget deficit. Calhoun didn’t take too well to the question and rightly went off on Kreyeske in my opinion. Kreyeske even attacked the beat writers for not asking the question.

Conn-frontation [Emeka, Nadav and Corny]

Calhoun gets into heated spat over salary [AP via the Hartford Courant]

UConn Gets By South Florida 64-50

Wins can come all different ways. They can be pretty, close, a blowout, ugly, good, etc. I think we can classify today’s win for the No.1 UConn Huskies as UGLY.

UConn's Hasheem Thabeet blocks a shot against South Florida in the first half - Bob Child/APIt wasn’t pretty at all this afternoon at the XL Center but the Huskies got the job done with a 64-50 win over the South Florida Bulls.

The win improves UConn’s record to 25-2 (13-2 Big East) while the Bulls drop to 8-18 (3-11). It was also the 799th win of Jim Calhoun’s career and his 551st at UConn.

Hasheem Thabeet led the way for the Huskies this afternoon with 21 points and added 9 rebounds and 6 blocked shots. A.J. Price added 11 points and Stanley Robinson had 10. Jeff Adrien just missed a double-double as he finished with 9 points and 15 rebounds.

The Bulls were led by Augustus Gilchrist’s 15 points. Dominique Jones added 14 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists while Chris Howard chipped in with 11 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists.

It was slow going early on. UConn jumped out to an early 9-0 lead as the Bulls couldn’t buy a basket to save their lives. Then the Huskies went cold and South Florida cut UConn’s lead to 9-6 despite hitting just two of their first 15 shots. With 7:17 to go in the first half, a Robinson jumper gave the Huskies a 9 point lead at 19-10.

South Florida cut the lead to 5 at 19-14 but UConn responded as they got their lead to 12 points at 26-14 on a Thabeet layup. The Bulls got the lead down to 9 but a sweet crossover from Kemba Walker got him to basket to put the Huskies up 31-20 at the break.

The Bulls battled in the second half to cut UConn’s lead to 6 points but the Huskies used a 14-4 run to make sure they didn’t get any closer.

One thing’s for sure, Calhoun won’t be happy with the way his team played today. Maybe it was the early start time, but they really seem uninspired the whole game. They looked sloppy at times, out-of-sync at times and never really got in the flow early on. This was a game where the Huskies played to their opponent’s level and not at one of the top team in the nation.

Another tough matchup for the Huskies awaits on Wednesday night when they head to the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, WI to take on the No. 11 Marquette Golden Eagles. Tip is scheduled for 7 PM and the game will be broadcast  nationally on ESPN.

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Amalie Benjamin Talks Boston Red Sox Baseball

This one’s for Red from Surviving Grady since we all know how much he loves Amalie.

Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe stopped by the NESN desk at spring training to talk some Boston Red Sox baseball with Tom Caron. She talks about Junichi Tazawa, Jacoby Ellsbury and Brad Wilkerson among other things.

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video courtesy of NESN