It’s game day for the UConn Huskies men’s basketball team as they will take on the South Florida Bulls this afternoon at 2 PM at the XL Center. The game will be broadcast locally on MyTV9.

UConn men’s basketball links

Letdown not likely for Huskies [New Haven Register]

UConn needs to rebound from loss [Connecticut Post]

Thabeet and Co. look to rebound [Norwich Bulletin]

UConn-South Florida men’s basketball preview capsule [Norwich Bulletin]

Calhoun Needs More Huskies To Step Up [Hartford Courant]

South Florida At No.1 UConn [Hartford Courant]

UConn men’s basketball Gameday South Florida at No. 1 UConn [Danbury News-Times]

UConn men anxious to get back to work [New London Day]

USF v UConn preview, or This will not end well. [Go USF Bulls Blog]

Bulls on Parade [Connecticut Post]

Of Bulls, Blair and Bears [Emeka, Nadav and Corny]

UConn women’s basketball links

Thinking outside the box [Journal Inquirer]

Taurasi blowing up [Elm City to Eagleville]

UConn football links

Memorable Week For UConn’s Donald Brown [Hartford Courant]

Desmond Conner has an update on the availability of the football team [UConn | Football]

UConn hockey links

The UConn women’s hockey team finishes up their season with a pair of games this weekend [UConnHuskies.com]

The UConn men’s hockey team lost to Canisius 4-3 [UConnHuskies.com]

Other UConn related links

The UConn softball team lost a pair of games yesterday in the Mardi Gras Classic [UConnHuskies.com]

The UConn men’s baseball team lost it’s opener 4-2 to Michigan State [UConnHuskies.com]

During the day yesterday, the New York Daily News reported that Alex Rodriguez was involved with a trainer named Angel Presinal, who happened to be banned from MLB ballparks after a 2001 incident.

The reason why Boston Red Sox David Ortiz’s name came up is the fact that when he is in the Domincan Republic, Big Papi trains at his facility because it’s close to his house there. He wasn’t the only player named either. Juan Gonzalez, Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, Vladimir Guerrero, Bartolo Colon, Miguel Tejada, Adrian Beltre, Moises Alou, Jose Guillen, Ervin Santana, Ruben Sierra, Francisco Cordero, Jose Mesa and Juan Guzman, among others have all worked with or trained at his facility in the Dominican.

So before anyone starts saying well Big Papi used steroids or any crap like that, listen to what Big Papi has to say.

This place, where he works out, it’s a facility that is like five minutes away from my house. It’s like an Olympic place, where everybody goes and hits, runs, do all the work. That’s, like, in the middle of everyone’s house. We all go there and work out. He’s a good trainer. He’s a guy who teaches you how to train, get your body ready to go. Besides that, I have no idea about this.

MLB has warned that the players stay away from him. And now that ARoid has been linked to him, people will start to think well maybe he did it.

Unfortunately now when ever steroids is mentioned, it’s guilty by association. Instead of letting people prove the facts, some will rush to judgment. The only way we’ll ever know who else did steroids is to have the other 103 names released.

You can hear Big Papi’s comments along with his thoughts on Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis by watching the video below from his appearance Mohegan Sun Sports Tonight on Comcast SportsNet New England.

A-Rod’s pal, the tainted trainer: Steroid-linked friend is banned by every MLB team [New York Daily News]

Video is courtesy of Comcast SportsNet New England

In the second annual ping-pong match sponsored by Comcast SportsNet New England, Boston Red Sox 2B and AL MVP Dustin Pedroia added some more hardware to his already growing collection as he beat Jed Lowrie to take home the Golden Paddle.

Hopefully there will be some video of this in the near future so for now we’ll have to settle for pictures from the Boston Globe.

Table tennis, anyone? [Extra Bases]

2/20 UPDATE: Comcast SportsNet New England will be showing the highlights of the ping-pong match on tonight’s Mohegan Sun SportsNight at 6:30 PM.

Here is the video is courtesy of Comcast SportsNet New England

Some very sad news to pass along. Desmond Conner of the Hartford Courant passed along some news yesterday that Randy Edsall’s father had passed away. My condolences to the entire Edsall family on their loss.

UConn men’s basketball links:

UConn’s walk-ons leave their mark [New Haven Register]

Big East Corner [Hartford Courant] also contains women’s notes as well

Calhoun thinks 18 Big East games is too many [Matt’s UConn Huskies men’s basketball blog]

Ben Gordon answers fans questions [UConn Huskies basketball]

‘Big Bear chase me’ [Connecticut Post]

UConn women’s basketball links:

Hayes is proving she’s more than a scoring threat [Norwich Bulletin]

UConn women’s always among nation’s elite [Times West Virginian]

Thibault, Auriemma Olympic Candidates [Hartford Courant]

Kalana Greene’s vanishing act causes anxiety [Waterbury Republican-American]

Been there, done that [Elm City to Eagleville]

McCormack surgery delayed again [Elm City to Eagleville]

Who will be the Big East Player of the Year [UConn¦Women’s Basketball]

UConn football links:

Coach Edsall and family OK [UConn ¦ Football]

NFL Combine Q & A: UConn’s Will Beatty [Hartford Courant]

Video with Will Beatty [Hartford Courant]

I’m Darius Butler [imatopprospect.com]

Other UConn-related links:

UConn AD enjoying role as official bracketologist [New London Day]

Your Fat White Guy Moment of the Week [Thoughts From a Fat White Guy]

The UConn men’s baseball team kicks off it’s season against Michigan State today [UConnHuskies.com]

The UConn women’s softball team kicks off it’s season with a doubleheader today [UConnHuskies.com]