The spring is in the air
I’ll see baseball players everywhere
I’m singing a song
I won’t do anything wrong

The spring is in the air
I know there’s some baseball somewhere
Maybe here or there
It could be everywhere
with regards to BZN

Hip hip horray! It’s Truck Day for the Boston Red Sox. And that means spring is in the air for us up here in frigid New England.

Yesterday brought us some more early arrivals as Kevin Youkilis and Manny Delcarmen showed up in Ft. Myers. Youk was already in the cages hacking away as he prepares himself for the WBC and the Red Sox season of course. I suspect we’ll see more early arrivals into Ft. Myers over the weekend.

One player we won’t see though is Daisuke Matsuzaka who is training in Japan for the WBC and won’t be in Ft. Myers until the WBC is over. As far as the WBC goes, the Red Sox stand to lose Youk, Dustin Pedroia, Jason Bay and David Ortiz and maybe a few others.

Lars Anderson has blossomed into a top prospect for the Red Sox [Boston Globe]

The Boston Pops has teamed up with the Red Sox for a new baseball cd [Boston Globe via the AP]

The Red Sox bullpen should be mightier this season [Boston Herald]

Here’s a look at the Red Sox relievers [Boston Herald]

The Red Sox infield is starting to look homegrown [Boston Herald]

Here’s a look at the Red Sox infielders [Boston Herald]

Jason Bay think there’s a 50-50 chance he’ll be a free agent at the end of the year [Hot Stove Talk]

Tony Massarotti has his top 5 trades in Red Sox history [Boston Globe]

Red Sox fans will love Joe Torre’s new book [Boston Globe]

Jacoby Ellsbury has emerged as the main man in the Red Sox outfield [The Enterprise]

The Red Sox took care of business from within this offseason [redsox.com]

John Altavilla of the Hartford Courant, Jim Fuller of the New Haven Register, Rich Elliot of the Connecticut Post all have notes on the UConn women’s basketball team.

Joe Perez has an update on Mel Thomas and the WNBA [UConn women’s basketball]

Renee Montgomery is featured in SI Pop Culture Grid [Extra Mustard]

Maya Moore is excelling off the court as well [Norwich Bulletin]

Tiffany Hayes is having one crazy season [Connecticut Post]

The latest award for Maya Moore is purely academic [New Haven Register]

Rutgers found out UConn was for real [NJ.com]

Are this year’s Huskies Geno Auriemma’s best [Marquette Tribune]

Geno’s Cancer Team has team up with the ECC for the “Think Pink” initiative [Norwich Bulletin]

Here’s a preview of Saturday’s game against Marquette [Hartford Courant]

Here are some notes from the Big East men’s and women’s coaches conference calls [Hartford Courant]

Matt Stout of the Norwich Bulletin and Neill Ostrout of the Connecticut Post both  have some notes on the UConn men’s basketball team.

Jim Calhoun is touting Hasheem Thabeet’s worth [Norwich Bulletin]

A.J. Price is up for the Bob Cousy Award [Connecticut Post]

Mike Anthony answers questions about the UConn men’s team in his mailbag [Hartford Courant]

The UConn men are the seven day savior team [Collegehoops.net]

Is UConn to diversified to fail? [The New York Observer]

Jim Calhoun put Hasheem Thabeet’s name out there for Big East Player of the Year [Chicago Tribune]

The top tier of Final Four teams includes UConn [CBS News]

Wide receiver Ellis Gaulden won’t be back for the Huskies in 2009 [Hartford Courant]

Rob Lunn answers a question in his mailbag [Thoughts From a Fat White Guy]

The UConn men’s hockey team is in Colorado to take on the Air Force Academy this weekend [UConnHuskies.com]

UConn Huskies senior point guard A.J. Price has been named a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award presented by The Hartford.

The Bob Cousy Award presented by The Hartford is given to the top collegiate male basketball point guard annually spanning across all divisions within the game by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The selection criteria emphasize leadership, team work, success, and fundamentals as being critical parts for the game of basketball as a point guard. Nominations are solicited from across the country from head coaches and the winner is selected by a Blue Ribbon Selection Committee made up of the biggest names in college basketball. Nominations for the 2009 award have been collected.. Fans can now vote for Award Finalists.

Here are the 17 finalists. You can vote for the player to receive the fan vote over at cousyaward.com.

• AJ Price-University of Connecticut
• David Arseneault-Grinnell College
• Darren Collison-UCLA
• Darren Duncan-Merrimack College
• Dominic James-Marquette University
• Eric Maynor-Virginia Commonwealth University
• Jeff Teague-Wake Forest University
• Jeremy Pargo-Gonzaga University
• Jonny Flynn-Syracuse University
• Levance Fields-University of Pittsburgh
• Patrick Mills-St. Mary’s College
• Sean Wallis-Washington University
• Sheron Collins-University of Kansas
• Stephen Curry-Davidson College
• Toney Douglas-Florida State University
• Ty Lawson-University of North Carolina
• Virgil Buensuceso-BYU – Hawaii

While we are on the subject of smart UConn Huskies student-athletes, 9 members of the UConn football team were named to the Big East All-Academic Team.

To be eligible for the team, the student-athlete must have been a letterwinner during the 2008 season, have a cumulative 3.0 GPA and completed two semesters of full-time academic work.

Here’s the 9 UConn football players named to the team:

She’s pretty smart too.

UConn Huskies sophomore All-American Maya Moore has been named the to ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA First District All-Academic First Team. She is now eligible to be named to the Academic All-America Team later in the year.

Moore sports a 3.74 GPA in a pre-individualized major.

“I’m sure my mother is happy about this because it’s what always came first when I was growing up,” Moore said. “I know she’s proud of the way I carry myself in the classroom.”

“It’s tough because you put so much energy out here [in practice],” Moore said. “You have long days. You come in about 12:30 and usually don’t leave until 5. Then you eat and then at 7 you have to do your homework. Every now and then you have to stay up later, although my one of my goals is to avoid having an all-nighter [study session].”

She’s got game in the classroom, too [Hartford Courant]