Boston Red Sox: Amalie Benjamin says Brad Penny is just the type of pitcher the Red Sox like to go after. He’s a low cost, high-ceiling pitcher who could pay huge dividends to the Sox if he’s successful and healthy. [Boston Globe]

The big news of the day yesterday was the fact that UConn Huskies running back Donald Brown has declared for the NFL Draft. It was also a good day as the UConn football team won the International Bowl, the UConn women’s basketball team beat LSU and the UConn men’s basketball team beat Rutgers.

Donald Brown’s plans include more than just the NFL.

Dahna Deleston had an interception return to remember for a lifetime yesterday.

Donald Brown kept his decision to himself and his family before announcing it yesterday.

Desmond Conner of the Hartford Courant has a look at what went right and wrong for UConn in the International Bowl.

Donald Brown provided a little misdirection about his future to protect his teammates.

Here’s a look at where Donald Brown stands in the UConn record books.

Matt Stout of the Norwich Bulletin, Gavin Keefe of the New London Day, Neill Ostrout of the Connecticut Post and David Borges of the New Haven Register all have some postgame notes from the UConn men’s game last night.

Stanley Robinson performed well in his first start as he got the Huskies going early on.

Jim Calhoun missed the second half of the game with shingles and a bad cold.

David Gillett says the UConn men took care of business last night.

Renee Montgomery continues to spark the Huskies.

The UConn women’s basketball stars all shared the wealth on Saturday.

LSU coach Van Chancellor said that Renee Montgomery will be a point guard on 2012 Olympic Team.

Kalana Greene returned to form in yesterday’s win over LSU.

The UConn women have reason to be wary despite all the praise.

Geno Auriemma doesn’t envy LSU’s position.

Kaili McLaren had another big game against LSU.

John Altavilla of the Hartford Courant has some extras from yesterday’s win over LSU.

Joe Perez of the Norwich Bulletin has some UConn women’s recruiting news.

Rich Elliott of the Connecticut Post has some postgame notes from the UConn women’s win over LSU.

The UConn women’s hockey team returned to action with a 7-0 win over Vermont.

The UConn men’s hockey team fell 4-3 to No. 11 Air Force.

How many times have you moved? For Curt Schilling, it’s been 51 times as chronicles each of the moves he’s made during his baseball playing career. You would have thought that he would have gotten into the moving business with all his experience but he’s got a pretty great gig going over at 38 Studios. By the way, for me it’s been 11 times. [38 Pitches]

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights came into the game tonight against the No. 2 UConn Huskies wanting to play a slowdown game and hoping the Huskies were still down from their loss to Georgetown Monday night. And that’s what pretty much happened in the first half.

But a 51 point second half by the Huskies propelled them to a 80-49 win over  Big East foe Rutgers in at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, CT. It’s the 8th straight win for UConn and 16th in 17 games against the Scarlet Knights.

The win for the Huskies improves their record to 12-1 (1-1 Big East) while the Scarlet Knights fall to 9-6 (0-2).

UConn played the second half with out head coach Jim Calhoun who stayed behind in the locker room as he was battling his annual flu bug. It was the 20th time in 23 seasons that Calhoun has a missed a game or left early.

Hasheem Thabeet overcame a right hip-pointer and 2 first half points to lead the Huskies in scoring with 15 points and 8 rebounds. Jerome Dyson added 14 points while Jeff Adrien had 13 points and 7 rebounds. Stanley Robinson made his return to the starting lineup with 13 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks and Gavin Edwards came off the bench to score 10 points.

Rutgers was paced by Gregory Echenique’s 17 points and 3 blocked shots. Talented freshman Mike Rosario added 10 points and JR Inman had 9 points. Hamady Ndiaye led the Scarlet Knights with 7 rebounds and also had 6 points.

For the Huskies, it was a case of here we go again as they fell behind the Scarlet Knights 7-2. UConn went on a 8-0 run led by Robinson and Craig Austrie to take a 10-7 lead. Rutgers kept it close but a Dyson 3-pointer pushed the Huskies lead to 8 at 23-15 as UConn used a 17-7 run to take a 29-18 lead into the locker room.

Maybe it was the fact that Calhoun was in the locker room and that associate head coach George Blaney was leading the Huskies but they looked a little more relaxed in the second half. Probably because they knew they weren’t going to get too quick of a hook.

The Huskies used a 12-2 run in the second half to push the lead to 22 at 53-31 to put the game out of reach.

Next up for the Huskies is a trip to beautiful Morgantown, West Virginia to take on the Mountaineers on Tuesday night. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 PM and the game will be somewhat nationally broadcast on ESPNU.

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13 rookies to take part in Development Program: The Boston Red Sox annual Rookie Development Program will start tomorrow and will run through January 16th. The program helps the Red Sox prospects and expected rookies with their transition to playing in the big leagues and their expectations from the Red Sox. 1B Lars Anderson, RHP Daniel Bard, OF Zac Daeges, RHP Dewon Day, SS Argenis Diaz, LHP Felix Doubront, LHP Kris Johnson, RHP Richie Lentz, RHP Wes Littleton, RHP Adam Mills, OF Josh Reddick, LHP Dustin Richardson, and C Mark Wagner are all expected to participate. [WEEI.com]

UConn RB Donald Brown will be playing in the NFL next year.

Just one month after saying that he was planning to stay for his senior year, UConn Huskies running back Donald Brown has decided to make himself eligible for the 2009 NFL Draft.

“I’m not coming back,” Brown said. “I’m going to the NFL. I know I told you guys earlier that I was coming back but that was too eliminate the distractions on our team. We had enough internal distractions going on and they didn’t need that one as a burden as well so I apologize for “lying” for what I did to protect my team. They mean the world to me, so I’m willing to put my neck on the line for them.”

“To be honest with you, going into the season, I worked my tail off and I made it a point to myself in the position to have the option to stay or leave” he said. “As time grew closer and I just kept sleeping on it for nights and nights and I just felt in my heart that was best for me. It was one of the toughest decisions I ever had to make in my life.

“With the guy next to me [Edsall] giving me advice along the way and my parents and my high school coach made it a lot easier for me.”

While this is a big loss for UConn, it’s the right decision for Brown and his family. Other than help UConn get to a BCS Bowl, there’s nothing much left for Brown to accomplish at UConn. He has just 4 courses left before he earns his degree something which is very important to him and his family.

The draft should be an exciting time for the Huskies as Brown, Darius Butler, Cody Brown and Will Beatty are all projected to be picked in the NFL Draft.

Was this a game that the UConn Huskies deserved to win? Buffalo Bulls fans will say no, UConn fans will say yes. I will say because of the adjustments Randy Edsall made in the second half to overcome 5 first half turnovers, including 3 on special teams and 1 each by Tyler Lorenzen and Donald Brown that they deserved to win.

For most of the 1st half, it looked as though the Bulls were going to run away with this game as they converted the 5 turnovers into 20 points. Other than that though, the UConn defense was strong and the offense put together 28 unanswered points to lead them to a 38-20 win over the Bulls in front of International Bowl record of  40,189 at Rogers Centre in Toronto.

The first of the five turnovers came on a Buffalo punt when the ball hit Jonathan Jean-Louis and the Bulls recovered. The UConn defense held strong and only allowed a field goal. The second turnover came when Jasper Howard muffed a punt and kicked into the end zone that was recovered by the Bulls for a touchdown. The third turnover came when Lorenzen was sacked and fumbled that was recovered Buffalo. UConn’s defense held strong and only allowed a field goal. On the ensuing kickoff, Robbie Frey made a bad decision after missing the kickoff and decided to take it out of the end zone where he was hit and fumbled at his own 4. The Bulls recovered it and on the first play from scrimmage scored a touchdown. Brown fumbled on UConn’s next possession but once again their defense held strong forcing the Bulls to punt.

So how was UConn able to overcome the 5 turnovers in the 1st half. It’s pretty simple. They had Donald Brown and Buffalo didn’t. Despite a fumble in the 1st half, Brown had 208 yards rushing a touchdown to keep the Huskies in the game. Brown finished the game with a career-high 261 yards on 29 carries and the touchdown in what could be his final game in a UConn uniform. The Bulls even stacked the line as UConn attempted just 1 pass in the first half but there was no stopping Brown and Lorenzen on the ground.

Lorenzen had a pretty good day on the ground as well as he showed no ill effects from the broken foot suffered against Louisville back in September. Lorenzen had 12 carries for 32 yards and two touchdowns on runs of 13 yards and 15 yards. Even Jordan Todman got into the act as he had 7 rushes for 62 yards. Lorenzen was 4-of-6 for 49 yards and a touchdown in the air as well.

The UConn defense held Buffalo to 237 yards with good portion of those coming late in the game when the Huskies were in a prevent defense. UConn finished with 407 yards of total offense with 358 of them coming on the ground.

Scoring:

1st quarter

BUF – A.J. Principe 38 yard field goal

CON – Donald Brown 45 yard run (Dave Teggart PAT)

2nd quarter

CON – Dave Teggart 32 yard field goal

BUF – Ray Anthony Long fumble recovery in end zone (A.J. Principe PAT)

BUF – A.J. Principe 29 yard field goal

BUF – James Starks 4 yard run (A.J. Principe PAT)

CON – Tyler Lorenzen 13 yard run (Dave Teggart PAT)

3rd quarter

CON – Steve Brouse 4 yard pass from Tyler Lorenzen (Dave Teggart PAT)

4th quarter

CON – Tyler Lorenzen 15 yard run (Dave Teggart PAT)

CON – Dahna Deleston 100 yard interception return (Dave Teggart PAT)

Offensive Player of the Game:

Donald Brown had 29 carries for a career-high 261 yards and a touchdown.

Defensive Players of the Game:

Robert McClain III and Jasper Howard both had 8 tackles in the game with McClain adding 2 pass breakups and Howard had one.

Turning Point(s) of the Game:

1. The 5 turnovers in the first half led to 20 points by the Bulls but after Brown’s fumbled, the Huskies defense forced a punt. On the next play from scrimmage, Donald Brown busted a run for 75 yards to set up Tyler Lorenzen’s 13 yard touchdown run.
2. With UConn leading by 11 late in the 4th quarter, Dahna Deleston intercepted a Drew Willy pass and returned it 100 yards for a touchdown to put the nail in the coffin for the Bulls.

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