Paw Prints – Buffalo Bulls (8-5) vs UConn Huskies (7-5) – International Bowl Preview

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Buffalo Bulls vs UConn Huskies, International Bowl

The UConn Huskies look to win their 2nd bowl game in 3 tries as they head to Toronto to take on the Buffalo Bulls at the International Bowl at the Rogers Centre on Saturday, January 3rd at Noon.

Here are the rosters for the Huskies and Bulls.

The Line/Prediction

According to Yahoo! Sports Odds as of January 1st, the UConn Huskies are favored by 5½ points. The over/under is 51½ points.

My prediction is UConn 24 Buffalo 21.

Tickets

As of this post, there are still plenty of  great seats available for the game through Ticketmaster Canada.

Getting to the Game

Here is the weather forecast for Toronto (the game is being played indoors), directions and parking information for Rogers Centre, a seating chart, Rogers Centre policies travel information and hotel information for Toronto.

BROADCAST INFORMATION

Television

The 2009 International Bowl will be televised in the United States by ESPN2. John Saunders is on play-by-play while Doug Flutie and Jesse Palmer are on color. Bruce Connal is the producer. In Canada, the game will be seen on The Score.

Radio

For the 16th consecutive season, WTIC 1080-AM in Hartford serves as the flagship station for the UConn Radio Network. WTIC is the state’s only 50,000 watt signal and can be heard in 23 states and parts of Canada.

Veteran UConn announcers Joe D’Ambrosio (play-by-play) and Wayne Norman (color commentary) return to call the action with Kevin Nathan on the sidelines and Eric Davis on production.

The UConn pregame show begins 90 minutes prior to kickoff, while at home games, the UConn Tailgate Show will air two and a half hours prior to the game with Arnold Dean.

The UConn Football Radio Network also includes WILI 1400-AM in Willimantic, WINE 940-AM in Danbury and WPUT-1510 AM in Brewster, N.Y. UConn football games are also broadcast over the internet at WTIC.com.

The 2009 International Bowl will also be heard along the Westwood One Radio Network in the United States and The Fan 590 in Toronto.

Buffalo Radio: WECK-1230 AM, UB’s flagship station will have Paul Peck (play-by-play), Steve Christie (color) and Brendan McDaniels (sideline) on the call.

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The 2008 Shotties

The 2008 Shotties: David Scott took some time away from writing his book to let us know about a feud that is brewing between NESN and the Boston Globe. Hopefully the Globe keeps their sponsorship of the Red Sox pregame show because it would be a crying shame not to be able to see Amalie Benjamin on a daily basis. He also talks about the sign-off of Glenn Ordway on WEEI. [Scott’s Shots]

Paw Prints – The Daily Roundup – 1/1

Paw Prints The Daily Roundup

UConn tight end Martin Bedard will be holding a chat at 10:15 AM over at UConnBowl.com.

Here is the chat transcript of Scott Lutrus from yesterday over at UConnBowl.com.

Want to see what the Huskies did in Toronto on December 30th and 31st? Click on the dates to see the video.

Here’s a look in pictures on how the football team spent their New Year’s Eve.

John Silver of the Journal Inquirer and Desmond Conner of the Hartford Courant have notes from yesterday’s football practice.

John Silver of the Journal Inquirer and Desmond Conner of the Hartford Courant say Donald Brown will take a hard look at his NFL options after the game.

Brian Bennett of ESPN.com has a look at what to look for in the International Bowl.

Randy Edsall and the UConn Huskies are looking to finish strong.

David Gillett has a look at the UConn men’s basketball team’s month of the December.

Mike Anthony has some quotes from Jamaal Trice who orally committed to UConn yesterday along with a look at his stats from Mater Dei  High School.

With Trice committing to the Huskies, they were able to beat out Georgetown for his services.

Former Husky Sue Bird was happy to be able to take in a UConn women’s game yesterday.

Renee Montgomery showed us why she is one of the nation’s top players yesterday.

Tina Charles rebounded after a slow start in the win over Hartford yesterday.

Renee Montgomery’s gutsy performance helped the Huskies to the win over Hartford.

Roger Cleaveland of the Republican American’s wish for 2009 is for the Huskies to meet Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament.

Geno Auriemma sent Maya Moore a message when he benched her in the first half for effort on the defensive end.

Lorin Dixon was able to learn a great deal from watching Sue Bird practice with the Huskies this week.

Renee Montgomery continues to climb the UConn women’s career scoring list.

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

Men’s hockey senior captain Sean Erickson has been named as a candidate for the Lowe’s Hockey Senior CLASS Award.

Robbie Maddison Is Nuts

Last year we saw Robbie Maddison jump 322 feet in Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve. This year he decided to do something even crazier.

This is one of the most insane things I think I’ve seen someone do.

And of course we can’t leave out Rhys Millen doing a back flip in a truck.

Angels Sign Brian Fuentes

Former New Haven Raven signs with Angels: Former New Haven Ravens and Colorado Rockies pitcher Brian Fuentes has signed a two year, $17.5 million contract with a $9 million club option for a third year with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Fuentes was 1-5 with a 2.73 ERA and 30 saves for the Rockies last season. [Angels.com]

UConn Women Close Out 2008 With 78-41 Win Over Hartford

Jen Rizzotti likes to challenge her Hartford Hawks team every year and that includes an annual matchup with the No. 1 UConn Huskies. One of these years, she will beat her former coach Geno Auriemma but that day will have to wait at least for another year.

Renee Montgomery outscored the Hawks in the first half as the Huskies rolled to a 78-41 win in front of an announced crowd of 12, 803 at the XL Center on a snowy New Year’s Eve afternoon in Hartford, CT.

The win for the Huskies improves their record to 12-0 for the 10th time in 13 seasons while the Hawks drop to 5-7.

UConn's Tina Charles shoots two of her 12 first-half points against the University of Hartford's Diana Delva and Amanda Weaver during game action at the XL Center. - Hartford Courant PhotoMontgomery finished with 20 first half points (the Hawks had 16 in the first half) and 4 assists to lead the Huskies. She didn’t play much in the second half as she left the game with an injury to her mouth. She was fine and back on the bench but didn’t come back into the game.

Tina Charles had another good game as she had 17 points and 9 rebounds while Maya Moore had 11 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocked shots. Caroline Doty chipped in with 9 points and 3 assists.

The Hawks were paced Illicia Mathis’ 10 points. Erica Beverly added 9 points and 4 rebounds while Diana Delva had 6 points and 5 rebounds.

UConn and Hartford both started out of the gates slowly as the two teams combined to go 0-for 7 in the first 90 seconds of the game.  Montgomery finally got the Huskies on the board with a jumper at the 18:21 mark and Beverly tied the game up 27 seconds later. Runs of 12-0 and a 25-5  by the Huskies put the game out reach early on despite UConn making just 3 of it’s first 11 shots as Hartford was ice cold from the floor.

UConn gradually pulled away due to the play of Montgomery and Charles who combined for 32 of UConn’s 49 points in the first half as they enjoyed a 49-16 lead at the break.

Next up for the Huskies is a game on Saturday afternoon against a very young LSU Tigers team at the XL Center. Tip-off is scheduled for noon and the game will be televised nationally on CBS with Don Criqui doing the play-by-play and former Husky All-American Rebecca Lobo handling the color duties.

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Jamal Trice Commits To UConn

UConn Huskies men's basketballThe UConn Huskies men’s basketball team has picked up another recruit for next year’s freshman class as 6-foot-5 shooting guard Jamal Trice has given Jim Calhoun an oral commitment to join the Huskies next year.

Trice is a Los Angeles area native who went to Mater Dei High School  but is doing a prep year at the  Mt. Zion Christian Academy in Durham, North Carolina. Mt. Zion is the school that Houston Rockets star Tracy McGrady attended.

Today was the last day of Trice’s official visit to UConn and it looks as though he liked it. Trice joins Alex Oriakhi and Jamal Coombs-McDaniel in the Class of 2013 at UConn.