It’s game night for the UConn Huskies men’s basketball team as they will take on Jim Calhoun’s alma mater American International College at Gampel Pavilion. The game will be available via webcast and will also be broadcast on WTIC 1080 and the UConn Huskies Radio Network.

David Borges of the New Haven Register, Matt Stout of the Norwich Bulletin and Mike Anthony of the Hartford Courant all have some notes from the UConn men’s basketball practice yesterday.

Members of the UConn Huskies men’s basketball team voted for the first time in their lives yesterday.

Craig Austrie appears to be out of the doghouse of Jim Calhoun after he had a few rough practices.

The Huskies are happy to be playing someone other than themselves tonight.

The Huskies will start 3 guards tonight and will do so until Stanley Robinson returns from his leave of absence.

David Borges of the New Haven Register has a look back at the games Jim Calhoun played in against UConn during his playing career at AIC.

Jim Calhoun has had trouble filling the small forward position ever since Rudy Gay left for the NBA.

Tyler Lorenzen could be in the mix at quarterback next week when UConn plays at Syracuse.

Rob Lunn checks in again over at Thoughts From a Fat White Guy.

Brian Bennett of ESPN.com writes that the Big East has the best running backs in the country including UConn’s Donald Brown.

Tony Cascio was named the Big East Men’s Soccer Rookie of the Week.

So while the rest of the United States is talking about Barack Obama becoming our next President, it’s time for us here to take a look at the Boston Red Sox news from yesterday.

Last week when Jason Varitek filed for a free agency, we ran a poll here at SOX & Dawgs about whether or not the Red Sox should re-sign Varitek. 108 (71%) of the readers said YES the Red Sox should re-sign him.

[polldaddy poll=”1060905″]

Now this should probably have been a post of it’s own given the fact that Scott Boras has once again made some outrageous comments.

During yesterday’s GM meetings in California, Boras talked with the media about what he thinks Varitek should command on the open market.

Agent Scott Boras told reporters that New York Yankees catcher Jorge Posada’s four-year, $52.4 million deal, which was agreed to last offseason, will serve as a benchmark for any team looking to land Varitek.

“It’s probably representative, age-wise,” Boras said, “and it’s also representative of what a player on a winning team (is worth). You’re not going to have many catchers who have the performance levels and a 60 percent winning percentage on a franchise and have won two world championships and caught four no-hitters. The idea of it is that there just aren’t many in the marketplace that can lead a club like Jason Varitek and that’s going to be his value.”

Are you f’ing kidding me? Is Boras nuts? The Yankees overpaid Posada and gave him money based on what’s he done for the team. There’s no way the Red Sox are going to give him that kind of money considering the season he had at the plate.

Don’t get me wrong because I’ve said it here before. You cannot question the leadership that Varitek brings to the Red Sox behind the plate. Sure maybe his down year at the plate could be attributed to his divorce from his wife Karen but that’s still no excuse. He’s definitely not worth a 4 year contract at that price. To me, he’s probably worth about $7-10 million a year for 2 years.

There had been a report yesterday that the Red Sox and San Diego Padres had been talking about a trade of Coco Crisp for Khalil Greene. Both the Red Sox and Padres shot down that rumor yesterday.

I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here when I say free agent Jay Payton won’t be returning to the Red Sox anytime soon.

The Red Sox and Texas Rangers have had very preliminary discussions about a trade for one of the catchers the Rangers have in their stables.

While just yesterday the Red Sox may have been frontrunners for the services of Japanese pitcher Junichi Tazawa that might not be the case now as the Atlanta Braves have offered him a MLB contract.

Alex Speier of WEEI.com has a full look at some news and notes from the Red Sox concerning Mike Lowell and Julio Lugo among other things.

Dustin Pedroia could be among the Gold Glove winners when they are announced tomorrow.

Mike Timlin was the final member of the Red Sox to file for free agency and we already know he won’t be coming back.

Don’t forget to take a moment to vote for the 2008 This Year In Baseball Awards over at MLB.com.

Don’t forget to download your Red Sox toolbar for Firefox or Internet Explorer.

As we know, there is usually no television coverage for the UConn Huskies men’s and women’s basketball exhibition games. We are usually left to either going to the game or listening to the games on WTIC-1080 AM. Neither of those are a bad option at all.

But if you’re interested in watching the games on the internet, AT&T Huskies All-Access will have live coverage of all 4 games for you.

The cost for AT&T Huskies All-Access is $9.95 for a monthly subscription and $79.95 for a yearly subscription.

“Huskies All-Access” includes live and archived webcasts of numerous UConn Olympic sporting events. Also featured are the weekly and home game postgame press conferences of head football coach Randy Edsall and highlights and replays of UConn football games. In the winter season, there is live and archived coverage of postgame men’s and women’s basketball press conferences. There will also be archived men’s basketball games and highlights and archived women’s basketball highlights.

For access to the men’s AIC game (11/5), CLICK HERE.

For access to the women’s Stonehill game (11/6), CLICK HERE.

For access to the men’s UMass-Lowell game (11/9), CLICK HERE.

For access to the women’s Team SRP game (11/12), CLICK HERE.

Information from the UConn Huskies press release on this matter was used in the report.

The 2008 Internet Baseball Awards held by Baseball Prospectus are over and the fans have chosen Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia as their MVP. This is the 17th year Baseball Prospectus has held the awards.

Pedroia actually had less first place votes than runner-up Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins but was on 200 more ballots than Mauer.

According to Baseball Prospectus:

Pedroia is the second player in IBA voting history to win an MVP the year after winning Rookie of the Year. The first player to do it was also a Red Sox middle infielder, though Nomar Garciaparra played shortstop, not second base, when he accomplished this feat in 1997 and 1998. Three other players have been voted both Internet Rookie of the Year and Internet MVP, though none did it in consecutive years—Derek Jeter, Mike Piazza, and Albert Pujols.

Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis finished 6th in the voting.

Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria won the IBA AL Rookie of the Year, Cleveland Indians pitcher Cliff Lee won the IBA AL Cy Young and Rays skipper Joe Maddon won the IBA Manager of the Year.

The BBWWA yearly awards will start being announced on November 10th.

• AL Rookie of the Year: Nov. 10
• NL Rookie of the Year: Nov. 10
• NL Cy Young Award: Nov. 11
• AL Manager of the Year: Nov. 12
• NL Manager of the Year: Nov. 12
• AL Cy Young Award: Nov. 13
• NL Most Valuable Player: Nov. 17
• AL Most Valuable Player: Nov. 18