The Big East Conference announced it’s postseason awards today and UConn had 4 members of it’s football team make either the first or second All-Big East teams.

The Huskies placed offensive guard Donald Thomas on the offensive first team and linebacker Danny Lansanah on the defensive first team. Running back Andre Dixon and kick returner/punt returner Tyvon Branch were named to the offensive second team. Read more about Patrick White at GoldCardAuctions.com

Here is a look at the awards:

2007 BIG EAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL AWARDS

BIG EAST CONFERENCE OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Patrick White, QB, West Virginia (Jr., Daphne, Ala.)

BIG EAST CONFERENCE DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

George Selvie, DL, USF (So., Pensacola, Fla.)

BIG EAST CONFERENCE SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Kevin Huber, P, Cincinnati (Jr., Cincinnati, Ohio)

BIG EAST CONFERENCE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

LeSean McCoy, RB, Pittsburgh (Fr., Harrisburg, Pa.) *

BIG EAST CONFERENCE COACH OF THE YEAR

Brian Kelly, Cincinnati

What is shocking to me is that UConn head coach Randy Edsall was not named the coach of the year in the Big East. He took a 4-8 team and brought home a 9-3 record and share of the Big East crown yet was snubbed by his peers in the conference. The winner, Brian Kelly from Cincinnati, was only in his first full year of coaching in the Big East.

A look at the first and second teams after the jump.

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The Downtown Athletic Club has announced the four finalists for the Heisman Trophy which is given annually since 1935 to the most outstanding college football player.

• Colt Brennan, QB, Hawai’i
• Darren McFadden, RB, Arkansas
• Tim Tebow, QB, Florida
• Chase Daniel, QB, Missouri

ESPN has the coverage of the Heisman Trophy presentation on Saturday night at 8 PM.

Just came across this on MLB Trade Rumors:

Just got an incredible rumor from a trusted New York sportswriter. Stay with me, because this one’s crazy. But rest assured that if the source wasn’t good, I wouldn’t post it.

Minnesota has initiated talks for a three-way blockbuster with the Twins and A’s. Here’s how it would go down:

Mets send Jose Reyes, Kevin Mulvey, and Hector Pellot to A’s
A’s send Bobby Crosby and Dan Johnson to Mets
A’s send Dan Haren to Twins
Twins send Johan Santana to Mets

Mets get Johan Santana, Bobby Crosby and Dan Johnson
A’s get Jose Reyes and Kevin Mulvey
Twins get Dan Haren and Hector Pellot

The source says Haren is exactly the type of player the Twins want for Santana, a cheap frontline starter. It’s known the Mets would hate to deal Reyes but they would get some value beyond Santana. Billy Beane is happy because he gets Reyes for one more year than he had Haren plus longtime favorite Mulvey. And, he’s out of Crosby’s contract.

All I have to say about this is WOW!!! As it says above, it is just a rumor and hasn’t what this entire winter meetings has been, just one big rumor but yet the plot thickens!!!!

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Tune in tonight as bloggers Anthony of the Oriole Post and Jason of My Baseball Bias join me for our hour long baseball show called, “The Hits Keep Coming” on Blog Talk Radio and on MVN Radio. Every week at 7PM Eastern Time (6PM Central/ 5PM Mountain/ 4PM Western/Pacific) we chat, analyze and comment about the world of Major League Baseball.

This week: Winter Meetings Special

If you’d like to call in, the phone number is 718-664-6564 or you can send us an instant message if you use AOL IM at hitskeepcoming20.

Please join us at either: http://blogtalkradio.com/oriolepost or http://mvn.com/radio/ – 7PM Eastern Time tonight!

Topics to be discussed this evening:

• Winter Meetings in Nashville
• Hot Stove Talk

You can listen to last week’s show by going over to the sidebar on the right and looking for the Blog Talk Radio section.

See you all tonight!!!

Besides the Johan Santana talks, there is other news regarding the Boston Red Sox going on so let’s take a look at those headlines.

Team interested in extending Varitek’s deal [Pro Jo]

Sox shop Tavarez, wait on Twins [Boston Herald]

For now, prospects are murky [Boston Globe]

Boston Red Sox Announce Personnel Moves In Baseball Operations [The Raw Feed]

Red Sox trying to get lesser deals completed [Pro Jo]

Sox fans shopping for their wives, girlfriends? [38 Pitches]

With the Red Sox getting ready to meet in their suite to talk about what’s going on in the Johan Santana sweepstakes, Gordon Edes of the Boston Globe shares his thoughts about what he thinks they will be talking about.

If the Sox do not trade for Johan Santana, an outcome last night as plausible as a deal going down, it may stem in part from some ambivalence on the part of club officials on whether they really want to do it. Theo Epstein and Co. enjoy watching the kids develop and win–going out and signing Santana makes them more like the Yankees. And surprisingly, there might be a greater willingness, at least on the part of some on the baseball ops side, to let Jacoby Ellsbury go in a Santana deal, and hold onto Lester, the belief being that 1) Ellsbury’s value will never be higher and 2) Lester may have a higher upside than he’s given credit for. At the same time, the Sox are well aware of the attachment many fans already have developed to Ellsbury. On the other hand, how do you pass up the chance to acquire Santana, a pitcher as special as Pedro Martinez was a decade ago?

These are the thoughts that get kicked around while waiting to see if anything develops at the midnight gathering of the Sox brass, development people and scouts.

Edes makes great points and I have to agree with him. As fans, we have become very attached to Ellsbury as well as Lester. But baseball is a business and that’s the one major thing we as fans need to remember.

Our resident blogger on the Red Sox, Curt Schilling chimes in over at 38 Pitches telling us about what’s it like as a player being involved in trade talks.

The first and I think most important part is that guys like Jon Lester, Jed Lowrie and anyone else being named in this deal are learning that this is truly a business when it comes to the team you are playing for. Jon’s been through this before, so has Coco, but it’s a shock to the system that first time. I was caught totally unaware and blown away when it first happened to me because I first heard about the trade to the Orioles as I was walking to the bullpen to pitch a game in AA and happened to pass by a TV and saw my name scrolling across the ticker, “The Orioles have traded Mike Boddicker to the Boston Red Sox for OF Brady Anderson and RHP Curt Schilling”, BOOM!  That’s how I found out baseball wasn’t about personal loyalties when it comes down to the business aspect. It’s not a bad thing, you certainly wish it were different as a player but the sooner you get it the easier this life becomes to live, especially over the winter and around the trade deadline.

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Kentucky head coach Billy Gillispie got some bad news on Monday as his freshman guard Alex Legion has decided to transfer.

Pretty much the same bad news for Washington Huskies head coach Lorenzo Romar as another of the members of his 2005 heralded recruiting class, Adrian Oliver, has decided to transfer as well.

Adrian Banks, Arkansas State’s leading scorer, has been suspended indefinitely from the Indians squad after being arrested for firing a gun within the city limits of Jonesboro, AR.

The Tennessee women got some bad news when they found out freshman center Kelly Cain will be out for the season with the knee injury she suffered during a preseason practice. She will have knee surgery to fix the problem and will redshirt this year.

Don Imus returned to the airwaves this week on WABC in New York and apologized again to the women’s program at Rutgers for the remarks he made.

“I will never say anything in my lifetime that will make any of these young women at Rutgers regret or feel foolish that they accepted my apology and forgave me,” he said. “And no one else will say anything else on my program that will make anyone think that I didn’t deserve a second chance.”

A look at the polls after the jump.

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With the Patriots playing in the Monday night game in Baltimore, head coach Bill Belichick’s weekly visit with “The Big Show” on WEEI in Boston was delayed until Tuesday afternoon. But as we have done lately we start with that conversation between the coach and the talking heads.

Patriots QB Tom Brady said on the 4^th down play when the Ravens sideline called timeout he was stopped short of the first down marker because he heard the whistle and let up. He said he would have had the first down in there was no whistle.

Brady also joins Peyton Manning, Kurt Warner and Hall of Famer Dan Marino as the only quarterbacks to throw for 40 TD’s in a season in the history of the NFL.

As I noted in the game notes Monday night was the 21^st time since taking over in 2001 that Brady has led a game winning drive in the fourth quarter or OT when tied or behind. It is the third time he has done it in the last four games. “Captain Clutch” also has done it six times in the playoffs including three times in Super Bowls. He is the only quarterback in the Super Bowl era to have done that. That is once again why Belichick will take him any day over any other quarterback in the league and quite possibly why he is the very best to have to played the position.

New England WR Randy Moss talked about the game with the media immediately afterward in the press room and he said the Ravens were talking trash all night long.

“Coach Belichick doesn’t coach us or raise us that way. So for us to come up and shut them up with a last-second touchdown, that’s what really felt good.”

“There was just so much trash talking, man, from guys who really hadn’t done anything in the league. So basically, me being a 10-year vet and seeing those guys out there talking smack, they haven’t done nothing yet. So it was a good thing for the offense that Jabar Gaffney came up with a key catch, luckily, for six and, you know, we shut them up, and that was a good thing. I’m not a trash talker. I talk with my play, not with my mouth.”

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Buster Olney and Peter Gammons just reported on Sportscenter that the Marlins and Tigers have made a deal. The deal is Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis from the Marlins heading to Detroit for Cameron Maybin, Andrew Miller, Mike Rabelo and three minor leaguers.

More on this when more information becomes available.

Update 7:43 PM: The other players the Marlins are receiving are Dallas Trahern, Eulogio De La Cruz and Burke Badenhop.