The AP Polls are out for both the men and the women. The UConn women are the number 2 team in the land behind Pat Scumbucket’s Tennessee Lady Volunteers. Big East Rival Rutgers, Maryland and LSU round out the top 5.
For the men, they are not ranked to start the season. They did receive 50 votes which puts them at number 32. North Carolina is number 1 while UCLA and Memphis are a close 2 and 3 respectively.
A look at the AP Polls after the jump.
Day 7 of the offseason for the beloved Boston Red Sox and things were quiet. From the looks of things, the Red Sox will raise the banner and probably get their rings on April 8th, which will be the opening day at Fenway. The Red Sox will open up the season on the left coast and maybe even in the homeland of Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima. I don’t know about you but I am not really one for watching live baseball at 5 am or something crazy like that. So while you’re sitting here up an hour earlier than normal due the time change, why not check out these headlines from the Boston area media.
Stars and hidden jewels dazzled [Boston Globe]
’The plan’ right for the man [Boston Herald]
Sox to raise Series banner April 8 at Fenway opener [Pro Jo]
Beckett shows he can pick his spots [Boston Globe]
Tito deserves better [Boston Herald]
For more headlines and stories, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Providence Journal, and Hartford Courant websites.
In what seemed like mere moments after Boston Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell declined to be interviewed the Pittsburgh Pirates are about to announce their new manager.
Published reports are saying the Bucs have decided on John Russell.
Who????????????
John Russell, manager of the Phildelphia Phillies Triple A affliate Lehigh Valley, will be named the skipper to replace Jim Tracy who was dumped after two thoroughly exciting seasons of Pirates baseball. Russell in the past was a third base coach for the Pirates in 2003 and 2004 under former manager Lloyd McClendon.
He has a big job ahead of him as the Pirates have not had a winning season since 1992 when they won the AL East under Jim Leyland and Barry Bonds played left field with a skinny body and normal size noggin.
The Pirates have had just 8 winning campaigns since Chuck Tanner led the franchise to it’s last World Series title in 1979 when they beat the Baltimore Orioles.
The University of Connecticut football team continued it’s run in the Big East as they picked up another huge win over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights 38-19 in front of 40,000 chilled fans at Rentschler Field. The win puts the Huskies at 8-1 and are on top of the Big East standings with a 4-0 record in conference play.
The story of this game was the total team effort. UConn got big plays from it’s offense, defense and special teams. While certain guys may have stood out on the stat sheet, it was the play of everyone whose feet touched the turf at Rentschler Field.
Scoring:
1st quarter
2nd quarter
3rd quarter
4th quarter
Offensive Player of the Game:
Donald Brown – Brown came in for gimpy Andre Dixon and rushed for 154 yards on 24 carries with one touchdown.
Defensive Player of the Game:
Tyvon Branch and Dahna Deleston – Branch and Deleston both had a team high 13 tackles.
Turning Point(s) of the Game:
Branch’s 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown seemed to deflate the Rutgers players and sideline.
Donald Brown being able to give the defense a much needed break with 38 yards rushing on his touchdown scoring drive and then after the defense held Rutgers to field goal attempt that was missed, helped with 26 yards on the ground during a 7-minute drive that led to a Ciaravino field goal.
The Division II Single-Game Rushing Record fell last night as Southern Connecticut State University running back Jerom Freeman had 34 carries for 418 yards in SCSU’s 56-28 victory over Bryant. Or as the headline on SI.com reads, Bryan.
The all-division record is 441 yards set back in 1996 by Division III running back Dante Brown.
Was it 1986 or 2007? The TD BankNorth Garden was rocking last night as the Boston Celtics opened the new NBA season with a 103-83 win over the Washington Wizards.
Gang Green was led by three guys named Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen as the trio contributed 67 points. Pierce led the team with 28, while Garnett chipped in 22 points, 20 boards and 5 assists to go with 3 blocks and 3 steals. Allen meanwhile had 17 points as the game was never in doubt from the middle of the second quarter.
The group has been nicknamed “The Big Three” but they have a lot of work to do to match the accomplishments of the original trio of Larry Bird, Robert Parrish and Kevin McHale. One young fan had a sign that said “RED SOX PATRIOTS CELTICS The Big 3”. The Sox won the World Series on Sunday while the Pats are unbeaten and looking for a 4th Super Bowl.
And both teams were there on Friday night rooting for the Celtics. Red Sox owners John Henry and Larry Lucchino were there and they brought the World Series trophy as well as players Tim Wakefield, Jacoby Ellsbury and Manny Delcarmen. The Patriots, who fly to Indianapolis today for their game with the Colts, were represented by owner Robert Kraft and players Wes Welker, Laurence Maroney, Junior Seau and Vince Wilfork.
The Wizards were led by Gilbert Arenas, who this week on his blog claimed victory, who had 21 points and former UConn player Caron Butler who added 18 points.
Prior to the game the team named the court after late team president Arnold “Red” Auerbach who passed away four days before last seasons opener.
Day 6 of the offseason and the Boston Red Sox made some more moves as far as their roster goes. They picked up the options on the contracts of Tim Wakefield and Julian Tavarez. They also picked up Sean Danielson from the St. Louis Cardinals as the PTBNL in the Joel Piñero deal. John Farrell also made it official that he wasn’t in the running anymore for the Pirates job. So while you wait for college football to start, check out the headlines from the Boston area media.
Farrell, Wakefield will be staying put [Boston Globe]
Pitchers stay put [Boston Herald]
Farrell rejects Pirates’ bid; Tavarez and Wakefield returning [Pro Jo]
John Farrell declines chance for Pirates managerial interview [Boston Herald]
Sign Schilling? [ProJo SoxBlog]
For more headlines and stories, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Providence Journal, and Hartford Courant websites.
The super sexy Texy from Center Field has more video of Jonathan Papelbon for you. This time it’s his interview on FSN New England.
The very beautiful and elegant Yankees Chick has her top 10 reasons why ARod declared free agency.
Even though her team has sucked as of late, the hottest USC fan on the planet, Gridiron Goddess, gives you her college football picks for the weekend.
Sarah from Babes Love Baseball welcomes you to the Girardi era in Yankee land.
Scott from BostonSportz.com wants you to know Manny invited us over for drinks.
Jason from My Baseball Bias looks at the options to replace ARod at third for the Yankees.
I Didn’t Know There Was Baseball in Ireland has a New York Yankees to Boston Red Sox fan conversion application for Yanks fans.
Richie Rich from Home Run Derby has a look at some Red Sox jack-o-lanterns.
Anthony from the Oriole Post put Scott Boras and ARod in his idiot file.
Awful Announcing has a video on why the soon-to-be newest ESPN announcer didn’t dress as a prostitute for Halloween.
And last but certainly not least, Fitzy from the Townie News has his Wicked Pissah World Series champs webcast up for your enjoyment. As always, videos from Fitzy are NSFW so don’t say I didn’t warn you.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=
http://youtube.com/watch?v=d-xseZ2OlCI[/youtube]
Boston Red Sox designated hitter David “Big Papi” Ortiz was a guest on the Late Night With Conan O’Brien show on Friday night November 3rd. It was typical Papi with his witty sense of humor. He even was wearing a jacket he probably bedazzled.
He said the Red Sox wouldn’t have gotten where they got this year if it wasn’t for Mike Lowell and looked at the camera and told Theo to sign Lowell. But the best part of the interview was when Conan asked him about what advice he gives the media when they leave and he tells them to “go home and get some ass!!”
Enjoy the video of Big Papi on Conan.
Boston Red Sox outfielder Manny RamÃrez made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Friday night and it was like he was the mayor of Boston. This was a guy who really hasn’t spoken that much to the media the past few years and all of the sudden has been a chatterbox.
They talked about their mutual love of cars, “Manny being Manny” and a few other things. After the show was done, Manny and Leno were going car shopping together to find a ’56 Imperial for Manny’s collection of cars.
Enjoy this video of Manny on Leno
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISGk-0nwnOA]
Buy some great baseball equipment and start training to be more like Manny Ramirez! If you have some great exercise equipment and some ambition you can be a sports star too! Or maybe you just want some softball equipment for the office team. Get your equipment soon!