Terrence Williams, with 17 points, led the Louisville Cardinals past the UCONN Huskies 76-69 at the Hartford Civic Center on Sunday afternoon. Derrick Caracter added 16 points and Earl Clark chipped in 11 points. UCONN had four players in double figures led once again by Jerome Dyson, who had 23 points. Jeff Adrien added 16 points, AJ Price had 11 points and Craig Austrie finished with 10 points.

The two teams traded baskets for most of the first half as neither team could pull away. However an 8-1 run by the Cardinals put them up by 9 points. The teams again exchanged baskets as the Cardinals took a 9 point lead into the locker room.

The second half was much of the same early on as UCONN could pull no closer than 7 points. UCONN kept fighting hard and eventually tied the game up at 58 on a Dyson 3 pointer. The Cardinals again took the lead by 2 but an Adrien basket tied it up at 60. Louisville then went on an 8-3 run and UCONN could not get any closer.

Notes and Observations:

• The starters were Price, Dyson, Robinson, Thabeet and Adrien.
• The crowd was announced as a sellout of 16,294. That must have been tickets sold because I can tell you that there were definitely a lot of empty seats, especially in the student section. It really seems like the students just don’t care that the team is playing in Hartford. Yes I know it is a 45 minute drive to Storrs but I really think the loudness of a full student section would have definitely helped the Huskies.
• This was my first loss in person this season. I am 4-1 on the season, not counting exhibition games. However as usual, I am paying for going with my bad back. Two and half years after the car accident and still feeling take your breath away pain.
• Robinson has really disappeared in the UCONN offense. He has such great offensive ability but isn’t showing it at all.
• I am not sure if Marcus Johnson’s ankle is bothering him but as my mom pointed out at the game, he didn’t come in the game until late in the second half for defensive purposes as they got close.
• Thabeet got dominated down in the paint by Caracter. If you were going to write a book about how to get around the big fella, Caracter would definitely have some good information for you. That being said, Thabeet did pull down a team high 7 rebounds and blocked 5 shots.
• UCONN was 13 of 21 (61.9%) from the foul line but they just couldn’t hit the free throws when they were needed. Take a look at this quote from Coach Jim Calhoun to back my point up.

We continue not to make foul shots throughout the whole game, so as supposed to maybe coming down with an edge you come down with a little deficit.

• Jonathan Mandeldove played a whole one minute in the game. The reason is he didn’t hustle back on defense and his man scored a layup. Man was Calhoun pissed. He met him on the way to the bench and just told him to get his ass to the bench.

I saw the headline on the UCONN article in the Hartford Courant on Sunday. It said something about UCONN’s NCAA hopes rest on this game. Well whomever wrote it, UCONN’s NCAA hopes were gone a long time ago. The only way this team is making the NCAA’s is to run the table in the Big East. That means winning 4 games in 4 days.

With the loss, UCONN falls to 17-11 (6-8 in the Big East). Next up for the Huskies is their home finale against the Villanova Wildcats at Gampel Pavilion. Gametime is at 7 PM and you can catch it nationally on ESPN.

Here is a look at the rest of the happenings from the Red Sox spring training in Ft. Myers on Saturday.

First off, I’d like to start off the segment with the fact that I was disappointed that the Boston Globe’s Red Sox blog, Extra Bases, was not updated on Saturday. Even Eric Wilbur’s Boston Sports Blog, which says it is updated daily, hasn’t been updated since February 20th. If you say you are going to provide daily updates, you should do just that. Extra Bases is usually a good source of information pretty much as it happens at Camp Matsuzaka. I even went as far as emailing Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe to see why there were no updates today but I haven’t heard back from her. She has been good in the past at answering emails. Maybe Gordon Edes, who doesn’t like bloggers, told her to stop answering fan emails. So as we go along in the updates, you won’t be seeing anything from Extra Bases used here in this post. And now its off to the news.

Here is what I think the feel good story of camp is right now. It is the return of Jon Lester. Lester threw batting practice today out on a backfield because of Curt Schilling and Daisuke Matsuzaka and 5 billion media members were on the main field today.

Francona said lefty Jon Lester looked ”tremendous” in batting practice. Lester underwent cancer treatment in the offseason and tests show he’s free of the disease.

Hearing this kind of gets you a little choked upside knowing the back side of the story. After having spent his offseason battling cancer, with the chemotherapy sessions, the workouts to get back into shape, it is simply amazing that he is where he is at right now. I have to wonder if he has a lights out spring and Jonathan Papelbon struggles as a starter, would they consider moving Papelbon back to the bullpen and have Lester be their 5th starter. We have all heard that Papelbon won’t close this season but that anything is possible. That is why I presented you with that situation.

Ok, it’s time to play a game. The game is guess the answer to a Red Sox spring training trivia question. Are you ready? Are you sure? Ok, here goes: Who is Bobby Scales and why is he the answer to a trivia question?

I’d like to tell you the answer right now but I am going to wait til further in the post to give you that answer.

Viewed as longshot to make the team out of spring training, Craig Hansen has been unable to throw the past few days because of stiffness in his back. Craig, I feel your pain. I live with it everyday. Do what everyone tells me to do. Suck it up and deal with it. Back to being serious, I am not sure why he is a long shot. Seems just yesterday, Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe told me (halfway down in blue) that the final bullpen spot was coming down to Hansen and Declarmen. So what gives. Does he have a chance. After all, he does have a major league contract. To be honest with you, I think Hansen still needs time in the minors to work out the flaws he had in his delivery from last season. It might suit him best to be there and get himself on the right track because who knows what the closer situation is gonna be. We hope things work out but baseball is a funny game.

Are you still wondering what the answer to the question is? Keep reading.

Were you wondering how Terry Francona spent his Friday while recovering from the flu-like symptoms he had? You will never guess this one. He actually spent it watching the Anna Nicole Smith trial. (I hate to admit it but I did too).

Francona was feeling better after missing Friday’s workout with the flu. How did he spend his sick day? “I actually spent the day watching — I hate to admit this — the Anna Nicole Smith trial. I was looking to see if Manny [Ramirez] showed up,” quipped Francona. “That was some kind of trial.” …

You have to love Francona’s sense of humor. Speaking of Manny, there weren’t any reports of him being in Philadelphia on Saturday.

Speaking of Francona, this isn’t his first time dealing with a media circus. For those who didn’t know, a certain basketball great (Michael Jordan) once tried to play baseball. I even talked with Francona a few times during that season. The reason I talked with him is because I was working in Minor League Baseball for the Albany Polecats of the South Atlantic League in 1994. The manager of our team that season was Butch Wynegar (I have a great story about him and I that you won’t believe) who happened to be friends with Francona. Since I was the clubhouse manager at the time and cell phones weren’t really around yet, there communication was done on the telephone. (Had Al Gore invented the internet yet?) So while Francona may not know me from a whole in the wall, I have spoken with him when he called to talk to Wynegar.

Read my story of how I first met Wynegar and more Red Sox news after the jump. Continue reading →

Here is something I missed in the Hartford Courant that ran on February 21st. It is an excellent article by Jeff Jacobs, who is one of the sports columnists at the Courant.

I don’t really no what else to say about it. With that said, I give you the link to the article.

Also if you are interested in seeing the arrest warrant for Anthony Alvino, the driver of the vehicle, please click here. Be patient as it is a 20 page pdf file.

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