Tonight the UCONN Huskies open up their season against the Quinnipiac Bobcats of the Northeast Conference. It will be the 1st games for both teams as well. As a big Husky fan for so many years, I will give you my take on the games they play as well as a preview of the young team.

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One day I will actually get the recaps of the games done right away but the past two days, I think my computer was on crack. So onto the recap.

On Wednesday night, Mel Thomas and Kalana Greene led the Lady Huskies to a 101-67 victory over the Houston Jaguars. Thomas had the hot hand for the Huskies scoring 28 pts. KG added 16 pts while Tina Charles did her thing with another double-double scoring 16 pts and grabbing 14 rebounds.

Charde Houston was unable to follow up her effort from the first exhibition game mainly because she committed stupid fouls and had herself in foul trouble. She is going to need to be consistent like she has stated in order to be a major factor for the Huskies.

Notes and Observations:

• UCONN started the same 5 as the first exhibition game (Thomas, Montgomery, Charles, Greene, Houston)
• Gampel has painted on the floor two 3 pt arcs. The reason for this is the Lady Huskies are going overseas on Nov 18 to play some exhibition games in Italy for a week and they use it in practice.
• Mel Thomas was 6 for 11 from 3 pt land and 4 for 5 inside the arc.
• Other then the stupid fouls Charde Houston committed she still had a decent game; 7 pts, 9 boards.
• Renee Montgomery had 17 pts and 7 asts to keep up her consistent play at the point guard position.

The Lady Huskies did receive some bad news. Brittany Hunter’s troublesome right knee is acting up again. She is able to practice at times. I totally understand what she is going thru with knee issues. My knee issues essentially ended my college soccer career after one season. I was unable to go thru a full training camp or practice. Hopefully Britt will be able to play thru some of the pain because I feel as though she is another important cog to the Lady Huskies.

I will leave you with this quote from Geno Auriemma:

The best part about our team is our team

Look for a review of the Lady Huskies on Monday before they open up the regular season against the Richmond Spiders.

vs Quinnipiac 7:30 PM at Gampel Pavillion

7:30 vs Houston Jaguars (exhibition) at Gampel Pavillion

In Red Sox news today, the Boston Red Sox have declined the club option on Keith Foulke for the 2007 season. What this means for the Red Sox is that they won’t have to pay him $7.5 million dollars to pitch for them next season. Foulke has till Friday to decide if he wants to exercise the player option on his contract for $3.5 million dollars. If he declines his player option, the Red Sox will owe him a $1.5 million dollar buyout.

The Red Sox are also close to re-signing Alex Cora to a two year contract. Cora was a valuable and reliable middle infielder who filled in nicely when Loretta and Gonzalez went down with injuries. Given the Red Sox middle infield situation, the signing of Cora would provide insurance for the Red Sox next season if someone got hurt or they can’t sign the players they are interested in.

In what was to be expected, Coach Randy Edsall named Donald Brown II the starter at running back position for the Huskies for this Saturday’s game against the Pittsburgh Panthers.

I am not one for losing your position to injury but I think it is best for the team. Terry Caulley at times has shown the promise of the player he was before the injury. But with the injury slowing him down, he hasn’t been able to do those things.

Brown stepped in and made the most of his opportunity rushing for 199 yards against a really tough Rutger’s defense. That was the best performance by a UCONN offensive player all season. It’s sad to say that because that means the Huskies QB’s haven’t passed for all that many yards.

Sorry for the delay in getting this post up about Monday’s UCONN men’s exhibition basketball game. They decided to cut the power to my apartment today while they were outside working on the lines.

Monday night’s exhibition game against Bryant was my first look at the UCONN men’s team. I can’t say that I was thoroughly impressed just yet with them. There were flashes of brilliance by some players and a lot of mistakes. So many mistakes that I think about 12 players played in the first two minutes as Coach Jim Calhoun showed his trademark short leash with players as they made mistakes. We will call it the “Calhoun Shuffle”. It also got so bad that Coach Calhoun walked off the court with 16 seconds to go in the first half. Not a good way to make an impression on your coach if he is walking off the floor.

It could end up being along season for the “Husky Pups” if they don’t start gelling together on offense. I was impressed with the play of freshman center Hasheem Thabeet “Goes on” (thanks to my mother for the nickname). At one point, he blocked a shot with his elbow. He is a towering presence on the floor and stands 6 inches over the next closest Husky in height. One thing I did notice is that his offensive game needs a lot of work. He also needs to add some muscle to his frame. At times he looked lost in the paint, like he didn’t know how close he was to the basket. I think in time it will come around for him as he keeps practicing.

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