It’s game day for the UConn Huskies men’s basketball team as they will host the DePaul Blue Demons in a Big East matchup at Gampel Pavilion.

Tip is scheduled for 8 p.m. and the game will be broadcast locally here in Connecticut on My-TV9 and SNY. If you can’t catch the television broadcast, you can listen to the game on the WTIC/UConn Radio Network.

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STORRS, Conn. – The University of Connecticut women’s basketball team will host No. 18/16 Georgetown in its annual “Senior Day” game on Saturday, Feb. 27 at the XL Center in Hartford.

“Senior Day” activities will begin at approximately 11:40 a.m. – so fans are encouraged to arrive early. Tip time for the Huskies-Hoyas BIG EAST Conference matchup is slated for noon.

Tickets are still available for the “Senior Day” contest between Connecticut and Georgetown and can be purchased by calling 1-800-745-3000 or online at ticketmaster.com.

The 2010 UConn Senior Class consists of Tina Charles (Jamaica, N.Y.), Kaili McClaren (Washington, D.C.), Kalana Greene (Saint Stephen, S.C.), Meghan Gardler (Springfield, Pa.) and Jacquie Fernandes (Pawcatuck, Conn.).

The 2010 Senior Class has compiled an overall mark of 129-6 (entering Sunday’s game at Louisville) and have compiled a total of three BIG EAST regular season titles, two BIG EAST Tournament championships, two NCAA Final Four berths and the 2008-09 NCAA National Championship.

Boston, MA – The Red Sox today announced that 20 players will attend the team’s Major League Spring Training camp as non-roster invitees.

The announcement was made by Executive Vice President/General Manager Theo Epstein.

The non-roster invitees are pitchers Randor Bierd, Fernando Cabrera, Kris Johnson, Casey Kelly, Adam Mills, Edwin Moreno, Joe Nelson, Brian Shouse, Jorge Sosa and Kyle Weiland; catchers Luis Exposito and Gustavo Molina; infielders Lars Anderson, Yamaico Navarro, Angel Sanchez and Gil Velazquez; and outfielders Zach Daeges, Ryan Kalish, Che-Hsuan Lin and Darnell McDonald.

Half of the 20 invitees have Major League experience, including Bierd, Cabrera, McDonald, Molina, Moreno, Nelson, Sanchez, Shouse, Sosa, and Velazquez. Cabrera and Velazquez both saw action for the Red Sox in 2009.

Pitchers and catchers will participate in their first on-field workout in Fort Myers on Saturday, February 20. The first full workout of the Red Sox Spring Training camp is on Wednesday, February 24.

All workouts take place at Boston’s Player Development Complex, located at 4301 Edison Avenue. The team will move its spring operation to City of Palms Park when the games begin on Wednesday, March 3.

2010 NON-ROSTER INVITEES

• Pitchers (10)– Randor Bierd, Fernando Cabrera, Kris Johnson, Casey Kelly, Adam Mills, Edwin Moreno, Joe Nelson, Brian Shouse, Jorge Sosa, Kyle Weiland
• Catchers (2) — Luis Exposito, Gustavo Molina
• Infielders (4) — Lars Anderson, Yamaico Navarro, Angel Sanchez, Gil Velazquez
• Outfielders (4) — Zach Daeges, Ryan Kalish, Che-Hsuan Lin, Darnell McDonald

UConn Football links

Football signing day, the most bizarre day in sports [Ed Daigneault – The Republican-American]

13-year old QB commits to USC [John Silver – Journal Inquirer]

Signing Day Q&A: UConnReport.com’s Zac Boyer [The UConn Blog]

UConn football team fills two coaching positions [Connecticut Post]

UConn Football: Two Assistants Named [Hartford Courant]

UConn football hires two assistant coaches [New Haven Register]

Stewart A Five-Star In Class [Wheeling News-Register]

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STORRS, Conn. – University of Connecticut junior Maya Moore (Lawrenceville, Ga.) has been named to the five-player 2010 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District I First Team, which was announced today by the Academic All-America® Committee.

Nominations and voting for the All-America programs are conducted by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America.

Moore is now eligible to be named as a member of the 2010 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Team, which is expected to be released in early March.

Moore is looking to become the first Connecticut women’s basketball player to be named as a first team Academic All-America choice in back-to-back seasons since Jennifer Rizzotti (1995-96) after earning the honor for the first time in her career in 2009.

The junior forward currently boasts a 3.7 grade point average in an individualized major. Moore is a two-time Academic All-BIG EAST choice and is the reigning National Player of the Year after leading the Huskies to a perfect 39-0 mark in 2008-09 and the program’s sixth NCAA National Championship.

Moore has registered double-figure points in 95 of 99 career games and enters Sunday’s meeting with Louisville just 159 points shy of becoming the seventh player in UConn history to post 2,000 career points.

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STORRS, Conn. – Jonathan Wholley, a 2004 graduate of the University of Connecticut who earned a master’s degree from UConn in 2008, has been named an assistant football coach for the Huskies. Wholley will have position responsibility with the tight ends.

“We are very happy to welcome Jon back to the UConn football program,” says head coach Randy Edsall. “He was a tremendously hard worker for us as a student-athlete and graduate assistant coach. Jon is a Connecticut native who knows the state through-and-through and he is a great addition to our staff.”

Most recently, Wholley was an assistant football coach at Fordham for the 2009 season where he worked with the running backs and had recently added recruiting coordinator duties. The Rams led the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision in total offense at 488.82 yards per game.

A Southington, Conn., native, Wholley was a member of the UConn football team from 2001-04 as a running back and joined the team as a walk-on. He later earned a scholarship and was a member of the 2004 Motor City Bowl championship team.

He earned his undergraduate degree in political science from UConn in December of 2004.

Following graduation, he was an assistant coach at Central Connecticut for the 2005 season and worked with the tight ends. The Blue Devils had a 7-4 record and were Northeast Conference co-champions.

Wholley then returned to UConn as a graduate assistant coach for the 2006-08 seasons working on the offensive side of the bowl. He was part of the coaching staff that led the Huskies to a share of the 2007 BIG EAST Championship and an appearance in the 2007 Meineke Car Care Bowl.

He earned his master’s of education in kinesiology from UConn in December of 2008.

STORRS, Conn. – Darrell Perkins, who served as the defensive backs coach at Louisiana-Monroe for the past two seasons, has been named to the same position on the University of Connecticut football staff.

Perkins helped lead the Louisiana-Monroe defense to the top ranking in the Sun Belt Conference in 2009. Prior to his stint at Monroe, he was the defensive coordinator at Charleston Southern in 2007.

“We are very pleased to welcome Darrell to the Connecticut football program,” says UConn head coach Randy Edsall. “He brings a wide variety of coaching experience to our team – and all of it has been successful. Darrell has worked in nearly every region of the country and brings a strong reputation with him to UConn.”

He was the linebackers and special teams coach at Northern Colorado in 2006 and was the defensive backs/special teams coordinator at Charleston Southern from 2004-05. In 2004, Charleston Southern was ranked second in the Football Championship Subdivision in pass defense at 131 yards per game.

Perkins was the defensive backs coach and special teams coordinator at Ferris State from 2002-03 as the Bulldogs finished first in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in pass defense at 161 yards per game.

He was a defensive graduate assistant at Purdue in 2000 and ’01.

Perkins began his football coaching career at Gateway High School in Aurora, Colo., where he was an assistant coach from 1997-99 at his alma mater. He was the head basketball coach at Legacy High School in Fort Collins, Colo., from 1993-96 and led the team to two state playoff appearances.

Perkins is a 1990 graduate of Wyoming and earned his degree in business marketing. He was a two-year starter at running back for the Cowboys and a three-year letter winner from 1985-89.

At Wyoming, Perkins played in the 1987 and ’88 Holiday Bowls and with Purdue coached in the 2001 Rose Bowl, following the Boilermakers’ 2000 Big Ten championship, and the 2001 Sun Bowl.

He is married the former Elena Zbitskaya and his 19-year-old son Jordan is a member of the men’s soccer team at Iona.

UConn Huskies head coach Randy Edsall isn’t a fan of the rankings that the various recruiting services uses. Take what he had to say before any listings were published yesterday.

“It’s all very stupid, in my opinion,” Edsall said. “For anyone to go out and rank classes, and to evaluate thousands and thousands and thousands of kids that are 17 and 18 years old, and think they’re going to watch all this film and put a ranking on them, it’s propaganda. And it’s one of the things that’s ruining the game, in my opinion. … It’s ruining kids, is what it’s doing. I just hope some people come to their senses soon and does something about the recruiting process because we’re in this to help young people and this process isn’t helping young people. It’s hurting them. Until that message gets across, it’s not going to get better, it’s going to get worse.”

Well according to those said pundits, the Huskies recruiting class didn’t rank highly.

Scouts Inc., Rivals.com and Scout.com all ranked the Huskies last in the Big East as far the new recruiting class goes. Scouts.Inc actually gave the Edsall’s recruits an overall grade of D-.

Here’s how the recruiting battle shaped up in the Big East according to those three services.

Here’s what they had to say about the UConn recruits:

The Huskies signed a fairly large class but it lacks any four-star prospects or significant signees. Randal Edsall has been winning in Storrs without them though by developing two- and three-star prospects. Their top prospect is outside linebacker Yawin Smallwood (Worcester, Mass./Doherty Memorial), who can run, has very good physical tools to develop on the perimeter and fits a defensive need. ILB Brandon Steg (Coral Springs, Fla./J.P. Taravella) also helps fill the need at the position.

Nationally, the Huskies ranked in a tie for 83rd with UTEP and Northern Illinois in the Rivals.com rankings. They came in 72nd in the Scout.com rankings.

Given Edsall’s success with his previous recruiting classes, I’m not worried about what the future holds and as a UConn football fan, you shouldn’t be either.