Sometimes I really wonder who votes on this stuff. I mean seriously how is making 17 tackles not good enough for Big East Defensive Player of the Week Honors.

UConn Huskies linebacker Lawrence Wilson, who is the leading tackler in the Big East East,  was named to the Big East Honor Roll for his efforts this past weekend.

In the 56-31 win over the Syracuse Orange, Wilson made 17 tackles and also had a sack.

On the season for the Huskies, Wilson has made 130 tackles, including 10 for a loss and has four sacks. He’s also forced two fumbles and recovered two as well.

And on another note while I’m ranting, how is the three touchdown effort by UConn running back Andre Dixon not good enough for the Honor Roll? Or even the kickoff return for a touchdown by Michael Lang?

UConn Football links

Sunday brings good and bad news [Chuck Banning – The Day]

Do You (SU Fan) Think Edsall Ran Up Score? [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

Big East bowl projections [Big East Blog – ESPN.com]

Week 13 review/Week 14 preview [Big East Blog – ESPN.com]

UConn linebacker Lloyd out for the season [Connecticut Post]

Huskies Lose Lloyd To Knee Injury [Hartford Courant]

UConn’s Lloyd out for rest of season [New Haven Register]

Third time … and still charming [The Day]

Huskies deserve to go bowling [The Republican-American]

UConn Women’s Basketball links

WBCA Classic, a look back [Jim Fuller – New Haven Register]

Video: Post Game Interviews Following UConn’s Victory Over Clemson [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

Video: John Altavilla On Sunday’s Victory Over Clemson [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

Illness Limits Doty [Rich Elliott – Connecticut Post]

UConn women roll to WBCA Classic title [Connecticut Post]

UConn Women Rout Clemson, Win WBCA Classic [Hartford Courant]

Huskies Still Thriving [Hartford Courant]

Extras … [Hartford Courant]

Greene, Huskies run over Tigers [New Haven Register]

Going Greene [The Day]

UConn women race through another tournament [The Republican-American]

Kalana Greene was never a fan of the Clemson Tigers growing up in South Carolina during her formative years. Maybe that’s why she had the best scoring game of her career on Sunday afternoon.

The fifth-year senior from St. Stephen, SC led the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team with 28 points as they went on to beat the Tigers 87-48 in front of 8,735 at Gampel Pavilion to take home the WBCA Classic Championship.

UConn, who went 3-0 in the tournament, is now 6-0 on the season and has won 45 straight games dating back to the loss to Stanford in the National Semifinals in 2008. It’s the thirteenth straight in-season tournament title for the Huskies. Clemson finished the tournament at 1-2 and is now 4-3.

The Richmond Spiders ended up going 2-1 while the Hofstra Pride were 0-3 in the three day round-robin tournament at Gampel.

Greene also finished the game with a season-high 8 rebounds and 4 steals. Tina Charles had 20 points, all in the first half and added 9 rebounds. Maya Moore had 19 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 steals and 2 blocks while Kelly Faris pulled down 7 rebounds and had a career-high 5 assists.

Caroline Doty found herself relegated to the bench for most of the second half after taking an ill-advised shot and had just 2 points in ten minutes.

Charles was named the MVP of the WBCA Classic while Moore, Greene and Tiffany Hayes were named to the All-Tournament Team. Lele Hardy of Clemson and Brittani Shells of Richmond were also named to the team.

Hardy led the Tigers with 17 points, 5 rebounds and 4 steals. Lindsay Welker, who had scored 10 points in the first six games for Clemson, had 11 points.

For the first time all season, the Huskies found themselves trailing as Welker’s layup gave the Tigers a 5-4 lead. They held lead for a total of 2 minutes and 38 seconds until Charles hit two free throws to put UConn up 10-9.

With the score at 14-11, the Huskies used an 8-0 run to push the lead to 11. They then used an 11-0 run with the score 31-21 to push the lead to 21 points and would go into the locker room with a 27 point lead at 54-27.

Amazingly enough, UConn didn’t make a three pointer in the first half. They only made two all game and Greene started the second half with one and they never looked back. It didn’t really matter though as they had 62 points in the paint.

Honestly, it wasn’t UConn’s best effort as they looked a little sluggish on the offensive end at times. Defensively though, they were once again relentless as they forced 28 Clemson turnovers that they turned into 25 points.

The Huskies return to action on Thursday night when they will host the Vermont Catamounts at 7:30 p.m. at Gampel Pavilion. The game will be broadcast locally on CPTV.

The young UConn Huskies defense suffered a big blow on Sunday afternoon when head coach Randy Edsall announced during a teleconference with the local media that middle linebacker Greg Lloyd, Jr. was lost for the season.

Lloyd tore his ACL and MCL while blitzing in the fourth quarter of UConn’s 56-31 win over Syracuse on Saturday afternoon at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, CT.

“You won’t see him in the spring,” UConn Coach Randy Edsall said. “He won’t be ready for the spring. I would hope that he would be ready in August. We’ll know more when they go in and perform the surgery. He was blitzing and his leg was in the ground and a guy got him right there. It was nothing dirty. His leg was in the ground, he got turned and cut.”

The junior linebacker from Clermont, Florida, who had a monster hit in the win over Notre Dame, is second on the Huskies with 91 tackles behind Lawrence Wilson’s 130. He also has one sack this year.

It’s game day for the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team as they will host the Clemson Tigers in the final game of the WBCA Classic. Tip is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. and the game will be broadcast locally here in Connecticut on CPTV. The game is also available on the internet for a fee through Hoop Streams. If you can’t catch the television broadcast, you can listen to the game on the WTIC/UConn Radio Network.

UConn Women’s Basketball links

Passing grades [Jim Fuller – New Haven Register]

Video: Post Game Interviews Following UConn’s Victory Over Richmond Saturday [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

Video: John Altavilla On The Victory Over Richmond [John Altavilla- Hartford Courant]

Focus Is There For Huskies [Rich Elliott – Connecticut Post]

UConn women sharp, roll past Richmond [Connecticut Post]

UConn women’s notebook: Auriemma happy with Huskies [Connecticut Post]

Doty Leads Latest Rout For UConn Women [Hartford Courant]

Auriemma Honored For 700th Win [Hartford Courant]

Up Next: UConn Women Vs. Clemson [Hartford Courant]

UConn Moments: Top 10 Women’s Moments [Hartford Courant]

UConn keeps its guards up [New Haven Register]

Hustling Huskies roll past the Spiders [The Day]

UConn women look more unbeatable than ever [The Republican-American]

UConn women’s basketball notebook [The Republican-American]

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It’s a common misnomer that the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team is boring to watch. For the common fan, I’m sure this is true.

Case and point (follow the arrow below in the picture):

But for me and the rest of the Huskies diehards, this is simply not the case.

Sure they have a tendency to blow out their opponents and honestly it can get a little boring to watch at times. But most of the time it’s fun because you get to see some of the role players come in and play just as hard as the regular rotation does.

Meghan Gardler comes out and works her butt off night after night and it doesn’t matter what the score is. Same goes for Kaili McLaren, Kelly Faris, Heather Buck and Jacquie Fernandes. We haven’t seen Lorin Dixon yet this year but you can expect the same when she returns.

As UConn women’s fans, we here in Connecticut have enjoyed some stress free times watching the games lately. And this trend will probably continue for the better part of the 2009-2010 season.

The only teams I see giving the Huskies trouble are the Stanford Cardinal and a team they have to face twice in the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Other than that, the only way the Huskies can get beat, is if they beat themselves.

And with Hall of Fame head coach Geno Auriemma at the helm of this ship, I just don’t see this happening.

With the way the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team is playing defense this year, it could be a very long season for their opponents.

The Huskies held the Richmond Spiders 32 points under their season average in an 86-37 win in front of 8,523 fans at Gampel Pavilion in the WBCA Classic on Saturday night.

The Huskies move to 5-0 and now have won 44 straight games. The Spiders fall to 3-2 on the young season.

Richmond came into the game with a plan of preventing the Huskies from getting layups. So what did the Huskies do instead? They hit 13-of-21 three-point attempts and still had 36 points in the paint as well. The Huskies finished the night shooting 60% from the floor.

Caroline Doty led five Huskies in double digits with 17 points, including five 3-pointers. Tiffany Hayes had 15 points, 5 rebounds and a career-high seven assists while Tina Charles had 13 points and 5 rebounds. Kelly Faris chipped in with a career-high 12 points and Maya Moore finished with 11 points that all came in the first half.

Brittani Shells led the Spiders with 12 points. Cara Powell and Crystal Goring both added six points. Former Husky Kristin Phillips missed the game for Richmond with an injury.

This game was over right after the opening tip as the Spiders were held scoreless for the first six minutes of the half. By that point, they were trailing 14-0. Later in the half with a 25-6 lead, the Huskies went on a 16-o run on their way to a 51-14 lead.

UConn opened up the second half with an 8-2 run and it was just a matter of big the win would become. The Huskies had beaten their previous four opponents by 49.4 points and the 49 point win on Saturday hit their average.

Another quick turnaround for the Huskies as they will finish up the WBCA Classic on Sunday afternoon with a game against the Clemson Tigers. Tip is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. and the game will be broadcast locally on CPTV.

With the wind blowing hard at Rentschler Field on Saturday afternoon, the UConn Huskies went to their strength in their running game against the Syracuse Orange.

Randy Edsall’s plan worked to perfection as Jordan Todman and Andre Dixon rushed for 196 yards and a combined four touchdowns in UConn’s 56-31 win over the Orange in front of a sold-out crowd at the Rent.

The win for the Huskies is their 6th of the season (6-5, 2-4) and makes them bowl eligible for the third straight season. The Orange finished up their season at 4-8 (1-6).

Scoring:

1st quarter

CON – Andre Dixon 4 Yd Run (Dave Teggart Kick) – UConn 7 Syracuse 0

SU – Ryan Lichtenstein 26 Yard field goal – UConn 7 Syracuse 3

CON – Mike Lang 80 Yd Kickoff Return (Dave Teggart Kick) – UConn 14 Syracuse 3

2nd quarter

SU – Mike Owen 4 Yd Pass From Ryan Nassib (Ryan Lichtenstein Kick) – UConn 14 Syracuse 10

CON – Jordan Todman 37 Yd Run (Dave Teggart Kick) – UConn 21 Syracuse 10

SU – Alec Lemon 3 Yd Pass From Greg Paulus (Ryan Lichtenstein Kick) – UConn 21 Syracuse 17

CON – Andre Dixon 1 Yd Run (Dave Teggart Kick) – UConn 28 Syracuse 17

3rd quarter

CON – Marcus Easley 8 Yd Pass From Zach Frazer (Dave Teggart Kick) – UConn 35 Syracuse 17

4th quarter

SU – Lavar Lobdell 12 Yd Pass From Greg Paulus (Ryan Lichtenstein Kick) – UConn 35 Syracuse 24

CON – Andre Dixon 45 Yd Run (Dave Teggart Kick) – UConn 42 Syracuse 24

SU – Delone Carter 10 Yd Run (Ryan Lichtenstein Kick) – UConn 42 Syracuse 31

CON – Marcus Easley 28 Yd Pass From Zach Frazer (Dave Teggart Kick) – UConn 49 Syracuse 31

CON – Dwayne Gratz 34 Yd Fumble Return (Dave Teggart Kick) – UConn 56 Syracuse 31

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It’s game day for the UConn Huskies football team as they will host the Syracuse Orange this afternoon at Rentschler Field. A win will make the Huskies bowl-eligible. Kickoff is scheduled for 12 p.m. and the game will be televised locally on My-TV9. If you can’t make the game, you can always catch the radio broadcast on the WTIC/UConn Football Radio Network. And if you missed my game preview, be sure to check that out as well.

Expect the game recap to be up later than normal as I will be attending the game today. Tailgating starts around 8 a.m.

It’s also game day for the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team as they will host the Richmond Spiders in their second game in the WBCA Classic.   Tip is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and the game will be broadcast locally here in Connecticut on CPTV. The game is also available on the internet for a fee through Hoop Streams. If you can’t catch the television broadcast, you can listen to the game on the WTIC/UConn Radio Network.

UConn Football links

UConn-SU Sold Out And Huskies Add To Recruiting Pile [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

Q&A: Brian from Orange:44 [TheUConnBlog.com]

Syracuse a big test for UConn’s rushing offense [Connecticut Post]

Syracuse at UConn: Who has the edge? [Connecticut Post]

Husky kickoff: UConn vs. Syracuse [Connecticut Post]

Huskies Looking To Become Bowl Eligible [Hartford Courant]

Huskies ready to go on a run [Journal Inquirer]

UConn playing for bowl eligibility [New Haven Register]

Huskies hoping to end up in bowl [AP via the Norwich Bulletin]

Huskies can become bowl eligible with win [The Day]

CONNECTICUT – SYRACUSE FOOTBALL PREVIEW [NBE Football Report]

Syracuse football team hopes to close 2009 season with a bang at UConn [The Post Standard]

Syracuse University tackles UConn in season finale [Democrat and Chronicle]

Continue reading →

It was a foregone conclusion before the game on Friday night that UConn Huskies women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma would pick up his 700th career win against the Hofstra Pride. The only question that remained unanswered was how many points his Huskies would win by.

The number turned out to be 45 as Maya Moore’s 23 points paced the Huskies to a 91-46 win over the Pride in front of 8,498 at Gampel Pavilion in the WBCA Classic.

The win for the Huskies gives Auriemma 700 career wins against just 122 losses. He is the fastest coach to 700 wins in women’s basketball. He joins women’s basketball active coaches Tennessee’s Pat Summitt, Rutgers’ C. Vivian Stringer, North Carolina’s Sylvia Hatchell, Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer, Montana’s Robin Selvig, Georgia’s Andy Landers and Virginia’s Deb Ryan with at least 700 wins in their careers. Ryan just happened to be Auriemma’s mentor.

UConn moves to 4-0 on the season while the Pride fall to 3-1.

The Huskies were playing with just nine players on Friday as guards Lorin Dixon and Jacquie Fernandes were both out. Dixon is still out with a hamstring injury while Fernandes missed the game with an undisclosed illness.

Besides her 23 points, Moore had 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 steals. Tina Charles had 17 points and 8 rebounds with Kalana Greene adding 14 points. Tiffany Hayes added 10 points while senior Meghan Gardler came off the bench to add 10 as well. Caroline Doty led the Huskies with 9 assists to go along with 9 points. Freshman Kelly Faris led the Huskies with 9 rebounds and also had 4 steals.

Nicole Capurso led the Pride with 9 points. Candice Bellocchio and Jess Fuller had 7 points each while Marie Malone added 6 points.

Leading 8-7 early on, the Huskies went on a 12-0 run and built a 20 point lead at the half behind Moore, who had 18 points in the first half.

They used a 20-5 run to start the second half to make sure the Pride had no chance of ruining Auriemma’s night.

Quick turnaround for the Huskies as they’ll take on the Richmond Spiders on Saturday night. Tip is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and the game will be broadcast locally on CPTV. Former Husky Kristin Phillips, who came in with this year’s seniors for UConn, will not play for the Spiders due to an injury.