Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
Ryan Callahan scored three goals as the New York Rangers beat Philadelphia 5-2 on Saturday for their seventh straight win over the Flyers.
Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans title chances now.
CFT: Jordan Jefferson makes it clear he wasn't happy with LSU's game plan in the Tigers' BCS Championship Game loss to Alabama.
Move over, Hollywood and NFL types, golf's two real A-listers take center stage Sunday at Pebble Beach, both in need of a win.
The United States swept favored Switzerland out of the Davis Cup on Saturday when Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan beat Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
Luis Suarez's refusal to shake hands with Patrice Evra overshadowed Manchester United's 2-1 win over rival Liverpool that lifted the defending champions to first place in the Premier League on Saturday.
Marlies Schild of Austria won her sixth World Cup slalom of the season Saturday after overall leader Lindsey Vonn and defending champion Maria Hoefl-Riesch crashed out in the opening run on the windy Pyrenees course.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
AP
HARTFORD, Conn. - The top-ranked Connecticut Huskies made women’s college basketball history Monday night — not that you would have known it by watching them.
Tina Charles scored 16 points and Maya Moore added 11 to help UConn win an NCAA record 71st straight game, a 59-44 victory over No. 6 Notre Dame in the semifinals of the Big East tournament.
The Huskies didn’t gloat, though. They didn’t even celebrate. Just another night’s work for coach Geno Auriemma’s latest dynasty.
At the final horn they just shook hands with the Irish — the way they have with opponents after nearly every other game during their incredible streak.
“I can’t think anything is more important than winning and playing in the Big East championship for these kids,” Auriemma said.
UConn surpassed its own mark set from Nov. 9, 2001, to March 11, 2003. Unlike that amazing run, which ended in a loss in the Big East conference tournament semifinals to Villanova, this Huskies team has thoroughly dominated its opponents in every game, winning all of them by double digits.
“After the season, the last game we play we can look back and see what we’ve done,” said Kalana Greene, who scored 15 points. “You don’t want to celebrate about wins. We don’t plan on our season being over any time soon.”
The Huskies are focused on bigger goals — not just winning a 16th Big East conference championship but also a seventh national title. Connecticut (32-0) will face No. 9 West Virginia, the second seed in the tournament, on Tuesday night for the league championship.
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But even top teams haven’t posed much of a challenge for the Huskies since they beat Georgia Tech to start this run on Nov. 16, 2008.
With Monday’s win over Notre Dame (27-5), UConn improved to 13-0 against top-10 opponents, winning by an average of 26.2 points. Even second-ranked Stanford lost by 12 when the teams met in late December.
UConn has rarely even trailed during its streak. The Huskies have been behind for a total 86 minutes in the 71 games. It’s been even more uncommon for UConn to be down in the second half — only facing a deficit three times after intermission. None of those scares lasted long. There hasn’t been a need for any late-game rallies or last-second shots by the Huskies.
Notre Dame kept this one close for a half.
UConn only led 25-22 at the break — its lowest scoring output in nearly three years. The Huskies then asserted themselves, led be Greene.
The senior hit just one of eight shots in the first 20 minutes, but scored the first four points of a decisive 13-4 run that gave UConn a 49-35 lead with 9:00 left. Moore’s deep 3-pointer capped the spurt.
Notre Dame, which was led by Skylar Diggins’ 10 points, was only able to close to 10.
Even with the incredible numbers that this team has put up, Auriemma is still partial to the 2002 team that started the previous record streak. Those Huskies, led by Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, featured four of the first six picks in the WNBA draft.
“I think that group would beat this group,” Auriemma said. “But that’s not important because they’ll never have to play each other.”
Bird and Ashja Jones, who also played on the 2002 team, were in the XL Center for the quarterfinals on Sunday.
The mood Monday was tempered when Huskies guard Caroline Doty caught an elbow from Ashley Barlow in the head with a minute left. She was on the ground with the training staff huddled around her for a few minutes before she woozily got up.
“She may have a concussion, we’re not sure,” Auriemma said. “We’ll evaluate her. If she has a concussion she’s not playing tomorrow.”
Connecticut had already beaten Notre Dame twice during the regular season — including a 25-point win in South Bend seven days ago. But the Irish have a history of ending notable winning streaks.
Notre Dame stopped Oklahoma’s 47-game winning streak in football in the 1950s, UCLA’s 88-game winning streak in men’s basketball in the 1970s and North Carolina’s 92-game winning streak in women’s soccer in the 1990s.
For 20 minutes it looked as if Notre Dame might have some of that luck. It was a sloppy first half as neither team could put together a sustained run. The Huskies took their biggest lead of the half on Doty’s 3-pointer with 8:37 left that made it 19-14. Notre Dame answered scoring six of the next eight points to close within one.
The Irish had plenty of chances to take the lead, but couldn’t get over the hump.
“We got embarrassed the first two games and wanted to play to our potential today,” said Diggins, who scored all her points in the first half. “We had little lapses. They are a great team and we know that.”
Everybody else does, too.
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans title chances now.
Beyond the Arc: No. 11 Michigan State ends No. 3 Ohio State's 39-game home winning streak with a 58-48 victory.
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Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
