Sports Chowdah w/Sugar On Top- Sooners Pound Puppies; Cry TimberWolf!; Soggy Classic; B's Skid Stopped by Leafs; Pats Go (1st Round) Bye Bye

NCAA HOOPS: I blame myself- almost as soon as I pointed out UConn's record breaking performance in women's hoops, they lose on the road to the #8 ranked Stanford Cardinals by a 71-59 final last week. I blame myself for jinxing them and take full responsibility- my apologies.

Still, it will be interesting to see if any men's or women's team can come close to threatening the UConn Women's record and Stanford might end up usurping Tennessee as the lady Huskies main rival.


NCAA FOOTBALL: Let's face it- it simply hasn't been that good a week for UConn on the hardwood or gridiron. The men's hoops (currently ranked #8) lost to Notre Dame on Tuesday night.

But out in the desert on the first night of 2011, the UConn football team demonstrated that mammals were capable of oviparity when the Huskies went out and laid an egg against the Oklahoma Sooners in the second half of the Fiesta Bowl.

Three years after getting blown out by another Big East team (West Virginia) and four years after Boise State's shocking upset over the Sooners in the very same Fiesta Bowl, Oklahoma started strong and finished strong against the UConn Huskies, taking a 20-10 lead into halftime.

Oklahoma got out the the early 14-0 lead when UConn CB Dwayne Gratz intercepted Sooners QB Landry Jones and returned it 46 yards for paydirt. Dave Teggart would follow that up with a 37 yard FG towards the end of the first half.

As tenacious as UConn was in the first half, they were pretty much completely absent (aside from a 95 yard kickoff return from Robbie Frey) in the second as the Sooners got two pick-6s from Huskies QB Zach Frasier for the 48-20 Sooners win.

Keep in mind that UConn still hasn't scored an offensive touchdown since the 4th quarter of their Nov 27th game against the Cincinnati Bearcats. So that didn't really bode well for a UConn team that made it to a BCS game on the basis of tie-breakers and Big East rivals screwing the proverbial pooch. While they no doubt had their moments, by and large UConn had this 'not-quite-ready-for-prime-time' feel to their lackluster performance in the Fiesta Bowl.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA FOOTBALL: As lacking as UConn's performance in the Fiesta Bowl might've been, imagine a whole conference faring worse than the Huskies did as a team on New Year's Day. You don't have to, since there was the Big Ten's woeful results from the various Bowl games on New Year's Day:

Ticket City Bowl:
Northwestern 38- Texas Tech 45

Outback Bowl:
Florida 37- Penn State 24

Capital One Bowl:
#15 Alabama 49- #7 Michigan State 7

Gator Bowl
#21 Mississippi State 52- Michigan 14

Rose Bowl
#4 Wisconsin 19- #3 Texas Christian 21

Actually, the Outback Bowl was a little closer than the score would indicate if not for a late Penn State drive that ended in an interception being run back for a TD with just over a minute remaining in the 4th. As you might suspect, the Rose Bowl actually made for some fine viewing even for those who didn't have a stake in the outcome. Still, that's 0-4 in one day for the Big 10.


ORANGE BOWL: The Orange Bowl on Monday night featured a matchup between #5 Stanford and #12 Virginia Tech amid speculation this could be head coach Jim Harbaugh's last game as a number of NFL teams expressed an interest in his services.

In the first half, things didn't quite seem to be going the Cardinals way, with a missed PAT by kicker Nate Whittaker (one of two missed on the night), a fluky play that would've resulted in a safety no matter what and Hokies QB Tyrod Taylor making an 11 yard TD pass when it looked for all the world like he was being chased backwards and out of bounds. Still, the Cardinals would head into the locker room at the half with a 13-12 lead after Virginia Tech got a FG with 7 seconds remaining in the half.

But that would be the last time the Hokies would find the end zone or uprights. Stanford would score 27 unanswered points to take down Virginia Tech by a final of 40-12.

SUGAR BOWL: Ladies and gentlemen, there's been a Big 10 sighting! The 2011 Sugar Bowl pitted #6 Ohio State against #8 Arkansas on Tuesday night, and the Buckeyes fared much better than the rest of the Big 10 on New Year's Day. Granted that's not saying much....

Although the Buckeyes got out to a pretty commanding 28-10 lead at halftime, the Razorbacks held them to just 3 points in the 2nd half as Arkansas clawed back to make it a 26-31 game in the 4th. After attempting to bleed the clock late in the 4th, the Buckeyes decided to punt on 4th and 3 from their own 38 yard line. However, the punt was blocked, giving the Razorbacks the ball with good field position and very little time.

The first pass attempt from Arkansas' Ryan Mallet was incomplete- the second was picked off and the Buckeyes absolutely dodged a bullet there. Ohio State hangs on to win by the final of 31-26.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA FOOTBALL: Here are some finals from what some would refer to as the 'lesser' Bowl games [not me, tho'- NANESB!] prior to New Year's Day:

December 30:
Music City Bowl:
North Carolina 30- Tennessee 27 (2 OT)

Holiday Bowl
#17 Nebraska 7- Washington 19

December 31:
Meineke Bowl
South Florida 31- Clemson 26

Sun Bowl
Notre Dame 33- Miami (FL) 17

Liberty Bowl
Central Florida 10- Georgia 6

Chick-Fil-A Bowl
#19 South Carolina 17- #23 Florida State 26

NFL: Not that much to report as far as the Pats are concerned. Some of the starters got some rest on Sunday's 38-7 rout of the Miami Dolphins in South Florida, sweeping the season series. This is the 8th straight win for New England and also the 8th straight game where they scored more than 30 points, finishing with a 14-2 regular season record.

Now all that's left is to wait and see who New England gets after Wild Card weekend.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL: Speaking of- here's the Wild Card weekend schedule:

Saturday- 1/8
New Orleans Saints @ Seattle Seahawks- 4:30 PM ET
NY Jets @ Indianapolis Colts- 8:00 PM ET

Sunday- 1/9
Baltimore Ravens @ Kansas City Chiefs- 1:00 PM ET
Green Bay Packers @ Philadelphia Eagles- 4:30 PM ET

NBA: Well....while I was watching all this football, it seemed to escape my attention that Rajon Rondo is back. He had a fairly low-key return in Sunday night's 93-79 win over the Toronto Raptors with 8 assists, a rebound and 4 points (8? Maybe not that low-key, then).

Getty images

On Monday night's game at the Garden, they got some unexpectedly stiff competiton from the Minnesota Timberwolves as Kevin Love had 24 points for the visiting T'Wolves. After trailing at halftime 47-43, Paul Pierce scored 15 of his 23 points in the 3rd quarter to help close what was once a double-digit gap before the C's went ahead and held on to win by the final on 96-93.

Interestingly, the Celtics have never lost to the Timberwolves since the acquisition of Kevin Garnett in 2007 (KG is still on the disabled list however, and did not play against his former team).

The C's have a tough one coming up Wednesday night at the garden as they'll play host to the San Antionio Spurs as they come to Beantown with the NBA's best record.



NHL: After back-to-back shootout losses against Atlanta and Buffalo (where they at least got a point for their trouble) the Bruins went north of the border to take on the Maple Leafs.

Tim Thomas had the night off and the elusive Tukka Rask got the start between the pipes for the B's instead. Although Toronto got on the board first with a Mikhail Grabovski goal, Rask turned aside 36 shots on goal- many of them coming from former Bruins teammate Phil Kessel.

Nathaniel Horton and Marc Savard would score in the second to put the Bruins up for good by a final of 2-1, snapping their 2-game slide.

The B's will next take on the Minnesota Wild at the Garden on Thursday night, 7 PM ET.

Justin K. Aller/ Getty

ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL: The 2011 Winter Classic belatedly got underway Saturday night between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals amid intermittent rain showers at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, PA.

The original start time of 1 PM Eastern was pushed back to 8 PM ET [might this be a sign of things to come for future Winter Classics? -NANESB!] in the hopes that the rain would clear by then. But it was a very wet Winter Classic indeed as the Penguins got out to a 1-0 lead on a Evgeni Malkin goal in the 2nd. However, the Caps would come right back with a power play goal from Mike Knuble and follow that one up with a tally from Caps RW Eric Fehr to take the 2-1 lead in the second. Fehr would provide Washington with some insurance in the 3rd with another tally to make it 3-1 Washington- the final score.

Washington's Semyon Varlamov turned aside 32 of the 33 shots he faced while Pens netminder Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 29 of 32 shots faced.

IIHF WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS: Jeez- I had no idea that these were underway until Monday night when the Maple Leafs announcers were updating the score of the USA/Canada game.....which alas, the USA lost 4-1. This means that the host USA will play Sweden in the Bronze medal game on Wednesday afternoon while Canada will take on Russia in the Gold medal game at Buffalo's HSBC Arena on Wednesday night.

MLB: Free agent and former Red Sox and Mariners 3B Adrian Beltre and the Texas Rangers have reached a preliminary agreement on a six-year, $96 million contract pending a physical late on Tuesday.

Tuesday Night Sports Chowdah- Border Wars; USA Golden in World Jr Chamionships, Bruins Let Loose in Canada's Capital, Broncos Run The Table

(Canadian Press) U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

I have to say, I feel derelict in my duties as a sports fan to only notice that the IIHF World Under 20 Hockey Championship game was taking place only when the absolutely bored-sounding Ottawa Senators broadcasters gave the listeners the update from Saskatoon, SK to take their minds off the 4-1 thumping the Bruins were laying down on the home team Tuesday night. XM and the NHL Network were carrying the World Junior Championships live from Saskatchewan, so I figured that would be as good a time as any to tune in. Hell- I had only heard about Team USA's loss to Canada in the shootout New Year's eve second or thirdhand a few days after the fact.

Even though both the XM and NHL feed featured the slightly biased announcers from TSN, it was clear I made the right choice by tuning in towards the end of the first period when the match was tied at 2 goals a piece.

Team USA scored on a power-play goal by John Carlson (Hershey Bears of the AHL) just over a minute into the second period, but Canada came right back and scored the equalizer thanks to Taylor Hall (Windsor Spitfires of the OHL). That was enough for USA head coach Dean Blias to pull netminder Mike Lee (NCAA's St. Cloud St.) for Jack Campbell and the contest would head into the third period knotted at 3-3.

The third period was one for the ages and any meager attempt on my part to describe it on this little podunk blog would fail to do it justice, but I have to at least try. At the 4:12 mark of the third period, RPI Freshman LW Jerry D'Amigo made the twin behind Team Canada goalie Jake Allen (Montreal Jr. of the QMJHL). Team Canada coach Willie Desjardins pulled Allen in favor of Martin Jones (Calgary Hitmen of the WHL) in net for Canada. Just over two minutes later, Wisconsin sophomore Derek Stephan put one past Jones to put the USA up 5-3. However, the game was far from over and after nearly 10 minutes of pressure and swarming the net, Canada's Joran Eberle (Regina Pats of the WHL) broke through on a power-play goal to make it a one goal game and with a 1:25 remaining in regulation, Eberle scored again to tie the game on an even-strength goal and send the Championship game into overtime with what by rights should've been a back-breaker for Team USA.

However, at just over 4 and a half minutes into overtime USA's John Carlson shot beat Jones to the left side for the game winner and second goal of the game, deflating the crowd of 15,000 at Saskatoon's Credit Union Centre. Jack Campbell stopped 32 of 34 shots faced in 40 minutes of playing time and the USA won their second ever gold medal in the IIHF World U20 Championships. Congratulations guys, and good job overcoming what was no doubt that running-head-start-kick-to-the-nuts in the form of Eberle's game-tying goal. Hopefully this will whet the appetite of the 'grown-up' Team USA for the 2010 Winter Olympiad in Vancouver next month.

(AP)

While my attention was focused on the goings-on in Saskatoon, the Bruins had a pretty good night in Ottawa after coming off their 3-2 loss to the NY Rangers. Blake Wheeler notched two goals and an assist while Tim Thomas stopped 27 of 28 shots on goal faced. David Krejci and Mark Recchi also had goals for the Bruins, who scored all of their goals in the first period for the 4-1 win over the Senators.

(Idaho Statesman/Joe Jaszewski)

No hook and lateral or on-field marriage proposals this time around, but the results were the same as #6 Boise State's last appearance in Glendale, AZ. Although the game didn't feature nearly as many gadget plays as the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, I had to admire the chutzpah behind kicker Kyle Brotzman's 30-yard completion to TE Kyle Efaw on 4th and 9 during what would turn out to be the game-winning drive for the Broncos on Monday Night. Boise State beats #3 Texas Christian 17-10 and finishes with a 13-0 record on the year.

Ordinarily I'm not one of these 'let's all dogpile on the BSC system' people since I don't really have a dog in the fight, but this blogger thinks that pitting the undefeated Mountain West team against the undefeated WAC team was a huge cop-out on the part of the BCS when both teams earned the right to take on the SEC or Big 12 champions (or even the Gators). Now granted I think part of that stemmed from the fact that there were three undefeated teams from the rat-bastard conferences the BCS could never love (Cincinnati from the Big East as well as Boise St. and TCU), but I also think they were reluctant to have an SEC or Big 12 team embarrassed like what #7 Utah did to #4 Alabama in last year's Sugar Bowl.

Elsewhere, one of the less contrived matchups of the BCS pitted #9 Georgia Tech against #10 Iowa in the Orange Bowl. Now keep in mind Iowa started off the regular season barely squeaking past Div 1AA Northern Iowa by virtue of not one but two missed field goals at the end of regulation back in September, but went on a 9-0 tear until falling to Northwestern the first weekend in November. Despite outgaining the Yellowjackets 155 total yards to the Hawkeyes 403, the game was a fairly close 17-14 affair until Brandon Weghner's 32-yard TD run (which I tuned in from the IIHF final just in time to see) for Iowa late in the fourth, giving Iowa the 24-14 win.