Durzblog

Huge Weekend in Sports and lots to recap.

Gutted
Stoppage time winner lifts Italy to a 2-1 win in Glasgow. The defeat ended Scotland's hopes of qualification for the Euro 2008 finals and sent Italy and France through to Austria and Switzerland. The winner was scored on a nice Pirlo free kick that was mysteriously rewarded to the Azzurri as the game seemed headed for a draw. "The set-piece that led to their second goal was an unbelievable decision," said Scott boss Alex McLeish. "The Italians know they were a lucky team to leave Hampden Park with a victory." The result was certainly a bitter disappointment for Scotland but over the last 14 months they have shown they can compete with the very best teams in the world.

Old Friends -- Battle of Cals...goes to Calapari
UConn lost to No. 3 Memphis 81-70 Friday in the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic championship game at Madison Square Garden. Chris Douglas-Roberts had a career-high 33 points and freshman Derrick Rose chipped in 24 making the difference down the stretch as the talented Tigers pulled away. Although the end of the game left plenty to be desired (especially from the forward position) the Huskies showed some promise in hanging with Memphis and battling back from some large early deficits against a team the will likely play deep into March. Anthony Jordan Price has arrived.


Orange Crushed
Five years after completing the move to big time college football -- Uconn (9-2, 5-1) is exactly one win away from a Big East championship! The running duo of Donald Brown and Andre Dixon combined for 151 yards on the ground with two touchdowns and Tyler Lorenzen threw for 213 yards as the Huskies controlled this one from the start. UConn will play at West Virginia next Saturday -- a win amazingly would secure the Huskies an automatic bid to a Bowl Championship Series game (seriously).

These are the Huskies who were 4-8 a year ago and picked in the preseason to finish next-to-last in the league. HC Randy Edsall (is he off the "hot seat" yet?) opening up more and more after every victory is clearly very pleased and even emotional,
"I've been around long enough and been on teams as a player and as a coach where there's — I don't know if you call it magical or you call it chemistry — you call it camaraderie. People are just going to do things that you never expect them to do and this group from January on has done the things that we needed to do." #20 Uconn will be a heavy underdog against the #3 Mountaineers, but they have a shot and nobody would have predicted that.

In Short
Lloyd Carr's last Michigan/Ohio State game will be one he would like to forget, 14-3 Bucks. Lloyd led the Wolverines to 121 wins, five Big Ten titles and a national championship in his 12 years and did it with class..The Celtics will not go undefeated this year -- the Magic served the C's their first loss of the season yesterday 104-102..Jesus the Pats are good, perfect season looks pretty reasonable after there 56-10 victory at Ralph Wilson..Giants do enough to win in Detroit and get to 7-3 thanks to a great defensive effort led by Michael Strahan..while the Jets put one in the W column with an OT home win against the Steelers..The Rangers have won five straight games and nine of their last to quietly move to the top of the Atlantic Division..Harvard drilled Yale to win the Ivy. New England Revolution lose their 4th MLS Cup final -- Houston are the Champions back-to-back..Jorge, Mo and Alex all appear to be staying in the Bronx..Uconn wins the 2007 BE Men's Soccer title and awaits their NCAA assignment..Steve Cherundolo first half tally leads the USMNT over South Africa in Johannesburg 1-0.