the rix mix

Labels: in the news, New Jersey, Rutgers, sports

C. Vivian Stringer, the Rutgers Women's Basketball coach, is one of the most successful coaches never to have won a national championship. John Calipari at Kentucky removed himself from that list this year. Among active Div 1 coaches she's the winning-est.

The 2011-12 Rutgers Scarlet Knights, a team stocked with players who arrived with gaudy high school reps, was knocked out in the first round of the WNCAA. They played erratically all season, went 2-6 against ranked opponents (Lost to St. John's before Red Storm were ranked), 22-10 overall. They were expected to be better. Not Notre Dame or UConn better, or Baylor or Stanford better, but maybe better than Tennessee, Miami, St. John's & Georgetown. A Sweet 16 or Elite 8 team. They had five game mid-season losing streak.

Rutgers went to the Championship Game in 2007 led by an All-American, Cappie Pondexter. Stringer has been looking for another Cappie ever since. But none of her highly-rated recruits develops into a true "go-to" leader. There's a flaw somewhere, in Stringer's recruiting judgment, in how she develops young players.  She has another potentially great  freshman class  for 2012-13. But Rutgers fans are running out of patience. The Big East is changing over the next few years; Syracuse, West Virginia & Pitt, three schools quitting the BE, are not the consistent powers in the women's game they are in the men's. UConn, Notre Dame, Georgetown, St. John's aren't going away.

Labels: New Jersey, Rutgers, sports

Ravi guilty on all counts in webcam spying trial


NEW BRUNSWICK — The deal was on the table months ago.


Plead guilty, prosecutors told Dharun Ravi, and you likely won’t go to prison.

Ravi, charged in a first-of-its-kind prosecution linking invasion of privacy to a hate crime, rebuffed the offer, opting to take his chances with a jury.

Today, in a New Brunswick courtroom filled to overflow, the 20-year-old Plainsboro man learned the consequence of his choice as a jury forewoman spoke his fate.

Guilty.

Guilty of invading the privacy of his Rutgers University roommate, Tyler Clementi, by using a webcam to remotely spy on an intimate tryst between Clementi and an older man. Three days after that encounter in September 2010, the distraught teen leaped to his death from the George Washington Bridge, catapulting the case into the national spotlight.

Guilty of witness tampering, hindering apprehension and tampering with evidence.

Most significant, guilty of bias intimidation, a second-degree felony indicating Ravi targeted Clementi because he was gay and knew his actions would hurt him.

In a precedent-setting verdict that legal experts and advocates say draws a firm line against bullying and harassment in a wired world, the jury convicted Ravi of 15 counts that could land him in prison for a decade. He also faces the possibility of deportation to his native India, from which he legally emigrated as a child.
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In December, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office offered him a plea bargain including probation, 600 hours of community service and an offer to help avoid deportation, but Ravi, rejected it. His attorney said he rejected it because he is innocent.

He either received  bad legal advice or, my guess,  he got good legal advice & didn't take it. He should have taken the plea bargain. I would have said, "Kid, you don't seem to understand, but they're going to try to make you the LAST teenager in Jersey who pulls a nasty stunt like this. You alone are Tyler Clementi's justice. He'll have buildings named after him, concert halls.  Your own justice, whatever you imagine that to be,  doesn't figure into this at all.  You are the message. You can be that message working in a homeless shelter or hospice & become a nobody, or  be that message in a packed courtroom, Dharun Somebody,  &  go to jail,  where saying you're heterosexual is an old joke, & from jail  you'll be transferred to the  I.C.E. detainment center next to the airport."

Labels: culture, in the news, New Jersey, Rutgers

Rutgers women's basketball team is 8-1, ranked No. 11 in the AP poll. Their first loss came  last night to No. 9 Miami, in double-overtime, after blowing a 16 point  second half lead. A game they probably would've won in regulation had it been played at Rutgers Athletic Center with Big East refs & not in Florida. They proved they deserve a top 25 ranking.

The difference between this year & last year's disappointing team is more experience, a bench of talented Freshmen, & multiple scoring threats. Always known for Coach Stringer's defense, Rutgers had lagged  behind in a women's game that more frequently requires 70 points to win. A week from today they have a home game against No. 7 Tennessee, THE game  (UConn doesn't come to the RAC this season). Two elite coaches, Pat Summitt's  teams  usually get the better of  Stringer's. We shall see.

Labels: Rutgers, sports

Snooki of 'Jersey Shore' gets $2K more than author Toni Morrison to appear at Rutgers
 
Snooki received $32,000 for two one-hour appearances called "Inside the Nicole ‘Snooki’ Polizzi Studio" for a total of 1000 students, paid out of a required student activity fee fund. The event was free if you got there early enough for a wristband. Toni Morrison receives $30,000 for a commencement speech, by invitation event, in the 52,000 seat Rutgers Stadium, paid for by PepsiCo, which holds exclusive rights to campus soda vending machines. To use a cliche,  this is an "apples & oranges" comparison, not a battle of colas.  Both a reality show star & a Nobel Prize-winning novelist earn whatever the market will bear, & there's no point to being culturally snooty about it. Snooki is getting it while she can - she won't age gracefully, although no doubt she'll be around for years to come in increasingly strange settings on cable TV. It takes more luck than talent to become a "celebrity,"  but it takes smart management to remain one. But CEOs earn millions for failure, & the salaries of third-rate professional athletes who make it to free agency are mind-boggling. We Americans are so mesmerized by these sums that we don't notice when it's reported that a single worker with two children has to earn $27-an-hour (over $57,000 annually) to reach minimal economic security.

I imagine myself as a Rutgers student.  I'm having supper  at one of the "Grease Trucks" on College Ave. My choices  for an evening's entertainment are: Snooki; a lecture by a famous novelist; a loud band at Court Tavern; or buying a six-pack, going home, watching TV & maybe doing a bit of homework.

Labels: culture, in the news, Rutgers

California 66, Rutgers 57. 

Here he goes with women's college ball.

For the first time, I'm  having serious doubts about Hall of Fame Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer.  Actually those doubts began at this time last year, but I suppressed them.  Every season since the Scarlet Knights Championship Game appearance in 2007, her teams have jelled less; women's ball has become more offensive-oriented; she's made some risky, dubious recruiting choices; & she takes the team to the West Coast to open the season where they're  battered by  Cal & Stanford & come home tired, doubting, & dispirited enough to subsequently lose some early games they should win. C. Vivian rarely blames herself or her system for these losses.  Last year they squeaked into the NCAA Tournament & immediately showed they didn't belong there. This year they weren't ranked in the preseason polls, although they have  Top 25 talent.  But St. John's & Georgetown are ranked, with DePaul hanging just outside.  Of course, UConn & Notre Dame. Which means Stringer's star is shining  a bit less brightly.   At least this year she cautiously concedes she needs to think more about offense. A defense oriented team like Rutgers will never win The Big One in this era. unless they have a couple of high scorers.  Too few games when three Rutgers players score in double figures. Something has to change, either C. Vivian  or the  person holding the head coach job.

I'm done.

Labels: Rutgers, sports

Seton Hall hires Donovan as women’s hoops coach

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. (AP)—Anne Donovan is leaving the New York Liberty after the upcoming WNBA season to become the women’s basketball coach at Seton Hall.

What a great, inspired choice! Donovan had a legendary high school career at Paramus Catholic, won a National Championship at Old Dominion (during some very good years for Rutgers), three Olympic Gold Medals as player & coach, coached Seattle to a WNBA crown. Her name is a recruiting draw equal to Rutgers' C. Vivian Stringer. Both are in the Basketball Hall of Fame & the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.

Two of my Women's Final Four picks are gone, Tennessee & Notre Dame. But what do I know about Baylor & Oklahoma? Still, I wish the Vols & Irish had played each other this year. NCAA website streamed the Sooners radio broadcast last night, including commercials for Norman OK businesses. ND lost in overtime.

Labels: Rutgers, sports

Listened to game on radio. They were well-matched teams, Iowa offense & Rutgers defense. Rutgers led briefly in the second half & was in it until final three minutes, when it slipped away. Rutgers isn't the kind of team that gives up 70 points & wins. Iowa dropped in ten three-pointers, most of them in second period whenever the momentum shifted to Rutgers. Iowa went 22-28 at free throw line, Rutgers 6-12. Iowa out rebounded Rutgers 39-29. Yet, it was a close, suspenseful game. But every mistake in the second period hurt Rutgers. A few missed free throws by Iowa, a few three-pointers bouncing & going for twos instead, a different game. It was an honest loss against a very good team.

Year by year Rutgers has fallen away from the 2007 Championship Game season. Now the last two players from that team are done, next year no seniors on the team. Perhaps the weight of 2007 has kept the younger players from feeling the team is theirs. Several of them are coming into their time now. Sophomore Chelsey Lee, looks like she's developing into a go-to leader. Freshman Monique "Mo" Oliver is a sparkplug off the bench. Rutgers may be a better team next season without actually improving on this year's record, because they'll be headed up again.

Rutgers struggled all year, yet C. Vivian Stringer still coached them into the NCAA. See how much attention the WNIT gets. The Iowa-Rutgers matchup was news - insofar as the women's college game is news - because Stringer is idolized at Iowa. AP wrote it up & Yahoo-Rivals carried the story. I like that about Rutgers women. I like having a marquee coach & team in this State of mostly mediocre Div. I college programs, one of them, Seton Hall, in a condition of shameful collapse. Some Rutgers fans gripe about Stringer's stern mother hen approach. What they really don't like is her refusal to go for an 80 point offense. But I admired Pete Carill's underdog, old school defense Princeton teams, & how it used to be said, "Nobody wants to play Princeton." That could also be said of Stringer's Rutgers teams.

Labels: Rutgers, sports

I like women's college basketball for reasons a lot of people don't like it. It's slower, mostly old school ball. Great players stay four - or at least three - years. There's parity below elite level. The problem is that the elite group is so small, & so dominated now by UConn that there's no suspense in the NCAA tournament.

Even when Rutgers made a run to the Championship game in 2007, I didn't expect them to beat Tennessee. Rutgers is at best a second tier team, although it's a marquee program as those exist in women's ball. Rutgers actually helps the Vols & Huskies. First, by providing a regular season test against a C. Vivian Stringer defense, which gives other coaches the willies. Second, because Rutgers might knock off some pesty ranked teams in the BE & NCAA tournaments, clearing a bracket.

1995 Connecticut 70-64 Tennessee
1996 Tennessee 83-65 Georgia
1997 Tennessee 68-59 Old Dominion
1998 Tennessee 93-75 Louisiana Tech
1999 Purdue 62-45 Duke
2000 Connecticut 71-52 Tennessee
2001 Notre Dame 68-66 Purdue
2002 Connecticut 82-70 Oklahoma
2003 Connecticut 73-68 Tennessee
2004 Connecticut 70-61 Tennessee
2005 Baylor 84-62 Michigan State
2006 Maryland 78-75 (OT) Duke
2007 Tennessee 59-46 Rutgers
2008 Tennessee 64-48 Stanford
2009 Connecticut 76-54 Louisville

There's a predictable dominance in the men's tournament, rarely ever a true "Cinderella" in the Final Four (usually an over-achieving major conference school) but nothing like the Huskies & the Vols. There's no traditional powerhouse programs in women's ball, no Kentucky or UCLA; just two coaches named Auriemma & Summit.

Labels: Rutgers

Three games in three days, a great but exhausting double overtime win against No. 12 Georgetown last night, the Rutgers women were tied at 25 with No. 9 West VA at halftime tonight but just ran outta gas. West Virginia had an 13-3 run in the second half Rutgers could not overcome, although they stayed in the game & had their chances. The shots just weren't falling in. So the Mountaineers get an opportunity to be UConn's 72nd consecutive victim tomorrow night. Rutgers should go to the NCAA Tournament. They're the kind of team nobody wants to meet in the first round.

UConn easily beat Notre Dame for the 3rd time this season, & may well meet the Irish again in the NCAA semis or Championship.

Labels: Rutgers, sports

Watched first half of this game, one of Rutgers' few complete wins this season where the women played like the team we thought they would be. Cincy has faded the past few weeks, but they beat St. Johns & Syracuse, nearly beat Georgetown, & scored more points against UConn than Rutgers managed. Early on Rutgers rushed shots, literally threw the ball away a few times. But watching Rutgers penetrate the Bearcats defense, opening the perimeter for Brittany Ray's 3 pointers, dropping in & out of Coach Stringer's 55 full court press = they wore Cincy out of the game. It was a team that could've beaten anyone in the Big East except UConn, been ranked in Top 25 all season. They looked Sweet 16. The NCAA wants a reason to invite Rutgers to the big tournament. But the women defeated only one ranked team, back in November. Then a close loss to no. 13 Texas seemed to shake their confidence & they never recovered. They get a chance against no. 12 Georgetown tonight.

Princeton women won Ivy title, undefeated in League play, whch isn't easy. 25-2 overall. Lost only to UCLA & Rutgers. They'll probably have to play a powerhouse in first round of NCAA, unfortunate, it'd be good if they were first tested against a mid-level school.

Labels: Rutgers, sports

Game was closer than score shows. Irish in a tiring part of their schedule, they were vulnerable. They might be the second best team in the country. Problem is, UConn is far & away better than anyone else. Irish could lose four games this year, all to UConn, the fourth conceivably for the National Championship.

In a good year for Scarlet Knights, Rutgers wins this one at home & ND coach McGraw knows it. They all know it in the Big East. Outside the conference, coaches warn their teams about Rutgers. "They'll score 60 points & beat us." SEC & ACC teams don't listen. Rutgers counts on that come tournament time.

I don't know why Rutgers didn't gel this season. Maybe Epiphanny Prince was the glue. This game was typical - offense chipped away but defense couldn't hold down the stretch. But it's a good year to be mediocre.

Labels: Rutgers, sports

An early season blowout by Rutgers women, but an interesting matchup. Rutgers, of course, is an excellent program coached by the famous C. Vivian Stringer, who puts together a great team every few years but can't seem to time the team to a year when Tennessee or UConn aren't better.

Kean University is the Div. 3 state school around the corner from me. The Cougars have a strong program & coach, nationally ranked again this year, were terrific last year, & receive no media attention. I'd have liked to see this matchup midway last season when Kean was a well-tuned machine & Rutgers was breaking down under pressure at both ends of the court. Kean wasn't surprised they went to Piscataway & lost, but they were surely disappointed they didn't score more points. Just not big enough. The Cougars go back to Div. 3 now & stay ranked.

Labels: Rutgers, sports

Later: Well worth the cab fare to see the shrink ($6 + tip, a bargain). He renewed my Ambien, filled out some forms. I surprised myself by walking all the way home, including a stop at a Supremo supermarket, my backpack so off balance afterward I realized I was walking like I was inebriated.
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If you hate the Phillies & Yanks so much that you didn't catch Johnny Damon's tenacious 9th inning, 2 out at bat & steal of second & third base last night, your loss. No more baseball this year when the Series ends.

Ordered free Windows 7 Upgrade. Haven't bothered learning much about Vista. I have no printer or scanner plugged in. I was given a scanner a few years ago that I couldn't use with old PC. If it works on this one, I can get a basic cheap printer, model determined by cost of black ink cartridges.

Rutgers women's basketball opens at home against Stanford on the 15th. Only ten players on the Rutgers roster, & Epiphanny Prince turned pro in Italy. Epiphanny was the go-to scorer but she wasn't comfortable as court leader & no one else was stepping up last year, this Big East season must have looked long, difficult, & unnecessary for someone with WNBA aspirations.

Labels: baseball, Rutgers, sports

Uncle Jack is 100. My sister helped organize a party & flew down to North Carolina with her husband this weekend. Uncle Jack was married to my mom's older sister. Aunt Jean died last year, her final months made easier because my sister spent some time down there sorting out the difficult situation of two stubbornly independent, upper middle class, elderly people who had unnecessarily allowed their lifestyle to deteriorate.

I don't know Uncle Jack personally, haven't seen him in decades. But from the descriptions he's the same Uncle Jack I used to observe. That he's 100 makes me realize how old he already was when I was a kid. 1909. Rutgers Class of '32, same year as economist Milton Friedman. Jack was in his thirties when he served in the Army in World War Two. He was an ageless preppy; that would have been anyone's first impression. He always dressed the part. Not a deep thinker (my family wasn't blessed with those even through marriage), but a guy who loved experiences, & bought them like he bought his swell wardrobe. He's a character. He's like my father in that neither were shy men. But my dad, a voracious reader with an appetite for community service type stuff to go along with his circus ringmaster personality, was the better overall role model. Jack was the slightly quicker wit on the once or twice-yearly occasions they were in the same room.

The oddity was that Uncle Jack & Aunt Jean were personality opposites on the surface. She was rather serious, slow to laugh, you could read the Old New England stock in her. Something I always liked about Aunt Jean that pushed me to drop by her office at Douglass College once in awhile when I lived in New Brunswick, perhaps she helped me imagine my mom in sobriety. But everywhere Jack went, skiing in Vermont or a cruise up the Amazon River, Jean went also, until they were too old to go anywhere except up the road to the Chinese restaurant. I attended a Rutgers game with Jack & Jean when I was 9 or 10, no idea how that invite came about. We sat in the stadium alumnus section - geezers there who had attended their first games driving Flivvers & wearing fur coats - & I recall it was a beautiful fall afternoon & I had a marvelous time & came home with a Rutgers pennant on a stick.

Happy Birthday, Uncle Jack.

Labels: growing up, Rutgers

#7 RU (21-13) 33 28 61
#6 PU (25-10) 40 27 67

Ouch. The Rutgers women could have won this game & they know it, but their defense wasn't there for most of the first half, & the seven point lead Purdue took made all the difference in the end.

Well, who thought they were a Sweet Sixteen team six weeks ago? Or two? Their 5th consecutive appearance that round. & if UConn takes the national title, then this was a season not to make a run to the Final Four. The freshmen learned that they succeed or fail on The System, & they know how it feels to play in the Big East & NCAA spotlights, for a famous (if notoriously strict) coach. They've heard the crowds at the RAC. Epiphanny, Rashidat, & Brittany will be seniors next season. Interesting year with a surprise finish - the double overtime loss to Louisville & thumping Auburn. I'll miss Heather & Kia, but they had college careers few athletes experience: A Big East title, four outstanding NCAA tournaments, & a magical run to a championship game in '07 against Tennessee (followed by the Imus affair, which was handled so well that it was a positive for the program). Rutgers was the only Jersey Div. 1 basketball team in postseason play this year.

Labels: Rutgers, sports

Let's get the predictions over with & watch some basketball. I'm not doing brackets this year. Much as I'm tempted to fill them out just for fun, I can't do it without being compelled to look up all the damned team records & stats, & with no office pool....

MEN
We can pray for an all Big East Final Four. Although I don't care for UConn or Louisville, druther Pitt, Syracuse, or Villanova, I'll settle for any as National Champs. But I'm not convinced this is a Big East year. Could be an ACC year. I'll say it is: North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, plus Memphis. NC wins it.

WOMEN
UConn, of course.

I've read that they're vulnerable because they destroy opponents by an average of 31 points & never had to win a close game. Yeah, right. It's isn't as if they've been playing Patriot League teams all season. So who came closest to scaring the Huskies? Rutgers & Notre Dame.

Rutgers: Their 7 seed is for strength of schedule & a Hall of Fame coach. But my girls beat only one ranked opponent in ten chances, that was their best game, they haven't strung together two consecutive impressive victories all season, no reason to think they will in the Tournament, even at home. If they beat Virginia Commonwealth at the RAC, they'll meet Auburn. If they get past Auburn, all bets are off.

Cinderella: You'll love 12 seed Marist Red Foxes, the small, formerly Catholic college from upstate NY, coached by a guy who came over from the local high school. 29-3, ought to be 31-1, with the early loss to Oklahoma. Best, unlikely scenario: They upset Virginia & Cal, meet UConn in Sweet 16, making Huskies sweat for half-a-game. Talented team, but coming from Metro conference, almost impossible to know how good they are at this point. Virginia's great coach, Debbie Ryan, has won 698 games, all at that school.

Liberty University: I try to keep up with my nephew's Baptist alma mater. 14 seed Lady Flames got senioritis in regular season finale, otherwise would've run the table in Big South. Last chance for the amazin' Frazee sisters, Megan & Moriah (what happened to Molly?) against 3 seed Louisville. Problem is, Big South is really small, & the Big East is really big. But the Cardinals may not have recovered psychologically from last week's humiliating whupping by UConn, & there could lie an opportunity for The Flames, who never go to the Tournament with "Jus' happy to be here" attitude.

Dangerous: 5 seed Tennessee, if the freshmen decide they don't want to wait until next year.

Except for UConn, it could be an anything goes tournament. But at the end, UConn struggles with feisty Maryland, then wins easily over 2 seed Stanford.

Labels: Rutgers, sports

A double overtime heartbreaker in the Big East Tournament against the #7 ranked team. The go-to girl, Epiphanny Prince, fouled out in first OT. The usually reliable defense collapsed in the second half, giving Coach Stringer fits (I've read some cogent arguments that she's been too slow this season to adjust to opposing coaches' 2nd half adjustments), but for two straight games they've shown the offense we'd expected at the beginning of the year when pollsters had Rutgers at #6 preseason. They just don't have enough experience beating good teams.

Notre Dame, an inconsistant squad like their male counterparts, lost to Villanova, an "upset," but the Wildcats beat the Irish during the regular season, & they have a fine defensive game. My interest in Notre Dame teams mainly concerns their play against PAC 10 teams. Since the era of the UCLA / John Wooden dynasty, Notre Dame has been my appointed team to defeat west coast schools. UCLA, USC - & probably every PAC 10 team hate losing to Notre Dame, & that's good enough reason for me. Anyway, it'll be a shock if UConn doesn't win the National Championship.

Yesterday, Kean University (the school around the corner from me) was knocked out of the Div. III tournament. Our state colleges probably siphon off just enough local high school & community college talent to handicap the recruiting efforts of Jersey's smaller Div. 1 programs. Athletes run up less debt without a sports scholarship at a Div. III state school, & the social life is cheaper, too.

Labels: Rutgers, sports

Only one other team, Notre Dame, kept it as close as ten points against the Huskies during the regular season. & that's a compliment to both the Scarlet Knights & the Irish. There isn't a team in the Women's Top 25 UConn can't beat, maybe few the Huskies can't beat easily. Unranked Rutgers lost by 19 to UConn in their previous meeting. They're one of only two teams all year to hold UConn under 70 points. Rutgers allowed 70 or more points only twice. How is Rutgers playing now? Good enough I think to have a chance against every Big East team except UConn. But they should have finished the regular season with 20 or more wins. The NCAA selection committee wants Rutgers in the tournament. Rutgers is a Big East marquee team. C. Vivian Stringer, along with UConn's Gino Auriemma & ND's Muffet McGraw is one of a handful of celebrity coaches in the women's game (compared to dozens in the men's college game), familiar characters who make for good sideline TV. Losing to UConn by ten points is no tragedy. But it will help their case mightily if they look good in the Big East Tournament. Also good that there aren't many unranked, non-major conference teams with gaudy records, & most of those will get automatic invites. It's hard to argue against inviting Rutgers given their #18 power ranking out of 340 Div. 1 schools.

Labels: Rutgers, sports

Despite the rain & slush, & not bringing an umbrella, & wearing leaky sneakers, I enjoyed the browse at Family Dollar store. Really gave it a look. I came back with Palmolive dish detergent, a Mr. Clean scrub brush, paper towels, 3-pack of black crew socks, & orange juice (I'm careful about food in nonfood stores). Couldn't decide which cleaner would really blast the bathtub. I browsed the store with an open mind. Didn't care for the mop selection, cheap area rugs, bathtowels, & pillows.

The day is so miserable & ugly as to have a beauty about it. Elizabeth has a lot of ugliness anyway, so there was no gilding the drooping lily this afternoon.

Earlier, I ordered an inexpensive polyester fill comforter, burgundy, on sale. I sleep on a futon, on a hard mattress & a soft, folded down comforter covered with a sheet, & on top of those is the dingy old comforter that's been washed too often & not enough, & is the only item I have requiring a giant machine at a laundromat & a long tumble in an unpredictable dryer. Time to retire it. I'll wash it when I have the chance, & stow it in the closet.
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Google Alert notified me that Redtelephone66 psych music blog had used my capsule review of The Hassles "Hour of the Wolf" LP. That's why I google alert my name; most of the alerts point to one of the many Rixons in Australia & ignore the "Bob" part. Maybe my ancestors included thieves, whores, & debtors transported down under. Cool.
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Rutgers women got their first high quality win of the season last night, beating #17 Notre Dame 78-68 in South Bend before a crowd of 10,000. That place must have been rockin'. Rutgers fell out of the rankings this week, if they beat South Florida they'll climb back in. Still, doesn't look like anyone in Big East gonna touch UConn this year. Huskies could go the NCAA championship undefeated. They brushed Oklahoma aside & destroyed North Carolina. Besides being a great team, they caught a season when many traditionally strong programs are erratic or struggling. But Rutgers may be the only opponent capable of psyching out UConn, just by being Rutgers.

Labels: Elizabeth NJ, home furnishings, potpourri, Rutgers, shopping, sports, weather