The Official Boston Sports Thread

The Boston College basketball team was down to the Miami Hurricanes, the bottom seed of the ACC tournament, by as many as 14 points in the second half, but rallied to send the game into overtime, then won it 74-71 in large part due to a conventional 3-point play from Jared Dudley off a John Oates miss approaching a minute left in the overtime. Sophomore guard Tyrese Rice had a big, career-high 32 points, including the 3-pointer to tie the game in regulation inside of a minute left. The Eagles play top-seeded North Carolina this afternoon in the semifinals.

 

The Boston College basketball team had its run @ the ACC tournament ended in dominating fashion by North Carolina, 71-56, so now it's time to play the waiting game to see what seed the Eagles get, where they go, and who they will play in the first round of the NCAA tournament this week.

ESPN has reported that the Patriots have agreed to terms with WR Donte' Stallworth on a 6-year, $30M contract, with nearly $12M of it reportedly guaranteed.

 

Daisuke Matsuzaka stumbled today in his outing against the Baltimore Orioles today, giving up a 3rd inning homer to Jon Knott and a 4th inning shot to Jason Dubois en route to a 6-hit, 4-run performance (1 unearned thanks to a throwing error by Dice-K) over 4 innings; however, he did strike out 3 in the first 2 innings. Matsuzaka took the loss, as the Orioles won 5-3. Matsuzaka said in his press conference that he was experimenting in the last 2 innings to see how high in the strike zone he could get away with throwing pitches, so I wouldn't read too much into this performance.

The Red Sox will play the New York Yankees for the only time in spring training this year tomorrow night at City of Palms Park. Tim Wakefield will get the start.

 

Boston College is the #7 seed in the East regional, and will play their first round game on Thursday in Winston-Salem, NC against Bob Knight's 10th seeded Red Raiders of Texas Tech. The potential second-round opponent on Saturday is a familiar one from the Big East...the #2 seed Georgetown Hoyas.

Other New England schools:

Holy Cross, winners of the Patriot League tournament, are the #13 seed in the West regional and open up Friday in Columbus, OH against the #4 seed Salukis of Southern Illinois.

Central Connecticut St., winners of the Northeast Conference tournament, are the #16 seed in the South regional, and open up Thursday in Lexington, KY against Greg Oden and top-seeded Ohio St.

 

According to this report in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Red Sox have approached the Giants about acquiring closer Armando Benitez. Benitez was 4-2 w/ a 3.52 ERA and 17 saves in 25 opportunities for the Giants last year, but has had 40+ save seasons with the New York Mets (2000 and 2001) and the Florida Marlins (2004).

 

Mike Reiss reports in his Patriots blog that the team has reached agreement with WR Kelley Washington on a five-year contract. A teammate of Donte' Stallworth's at the University of Tennessee, Washington has spent his first 4 NFL seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals, but has been limited to 12 games the last 2 seasons due to injuries, including a hamstring injury last season.

 

Tim Wakefield gave up 8 hits and 4 runs over 4 innings against the Yankees, but the Sox rallied to tie and later scored 3 runs in the 7th and hung on win 7-5 in their only meeting of the spring.

 

The NFL Players Association has launched an inquiry into whether the Patriots acted improperly regarding whether the reported $38M offer sheet to recent signee Wes Welker prompted the Miami Dolphins to seek a trade rather than match the offer, with the Patriots then signing Welker for less money. Patriots Vice President of Player Personnel Scott Pioli told WEEI last week that an offer sheet was never given to Welker.

 

Just a note about what this appearance in the NCAA tournament means to BC...Jared Dudley, Sean Marshall, and Tyler Neville become the first senior class in BC history to go to the NCAA tournament all 4 years. They are also the winningest senior class in school history.

 

I'll tell ya one thing, I am bummed out that Moss wasn't traded to the Patriots. Would have been so nice to see him outa my precious Oakland and in Foxboro.

 

Sean Marshall sparked a 14-4 second half run by Boston College, and the Eagles held on to defeat the Texas Tech Red Raiders 84-75 in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Tyrese Rice led all scorers with 26 points. Boston College will play the 2nd-seeded Georgetown Hoyas, who cruised to a 80-55 win over Belmont, on Saturday.

 

Boston College built an 8-point lead in the second half, but Georgetown used their size advantage to whittle the lead down and eventually won their second-round NCAA men's basketball tournament game 62-55. Tyrese Rice scored 22 points to lead the Eagles, and Jared Dudley, playing what proved to be his last collegiate game, chipped in 19 points along with 8 rebounds. BC ends the season 21-12 and are eliminated from the NCAA tournament by a team from the Big East for the second straight year.

Boston College upset top-seeded New Hampshire 5-2 for their 10th straight win, the 2007 Hockey East championship, and an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament. BC sophomore RW Brock Bradford, who led the Hockey East tournament in goals with 6, was named the tournament's MVP. The pairings for the 16-team NCAA tournament will be announced @ 2:30 PM on ESPN2.

 

The NCAA Division 1 men's ice hockey tournament pairings were announced this afternoon, and two Boston-area schools, Boston College and Boston University, will be #2 seeds in their regionals. The Eagles will play in the Northeast Regional at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, NH, with St. Lawrence as their opening round opponent on Saturday. The Terriers will play in the Midwest Regional at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, MI, and will face Michigan St. in their opening round game on Friday. In a tough draw for the BC Eagles, New Hampshire is the #1 seed in the Northeast Regional, and is expected to have the advantage of the "home crowd".

 

In a case of another former Miami Dolphin who played for Nick Saban being lured to the Patriots, the Pats signed free agent DB Eddie Jackson to an undisclosed contract yesterday.

 

In Patriots news today, the team re-signed WR Bam Childress, an exclusive rights free agent. Childress has spent the majority of his first 2 NFL seasons on the Pats' practice squad.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120099426399&fromMakeTrack=true

Manny Ramirez is selling a Jenn-Air grill that has only been used by him once. Current bid is over $4K, and the item's description also says that the winning bidder will also receive an autographed baseball.

 

Boston College announced that it was extending the contract of athletic director Gene DiFilippo for 5 years through 2012. DeFilippo, who presided over the sometimes tumultuous change of conference from the Big East to the Atlantic Coast Conference, has had the BC athletic program ranked in the top 20 in the nation by US News & World Report, and consistently has had one of the highest graduation rates in Division 1.

 

Daisuke Matsuzaka had perhaps his most dominating performance of the spring today in Bradenton, FL against the Pittsburgh Pirates, allowing just a first-inning run on a lone hit and walking one while striking out 7 through 5 and 2/3 innings, throwing 92 pitches, 62 for strikes, and got the win, as the Red Sox took the game 7-3.

In other Red Sox news, the team announced that veteran reliever Mike Timlin, who has been battling a strained left oblique muscle, will start the season on the DL. Timlin strained the oblique on Feb. 25 and hasn't been able to get into an exhibition game. The Sox are targeting Timlin for a return around the home opener on April 10.

By way of an update on Manny's grill, it's apparently not actually his grill, but a neighbor's, that he's selling on Ebay. EDIT: By way of another update, Ebay pulled Ramirez's listing around noon today.

 

I kept meaning to post it Sunday, but never got around to it, but I didn't want a week to go by without mentioning that the Celtics had perhaps their biggest win of the season Saturday night against the San Antonio Spurs, 91-85. The C's had lost 18 straight to the Spurs (and hadn't won against them in the Tim Duncan era until Saturday night) and collected their first win in San Antonio since Valentine's Day in 1990.

 

The Patriots re-signed some of the backups yesterday: S Rashad Baker, LB Corey Mays, OL Gene Mruczkowski, and DL Mike Wright

 

Multiple team sources have told ESPN's Erin Andrews that the Red Sox have decided to return Jonathan Papelbon to the bullpen as the closer. There will be limitations to Papelbon's bullpen duty, however: he will not throw when he's tired, and he will not throw more than 3 games in a row.

EDIT: The Red Sox made the Papelbon announcement official after today's game with the Phillies, and also announced that Julian Tavarez would enter the season as the fifth starter.

 

Boston College got 2 second-period goals from left winger Joe Rooney and goaltender Cory Schneider stopped 37 shots en route to a 4-0 shutout over Miami of Ohio, who upset #1 seed New Hampshire on Saturday, in the Northeast Regional finals of the NCAA hockey tournament yesterday to advance to the "Frozen Four" for the second year in a row. The Eagles will play West Regional winner North Dakota in one of the national semifinal games on April 5 in St. Louis.

The Herald's John Tomase cited league sources as saying Patriots RB Laurence Maroney had offseason shoulder surgery which revealed "fairly significant damage". It was not clear at press time what the long-term prognosis for Maroney, who will be entering his second year in the NFL, was. EDIT: The Globe's Mike Reiss reported that while Maroney would be limited in the Patriots' offseason program, the surgery would not affect his 2007 season.

 

Forgot to mention yesterday that Daisuke Matsuzaka had rare control problems, giving up 5 walks in his 5 innings of work and throwing only 59 strikes out of 104 pitches, but still did not allow a hit or a run and struck out 6 in the outing against the Reds in Sarasota. The Red Sox lost the game 5-0 after Craig Hansen allowed all 5 of the Reds runs in 2/3 of an inning in the 7th.

In BC basketball news, senior forward Jared Dudley was named a second-team All-American by the AP. The first team consisted of freshmen Greg Oden (Ohio St.) and Kevin Durant (Texas), seniors Alando Tucker (Wisconsin) and Acie Law IV (Texas A&M), and junior Arron Afflalo (UCLA).

 

The Red Sox have made their final cutdowns, and have released the active roster they intend to go with on Opening Day Monday. They are listed here, but of those names, Matt Clement, Jon Lester, and Mike Timlin will begin the season on the disabled list. The Sox will go with 12 pitchers and 13 position players, broken down by position as follows:

Starting pitchers: Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Curt Schilling, Julian Tavarez, Tim Wakefield
Relief pitchers: Brendan Donnelly, Javier Lopez, Hideki Okajima, Jonathan Papelbon, Joel Piñeiro, J.C. Romero, Kyle Snyder
Infielders: Alex Cora, Eric Hinske, Mike Lowell, Julio Lugo, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis
Outfielders: Coco Crisp, J.D. Drew, Wily Mo Peña, Manny Ramirez
Catchers: Doug Mirabelli, Jason Varitek
Designated hitter: David Ortiz

The regular season begins on Monday in Kansas City.

In Patriots news, it was revealed yesterday on WEEI's "The Big Show" that Troy Brown has had offseason knee surgery, which has slowed down contract talks in free agency.

In NFL news, the instant replay rule was made permanent and all stadiums will be updated with high definition equipment, and a second window for assistant coaches to interview for head coaching positions was added in the "bye" week before the Super Bowl. A rule which would've allowed a defensive player to wear a headset was rejected, and the 49ers withdrew their proposal which would've changed defensive pass interference to a 15-yard penalty unless the foul was ruled flagrant. Other rule change proposals will be voted on by the owners tomorrow.

 

Richie... just saw this article with regard to Lester.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/sports/11407197/detail.html?treets=bos&tml=bos_12pm&ts=T&tmi=bos_12pm_1_11000203282007