Connecticut

Player of the Year candidate Kemba Walker and third seed Connecticut were back at it Thursday, five days after completing five games in five days to win the Big East tournament. Multiple ice baths later, Walker and the Huskies showed no ill effects of their New York marathon as they rolled past 14th seed Bucknell, 81-52, and into the third round of the NCAA tournament. "He didn't look tired at all," Bucknell guard Darryl Shazier said of Walker. The Huskies, who ran their record to 16-1 in opening NCAA tournament games since 1990, will face the winner of Thursday's late game between Missouri and Cincinnati.

Connecticut Gov.Dannel P. Malloyhas signed a bill outlawing the death penalty, which passed both the House and the Senate with bi-partisan support. Connecticut is the 5th state in five years and the 17th state in the nation to have abandoned the death penalty. The criminal justice system, like all human institutions, is imperfect. Where the death penalty is concerned, it isn't a question of whether the state has executed an innocent person. The only relevant questions are when has the state done so, and how often.

The game What -- NCAA women's tournament Fresno Regional first-round game Where -- Hartford (Conn.) Civic Center When -- 9:30 (approximate) TV/Radio -- ESPN2/1370 AM The teams No. 16 seed UMBC -- 16-16; America East tournament champion; first NCAA tournament appearance. No. 1 seed Connecticut --29-3; Big East regular-season champion (16-0); 19th NCAA tournament appearance. The frontcourts Both teams start two players up front and employ a three-guard alignment. UMBC's tallest regular, 6-3 Amanda Robinson (10.3 ppg, 5.3 rpg)

Brittany Mallory's decision to focus on basketball at Notre Dame gave her the chance to play in two NCAA championship games, but back at McDonogh, Mallory was also known as one of the area's top high school lacrosse players. Her final athletic turn in college will come on the lacrosse field. The Fighting Irish announced Monday that Mallory has joined their No. 7 women's lacrosse team. A two-time All-Metro midfielder at McDonogh, Mallory played three years of lacrosse and led the Eagles to the IAAM A Conference final in 2006.

Maryland's basketball recruiting hopes for next season were dealt a severe blow when Donyell Marshall, a highly touted All-America forward from Reading, Pa., announced he would sign a national letter of intent to play at Connecticut.Tim Tolokan, sports information director at Connecticut, said he could not comment on Marshall, since the school had not received a letter of intent from him today, the first day of the spring signing period.But reports in Connecticut and in Marshall's hometown have all indicated that he has decided to enroll there, rather than at Maryland.

Time, site: Approximately 10 tonight, Miami ArenaTV: NoneOutlook: Connecticut, the No. 2 seed, hasn't advanced to a regional final since 1990, when it lost to Duke. Donyell Marshall scored a total of 37 in the Huskies' two NCAA wins. Florida, seeded third, has advanced to the Sweet 16 for the second time in school history. The first appearance was in 1987. The Gators should have a partisan crowd for this game.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- The North Carolina Tar Heels saved themselves and some ACC pride last night in the Smith Center.The 10th-ranked Tar Heels broke away from Connecticut in the closing minutes to post a 79-64 victory in the final game of the second ACC-Big East Challenge.Following Villanova's 91-82 win over Wake Forest here, the Tar Heels' victory broke a streak of six straight Big East victories in the series and left the Big East with a 6-2 edge.It wasn't easy, and it certainly wasn't pretty.

HERSHEY, Pa. -- Donyell Marshall didn't disappoint yesterday, but the crowd and Towson State did.Marshall was a playground hero in Reading, 50 miles east of here, before becoming Connecticut's leader and one of the top players in the Big East Conference. The Huskies showcased him at the Hersheypark Arena in their opener, a 107-67 blowout of the Tigers before 2,410.It was the third time in six years that the Tigers had come here to accommodate a product of the region. They were handled by Jeff Lebo and North Carolina in 1988 and scared Syracuse and Billy Owens in 1990, games that drew good crowds to see those former Carlisle standouts.

Lauren Molinaro is one happy person these days.A May graduate of Centennial, Molinaro's soccer team at the University of Connecticut has reached the Final Four. Molinaro has played an important part in the team's success, starting 24 of 25 games at center midfield -- she was injured for one game -- and scoring six goals and adding 12 assists."To be going to the Final Four is just unbelievable, it's awesome," said Molinaro yesterday from her dorm at Connecticut. "At first it didn't hit me -- how lucky I was -- because I was just caught up in the moment.

UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- George Washington coach Mike Jarvis jokingly referred to the sub-regional at the Nassau Coliseum yesterday as the "Connecticut Invitational."The second-seeded Huskies may not agree, but they and third-seeded Florida advanced to the Eastern Regional semifinals at Miami with predictable victories.Florida eliminated everybody's favorite underdog, Penn, 70-58, after Connecticut pulled away from the Colonials to win, 75-63, in the opener.But the Huskies will have to move to not-so-neutral turf to take on Florida.

Penn launched itself to a 7-2 lead early in the second quarter, but No. 3 Cornell outscored the Quakers (1-5, 0-2 Ivy League) 8-0 in the final period to win, 16-11, Saturday at Franklin Field. After entering the fourth trailing 11-8, the Big Red (6-1, 2-0) evened the game four minutes in and took the lead for good when Steve Mock scored with 8:10 to play. No. 6 Denver 11, Air Force 8: Freshman goalie Ryan LaPlante had 12 saves for the visiting Pioneers (5-3, 1-1 Eastern College Athletic Conference)

The Maryland women's basketball team will play fellow national power Connecticut next season for the first time in program history. The teams will meet in the Jimmy V Women's Classic on Dec. 3, ESPN and The V Foundation for Cancer Research announced Tuesday. The 11th-annual game will take place at one of UConn's two playing facilities — the XL Center in Hartford or Gampel Pavilion in Storrs — and will be shown on ESPN2. The event will fall on the night before the men's Jimmy V Classic in New York.

Maryland football coach Randy Edsall was asked during his Sunday media conference call about how he responds to losing -- essentially whether he has faith that his program, which has lost five straight, will be a winner. "I've been through all this," Edsall said. He then referenced two previous experiences -- a period as an assistant coach with the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars and his early years as head coach of Connecticut. As you know, Connecticut was transitioning to Division I-A in Edsall's early years at the school.

Randy Edsall had been in this position before, coaching his first game with a new team. But Monday night's 2011 season opener at Maryland seemed different than it had been for him 12 years ago at Connecticut, or even when he joined Tom Coughlin to help launch the Jacksonville Jaguars five years before that. To Edsall, those jobs were a lot tougher than taking over the Terps from Ralph Friedgen. "This isn't my first first rodeo," Edsall said over the summer, at the Atlantic Coast Conference media day in Pinehurst.

Riding a two-game winning streak into Wednesday's home contest with the Connecticut Tigers, the IronBirds came close to tying the contest, and possibly taking their third straight victory, but left two men on with the winning run at the plate in the bottom of the ninth in a 4-2 defeat. Matt Hobgood (0-6), Baltimore's first-round pick two years ago, had his longest start of the season, going five full innings, but took the loss after he allowed three earned runs on six hits. The loss, which put the Ironbirds at 2-4 since last Thursday, dropped Aberdeen to 22-42 on the year, and as of Wednesday the IronBirds were at the bottom of the McNamara Division in the New York-Penn League, nine games behind third-place Hudson Valley.

The IronBirds failed to score until the bottom of the ninth Thursday night at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen and lost their second straight to the Connecticut Tigers. With the 10-2 loss, Aberdeen fell to 22-43 on the year, and through Thursday's contest the IronBirds were in the cellar of the New York-Penn League's McNamara Division. "We have two weeks left, and you just have to tell the guys to keep playing hard," Aberdeen skipper Leo Gomez said after Thursday's game. "That's something I've been telling these guys all year.

Someone has been using Connecticut to try to teach us all a lesson.All summer long, that unlucky state has suffered through a budget and tax deadlock that has just about paralyzed its government. To those in the middle of it, trying to find a solution, it is a nightmare that never seems to end. But to some with long memories, it is an irony almost too rich to be coincidental.For nearly all of this century, Connecticut was the model of political discipline and obedience, the state where office-holders and voters alike did as they were told.

With a 7-3 win over the host-team Connecticut Tigers on Monday, the Aberdeen IronBirds were able to end a losing skid which had reached five games. The streak was Aberdeen's third longest string of losses this season, as the IronBirds dropped eight straight games between June 28 and July 5, and were defeated nine straight times after opening the campaign with a victory on June 17. Through Monday's contest, Aberdeen was 21-41 on the year, and trailing third-place Hudson Valley by nine games in the New York-Penn League's four-team McNamara Division.

A 41-year-old friar and former teacher at Baltimore's Archbishop Curley High School was arrested this week in Connecticut and charged with inappropriate conduct with a child, according to police. Michael Miller, a member of the Conventual Franciscan Friars, was charged Tuesday with risking injury, impairing the morals of a minor and attempted acts of obscenity, according to the Berlin, Conn., Police Department. He was freed in lieu of $150,000 bail and was ordered to appear in court in Berlin on July 26. Officials at Archbishop Curley High School confirmed Thursday that Miller taught religion there in the mid-1990s and again between 2003 and 2006.