Connecticut
UConn is the big favorite in East regional. Florida Atlantic could be best sleeper pick
Connecticut is the latest defending national champion to make a run at the most elite list in college basketball.
The top-overall seed in the men’s NCAA Tournament is looking to become the eighth program in Division I and first since Florida in 2006-7 to go back-to-back in the tournament era. The others are Oklahoma State (1945-46), Kentucky (1948-49), San Francisco (1955-56), Cincinnati (1961-62), UCLA (1964-65, 1967-73) and Duke (1991-92).
The Huskies will try to do so coming out of the East Region, where the stiffest competition should come from No. 2 Iowa State, the Big 12 tournament champion; No. 3 Illinois, the second-place team from the Big Ten; and No. 4 Auburn, winners of the SEC tournament.
Jay Wright believes college basketball court storming should be banned
College basketball analyst Jay Wright believes that NCAA court storming should be banned, primarily because of player and fan safety.
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It’s a strong region. But no team in the country has looked as strong as UConn, the prohibitive favorites to repeat.
USA TODAY Sports breaks down the men’s NCAA Tournament East Region:
Best first-round matchup: Washington State vs. Drake
No. 7 Washington State is back in the tournament for the first since 2008 after going 24-9 and finishing second in the Pac-12 under coach Kyle Smith. Drake had another outstanding regular season — the Bulldogs have won at least 25 games in each of the past four years — but won the Missouri Valley tournament championship to land the No. 10 seed. Drake’s offense is one of the highest-scoring in program history but will be challenged by a WSU defense that hasn’t given up 80 points since a win against Washington on Feb. 3.
Potential upset in first round: Auburn vs. Yale
No. 12 Alabama-Birmingham is hot enough to take down No. 5 San Diego State, though the Blazers’ play for the vast majority of the regular season doesn’t speak too well to their chances. Let’s go instead with No. 13 Yale finding a hot hand and taking down No. 4 Auburn, which had one of the cruelest tournament landing spots of any Power Six team. The Tigers were placed behind No. 3 Kentucky despite winning the SEC, for one, and worse yet will very likely have to tussle with one of the Huskies and Iowa State to get back to the Final Four behind coach Bruce Pearl.
The sleeper: Florida Atlantic
If for no other reason than the fact that FAU doesn’t lose NCAA Tournament games in New York. (If we’re counting all five boroughs, that is.) A year ago, the Owls punched their ticket to the Final Four out of Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. This time, the No. 8 Owls will get started at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center against No. 9 Northwestern before — gulp — taking on UConn. FAU struggled at times during the regular season as first-year members of the American but have the experienced roster and depth of production to make another March run in the Big Apple.
The winner: Connecticut
OK, so let’s get real: Anyone other than UConn winning the region and going to the Final Four would be a big surprise. (Anyone other than UConn winning the whole thing might be a big surprise, actually.) The Huskies are long, deep, explosive, dripping with athleticism and loaded with the sort of confidence you’d expect from the defending champs. The Huskies are built to handle the intensity of tournament play and will benefit from the depth developed while battling some injuries during the regular season.
NCAA Tournament East Region schedule
Thursday, March 21
Omaha, Neb.
No. 2 Iowa State vs. No. 15 Dakota StateNo. 3 Illinois vs. No. 14 Morehead StateNo. 7 Washington State vs. No. 10 DrakeNo. 6 Brigham Young vs. No. 11 Duquesne
Friday, March 22
Brooklyn, NY
No. 1 Connecticut vs. No. 16 StetsonNo. 8 Florida Atlantic vs. No. 9 Northwestern
Spokane, Wash.
No. 5 San Diego State vs. No. 12 Alabama-BirminghamNo. 4 Auburn vs. No. 13 Yale
Connecticut
Tractor-trailer carrying thousands of gallons of fuel catches fire on I-91 in Wethersfield
A tractor-trailer hauling thousands of gallons of fuel caught fire on Interstate 91 North in Wethersfield on Friday morning.
State police said state troopers responded to I-91 North near exit 24 around 7:42 a.m. and found the cab of a tractor- trailer carrying 7,500 gallons of fuel on fire.
The driver was able to get out of the truck and was not injured, according to state police.
The fire departments from Wethersfield and Rocky Hill responded to the scene to extinguish the fire and troopers shut down I-91 North and South as well as oncoming traffic from Route 3 to I-91 South.
Because the truck was hauling fuel, troopers worked to move drivers who were nearby, state police said.
I-91 South reopened shortly after the fire was out.
The left two lanes of I-91 North have been reopened and the state police Fire & Explosives Investigation Unit is also responding to assist with the investigation.
State police said the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection later responded to the scene.
Connecticut
Connecticut couple charged in alleged Lululemon theft spree that netted up to $1 million
A Connecticut couple has been charged in connection with an elaborate two-month theft spree at Lululemon stores across the country that an investigator with the retailer estimates netted about $1 million worth of product.
Jadion Richards, 44, and Akwele Lawes-Richards, 45, were arrested on Nov. 14 in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minnesota suburb of Woodbury. The couple, from Danbury, Connecticut, were charged with organized retail theft after a Lululemon retail crime investigator contacted local authorities in Minnesota.
But Lululemon’s investigator said evidence shows their crimes go back to September and took place in states like Utah, Colorado, New York and Connecticut, according to the criminal complaint.
Attorneys representing Richards and Lawes-Richards did not immediately respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment Thursday.
Richards claimed he was racially profiled, complaint says
Richards and Lawes-Richards were stopped after exiting the Lululemon store in Roseville, Minnesota, on Nov. 14 when the security alarm went off, according to the criminal complaint. Richards allegedly claimed store employees racially profiled him and the two were allowed to leave afterward.
The Lululemon investigator later alleged the two visited the store the day before on Nov. 13 with an unidentified man and stole 45 item valued at nearly $5,000. That same day, the pair had allegedly conducted four other thefts in Minneapolis, Edina and Minnetonka.
Officers arrested the couple at the Lululemon in Woodbury. The two denied any involvement in the theft, with Lawes-Richards allegedly claiming they were staying with her aunt and had only been in Minnesota for a day.
Officers found several credit and debit cards on the couple, as well as an access card to a Marriott hotel room. Using a search warrant, officers found 12 suitcases in their room, including three filled with Lululemon clothing with tags attached worth over $50,000, according to the complaint.
In all, the company investigator estimated the couple has taken up to $1 million in stolen product, according to the complaint, which does not detail how he arrived at the high figure.
Couple blocked cameras among other tactics: Investigator
The Lululemon investigator said one of the couple’s alleged tactics was for one of them to distract associates while another stuffed product in the clothes they were wearing, according to the complaint.
Another technique involved the two strategically exiting the store, with one of them holding a cheap item they had bought and the other carrying more expensive products that had sensors, according to the complaint. When the alarm would sound off, only the person with the cheap, purchased item would stay behind and show a receipt, while the other would keep walking with the stolen product, the complaint says.
The pair are accused in eight Colorado theft incidents between Oct. 29 and 30, and seven thefts in Utah on Nov. 6 and 7, according to the complaint.
The pair are currently being held at the Ramsey County jail in Minnesota, court records show. Their next court appearance is set for Dec. 16.
Connecticut
Connecticut readers get the shaft from newspaper’s vulgar Jets headline blunder
Ouch!
A newspaper in Connecticut had an unfortunate typo involving Jets linebacker C.J. Mosley’s herniated disc on Monday.
This past Monday, The Chronicle, a newspaper covering Eastern Connecticut, published an AP story on the front page of its sports section in the print edition that referred to Mosley’s “herniated d–k.”
Mosley has missed the Jets’ four games with the injury — the one in his neck, that is.
In the copy, Mosley’s injury was not shafted, getting described correctly in the nut graph.
The unfortunate phallacy did not go unnoticed: in an extra twist, the error went viral when it was posted on the X account of David Coverdale, the 73-year-old singer of Whitesnake.
An editor for The Chronicle told The Post that the newspaper would be issuing a correction in the paper.
Last week, prior to the Jets’ loss to the Colts, Mosley spoke about how he hoped to return after the Jets’ bye, when they host the Seahawks on Dec. 1.
“That’s definitely the goal,” he said. “I’m in a position where I’ve played a lot of football. Me missing this time won’t hurt me as much as another guy that might need this opportunity. It’s about safety at the end of the day. When I go home, I’m Clint Mosley. I’m C.J. I’m not the football player.”
Mosley said the birth of his daughter, who arrived the week after his injury, put things in perspective for him.
“I had a full week of having a normal neck and ever since then every time I’m looking down, my neck’s hurting,” Mosley said. “It puts things in perspective. There’s a lot of life after football. When I’m done playing, I want to make sure I’m 100 percent.”
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