Beat It, Phil

Greetings from the XL Center, for today's St. John's-UConn battle.

First things first: Today marks the last day on the beat for Phil Chardis. Phil has been at the J-I for 39 years and been on the UConn beat for about 30. He's traveled from Hawaii to Israel to Morgantown, W.V. covering the team, and has done an excellent job. No one on the beat saw the in-game nuances of basketball better than Phil.

Now, he's going over to the dark side: Phil's taking over for Kyle Muncy as UConn's men's basketball sports information director. His knowledge of what the media wants and needs and his unique, close relationship with Jim Calhoun will surely help him excel in this venture (though we're a little worried about the first couple of times he runs a conference call).

More good news: taking over for Phil as the J-I's beat guy will be Neill Ostrout, the former Connecticut Post beat man. Neill's as solid as they get, and it'll be great to see him back on the beat, starting next week.