Saturday, June 18, 2016

'If he ever made it happen, it would be a movie'

Not too often I get to write a story that combines my two favorite sports, baseball and college basketball. But Tyler Olander provided me with that opportunity.

As you may know by now, Olander signed a contract with the Toronto Blue Jays and has been at the team's spring training complex in Dunedin, Florida for extended spring training the past couple of months (save for a quick jaunt back to Mansfield last weekend).

Olander has largely been rehabbing since he re-aggravated the broken foot injury that caused him to leave his Spanish pro basketball team last October, come home for surgery and embark on his latent baseball career.

Other than playing catch with Shabazz Napier so Napier could practice for his Fenway Park first pitch in April, 2014, Olander never went back to baseball during his college career. But he would often tell his four-year roommate and teammate, Niels Giffey, that he intended on trying his hand at baseball again one day.

Giffey was one of the first to congratulate him after Olander signed with the Blue Jays back in April. DeAndre Daniels offered his congratulations, as well.

We certainly wish him congratulations and good luck, as well. Will he be the next Randy Johnson? Of course not. He won't even be the next Scott Burrell. But could Olander be the next Mark Hendrickson? Hey, you never know.

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Wednesday, June 8, 2016

UConn will play Tulsa on the road, Tulane at home, everyone else twice

AAC opponent pairings were announced on Tuesday, and UConn will play every team twice except Tulsa and Tulane. The Huskies will face Tulsa on the road and Tulane at home.

With 11 teams in the league, every team must play two teams just once each season.

Also, it was announced officially that the AAC championship tourney will be held at the XL Center in Hartford March 9-12 (Thursday to Sunday).

The complete 2016-17 men's basketball schedule with dates and times will be announced at a later date.

American Men’s Basketball 2016-17 home and away pairings:

Play Only Home
Play Only Away
UCF
SMU
Tulane
Cincinnati
Memphis
East Carolina
UConn
Tulane
Tulsa
East Carolina
Cincinnati
Memphis
Houston
Temple
USF
Memphis
East Carolina
Cincinnati
USF
Houston
SMU
SMU
USF
UCF
Temple
Tulsa
Houston
Tulane
UCF
UConn
Tulsa
UConn
Temple

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Kevin Ollie's first "Kevin's Kourt" to open on Monday

Kevin Ollie will open his first wheelchair-accessible basketball court on Monday at the Boys & Girls Club of Hartford, as part of his "Kevin's Kourt" initiative.

Ollie, Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, chairman Rodney Butler of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and others will participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony starting at 4 p.m. Instead of cutting down the nets (as Ollie did in 2014 as national champion coach) this ceremony will be about putting up nets.



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