Connecticut beats Stanford 53-47 for NCAA title

Stanford Stalks Unbeaten UConn In NCAA Title Game
Will Connecticut's dominant women's basketball team finish another season picture perfect? Or will Stanford derail the UConn title train? Those are the big questions heading into Tuesday night's NCAA women's basketball championship game at the Alamo Dome in San Antonio. UConn is on the greatest run in women's college basketball history — a 77-game winning streak. The Huskies have torn through this NCAA tournament. But Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer and her Cardinal players believe they...

UConn Women's Basketball Wins Second Straight NCAA Championship On Back-To-Back Undefeated Seasons
San Antonio — Every basket built their streak, every romp enriched their legacy. From the first shot of the season, it seemed inevitable that Maya Moore, Tina Charles and the Connecticut Huskies would win the NCAA championship. And so they did Tuesday night, rallying from a horrible first half to beat Stanford 53-47 for their 78th straight victory and stamp themselves as one of the most dominant teams ever – in their sport or any other, men or women. Held to only five points through...

Stanford slows UConn but fails to make most of it
San Antonio — The defensive game plan was solid, the execution perfect. Stanford kept Maya Moore, Tina Charles and the entire Connecticut team from scoring for a stretch of 10 minutes, 37 seconds. And it still wasn't enough. The Cardinal were missing too many shots of their own. Stanford gave up just 12 points in the first half of the national championship game Tuesday night but scored only 20. The meager lead wasn't enough to withstand an inevitable second-half run by mighty UConn...

Connecticut beats Stanford 53-47 for NCAA title
San Antonio (AP) - Maya Moore scored 23 points and helped Connecticut rally Tuesday night from a horrible first half to beat Stanford 53-47 for its second straight undefeated championship season. Held to only five points through the first 12 minutes and trailing 20-12 at the break, coach Geno Auriemma's Huskies bounced back and played like champs to claim their seventh national title. UConn (39-0) won its 78th straight, extending its women's NCAA record for consecutive victories, although...

Connecticut Beats Stanford 53-47 for NCAA Title
Held to only five points through the first 12 minutes and trailing 20-12 at the break, coach Geno Auriemma's team bounced back and played like champs. Moore, the game's outstanding player, scored 23 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to help Auriemma win his seventh national championship, moving within one title of Pat Summitt and Tennessee. He's never lost in the title game. The Huskies became the first team ever to have consecutive unbeaten seasons, but that doesn't cover it. They've been...

UConn Beats Stanford, 53-47, For NCAA Women's Basketball Title
The University of Connecticut Huskies beat the Stanford University Cardinal 53 to 47 to win the NCAA basketball championship and become the first women's team to win back to back titles. What's more, they extended their win streak to the 78 games, placing Coach Geno Auriemma just ten games away from tying the all-time college win streak set by the UCLA teams of the legendary John Wooden. It was Connecticut's seventh championship. For UConn it was perhaps the worst game of their current streak,...

Duke hangs on, beats Butler for 4th national title
The Duke Blue Devils are national champions. Again. Surviving everything that Butler could muster in front of a hometown crowd in one of the closest, most exhilarating national Championship games in history, Duke hung on for a 61-59 victory that gives coach Mike Krzyzewski his fourth national title. It's the first for Duke since 2001. The Blue Devils could have made the Final seconds a little less agonizing, but Kyle Singler missed a jumper with 38 seconds remaining and the ball eventually...

Rallies planned as UConn women return home
WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. (AP) - Airport and campus rallies are planned as Connecticut’s women’s basketball team returns home after winning its second straight national championship. The team is set to touch down at Bradley International Airport at about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. A short event featuring remarks by coach Geno Auriemma and team members is planned at the airport before the Huskies return to UConn. The doors at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs are set to open to the public at about 5...

Butler and Duke coming down to wire for NCAA title
Butler hasn't hit a field goal in roughly six minutes, getting all six of its points since the 9:30 mark on free throws by Matt Howard and Gordon Hayward. Kyle Singler's jumper moments ago was only the second basket for Duke since the 10:24 mark of the second half. It gave the Blue Devils a 58-55 lead, though, and Nolan Smith will be heading to the line for a pair of free throws with just over 3 minutes left in the national Championship game. The close game would seem to favor Butler, which...

Officials letting 'em play in NCAA title game
Butler coach Brad Stevens called a timeout after Duke put together an 8-0 run to take a 26-20 lead with about 5 minutes left in the first half. Brian Zoubek began the spurt with a basket inside, and Jon Scheyer made one of two foul shots before draining a 3-pointer off an assist by Nolan Smith. Kyle Singler followed with a layup of his own, forcing Stevens to call the timeout. Butler prefers low-scoring games and generally doesn't score points in bunches, so it has to make sure the Blue...

Moore, Ogwumike reach Final Four scoring heights
San Antonio — Connecticut's Maya Moore and Stanford's Nnemkadi Ogwumike will likely match up in Tuesday's championship. Maybe they can slow each other down. Ogwumike's 38 points in Stanford's win over Oklahoma on Sunday was the second-best individual performance in Final Four history, while Moore's 34 points in Connecticut's semifinal victory over Baylor ranked as the fifth-best. They are the first players in 12 years to score more than 30 points in a Final Four game. Former Texas Tech...

Making The One-State Solution Inevitable
Other than screaming by the right, there does not seem to be any significant aftermath to President Obama's decision to oppose Israeli settlement expansion.  The Israeli government is simply ignoring Obama's demand to stop building in the Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem. Speaking on CNN on Sunday , Israel's ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, described US-Israeli relations today as "great," meaning, no doubt, that the Israeli government no longer fears US pressure on the...

How Israelis View U.S.-Israel Relations
Jerusalem, Israel -- Some are calling the recent dispute between the U.S. and Israel over Israel's building in Jerusalem the worst diplomatic crisis in more than three decades. But how are Israelis feeling about the state of relations between the two countries? The crisis began nearly one month ago during a visit from U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden when a local planning board approved the construction of 1,600 more apartments in a Jerusalem neighborhood, a location Israel felt it had a...

In NCAA women's title game, Moore and Ogwumike to lead Connecticut, Stanford
San Antonio -- When Connecticut and Stanford vie for the NCAA women's basketball title on Tuesday night, a highly anticipated matchup between each team's top player figures to be even more captivating in light of virtuoso performances in the national semifinals. For Huskies junior forward Maya Moore , playing at that level in the sport's showcase event is nothing new. For Cardinal sophomore forward Nnemkadi Ogwumike , it could be the first of many such feats. Moore scored a game-high 34...

A protest at Georgia Capitol against English-only driver license exams
About thirty people showed up Wednesday at the Georgia Capitol to protest a New driver license legislation making its way through Georgia General Assembly . The legislation would make it mandatory for the driver license examination to be conducted in English only. The Senate passed   SB 67  39 to 11 at the end of March and it is now pending in the House. Currently, the driver license test is given in 14 different languages in Georgia, with 14 different dialects in Arabic only. ...

Butler big man Matt Howard in foul trouble against Duke in NCAA title game
Duke's Brian Zoubek (55) and Butler's Matt Howard (54) tip off to begin the men's NCAA Final Four college basketball championship game Monday, April 5, 2010, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta) (AP) Matt Howard is another guy with a propensity for getting into foul trouble, and the Butler big man just picked up his second and checked out with about 8 1/2 minutes left in the first half. The Bulldogs are really getting after Duke in the halfcourt, forcing Four turnovers already. Coach K...

Moore lifts Connecticut out of funk, into history
San Antonio (AP) - His team whipped like never before, Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma walked off the court at halftime so slowly that there was no one else around him. His left hand was on his hip, his eyes were straight down. His mind was churning with thoughts of how to snap his club out of its funk. Leave it to Maya Moore to take care of that. Moore scored 11 points during a 17-2 run to start the second half of the national championship game, a burst that put the Huskies back in control...

Meet Giuliani's New Brain on Foreign Policy
WASHINGTON - For all the recent attention paid to the hawkish circle of Foreign Policy intellectuals around Mayor Giuliani, the Giuliani campaign's version of Condoleezza Rice is a retired career Foreign Service officer who once worked as an aide to U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali. Meet Charles Hill, the former executive assistant to Secretary of State Shultz, who is the Giuliani campaign's chief Foreign Policy adviser. The campaign says that in the coming days and weeks, the Yale...

Obama calls UConn hoops champions
A bit of final business before President Obama leaves for Prague: A congratulatory phone call to University of Connecticut women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma and his champion Lady Huskies. The president "said he was looking forward to seeing all of them at the White House again soon," said the White House announcement. Presidents to love to talk to champions, but the UConn women's team is special -- they're bidding to be the most dominant sports team of their era. After last night's...

Biden extolls stimulus bill, heads for hoop game in San Antonio
President Obama isn't the only basketball fan in the House. Vice President Joe Biden and wife Jill are heading to San Antonio later today for the women's college basketball title game between Connecticut and Stanford . Undefeated Connecticut is the big favorite, and comes in riding a 77-game winning streak. After an overnight stay, the Bidens while visit with wounded warriors at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. Biden, a Syracuse man, sat with Obama back on Jan. 30 to watch...

VP Biden attends women's championship game
San Antonio — Vice President Joe Biden will see if his boss picked a winner. Biden attended the women's basketball championship game between Connecticut and Stanford on Tuesday night. He sat two rows from the Alamodome floor at center court. President Barack Obama incorrectly picked Kansas to win the men's tournament, but got this matchup exactly right. Obama picked the Huskies to beat the Cardinal when filling out his women's bracket last month. It wasn't clear if Biden, a Delaware...

WIRE Watch: Obama Heads Overseas; Palin and Bachmann Join Forces; Biden Visits Troops
By Susan Davis Abroad: President Barack Obama leaves tonight for a trip to Prague where he will sign the new START Treaty with Russia in an effort to reduce the world's Nuclear Arsenal. Sarah Palin (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Tea Party Tizzy: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will join forces today with Minnesota GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann who is running for re-election. Palin will appear with Bachmann this afternoon at the Minneapolis Convention Center. State Sen. Tarryl Clark , the...

Vice President Joe Biden returns to Texas, this time for basketball
President Barack Obama might be the basketball star of the current administration, but it is Vice President Joe Biden who gets to attend tonight's women's college basketball national championship game in San Antonio. It will be Biden's second trip to Texas in the past three weeks. In late March, the vice president attended two Democratic fundraisers in Dallas, where he harshly criticized former president and current Dallasite George W. Bush . Tonight the focus will be on the contest between...

Quote of the Day: John McWhorter on Sarah Palin (and her all-American toddler-speak)
By Michael J.W. Stickings This, it seems to me, is spot on : Palin is given to meandering phraseology of a kind suggesting someone more commenting on impressions as they enter and leave her head rather than constructing insights about them. Or at least, insights that go beyond the bare-bones essentials of human cognition -- an entity (i.e. something) and a predicate (i.e. something about it). ***** What truly distinguishes Palin's speech is its utter subjectivity: that is, she speaks very...

The science of Palinspeak crystallized
Image via Wikipedia In an academically rich yet entertaining post, linguist John McWhorter explains what exactly it is about Sarah Palin’s speaking abilities that gives some people pause: Palin is given to meandering phraseology of a kind suggesting someone more commenting on impressions as they enter and leave her head rather than constructing insights about them . Or at least, insights that go beyond the bare-bones essentials of human cognition - an entity (i.e. something) and...