basketball

Make it five years without a national title for the most decorated women’s college basketball team in America.

The University of Connecticut women’s basketball team -- the top-rated program in the country -- was stunned Friday night in the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament, losing 69-59 to Arizona.

UConn shot poorly and faced some physical defense in the loss, and freshman Paige Bueckers -- the Associated Press national player of the year -- fought hard to get her 18 points.

Every year around this time, there's a big-old college basketball tournament. So every* year around this time, for every* year that this show has been on the air, we've put together a big-old hour of radio about said big-old college basketball tournament.

Until last year, of course.

This country has a long history of athlete protests.

This hour, we speak with athletes, including former UConn Husky Renee Montgomery, who sat out the WNBA season to focus on social justice issues. WNBA teams recently forwent games after the police shooting of Jacob Blake. 

We want to hear from you.

GUESTS:

Sports! There are sports!

Baseball's back. At least for now. With almost all of the teams playing games. And only, ya know, two of them having big COVID outbreaks.

The NBA exists in a Disney World "bubble," and it hasn't had a single test come back positive yet.

The NHL is doing two different kinds of tournaments at once in two different "bubbles" in Canada.

The arenas and stadiums are empty and quiet, but for the cardboard cutout fans and the piped-in crowd sounds. And the whole thing may well be a bad idea anyway...

But there are sports! At least for now.

The leagues are working in earnest toward starting back up. The NBA has a plan. Major League Baseball can't seem to work one out. Major League Soccer might beat them both back onto the field.

How is this all going to work? What are sports going to look like when they start playing games again? Should they start playing games again?

The NBA, the NHL, and Major League Soccer have all suspended their seasons. Major League Baseball canceled spring training and postponed opening day until at least mid-May. The NCAA canceled March Madness (which would've started in earnest today) and, in fact, all of its winter and spring sports championships. Tennis's French Open is postponed until September, and soccer's Euro 2020 is postponed until 2021.

There have been cancellations and postponements in archery, badminton, canoe-kayak, cricket, curling, handball, judo, rowing, rugby, sailing, shooting, skating, snooker, sumo, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, water polo, weightlifting… The list goes on.

Put a bit more simply: Sports is canceled.

139 wins, 0 losses.

That’s the mark -- including seven postseason titles -- the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team finishes with as members of the American Athletic Conference.

Jim Calhoun’s University of Saint Joseph men’s basketball team played its first NCAA Division III Tournament game Friday, 16 months after the Blue Jays had their first game.

The city of Hartford used a special exhibition between the powerhouse University of Connecticut Women’s Basketball team and the best American pros as an opportunity to showcase area businesses.

The death of Kobe Bryant was fresh on the minds of basketball fans who went to an exhibition game Monday between the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team and Team USA in Hartford.

President Trump's former National Security Advisor John Bolton is a pretty interesting figure in the whole impeachment inquiry, right? On the one hand, he's a pretty high-level official who is said to have characterized the whole Ukraine affair as a "drug deal." On the other hand, he's so far refused to testify at the same time as he's making it clear he's got lots of relevant information. On the other other hand, 

The Connecticut Sun's season is over and it ended at the furthest point it could go – Game 5 of the WNBA Finals.

The Sun lost to the Washington Mystics Thursday, 89-78.

There will be a decisive Game 5 in the WNBA Finals.

The Connecticut Sun staved off elimination Tuesday night by beating the Washington Mystics 90-86 in front of 8,458 fans at Mohegan Sun.

October is upon us. Pumpkin spice everything is here. Leaf peeping is just around the corner. Your one slightly odd neighbor has put out his 37 hand-carved jack-o'-lanterns.

But more than any of that, what October brings with it is October sports. And this year, in Connecticut, that means two things:

The Connecticut Sun are contenders. The WNBA basketball team missed out on postseason play from 2013 to 2016, but has since made it to the playoffs in three straight years. After securing early round byes, this time around the Sun are guaranteed a deep playoff run. 

The Women’s World Cup is underway in France, as national teams pit it out for women’s soccer’s top prize.

This hour, we take a look at how the U.S. Women’s National Team has come to reign as an international powerhouse. And we talk about the battle women’s sports teams across the board have fought to gain recognition -- and pay.

March Madness starts TODAY with some of the best games coming to Hartford!

We're outraged that wealthy parents illegally paid to get their kids into elite colleges they would otherwise not qualify to enter. Despite evidence to the contrary, we still want to believe that America is a meritocracy. It's not. And believing that it is might be bad for you.

Hall of Fame basketball coach Jim Calhoun has returned to the bench — six years after he officially retired. He's back, not to navigate a powerhouse program, but to coach at a tiny NCAA Division III school that was an all-women's college for 86 years.