UConn women: 69 and counting

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The UConn women’s basketball team routed #6 Notre Dame at the Joyce Center tonight, 76-51, earning their 69th straight victory — all of them by double-digit margins, even though the Huskies routinely play Top 10 teams — and finishing their second straight undefeated regular season.

UConn will tie its own record for longest winning streak in women’s NCAA history (70) in the Big East quarterfinals, most likely against Providence or South Florida, and will break the record in the semifinals, probably against Notre Dame (again) or St. John’s. They’ll then defeat West Virginia or Georgetown for the Big East title and their 72nd straight win, and by the end of the NCAA Tournament, when they cut down the nets in San Antonio, they’ll be sitting on 78 consecutive wins, ten shy of the UCLA men’s mark.

Er, if they win all those games, that is. But really, is there any doubt? At this point, I’m thinking that, barring injuries, UConn losing to anyone — anyone, even a fellow #1 seed in the Big Dance — would be quite possibly the biggest upset in women’s basketball history.

P.S. Thinking about that last point: have the vagaries of tournament bracketing ever mattered more? Say you’re a #2 or #3 or #4 seed in the women’s tourney. If you don’t get placed in UConn’s region, you’ve got a chance at making it to the Final Four. But if you happen to get placed in UConn’s region… fuggetaboutit. Heck, it’s better to be, say, a #6 seed in a non-UConn region than to be the #2 seed in UConn’s region, no?

P.P.S. Oh, also in tonight’s game, superstar Tina Charles broke Nykesha Sales’ controversial UConn scoring record.

Wearing their (glowing) hearts on their sleeves

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Do you think Canadians are a little bit excited about aboot their big hockey win yesterday? If the moving scene of an entire stadium singing “O Canada” at the top of its collective lungs wasn’t enough to convince you, here’s a look at some of today’s newspaper front pages, via the Newseum:

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More after the jump.

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Rebels’ new mascot: Admiral Ackbar?

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From the please-God-let-this-happen files: after ditching Colonel Reb, some students at the University of Mississippi (a.k.a. Ole Miss) want Return of the Jedi‘s Admiral Ackbar — of “IT’S A TRAP!” fame — to be their school’s new mascot.

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I guess it would be a natural step for Ackbar, a member of the Rebel Alliance, to join the Ole Miss Rebels. And apparently Lucasfilm is “flattered.” Does that mean they’ll allow it?

Out: “The SEC: it’s a WAR!” … In: “The SEC: it’s a TRAP!”

Hawaii lucked out

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Hawaii was lucky. As this awesome NOAA map shows, the main thrust of the energy in yesterday’s tsunami went almost “due” WNW from the epicenter of the Chile earthquake, at an angle of approximately 294 degrees, rather than 302 degrees — i.e., roughly halfway between WNW and NW — which would have taken it straight toward the islands.

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This helps explain why the Marquesas Islands — roughly in the middle of that red finger reaching WNW — got waves on the order of 6-8 feet a few hours before the tsunami’s predicted arrival in Hilo, seemingly confirming the forecasts for Hawaii, but in fact the effect in Hawaii was far less significant than predicted.

(Via the L.A. Times.)

UPDATE/CORRECTION: This map apparently is the forecast — it’s based on computer model projections, not observed data. So I guess the scientists knew all along Hawaii wasn’t in the tsunami’s “bullseye,” but nevertheless there was enough risk to warrant the warnings.

Meanwhile, here’s a cool animation of the tsunami’s progress across the Pacific: