Man sentenced to prison for plot to murder stepfather of Celtics' Ray Allen
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MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (AP)- A Southington psychologist was sentenced Friday to 33 years in prison for conspiring to murder a fellow psychologist, the stepfather of NBA star Ray Allen. Ernest Garlington, 39, was convicted last year in a murder-for-hire plot against Derek Hopson, the ex-husband of Garlington's wife. Hopson is now married to Flora Allen-Hopson, the mother of Allen, a guard for the Boston Celtics. Hopson escaped injury when shots were fired at him in 2003 outside the Middletown clinic where he worked, where he also was beaten with a golf club less than a year earlier. Prosecutors say Garlington arranged the assaults because he thought Hopson was bothering his wife. Garlington was convicted in November on charges including conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree assault. He was sentenced Friday in Middlesex Superior Court. "He's a very dangerous man, calculating, cunning, with no remorse," Hopson said of Garlington during Friday's sentencing. Garlington's lawyer, Jeffrey Denner, said he will appeal. "God bless you. Jesus be with you all," Garlington said as court marshals led him away after the sentencing. One of Garlington's alleged co-conspirators, Willie Foote, testified during the trial that Garlington offered $1,500 for the 2002 beating. He also said Garlington, after the beating, offered $30,000 for the killing of Hopson. The shooter in the 2003 incident, Robbie Santos of Waterbury, was convicted and sentenced to 18 years in prison. Hopson's ex-wife married Garlington soon after she and Hopson divorced in 2001. Hopson married Allen-Hopson in 2003, nine days after the attempted shooting. Ray Allen, who played his college ball at the University of Connecticut, told The Associated Press two years ago that his main concern was his family's safety. "Her husband is someone she loves, she enjoys," he said at the time. "Unfortunately, he came from a situation before that that had some baggage and that's pretty much all the problem." Ray Allen did not attend Friday's sentencing. He was in Atlanta for Game 6 of the NBA's first-round playoff series between the Celtics and the Atlanta Hawks. 
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Celtics
PROVIDENCE – Brown University hopes to name a new basketball coach by the end of May. The search committee has winnowed the initial list of 80 applicants to about 10 and will meet next week to decide which candidates to invite to campus, athletics director Mike Goldberger said today. He predicted as many as five coaches will visit. Brown must replace Craig Robinson, who left last month to become head coach at Oregon State. Robinson won 30 games in his two seasons at Brown, more than any coach in Brown history in his first two years, and his 2008 team won 19, a school record. It also finished 11-3 and second in the Ivy League. Robinson’s success raised the profile of Brown basketball, resulting in a stronger applicant pool than two years ago, when Brown hired him from Northwestern to replace Glen Miller, who had left for Penn. The fact that Robinson is the brother-in-law of the presidential candidate Barack Obama garnered even more attention for the program this season. “We have head coaches who have been successful and top assistants from good Division I programs,” Goldberger said of the applicant pool. He declined to list any names. “We have no leading candidate at this point,” he said. Goldberger emphasized that the next coach must understand, as Robinson did, the academic as well as athletic demands placed on Ivy League athletes. “We won’t sacrifice that credential for anything,” he said.
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College Sports
By SHALISE MANZA YOUNG Rain forced the Patriots to move the first session of their rookie mini-camp indoors, to the Dana-Farber Fieldhouse, and the 27 players on hand worked for more than an hour on the basics of New England's system. Some observations: * QB Kevin O'Connell puts a lot of zip on his ball, but his accuracy is definitely an area of improvement for the third-round pick. Offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Josh McDaniels spent a lot of time with O'Connell, working him both with and without a ball in his hands. * CB Jonathan Wilhite doesn't have "stone hands." One online scouting report said the former Auburn Tiger had stone hands, but Wilhite's hands looked good while picking off O'Connell during one play. He made a good play on the ball, bobbled it a bit but held on. * WR Matthew Slater may not end up as a WR at all. We this going in -- that Slater, the Pats' fifth-round pick, had been moved all over the field at UCLA and likely would in New England as well. This morning, he took some snaps at defensive back and came away with an interception, and of course played on special teams. * For some, it may have been a brief tryout. Among the 27 players, there were nine in for a tryout. The team hasn't passed along those names yet, but for those who are still around for the afternoon session (which gets underway at 2:15 p.m.), we'll be able to pass along some names.
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Patriots
Here's the list for now. Where known, the reschedule dates are in parentheses. Baseball Softball Boys Lacrosse
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High School
By JIM LIITKE It's hard to praise sportsmanship without sounding like a chump. We celebrate cunning, guile and trash-talking in our games every day, but sportsmanship exactly once a year, which in case you missed it, officially came and went March 4. Yet every so often, those same games produce a gesture so grand it reminds you that sportsmanship will always be more about strength than weakness. Maybe that's why it remains the exception instead of the rule. Central Washington first baseman Mallory Holtman wasn't doing anything more lofty than keeping track of the baserunners and pitch count in a game last Saturday when Western Oregon's Sara Tucholsky hit the first home run of her career. Never having had occasion to practice, Tucholsky's trot around the bases quickly turned into a disaster - she missed first, turned back to tag it and collapsed with a knee injury. As Tucholsky crawled back to the bag, Western's first base coach shouted, "Nobody touch her," knowing that any assistance from teammates or her trainers, or replacing Tucholsky with a pinch-runner, meant the home run would only count as a single. While the coaches and umpires tried to figure what to do next, Holtman waded into the huddle and asked, "Excuse me, would it be OK if we carried her around and she touched each bag?" Click here to continue reading.
Here is the full list of drafted and undrafted rookies taking part in New England's rookie mini-camp this weekend: 5 QB Kevin O'Connell - San Diego St There are also several players here on a tryout basis; we will try to get their names for you. -Shalise Manza Young
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Patriots
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - University of Washington center Jessica McCormack says she's transfering to the University of Connecticut. The 6-foot-5 freshman, who is currently playing for the New Zealand national team, tells the Hartford Courant that she has accepted a scholarship offer from UConn and is excited about her future with the team. Connecticut officials say they can't comment until McCormack enrolls at the school. She appeared in 19 games for Washington last season, averaging just under eight points and just over four rebounds per game. McCormack would have to sit out the 2008-09 season.
Click the play button below to hear Sean's comments, recorded this morning. Today's topics: the bizarre balk call that prolonged last night's game (I had already turned the thing off...); the Red Sox' abysmal offensive showing this week; a showdown series against ... Tampa Bay; and the injury problems down in the Bronx.
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Red Sox
Click the play button below to hear Kevin McNamara preview tonight's Game Six showdown in Atlanta. Did Boston turn a corner in Game Five? Do the Hawks have any concept of how to win on the road? Have the Celtics forgotten the same? And can Paul Pierce continue to be his fired-up self?
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Celtics
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Tiny Trinity College is streaking again, this time in baseball. The Division III school, whose football team won 31 in a row before losing a game in 2006, and whose men's squash team hasn't dropped a match in over a decade, is 32-0 this season in baseball. The Bantams have a chance to end the regular season undefeated when they play a doubleheader against Wesleyan on Saturday in Middletown. "Going into the season, we knew we had a real good team," said senior pitcher Michael Regan, who is 7-0 with an ERA of 1.37. "Me and my roommates would joke around saying, 'Whoa, we could run the table here.' But we didn't really think we could do it." If they can, they will make history. No college baseball team has gone undefeated to win a national championship. The Divison III record for wins to start a season is 33 by Johns Hopkins in 2004. Trinity could eclipse that with a sweep on Saturday.
In case you missed this story yesterday, baseball's preeminent self-proclaimed whistleblower has now become "one of the first celebrities to publicly admit being a statistic in the U.S. housing crisis."
As The Portland Press-Herald reports today, the Portland Pirates will have a very hard task on their hands as they try to climb out of a 2-0 hole in their playoff series with the Providence Bruins. The series resumes tonight in Maine. Click here to read the article by staff writer Paul Betit. Here's an excerpt: The Providence Bruins made it look easy when they opened the Atlantic Division finals last weekend with two lopsided victories. At times the Bruins, the AHL's best team in the regular season, looked like they should be playing for the Stanley Cup, not the Calder Cup. In the two games at Providence, the Bruins outscored the Pirates 11-1 and had a 73-47 edge in shots on goal. The Pirates are trying to put all of that out of their minds. "It was a frustrating weekend but at the same time, it's the playoffs," said Portland center Jason King. "We have to leave the last game behind us. You can't change what happened." Meanwhile, The Boston Herald's Stephen Harris writes today that the P-Bruins "may just be the finest hockey team in the world, outside of the NHL."
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P-Bruins
We were waiting for this one, but here's The Onion's first foray into the allegetions that Roger Clemens had an affair: "sports fans" weigh in. Another baseball item from America's Finest News Source: Nomar Garciaparra tells wife to meet him on the disabled list at 8 p.m.
ATLANTA (AP) - Dwyane Wade has finally spoken up about his alleged romance with Star Jones: "Star is an unbelievable woman. We have a great, great relationship. As friends." "We're friends, just like a lot of celebrities. We are friends," the pro basketball star said Thursday during a guest appearance on "Inside the NBA," the jocular TNT show featuring Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson. "Are y'all close friends?" Smith asked. "We're good friends," Wade responded. "Are you the kind of friends that drink out of one cup with two straws?" Smith persisted, referring to a much-discussed photo of Wade, 26, and Jones, the 46-year-old TV personality who recently filed for divorce, at a tennis match. "Those kind of friends?" "We are friends. That's all," said Wade, who is married to his high school sweetheart and has two sons. "Good friends?" Barkley interjected. "Naw, Chuck," Wade said with a smile. Some hilarity ensued. Barkley broke through the commotion to say, "I like Star. She's a cougar." "What's a cougar?" Smith asked, not so innocently, a perfect lob to Barkley. Sir Charles promptly slammed the ball home: "Preying on a young Dwyane Wade." Representatives for Jones did not immediately return a call for comment Thursday night.
On today's sports cover, Sean McAdam writes from Fenway Park, where the Red Sox' bats continue to be silent; Kevin McNamara checks in on the Celtics before he flies to watch the team play tonight's game in Atlanta; Kevin also says hello to new PC coach Keno Davis; and Shalise Manza Young says hello to Patriots number-one draft pick Jerod Mayo. Click here to download the file in pdf format.
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