OSTROWSKY: Doug Flutie, New England Patriots coming to Brandeis

This upcoming weekend, April 1st-3rd, the Athletes in Beantown autograph showcase, sponsored by ABN Sports, will be held at the Brandeis Gosman Athletic Center. This entertaining event includes both current and former professional athletes, most of whom have some connection to the Boston area. For a meager 5 dollar admission fee (2 dollars if youre a Brandeisian, no charge if youre under 12), you will be able to shmooze around the gymnasium with the guys and line up for autographs for additional fees.

More wiggle room for the Boston Celtics

It is the waning moments just before halftime in a road game against the woeful New Orleans Hornets at the tail end of their lengthy road trip. The Celtics, hoping to escape from this game with their prolonged winning streak intact, are trailing by a slim margin in the second half. On this particular fastbreak play, vocal point guard Gary Payton takes a hard fall out of bounds attempting to secure a loose ball. He finds himself crouched underneath the basket, wincing in pain with an upper body injury. To his rescue come a pack of first place Celtics, led by none other than godsend Antoine Walker. Following him are several of the many youngsters on the Celtics roster.

OSTROWSKY: On This Day Brady And Her Bunch Ruled

You will not find her name printed all over the womens basketball game summaries on the athletic page of the Brandeis web site. When casually talking about the Brandeis womens hoops team, there are probably five names more likely to come up before hers does. Forget being included in the Sports Illustrated Faces In The Crowd section. She is practically a face in the crowd of Brandeis ladies basketball. This young lady is none other than senior co-captain Catherine Brady.

OSTROWSKY: The Roaring 2000s

If you are a Boston sports fan you do not want the 2000s to end. Its as simple as that. The second half is just underway and there arent many signs of slowing down.
Your football team won its third Super Bowl in four years. For the Red Sox, no more 1918. Enough said. Lets admit it;

its been a wicked awesome decade thus far for Bostonians.

OSTROWSKY: Questionable Judgement

The Evil Empire has struck again. This time it is in the form of Womens Division III College Basketball. At the Cole Center in NYU in front of a booming crowd of 1,914 the lady Judges, ranked number 13 in the nation, were defeated by a convincing score of 60-47. If you had the misfortune of listening to or attending the game you would know it was not that close. They got out-rebounded, out-hustled, and outplayed for the entire 40 minutes. Simple as that. No excuses. In the biggest game of the year (not to mention in school history), the Judges put forth a lackluster effort.

OSTROWSKY: Pot of gold for Beantown students

All that separated the hundreds of Boston University and Boston College students sitting behind opposing nets were the rafters commemorating the great Celtics and Bruins from the glory days. In this 53rd Beanpot the spotlight as always was on BU and BC. Sure Northeastern and Harvard went at it in a nail biting first game but the meager crowd that was on hand for it was equivalent to the crowd of friends and family of a JV high school basketball team playing in the game before the varsity squad hits the court. This one was less about the Hockey East standings, and more about good old ra ra school pride.

OSTROWSKY: For Patriots, its all about defending their title

They have walked off the gridiron victorious in 34 of their last 38 (meaningful) contests. They are perfect (8-0) in the post season under the realm of head coach Bill Belichick. In the past three years they have been able to call themselves world champions twice. The statistics that this team will acknowledge virtually stops at this point. The only I in this team is in their team name, and no where is this ideal more apparent than in the teams defensive squad. The Patriots offense, as good as it is, is not head and shoulders above the rest of the league. What really separates this dynasty bound teams from others is its tenacious, potent defense.

Celtics: no defense, no problem

Its a frigid January night outside on the streets of Boston. The worshipped New England Patriots have not played a meaningful game in over two weeks. The focus this one night in Beantown is on the Celtics finishing up their marathon week filled with games against five mediocre opponents.