Nobody needs your stupid boat: UConn to open season on military base in Germany

About a month UConn's chance to play a basketball game on a rapidly-becoming-passé aircraft carrier fell through, but a report out of ESPN this morning indicates that the Huskies have replaced it with something even more unique: a game against Michigan St. played at Ramstein Air Force base in Germany. The game, which is still pending approval from the Department of Defense, is tentatively set for November 9 and will be broadcast on ESPN as college basketball's season opener.

The game itself will be played before an audience of 2,500 to 3,000 enlisted men and women, and is expected to be broadcast sometime in the early evening back in the states. This is cool, really cool and it's made even better by the presence of three German players on UConn's roster. Details obviously have yet to be worked out, but you have to imagine that this will allow Niels Giffey, Enosch Wolf and incoming freshman Leon Tolksdorf to play in front of their families as Huskies (and it also won't hurt any other European recruiting Jim Calhoun might want to do).