Punter Tim Edger, a sophomore who led the league with a 41.5-yard average, was named to the second team.

Shawn Leonard, a senior who had the most touchdown receptions, 11, and was second in receiving yards with 858, and linebacker Rob Damon, a junior who led the league with 11.3 tackles per game, were named to the third team.

URI finjshed with a 1-10 record, 0-8 in the league.

The next question ought to be: "Why not?"

The Rams finished the 2009 season 1-10, losing at home Saturday to Northeastern, which today announced it was dropping football because it was too expensive.

As recently as 2002, the Huskies, who finished 3-8 this season, won the A-10 title. But they drew barely 1,000 fans to their final home game Nov. 14, when they beat Hofstra, 14-13.

The Rams, in contrast, have had nine straight losings seasons, and have had only three winnings seasons since 1985.

Northeastern follows in the footsteps of Boston University, which dropped football in 1999, and Vermont -- like URI, a former member of the old Yankee Conference -- which dropped the sport in 1974.

Those three schools have something else in common -- they're all members of Hockey East.

Although the Terriers are struggling this season, they are a perennial national power. BU won the NCAA championship last year in a thrilling, come-from-behind victory over Miami of Ohio, after slipping past Vermont, 5-4, in the semifinals. It was the fifth national championship for BU.

Yet URI does not have a varsity hockey team, even though the state has turned out many more Division I hockey players than football players over the years.

Football is an expensive sport and these are difficult economic times. WIth the state in a budgetary crisis, URI has had to make cutbacks in all areas. It's a legitimate question whether the school can continue to afford to play football -- especially bad football.

It's not as if the lack of a football team would hurt the school's reputation. Of the six New England state universities who were in the Yankee Conference, only URI and Maine are considered "Tier 3" schools in the annual rankings published by U.S. News & World Report. In contrast, UConn ranks 66th among "national universities," followed by Vermont (88th), Massachusetts (106) and New Hampshire (110).

UMass and UNH also play in the prestigious Hockey East conference, along with Maine, which has won two NCAA titles.

The University of Chicago, which can boast of the first Heisman Trophy winner -- Jay Berwanger, in 1935 -- and legendary coach Amos Alonzo Stagg, played in the Big 10 until the school dropped football in 1939.

Yet Chicago continued to attract top scholars. It is ranked 8th nationally by U.S. News and World Report, tied with Columbia, just behind the likes of MIT, Stanford, and Penn, and just ahead of Duke and Dartmouth.

Northeastern University's decision to drop varsity football means that the University of Rhode Island will pick up another Colonial Athletic Association South Division opponent for the 2010 season and that coach Joe Trainer and his staff will try to recruit Northeastern players to URI for the spring semester.

The South has been the stronger of the two divisions in recent years. Richmond is the 2008 national champion at the Football Championship Subdivision level and is returning to the playoffs this season with Villanova and William & Mary. New Hampshire is also in the playoffs.

Northeastern announced Monday that it is discontinuing football. The Huskies' 33-27 victory over URI Saturday was the program finale. Northeastern cited "significant obstacles" as a primary reason to discontinue the program that started in 1933.

"I'm sure it was certainly a very difficult decision for Northeastern to make. After going through sports cuts ourselves, the guys on that team are having a very difficult time accepting that decision. I wish them well," URI athletics director Thorr Bjorn said Monday.

The move leaves the Colonial Athletic Association with 11 teams, five in the North Division, and raises questions as to the future of the league. Old Dominion University of Norfolk, Va., a CAA member in other sports, started football this season and will join the league in 2011. Georgia State of Atlanta, another CAA member, will launch its football program in 2010 and join the CAA in 2012. The addition of those programs will require a conference re-alignment at some point.

CAA Commissioner Tom Yeager said Monday that the league's athletics directors will begin discussing long-range planning during a conference call Tuesday. The more pressing challenge is the 2010 schedule. Northeastern's decision leaves North Division rivals URI, UMass, UNH, Maine and Hofstra plus three South Division teams with an open date for the 2010 season. The league has already distributed a revised schedule.

Northeastern players will be able to transfer and play in 2010 because the NCAA and CAA have waived the requirement that transfers sit out a year. Trainer already has his eye on a couple of 2009 Huskies who would look good as 2010 Rams.

"We'll scour the tape and not pass on anyone who can help us," he said Monday afternoon. And the help will have to be next year, not two or three years from now.

Unlike the courtship that occurs in high-school recruiting, this will be speed recruiting because, as Trainer put it, "I got to believe that 95 percent of those kids will transfer for the spring semester."

CAA coaches in the North Division are already familiar with the Northeastern players either from the recruiting trail or from playing against them.

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Brown, which defeated Stony Brook this week in the first round of the tournament, ended the season with an 11-3-5 overall record.

The Celtics were led by Pierce (33 points, nine rebounds) and Kendrick Perkins (16 points, 13 boards), while Al Harrington scored 30 off the bench for New York.

More on the game to come. Click here to see the box score.

Walker is the team's first assignment to the NBA Development League this season.

Walker, a 6'6" forward, has appeared in one game for the Celtics this season and has logged two minutes of playing time. The Kansas State product has posted career averages of 2.9 points and 1.0 rebound in 7.2 minutes per game over 30 games with the Celtics.

In 15 games with the D-League's Utah Flash last season, Walker averaged 18.9 points and 5.3 rebounds in 30.5 minutes per game.

It was an uphill battle for the Celtics right from the start as the Celtics fell behind by 16 after one quarter of play.

But the Celtics refused to be embarrassed on their home court. The Celtics clawed their way back into the game and cut the Magic lead to 75-74 after a Kevin Garnett (13 points, 11 rebounds) jumper, followed by a Rasheed Wallace (9 points, 13 rebounds) steal and a Paul Pierce (21 points) layup with 5:16 remaining in the game.

Vince Carter (26 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists) answered with a jumper and free throw to give the Magic a 78-74 cushion. The Celtics missed three consecutive shots on their next possession, but got three offensive rebounds and scored on their fourth shot, a Garnett layup with 3:26 to go.

After getting a stop, Wallace tied the game up with an 8-foot jumper with 2:54 remaining, but Carter came right back with a jumper after an Orlando timeout stopped Boston's momentum.

Rashard Lewis (16 points, 10 rebounds) extended Orlando's lead to 82-78 with two free throws with 58.4 seconds left, and the Celtics called a timeout.

Ray Allen (15 points, 6 assists) tried to take the ball to the basket, but it was stolen by Jason Williams (7 points, 6 assists), who made a free throw with 10.5 seconds left to ice the game.

Orlando improves to 10-3 with the win and the Celtics are now 9-4.

Pierce has 19 points for the game and Ray Allen has 11.

Boston center Kendrick Perkins, who limited Dwight Howard to just five points in the first half, picked up his fifth foul just 4:36 into the third quarter.

Rashard Lewis (14 points) and Vince Carter (16 points) are Orlando's top scorers.

After allowing Orlando to shoot 64.7 percent from the floor in the first quarter, the Celtics held Orlando to just 4-of-18 shooting in the second quarter.

The Celtics outscored the Magic, 27-14, in the second quarter.

Mickael Pietrus (11 points), Vince Carter (10 points), and Rashard Lewis (9 points) have been Orlando's go-to guys, while Paul Pierce (10 points) and Ray Allen (9 points) have kept the Celtics in the game.

Look for Rajon Rondo (4 points, 5 assists) to be more aggressive in the second half.

The Magic, meanwhile, knocked down seven of their first eight shots, and nine of their first 12 (4-for-5 from 3-point line) to set the tone and jump out to a 24-10 lead before the Celtics knew what hit them.

Mickael Pietrus (4-for-4) 11 points and Rashard Lewis (9) points) have been Orlando's go-to guys.

Kevin Garnett (5 points) leads the Celtics.

Boston center Kendrick Perkins, who held Howard to just 13.1 points per game in the Eastern Conference semifinals last season.

Howard says that nobody guards him as well as Perkins does. He credits Boston assistant coach Clifford Ray for making Perkins into one of the best defensive centers in the game.

"He's very smart, and I worked with Cliff from the time I got into the league until the time he left to come to Boston. He was a big help for me and he's really helped Kendrick's game. I'm real happy to see the progress that Kendrick has made, not just defensively, but offensively, since he's came into the league.

"We worked out together and when we came out, we he got drafted, and to see him now, I'm just happy to see that he's grown [under] Clifford Ray, who has done a good job of just pushing him to become better every day so I'm really happy for him."

Perkins received four votes to be named to one of the NBA's two All-Defensive teams last season.

"With Perk, we want him to be a deep-post guy," Boston coach Doc Rivers said. "When he catches it in the paint...Perk gets a lot of his post-action after he sets a pick for Paul [Pierce] or Ray [Allen] where the bigs on the other team has to help, and that allows him establish himself in the paint. When he catches it outside of the paint, he struggles a little bit. But when he gets it in the paint, he's very difficult to [defend]."

Rivers said that in Perkins' first three years in the league, he wanted to be an offensive player. But after the Celtics signed Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, Perkins decided to become the best defensive player he could be because that is where he can help out the team the most.

"Perk has accepted his role and he is trying to master that role to make him a great player," Rivers said. "He's a defensive player and he knows that."

"I don't know if there is anybody in the league faster [than Rondo]," Van Gundy said. "[Rondo] and Derrick Rose are pretty quick and we saw them matched up in the playoff last year. It's tough keeping him out of the paint with his speed, and defensively he can disrupt you with his speed too."

Orlando center Dwight Howard is one of the many players that Wallace has mentored through the years.

"We talk a lot both on and off the court just about situations, about life and how to grow on the court," Howard said. "He's been a good veteran. Even though he's not on my team, he's always giving me some words of advise just to take my game to another level.

"There are a lot of guys who do that, especially when you try to reach out to them and try to pick their brains apart. It just feels good to have guys like that around the league who just don't care about themselves but care about the younger generation as well."

"He's got a lot of things that are there. His jump shot is back for sure. His timing is still off a little bit. One day his quickness is there and the next day it's not, and that's typical with injuries. It takes a while. We are in no hurry with it. We've kept his minutes down. It's been good."

Garnett is averaging 13.5 points and 7.3 rebounds per game this season.

The locker rooms open up at 6:30 p.m., but in the meantime, here are some some quick notes about the two teams who split their four regular-season meetings last year (2-2).

CELTICS

The Celtics, led by Paul Pierce who is averaging a team-high 18.4 points per game, are 5-2 at home this season. He is on pace to lead the team in points for the 10th consecutive season.

Pierce averaged a team-high 23.3 points against the Magic during the regular season last year.

The Celtics are third in the NBA with 104 steals.

Rajon Rondo is averaging career highs in assists per game (9.0) and steals per game (2.6).

Kendrick Perkins is shooting 50-for-88 (56.8 percent) from the floor this season and is averaging 10.5 points and 7.1 rebounds per game.

Ray Allen is averaging 19.9 points per game against the Magic in his career.

MAGIC

Orlando is 7-2 against Eastern Conference opponents this season.

The Magic have attempted the most 3-pointers in the NBA, 317.

Dwight Howard is shooting 66.7 percent from the floor, by far the best in the NBA. He led the Magic against the Celtics last season, averaging 16.8 points, 15.5 rebounds and 4.0 blocks.

Vince Carter is 21-for-48 (43.8 percent) from the three-point line this season, and is averaging 17.1 points and 3.9 rebounds per game.

Marcin Gortat has 14 blocks this season.

Mickael Pietrus is on pace for a career high in minutes per game (30.5).

Jason Williams will start for the injured Jameer Nelson.

Here is what the Celtics had to say about the Magic at practice yesterday.

"They're the team everybody's chasing in the East,'' Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "They won the championship of the East last year. As far as we're concerned, they're the favorite and Cleveland's the second favorite and we're the third - going by the results of last year. So, it will be good to see where we're at.''

"It's definitely a big game for us," Pierce said. "Just try and make a statement against one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference. You're talking about a team that's going to be there in the end, one of the best records in the league. So, we're playing for home-court advantage and this is a team that we have to beat.''

"Their record says they're one of the best teams," Garnett said. "They're deep, they're very deep. People are not really talking about their depth, but the onus is on us. This should be a good test for us.''

Kendrick Perkins said: "It's just another playoff team we might have to go through to get where we're trying to go, so I think it's going to be a great test. They beat us in Game 7 at our house, actually I think they blew us out [101-82]. They were Eastern Conference champions so we've got to get that back, so we've got something to prove.''