The Monday Morning Wash

The story of the weekend is Washington was snubbed by the NIT which is a surprise at first glance since Washington finished 19-13, and were in one of the toughest conferences in the country. They even beat the #3 team in the country, UCLA, only a week ago at home.

At second glance when you look at the NIT lineup you only see one team, NC State, who has a worse record than Washington in the field. You can say that Washington was a bubble team for this event when you look at the participants records. The lack of a definitive road win, or two probably was the deciding factor, and frankly, Washington isn't very good away from home.

Romar's initial comments lead us to believe that there is more than basketball going on here, and Washington must have been left out for other reasons. I am sure more of that will bubble to the surface this week, but if you look at the field, it seems the inability to win on the road was the deciding factor.

The NCAA took over the NIT this year, and dropped the field from 40 to 32 teams. One major change was that the NIT guaranteed automatic berths to those teams that won their conference, but didn't win their conference tournament. That took up eight berth's.

I personally think the post season NIT will go away sometime in the near future, and the Big Dance will expand to as many as 128 teams. The pre season NIT would continue to exist under the format, and be expanded to let's say 64 teams, that would allow both tournaments the opportunity to showcase the very best, and of course maximize the all important TV dollars for the member schools. Just think how much money could be made with an extra week of the Big Dance? How much money would they make if they selected the top 64 teams each year to play in a tournament right after Thanksgiving to kick off the season?

Bob Condotta posts some of the reactions this morning from members of the team, and actually posted the email addresses of every person on the selection committee.

Art Thiel of the PI gives his take on the selection process. All the area papers are in agreement that Washington and the Pac Ten were screwed.

Perhaps the most jagged part of the incredulity is that a few hours earlier, the Pac-10 advanced six teams into the NCAA field, tying the conference record and matching all but the ACC this season. The selection committee validated the season-long contention among West Coast hoops observers that the Pac-10 deserved national eminence. The Huskies were a part of it, not apart from it.

Nathan Ware who is the PI's designated fan blogger points out the geographic bias in selecting teams for the tournament.

Apparently, the NIT selection committee is full of idiots. In announcing their 32-team field, they seemed to forget that there was a pretty good team in Seattle that deserved an invitation. As a matter of fact, they apparently are too old to stay up and watch much basketball late at night because they could only find room for 5 teams west of the Mississippi River.

Husky Football

Not much to report concerning the football team this week, and that should continue till the start of Spring practice unless UW picks up another local recruit....Todd Turner's latest blog entry reports that the Legends Center, and weight room expansion should be finished by September 29th which should give recruiting this Fall a boost....The stadium remodel plans are moving along as Washington is working on putting together it's fund raising program. The biggest component of course is a major multi million dollar contribution to get the momentum rolling.... .

Spring Sports and Winter Championships

Washington senior Ryan Brown became just the second Husky track and field athlete in the past 38 years to win multiple NCAA titles Saturday, coming from 10 meters back on the final lap to win the 800-meter run at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Ark. Brown's win helped the Washington men to a tie for seventh in the final team standings, the best-ever performance by a UW men's team indoors.

The 10th-ranked University of Washington softball team (18-4) defeated Missouri 6-4 Sunday morning to round out the Pac-10/Big XII Face-Off with a 3-2 record. Sophomore Caitlin Noble (7-2) earned the victory while sophomore Marnie Koziol went 2-for-3 from the plate.

The 31st-ranked Washington men's golf team shot its best round of the tournament - 10-over 298 - in Sunday's final round to finish 12th overall at the Southern Highlands Collegiate Championship hosted by UNLV in Las Vegas, Nev.

University of Washington sophomore Kim Jasmer capped off the 2007 Women's Swimming and Diving Championships Saturday night with a 14th place finish in the 1650-yard freestyle. She scored nine points overall to lead UW to a 35th place finish at the national meet.

Alex Slovic, and Daniel Chu each won their Husky record 78th career doubles match, and Slovic added his 87th career singles win as No. 19 Washington (10-3) beat Gonzaga (5-7) on Friday at the Nordstrom Tennis Center. The Huskies defeated Gonzaga 7-0 to earn their 18th-straight home victory.