Pac Ten Alley

Well it is tournament time once again, and the Huskies square off against Arizona State tonight on a neutral court in Los Angeles's Staples Pavillion. Washington is the worst road team in the country, but they did finish strong at home beating the LA schools which has spurred the thought that they are capable of winning four games in four days and winning this thing to get a spot in the Big Dance.

Tonight's game will be a very big indicator of wheter they are capable of doing just that. If they can come out, and dominate the Devil's it could show that this team has peaked and reached the maturity level neccesary to get the job done. Spencer's 15 rebound performance against UCLA coupled with Brockman's big game is a template of what Washington needs to do over the next four days. It should be exciting!

In football it is finally official, RB Michael Houston has decided to transfer, but first he probably will have to do two months in the King County jail. I don't know what this kid is thinking, and we could have used a big RB next year. S Chris Hemphill will likely head to Central Washington for his last year of football. Central has been picking off some big transfers lately so they have to be a title contender in their divison next season.

Greg Johns

Greg Johns has moved over to the PI after a long career at the demised King County Journal. I always thought that Greg was one of the better columnists in the area, so I am glad he landed with the PI. He wrote a fabulous story today about Jake Locker spending a day at Husky Stadium with a sick child. This is a must read.

"I'll tell you what," Locker said. "You call me before our first home game and remind me. If I get a chance to play and score, I'll point up to you. You remember to call me and say, 'Hey Jake, I'm in tunnel 47. Show me some love after you score. OK?' "

It took the charisma of Ken Griffey to build Safeco Field, and Jake Locker just may be the guy who provides the excitement to get fundraising rolling for a remodeled Husky Stadium. I think this kid is going to take us all the way before he leaves.

Pac Ten Alley

Well let's take a pre tourney walk down Pac Ten Alley to see what the neighbors are up to this week.

USC is off to a predictable hot start in 2008 football recruiting.

After receiving a scholarship offer from USC two nights ago, Sherman Oaks (Calif.) Notre Dame defensive end Wes Horton ends the recruiting process early by verbally committing to the Trojans. Horton, who made the Rivals.com Class of 2008 Watch List, had 92 tackles and 13 sacks as a junior. The Trojans now secure commitment No. 5 for this year

It is Rugby season at Cal, and the Old Blue's are one of the most storied teams in the college rugby world. This one is for you Dick!

After scoring an injury-time try to bring his Cal rugby squad within reach of the Old Mission Beach Athletic Club (OMBAC) at 36-28, senior Rikus Pretorius walked over to the sideline to talk to assistant coach Tom Billups. Billups informed him that the ensuing conversion kick would likely be the game's last play. Pretorius gave a look of half-disgust, half-frustration, and when the whistle sounded seconds later, his look summed up the Bears' afternoon.

The Beaver's face off against California in the first round of the tournament.

The Beavers will play their third game of the year against Cal tonight in the first round of the Pac-10 tourney. The first meeting, in the middle of January, Cal won by 3, but the Beavers were in the whole game. The second meeting, a few weeks ago, the Beavers lost in overtime after Angelo Tsagarakis hit a three at the buzzer of regulation to force overtime

Michael Wines at the Duck Blog has the schedule posted for the tournament, and Aaron Brooks has played his last game at Mac Court.

Aaron Brooks savored every last moment of his final game at McArthur Court.

A documentary of the Bruin dynasty of the 60's, and 70's is being made into an HBO series.

Heading into the Pac-10 tournament AA paid homage to Coach Wooden for creating "something spectacular" around Westwood. Well HBO is going to try do their best to give us a little taste of that “something spectacular,” in an upcoming series called "The UCLA Dynasty." Unfortunately we don’t have HBO. So I will try to get a hold of a recording of that show or catch one of the reruns. But given the kind of high quality work product HBO churns out, I am betting this is a must see. So get your recorders ready.

The Coug blog doesn't think Washington will be much of a challenge if they play again this season.

Short post for today and the rest of the week, but a really fantastic win yesterday. With the W, the Cougs finish the five away/four home second half with a fantastic 7-2 mark--one game ahead of the smokin' first half. With the win, I think the Cougs assured themselves of no worse than a #4 seed, although that could drop to a 5 IF ASU beats Washington and the Cougars...Obviously, neither will happen. A couple of quick notes:

The Wildcats draw Oregon in the opening round.

Arizona's Marcus Williams calls it personal, a chance to break a season series tie with Oregon.
But UA's Ivan Radenovic would have preferred playing another team in the first round of the Pacific-10 Conference tournament Thursday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

John Wilner thinks Stanford is still on the bubble.

Most of the small- and mid-major leagues have wrapped up their tournaments, and the dearth of upsets bodes very well for heavyweights on the bubble. Yes, I’m talking about Stanford.

The House of Heat gets ready for Washington tonight, and is predicting a UW victory.

If there is a team that has improved more than ASU over the course of the season, it has to be the Huskies. Their young talent (top 5 scorers include 2 frosh, 2 sophs, and 1 junior) has gelled into a true team that is quick in the backcourt and powerful down low, and the latter will most likely lead to Sparky's demise. Then again ASU wasn't supposed to beat Cal, or anyone else for that matter. The slow-down style can throw a wrench into a team's game, plus the Huskies haven't won outside of their own gym all season long. with youth comes inconsistency, as the U-Dub faithful will tell you after a loss to Oregon State a week and a half ago.