Thursday, May 31, 2007

Huskies Row a Smoking Heat

The University of Washington men's varsity crew won its heat this morning in the Intercollegiate Rowing Association regatta on the Copper River in Cherry Hill, N.J.
The Huskies rowed the 2,000-meter course in 5 minutes, 35.951 seconds. Brown was second in 5:36.656 followed by Syracuse, Purdue, Holy Cross and Dartmouth. The Huskies turned in the best time of the day during the four heat event.

Heat 1

1 Washington 05:35.951
2 Brown 05:36.656
3 Syracuse 05:48.820

Heat 2
1 California 05:37.833
2 Princeton 05:38.988
3 Navy 05:40.837

Heat 3
1 Cornell 05:37.860
2 Yale 05:38.295
3 Wisconsin 05:38.657

Heat 4
1 Harvard 05:36.361
2 Stanford 05:36.588
3 Michigan 05:48.282

No Hitter Pushes UW Past DePaul

Pretty nice performance by the Dawg's in the first game of the tournament. The Huskies play the winner of Arizona State/Northwestern on Friday.

Washington got a no-hit pitching performance today from Danielle Lawrie and home runs from Dena Tyson and Ashlyn Watson to win its opener of the Women's College World Series in softball, 3-1. Lawrie, the sophomore righthander from Langley, B.C., shut down the 14th-seeded Blue Demons, walking one and striking out nine.

Huskies take on DePaul to open Series

The Husky Softball team opens this morning with a game against DePaul University of Chicago to open the College Softball World Series.

Only one potential problem for UW: Cinderella has been on a roll. The Blue Demons, regular-season champions (20-0) of the Big East (generally regarded as a second-tier softball conference), have marched through the postseason with five straight wins -- the first four coming on shutouts.

ESPN will carry the game live at 10:00 AM Seattle time.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

The Weekly Poll Question

It is unanimous, and no surprise that 21 of 21 readers voted that USC would be in the Top Five of the Pac Ten this year. One person dissented on Cal and predicted a fall, and while Oregon was close, they finished with 13 votes, one shy of inclusion into the top five. UCLA picked up quite a few more votes than I thought they would, while Washington pulled in 15 votes to sit behind them in fourth place. ASU under first year head coach Dennis Erickson was picked to struggle as they only netted 3 votes. WSU, Arizona, and Stanford came up with a goose egg.



I picked USC, Cal, Oregon, Oregon State, and Washington. For some reason UCLA, despite the talent, doesn't impress me, the Bruins still seem like a work in progress on offense.



Who will be the top five teams in the Pac Ten this year?



1. USC (21 Votes)


2. California (20 Votes)


3. UCLA (16 Votes)


4. Washington (15 Votes)


5. Oregon State (14 Votes)


6. Oregon (13 Votes)


7. Arizona State (3 Votes)


8. WSU (0 Votes)


9. Arizona (0 Votes)


10. Stanford (0 Votes)



This weeks question is:



Who was the Greatest Running Back in Husky History?

Who do you think was the greatest running back in a history of Husky football that goes back over 100 years? We all have our favorites, but don't forget guys like George Wilson, Chuck Carroll, and Hugh McElhenny who were consensus All Americans during their time. Here are a couple of links to follow concerning their careers at UW.


My dad thought McElhenny was the best, in fact some think he may be second all time in the pro's to the great Jim Brown. It is pretty tough to find anyone alive today that saw Carroll, and Wilson play, but Wilson outplayed such legendary players as Red Grange, Ernie Nevers, and Johnny Mack Brown.


George Wilson played football at the University of Washington from 1923 to 1925. He ran, passed, caught passes, punted, and played linebacker on defense, a 60-minute player. In 1925 his teammates selected Wilson as the Flaherty Award as the team’s most inspirational player. During his three years with the Huskies they won 28 games, lost three, were tied three times, and went to the Rose Bowl twice. Wilson was named by Grantland Rice (1880-1954) to the 1925 All-American backfield along with Illinois’ Red Grange (1903-1991) and Stanford’s Ernie Nevers (1903-1976).


Chuck Carroll recently passed away near age 100, and was a legendary figure in King County politics.


Chuck Carroll was an All-American halfback (1928) is one of just three Huskies to have his number retired and was called by Pop Warner the greatest player he had ever seen. Pop Warner saw a lot of great players up to that time including Jim Thorpe, George Wilson, Ernie Nevers, and Red Grange.



Here is a snippet on Hugh from Malamute's site.


McElhenny was the greatest runner in Husky history. One publication put it this way, “He was the kind of runner who could make more magic, write more stories and paint bigger pictures in the span of five yards than practically anybody else could do in 30, 40, or 50 yards…In all the history of football, perhaps only Red Grange before McElhenny and Gayle Sayers after him made open-field running such a spectacle.”

Pac Ten Alley

It's that time of the week to take a walk down the coast to see what the other Pac Ten schools are doing. One thing for sure is that we are at the end of the academic year, and the blogs have started to take a bit of a rest as football related news is in hibernation, and Spring Sports are starting to wrap up.

We however are going to have Husky, and Pac Ten related information every week during the summer.

There is always going to be some news, and I will start pulling it out of local newspapers during the Summer until the blogs heat back up in late July.

At USC the talent pool is deeper than ever, so deep that it is scary.

Look, there's one of the 10 prep All-American running backs. That is not a misprint. With the addition of at least three all-world freshmen, USC has perhaps more good running backs than the rest of the Pac-10 combined. "They have so much energy out there, sometimes I'm thinking, why can't we have 10 quarterbacks?" Booty says with a laugh. Look, over there, nine star defensive backs, and six star linebackers, and five defensive linemen who could start for anyone in the country.

Ex WSU, and Fresno St coach Jim Sweeney's grandson Beau has verbaled to attend California.

Beau Sweeney's welcome to Cal's football program was a little different than most. Sweeney, a junior quarterback at Clovis West High School in Fresno, gave Cal coach Jeff Tedford an oral commitment last week. Sweeney's father, Kevin, was Tedford's teammate at Fresno State, when they both played for Sweeney's grandfather, Jim. When Tedford later became Fresno State's offensive coordinator, he lived just around the corner from the Sweeneys. So after Sweeney committed, Tedford sent him some old photos that featured his kids and Sweeney at various birthday parties and holiday functions. "I was a little kid, so I don't remember it too much," Sweeney said. "There were quite a few pictures. It was a good laugh."

Oregon State had a Pac Ten baseball season below expectations, but they still have a chance to defend their national title and get back to the World Series.

The OSU Baseball Team came into the 2007 with high hopes after winning a National Championship in June of 2006. However, they lost guys off that Championship team like Cole Gillespie, Bill Rowe, Tyler Graham, Chris Kunda, Shea McFeely, Dallas Buck, Jonah Nikerson, and Kevin Gunderson. This created holes at three infield positions; third, second, and first, as well as pitcher. The departures basically left all three outfield positions up for grabs.

Tacoma's Ahmad Rashad joins the College Football Hall of Fame.

Ahmad Rashad, who had an outstanding career as a wide receiver and running back at the University of Oregon under the name Bobby Moore, has been elected to the 2007 class of the College Football Hall of Fame. Rashad, 57, joins a 13-member class that includes Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie, former Notre Dame defensive tackle Chris Zorich and former Indiana running back Anthony Thompson.

UCLA looks to increase academic performance in basketball.

NCAA officials announced Tuesday the formation of a group that includes coaches, athletic directors, college presidents and others to investigate issues that may be hindering academic achievement. Dan Guerrero, UCLA's athletic director, will be chairman of the group, which is expected to submit recommendations to the Division I Board of Directors by the end of 2008."Nothing will be off the table,'' NCAA President Myles Brand said. If not for an adjustment allowed for squad size, up to 45 percent of Division I men's basketball teams could face penalties for poor academic performance, Brand said during a conference call with other officials and reporters.

Over at WSU Coach Daugherty is leaving the hospital after suffering from a heart attack. A full recovery is expected.

"June is doing very well," said Mike Daugherty, her husband and associate head coach at WSU, in a statement released through the school. "She would like to thank everybody for all of their good wishes, and she will be back soon."

Arizona heads off to compete for a berth in the World Series

The University of Arizona baseball team should be upset it didn’t host a regional, but delighted at the draw it got this week in NCAA regional action. The Wildcats have to go to Wichita, Kan., which is probably as exciting as Tucson, but in terms of what their future has in store it should be the promised land. No game is going to be easy, but having to knock off Wichita State, Oral Roberts and New Orleans sure beats having to play in some other pods.

Stanford and Cal fend off the NFL.

That was close. The big, bad NFL has dropped its pursuit of getting the trademark rights to the title “The Big Game” and “Big Game.” In other words, the Cal-Stanford football game can keep its name. No need to think about a new title — like the “Cal stomps Stanford” game, or the “Can Stanford finally beat Cal?” game.

ASU wins the Pac Ten Baseball Crown.

ASU whipped UA 8-5 last night at Packard Stadium to win the Pac-10 title outright, and the win ought to secure a home slot in both the regional and super regional in the upcoming NCAA tournament. The only thing left on the line is pride, and one more win against the Cats will give the Sun Devils the season advantage against the hated ferals of the south. The Diamondbacks must be doing really poorly right now, because the local media is all over this series. Both papers even sent photographers *gasp!* to Wednesday's victory!

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

The Monday Morning Wash

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day!

We were on the road this weekend and put around 1200 miles on the car driving from Chicago to Bemidji, Minnesota and back for a wedding reception. It has been a long time since I drove like that in a short time period, but Bemidji is basically in the middle of nowhere. It costs less to fly to London than it does to Bemidgi. I would have rather been in London, but Bemidji had to do.

As we enter June it is going to be pretty dead over the next eight weeks. However I am going to keep you entertained with the usual malarkey, plus reviews of all of our upcoming opponents for 2007 starting next week. If there is anything else you would like to see just let me know, and I will see if I can swing it.

Spring Sports

On campus, Spring Sports are starting to come to the ends of their respective seasons.

The Washington softball team (40-17) swept Alabama in the Seattle Super Regional last week to advance to the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City, Okla., May 31-June 6. The Huskies, who are making their eighth World Series appearance, are seeded sixth and will open play against No. 14 seed DePaul (46-11) on Thursday, May 31 at 10 a.m. (PT). UW has a pretty good chance to win it all since the winner will likely come from the Pac Ten. It looks like Heather Tarr has the program back on track.

The No. 14 seed DePaul Blue Demons upset No. 3 seed Oklahoma in straight games last week at the Super Regional to advance to their fourth WCWS. DePaul is making its 14th NCAA appearance and boasts a 32-23 all-time postseason record. The Blue Demons last appeared in the WCWS in 2005 where they placed seventh. The Huskies lead the all-time series 9-1.

The Washington men's rowing team makes its annual journey to Cherry Hill, N.J. for the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) Championships. The 105th-annual IRA regatta is scheduled for Thursday, May 31 through Saturday, June 2 on the 2,000-meter Cooper River course. Four crews will represent the Huskies who have entries in the varsity eights, second varsity eights, freshman eights and open fours. Washington's freshman eight and open four crews won their respective championships last year. The Huskies finished fourth in last year's second varsity eight grand final and fifth in the varsity eight. UW is aiming for its 12th IRA varsity eight title. The Huskies' most recent varsity eight championship came in 1997, which marks the last time they went undefeated through the collegiate season.

The Intercollegiate Rowing Association Regatta is the oldest collegiate crew championship in the country, and remains the premier event for national rowing honors for college men. The first IRA Regatta, on June 24, 1895, was a four-miler between Columbia, the winner, Cornell and Pennsylvania. In 1923, Washington, coached by Rusty Callow, became the first Western school to win the IRA's featured varsity eight competition, followed by another victory in 1926. When Callow left Seattle to coach at Penn, he was succeeded by his assistant Al Ulbrickson, who continued the Huskies' winning ways with six IRA varsity eight titles in 1936, 1937, 1940, 1941, 1948 and 1950. His freshman, second varsity and varsity crews "swept the river" in 1936, 1937, 1948 and 1950. Current Huskies coach Bob Ernst led his team to a modern-day sweep in 1997, when UW crews won all three races on the Cooper River, the permanent site of the IRA Championships since 1995. Washington is the favorite to win the event this year, and if they win look for the team to accept an invitation to row on the Thames at Henley.

Junior Matt Hague went 4-for-5 with a game-tying home run as the Huskies rallied for a 5-4 win over California Sunday at Husky Ballpark in the final game of the 2007 regular season. Both teams will await the NCAA tournament selection show Monday morning at 9:30 a.m. on ESPN. The Bears (29-26 overall, 12-12 in the Pac-10) finished alone in fourth place in the conference. Washington finished alone in fifth at 29-27 overall and 11-13 in the Pac-10, meaning the Bears are probably the more likely team to earn a bid despite dropping two of three on the weekend. (As it turns out Washington was not selected, while sixth place Oregon State was, which will give the Beavers the opportunity to defend their title.)

Alex Slovic was denied in his attempt to become just the third Husky ever to make the NCAA Men's Singles Championships when he was beat by No. 1 seed John Isner of Georgia in the semifinals on Sunday. Slovic is the third Husky to reach the NCAA semifinals since 1999, with all three being denied a shot at playing for the championship.

Over on the football front everything is pretty quiet as the coaches begin to finish the May evaluation period alloted to them to evaluate next years class. The coaches golf tour went well from what I hear, and the only news that came out of that is Ty is very anxious about his kicking game after the poor performance during the Spring game. Next on the agenda for the coaches will be the Ty Willingham football Camp in June. Look for a couple more verbals to come out of that event.

Molly Yannity of the PI reports that Jermiah Pharms has been playing well in the Arena Football League which means he could get his long awaited shot to show an NFL team what he can do before it become too late in his career.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

The Weekly Poll Question

Last week we asked: Which Freshmen will make an impact in the secondary in 2007?

Victor Aiyewa 12% (3 votes)

Quinton Richardson 20% (5 votes)

Nate Williams 20% (5 votes)

Marquis Persley 4% (1 votes)

Vonzell Mc Dowell 36% (9 votes)

Alvin Logan 8% (2 votes)

Brandon Yakaboski 0% (0 votes)

The majority of you picked McDowell followed by Richardson and Williams. I think Logan will play this year, but not as a DB, I think he ends up sticking at WR. McDowell should get a long look returning kicks. Richardson is physically ready to play, same for Williams. The coaches are very high on Aiyewa, but he could use a year of seasoning since he has only been playing two years. Once again it is a crapshoot because none of us know till they knock heads this Summer.

This week we ask you : Who will be the top five teams in the Pac Ten this year?

Once again it is a multiple choice question, so pick your top five finishers. I think it is going to more wide open than people think in the Pac Ten. USC will start the season at #1 in the country, but this is a team that lost to Oregon State, and UCLA last year. Will Washington climb back up into the upper half this season?

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Pac Ten Alley

We start the day with some very bad news, June Daugherty is hospitalized in Everett after suffering an apparent heart attack. Let's all take a little time to pray for her recovery.

June Daugherty, the Washington State women's basketball coach and former Washington coach, was in critical condition at an Everett hospital Tuesday night. A Providence Everett Medical Center spokeswoman confirmed that Daugherty was hospitalized in critical condition at the Colby Campus, but declined to give more information. KIRO-TV reported that Daugherty collapsed Tuesday afternoon after suffering an apparent heart attack. She was given CPR, a source told the station.

Off topic, the Sonic's picked up the second pick in the lottery which means they will draft either Ohio State's Oden, or Texas's Durant. Clay Bennett the owner of the lame duck franchise celebrated by announcing the team could be headed to Kansas City, Las Vegas, or Oklahoma City. All three of those markets are much smaller than Seattle, and a move to any of them could spell even more financial disaster down the road for the Sonic's new owner who is now starting to resemble Ken Behring. The Sonic's of course can't survive in Seattle without a new arena, but the alternatives just aren't very appealing either. Too bad he can't arrange a trade with Paul Allen for the Portland franchise. Now that is a possible alternative that nobody has been talking about.

Luther Carr

Dan Raley of the PI writes about Husky Legend Luther Carr. There were a number of Carr's who played for the Huskies over the years who were related to Luther. In fact Husky CB Matt Mosley is his grandson. He also has a niece currently on the track team, and a nephew who is on a basketball scholarship at His brothers include, David Carr, former a UW basketball player, and Gary Carr, a former UW football player, His son Luther walked on at UW, was head coach at Garfield, did a stint as an assistant at UW, and now is an assistant at Idaho. Luther was the founder of great Husky Family Legacy.

Nicknamed "Hit and Run" Carr, he was foremost a football running back, considered such a can't-miss talent after scoring 20-plus touchdowns as a senior at Lincoln that Washington, UCLA and Illinois waged an illicit bidding war to secure his talents. The Bruins were so interested they twice brought him to Los Angeles on recruiting visits. They took him to nightclubs and introduced him to celebrities. Each school trumped the other with cash offers to Carr that were double and triple the monthly $75 scholarship limit set by the NCAA, a widespread way of doing business before the scandalous conduct was publicly exposed.


Pac Ten Alley

WSU makes a rare, late change in it's coaching staff.

Ken Greene, cornerbacks coach at Washington State, has been dismissed from the football staff.
A source familiar with the situation said Greene was fired because of incidents of misconduct. A source within the athletic department said Greene wasn't dismissed for insubordination.


Over at USC they take a look at the next Reggie Bush. Rumors still fly about the recruitment of Mc Knight.

Reggie Bush went from USC to New Orleans and the "next" Reggie is going from New Orleans to USC.Reverse direction, isn't that what the great tailbacks do? If this seems like tossing an expectations piano on the back of a kid days removed from his senior prom, well, 1) no one seems to mind and 2) maybe you haven't seen Joe McKnight's highlights on YouTube.

California is ranked 10th by Athlon.

Athlon Sports has ranked the UC Berkeley football team No. 11 in its preseason Top 25. The magazine has also selected DeSean Jackson as a Preseason First Team All-American and Alex Mack as a Second Team All-America honoree. The magazine hits newsstands on June 5.

OSU's hopes are fading for a repeat.

Arizona State beat Oregon State for the third straight day on Sunday. The score was 8-1 in favor of Arizona State. Arizona State scored more runs than Oregon State had base runners.
It was a fitting end to another sub-par series, with the Beavers only getting one run, one hit, and five base runners. The team that was predicted to finish second in the Pac-10 is now second to last, and with one series left, they have to sweep to have any hope of making regionals.


Oregon wins the Pac Ten Track and Field Championship

As I've said before, I'm not a big fan of track. But props to the men's track team, who won the Pac-10 title over the weekend. Oregon got critical points down the stretch to edge Arizona 114-111 (whatever the hell that means). Props to the track team, and best of luck at NCAAs.

It is the end of spring in Westwood and the drums still beat for the dismissal of Karl Dorrell.

Is the offensive this bad? The Bruins laid an egg most of spring and were particularly impotent during the spring game, scoring only a field goal before being placed into red-zone situations. That could be growing pains with a new coordinator or it could be ...

Age doesn't seem to be hindering Lute Olson at Arizona.

If other schools make Lute Olson’s age an issue on the recruiting trail, the players don’t appear to be listening. Olson, 72, is in the midst of another standout recruiting class for the 2008-09 season, including the commitment Tuesday of Brandon Jennings, considered by some recruiting services to be the top point guard in his class.

Will Stanford football ever recover?

This is no time to panic or prepare to “pack up the program.” Whether or not Jim Harbaugh is the answer, Stanford football has survived multi-year slumps before and will survive this one.My thought: The “pack up the program” line was meant to be in jest, although that might not have come through in writing. And yes, Stanford football has survived slumps before, and Harbaugh might revive the program. But the gap between the haves and have-nots is growing in these days of the BCS, and in 15-20 years it will be even greater. I’m not saying Stanford should lower its admissions standards, or that it should pay a football coach twice as much as a Nobel Prize winner — only that it’s going to be tougher to compete consistently in the Pac-10 if it doesn’t. That’s a choice the university will have to make.

In the absence of football news the House of Heat turns it's eye toward the ASU baseball team which just may be the best in the land this year.

In the abysmal absence of football news, I find myself reading more abot the baseball Sun Devils than ever before. There is a great article by Jeff Metcalfe in today's AZ Republic about the upcoming seres with UA that will determine the Pac-10 title. This little tidbit is what caught my eye: Tuesday is the 40th anniversary of what is widely regarded as the greatest ASU-UA baseball game.In a playoff for the 1967 Western Athletic Conference Southern Division title in front of 8,314 Phoenix Municipal Stadium, ASU's Gary Gentry pitched a 15-inning complete game on two days' rest in a 3-2 ASU win.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Huskies take on Alabama

The Washington softball team will host its first NCAA tournament games since the 2000 season on Friday and Saturday when Alabama, the No. 11 seed, visits the sixth-seeded Huskies for a best two-of-three Super Regional.

Washington (38-17) and Alabama (55-8) will meet in Game 1 on Friday at 3:30 p.m. at Husky Softball Stadium. Game 2 is at noon Saturday and a tiebreaker, if necessary, will start at approximately 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

The winner advances to the eight-team Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City, starting May 31. The Huskies have reached the WCWS seven times in 14 previous seasons, most recently 2004. UW played in the 1996 and 1999 title games but lost both.

A return to the World Series certainly would show that the program has healed from the departure of ex coach Teresa Wilson. Can Washington win the whole thing? Well they certainly have a shot since they come from the toughest conference of the country.

Monday, May 21, 2007

The Monday Morning Wash

Good Morning Husky fans!

I spent the weekend helping frame around 750 square feet of deck at our new house. It has always been a goal of mine to build my own deck, and I finally have the chance to do it. I have to say it is a lot more work than it looks like, and I am officially pretty sore this morning as I wait around for the building inspector to come by to approve the rough framing before we start attaching the decking.

I of course spent the Winter reading books on how to build a deck, and doing plans. One thing all the books have in common are photo's of cute women carrying lumber, wheeling cement, dumping gravel, cutting boards, and getting things level. One photo that amused us was two women using an auger to dig holes. We had 30, 42 inch deep footings to put in, and we went through a couple of augers digging in wet clay. The first hole took two pretty strong guys over an hour to complete, and we knew we were in trouble. I kept joking that if the girls in the book could do it, we could too, but at the rate we were going it was going to take around 28 hours without a break. We ended up bring in a Bobcat which finished the job in around 4 hours.

Derek Johnson over at Dawgman has a nice article on the new Legends Center which will open up this Fall the weekend of the USC game. From what I have read it is going to be an instant focal point that will greatly aid future recruitment.

"Husky Football in the Don James Era" is a book by Dawgman's Derek Johnson which was just released. It covers the years 1975-1993, when Don James was head football coach for the University of Washington Huskies. In eighteen years, James led his team to six Rose Bowls and one Orange Bowl, as well a national championship in 1991. His sudden retirement in 1993 was in protest of Pac-10 sanctions against his team, and was very controversial. In this book, James purportedly discusses his retirement publicly for the first time. Don James wrote the book's introduction, and former players Lincoln Kennedy, and Dave Hoffmann wrote forewords.

Bob Condotta over at the times is doing his best to keep his blog rolling as Husky football news starts to dry up as we head into summer. He did a little research and found that there are currently 30 Huskies playing in the NFL which is actually a little more than I thought during this downswing. Check out Bob's blog because he digs up new and interesting things to post each week. Bob is also going back in time as he argues that Rick was a poor recruiter. I personally think he was a great recruiter who didn't spend much time evaluating which of course would make his results poor. No doubt about it that Rick could sell, he just needed to do a lot more homework and listen to Chuck Heater who has done a marvelous job at Utah, and Florida after his Husky stint.

Nathan Ware who does the Seattle PI Husky Fan Blog gave us a link on his page this month which should help us pick up quite a few readers once the season gets under way. Nathan does a great job with his blog. He did a nice review after the Spring game so check it out if you haven't been there lately.

2007 Husky Coach Tour

Join the University of Washington Alumni Association and the Department of Athletics!
Enjoy a day of golf, meet local alumni, get the inside scoop on Husky sports straight from the coaches and support scholarships for UW students from your region.

Tacoma - Monday, May 7 Fircrest Golf Club
Spokane - Monday, May 14 Manito Golf & Country Club
Everett - Monday, May 21 Everett Golf & Country Club
Longview - Wednesday, May 23 Longview Country Club
Port Orchard - Tuesday, June 12 McCormick Woods Golf Course
Bellingham - Thursday, June 14 Bellingham Golf & Country Club (banquet only)
Yakima - Monday, June 18 Yakima Country Club

If you enjoy golf this a great way to get to know the coaches when they visit your neck of the woods!

Spring Sports Round Up

The No. 6 seed Washington softball team used a RBI-single from sophomore Alicia Matthews in the bottom of the seventh inning to defeat Georgia in the Lincoln Regional Championship game to advance to the program's third consecutive Super Regional.

Washington men's golf came three shots shy of qualifying for a spot in the NCAA Championships, as the Huskies carded a final round score of 1-under 287 to finish 14th at the NCAA West Regional that wrapped up at Arizona State's Karsten Golf Course, Saturday.

Arizona's Bill Rhinehart hit for the cycle with four RBI and C.J. Ziegler went 4-for-6 with six runs batted in as the 14th-ranked Wildcats completed a series sweep of the Washington baseball team with a 17-8 win Sunday at Kindal Field. Arizona retained second place in the Pac-10 with the win, improving to 39-13 overall and 14-7 in the conference. Washington dropped to 27-26 overall and 9-12 in the league.

Tia Jackson rounds out her staff

University of Washington head women's basketball coach Tia Jackson has solidified her coaching staff with the hiring of highly-successful former Missouri State University head coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson as an assistant coach. Abrahamson-Henderson began her duties at Washington this week and joins Fred Applin and Loree Payne on the Husky coaching staff. Tia Jackson commented that they have a great understanding of each other and a remarkable bond, having both played for Coach C. Vivian Stringer at Iowa and become a part of a trusted sisterhood. She will be integral in helping rebuild the great tradition of Husky women's basketball and helping bring us to national prominence

Friday, May 18, 2007

The Weekly Poll Question

If you read Jim Moore's column today in the PI you will notice that he talked with the Redmon Family last week and here is part of what they had to say.

Turner maintains that Redmon signed a letter of intent to the school, not the coach. If she is not released, Redmon will lose a year of eligibility. The Redmons are appealing the decision.
"The day he let June go, he changed the deal," Chuck Redmon said. Chuck Redmon said the family was not informed that Daugherty had five months left on her contract when Katelan signed in November. "We got the impression she was going to be there forever," he said. "There was a misrepresentation of what we'd been told."


I find it interesting that the Redmon family feel that the coach who was recruiting their daughter, June Daugherty, was misleading during her recruitment. Despite that comment they want to renege on the letter of intent to follow June Daugherty to WSU. The fact that Daugherty was on the hot seat this season was no surprise if you read the newspaper after milking the cows.

To be honest those comments make me feel a whole lot less sympathetic about the situation, even though it is unfortunate. When you sign a Letter of Intent it is to the school, not the coach.

Katelan, enjoy a year milking cows before heading off to WSU.

Should Todd Turner release Katelan Redmon from her letter to play basketball at UW?

Yes 54% (7 votes)

No 23% (3 votes)

Release Katelan, but not to WSU 15% (2 votes)

Release Katelan, but not inside the Pac Ten 8% (1 votes)

The yes's have it by one vote if you consider the fact that there were three variations of the NO question. For the record I voted to release Katelan, but not to WSU. You can't allow your ex coach to pluck current recruits, it just doesn't happen.

This weeks poll question:

Which Freshmen will make an impact in the secondary in 2007?

I included a couple of guys like Logan and Yakaboski who will likely end up elsewhere, but all these kids are going to get a strong look this August to see if they can contribute immediately. Once again this is multiple choice so vote for as many as you want.

I have a pretty good idea who the two or three will be based on what I have heard, but nothing really counts till they hit the field and start knocking heads.


Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Pac Ten Alley

Due to a little bit of vacation we have a little catching up to do in Pac Ten Alley. One of the nice things about going on vacation this time of year is that after spring practice the football news really starts to slow down as the coaches start evaluating talent for next years class. Every weekend there will be combines and camps going on up and down the coast. The crew at Dawgman will be keeping an eyes on everything that is going on.

One interesting development was the story that Bellevue's David DeCastro has decided to commit early to Stanford. This was pretty much a surprise for everyone including Jim Harbaugh who is officially the conferences new Rick Neuheisel. In other words he is the guy all the other coaches hate. Harbaugh is turning things around at the Farm, and he is getting through to a lot of kids early this year. Look for Stanford to pull in a nice national crop of recruits for 2008. DeCastro reportedly made a comment that slaps both Washington schools. He reportedly said he didn't want to waste all the effort he put into getting good grades by going to a school like WSU, or UW.

The Husky women's crew somehow was invited to the NCAA championships despite having a very mediocre year which was the varsity boat finish 6th at last weeks Pac Ten Regatta. They are going to need a strong finish in that event to keep their coach.

Pac Ten Alley

Marc Tyler continues on the road to regain full speed this Fall for USC.

All-American running back Marc Tyler of Westlake Village Oaks Christian passed an important milestone Monday when he ran at full speed for the first time since breaking his left leg during a playoff game last November, and his future coach, USC's Pete Carroll, was on hand to watch.Tyler, who had a stainless steel rod surgically implanted in his leg, ran some pass patterns with Oaks Christian players during a 15-minute spring football practice workout at Oaks Christian in which Carroll dropped by to observe.

Cal fan's await the college football magazine predictions which help fill the void now that Spring ball is over.

Spring ball is a wrap, and the next big college football event is the arrival of the preseason magazines. You'll just have to wait for some of them, but I can give you a sneak peek at selected rankings for Lindy's Football Annuals. As senior editor at Lindy's, I'm mostly to blame for all the ratings - from the team rankings, to player rankings to position rankings. Sure, it's a collaborative effort, with input from every corner of the country (and all the wonderful, small college towns in between), but I do have a very presidential-like veto power. I had to use that to make a tweak to Lindy's Pac-10 rankings. Parts of the Pac-10 are easy to pick. USC is first (brilliant!). Stanford is last. Cal, on the basis of a great offense and great coaching, is second. UCLA, with 10 starters returning from a defense that smothered USC last season, is third.

Oregon State is starting to tune up and get ready to defend it's national championship in baseball.

The Beavers play Arizona State this weekend, one of the most powerful offensive teams in the conference. I'll get some stats up to back this hypothesis, but the Sun Devils are good. The Beavs and Devils played once earlier in the year during the Coca-Cola Classic. Oregon State won 12-4. We'll also take a look back at the stats from that game as well.

OSU, and Oregon afraid to play Portland State?

If you didn't read John Canzano's laughable column on Sunday, its worth a chuckle. In this article, Canzano tries to make a point that Oregon and Oregon State will be viewed as "afraid" until they step up and play Portland State every year. He even encourages the state legislature to require it. Canzano, who is basically Portland's village idiot, shows what a clueless moron he is once again. In case you don't remember the last two times we played Portland State, the combined scores of those games were 96-17. I don't give a shit if they have Jerry Glanville. The are a 1-AA also ran, plain and simple. Oregon doesn't play PSU on a regular basis because they have nothing to gain by doing so. Scheduling 1-AA games only fucks up good bowl chances, as seen in 2005. We only play the Vikings when we are in a crunch, and there is no reason to play them more often than that.

Setting standards for Dorrell at UCLA.

Before heading into Dorrell’s 4th season last spring we laid down our marker last year on what we expected from the Bruin head football coach: 9 wins and a victory over Southern Cal. Dorrell came short on getting his 9 wins and eeked out an expected home win (from the pov of BN) over a Trojan squad with vanilla offense. It's time for us to lay down our marker again. As we head into Dorrell’s 5th season, I think there is a general consensus on what we expect from the head coach who has year after year fallen short of the expectations he set for himself when he was hired in Westwood.

WSU names it's captains and picks up a couple of recruits.

In a move lacking little suspense, the Cougars named their four captains for the 2007 season. Senior QB Alex Brink, senior WR Michael Bumpus, senior safety Husain Abdullah and junior linebacker Greg Trent all won out in the vote by the team. Brink is the only repeat captain from last year's group, which also consisted of seniors Scott Davis, Mkristo Bruce and Jason Hill. Meanwhile, WSU actually signed a couple of players yesterday who will be eligible to play this fall as late additions to the 2007 recruiting class. And it appears the Texas pipeline has paid off again, as both players hail from Blinn Community College in Brenham, TX..

A list of former Arizona asst coaches and where they are now. My guess would that they would be in a far, better place.

Here's a list of former UA assistant football coaches who are active in coaching in college or the NFL. We think we got them all, but let us know if we missed any. There are some interesting names on the list, and plenty of folks who are in key roles both in college and in the professional ranks.

For those who haven’t heard: Stanford might have found its quarterback of the future.
He’s Jason Forcier, a former Mater Dei/St. Augustine’s standout who is transferring to Stanford from Michigan. Jim Harbaugh also let it slip that Michigan is just so so academically when it comes to recruiting football players. A kid who goes to Stanford is more likely to get a good job after graduating, while at Michigan the same kid is quickly forgotten.

I happen to think Harbaugh is a genius, I really do. Stanford receives absolutely no coverage in the Bay Area from the newspapers, even San Jose gets quite a bit more for football. He keeps saying outrageous things so he can get some print, and by getting that print draw more of the Bay area writers back into the fold. Just ask Jim Moore, writers are suckers for a controversial byline.

ASU has had plenty of scandals over the years, and the house of Heat takes a look back this week at some of the most memorable.

No, not the halftime bar upstairs from Julio's Too. You're thinking of Fumbles. Not the skeezy local bar on Tybee Island, either. Today we continue our countdown of ten ASU scandals not quite as bad as the Loren Wade/Brandon Faulkner situation.

Monday, May 14, 2007

The Monday Morning Wash

Last week I was in the Bahamas and had a great time toasting up in Atlantis. The internet connection down there wasn't great, so rather than struggle with it I took the week off from writing, but was able to keep up with what was going on in the Northwest.

I was surprised to read that Artem Wallace was in some potential hot water after being in a car that alledgedly was invloved in a hit and run, and potential DWI type incident. Not much out since the initial announcement so it is unclear of what his role was in the event.

On the womens basketball front Washington is playing hardball to keep June Daugherty's recruiting class together now that she has surfaced at WSU. Katelan Redmon a top in state recruit wants to follow Daugherty to WSU, but Todd Turner is making it very difficult for that to happen, and he is getting a little criticism for it form John Mc Grath of the Tribune. It will be interesting to see how this develops, but it doesn't create a lot of good feeling towards Tia Jackson in the first couple of weeks on the job. UW might force her to sit out a year if she wants to go to WSU.

The Washington men won their 29th Pac-10 Championship today at Lake Natoma, with the varsity eight and junior varsity eight crews both picking up gold medals on the day. The other two men's crews, the freshman eight and the varsity four, both captured second place to help the Huskies win their first team title since 2004. The women finished poorly which means a coaching change will most likely be made after the season concludes. The Husky men are dominate this season, and this may be their best crew in over a decade.

Senior Ryan Brown won his second-career Pac-10 title Sunday and led Washington's 4x400-meter relay to a second-place finish, keying the Husky men to a sixth-place team finish at the 2007 Pac-10 Track and Field Championships at Stanford's Cobb Track & Angell Field. Brown was one of five Husky men or women to earn first- or second-place finishes Sunday, and one of a team-record 18 to earn top-five conference finishes over the meet's two days. In addition, three Huskies on Sunday clocked times among the nation's 10-fastest this year, while five achieved marks among the top-10 in UW history. Trailing USC's Duane Solomon by 20 meters with 200 meters to go, Brown surged off the final turn to outsprint Solomon to the finish line for the win in 1 minute, 47.51 seconds, the second-fastest collegiate time this year. In so doing, Brown won back the Pac-10 title he first earned in 2005, before losing it to Solomon last year. The two currently rank first and second in the NCAA this season.

Stanford collected 16 hits, including eight for extra bases, and picked up its first Pac-10 series win of the season with a 10-7 victory over the Washington baseball team Sunday at Sunken Diamond.

The Washington softball team (35-16) earned a No. 1 seed in the 2007 NCAA Regional Tournament and will travel to Lincoln, Neb. on Wednesday. The Huskies, who are seeded sixth overall among the 64-team field and are making their third trip to Lincoln in the last five years, will open play against Creighton (39-12-1) on Friday at 2 p.m. (PST). Creighton was one of 29 schools to receive an automatic berth into the tournament after winning the Missouri Valley Conference Championship. Joining UW and Creighton at the double-elimination regional are host Nebraska (37-18) and Georgia (43-26). Nebraska and Georgia, like Washington, were among 35 schools to receive an at-large berth.

Weekly Poll Question

Which Husky Offensive Players will make All Pac Ten in 2007?

QB Jake Locker 7% (4 votes)
RB Louis Rankin 18% (10 votes)
FB Paul Homer 0% (0 votes)
WR Marcel Reese 29% (16 votes)
WR Anthony Russo 2% (1 votes)
WR Corey Williams 0% (0 votes)
TE Michael Gottleib 4% (2 votes)
TE Johnnie Kirton 5% (3 votes)
OT Chad Macklin 5% (3 votes)
OT Ben Ossai 0% (0 votes)
OG Morgan Rosborough 2% (1 votes)
OG Matt Bulyca 2% (1 votes)
C Juan Garcia 27% (15 votes)

Looks like Garcia, and Reese are the most likely offensive players in our readers mind to merit all Pac Ten honors this season. Louis Ranking was in there too! I agree with the readers and picked those three also...let's hope a few other guys join them and break through to the next level.

This weeks question is, "Should Todd Turner release Katelan Redmon from her letter to play basketball at UW?"

I hate to do another womens basketball poll, but this decision affects more than the womens basketball program, it sets a precendent on how Todd Turner will handle like issues in the future.

Husky Football

This is a real dead time of the year for football news, but the combines are starting. The Barton's had one last week which was attended by coaches up and down the West Coast. If you go over to Dawgman, Kim, Chris, and Scott will give you their take on what promises to be one of the deepest and most talented in state classes in recent memory. Chris did an excellent writeup on the combine.

No big news in recruiting, but it seems UW has the attention of the Northwest this year. Look for UW to sign 15 or more from the region this year while bringing in close to 25 overall.

UW had two players drafted in the NFL draft. Isaiah Stanback (Dallas) and Dashon Goldson (49er), each in the fourth round; those signed to free agent contracts were Kenny James and C.J. Wallace (each by the Seahawks), Stanley Daniels (Rams), Sonny Shackelford (Chargers) and Marlon Wood (Tampa Bay). Sean Douglas is still deciding which team to sign with as a free agent.

Seattle U headed back to the bigtime

Seattle University announced that they were going to move up to division one and begin life as an independent playing it's games at Key Arena. UW hopes to get the Huskies on the schedule, but don't look for that to happen anytime quickly. UW has a history of ignoring SU in basketball. Of course times have changed, at SU obviously won't be playing at a level close to UW for at least five years.

SU has an uphill road to get things back to level they were in the 50's, and 60's when they were one of the top programs on the coast. The school will notify the NCAA by May 25 that it intends to enter the 12-month exploratory period required before a school begins reclassification to Division I. There is a $15,000 deposit required, and Seattle U. also intends to hire an outside consultant to assist in the process.

Seattle U. currently is a member of the Division II Great Northwest Athletic Conference. It will remain a member of the conference next year during the exploratory period.

The reclassification will begin in 2008-09, a season spent in limbo because Seattle U. won't be a Division II school but its games won't count as Division I, either.

The school will play a full Division I schedule beginning in 2009-10, but won't be eligible to compete for Division I championships until the fall of 2012, after the four-year reclassification cycle has been completed.

Friday, May 04, 2007

The Weekly Poll Question

Last week we asked which Husky Defensive Players will make All Pac Ten in 2007?

Here are the results with the leaders in bold:

DT Afoa 10% (5 votes)
DT Reffett 2% (1 votes)
DE Gunheim 24% (12 votes)
DE Teo Nesheim 6% (3 votes)
ILB Butler 12% (6 votes)
SLB Howell 22% (11 votes)
WLB Savannah 4% (2 votes)
CB Lewis 10% (5 votes)
CB Davenport 4% (2 votes)
S Wells 6% (3 votes)
S Forrester 2% (1 votes)

I personally voted for Howell, Lewis, and Gunheim figuring picking the seniors was a pretty safe bet. Gunheim was the top vote getter even though he was coming off a sub par season. Howell followed one vote behind. I honestly thought Lewis, and Afoa would get a few more votes. Lewis is one of the league's better cornerbacks, and Afoa just needs a little help from Reffett, or Elisara to get a little more space to operate in. I am pretty sure butler will be all league before he leaves Montlake, not sure if he moves up to that status in his second year.

This weeks question

Which Husky Offensive Players will make All Pac Ten in 2007?

We all expect a tough defense, but who is going to break out on offense in 2007? One of this teams biggest problems has been not scoring enough points, hopefully that will change this year.

Once again the list is made up of the most likely starters, so vote for as many as you wish, but you only get to vote once.

One more quick note

I am going to be on vacation next week, and I am not exactly sure what the internet situation is going to be in the Bahamas, or how much time I am going to have to be writing.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Pac Ten Alley

I didn't really want to mention it last weekend after UW beat Cal in the Montlake Cut, but what has happened to the womens Crew program at UW the last few years? The Huskies used to be clearly the best womens program in the country, but that has changed since Jan Harville retired four years ago.

The Seattle times had no problem bringing the subject up today as rumors swirl that their could be a change at the end of the season.

Evidence is mounting that it will take a strong end-of-the-season performance by Washington women's crews, particularly the varsity, to save the job of coach Eleanor McElvaine.

To be fair to McElvaine the landscape has changed in womens Crew, with scholarships has come competition from across the country, but at Washington winning isn't just expected, it is insisted on, varsity women's crews have won 11 national titles.

Brandon Mebane finally makes it home

The Bay Area used to be a hot bed of Husky recruiting, but that started to change at the turn of the century when Jeff Tedford led the resurgence at California. Brandon Mebane was one of those kids who would have traditionally chose UW and look mighty good in Purple, in fact Washington was his second choice. Now as a third round draft choice he finally will make it to the Seattle area as a Seahawk.

Pac Ten Alley

I am a little late this week since I have spent the last two days excavating and pouring the foundation of a couple of sundecks at out house with my uncle. It is a pretty big project, and we had 28 footings and a hot tub pad to excavate and pour.

I am going to be taking about a week off since we are haeaded to the Bahamas for a little vacation on Saturday. I will write when I can, and if the internet is convenient down there, but my first priority will be hanging out in the sun.

With that being said, let's take a walk down Pac Ten Alley to see what the neighbors down the coast are up to.

Exit interviews at USC.

In this latest installment of our Exit Interview series, WeAreSC sits down with walk-on defensive tackle Mike Davis to talk about his career both on and off the field at USC.

Cal get it's second verbal.

The Cal Bears received their second commitment of the young season this week, securing the services of their first Bay Area recruit from across the bay in San Mateo. Serra (San Mateo) High School linebacker J.P. Hurrell (5-11/195, 4.58 forty, 80 tackles, 4 sacks) gave the Bears word that he was heading to Berkeley in 2008.

OSU moves up to ninth in the baseball poll.

The Beavers are in the nine spot yet again, with Arizona State still right behind them. Arizona dropped a few spots, but other than that, no new teams have entered the Top 10.

Oregon contributes some players to the NFL.

Jordan Kent, Dante Rosario and Matt Toeaina were all chosen during the second day of the NFL Draft Sunday in New York City, with Rosario the first University of Oregon player to go off the board with the 18th pick in the fifth round by the Carolina Panthers.

Still musing about basketball at UCLA.

I am really happy to see Baron and Matt doing so well in the NBA. I think everyone kind of expected Baron to have a great career in the NBA. Matt on the other hand snuck up on lot of folks who are not closely alligned with UCLA. To me Matt's emergence as NBA star has been nothing short of awesome. I always liked this kid's game in Westwood. Despite being saddled with a joke of a basketball "coach," he kept chipping away. He kept working away and developed his game year by year. And now he has found himself the perfect fit. One can only imagine what this kid would have done at UCLA if he had the opportunity to play for a coach like Howland.

Cougars headed to prime time.

Brink gets one more chance at USC, and it'll be the prime-time ABC game. That will be, uh, interesting. USC gets major ABC night-game love this year, with 5 games. Glad to see the Beavs-Trojans will be one of them. I'm big on the Beavers' chances next year, as in 2nd-place in the Pac-10 big, so that could be a good one.

Softball is very big at Arizona.

I saw Canyon Del Oro softball player Kenzie Fowler pitch yesterday in a win over Sabino in the regional championships. Kenzie is only a sophomore and can only have a verbal commitment to a team. But she looks like she could grow up to be solid part of a future UA team.

Stanford finds a quarterback.

Before we get to the first spring of the Jim Harbaugh era, let’s quickly address the first real roster news of the Harbaugh era. For those who haven’t heard: Stanford might have found its quarterback of the future.

Keeping ASU's Chad Green in our prayers.

I would like to thank Chad's ASU coaches, teammates, fans and friends for all of their support during this difficult time. That support has meant a lot to our family. Chad's condition has stabilized enough for us to transport him to a step-down facility in California near our home. Chad continues to gradually improve and with your support we are all hopeful for continued improvement in his condition. We urge people who want to send something to Chad to continue to forward it to the Sun Devil Football Office. That correspondence means a lot to the Green family. Thank you."