Pac Ten Alley

Changing coaches is always a difficult decision in the college ranks. Take women's basketball for example, when June Daugherty was fired she was sitting on a top ten recruiting class which was immediately put into peril by her dismissal. Two of the incoming recruits decided to follow Daugherty to WSU, and Todd Turner put his foot down rejecting the request because it would set a bad precedent, and also hinder the team in the immediate future.


This week Katelan Redmon decided that UW was indeed the place she wanted to spend the next four years after spending some time with incoming coach Tia Jackson. Jess McCormack, a 6-5 forward from New Zealand, also filed appeals with the school and NCAA letter-of-intent office to be released, Turner said. As it did with Redmon, the school denied McCormack's request. McCormack's appeal to the national office is still pending, with a decision due soon.


While nothing has been announced concerning McCormack who should have a different set of options available due to the fact that she is an international player, expect Tia to be making a visit to that mountainous isle North of Australia to seal the deal if she wants to continue to develop her game in the United States next season.


NCAA rules dictate that if you sign a LOI, and change your mind, you have to sit out a year, plus lose that year of eligibility if you want to go to another school. While most players make the appeal when they are in that situation, most appeals fail, and the player ends up going to the original institution.


Hawes heads to NBA


In the end Spencer decided to take the sure thing which will make him an instant millionaire and most likely put him with a team on the verge of contending next season. Rumor has it that the Chicago Bull's will be the team to take him if he is still available. Hawes, listed at 7 feet but measuring 6-10 ½ at the pre-draft camp, becomes the first player to leave UW for the NBA after attending school for just one season. Martell Webster, Hawes' teammate at Seattle Prep, signed with UW in 2004 but went straight to the pros when that was still allowed. I am happy for Spencer, but my gut says that he will eventually wish he stayed around at UW a year or two more to develop his game.


June Daugherty on the road to recovery


Greg Bishop of the Seattle Times updates on how June is doing during her recovery at home from a heart attack.


June Daugherty sits in a chair outside her home, sun shining, water glimmering a short distance down the hill. Her husband, Mike, is inside making hotel reservations for an upcoming recruiting trip.



Pac Ten Alley


Now it is time to take our weekly walk down the coast to see what our Pac Ten neighbors, and upcoming opponents are up to.


Keep an eye on Omaha because the Beaver's have put themselves in a very good position to win their second NCAA baseball crown in as many years. The Beaver's limped into this thing during the Pac Ten season but they have gotten really hot and are now one of the favorites to win the thing.


The Beavers, once nervous about making it into the NCAA baseball playoffs, decked mighty Arizona State 12-6 to take a huge stride toward successfully defending their national championship. They amassed 18 hits, made spectacular defensive plays, and dodged most of the shots the Sun Devils fired back. Oregon State's next game will be at 4 p.m. Wednesday against the ASU-Irvine winner.


California QB Nate Longshore looks back at what happened in the opener against Tennessee last season.


Cal quarterback Nate Longshore's take on last year's season opener at Neyland Stadium isn't much different from everyone else's. "Shell-shocked" he said. That applied not just to a quarterback starting his first college road game but an entire team of Golden Bears, who were blitzed by big plays and bedeviled by their mistakes while falling behind 35-0. In scoring the last 18 points, Cal succeeded only in producing a misleading score.


UCLA continues to have early success with their football recruiting which is predictable since they sit in the middle of one of the greatest collections of high school talent in the country.
“I’m going to UCLA tomorrow actually to figure out my commitment and make sure it is final,” he said. “The commitment is a little shaky right now, and that is why I am going to head down there tomorrow. For me to go to a different school is pretty unlikely, and that school would really have to blow my mind for me to switch my commitment. I would have to fit in at that place like a piece to a puzzle.”


Oregon continues to own Southwest Washington in football recruiting.


Nick Cody from Brush Prairie,Washington is leaning heavily toward the Duck's. He's a four-star rated player who's 6' 5", 289lbs. and hold offers from UCLA, Purdue, Stanford, WSU, and Oregon State. Cody says he could make his announcement as early as June 22nd.



WSU men basketball team win's down under against international pro competition.


Robbie Cowgill had 19 points and six rebounds to lead Washington State University to an 85-70 men's basketball victory over the Southern Districts Spartans in Brisbane, Australia.
The Cougars are 3-2 on a six-game tour of Australia and New Zealand.


Arizona is riding high after winning another national championship in softball.


The UA softball team might be short on power hitters in 2008, but here is one who is on the way for 2009 -- Perelini Koria from San Pedro (Calif.) High School. As a junior, she was selected as the catcher to the L.A. Times All-Star softball team. Koria hit .549 last season and tied the California state record with 17 home runs.


John Wilner takes an early look at Pac Ten basketball next season, and think the Pac Ten will be even tougher next season. He predicts the Huskies will finish near the cellar now that Spencer Hawes has moved on to the NBA.


I know, I know. The Cardinal has a potentially problems at point guard. Big problems.
But it should be good enough at the other positions — Lopez/Lopez/Hill is one of the top frontline in the country, and Anthony Goods is a quality combo guard — to offset point problems during the regular season. But if Mitch Johnson (or Goods) doesn’t play well down the stretch, then the Cardinal will flop (again) in March.


The House of Heat was speechless after Oregon State knocked the Devils into the losers bracket in Omaha.


Arizona State finally took the punch in the mouth that its coach predicted was coming.Oregon State knocked ASU into the College World Series losers' bracket 12-6 Monday before 21,692 at Rosenblatt Stadium. To reach the best-of-three championship series, the Sun Devils (49-14) must get off the mat to win three games in three days starting at 4 p.m. today against UC Irvine.


Is Patrick Turner the next great receiver at USC?


Patrick Turner went to Los Angeles to pursue football stardom. What he found was traffic. Lots of it. As a student at the University of Southern California, Turner found that the inner-city setting of his new school presented unique challenges. Like the day he took a wrong turn and found himself in an area that was anything but Mayberry-esque. “You can end up in the wrong place real easy,” said Turner, a Nashville native and former Goodpasture star. “Once, I didn’t know where I was. Everybody was looking at me.” Turner might as well get used to it. Many eyes will be focused on him this year as he attempts to become the next great USC wide receiver.


Out of Conference Opponent Alley


The Huskies face two WAC front runners in Boise, and Hawaii next season. This is an interesting article on how well the league has evolved. It seems it has evolved to the point where the leading members actually have a reason to stay home rather than join the once more prestigious Mountain West conference.


To appreciate the current state of the WAC one has to look at the conference's revolving door over the last eight years. In all, 24 different schools have been part of the conference and only three remain from that '99 breakup (Fresno State, Hawaii and San Jose State). The conference had to deal with losing its only real history in BYU, which delivered a national title in '84 and a Heisman winner, and TCU, which bolted for C-USA after nearly crashing the BCS party in '00. But the current nine-team lineup has a 32-24-2 bowl record, the highest winning percentage of the 11 Division I-A conferences based on their current membership.


Looks like Boise State is going to start off the season in the top twenty five.


The Sporting News ranked Boise State No. 22 in its preseason Top 25 on Friday, while also naming junior left tackle Ryan Clady to its first-team All-America list. Clady (6-foot-6, 319 pounds) was also selected as the second best offensive tackle in the country by the Sporting News. He also earned preseason first-team All-America honors from PLAYBOY earlier this spring. In addition to being named a first-team All-America pick, Clady was named to the preseason All-WAC team by the magazine. Joining Clady as all-league choices are junior running back Ian Johnson, senior offensive lineman Jeff Cavender, senior safety Marty Tadman and sophomore cornerback Kyle Wilson.


The Syracuse Blog is doing a run down on Big East football over the next couple of days. they do a very nice job over there.


This is part two of an eight part series giving analysis of each of the eight teams in the Big East Football Conference, proceeding alphabetically, but ending with Syracuse. A new team will be released each weekday for the next eight days. Feel free to use the comment section to supplement the facts and analysis presented, however my opinions will stand. Enjoy and I hope you are looking forward to the new Big East football season as much as I am.


Five musts for Ohio State next season.


The complete lack of football newsworthy items is fantastic. That means no one is imitating Pacman Jones nor do we have any freak accidents. Instead we have our head coach apologizing, in so many words, to the Big Ten for the national title game and eager to get going in August. And, just what about this coming year? Depending on who you talk to, expectations are all over the map but there are a few things that must happen in order to make noise on the national title scene. In Letterman-like reverse order...


Let me add one of my own....lose to Washington in Husky Stadium!