Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Pac Ten Alley

We only have eight days till Spring practice opens at Washington and nothing has been announced to the media as far as fan, and media access goes. There had been word that interim Scott Woodward wants to open things up this spring, but Willingham obviously isn't in favor of doing that. There will likely be a couple of days open to fans in addition to the Spring game.

Most spring practices across the country are open because it really doesn't matter, and in the case of a 4-9 football team it doesn't matter at all. Opening spring practice is a great promotion tool, but we probably won't see it till we get a new coach. Once again i was hoping we would see a new Ty this Spring, but if it is going to happen it has not emerged yet.

Pac Ten Alley

It is time to walk down the coast to see what the neighbors are up to.

Oregon was bounced out of the tournament early, and Ernie Kent could be gone if Mark Few has interest in Oregon.

Malik Hairston scored 22 points followed by Tajuan Porter with 18 and Maarty Leunen's 13. But it wasn't enough to stop Charles Rhode's career high 34 points and the Bulldogs went on to end the Ducks season. As happened so often this year, Oregon controlled the first half but failed to seal the deal in the second. Early in the 2nd half Oregon led by 13 points but couldn't buy a basket for the last 15 minutes of the game. The question now is, can Ernie keep his job? There is a lot of talk about his future with Oregon. Time will tell. Five months until football.

Trent Johnson is taking the Cardinal deep this year, but the Bay Area media aren't exactly in love with him.

Much as he wants it to be a non-story — and he really, really really wants it to be a non-story — Trent Johnson’s ejection from the Marquette game has not faded into the background.
A coach getting tossed from an NCAA tournament game happens so rarely, and it feels so un-Stanford, that it’s a story. (It would be a much bigger story if the Cardinal had lost.)


Spring football starts earlier in Arizona than in most places.

The University of Arizona football team came back from spring break a little tired and some maybe with a little sun burn, but that didn’t matter as they were in pads working out on Monday. There was no breaking in point as the Wildcats went through their fifth official practice of spring (out of the allotted 15).“We had a good long practice. We were a little rusty offensively with the break,” UA coach Mike Stoops said. “We will get our timing back offensively.”

James Montgomery isn't coming to Washington, and he just might find out that a lot of big time programs won't be interested in him the second time around.

The Bay Area might be a nice place for some people, but it wasn't for James Montgomery. That was why Montgomery, one of the Sacramento area's most recruited athletes while at Cordova High School, decided to leave the Cal football program even though he was projected to be a starter this fall. "Berkeley is not the most normal place in the world," he said in a phone interview Thursday. "Coming from Sacramento, I just didn't like the surroundings. I pretty much didn't like the Bay Area." Since his official release from Cal on Monday, rumors circulated that he left because of a dispute with Bears' coach Jeff Tedford over playing time. Montgomery said that was not true.

Baseball season in Corvallis.

Following a three game series with Pepperdine, the Beavers headed to Provo, Utah for a mid-week series to tune up for Pac-10 play, which starts this Friday. The Beaver offense was alive for practically the whole game, as Oregon State used fifteen hits to beat BYU by the score of 15-7.

All three quarterbacks got reps with the first team today in practice and offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian said he wants to name a starter by the end of spring while Pete Carroll said he does not have a timetable.``Right now, I’m not worried about figuring it out,’’ Carroll said. ``Right now, we have a lot of information on Mark (Sanchez) and a little on the other guys. The kids are physically able. It’s who knows the system and can execute.’’

ASU was snubbed by the NCAA but they have made the most of it in the NIT, until losing to Florida on Tuesday by 13,

Walter Hodge scored 18 points and Chandler Parsons added 15, and Florida defeated Arizona State 70-57 on Tuesday night in the NIT quarterfinals.

Expect UCLA to roll towards the Final Four.

I don’t know about you but the Wednesday before Sweet-16 is always the toughest hump day of the year. The Pac-10 season with its slate of Thursday/Fri-Sat games gets us in rhythm for the tournament season. However, around this time of the season when Wednesday rolls around, I feel like I have had enough of my share of stories, articles, analysis etc, and just want to get started with the game. And with that note let’s start with today’s roundup. The most important item on our plate is LRMAM’s health. According to Coach Howland an MRI on Luc’s left ankle this week showed ‘no damage’:

I am picking WSU over North Carolina because despite the talent advantage the Heel's are not used to playing against the WSU's deliberate style.

With our biggest hoops game since the 1941 NCAA title game coming up Thursday, the experts are coming out of the woodwork to pick North Carolina. Dickie V, Digger, you know the usual suspects. I haven't seen any projections yet that say we will be blown out of the basketball universe, and everyone expects it to be a bit of a grind for the Heels, but in the end they'll be 8-10 points better. What, did you expect that anyone would actually pick WSU this week??

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

i've seen more coverage on osama bin laden's trarining camp than ty's... way to inspire the fans to buy more stuff. groan.

bigdave967 said...

STOP THE PRESS TY IS NOT OPENING SPRING PRACTICE!!!!!! that is not a headline and it sure isnt any new news. He probably has one year left then you can push all your donations down Emmerts throat to try to get the next big name in coaching.

Would Ty not letting people go to practices matter if he was winning?? Is him opening up spring practice to fans going to make Jake's passes more accurate?? Is opening practice going to make receivers catch the ball?? Will it make the Def line play with a tenacity that has been lacking over the past 2-3 years??
I see him not opening practices as neither a good thing or a bad thing...I am pretty impartial because 1) I couldnt go anyway...2) because it wont influence the season one way or another. If you want to donate to help build a program great...if you dont then dont. If you need to be cuddled and had your handshaked to make you feel good about a losing program then your priorities are not straight. This is a losing team that has a slight chance to be a winner next year...slight. They are relying on a lot of freshmen and inexperienced young men (not to mention it seems like they are relying on a lot of guys that were injured last year which is never good). Unfortantely there is very little that you or I could do at a practice that will help them win next year...

I want them to win very badly but going to practices wont help that cause and it will only make you get more gray hairs if you try to make the leopard change his spots...

GO UW!!!

ps. not such a good call about WSU...i thought they would have a lot better chance then that also...what a shame.

John Berkowitz said...

I would like the media to be able to see practice in the Spring, and early Fall before the season begins. It helps promote the program.

Tyee members can go to practice and bring one guest, so fan access isn't the real problem.

Anonymous said...

dave,

your comment is anything but impartial... how ironic you think it is.

think about it this way... you're a booster and you donate money to the film industry, but you're only allowed to watch part of the movie you donate to...

i'm sure you won't get the analogy, but the point is that the people who support the team financially as fans are exactly the ones who are interested enough to want to watch spring practice to get their football and huskies fix... these are the ones who get more excited with more coverage and when people get excited, we all know they tend to donate more money because they are feeling entertained.

this has nothing to do with hand-holding. i'm really surprised so many husky fans think this is about more than paying for entertainment...

bigdave967 said...

Everyone on this message board obviously loves/cares about the UW...some people donate, some people pay for tickets to watch the team, some people spend more time looking at the team online and their recruits than they do working (guilty)...I wish that I could give all the money in the world to make them successful, but unfortantely I am not in that financial position. I just dont see what all the fuss is about because this is nothing new. Why on earth would Ty change the way he does things this year (his potentially final year) where it doesnt matter how many practices he lets you watch, if he loses he is out...end of story! If he was a first year coach then yes, go ahead and complain about how he wont let alumni/donors see the team during spring practice but either way it will not affect the team next year.

In my long, non-sense paragraph the point that I am trying to make is that at this stage in the game there is no reason for Ty to change...one way or another he will either lose and be gone or win and stay, with our without you at practice.

(by the way I dont really understand the need to see spring ball...the only fun things to watch are the scrimages...if anything he should have open scrimages at the end of practice so you can see how the team is coming together. Do you really care about position drills?)

bigdave967 said...

anonymous...there had to be a better analogy than the one you provided. That was horrible and vague. If you were going to use it you should have been more specific, such as, if I was a producer of a film and was only allowed to see a partial screening of the film or not allowed on set...how would i feel about that. Or if i was a major share holder of Disney (for example) and was not allowed to go to a screening of a new film...i think those would have made more sense.

either way I would not be happy...but you are comparing apples and oranges.

John Berkowitz said...

I have a pretty good inside look at the program and I don't like what I see, and most people agree.

Promotion is terrible, public relations is terrible, the way the coach relates to people is terrible.

I could go on and on about it, and I really soft sell the inadequacies in this blog to keep it positive, but Willingham simply isn't the right man for the job.

I personally like him, I really do, but he just jerks to many people around to be effective as a leader at a place like Washington.

We need to raise $300 million to rebuild the stadium and the guy has absolutely no sense of urgency going on.

Anonymous said...

i guess my point failed to mention that giving tyrone all this power is part of the problem... sure it's possibly (hopefully) his last year coaching here, but regardless, why is this guy given the authority to further slam the door on any positive public relations at a time when the dawgs need to at the very least hold onto the relationships they have?

i get why ty wouldn't want anyone to watch... what i don't get is why the people who are above him give him the final say on it... perhaps tyrone has too much to do and should just be asked to focus on coaching and leave all the superfluous stuff, like marketing and relationship management, to others.

John Berkowitz said...

I think it is more the theory of giving someone enough rope to hang themselves.

Ty seems to be pretty stubborn, he will stay, or go his own way.

There is a lot to like about the guy, but he isn't showing it.