New Page!

Dear Loyal Reader,

Unique Sports Theme Name has added an exciting new page to our humble blog. This page will contain results from all of the old poll questions. Ever wonder who was voted the readers favorite outspoken NFL receiver? You will now be able to look this up and all of the other interesting questions, witty answers and exciting results. To view this new page simply click on the link located on the RHS. Enjoy!

Sincerely,

Unique Sports Theme Name

Huskies Game 3 and 4: Damn

Well, for all the hope I had about some karmic justice, about the exact opposite happened.  Not only did the Huskies lose to Kentucky, but it was largely due to Terrence "Expletive" Jones AND forced us to play a far superior team in the concelation game (Michigan State) than in the final (Connecticut).

Luckily, we looked pretty good still in both these games.  The biggest problem seemed to be shot selection and, more specifically, Isaiah Thomas' shot selection.  For all his improvement (he has become an excellent defender for his size and can pass the ball pretty well nowadays), he still hasn't learned when to STOP shooting.  The Huskies are filled with offense options both on the wing, inside, and everywhere inbetween.  Oh, and Darnell Gant.

Unfortunately, Thomas is a scorer and when he isn't scoring, especially in the Kentucky game, he doesn't know how to play any other way.  To be truly successful this season, the Huskies need to teach Thomas to limit his shots on bad nights or, at the very least, only take good shots, instead of pull-up guarded 3s in the last 10 seconds of a game or double-teamed reverse layups.  Even so, hope abounds, as there really aren't any games left this season in which the Huskies shouldn't be heavily favored.  More Sherrer!

Huskies Game 3: Devoured

Never in my long life of 5 years of watching the Huskies have I seen a game quite like the dismantling Virginia just took.  Nor have I ever expected to.  Now don't get me wrong, the Huskies are and have always been a very fast, very offensive (good at offense, though Overton is a little offensive) team.  Their problems have always laid in their somewhat poor defense (varying degrees of poor depending on the year), their free throw shooting woes (remember Artem Wallace?), and their deep shooting (Ryan Appleby exempted).

With that in mind, no single game has ever convinced me of a great season to come than this one did.  To come out, shoot 58% from the field AND 65% from beyond the arc, and to play that kind of defense?  It was a game unlike what the Huskies have done in years.  I expected this season to be a lot of incredible defensive effort from Overton and Holliday and dumb shots from all our 6-6 guys, but apparently I'm an idiot.

The Worst

While completing the NHL season preview I looked at the worst 5 teams in both the Eastern and Western Conferences in the NHL over the last 5 seasons. My hope was this data would help me spot teams that consistently rank in the bottom of the league. What I found was that the NHL has what seemed like a lot of volatility in the teams that finished in the bottom. In addition to helping me with the season preview it also sparked my interest in other leagues bottom dwellers. I started thinking more about the volatility of the different leagues. Maybe the NHL's turnover at the bottom wasn't really that uncommon? I decided to do some more digging.

I took a look at the bottom 5 teams in each of the conferences or league in the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB in each of the last five years. Using this data I put together lists for each league of the frequency teams showed up on the worst record list. This approach let me see if a league had a wide variety of teams finishing in the bottom or if the same team failed to win year after year. I was able to determine the fluctuation in each leagues loser’s. Here is an overview of what I found about each league.

ESPN College Basketball Marathon: The Highlights

Though it isn't the true tipoff of the college basketball season, nothing serves as a better season opener than ESPN's 24 hour college basketball marathon. In it's third year, the marathon gives some lower division schools a chance at national television and really helps paint a picture of the season to come for anyone who watches even one or two of the games by highlighting some early season stars and up and comers. While I was not able to see all of the games or all of every game, here's some of my completely worthless thoughts from those games I could catch:

Rebounding: The Huskies Opener

Simply put, that may have been the most ridiculously perfect display of Husky basketball ever.

Let me clarify this: it was not perfect basketball. Aziz N'Diaye went an unbelievably ridiculous 3-15 at the stripe, leading to the Huskies' age-old free throw problem, as the team only shot 47% from the line.

Of course, that's really the only complaint from last night. Romar's Husky teams are built on crazy good rebounding on both ends of the floor and turnover creation, and boy did that ever work against McNeese State. The team made Jon Brockman proud, pulling in more offensive rebounds (28) than McNeese's small ball team (26). Aziz N'Diaye filled his role more perfect than anyone could have imagined, going for 13 points, 12 boards, 2 steals, and 2 blocks while giving Bryan-Amaning all the room he could ever want to operate in the paint.

Isaiah Thomas played more efficiently than in years past, putting up 17 points on 8 shots, while backcourtmate Abdul Gaddy didn't play amazingly but began to show why people used to think he was talented, scoring a bit (10) and passing a bit (5 assists). Terrence Ross and Justin Holiday didn't exactly shoot amazingly well (a combined 6-19 from the field), but Ross showed glimpses of his talent and Holiday continued to challenge Venoy Overton for the title of defensive player of the year for both the Huskies and, probably, the Pac-10.

Most importantly of all, Brendan Sherrer put together the greatest game of all time, with a 3 trillion (3 minutes played, zero stats). Go Huskies.

A Few Tidbits from Around the Web

It's back! And here you thought it was a one time thing and you wouldn't have to look at another post of just links to other peoples stuff. You were wrong. Now for this edition of A Few Tidbits from Around the Web.

• Local Sports Broadcaster Brock and Salk's Campaign to rid Seattle of Jose Lopez. Vote Yes on Initiative E-5 and Vote Yes on Proposition 643.
• Recently, Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter won his fifth Gold Glove. Fans and journalists all over the country responded in different levels of horror. Read the Big League Stew take on this.
• It might be old but everyone should watch Vince Carter dunk on some French guy.
• Morehead State Head Coach Tom Hodges tries to one up Don Cherry.
  

Dave Niehaus

It's a sad day for sports fans and really the entire city of Seattle today, as Dave Niehaus has passed away at the age of 75. Niehaus had been the voice of the Seattle Mariners since the first game of their existence, providing youthful exuberance and an almost comically complete knowledge of baseball to their TV broadcasts.

No man could answer a trivia question quite like Niehaus, who would ramble on for innings, going on ridiculous tangents just to tell us that Ken Griffey is 34th among active players in OBP. Even with those kind of crazy answers, Niehaus was a Seattle icon.

As a man who grew up listening to Niehaus' signature "My oh my!" homerun calls and had to endure his slow descent into not-being-able-to-tell-a-popup-from-a-homerun, hearing that he was passed away is especially impactful. Niehaus always knew how to keep the audience in a game and when to back off and just let the players do the talking. Even with some of his homerism, I find myself often longing for his gravely game calls over the hilariously inept Dave Sims.

No one will ever be able to match Dave Niehaus in Seattle. Niehaus was a Hall of Famer and an alltime great who refused to let anybody put him on a pedestal. Hopefully Seattle will put up a statue or a large mural or something honoring Niehaus, who will never be replaced but always remembered.

Update: Just about every person in the Seattle are has expressed their sadness over this horrible heart attack. Jay Buhner and Ken Griffey, Jr. have both likened it to losing a father, while Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln both struggled to put into words their feelings. Nothing would have been quite as amazing as getting to hear Dave Niehaus' absurdly energetic reaction to a Mariners World Series win. God willing, the city will win him one some day.

Huskies Basketball: It's Not Just Skinny Guys Anymore!

Lo, it has come upon us that it is once again college basketball season. With the season really kicking off next Tuesday with a glorious 24-hr marathon of basketball on ESPN, it is time to start looking ahead to what could be in the Pacific Northwest.

Sorry Ducks, Beavers, and Cougars fans, but you guys kind of suck. The Northwest is once again the domain of the Huskies, who have built themselves up so well under Lorenzo Romar that people are getting annoyed about ONLY making it to the Sweet Sixteen. My opinions aside, this is going to be another strong year for the Huskies as they stand as really the only legitimate team with a chance at the Pac-10 title.

While the loss of a player like Quincy Pondexter is enough to kill many teams (see Kyle Weaver at WSU or Darren Collison at UCLA), the Huskies seem to have just reloaded. Isaiah Thomas looks primed to continue to be the exact same player he has been the last two years, while Matthew Bryan-Amaning's strong run to end last season (9 or more points in 12 of his last 14 games) seems to point to the Huskies having a legitimate post threat once again.

Losing out on Terrence Jones and Enes Kanter has made the offseason look a lot worse than it really is for the Huskies, who still brought in some good players. Terrence Ross was seen as Jones' equal as recently as a year and a half ago, and actually has a bit of a coincience, unlike his Portland teammate. Aziz N'Diaye brings a gigantic, bruising body (7'0", 260) to the paint that should take a little pressure of MBA, as long as he doesn't foul out quickly. C.J. Wilcox comes off a redshirt and has been forgotten a fair amount despite reports showing him to be the best shooter on the team.

With a bit of luck and some more excellent coaching by Romar, this is a Huskies team that should run away with the Pac-10 (watch out for Oregon, who has at least one player capable of making the U.W. roster) and make a bit more noise in the NCAA tournament. Let's hope for another Sweet Sixteen to cement Romar as the greatest coach in the history of the University of Washington.