NATE vs. ROY, WOW WHAT A GAME!

Nate Robinson got the one up on Brandon Roy in the points column, but Brandon Roy and the Portland Trail Blazers handed the New York Knicks a costly loss tonight. The Knicks, who were a half-a-game out of the 8th and final playoff spot in the Leastern Conference.

Nate Rob had 31 tonight, while B.Roy had 24 points and a crucial mop up play after Nate Robinson and Steve Francis crashed into each other, leading to BROY to an uncontested dunk.

Nice night for the UW boys!

Isiah's Disinterest of Nate Robinson

The golden boy can't always stay golden. A once worshiped, blogged about, and successful college player Nate "the Great" Robinson has fallen on hard times with the New York Knicks.

It has been a rough season for the Knicks' guard. The Ex-Husky has seen his role with the Knicks drastically cut by Knicks coach Isiah Thomas. Over the past month, Nate has averaged only 12 minutes per game over the past 2 months, and DNP 8 times over that time. Much of his minutes have come in bunches, like Sunday's game against Toronto when Nate played 27 minutes (Nate did have 19 points last night in a loss to Dallas). Nate's previous 5 games look like this, 15 min., 11 min., 4min., and 4 consecutive DNP's. What has happened to Nate in New York? Could we be seeing the end of Nate as a Knick?

Since the 10 game suspension for fighting the entire Denver Nuggets team, Nate has struggled to regain his place amongst Knick guards that seems over-crowded with Maybury, Balkman, Francis, and the injured Jamal Crawford. Unlike the revolution that Brandon Roy is causing in Portland, Nate continues to find his place in the NBA. The energy, charisma, and character that Nate played with everynight in college when UW played only 2 games per week, has been absent at times, and it has shown in Nate's struggle to make an impact. Nate this season is only making 42.6% of his FG's, and only 34% of his 3's.

Man, I loved watching Nate at UW, it is a shame to watch him rot on a bad team. The picture above is my favorite Nate moment when at UW. I was at this game and the roof got blown off HEC ED when Nate threw this one down. The student section where I was standing fell over, and it was deafening in the arena for about 5 minutes. All of a sudden the "UofA" chants stopped, and you just knew UW was going to win.

R.O.Y. Watch update

After being pretty freaking lazy about updating the Roy watch, I finally went and made some improvements to our little chart on the left. There are only 15 games left in the season, so I'm really hoping I can suck it up and keep that maintained.

B-Roy has started to really step up his game, and I wish I could watch him play more. With an exploding abdomen troubling Roy's biggest competition for the Roy, I can't really see how anyone can catch him for this award. After Roy, no one other than Bargnani has really stood out (although Aldridge is starting to look freaking sweet and Rudy Gay looks like a player).

Brandon Roy, the Oregon hero from Washington

Brandon Roy is making an impact this season for the Portland Trail Blazers, and nobody could be happier than the folks in Portland. Last night, after Gilbert Arenas promised 50, it was Roy who had 6 down-the-stretch points that provided the Blazers with another win over the Washington Wizards.

Roy is quickly becoming a franchise player, and a building block to what could become a nice three-some in P-Town. LaMarcus Alderidge, Sergio Rodriguez and Roy represent the change in direction that Portland has sorely needed over the past decade. As we all know the Blazers recent struggles on and off the court, these three of played the Blazers back into significance. Many were outraged last summer after Portland acquired LaMarcus Alderidge (traded the rights to Tyrus Thomas to the Chicago Bulls) and Brandon Roy (traded the rights to Randy Foye, Roy for Foye, to the Minnesota Timberwolves), instead of selecting the mustache, and Adam Morrison. Well, two thumbs up to the Blazers for not firing that bullet. Morrison has struggled, like many non-athletic white kids have after leaving college.

Roy, Alderidge, and Rodriguez are quickly finding love on basketball blogs all over the country. One of the major blogs, Truehoops.com (which significantly made its soft launch onto ESPN.com today, which means it will start to suck in a matter of months once Disney executives warn Henry Abbott, the Creator of Truehoops.com about language, family audiences, and graphic images, ala Bill Simmons, who I still find interesting, but after reading his earlier stuff, is not as edgy as he once was. Is it Disney, or does blogging about sports just become monotonous after awhile?) have been praising the quality of play that these three are showing in Portland. Roy, who most likely will win Rookie of the Year (if Alderidge doesn't come from behind), has been celebrated for his ability to pass, shoot, his coolness in crunch-time and his ability beat people off the dribble. They have become so big, that many of the Blazer highlights from each game are making their way to Youtube.com.

Roy is becoming Portland's first son, much like Clyde Drexler did in the mid-80's and early 90's (though rumors were that Drexler was a closet-asshole). Roy has the chance to become a superstar on a team that has been searching for a general to guide a floundering team back into the playoffs. Right now, Portland is 4 games back of the L.A. Clippers for the 8th and final playoff spot in the West.

If Portland does not make the playoffs, do you see Portland trading Zach Randolph and Portland's first round pick and moving up in the draft to potentially steal a top-5 pick, or would managers across the league risk not taking a player in this draft for a player of Randolph's suspect character-image problems? Could you imagine this team with an Oden, Durant, Noah, Wright(s) or Hawes? Scary thought...

Bender found!

Bob Bender has been found!

Bender is in his third year as an assistant coach for the Atlanta Hawks. Is this man cursed, from one losing program to another.

Here is his link at NBA.com. It says that at 116-142 in his career, Bender ranks fourth all-time among Washington coaches for career victories. That seems too high a rank for only 116 wins. I mean Romar already has 103 wins since he has been at UW, averaging over 17 wins per year.

Also, Bender went to Duke...come on Bob, you could have done better.

I hate Duke so much...

More on Justin Holiday...

Here are a few more articles from California press about Justin Holiday.

This one is prior to his outstanding perfomance in the semifinals of the California Basketball classic. Click here to view article. Nice article, sounds like a good kid. He is a Romar recruit so you know he is going to be a good individual.

Here is one from January talking about both brothers...click here to read

Right now Justin is being compared to former Husky Bobby Jones, which aint that bad of a thing. Seems like the cliche comparison is to compare everyone to Bobby Jones. Seems like if you were a college basketball player from California, 6-6 to 6-8 and is somewhat quick, you are getting compared to Bobby Jones. So, Justin is another player who fits this comparison mold.

Justin will be a good player, but Jrue is the gold mine. Rated as the number 2 prospect in the class of 2008, Jrue would be a dominant force of the Huskies, if only for one year. Think about having a supersized verison of the Stewart twins, without the wussiness of Rodrick.

Right now Scout.com does not have UW listed in the top 25 in recruiting classes in the nation. But, with the addition of Venoy Overton and Justin Holiday to the class of 2007, Romar maybe laying the ground work for Jrue and a highly rated class in 2008.

Pac-10 is too good...

Well, I know something...the Pac-10 is too good to be knocked off by the fleeting hearts of a Cinderella or a freshman POY. Both Kevin Durant and Winthrop learned that the Pac-10, as Wu-Tang would put it, "Ain't nothin' to fuck with."

Oregon looks good, in the one half of basketball that I got to watch of Oregon yesterday (a TiVo mishap), they looked quick, looked strong inside, and Aaron Brooks looks like a guard who can carry this team into the Elite 8, and possibly beyond. Up next for UO is UNLV, fresh off their victory of Wisconsin. If you're Oregon, you gotta love that upset!

Then USC perhaps had the strongest showing in the second round of the NCAA's, dismantling Texas by 20. Durant had a non-impactful 30 points, while USC hit from the inside, outside, and made Texas' offense look like a junior varsity team. Does Durant come back? No...see you in the NBA...Hawes was sitting next to Durant's father during the USC-TEXAS game, what does that mean?

In other News:
UW recruit Justin Holiday went bonkers in the semis of the California basketball championships this weekend, leading his team with 24 points and 20 rebounds. Baller! Good Luck in the Championships!

I am excited to see Justin in action next year, seems like the lock-down defender that UW lacked at times this year. He is supposed to have the quickness to defend guards on the perimeter.

And don't forget, diversify your bonds, bitches.

What ever happened to Bender?

Watching the Cougar game today, Vanderbilt almost hired Bob Bender about 6 years ago. Bender decided to stay, and well, we all know how that worked out for Bender. Romar, what!

My question for you is, what ever happened to Bob Bender?

Was the pressure of having to pump of Doug Wrenn's ego too much for Bender to handle? Is he hiding in some remote Colorado mountain town muttering to himself "You're good Wrenn", "It's ok to play half-assed D and shoot 20 ft. jumpshots with 32 seconds left on the 35"?

If this was a VH1 Behind the Music special, would the voice-over guy say "Bender's paradise at Washington all changed once Doug Wrenn was kicked off the Conneticut Basketball team and enrolled at Washington" (It actually ended when Todd McCullaugh graduated and when Rip Hamilton had like sixty chances in the last 20 seconds to end UW's season in the elite 8).

So, if you know what happened to Bob Bender, let us know...We would like to know if he is alive.

This NCAA Tournament blows

This tournament sucks because of these reasons:

A.) Could the Huskies done better then Stanford did??? Yes, Stanford crapped the bed hardcore. I think that was as slow and lack-a-dazical loss I have ever seen. Way to go Stanford, way to represent the Pac-10. It would have been worth the folks at home 40 minutes of Jon Brockman rather then those stupid Lopez twins.

B.) These games suck. Not enough upsets, though I did like the Duke game.

C.) Pac-10 is 3-2 now after WSU, UO, and UCLA have won, and Stanford and Arizona showed they didn't belong. Best region in the country, nope!

D.) If Ivan Radmanovic is a first round pick this June, I will officially stop watching NBA Basketball. Right now I only watch 6 games a year, but if that guy becomes a first round pick, I will lose all confidence in the NBA scouts.

E.) All games can not involve Kevin Durant, which right now is winning, but being pushed. 25 and 8 is nice for his first NCAA game. If they lose, there goes my brackets. My brackets look amazing as of now. I missed the VCU upset, and the MSU upset of Marquette, but I had both of those teams losing in the next round anyways.

F.) UW is not in it. My heart is not in it. It made it RIDICULOUSLY easier to go about picking my bracket. Every year UW is in, I have to keep them into the tourney to AT LEAST the Elite 8, sometimes the Final Four. Kills me every year, but I guess that is what school pride is about.

G.) Boy, didn't get to watch the UO game, saw some replays, and boy Ernesto almost coached that team out of a victory. Several terrible play calls near the end of the game gave who-ever-it-was they were playing a chance to win the game. Is Mark Few coming to Eugene? I think every UO fan should be rooting for it. BTW, Ernie's daughter, who is a cheerleader, is HOT!

H.) I actually found myself rooting for WSU yesterday. I hate myself.

I.) Kansas looked REALLY GOOD today. I have them getting upset by Villanova in the second round. There goes my bracket.

Letters J-Z later....GO USC!

Gabe

At least UW we didn't get the NIT virus...

Balls. Too bad we aren't in the SEC West. Then we might be in the tournament instead of Arkansas. No sour grapes though. Maybe this will piss off Hawes enough to stay in school.

Washington vs. Washington State Round 3!

BBBBBYYAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!

Epic, outstanding, Washington vs. Washington State in the second round of the Pac-10 tourney! UW wins tonight against Arizona State 59-51!

This is going to be amazing!

Once against it was Jon Brockman being a man, and Spencer Hawes' passing that willed the Huskies to victory tonight.

I really love the Huskies' path. If UW can get by WSU tomorrow night, you gotta love UW's chances, facing teams we have beaten in the past three weeks in Stanford, USC, or UCLA!

Well, we busted out of prison, now he comes the villian into the fold, WAZZU!

John Carpenter's...

Duty Sergeant: What would you say to all of us who believed in you, who looked up to you, who thought you stood for right over wrong, good over evil? Be my guest. What do you have to say, Plissken?

Snake Plissken: Call me Snake.


The year is 2007. A titanic shift from a grizzled senior filled team to a core of talent laden youth has left the Huskies with only one shot to save the world their Tournament Chances. Led by Snake Plissken Jon Brockman, a man of few words and many elbows, the huskies must return from LA Prison with the doomsday device 4 wins and the Pac 10 Tournament Title to save the world from a UW-less NCAA Tournament. They only have 96 hours to find the Tournament Trophy before the deadly NIT virus takes hold. Without their best weapon, home court advantage, how can the Huskies survive, let alone ESCAPE FROM LA?!!?!?!

A funny thing happened on my way to Stanford the other day...

I happened to be in Palo Alto this last weekend and randomly ran into Stanford Basketball player Carlton Weatherby at Safeway. He was with his fiancee, who went to high school with one of the friends I was with. Some of the more interesting fallout from the quick chat:

1. He was very afraid of Appleby. When he found out we were from UW, he made this comment (unprompted): "That Appleby, he's sooo dangerous. You're always afraid of him going nuts on you." So I made some comment about how it must change your D to have to defend someone out to 30 feet and he was like: "Totally. There's no one else like that." Good stuff.

2. I am exactly 6 feet tall. Carlton is listed as 6'1". He was 3 inches shorter than me.

3. Every newly minted legal drinker from Washington is amazed by the concept of liquor in grocery stores. The youngsters I was with were, Carleton's Fiancee's friend was too. She stood infront of the aisle of booze and said "This is AMAZING! I can't believe this!"

Wasn't that nice?

Got lucky enough to get some tickets for the game last night, and it was great to see the team step up and get a win against a quality opponent.

Everyone stepped up, and really, the only player who you could say had an off night was Hawes, but he still found a way to contribute by putting the game on ice with 5 minutes left.

Special props to Artem Wallace, who made a much larger impact than his stats show. When Brockman got into foul trouble, Wallace came in and made a solid impact on the game, getting a steal, drawing a charge, and pulling down a couple tough rebounds in traffic. Even though he shot 5-10 from the line, many of those points were at a time when our offense was stagnant and needed a lift - I think he made 4 of 6 late in the game after having gone 1-4 in the first half.

Over the course of the game we saw every player step up and make plays. Dentmon on fire early, Appleby and Brockman late in the first half, Nelson Oliver and Wallace making a difference when they stepped on the court. This was a team victory and showed what everyone thought this team could be.

Is this team talented enough to win the Pac 10 tournament? I think so. But the real question is, can they do it on the road in LA? They'd have to play offense like they did tonight to have a chance.