FSN announcers are adamant that Brockman is the best rebounder in the nation; however, he cannot make a basket outside of 2 feet

With just 4 games to play in the Pac 10 season, UW is sitting atop the Pac10 standing tied with Arizona State for first place.  Their balanced combination of young talent and veteran leadership is one of the main reasons why the Huskies are going to their first NCAA tournament appearance in 3 years.  UW had a slow start to the season losing their first game to the Portland Pilots (ouch!), followed with 2 wins against nobodies then 2 losses to Florida and Kansas.  Then UW went on a tear, winning 13 of their next 14, capping off the run with a win against UCLA. They are currently at 20-7 (11-4) and ranked 21st in both the AP and Coaches Poll, with a crucial game tomorrow night against ASU as well as one this weekend against the surging Arizona wildcats.  Jon Brockman, a 4 year starter for the Huskies, has led the team in rebounding (11.3 rpg) and is third in scoring at 14.6 ppg.  Freshman guard Isaiah Thomas leads the team with 15.9 ppg followed by senior guard Justin Dentmon with 15.8.  Their balanced scoring from their three best players is one of the main reasons of their success this season, as they do not have to rely on a star player every night. 

Isaiah Thomas, at only 5 foot 8, is leading the Pac10 in scoring for Freshmen

Our coach is cooler than your coach

Lorenzo Romar, the coach of the Huskies as well as a graduate from UW, has built himself an elite basketball program at the school, reaching the sweet 16 multiple times as well as being a #1 seed in the tournament.  He also has a Pac 10 tournament title to add to his resume.  Not only has he had success winning, he is producing players that are successful at the next level.  Brandon Roy headlines the bunch, as he has established himself as one of the premier guards in the NBA in just his 3rd year.  I consider him the best 4 year college basketball player in the world.  Who is better? Tim Duncan…maybe 5 years ago.  In addition to B Roy, there are many other UW players who are having success in the league: Nate Robinson, Spencer Hawes, Martell Webster (a high schoolcommit to UW but went pro).  If all of these players stayed for 4 years or went to college, there would have been seasons when all 4 of these players were on the same team, as well as Brockman.  UW is bringing in a 5 star point guard next year from the Seattle area, as well as still competing for the 2nd best big man in the country.

Look-a-like Award:

Jon Brockman and Notre Dame’s Luke Harangody

Big East Player of the Year

Locker wins Heisman convincingly

Locker ended up winning the Heisman convincingly, after his ridiculous statistics.  The game that locked up the Heisman win was the season finale in the Apple Cup against rival Washington State.  Obviously Washington State sucks, but Locker had a fantastic game.  Locker finished the season completing an NCAA record 83.7% of his passes with a quarterback rating of 203.4, also an NCAA recod.  

Season stats:

Passing yards: 3,062

Yards per attempt: 10.8 (rediculous)

Passing TD: 35

Interceptions: 12 (he’s human after all)

Rushing yards: 679

Rushing TD: 12

A sign of things to come? One could say that for the future of the Huskies and Jake Locker.  But one thing that may be more probable is that this shows my future as a head college football coach or an offensive coordinator.  Either would be sweet.

Tebow should have one more of these

After watching the National Championship game, there is no doubt who the “most outstanding player in collegiate football.”  That player is Tim Tebow.  A previous post of mine discussed how I felt Colt McCoy was the most deserving; however, after Tebow’s championship game performance, there is no doubt he is deserving of this award.  Even though I do not have a vote for the Heisman yet, I wished I would have voted for Tebow instead of McCoy.  Once I win my first Heisman, I will receive an official Heisman voting ballot so I will be able to vote for Jake Locker somehow.  There are many flaws in college football involving the BCS as well as the Heisman Voting.  It was interesting this year how Tebow received more first place votes, but ended up finishing 3rd in the voting.  The BCS will not be changing for a while, but one thing that can be changed is when the Heisman Ceremony takes place, and it should take place on the Sunday following the National Championship every year.  That way we can look at all of the candidates bowl games.  McCoy had a great game as well, leading his team to a come from behind win on the final drive, but Tebow’s performance was second to none. 

Yes we do, shirts will be available for purchase very soon

I am fairly confident that Tebow is going to come back for his senior season and Florida will be pre-ranked in the top 3, so he will obviously be the Heisman favorite.  Except the 2009 Heisman Memorial Trophy is going to Jake Locker.  It’s pretty obvious that with the hiring of Steve Sarkisian, Jake Locker is going to be the best quarterback in the country next year.  Stay tuned in for new updates as the Huskies start preparing for their Spring practices. Locker 4 Heisman 09.

Roy Drilling One of His Five Three-Pointers

WOW.  52 points.  Brandon Roy, a 4 year player at the University of Washington, had the best game of his career last night, scoring 52 points as the Blazers beat the Suns 124-119.  Roy scored 21 in the first half but heated up in the 3rd quarter and his scoring continued in the 4th as he was the deciding factor in the outcome of the game.  I believe there was a stretch in the third quarter where he scored 15 or 16 consecutive points for the Blazers.  That’s Lebron-esque. He came up with big shot after big shot as the game went back and fourth and the final few minutes of the game, and Roy was able to put it away for good.  Obvioulsy, if it was not for him, the Blazers would not have been close.  This is also similar with the blazers success in this young season.  Roy is the MVP of the team that is the 2nd youngest in the NBA but is only 1 game out of first place.  Even though Roy is averaging 36.4 points in his last 5 games, he is not getting the national recognition or respect he deserves.  He is a proven leader and his stat line this year shows he is turning into one of the premier shooting guards in the world: 23.4 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 5.2 APG.  Through 27 games this season, Roy’s name should be

Roy Dunking Over Current Blazer Teammate Ike Diogu

tossed around for MVP with the likes of Lebron, Dwayne Wade, Dwight Howard, and Kobe Bryant.  In order for Roy to be considered for MVP, he is going to have to continue to produce as much as he has been, as well as having big games like he did last night on national television.  Honestly, he needs the Blazers to finish in the top 2 or 3 in the West which is a possibility.  What he is doing is unfortunately being over shadowed by the big market players such as Lebron and the other players mentioned. However; Roy’s MVP campaign has officially started.

Brandon Roy is considered one of the greatest basketball players in the history of UW, as he won the Pac-10 player of the year his senior year and led his team to a near Elite-8 trip in his final season, losing to the other Huskies, #1 UConn in an overtime thriller (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkrqfSHiyZY Roy has some sweet highlights in the first 2 minutes). And UW blew this game, UConn ended up losing to George mason in the next game.  This was Roy’s 2nd consecutive Sweet 16 appearance.  He averaged 20.6 points per game his senior year and received All-American honors on top of his Pac-10 POY.  I don’t know what else to say other than he is representing UW well, and I found these sweet pictures of him online playing for UW.

Probably just hit the game-winner

The stats of these three gun-slingers look like this:  

Tebow: 2515 passing yards, 28 TD/2 INT, 564 rushing yards, 12 rushing TDs

Bradford: 4,463 passing yards, 48 TD/6 INT, 5 rushing TDs

McCoy: 3,445 passing yards, 32 TD/7 INT, 576 rushing yards, 10 TDs

My Take:  If the award was given to the MVP of the NCAA, Tebow would walk away with it.  If the award was given to the QB of arguably the best team in the country (which sadly happens), then Bradford would win it.  But it is not.  The award is given to “The most outstanding player” in the country, and this year the most outstanding player is Colt McCoy.  Colt McCoy beat Sam Bradford’s Oklahoma team in the Red River Rivalry and was also 2 seconds away from being undefeated if their defense would have been able to wrap up Crabtree against Tech.  Texas should being playing in the title game over Florida, but the BCS just screwed it up this year.  He is completing a ridiculous 77.5% of his passes.  77.5%!!!!  Which is going to shatter an NCAA record.  Oh yeah, and he is also the leading rusher on Texas.  He does not have two one-thousand yard rushers that Bradford does, he doesn’t have the best athletes in the nation for skill positions that Tebow does, he is Texas’ entire team, and what he has done this season statistically as well for his team is “the most outstanding” between these three deserving candidates.

PROS:

1.  He is a winner.  He won at BYU as a player and won at USC as a coach.  What this football program needs is wins, as we have had 0 in our last 14 games dating back to last year.

2.  His mentor is Pete Carrol.  Even though I hate USC, I highly respect Pete Carroll as I would consider him the best coach in the country with Bob Stoops being second behind him.  ”He’s a great man, I owe him dearly, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to go out there and beat him in the third game of the season at this stadium next year.”  -Sarkisian on Carroll

3. He is going to bring a new mentality and image to this program.  The one thing that I love the most is that practices are going to be open to fans, students, alumni, and the media, something that was not done at UW under Willingham but was done under Carroll at USC: “I want our practices to be fun, exciting. I want people there. I want students, alumni at practice. I want media at practice. I want people to see us.”  This quote alone is getting me excited about Sarkisian.

Brady Sarkisian is voting Locker for Heisman

4. He is taking over the call playing duties.  He has experience calling the plays for one of the best programs in the nation as well as being a QB coach for 2 Heisman Trophy winners.  The strength of this team is at the quarterback position, so the focus of the head coach is going to be on the development of one of the most talented players in the nation.

5.  His 3 year-old kid is already a Jake Locker fan.  And his name is Brady which also happens to be the name of my favorite football player, Brady Quinn.  A sign of things to come.

CONS

1.  He has no head coaching experience, and only 2 years of experience calling plays

2.  How good was USC’s offense actually, and how much of USC’s success lies in the hands of primarily Pete Carroll?  It’s obvious that USC has had some of the best offenses to ever take the field in the history of college football over the past 5 years, but how much of that has to do with the system or was it in the hands of the freak athletics on the offensive side of the ball?  It’s hard to tell, but ever since Reggie Bush, Lendale White, Dwayne Jarrett, and Matt Leinart have left, the offense has not been anywhere close to as it was.  Over the past 3 seasons, the strength of USC’s team lies in its defense, which is coached by Pete Carroll.

3.  He is going to be using the same offensive system that was used at USC.  Obviously it is an effective system, but does UW have the talent for this system to work during the first couple years of Sarkisian’s tenure?  This means no shotgun formations.  Because over the past 5 years, USC has never been in the situation of a third and long.  I don’t even think they have plays for third and longs.  As of right now, Locker is a QB built for either the Wing T (Paul Johnson would have been a sweet fit for Locker) or a spread offense (Mike Leach or Chip Kelly).  His freshman year they ran an offense where he was able to run but Sarkisian said that “he’s (Jake Locker) got such an innate running ability that he relies on it more than he needs to. He can become an excellent passer, but part of that is my job to put him in the position to be a quarterback and not a runner. We’ll do that.”  This worries me, but the development of Locker as a passer will show how good of a coach Steve Sarkisian actually is.

From his freshman season