Photo Credit: Rod Mar/Seahawks.com 

Because we all want to feel good about the upcoming offseason, right? Here's a timeline to what I think would be the best, yet realistic scenario for the Seahawks in the upcoming offseason.

March 5 (Deadline for teams to apply franchise tag): Pete Carroll and John Schneider can’t get anywhere discussing the contract of soon to be free agent Marshawn Lynch, so they decide to apply the franchise tag on him. In doing this, the Seahawks bind Lynch for one year paying him the average salary of the top paid player at the running back position over the last five seasons, which would end up being around $7.7 Million. This leaves Lynch happy (for obvious reasons) and the Seahawks happy for not being locked up in a big money, long-term contract.

MORE AFTER THE JUMP!

                                                                                    Image Courtesy of USA Today


The city of Seattle has been without an NBA franchise since the start of the 2008-2009 season. Ever since the day when it was announced the Sonics would be relocating to Oklahoma City, local officials along with NBA commissioner David Stern have assured fans a team could return to Seattle as long as funding for a new arena is secured. With talks heating up in the past couple of months regarding a new arena, it was only a matter of time before fans across the state started to talk about the possibility of a NBA franchise returning to the region.

Christopher Hansen, a San Francisco businessman who attended Roosevelt High School in Seattle, has been rumored to be interested in a parcel of land in the Sodo district south of Safeco Field that could eventually be used to build an arena. This report surfaced when a KING 5 investigation uncovered that Hansen had purchased some of this desired land. The acreage he bought is too small to house an arena, but many believe this was just the first step towards securing space and funding for a multi-sport arena.

With most school's seasons having already come to an end and teams preparing for districts, it's about time we compile our last 1A power rankings. I personally have had a fantastic time doing this, as the responses from these less talked about schools have been great and rewarding.

A few teams stayed at the top for most of the season: Granger, Cashmere, Naches Valley, Bellevue Christian, Zillah, Lynden Christain and King's. This week is no different.

1. Zillah, South Central (16-4)

No one is hotter than Zillah going into the tournament, and it's not even close. The Leopards are on a 9-game winning streak in which they beat Granger twice and Naches Valley once en route to winning the most competitive division in 1A, the South Central. They are averaging 78 points per game during this span behind senior Darrel Pascal and junior Robert Slack.

What really convinces me why Zillah will win the tournament this year is two things: One, they have experience. Last year, the Leopards made it to the tournament finals only to lose to Cascade Christian and grab second place; I have to believe that they are motivated to not let that happen again.

Two, Zillah has faced the toughest competition this year out of any 1A team. To face Naches Valley, Granger, and Goldendale twice and only lose one game out of those is incredible.

Current status: Clinched South Central title, one game left vs. Highland

See the rest of the power rankings after the jump! 

Initial (Over)Reactions

USC is bad. Really bad. The entire season I have been trying to process the fact that the Pac-12 sucks. I did not truly come to that conclusion until last night. The Trojans are easily the worst team in the big six conferences this season and that is no longer debatable.

As for the game itself, Washington played average, inconsistent basketball and won by 28. Tony Wroten “led” the way for the Dawgs with 13 points, 8 assists and 6 rebounds. Except nobody actually led Washington. The game as a whole was a cluster of talent against a cluster of slower moving, less competent basketball players.

The Huskies did not play a good game, quite frankly they played how they did against UCLA, except UW destroyed USC on the boards. That was the only difference besides the presence of Brendan Sherrer. The Dawgpack superstar picked up the offensive burdens and finished with an assist and a rebound in three minutes of play.

WOOFS AND WHIMPERS AFTER THE JUMP! no comments

The Huskies try to hold on to their first-place status tonight as they face the struggling Trojans of USC. The Trojans fought hard to sneak past Utah for the “worst team in the conference” title, coming into this game having lost 10 of 11 and sitting at 1-9 in conference play. Washington has won seven of eight and look to cap off their second-to-last home stand of the year with a win.

The Basics:

8 p.m. PST. ROOT. Alaska Airlines Arena.

Washington Huskies (15-7; 8-2)               USC Trojans (6-17; 1-9)

*Gametime decision--if Wroten can't go, expect C.J. Wilcox

MORE AFTER THE JUMP! no comments

Darnell Gant puts the Dawgs on top//Elaine Thompson, Associated Press

Initial (Over)Reactions

First place! The Washington Huskies, who all NCAA analysts have decided to ignore, are in first place! Let us all give a large “THANKS!” to Arizona for knocking off Cal 78-74. UW now sits alone atop the Pac-12 standings at 8-2.

On another note, UCLA simply does not like to win in Seattle, as that makes eight in a row for the Dawgs against the Bruins in the Emerald City. UCLA went up 10 with seven minutes remaining in the second half before ESPN flashed a stat that said, “UCLA has lost previous seven games in Seattle”. Quite the jinx from ESPN.

UW answered by taking out an injured Tony Wroten and force-feeding the ball to Terrence Ross. T-Raw put the Huskies on his back, scoring 10 of UW’s final 12 points and playing up to his potential that everyone in Husky Nation has been waiting for.  He needs the ball more. Him not being aggressive should not be an excuse. Romar, make Ross shoot the ball.

Sadly, the last seven minutes were the lone bright spot for the Huskies. UCLA outplayed Washington for the first 33 minutes before Ross’ explosion. Josh Smith continued to only play good basketball against the Dawgs and manhandled any body UW through at him. Smith finished with 24 points (a career high) and nine rebounds. UCLA’s inability to feed their 300-pound center late cost them the game, as Smith finished with just three points in the last 12 minutes. WOOFS AND WHIMPERS AFTER THE JUMP! no comments

The Huskies receive another chance to prove to the nation that they are an NCAA Tournament caliber team as ESPN covers tonight's game against UCLA. The Dawgs are coming off of two huge road wins in Arizona to vault them into a first place tie with California atop the Pac-12 standings. UCLA attempted to salvage a lost season by beating up on both Utah and Colorado at home last week.

The Basics:

6 p.m. PST. ESPN. Alaska Airlines Arena.

Washington Huskies (14-7; 7-2)          UCLA Bruins (12-9; 5-4)

Breaking Down The Bruins

If you are reading this post, I will go ahead and assume you’ve heard of the Bruins struggles this season. In case you’ve been living under a rock, here’s the gist: Reeves Nelson was on the cover of Sports Illustrated this year to showcase the highly touted Bruins (ranked in the top 20 by SI, ha!). Fast-forward to today. Reeves Nelson has been dismissed from the Bruins (and also from the Lithuanian team he joined after UCLA dumped him) and the Bruins are a measly 12-9 and in a three-way tie for fifth place in the conference. MORE AFTER THE JUMP! no comments

"I hate him more than any person in the world."
– Charles Barkley on Skip Bayless

American sports fans love to be critical of commentators, announcers and analysts. We all believe we can somehow talk about the current game better than the dressed up guy on the screen. While every analyst gets picked on to some degree (Joe Buck, Matt Millen, Phil Sims), Skip Bayless of ESPN’s First Take is perhaps the most criticized in all of America, by fans and professionals alike. He has been accused of shock journalism, racism and being grossly underqualified to talk about sports on a national platform like ESPN.

It’s not a popular stance, but I’m here to disprove these claims.

There is a general feel in the sports blogging world that Skip is a lunatic who doesn’t deserve to be on one of ESPN’s most popular programs discussing hot topics every morning. I get that. But it couldn’t be further from the truth. TheStartingFive.net conducted a lengthy interview with him in 2009 about various topics, one of them being his background and how he got to his current status.

After graduating from Vanderbilt, Bayless began his career low on the Miami Herald totem pole but quickly rose up the ranks until the Los Angeles Times hired him. There, while covering various Los Angeles teams, he started to develop a reputation as a top-flight writer and was eventually recruited by the Dallas Morning News where his career took off.

While at the Morning News, Skip won the “Texas Sportswriter of Year” award three times and developed a reputation as the fearless beat reporter for the Dallas Cowboys. He went on a couple short stints at the Dallas Times Herald, Chicago Tribune and San Jose Mercury Tribune until he was hired full-time at ESPN in 2004.

So, as you can see by the amount of facts I just spewed out, Bayless has been there and done that. He’s an accomplished journalist who has worked hard to get where he is and clearly isn’t a lunatic. I mean, how can you win Texas Sportswriter of the Year three times and not know what you’re talking about?

Another thing people accuse Bayless of is “shock journalism,” where the journalist makes ridiculous claims in order to boost internet page views or TV ratings.

The most common thing people point to is Skip’s take on LeBron James. Skip routinely says on First Take that LeBron went to Miami so “Dwyane Wade could win him a ring” because LeBron can’t do it as his team’s leader. He also states often that LeBron has no “clutch gene” and can’t finish games (namely playoff games) like say Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant.

Now that you’re hearing this without Bayless yelling about it on television, don’t his claims have some merit? LeBron has yet to win a ring, and he clearly deferred to Dwyane Wade when it was crunch time in the 2011 NBA Finals. Seems like evidence to me.

Skip’s problem is that sometimes he’s “too passionate” on television and that can shove viewers the wrong way, often getting to the point where the viewer isn’t even listening to the point he’s trying to get across anymore. Bayless calls himself a “sports nut,” and sometimes that can go too far.

The last point critics drive home about Bayless is that he is a racist.

Wow, that’s quite the statement to make. People get this idea because 90% of the time he is debating sports with a black columnist/analyst and he’s from Oklahoma. That’s it.

Saying Skip Bayless is a racist is totally false. Why does he always have a black debate partner?  “a day rarely passes without a racial component to a sports issue, and our show never shies away from tackling the most controversial of these issues. It is obviously impossible to have a credible, healthy discussion or debate without both sides represented. Sometimes I’ll defend the Black perspective — see Barry Bonds — and sometimes a Black debater will defend the White perspective — as happened recently with Stephen Bardo taking up for Michael Phelps and me continuing to criticize him as a role-model fraud.”

Saying Bayless has a prejudice against black people is totally irresponsible and false. It’s not even worth discussing anymore.

Whatever opinion you have of Skip Bayless, just know that he’s not a knucklehead. He knows his stuff and has experience, doesn’t use “shock journalism,” and he is not a racist. Some people frown on him because they believe he makes a bunch of ludicrous statements. The reality is that he speaks the truth, and sometimes that’s not what we always want to hear.

Read TheStartingFive.net’s full interview of Skip Bayless here.

--Nathan Parsons (@NathanParsons98)

After last week's events, Mariners fans have a clearer picture of what their team will look like in 2012.

Without Prince Fielder, the Mariners need to find another way to drastically improve their offensive output from last season in order to contend. Another issue is Michael Pineda's vacated role in the rotation.

The biggest question facing the Mariners this season, however, deals with the AL West. Will they be able to improve enough to compete against two reloaded teams in the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels? Regardless, the Mariners have to put a product on the field based on what they have, not what they could have had. 

Check out my 25-man roster projection for 2012 after the jump!

We are one week away from the Metro Basketball Tournament. All top three teams clinched their division (Seattle Prep- Metro Mountain, Rainier Beach- Metro Sound, and Franklin- Metro Valley Division).

This week is by far the most intense and exciting part of the season. Teams like Ingraham, West Seattle and Bainbridge are all playing for a shot to participate in the Metro playoffs. 

SEE MORE ABOUT THE METRO CONFERENCE AFTER THE JUMP!