Initial (Over)Reactions

The Huskies won a conference game on the road! Reading that sentence probably had your heart beating faster than watching the game tonight. UW played its most mundane game of the season en route to a disappointing 60-54 win against the host Sun Devils. The Dawgs were able to pull away by opening the second half on a 13-1 run that gave them a 10-point lead. As boring as the game was, there are multiple things that can be taken away from tonight’s victory that moved the Dawgs into a first place tie in Pac-12 play.

Tony Wroten is the most important player on the Huskies. There is no longer any debate. Wroten led the way for the Dawgs tonight with 22 points on 9-12 shooting. All of the freshman phenom’s buckets came in the paint, including a posterizing dunk that will surely land him on SportsCenter.

UW was aided by an Arizona State team that truly has no offense without Trent Lockett. ASU was consistently unable to create any offense against the Dawgs’ pressure defense and showed why they rank third-to-last in the conference in scoring.

WOOFS and WIMPERS after the jump!

Coming off a feel-good win over Stanford, the Washington Huskies go on the road tonight to face a 6-13 Arizona State squad reeling from losses and roster attrition. The Sun Devils will likely be without their top two scorers: sophomore guard Keala King was dismissed from the team two weeks ago and junior guard Trent Lockett is doubtful for tonight’s game with a lingering ankle injury.

With a win tonight, the Huskies move themselves into a first-place tie with California and Oregon. Their momentum from last Saturday and the quality of tonight’s opponent provide an ideal circumstance to improve their 1-5 road record—in other words, if they can’t get it done tonight, well… it’ll be an ominous predictor of the rest of the season. The Huskies play at Alaska Airlines Arena only four more times this year.

The Basics:

5:30 p.m. PST. Wells Fargo Arena. ROOT Sports. 950 KJR.

Washington Huskies (12-7; 5-2)     Arizona State Sun Devils (6-13; 2-5)

ANALYSIS AND A PICK AFTER THE JUMP!

It’s time to start up our NFL draft coverage at SeaTown Sports. Now, some of you may be wondering why we’re even talking about the draft with it being months away, and I’ve asked myself the same question. But there’s one topic I can’t stop thinking about: The Seahawks’ quarterback position.

While I respect Tarvaris Jackson, he’s not a franchise quarterback. He’s just not. If you want to argue otherwise, go for it in the comments section. Let’s assume that general manager John Schneider and Pete Carroll have a commitment to take a QB in the upcoming draft and don’t believe T-Jack is their long-term guy.

So, the big question is who would the Seahawks want to select as their franchise quarterback? Well, that’s a pretty easy answer: Andrew Luck or Robert Griffin III. Unfortunately, unless some seriously lucky trade scenarios work out, there’s little to no chance either of those two prized prospects will fall to the Seahawks’ No. 12 overall pick.

So who could the Seahawks draft instead of those two guys?

Check out some profiles on a couple QB’s Pete Carroll might have his eye on after the jump!

Husky fans have been in the dark regarding sophomore shooting guard C.J. Wilcox's injury. Wilcox has sat out the Dawgs' last three games with a stress fracture in his left femur and many in Husky Nation were hopeful for his return this week. 

Lorenzo Romar said today "I think we will have him back before the end of the year", adding that he will be tested again on Thursday. This is disappointing news for Washington, as the end of the year could be any time between Saturday's game against Arizona to the Pac-12 tournament in early March. 

In the meantime, it looks as if Desmond Simmons will continue starting in his place, with Darnell Gant and Hikeem Stewart keeping their minutes alongside new freshman Austin Sefarian-Jenkins as the first three off the bench.

Wilcox is averaging 15.5 points and and 3.5 rebounds per game this season. The Huskies shooting guard has missed the past three games for the Huskies.

If you’re from Washington, you clearly know about the sizable snowstorm that hit the state this past week. Because of the storm, all but a few WesCo basketball games were canceled. Due to the short week, I decided to forgo my weekly power rankings in favor of a late-midseason roundup for the WesCo 3A and 4A conferences!

To keep it short, I will only be talking about teams that have winning records and are in clear contention for their conference or division. Also, these are in order by conference record, not personal input.

WesCo 3A:

Mountlake Terrace (14-0): Coming into the year, many expected the Hawks to be good, but not this good. 14-0 with just six games left? Pretty impressive. This team, unlike your usual basketball lineup, doesn’t really have a true leading scorer. There are three players averaging 10-plus points per game, and three more averaging just under 10. Terrace has outscored opponents 934-523 this year. If defense wins championships, what does offense and defense win you?
Rest of season strength of schedule: 3/10 The Hawks have only two games against teams with winning records.

WHO ROUNDS OUT THE TOP 5? FIND OUT AFTER THE JUMP! no comments

• Jon Kitna is expected to be named head football coach at his alma-mater, Lincoln High School in Tacoma. Lincon's athletic director, Char Davenport said that she wasn't aware of any other applicants — my guess is the announcement will come soon after the opening closes on Wednesday. Kitna used to play for the Seahawks — he led Seattle to an AFC West title in 1999. 

• Hector Noesi is good at throwing strikes and also has potential to hit 97 mph on radar gun! Read Jeff Sullivan's analysis on the other player acquired from the Yankees in the Pineda-Montero swap. I'm growing more and more confident that he'll be more than a capable starter for the Mariners this season.

• I love how Felix Hernandez wants to stay in Seattle. Every fan better treat him right, just like the organization has in his time here. Long live the King! 

• Kicker Santiago Lopez out of Lynden HS plans to walk-on and join the Huskies next fall. Washington is out of kickers; losing both Erik Folk and Eric Guttorp to graduation. Let's hope UW snags someone else before the February 1st signing date; depending on a walk-on kicker can't be a good thing. 

• The WIAA released its classification numbers for 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years on Monday. Out of the 18 schools in 3A that have opted-up, 12 of the schools are a part of the Metro conference. Eastside Catholic and Rainier Beach are 1A schools by definition, while Seattle Prep, Lakeside, Cleveland, O'Dea, Bishop Blanchet, Ingraham, Nathan Hale, Chief Sealth and Holy Names are 2A schools by definition. I wonder which of these schools would be able to opt-up and compete at the 4A level in several sports. Seattle Prep, O'Dea and Holy names would be three schools to start the conversation with.

--Kevin Cacacabelos (@seatownsports)

There was not much action last week in the Metro Conference due to the snow storm. We did, however, see some interesting gameplay early last Monday in the King Holiday Hoopfest.

Franklin dominated O’Dea and pulled off the upset. Franklin was the faster team and used that advantage on the fast break. The Irish did not come to play—they couldn’t shoot or play defense.

Rainier Beach suffered its first loss of the season in an electrifying game with Long Beach Poly (Calif.) in a battle of two squads each in ESPN’s national top 30. Poly’s dynamic duo of Roschon Prince and Jordan Bell was too much for the Vikings to handle in the first half. The second half was a different story: Rainier Beach’s Anrio Adams and Marquis Davis scored essentially all of their team’s second-half points in leading a late but ultimately unsuccessful comeback.

Seattle Prep blew out Federal Way in Hoopfest’s final contest. Prep came out attacking instantly and took advantage of Federal Way’s mistakes.

See my Power Rankings, Player of the Week and Predictions after the jump! no comments

Washington State 1A Basketball Rankings - 23 Jan. 2012

1. Granger, South Central (12-2)

A couple weeks ago, Granger faced Naches Valley in the most anticipated match of the 1A basketball season. Granger won the game 65-52 with a devastating full-court press and 20 points and five steals from dynamo Brandon Castro. The game handed Naches Valley its first loss of the season, solidifying Granger as the team to beat in 1A.

MORE AFTER THE JUMP!

• Kevin Millwood has signed a minor-league contract with the Seattle Mariners. He will likely earn a spot on the big league roster and in the rotation. Millwood isn't amazing and he isn't terrible — he's average. So, expect average and maybe some better numbers since he's now pitching at Safeco. Welcome to Seattle Kevin. http://www.lookoutlanding.com/2012/1/22/2725990/kevin-millwood-rumors-seattle-mariners

• UW-commit quarterback Cyler Miles took an official visit to USC this past weekend. Apparently he's still committed to UW, but he decided to go check out USC with Huskies offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier leaving to Alabama. Keeping Miles is important for Sark and his staff, but the security of having a commitment from Mercer Island product Jeff Lindquist makes losing Miles bearable. 

• Gregg Bell from GoHuskies.com gives us the lowdown on all the new Husky football coaching hires along with salary amounts. Along with the hundreds of thousands of dollars Justin Wilcox (defensive coordinator), Eric Kiesau (offensive coordinator), Tosh Lupoi (defensive line, run-game coordinator), Peter Sirmon (linebackers), Keith Heyward (defensive backs) are all slated to make, they will also receive incentives if UW makes the Pac-12 championship game. A telling quote: "The total pool for Huskies' nine assistant coaches in 2012 is $2.73 million, up from $2,305,028 last year. It is scheduled to be $2,895,000 in 2013."

• Psalm Wooching out of Kailua Kona, Hawaii committed to the Huskies on Friday night. Wooching was originally a UCLA-commit, but reconsidered things after Rick Neuheisel was fired and Jim Mora took over. Here's his junior year highlight reel

• Field Gulls thinks the Seahawks will have to trade up at least to the No. 4 overall pick if they want to draft Robert Griffin III. Trading up for that pick means the Seahawks would probably have to give up their 2013 first round pick. Is it worth it? What say you? 

--Kevin Cacabelos (@seatownsports)

Austin Seferian-Jenkins (center), Two-Sport Athlete//Kim Grinolds, Dawgman.com

Initial (Over)Reactions

Congratulations to Coach Romar for his 300^th career win as well as his 100^th win in conference play. This was a great game for the Dawgs to give Romar those milestones, as the Huskies played Husky basketball this afternoon and it resulted in a big win over conference title contender Stanford.

The Huskies were led by the three-headed monster of Tony Wroten (21 points), Terrence Ross (18) and Darnell Gant (17). Gant had a huge bounce-back game following his disappointing shooting night against Cal on Thursday. Wroten was constantly able to get to the basket, going to his left with ease. Apparently, Stanford didn’t pick up that Wroten has one of the best left hands in college basketball.

The Dawgs were able to control the glass and go on a big run in the second half to put 21 points between them and the Cardinal. Terrence Ross, once again, put together a big second half to make up for his poor play in the first. This game could have been an even bigger blowout if not for the Huskies’ 11-for-24 performance from the free throw line. WOOFS AND WHIMPERS AFTER THE JUMP!