College football kicked off last night! Talent abounds in this year's particularly strong Pac-12--here's a look at some notable players to keep an eye on. We'll preview the teams right here tomorrow!

TOP TEN:

QB Andrew Luck, Stanford (Jr.)
A complete quarterback and a natural leader. Your 2011 Heisman favorite and consensus No. 1 pick. He can obviously pass, but did you know he could do this?

OLB Vontaze Burfict, Arizona State (Jr.)
Best linebacker in the country must harness emotions to keep top-10 draft slot. Powerful, fast, extremely savvy player. Ray Lewis potential if he can focus his agression into clean play and stop punching teammates.

RB LaMichael James, Oregon (Jr.)
Nation’s leading rusher may pair with Luck for 1-2 Heisman vote. Extremely fast, very elusive and better between the tackles than one might assume, given his size (5'9, 190). May go in the first round this year if he enters the draft.

The rest of the top 10 plus five breakout candidates after the jump! 

The Huskies start fall camp today. I’ll try to contain my excitement.

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!!! LET’S GOOOOOOOO!!!

OK, feeling better now.

I work in the DC area and football recently came up in small talk with my boss. He complained about the Ravens’ personnel decisions for a while before asking me whom I support.

“Washington,” I said.

“Redskins? Come on, dude.”

“Nah, college. University of Washington.”

“Oh, U-Dub! Aren’t you guys supposed to be awful this year? No Locker?”

I get this a lot. Most East Coast football fans know only two things about the Washington Huskies: Jake Locker is the only player in the team’s history and is therefore singularly accountable for all wins or losses; Jake Locker is gone now. In other words, the average East Coast football fan knows only what ESPN says.

The logical connection there is that UW will fall off as a result of Jake’s departure. Here’s the problem with that thinking: The Husky offense under Keith Price can be better than it ever was with Jake. In fact, this year’s football product might be UW’s best since 2002.

MORE AFTER THE JUMP!!

According to Cali High Sports, Washington has offered a scholarship to Class of 2014 point guard, Parker Jackson-Cartwright from Loyola HS in Los Angeles, California.

Along with Washington, UCLA, USC and Arizona State have also offered the rising sophomore.

Washington's up-tempo style adn how they trust their guards really intrigues me. I also love Coach Romar, said Cartwright. (Via: Cali High Sports)

Read a scouting report of Cartwright after the jump.

Head over to SB Nation Seattle to read my weekly feature. This week I talk about New Mexico Head Basketball Coach Steve Alford's decision to ban his team from using Twitter. While Alford has every right as head coach to set whatever rules he feels is best for his team, I feel he misses the point on his social media policy. Perhaps looking at how Romar handled Thomas and his twitter this past season will reveal how coaches should handle social media:

Washington Huskies Head Coach Lorenzo Romar treated Thomas like an adult and acted as a mentor. He sat down with him one on one and discussed his problems with what Thomas was posting. Keep in mind that Thomas' Twitter account was one of the most popular in all of college basketball at the time. He wasn't able to hold back and always let his fans know what was on his mind.

Read the rest at SB Nation Seattle.

One of the greatest lessons one can learn in life is what they can accomplish if they really want to.

The University of Washington and Gonzaga University have spent a lot of time talking as if they are genuinely interested in resuming a key in-state basketball series, but so far have yet to come to an agreement. They’ve failed to accomplish their goal, begging the question, how much do they really want it?
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Today I wrote a proposal at SB Nation Seattle advocating for the creation of the Washington Basketball Classic. The idea is far-fetched, but you'd be hard pressed to find me a college basketball fan in the state of Washington that would not want to see something like it happen. It is all up to Gonzaga and Washington in making something like this happen. Both schools would have to sacrifice some money, but in the long-term it could be a winning proposition for every school involved.

Let me introduce you to the 'Washington Basketball Classic." There are eight teams that would part of it: Gonzaga, Washington, Washington St., Seattle U, Western Washington, Central Washington, Eastern Washington, and Seattle Pacific University. The "Classic" would feature four games pitting the teams against each other in a day long celebration of basketball in the state of Washington at Key Arena during the non-conference portion of every team's schedule.

Read the rest of the proposal at SB Nation Seattle.

I had a fortunate experience yesterday evening.  Walking into UW’s IMA (gym), I noticed UW's Abdul Gaddy and Boston Celtic Avery Bradley strolling in behind me.  I figured they were going to shoot around there but oh, was I in for a treat.  I followed them (pretty conspicuously) into the gym, and found 12 other (everyone except Brendan Sherrer) Husky basketball players milling around, waiting to play.  I decided to pop a squat and watch them run about 30 minutes of pickup basketball.  After the jump is a short analysis of what I saw.

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Having a leader on the court is imperative to the success of a college basketball team. You can’t expect five guys in their early 20’s to run out on the floor and win consistently without someone to lead them.

Lack of leadership hasn't been a problem with Washington basketball the past couple of years. Natural born leaders like Brandon Roy, Quincy Pondexter and Isaiah Thomas have served the role well for Romar's squads. Now that Thomas is in the NBA, the Huskies need to find a new leader for next season.

Who will be the emotional and vocal leader for UW in the upcoming 2011-2012 season?

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Matthew Bryan-Amaning will be playing professional basketball, albeit, not in the NBA, but playing professionally nonetheless.

Great Britain forward Matthew Bryan-Amaning has signed his first professional contract, putting pen to paper with Turkish side Hacettepe. The Ankara-based team have just been promoted to the first division and hope the former University of Washington Husky will add size and athleticism to their frontcourt. (Via: Hoopsfix.com)

Bryan-Amaning is hoping to get more experience at the power-forward position to help his chances at eventually making the NBA. The three-year UW starter struggled to finish easy shots near the basket throughout his college career and also lacked a go-to post move. Bryan-Amaning will also need to polish up his defensive skills in order to make the NBA: 

Defensively, Bryan-Amaning is immature and too stiff for someone so laterally quick. He tended to lose focus on defense at UW but was earnest to prove his desire at the Portsmouth Invitational in April—he hustled endlessly on both ends on his way to one of the tournament’s best four-day performances. (Via: Erik Kariya) 

With a 7'4" wingspan and above-average athleticism for a player his height at 6'10", Bryan-Amaning's NBA aspirations aren't a far-fetched dream. 

The Hoopsfix.com report mentions that Bryan-Amaning had several NBA teams interested in having him on their summer league teams before it was canceled. 

--Kevin Cacabelos ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

Photo Credit: GoHuskies.com

Aziz N'Diaye's Monday in tweets and pictures after the jump.