It is often the case that I have no clue what I'm going to do with my time. The sun rises, the chores accumulate and the dots grow. Still, I am not clear on the direction that my day will go. Is there a better conviction on the transience of this life?

• Condotta has an early look at Stanford. He does a nice job of avoiding the hype machine that has occurred on the four letter network. As impressed I was with the USC win, I was equally unimpressed with the first two games that the Cardinal played. In their 20-17 win versus SJSU (in Palo Alto), their vaunted power offense produced just 3.8 yds / rush and less than 160 yards altogether, all the while displaying an inconsistency in the pass game that has been present in all their games so far. Against Duke - a game that featured 23 points that came as a result of non-offensive TDs - the Cardinal actually got outgained by the Blue Devils ... in Palo Alto. Again, the vaunted power game only produced 92 yards rushing DESPITE playing from ahead most of the night. Based on a full body of work, it is hard to call Stanford a top 10 team right now - especially when teams like Boise St, Oregon St, Northwestern and Missouri reside at the bottom of or outside of the rankings. I'm in no way calling for UW to upset them, but I would appreciate a little more perspective be brought to the discussion. USC is as responsible for what happened last weekend as Stanford is. A poor offensive game plan built on hubris by Lane Kiffin coupled with injuries at C and DE became a toxic mix in a narrow defeat in Palo Alto. The Thursday night game with be Stanford's first road test against a team that is game-planning around Stanford's strengths (not unlike Duke or SJSU did) as opposed to trying to match them head on.
• For those of you really into the recruiting, Mason has an excellent mailbag ($). In it, he hits on Miles Jack, commits who are most likely to flip, and what recruits think of Dan Cozzetto.
• Todd Dybas continues with his series on "Inside the Playbook". I'm sure it won't look familiar.
• Scott Johnson is very pessimistic about the Huskies upcoming gauntlet schedule. I think he echoes many Husky fans' points of view. Still, I constantly remind myself that every game is unique in its own right because of talent, scheme, situation and circumstances. Just because LSU whipped UW and Stanford manhandled USC, one still can't conclude that the outcome to Thursday night is already determined.
  
• Jake Locker is in the news after a tough weekend last week. There is some debate about whether to pull him in the media but, frankly, I haven't really heard any of it in the local hubbub. The Titans want Jake to be more patient and to improve his stats, where he is already showing to be among the top of the first time starters in the NFL over the first two weeks.
• This is a bit of a PR bit, but I thought I'd post this link on the re-opening of the HUB.
• Rant Sports has a preview of Tony Wroten as he prepares for his first NBA season with the Memphis Grizzlies. They speculate that Tony will become a two. I hope this doesn't happen. Tony does have remarkable stature to go along with budding PG skills. To try not to develop that would be a missed opportunity to - possibly - develop a Magic Johnson style player.
• Speaking of NBA rookies - the locals are very eager to see what Terrence Ross is going to do for them.
• Lots of basketball news out there. The Cowbell Kingdom adds to the fray with their preview of the Kings guard rotations and speculate that Isaiah Thomas is the lock to be the starting PG this season.
• In a dot that will make you laugh, Doug Collins wants Spencer Hawes to be a "Pau Gasol" type of player.

Some non-Husky Dots after the Jump

• Mark Emmert made some comments on how PSU is handling the sanctions and notes that he is pleased with their work to date. I'm not going to read between the lines here, but we've discussed in this forum the idea that these penalties might get scaled back. I wonder if this is a signal.
• Dennis Dodds has his weekly watch list and focuses on the track meet that should erupt between the Ducks and the Wildcats today. Like most of you, I expect the Ducks to runaway from Arizona. But I'm intrigued by this matchup. If there is any single man in all the country with the insights required to stall a Duck offense that is missing a key O-Lineman and features a freshman QB, it truly is RichRod.
• Stewart Mandel is also interested in the Ducks/Wildcats affair, in particular Nick Aliotti's defense. I know it is chic to say that the Ducks have a great defense that gets hidden because of all the plays that the Ducks offense creates for the opposing team. I'm not so sure . . . yet . . . the truth is we don't know what this youngish Ducks D will actually do against some real competition. We'll see today.