With just a few days until Signing Day on Wednesday, the first day recruits can send binding LOI (or slightly less-binding financial aid agreements - hint hint Oregon prospects), here's the latest on Husky recruiting targets, gleaned from various sources (and know that many of these situations are fluid and could change between now and Wednesday):

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This is the game Husky Nation has been waiting for. The game where the Huskies brought it in the first half. The game where the Dawgs played like a team. The game where Ross showed his killer instinct. The game we desperately wanted to see. Tonight we got what we have been pleading for. This Husky team may have turned the corner.

There is something about the national stage that dazzles all of us. Knowing that this is being watched by the entire country. It can either bring the best out in somebody, or the pressure can crack a person. This team belongs in the former category. Whenever they are put on national television something just clicks. Typically there is one player who just stands out on the national stage. This is a team that stands out when the country is watching. This team plays their best basketball with millions watching.

Team.

It feels so good to finally say that this feels like a team. Not a scattered group of individuals wearing the same jersey. This is a team, or at least, masqueraded as one tonight. Multiple times their constitution was tested, and multiple times they responded. When Arizona went on a 9-0 run in the first half, WIlcox hit a big shot to put a tourniquet on the bleeding. Then later we bore witness to the chilling of the blood within the veins of Terrence Ross. That shot was absolutely vile.

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I should be above this ... but I'm not. The Sac Bee has a poll asking which school these two highly rated recruits should pick. Here is the link. Do your duty. I'm going to take a shower now ....

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/27/4219144/leading-off-recruiting-of-prep.html

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The Huskies, fresh off of a poorly played victory against Arizona St., travel to Tucson, Arizona to take on a Wildcat team that is coming off of a strong effort against the Washington St. Cougars. Arizona hit 15 of 26 threes in the game. That is a staggering percentage.

If the Huskies hope to come out of the McKale Center with a win they will have to avoid the slow starts that have plagued them all season long. If there is ever a game to snap out of it, this would be it. The Wildcats are 5-3 in Pac-12 play, and 14-7 overall. Sean Miller is a good coach whom I have previously stated and will stand by my prediction that he will have the Wildcats NCAA Tournament mainstays.

Arizona is a solid team that can get its scoring from a variety of sources, with three players averaging double digits, and four averaging over nine per contest. The leading scorer for the WIldcats however, is Kyle Fogg, averaging over 12 per game. He is their starting off-guard and will most likely draw the unenviable assignment of guarding Tony Wroten. This will be a good test for Wroten however, as Fogg is one of the better perimeter defenders in the Pac, and could very well force Wroten to rely more on floaters and runners than easily reaching the rim and using the glass to his advantage.

Josiah Turner and Nick Johnson are typically the two point guards for this offense. Turner, a Freshman, has come on stronger as of late, while Johnson has moved into a role more as an outside three-point threat.

This team can light up the scoreboard from outside the arc. The biggest threats are typically Kyle Fogg and Nick Johnson, but they have other pieces with decent shooting ability who can knock down the occasional open three. If the Dawgs do now something they have struggled with most of the season, which is make quick defensive rotations, if they can do that then the Wildcats will have quite a bit of their offense cut off. This is a jump-shooting team.

The best rebounder for the WIldcats is 6-6 Junior forward Solomon Hill. He leads the team with over eight rebounds per game. Also he leads the team with 2.9 assists per game and also is second in scoring with 11.9 per game. This will be the duty of SImmons/Seferian-Jenkins/Kemp Jr. when each of them are out on the floor. The defensive effort on Hill will have a large impact on how this game turns out. How well will he be boxed out? Can Seferian-Jenkins guard an inside threat who also has the ability to fill it up from outside? This may lead to increased minutes for SImmons, as he would be much more comfortable on the perimeter than Seferian-Jenkins..

The final major minute-getter on this WIldcat team is Senior forward Jesse Perry. Perry is the second-leading rebounder at 7.3 per game, and also is the third player in double-digit scoring for this squad; Perry averages 11.5 points per game. He has been playing out of position and typically draws the assignment of the biggest player on the court, which means that he will be assigned to Aziz N'Daiye for this game.

Here's hoping to a game that is prettier than the last, which has an ugliness factor about on par with this picture of the Devil in Manchild form.

Stats provided via www.statsheet.com

Ladies and gentlemen, your Washington Huskies. This is yet another game that does nothing but define the season this team has had. Struggle in the first half, better in the second half. This game did little to allay the fear that Husky Nation feels any time the Dawgs take a road trip.

The team sleepwalked through the first half, leading to a grand total of 22 first half points. 22. Any Romar-coached team that scores 22 points in a half has work to do. Tempo was in the favor of the Sun Devils all night long. There were very few opportunities for the Huskies to use their superior athleticism to their advantage, as the ball was walked up the court, only for Abdul Gaddy to find four teammates asking him what a "play" is that the Sun Devils kept talking about. What is this "offensive set" that we hear so much about? These are questions that I am pretty sure Romar is asking his assistant coaches while his players take turns attempting to beat their man off of the bounce.

Today has been a long day, so instead of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly you get some bullet holes in memory of the not yet dead Jeff Sullivan of Lookout Landing.

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Washington squares off against Arizona State. The game started at 5:30 and it is on ROOT sports. Let's cheer on our beloved Dawgs and watch future NBA stars Wroten and Ross tear it up tonight. I suspect there will be an ASJ sighting and CJ Wilcox has been cleared to play, although his minutes will probably be limited.

So come join the usual suspects and have a good time as we hopefully knock off ASU.

Go Huskies!

As some of you might know, the baseball field just North of Husky Stadium is undergoing a pretty healthy renovation of it's own. From what I understand there will eventually be new bleachers, dugouts, and a new clubhouse and support building. The first phase of this facelift is the new clubhouse.

I'm lucky enough to be working on this project, and thought I'd share with you a couple of pictures I manged to snag. It's nice to see sports besides Football and Basketball being taken care of by the AD. It's also comforting to know that we're not lagging so severely behind in terms of facilities for sports like Baseball.

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Softy said live on the radio today that Softy heard a rumor. Softy emphasized that it's just a rumor he heard, but says he heard it from a good source. Softy said he is not "reporting" this -- it's just a rumor he heard.

Softy said the rumor he heard is that Tampa had reached a tentative agreement for a five year deal with the Chipster, but then Kelly asked for two additional things, and Tampa said no. First, Kelly wanted a longer term guaranteed deal. Second, Kelly wanted to be guaranteed that if the NCAA drops the hammer on him, and therefore the NFL suspends Kelly, that Tampa would be obligated to pay Kelly while he is on suspension. Tampa said NO WAY.

Looks like Kelly sees the hand writing on the wall so clearly that he's willing to risk making it a deal breaker with his NFL deal. Keep in mind that if anybody knows what really happened at Oregon, it's Kelly.

This weekend the Huskies will travel down to Arizona to take on Arizona State and Arizona, respectively. This could very well be the perfect timing for this trip, as the Sun Devils are struggling this year, and Arizona isn't up to the level they were last year when they were led by super-stud Derrick Williams. This trip comes after strong second half showings at home versus the NoCal schools Cal and Stanford. You can find post-game reports here and here. If the Huskies want to take down the post-Williams Wildcats however, they will have to put forth an effort that they did similar to the second half of these games. Sean Miller built a strong program over at Xavier, and will have these Wildcats turned into regular attendees to the Big Dance in no time.

First the Huskies will have to get through the Sun Devils however.

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Here are my newest Power Rankings. Feel free to post your own.

1. CAL 16-5 6-2 - a win over WSU would have made them a clear #1, but instead its close with the top 4.

2. Oregon 15-5 6-2 - two nice home wins for the ducks last week.

3. UW 12-7 5-2 - played 3 good quarters last weekend. Tough road ahead.

4. CU 13-6 5-2 stood strong at home. Maybe the best coach in the conference.

5. Stanford 5-3 15-5 - swept on the road and should lose 3rd straight on Sunday.

6. Arizona 4-3 13-7 - couldnt win in Boulder.

7. WSU 3-4 11-8 - great homestand for the Cougs. Can they steal one in Arizona?

8 OSU 3-5 13-7 - nice bounce back over the LA schools.

9. UCLA 3-4 10-9 - getting swept in Oregon for the team picked to win the conference. Good thing Bruin nation is having some recruiting positives

10 Utah 2-5 5-14 - because they beat ASU, not as bad as I once thought.

11. ASU 2-5 6-13 - UW better beat them.

12 USC 0-7 5-15 - still no conference wins but Utah comes to town this week. A loss could have them looking at 0-18.

Doing this Power Ranking has really made me see just how bad the PAC 12 is in basketball. There is just no defending it. Our best team lost in Pullman and shouldve lost in Seattle. This could really be the year that only our conference champion makes the tournament.