The Husky basketball team got their season back on track with a sweep over the bay area schools this past weekend. Washington didn't just win they dominated both Stanford and California in the most important series of the season so far.
Up next for the Huskies is the annual road trip to Los Angeles. the Huskies who were swept on the road in Arizona need a sweep in LA to climb back to the top of the conference before taking on Washington State the week after to wrap up the first half of the Pac 10 season. A 6-3 record in the first half should put Washington who has found itself as of late in great position to win its second straight Pac 10 title.
Washington also has interesting non conference game against Seattle U lined up the Tuesday before the WSU game. Expect a lot of hype to surround this game since it matches to old friends in Lorenzo Romar and Cameron Dollar not to mention SU big man Charles Garcia who followed Dollar the the Redhawks after not getting admitted to UW.
Garcia started the season hot and was on of the leading scorers in division one and had NBA scouts attending every one of his games. His performance has tailed off lately because of foul trouble and Dollar actually benched him during a victory against Utah Valley State because he didn't like the way he was playing.
According to Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times who interviewed Dollar after the game:
Dollar said Garcia was benched because of "just a couple of defensive miscues, a couple of uncontested shots. Same things other guys do, just the spotlight shines pretty bright on him. (He was) kind of a little bit out of it, so we went with some other guys."
Garcia may have star potential on most nights but he hasn't been helping his team win lately. In a 51 point victory over Oregon State a few weeks ago he sat on the bench most of the game in foul trouble. Despite his considerbale talents it is looking like SU is a better team without him in the lineup. The benching is Dollar's way of reinforcing that. It will be interesting to see how he bounces back from that.
Ronnie Fouch Transfers to Indiana State
QB Ronnie Fouch has transfered to Indiana State in search of playing time. Fouch will be a junior next season and be able to compete for the starting job. The loss of Fouch means UW will only have three scholarship QB's on the roster next season. It also means that Ronnie didn't exactly like the odds of starting his senior season after Jake leaves. Indiana State is coached by former UW assistant Trent Miles.
Recruiting
The Huskies completed their biggest recruiting weekend of the year by getting two new verbals from CB Gregory Ducre and DE Haouli Jamora. No word as yet that they solidified the commitment of WR Keanon Lowe from Jesuit HS in Portland who was among the visitors.
Washington now has 28 verbals for the 2010 class with only two open spots left that have been reserved for players such as DT Kerifi Taula, DT Ricky Heimuli, LB Hayes Pullard, and LB Josh Shirley. The Huskies also have a couple of potential back ups for those slots in LB Garrett Gilliliand and OT Michael Criste. RB Melvin Davis and LB Chris Young may have to enroll in winter of 2010 because of academics so it seems UW has all the pieces they need to finish this class on a high note the first week of February.
Washington will have visitors on campus the next two weekends leading into signing day. Chris Young and Melvin Davis take their SAT's on the 22nd and will visit after that. The Huskies also expect visits from Taula and Heimuli.
Washington also picked up its first verbal for 2011 earlier in the week when Athlete Brendon Bigelow from Fresno decided to become a Dawg. Bigelow who is recovering from knee surgery is regarded as one of the top recruits in California for 2011. Bigelow is an extemely fast athlete who could line up at either RB, WR, CB, or S. This clip from you tube shows what type of an athlete he is.
Tennessee hires Derek Dooley
Louisiana Tech coach Derek Dooley was named coach at Tennessee on Friday. Dooley is the son of former Georigia coaching legend and AD Vince Dooley. He is also a Nick Saban disciple who spent seven years working for Saban, five at LSU and two with the Miami Dolphins.
The 41 year old Dooley has been at Tech the past three years and has a 17-20 record overall with one bowl appearance. Dooleys team fell to 4-8 in 2009 which made him an unlikely candidate to move up in the coaching ranks this off season.
Another interesting factoid about Dooley is this you tube video of him doing his best Frank Kush/Jim Leavitt imitation by slapping one of his Tech players on the sideline back in 2007. I find it interesting that in a year where three division one head coaches were fired for the way they treated their players that the Volunteers took a chance on this guy after watching this video which has been floating around for three years.
On one hand the kid is wearing a helmet and I doubt it even fazed him. I grew up in the old school were a coach slapping your helmet or grabbing your face mask to get your attention wasn't that big of a deal. The thing is it wasn't right back then and it isn't right today.