Washington's loss to Oregon State in the Pac 12 tournament proved fatal for the Huskies chances to advance to a fourth straight NCAA basketball tournament.
Instead the Huskies picked up the No. 1 overall seed in the National Invitation Tournament and will host Texas-Arlington Mavericks 7 p.m. Tuesday at Edmundson Pavilion in a game that will be broadcast nationally on ESPNU.
Coach Romar said he was not surprised at all. Just really disappointed.
He felt that if they had won one more game along the way they would have made the tournament and they just didn't get it done. So now the focus changes to one of recovery and then redemption in the NIT.
There's teams that are in the NIT and they're disappointed and it's a letdown for them because their sights were set on the NCAA tournament. They kind of have to get up to play in this tournament. And there's other that were waiting to see if they would get in the NIT like we were waiting for the NCAA tournament. The trick is that if you're one of the teams that is down and you're playing one of the ones that is so excited, they can get you. It's past us. We are in a tournament. It's another challenge. You have a chance to win a championship. It's not what we wanted. It wasn't our first choice, but we need to take a hold and seize the moment and get ready to go."
Changes in future tournament venues
The next Pac 12 Women's basketball tournament will be played at Seattle's Key Arena after a disastrous two year stay in LA. The tournament drew pretty well when it was held in the Bay Area and the hope is there will be a rebound in attendance with the move to Seattle.
When the tournament was held in the Bay Area which just happens to be the home of super power Stanford the tournament drew extremely well. Seattle has a good history of supporting women's basketball so it will be interesting to see how this move pans out.
Nothing official yet but it looks like the men are headed to Las Vegas with the hope of putting more butts in the seats. Not sure how well it is going to work but it is certainly more interesting than keeping the tourney in LA.
I'm not a big fan of a completely neutral venue. I the the tournament should be played on a rotating basis in NBA type arena's in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, and Denver.
Ryan Katz is the man to beat at SDSU
Former Oregon State QB Ryan Katz could be the starter for the Aztecs when the Huskies play them in September. A report in the San Diego Union describes him as the guy to beat for the job. Katz started for one season at OSU before losing his job and subsequently transferring to San Diego State.
SDSU is vurrently half way through spring practice. Another high profile Pac 12 transfer is no longer on the roster. Dillon (Hot Mess) Baxter was dismissed from the team at the start of the spring for missing classes and falling asleep during meetings.
Pat Claridge Passes
Former UW WR Pat Claridge who played in two Rose Bowls and went on to star in the CFL for the BC Lions while catching passes from Joe Kapp passed away last week at 73.
He said what?
One of the saddest parts of the scandal at Penn State is how folks keep forgetting the plight of the nameless children who were irreparably harmed by the failure of the PSU administration to react responsibly to the eye witness allegations that Jerry Sandusky was sexually abusing disadvantaged children.
Nike CEO Phil Knight was a speaker at Joe Paterno's funeral and he received a one minute standing ovation for the remarks he made while speaking to the gathering during the service.
"The matter was in the hands of a world-class university and a president with an outstanding national reputation," Knight said of the child sexual assault charges facing former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky that have engulfed the institution. "Whatever the details of the investigation are, this much is clear to me: There is a villain in this tragedy that lies in that investigation, not in Joe Paterno’s response to it."
I have to hand it to Knight for having the balls to address the issue straight on but I can't agree with his take on this because it lacks any type of sensitivity for the actual victims. Joe Paterno was the most powerful person on the Penn State campus and everyone knows that. The buck always stopped with him and in this case he simply didn't get it done.
I guess when you have built a billion dollar fortune in Asian sweatshops on the backs child labor working eighteen hours per day your sensitivity chip just might be a little flawed. I think the same lack of a sensitivity chip is what did in Paterno and Penn State. No amount of rationalizing is ever going to change that.