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Sorry for my absence, folks. The paying job sometimes commands a little extra effort and, for some reason, I can't always find somebody to step in. Curious.
- I missed this last week, and I can only wish that I was in Seattle when it was like this, but kudos to Seattle officials who made sure that the Space Needle was lit up in purple last week to honor Don James.
- The BYE week affords a little time for us to focus on Husky Football recruiting which, as everybody knows, is expected to result in a class of limited numbers (believe it or not, the Huskies are still one of the younger teams in the P12). Pacific Takes interviewed Lars Hanson of RealDawg to get an update.
- One of my favorite BYE week pieces so far comes from Mason Kelley who profiled the statistical wizardry happening behind the scenes in Husky Athletics. We have debated a lot about Sark's merits as a head coach, but one cannot accuse him of not exploring competitive edges in just about every facet that he can control. This is just another example.
- Lost in the routine dispatching of the California Golden Bears was the fact that Travis Coons won the P12 Player of the Week - Special Teams honor. Coons, who frustratingly is now playing in all three kicking aspects, is being honored for what I believe is the first time.
- One of the better plays of the Bears game was the breakaway 59-yard TD run by Bishop Sankey. The Daily Californian does its best RedmondLonghorn impersonation to give you the X's and O's of that play.
- For the Huskies D, there is no BYE week.
- One of the stalwarts on that Husky D this season has been Hau'oli Kikaha who, following two knee surgeries, has the Huskies among the best in the nation at generating sacks. Christian Caple says it is all about making up for lost time with Hau'oli.
- Also from Caple, a look at the candidates to step into Kasen Williams' starting spot now that the Huskies #1 receiver is expected to be gone for 2-4 months with a broken leg.
- Some of you may have noticed that Marcus Mariota made the cover of Sports Illustrated (jinx). One thing you may not have noticed is the link to Husky Nation inherent in the cover image. Read on. Odds are you are going to like it.
- Lots of basketball news percolating right now as the Huskies are set to kickoff their season. We'll be linking a lot more to Percy Allen as the season gets going. One thing we won't be linking to is the super secret scrimmage that UW had with the University of Portland last night. In the meantime, Percy has an interesting update on two Huskies taken in last week's NBA D-League draft.
Shout out to @scottro15 and @gaddy253 for getting drafted 15 and 27 respectively today in the D-League draft! Congratulations fellas!!
— Lorenzo Romar (@CoachRomar) November 2, 2013 - Also from Percy, a reminder that Oregon's Dana Altman isn't the only coach going out and getting impact transfers. After waiting a year to get both Perris Blackwell and Gilles Dierckx onto the floor, this year's transfer, big man Robert Upshaw, is already drawing rave reviews in practice.
- Tim Booth has a nice preview of the Huskies Men's Basketball team for the AP. The goal for this team is to take full advantage of its new frontcourt and to get back to the NCAA Tournament after a two year hiatus.
- GoHuskies has their own in-depth preview that is worth a read. C.J. Wilcox thinks the Huskies are going to surprise a few people.
- It's also been a big week for Husky basketball alumni. Quincy Pondexter has a golden new contract, one that our friends at Grizzly Bear Blues thinks is a good overall value, while Isaiah Thomas is SacTown Royalty's "Player of the Week" in the NBA season's first week.
- There is a whole lot of other great things going on in our non-revenue sports. One hot team is the Women's Volleyball team which, as ESPN reports, has its eyes on the prize. Just after this report, the Huskies had to dig deep to pull a tight one out over Utah.
- Women's Basketball has officially kicked off its season and got a big "W" in game 1.
Question of the Day
This is the time of year that Football and Basketball begin to share the headlines. Since we are still in the throes of a BYE week, let me ask you this: what are your expectations for the Husky Men's Bball team this year? NCAAs? NIT? Something less? Personally, I think there is a lot more opportunity for balanced scoring. But I worry about our defense - particularly in the interior. If this team is going to go anywhere, it is going to have to come from an efficient and consistent inside-out offense. That said, I think this is a fringe NCAA team and one that is being undersold by the Pac 12 writers.