Dot...Dot...Dawg (2/16)

I know the only things that anyone wants to talk about right now are the Count and Anna's knickers, but take a look around.  Blimey, there are a lot of Dots in here.

• A shoutout to my new favorite Dawg o' the Day: Jeremy Taiwo had an "among the best of all time" performances at last week's Husky Classic in the heptathlon. Jeremy set a world record in the heptathlon high jump and tallied 6,156 points over the course of the event - enough for number 3 in NCAA history and number 7 in US history. In recognition of his achievements, Taiwo was recognized today as the US Track and Field coaches National Athlete of the Week. A truly remarkable week for the Huskies and for Jeremy Taiwo. WOOF!
• Isaiah Thomas went off last night with jumpers and lobs on his way to an outstanding performance in the NBA Rising Stars Challenge. IT finished with 18 points and 10 assists as Team Chuck dominated.
  

  via cdn2.sbnation.com

  
  
• The MBB team hopes to end one of the most prolonged streaks of ineptitude ever seen during the Lorenzo Romar era as they take on the Oregon State Beavers for the 293rd time in history. As pointed out in the Oregon State preview, 292 games is the third most games between any two teams in NCAA history just behind Oregon-Oregon State and Oregon-Washington. That's some history for ya'.
• For MBB to have a chance to win today, they are going to have to hope that they can find a way to get their offense clicking decently enough at the beginning of the game to hold a lead. No brainer, right? Well, did you know?
  

  #UDUB has led once, for 28 seconds, out of its last 49:04 of game time. Dates to 1-pt lead with 9 minutes left 3gms ago at UCLA. @uw_mbb

  — Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) February 14, 2013

  
  This team is simply not good enough to come back from large deficits. They can't run an efficient half-court offense and they don't have any single player capable of making several "to the rim" types of plays. Their only spurts of offense come from random streaks of perimeter shots falling and transition points that come due to spurts of good defense. Those are all valued when they come, but neither is a good strategy when trying to come back from double digit deficits. The good news is that we have seen the UW defense muddy up games on many occasions against good teams, so if they can find a way to stay in the game early, they ought to have a chance to win.
• Lorenzo Romar continues to say that the high-post offense is "working" to provide UW with open looks and that the problem is that the shots just are not going in.
  

  Romar's point is it isn't the new, high-post offense. It's that the shots the sets are generating aren't going in."We're getting good shots"

  — Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) February 14, 2013

  
  I'm sorry, but there is a line between being optimistic/positive and being dishonest. LoRo put one toe over that line with that comment. Even though we don't have a good enough shooting big man to do it justice, I do like the high-post offense as a scheme for this team because, for one thing, it should give our bigger guards - in particular Gaddy and Suggs - opportunities to post up smaller players for favorable mismatches. But all one has to do is watch how little player movement occurs (with the exception of either Gaddy or Andrews) to know it isn't working.
• One thing that I find particularly disappointing is the fact that Abdul Gaddy, who has been much better than most of us perceive, should be an NBA prospect and probably would be if in a better basketball system. Basketball geeks will enjoy this Grandland article on how bigger college point guards can really build their draft stock by working on the overlooked art of the pick and roll. Reading through it, it strikes me that the pick and roll is not integrated in any way into LoRo's offense and Gaddy, who has the ideal skill set to run it, is being deprived in the process.
• Hopefully, by now, all this nonsensical chatter about C.J. Wilcox leaving early to go the NBA has ceased. While C.J., I think, has impressed all of us in how much more well-rounded his game has become - in particular in on the defensive side - there can be no doubt that his prolonged offensive slump has cast a pall over his season. A shooter who struggles to stay above 40% and has had almost no success in generating offense inside the arc is a guy who needs another year. I still find myself completely stumped that 6'0" Jio Fortan was able to lock C.J. down. That was a low point in the season. The good news for Husky fans is that it appears that LoRo's notion of C.J.'s foot injury being a non-factor is bunk and we can all be hopeful for a POY type of campaign for the senior-to-be next year.
  

  via ww1.hdnux.com

• Dave Boling finally chimed in on the struggles of the Huskies this year. He argues that UW is learning about the perils of MBB roster management in this era of early departing pro prospects.
• You have no doubt heard about the horrible story in Russia involving the meteorite that falling. Perhaps you were also paying attention yesterday when the earth got buzzed by 2012 DA14 - a 45 meter long asteroid. What in the name of Rockhound is going on around here?
  

  via www.allouttabubblegum.com

• The good news for Husky fans is that one of our basketball teams understand the notion of scoring the basketball. Kristi Kingma set a PAC12 record with 11 (yes, 11!) three point baskets as the blistering hot lady Dawgs buried the Oregon Ducks. Jazmine Davis dished out nine assists and the Huskies, as a team, set a new P12 record with 18 tre's. It was a stellar night all around. Congrats to the Huskies.
• The Baseball team opened their season in disappointing fashion - getting handled pretty easily by the UC Davis Aggies.
• The P12 Blog on ESPN has reached number 7 on their top 25 countdown list. By now, it is pretty obvious that no Huskies are going to make this list. I don't really have a huge problem with this - although the notion that Austin Seferian-Jenkins, Bishop Sankey and Desmond Trufant were turned in less impactful seasons than Reggie Dunn, Michael Clay or David Yankey is kind of laughable to me. The fact is that winners get the lauds in lists like this and of the 9 of the 19 players listed so far came from either Stanford or Oregon (and five more from Utah and Oregon State?) while none have come USC, Washington, or Arizona, among others. This should tell us all what the outside world thinks of our Dawgs.
• The Huskies have released their upcoming Spring schedule including a new "split Spring" format and a P12 televised Spring Game set for April 20th. Hopefully the P12 Network will have their crap pulled together by then, but I'm not betting on it. One thing for hungry Dawgs to note - we will be starting spring ball next month!
• If you still need a pick me up, read about our newest Good Samaritan Dawg - Ben Riva!
• Finally, you Crew fans will be excited by this - the Huskies national champion Men's team will be taking on Cambridge on the famous Tideways course on the Thames River. Gregg Bell has a great "Unleashed" column that hits on the significance of this event. Here is an excerpt:
  

  Husky crew has been just about everywhere. It has won just about everything.

  The Huskies' men are the two-time defending national IRA champion. They have raced on the Nile River in Egypt. The Moskova River in Moscow. In China.

  Twice in the last three years UW has even won at the birthplace of collegiate rowing. The Huskies have taken the Temple Challenge Cup, the featured race for eight-man crews for individual colleges at England's historic Royal Henley Regatta.

  But this weekend this Husky crew team is doing something it has never done before.

  This is a great opportunity for the Huskies and a memorable way to kick off a new season. The Huskies have earned this opportunity and I know I speak for everyone when GO DAWGS!