Dot...Dot...Dawg (4/25)

• If you haven't looked at it, Ben researched a reflective piece on the history of Men's basketball coaching at UW. This piece was inspired by the passing of Marv Harshman and the interest of a young writer to get more familiar with the long history of MBB at UW. Take a look and leave some of your thoughts about the various coaches that have graced our floors.
• On to some football Dots. Eric Kiesau was the latest to get mic'd up over at Coach Sark's blog. It is nice to see a little of Eric's personality come through as he has been somewhat of a mystery man to the fanbase at large.
  
  
• The spring "game" is still on the minds of many of you. Our friends at the Husky Haul have their standard "Five Observations" from the practice to share.
• Lisa Horne, who last week wrote about how UW was crashing and burning, has changed her tune and is now calling Washington "a player" in this year's P12 race. While she may be a little schizo, who can blame her? Aren't we all when it comes to UW?
• Steve Sarkisian acknowledged my 40th birthday and did me the favor of being a guest on Tim Brando's Sirius XM show - which I get on my morning commute - to talk about the spring and the state of the Huskies.
  
• The Titans kicked off a mini-camp with questions surrounding Jake Locker and his role as a team leader. According to Jake, he wants to assume that mantle, but he wants it to come to him as opposed to forcing it.
• As Randall pointed out yesterday in our Weekly Debate, the NCAA now has the "College Football Playoff". Now that the naming of the tournament is complete, bigger questions about how to select the participants come into focus. Inevitably, the issue of the SEC only playing eight conference games becomes a sticking point in a world where the rest of the major conferences already or will soon play nine conference games. The SEC coaches all weighed in on the subject in this article tweeted by Anthony yesterday. Read through it and be insulted. I find it pretty embarrassing that many of the coaches cited the lame excuse of "how tough the SEC" was without acknowledging the obvious questions around fairness and parity. If they are so good in the SEC, why not let the results on the field show it?
  
• Turns out this little squabble that the Ducks are having with the NCAA lead to a Committee of Infractions hearing last Friday. According to SI and reported by Adam Jude, both the Oregon administration and former coach Chip Kelly made appearances. The appearance by Kelly was especially significant given the fact that Kelly no longer speaks for Oregon and, most likely, nobody on the Oregon side were hoping to actually see him appear. Kelly didn't disappoint noting to a reporter afterward that the relationship he conducted with Willie Lyles was "the same way other schools do." I know Oregon fans think this is "Chip being Chip" and that this form of protest is a good thing. However, given the fact that it appears that the University has already acknowledged that the relationship was inappropriate it is hard to perceive this kind of defiance by Chip Kelly as anything but "off the reservation". And, if the COI perceives Chip as being non-cooperative and defiant, I don't see how that translates into them accepting Oregon's argument that issues like the "oral reports" that they took from Lyles was actually clean and current scouting reports and nothing else. I'm speculating, of course, but it isn't hard to imagine that Chip Kelly threw his university under the bus in order to try to preserve his own reputation.
• Turning away from football and Oregon to something a little more inspiring. This story from the Daily is a nice reminder that student athletes some times have to make difficult choices, even when it involves the uber-champion Crew squad. Enjoy.

Question of the Day

As tempting as it is to throw out a question related to Oregon infractions (and, trust me, the comments always explode when Oregon is the subject), I'm more interested in the subject that AC tweeted about yesterday. Is it fair that the SEC continues to endorse and eight game conference schedule - a schedule that is so twisted due to committed "rivalries" that it is impossible for a current SEC player to actually play against every other SEC team even once in a normal "career"? Chime in below - what are your thoughts ... both pro and con? Try to think from and SEC point of view and let us know what you come up with.