Dots: the most wonderful time of the year

Ok. We have to rush through the Dots today as I still have some serious shopping left to do before Christmas. If you happen to be reading this and you are among the small group of people who might reasonably expect a stocking stuffer from me, I’m happy to let you know that I’ve already got you covered.

#SpoilerAlert: you’ve got a BevBuckle coming your way.

Let’s do some dots.

• I suppose we need to talk about Men’s basketball. The Dawgs are in a very, very precarious position when it comes to making the NCAA Tournament following their ugly loss at the hands of #13 Virginia Tech in Atlantic City. ESPN is currently projecting UW “OUT” of the tourney after the loss. While it may be unfair, this season is quickly trending towards a sense of disappointment for fans (and bloggers) who had mid to mid-high seeding in mind for March Madness. The sad state of the PAC 12 and the hopes that UW can come up with strong showing in conference play is the last real shot that the Huskies have in making their case for a trip to the dance.
• College bowl season is upon us. But the most remarkable play that you will see during this joyous holiday season might just come out of the DII playoffs:

• Speaking of College Bowl season, we’ve discussed many times in this forum the implications of ESPN owning much of the bowl lineup. SB Nation has a full recap of that situation which, I’m sure, will fuel some interesting debate in the comments thread.
• Once considered the “weak link” among UW’s football recruiters, former Husky Ikaika Malloe has made Washington the go-to destination for Hawaii’s top recruits. Mahalo!

• There are not a lot of pundits giving Washington much of a chance against aOSU in the Rose Bowl. Count former UW hoops standout Terrance Ross among those that think maybe the Dawgs are getting counted out too early. H/T to Landon Buford of the Hype Magazine for his interview with T-Ross.
• UCLA football fans are in “freak out” mode as their favorite physical freak and former #1 defensive recruit in the nation Jaelan Phillips has left the program. There is some speculation that Phillips may be done with football altogether, but that remains to be seen.
• True Freshman T.T. Watkins earned her first career start for the Women’s Hoops team in UW’s opening win over Montana in the Husky Classic
• Is Chris Petersen a possible head coaching candidate in the NFL going into 2019? A mention of CCP in a blog post focused on the Jacksonville Jaguars did not escape my notice.

Honoring Rod Jones

We previously linked to the news that former Husky tight end Rod Jones died by suicide last week. King 5 news reported on his family’s last moments with the former UW great. His family strongly suspects lingering effects of CTE and head trauma as a factor in the Jones’s decision to take his life.

The loss of Jones, who at the time of his passing was approaching his 20th year in the Washington Athletic Department as an academic coordinator, is a reminder of the urgency that we all should feel to get out ahead of mental health and suicidal tendency issues that our plaguing our athletes and our society as a whole. We wrote on this issue after the tragic loss of WSU quarterback Tyler Hilinski and provide the link to that article here now.

God bless.