Monday Dots: Felling Trees

Now here you go again, you say you want your freedom

Well, who am I to keep you Dots?

• The Husky women’s basketball team earned a season-defining win by overcoming #2 Stanford 72-67 on Sunday. Freshman Elle Ladine, a Bay Area native averaging under 5 points per game, broke out with 21 for the Dawgs. The win is the best of Tina Langley’s two year stint as UW head coach and could catapult an improved team to a higher status for the rest of the season and going forward.

• The men’s team had no such luck in their Saturday matchup with USC. Both Keons (Keion Brooks and Keyon Menifield) went over 20 points, but the gap between UW and the conference’s true contenders remained evident.

• Christian Caple got his hands dirty by going through the UW Athletic Department budget so the rest of us don’t have to. It’s no surprise that football is the biggest driver of both revenue and expenses, and that the dead money paid out to fired coaches eats away at the margins. Recruiting spending is also up significantly and UW has almost closed the gap with Oregon in that respect.

• One reason the Dawgs are spending more on recruiting is that they’re extending their traditional recruiting footprint to a much wider area. For instance, they hosted a 2024 DB from South Carolina on campus over the weekend. Tyler Jones is an under-the-radar safety, but he has the size and athleticism to break out.

• Husky track has been operating at a level seldom seen in the Seattle area on both the men’s and women’s sides. This weekend was no different. Carley Thomas broke the school’s 800m record with a time of 2:02.15.

• Roman Tomashoff has been previewing incoming Husky recruits for SI. His most recent entry is for Kahlee Tafai, the very large OL with physical tools but some work to do in terms of technique. He suggests that Tafai could be a starting OG down the road with time and development.