Saturday, March 05, 2005
PAC-10 TOURNAMENT FIELD NOW SET
Unfortunately, the Washington Huskies won't be the conference's #1 seed going into the Pac-10 Tournament, with their loss to Stanford today. That honor goes to the Arizona Wildcats, who clinched the regular season title today at Arizona State.
The conference tournament starts this Thursday and ends next Saturday.
PAC-10 TOURNAMENT
STAPLES CENTER - LOS ANGELES
THURSDAY, MARCH 10
GAME 1 (12 p.m. Pacific)
#1 Arizona vs #8 California
GAME 2 (2:30 p.m. Pacific)
#4 UCLA vs #5 Oregon State
GAME 3 (6:00 p.m. Pacific)
#2 Washington vs #7 Arizona State
GAME 4 (8:30 p.m. Pacific)
#3 Stanford vs #6 Washington State
FRIDAY, MARCH 11
Game 1 Winner vs Game 2 Winner (Time TBA)
Game 3 Winner vs Game 4 Winner (Time TBA)
SATURDAY, MARCH 12
Championship Game (CBS)
The games on Thursday and Friday will be televised on Fox Sports Net. Saturday's championship game will be on CBS.
Regardless of what Lute Olson thinks, I love the Pac-10 Tournament. Conference tournaments are very fun to watch. Who wouldn't want to see Dick Bennett's Washington State Cougars beat Stanford one more time?
In the end, I see Washington and Arizona hooking up next Saturday. And that's the way it should be. We've already seen two very good games between these two teams. A third one sounds very enticing as well.
March Madness. It's a sickness. But I don't want to be cured.
The conference tournament starts this Thursday and ends next Saturday.
PAC-10 TOURNAMENT
STAPLES CENTER - LOS ANGELES
THURSDAY, MARCH 10
GAME 1 (12 p.m. Pacific)
#1 Arizona vs #8 California
GAME 2 (2:30 p.m. Pacific)
#4 UCLA vs #5 Oregon State
GAME 3 (6:00 p.m. Pacific)
#2 Washington vs #7 Arizona State
GAME 4 (8:30 p.m. Pacific)
#3 Stanford vs #6 Washington State
FRIDAY, MARCH 11
Game 1 Winner vs Game 2 Winner (Time TBA)
Game 3 Winner vs Game 4 Winner (Time TBA)
SATURDAY, MARCH 12
Championship Game (CBS)
The games on Thursday and Friday will be televised on Fox Sports Net. Saturday's championship game will be on CBS.
Regardless of what Lute Olson thinks, I love the Pac-10 Tournament. Conference tournaments are very fun to watch. Who wouldn't want to see Dick Bennett's Washington State Cougars beat Stanford one more time?
In the end, I see Washington and Arizona hooking up next Saturday. And that's the way it should be. We've already seen two very good games between these two teams. A third one sounds very enticing as well.
March Madness. It's a sickness. But I don't want to be cured.
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BROWNIE POINTS
I heard about this on KING-5 and I've been able to find Len Pasquarelli's supporting link.
Mike Holmgren had been on record saying that he'd facilitate any move that would give Trent Dilfer an opportunity to start somewhere in the NFL, and now it appears he will have that chance as the Cleveland Browns apparently will send a fourth-round pick to the Seahawks in the upcoming draft for Dilfer.
The Seahawks no longer will have the best backup quarterback in the NFL, and I'll miss the sense of security knowing that a Super Bowl-winning quarterback was waiting on the sidelines in case Matt Hasselbeck got hurt. I'm also thankful for all the guidance that he's shown Matt over the last few years.
Good luck to Trent Dilfer, a class act, and good luck to Team Ruskell, as any more picks in the draft are a good thing. Defense!
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FELIX!
Felix Hernandez will be pitching for the M's in the 3rd inning against the Padres.
Discuss anything Felix-related in the box. Yes, I have a radio feed today. Woo-hoo-hoo.
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SOLD
Welcome to Saturday. I hope your weekend has started off on a good note.
For today's random...I kinda miss the steam heating back at the campus in Ellensburg. It was bad if you got into the wrong building and the heater/radiator would make knocking and pinging noises (big Lind Hall lecture room during a test), but if you had a small room, it would heat up pretty quickly. The steam heat also made for really cool steaming holes around campus, namely the one by the tennis courts, and the one by the greenhouse on the west side of the campus. But the one thing you learn quickly is not to touch the heater, and also not to leave anything meltable (or flammable, for that matter) on the good ol' hot-metal heaters. The weird thing about the heater back in my last place was that you had to crank it pretty high for it to even work, so I'd keep having to race back to it and turn it down when I discovered it was sweltering in the room. Then I'd open the window and let some 20-degree air inside to quickly neutralize the temperature.
Oh yeah, big congrats to the hometown Puget Sound Tomahawks, who swept their series with the Tri-City Titans last night and are going to the Cascade Cup Finals to determine the champion of the Northern Pacific Hockey League. The series will start on Friday.
To the post...
MARINERS
Joel Pineiro threw yesterday and said, "I got your flexor bundle right here." Okay, maybe he didn't say that, but everything seems to be checking out, as he threw and eventually cut loose. Likewise with Jeff Nelson. In the field, Shin-Soo Choo had a hell of a day, but don't we all? At least his only came in spring training. Rett Johnson also threw in the game.
Following in the long line of articles about recently-departed Mariners with other teams, here's a piece on Pat Borders. Basically we're told that the Mariners will roll out the red carpet for Pat to be a coach in the system when he retires. The article also shows the names of Pat's children, but not the reason why all their names start with L. Surely that's not for anything to do with losses or losing.
Also, some people at the box offices at the ballpark will be able to see the formal on-site dedication of Edgar Martinez Way. Should be fun.
SEAHAWKS
The Seahawks officially cut Anthony Simmons loose, and that makes getting a linebacker an even higher priority. Unfortunately, the cupboard is getting progressively bare, as Jeremiah Trotter re-signed with the Eagles yesterday, therefore cancelling his trip to Seattle. Names that Clare Farnsworth gives to the public as possible linebacker targets are Edgerton Hartwell of the Ravens (you can call him Ed) and Kendrell Bell of the Steelers.
The team apparently has thought about Patrick Surtain to fill the void left by Ken Lucas. The Dolphins might be seeking a high pick in return, and Farnsworth said they were seeking a second-rounder.
As for travel tidbits, Chike Okeafor met with the Broncos and will be meeting with Arizona. Even restricted free agent Rocky Bernard is joining the parade, meeting with the Houston Texans.
BASKETBALL
The Miah Davis Update
The Roanoke Dazzle plays at Florida tonight and they host Florida the following Saturday.
The Marvin Williams Watch
The Tar Heels host some team calling themselves Duke tomorrow (1p, CBS), the only game remaining before the ACC tournament.
Huskies
Yes, the Huskies have a chance today to get themselves a share of the Pac-10 regular season title. Sure, the Huskies haven't won at Stanford in 12 years, but this Stanford team isn't exactly stellar, and they've since replaced the floor.
The Huskies are at Stanford today (1p, CBS) before they open Pac-10 tournament play on Thursday, with the games being televised by FSNNW.
Bulldogs
In the West Coast Conference tournament, the Zags get the winner of today's San Diego/Pepperdine game. The Zags play tomorrow (6p, ESPN2).
Sonics
For my take on last night's game, scroll down a post or click here if this post is the only one on the page.
Man, what a win that was. We've seen this team win in so many ways this season against so many teams, and it seems to me that the only way you can beat this team is if you match up small with them (Boston, notably). They beat Dallas and San Antonio back to back on the road (they're one of only two teams to beat the Spurs at San Antonio), and those teams have two very different styles. They beat Houston on the road in a tough, knock-down, drag-out game, similar to the one they had last night against Detroit. We've also seen the crazy comeback against Memphis at the Key. It's weird because it seems like I can't point out many games where they were hard-fought games and the Sonics just got edged out in the end. If they get beat, it's because they shoot like crap and they get whipped, or because Earl Boykins breaks a record in overtime. Even more scary is that I'm stil beside myself that the Sonics lost those two games before the break. I thought they should have beat both Dallas and Golden State. Anyway, if you would chalk those up as wins, the Sonics would have had a 10-1 February and they'd have won 13 of 14.
...but 11 of 14 isn't bad.
Upcoming...
Tomorrow vs. Phoenix (6p, FSNNW)
Tuesday vs. Houston (7p, FSNNW)
Friday vs. Chicago (7:30p, not televised)
HOCKEY
Portland beat Vancouver 4-2. Dan Da Silva opened the scoring for Portland in the first period, and scored the winner in the second period. Kyle Bailey scored to get the Winter Hawks a 2-0 lead after one. Matt Robinson scored for Vancouver in the second period to get the Giants within one before Da Silva scored his second. Likewise, Andrej Meszaros' third-period goal was negated by Brian Woolger, who was plus-3 on the night. Shots were 32-26 for Vancouver. Dustin Butler stopped 30 for Portland, and Marek Schwarz stopped 22 for Vancouver. Butler had his first start since the 8th of February, resting up from he started 18 straight games when Blake Grenier was injured.
Puget Sound beat Tri-City 2-1. The Titans opened the scoring in the first period, but Carl Horten scored the equalizer later in the first period, and netted the winner just past the halfway point in the third period. Both of Horten's goals came on the power play, and Mike Truex assisted on both goals. Iggy Slepokourev was busy in net. Shots were 39-31 for Tri-City, and Iggy stopped 38, as he was peppered with pucks. The Tomahawks are now in the Cascade Cup Finals, and will square off against the Queen City Cutthroats from Helena, Montana. The series will start Friday, though the rink hasn't been determined.
Upcoming...
Saturday: Everett at Seattle, Tri-City at Portland, Kelowna at Vancouver, Rochester at Manitoba
Sunday: Seattle at Portland, Vancouver at Kamloops, Rochester at Manitoba
Wednesday: Tri-City at Seattle, Everett at Spokane, Manitoba at Grand Rapids
Friday: Seattle at Everett, Spokane at Portland, Vancouver at Prince George, Manitoba at Grand Rapids
---
Have a great Saturday.
For today's random...I kinda miss the steam heating back at the campus in Ellensburg. It was bad if you got into the wrong building and the heater/radiator would make knocking and pinging noises (big Lind Hall lecture room during a test), but if you had a small room, it would heat up pretty quickly. The steam heat also made for really cool steaming holes around campus, namely the one by the tennis courts, and the one by the greenhouse on the west side of the campus. But the one thing you learn quickly is not to touch the heater, and also not to leave anything meltable (or flammable, for that matter) on the good ol' hot-metal heaters. The weird thing about the heater back in my last place was that you had to crank it pretty high for it to even work, so I'd keep having to race back to it and turn it down when I discovered it was sweltering in the room. Then I'd open the window and let some 20-degree air inside to quickly neutralize the temperature.
Oh yeah, big congrats to the hometown Puget Sound Tomahawks, who swept their series with the Tri-City Titans last night and are going to the Cascade Cup Finals to determine the champion of the Northern Pacific Hockey League. The series will start on Friday.
To the post...
MARINERS
Joel Pineiro threw yesterday and said, "I got your flexor bundle right here." Okay, maybe he didn't say that, but everything seems to be checking out, as he threw and eventually cut loose. Likewise with Jeff Nelson. In the field, Shin-Soo Choo had a hell of a day, but don't we all? At least his only came in spring training. Rett Johnson also threw in the game.
Following in the long line of articles about recently-departed Mariners with other teams, here's a piece on Pat Borders. Basically we're told that the Mariners will roll out the red carpet for Pat to be a coach in the system when he retires. The article also shows the names of Pat's children, but not the reason why all their names start with L. Surely that's not for anything to do with losses or losing.
Also, some people at the box offices at the ballpark will be able to see the formal on-site dedication of Edgar Martinez Way. Should be fun.
SEAHAWKS
The Seahawks officially cut Anthony Simmons loose, and that makes getting a linebacker an even higher priority. Unfortunately, the cupboard is getting progressively bare, as Jeremiah Trotter re-signed with the Eagles yesterday, therefore cancelling his trip to Seattle. Names that Clare Farnsworth gives to the public as possible linebacker targets are Edgerton Hartwell of the Ravens (you can call him Ed) and Kendrell Bell of the Steelers.
The team apparently has thought about Patrick Surtain to fill the void left by Ken Lucas. The Dolphins might be seeking a high pick in return, and Farnsworth said they were seeking a second-rounder.
As for travel tidbits, Chike Okeafor met with the Broncos and will be meeting with Arizona. Even restricted free agent Rocky Bernard is joining the parade, meeting with the Houston Texans.
BASKETBALL
The Miah Davis Update
The Roanoke Dazzle plays at Florida tonight and they host Florida the following Saturday.
The Marvin Williams Watch
The Tar Heels host some team calling themselves Duke tomorrow (1p, CBS), the only game remaining before the ACC tournament.
Huskies
Yes, the Huskies have a chance today to get themselves a share of the Pac-10 regular season title. Sure, the Huskies haven't won at Stanford in 12 years, but this Stanford team isn't exactly stellar, and they've since replaced the floor.
The Huskies are at Stanford today (1p, CBS) before they open Pac-10 tournament play on Thursday, with the games being televised by FSNNW.
Bulldogs
In the West Coast Conference tournament, the Zags get the winner of today's San Diego/Pepperdine game. The Zags play tomorrow (6p, ESPN2).
Sonics
For my take on last night's game, scroll down a post or click here if this post is the only one on the page.
Man, what a win that was. We've seen this team win in so many ways this season against so many teams, and it seems to me that the only way you can beat this team is if you match up small with them (Boston, notably). They beat Dallas and San Antonio back to back on the road (they're one of only two teams to beat the Spurs at San Antonio), and those teams have two very different styles. They beat Houston on the road in a tough, knock-down, drag-out game, similar to the one they had last night against Detroit. We've also seen the crazy comeback against Memphis at the Key. It's weird because it seems like I can't point out many games where they were hard-fought games and the Sonics just got edged out in the end. If they get beat, it's because they shoot like crap and they get whipped, or because Earl Boykins breaks a record in overtime. Even more scary is that I'm stil beside myself that the Sonics lost those two games before the break. I thought they should have beat both Dallas and Golden State. Anyway, if you would chalk those up as wins, the Sonics would have had a 10-1 February and they'd have won 13 of 14.
...but 11 of 14 isn't bad.
Upcoming...
Tomorrow vs. Phoenix (6p, FSNNW)
Tuesday vs. Houston (7p, FSNNW)
Friday vs. Chicago (7:30p, not televised)
HOCKEY
Portland beat Vancouver 4-2. Dan Da Silva opened the scoring for Portland in the first period, and scored the winner in the second period. Kyle Bailey scored to get the Winter Hawks a 2-0 lead after one. Matt Robinson scored for Vancouver in the second period to get the Giants within one before Da Silva scored his second. Likewise, Andrej Meszaros' third-period goal was negated by Brian Woolger, who was plus-3 on the night. Shots were 32-26 for Vancouver. Dustin Butler stopped 30 for Portland, and Marek Schwarz stopped 22 for Vancouver. Butler had his first start since the 8th of February, resting up from he started 18 straight games when Blake Grenier was injured.
Puget Sound beat Tri-City 2-1. The Titans opened the scoring in the first period, but Carl Horten scored the equalizer later in the first period, and netted the winner just past the halfway point in the third period. Both of Horten's goals came on the power play, and Mike Truex assisted on both goals. Iggy Slepokourev was busy in net. Shots were 39-31 for Tri-City, and Iggy stopped 38, as he was peppered with pucks. The Tomahawks are now in the Cascade Cup Finals, and will square off against the Queen City Cutthroats from Helena, Montana. The series will start Friday, though the rink hasn't been determined.
Upcoming...
Saturday: Everett at Seattle, Tri-City at Portland, Kelowna at Vancouver, Rochester at Manitoba
Sunday: Seattle at Portland, Vancouver at Kamloops, Rochester at Manitoba
Wednesday: Tri-City at Seattle, Everett at Spokane, Manitoba at Grand Rapids
Friday: Seattle at Everett, Spokane at Portland, Vancouver at Prince George, Manitoba at Grand Rapids
---
Have a great Saturday.
/ Click for main page
Friday, March 04, 2005
GAME 57: SUPERSONICS 95, PISTONS 87
SuperSonics 95, Pistons 87
(final content posted ~11:24p)
Here's what I have for tonight's game.
1st qtr
10:27 Ridnour three first basket of game SEA 3-0. 7:41 Evans fouled under the basket, second offensive-board sequence off missed shot, hits both SEA 5-4. 7:12 Allen midrange steps back on Hamilton SEA 7-5. 6:40 James turnaround midkey on Ben Wallace SEA 9-7. 6:09 Allen fouled baseline, both SEA 11-7. 5:33 Lewis baseline reverse SEA 13-9. 4:54 Ridnour corner three SEA 16-11. 3:59 Lewis fakes driving shot, sees James next to the basket for jam SEA 18-11. 3:20 James turnaround banker left SEA 20-13. 2:26 James left side jumper SEA 22-14.
After one quarter -- Detroit 23, Seattle 22
Normally I'd be ticked about the Sonics blowing an eight-point lead no matter when it happens, but here it happened in the first quarter. Detroit didn't score for the first three minutes, but the Sonics had only one Luke Ridnour three to show for it. The Pistons got a couple key plays in the paint, not the least of which was the Ben Wallace highlight-reel alleyoop off the inbound. Jerome James was key in the first quarter, providing some inside offensive presence, but his second foul was a bit untimely, not staying on his feet and committing a bad foul as Antonio McDyess hit his shot and ended up with a three-point play.
2nd qtr
11:19 Radmanovic three left corner SEA 25-23. 10:41 Collison lays in underneath, kinda travels SEA 27-23. 10:07 Daniels pull-up right side SEA 29-25. 9:17 Collison offensive board, layup SEA 31-25. Sonics in the penalty very early. 6:35 Lewis hits two free throws SEA 33-31. 5:46 Lewis on the line SEA 35-33. 5:07 Lewis jumphook midpost SEA 37-33. 2:52 Ridnour to trailer James jam transition SEA 39-38. 1:36 Detroit over the limit, Evans misses two free throws. 1:09 Evans fastbreak fouled before he could dunk, hits one DET 41-40. 0:04.1 Lewis fouled on baseline jam attempt, hits both DET 45-42.
After one half -- Detroit 45, Seattle 42
Well, the Sonics could really use Ray Allen (1-for-7) getting warm. The Sonics are shooting 42% at the half (but only 3-for-11 from three), and as usual they're getting blasted in the paint (30 to 16). Eight first-half turnovers is never a good thing either. The Sonics are leading in boards 22-19, which is somewhat surprising given a number of Detroit tip-ins off of misses that I can remember at the moment.
One point of trouble was the barrage of whistles that went against the Sonics early in the second quarter. James got his second foul, and he sat for a while. Then Radmanovic got two quick fouls and got the same fate as James. This helped the Pistons get the bench advantage 14-9.
As for individual scorers, the Sonics have two guys in double figures. One is Rashard Lewis (10), but the other is Jerome James (10). Ray Allen is sitting on 4 points, though he does have 4 rebounds and 4 assists. Luke Ridnour nailed two three-pointers and has six points.
It's definitely Detroit's pace of game right now. The Sonics just need to create some more space, hit their shots, and take care of the basketball a little better. Not that I wouldn't say that for every game.
3rd qtr
10:34 Allen to the line on a Seattle third chance, hits both DET 47-44. 10:10 Ridnour midrange DET 48-46. 8:41 Ridnour three right DET 51-49. 7:48 Ridnour finds James in the paint, slam DET 53-51. 7:12 Lewis drives, banks beside paint TIE 53-53. 6:29 James down low again TIE 55-55. 6:10 Radmanovic in. 5:43 Allen midrange SEA 57-55. 5:05 Ridnour finds Radmanovic trailing, lays in SEA 59-57. 3:44 Evans cleans up Allen blown layup, fouled, hits one SEA 60-59. 2:30 Daniels drives off pick, lays in, fouled, hits SEA 63-62. 2:16 Radmanovic fourth foul (DET 64-63). 1:40 Ridnour high running banker SEA 65-64. 1:01 Fortson rebounds Ridnour three miss, lays in SEA 67-65. 0:28.2 Fortson fouled trying to get rebound, hits both SEA 69-65.
After three quarters -- Seattle 69, Detroit 67
Well, a couple more people scored points, and that's good. Ray Allen hit one more basket, but missed five more. I'd have to say Luke Ridnour had a lot of say on offense, as he had seven points in the quarter, and had a few good assists. Reggie Evans and Danny Fortson are also raising some hell on defense. Is there really any reason the Sonics should have a 35-25 advantage on the glass against Detroit? They've got Ben Wallace, for goodness' sake. The Sonics only had one turnover in the quarter.
4th qtr
11:09 Allen fouled, hits both SEA 71-69. 9:51 Radmanovic finds Fortson low, lays in TIE 73-73. 8:20 Collison stuffs Ben Wallace. 7:49 Allen to the rack layup SEA 75-73. 6:50 Fortson rebounds, is fouled, goes to bench. 6:30 Lewis posts up, falls away SEA 77-73. 6:03 Daniels drives baseline, lays up, fouled, hits SEA 80-73. 4:39 Lewis falls away, goes to the line, hits both SEA 82-73, 11-0 run. 4:06 Lewis blocks a sure fastbreak dunk for Prince. 3:33 Allen drives, gets fouled, hits one SEA 83-76. 2:57 James off broken play (Lewis loses the dribble) lays in SEA 85-76, swats on other end. 2:31 Lewis hits baseline after Collison is trapped SEA 87-76. 1:53 James foul, Sonics over limit. 1:38 Daniels drives, fouled hard, hits both SEA 89-77. 0:35.3 FOULFEST.
Final -- Seattle 95, Detroit 87
Wow. Simply put, wow.
Ray Allen had a way-off night (Rip Hamilton was bottling him up), Vladimir Radmanovic was far from a factor, and a good portion of this game was played at a pace that heavily favored the style of the Pistons.
How did the Sonics pull this one out?
For one thing, Jerome James probably had the game of his life, and definitely the game of his NBA career. Much like the Indiana game, he was a good option down low. I'm still marveling at that sequence in the fourth quarter where Rashard Lewis lost his dribble, fell down, and James picked up the ball and hit a running shot. That wasn't the end of the sequence, because he came up with a key swat of Chauncey Billups (**thanks to Danny O'Neil of the P-I for that one) on the other end. If memory serves me right, James got his fourth foul pretty early in the third quarter, but Coach McMillan definitely knew something, and he left him in the game a little longer than I thought he would. As for the foul trouble, it definitely wasn't just him, because Fortson and Radmanovic were in foul trouble themselves.
Luke Ridnour's offensive output was also a big thing that kept the Sonics in the game in the first half. This is good considering he'd had a stretch of a couple games there where he was terrible from the floor, possibly from the plantar fasciitis. In one of those games, he barely took any shots.
Rashard Lewis was having a decent amount of success along the baseline tonight. That drop-step and fadeaway was a nice move.
But it wasn't just a matter of other scorers stepping up when the usual suspects weren't hitting on all cylinders. This team still had to defend.
Rasheed Wallace was one rebound away from a double-double at halftime (10 and 9). Nick Collison had a decent part, along with the rest of the Sonics' bigs, in holding Rasheed SCORELESS (really) in the second half.
But there were some very key defensive stops in that fourth quarter. Collison had a stuff on Ben Wallace trying to slam one, and Tayshaun Prince got a long outlet pass and looked to be going in for a sure dunk, but Lewis got all ball.
Okay, I'm officially on the bandwagon now. This team is special. Sure, I know the Pistons just played the night before and lost to Phoenix, but I'm going to go to sleep tonight thinking that the Sonics just beat the Pistons at their own game.
What a win.
PEEK AT THE BOXSCORE
starters
Rashard Lewis 18 pts/4 reb/2 blk (6-14 FG, 0-4 3pt, 6-6 free throws, 6 turnovers), Luke Ridnour 15 pts/2 reb/6 ast (5-9 FG, 3-5 3pt, 2-2 free throws), Ray Allen 15 pts/7 reb/6 ast (3-17 FG, 0-4 3pt, 9-10 free throws), Reggie Evans 4 pts/12 reb (0-4 FG, 4-8 free throws)
bench
Antonio Daniels 10 pts/3 reb (3-6 FG, 0-2 3pt, 4-4 free throws), Nick Collison 6 pts/5 reb (3-5 FG), Danny Fortson 6 pts/8 reb (2-4 FG, 2-2 free throws), Vladimir Radmanovic 5 pts (2-6 FG, 1-3 3pt)
Jerome James Watch
16 pts/7 reb/3 blk (8-10 FG, 25 min)
team
shot 32-for-75 (42.7%) from the field, shot 4-for-18 (22.2%) from downtown, shot 27-for-32 (84.4%) from the line, outrebounded Detroit 49-33, were beat 56-40 in the paint, were beat 7-5 on the break, bench was outscored 30-27 (outboarded Detroit bench 17-9)
Seriously, the fact that the Sonics pulled this game out is incredible. Ray Allen was way off, like I said, though he still was a factor because he can still nail 9 of 10 from the line. Vladimir Radmanovic was not a factor. The Sonics were absolutely horrible from three-point range. Ben Wallace and Rasheed Wallace were on the other team.
What happens instead? Jerome James goes nuts, Luke Ridnour steps up, and the team kills Detroit on the boards. I'm amazed.
Normally, every time I think about facing the Pistons, I think about watching a game that I absolutely hate, where the game ends up with a score like 75-69 or something. That said, this game was thoroughly enjoyable, even though the Sonics didn't get to launch threes like crazy and Ray Allen wasn't hitting leaning bank shots from beyond the arc. This was a 48-minute chess match, and it was great to see certain players come out and make things happen.
But man, what a game by the big guys, and what a game for this team on defense.
In the games since the All-Star break, the Sonics have allowed 85, 85, 88, 99, 93, 86, and 87 points. All of those triple-digit numbers before the break and all those crazy 30-plus-point quarters by Sonic opponents hopefully are a distant memory.
Man, this feels good. It's like I've been anticipating both this game and the Phoenix game on Sunday all week, but this win is just too good to even think about Phoenix on Sunday.
When I actually look about the boxscore tonight, the distribution of minutes is incredibly more even than usual. Ridnour, Allen, and Lewis were all around 30, Reggie Evans got 21, James got 19, and the four guys off the bench got 13 and 12 each. Just a curious note there.
I would have asked Jinkies if he would ever tease his hair up into a Ben Wallace 'fro.
(final content posted ~11:24p)
Here's what I have for tonight's game.
1st qtr
10:27 Ridnour three first basket of game SEA 3-0. 7:41 Evans fouled under the basket, second offensive-board sequence off missed shot, hits both SEA 5-4. 7:12 Allen midrange steps back on Hamilton SEA 7-5. 6:40 James turnaround midkey on Ben Wallace SEA 9-7. 6:09 Allen fouled baseline, both SEA 11-7. 5:33 Lewis baseline reverse SEA 13-9. 4:54 Ridnour corner three SEA 16-11. 3:59 Lewis fakes driving shot, sees James next to the basket for jam SEA 18-11. 3:20 James turnaround banker left SEA 20-13. 2:26 James left side jumper SEA 22-14.
After one quarter -- Detroit 23, Seattle 22
Normally I'd be ticked about the Sonics blowing an eight-point lead no matter when it happens, but here it happened in the first quarter. Detroit didn't score for the first three minutes, but the Sonics had only one Luke Ridnour three to show for it. The Pistons got a couple key plays in the paint, not the least of which was the Ben Wallace highlight-reel alleyoop off the inbound. Jerome James was key in the first quarter, providing some inside offensive presence, but his second foul was a bit untimely, not staying on his feet and committing a bad foul as Antonio McDyess hit his shot and ended up with a three-point play.
2nd qtr
11:19 Radmanovic three left corner SEA 25-23. 10:41 Collison lays in underneath, kinda travels SEA 27-23. 10:07 Daniels pull-up right side SEA 29-25. 9:17 Collison offensive board, layup SEA 31-25. Sonics in the penalty very early. 6:35 Lewis hits two free throws SEA 33-31. 5:46 Lewis on the line SEA 35-33. 5:07 Lewis jumphook midpost SEA 37-33. 2:52 Ridnour to trailer James jam transition SEA 39-38. 1:36 Detroit over the limit, Evans misses two free throws. 1:09 Evans fastbreak fouled before he could dunk, hits one DET 41-40. 0:04.1 Lewis fouled on baseline jam attempt, hits both DET 45-42.
After one half -- Detroit 45, Seattle 42
Well, the Sonics could really use Ray Allen (1-for-7) getting warm. The Sonics are shooting 42% at the half (but only 3-for-11 from three), and as usual they're getting blasted in the paint (30 to 16). Eight first-half turnovers is never a good thing either. The Sonics are leading in boards 22-19, which is somewhat surprising given a number of Detroit tip-ins off of misses that I can remember at the moment.
One point of trouble was the barrage of whistles that went against the Sonics early in the second quarter. James got his second foul, and he sat for a while. Then Radmanovic got two quick fouls and got the same fate as James. This helped the Pistons get the bench advantage 14-9.
As for individual scorers, the Sonics have two guys in double figures. One is Rashard Lewis (10), but the other is Jerome James (10). Ray Allen is sitting on 4 points, though he does have 4 rebounds and 4 assists. Luke Ridnour nailed two three-pointers and has six points.
It's definitely Detroit's pace of game right now. The Sonics just need to create some more space, hit their shots, and take care of the basketball a little better. Not that I wouldn't say that for every game.
3rd qtr
10:34 Allen to the line on a Seattle third chance, hits both DET 47-44. 10:10 Ridnour midrange DET 48-46. 8:41 Ridnour three right DET 51-49. 7:48 Ridnour finds James in the paint, slam DET 53-51. 7:12 Lewis drives, banks beside paint TIE 53-53. 6:29 James down low again TIE 55-55. 6:10 Radmanovic in. 5:43 Allen midrange SEA 57-55. 5:05 Ridnour finds Radmanovic trailing, lays in SEA 59-57. 3:44 Evans cleans up Allen blown layup, fouled, hits one SEA 60-59. 2:30 Daniels drives off pick, lays in, fouled, hits SEA 63-62. 2:16 Radmanovic fourth foul (DET 64-63). 1:40 Ridnour high running banker SEA 65-64. 1:01 Fortson rebounds Ridnour three miss, lays in SEA 67-65. 0:28.2 Fortson fouled trying to get rebound, hits both SEA 69-65.
After three quarters -- Seattle 69, Detroit 67
Well, a couple more people scored points, and that's good. Ray Allen hit one more basket, but missed five more. I'd have to say Luke Ridnour had a lot of say on offense, as he had seven points in the quarter, and had a few good assists. Reggie Evans and Danny Fortson are also raising some hell on defense. Is there really any reason the Sonics should have a 35-25 advantage on the glass against Detroit? They've got Ben Wallace, for goodness' sake. The Sonics only had one turnover in the quarter.
4th qtr
11:09 Allen fouled, hits both SEA 71-69. 9:51 Radmanovic finds Fortson low, lays in TIE 73-73. 8:20 Collison stuffs Ben Wallace. 7:49 Allen to the rack layup SEA 75-73. 6:50 Fortson rebounds, is fouled, goes to bench. 6:30 Lewis posts up, falls away SEA 77-73. 6:03 Daniels drives baseline, lays up, fouled, hits SEA 80-73. 4:39 Lewis falls away, goes to the line, hits both SEA 82-73, 11-0 run. 4:06 Lewis blocks a sure fastbreak dunk for Prince. 3:33 Allen drives, gets fouled, hits one SEA 83-76. 2:57 James off broken play (Lewis loses the dribble) lays in SEA 85-76, swats on other end. 2:31 Lewis hits baseline after Collison is trapped SEA 87-76. 1:53 James foul, Sonics over limit. 1:38 Daniels drives, fouled hard, hits both SEA 89-77. 0:35.3 FOULFEST.
Final -- Seattle 95, Detroit 87
Wow. Simply put, wow.
Ray Allen had a way-off night (Rip Hamilton was bottling him up), Vladimir Radmanovic was far from a factor, and a good portion of this game was played at a pace that heavily favored the style of the Pistons.
How did the Sonics pull this one out?
For one thing, Jerome James probably had the game of his life, and definitely the game of his NBA career. Much like the Indiana game, he was a good option down low. I'm still marveling at that sequence in the fourth quarter where Rashard Lewis lost his dribble, fell down, and James picked up the ball and hit a running shot. That wasn't the end of the sequence, because he came up with a key swat of Chauncey Billups (**thanks to Danny O'Neil of the P-I for that one) on the other end. If memory serves me right, James got his fourth foul pretty early in the third quarter, but Coach McMillan definitely knew something, and he left him in the game a little longer than I thought he would. As for the foul trouble, it definitely wasn't just him, because Fortson and Radmanovic were in foul trouble themselves.
Luke Ridnour's offensive output was also a big thing that kept the Sonics in the game in the first half. This is good considering he'd had a stretch of a couple games there where he was terrible from the floor, possibly from the plantar fasciitis. In one of those games, he barely took any shots.
Rashard Lewis was having a decent amount of success along the baseline tonight. That drop-step and fadeaway was a nice move.
But it wasn't just a matter of other scorers stepping up when the usual suspects weren't hitting on all cylinders. This team still had to defend.
Rasheed Wallace was one rebound away from a double-double at halftime (10 and 9). Nick Collison had a decent part, along with the rest of the Sonics' bigs, in holding Rasheed SCORELESS (really) in the second half.
But there were some very key defensive stops in that fourth quarter. Collison had a stuff on Ben Wallace trying to slam one, and Tayshaun Prince got a long outlet pass and looked to be going in for a sure dunk, but Lewis got all ball.
Okay, I'm officially on the bandwagon now. This team is special. Sure, I know the Pistons just played the night before and lost to Phoenix, but I'm going to go to sleep tonight thinking that the Sonics just beat the Pistons at their own game.
What a win.
PEEK AT THE BOXSCORE
starters
Rashard Lewis 18 pts/4 reb/2 blk (6-14 FG, 0-4 3pt, 6-6 free throws, 6 turnovers), Luke Ridnour 15 pts/2 reb/6 ast (5-9 FG, 3-5 3pt, 2-2 free throws), Ray Allen 15 pts/7 reb/6 ast (3-17 FG, 0-4 3pt, 9-10 free throws), Reggie Evans 4 pts/12 reb (0-4 FG, 4-8 free throws)
bench
Antonio Daniels 10 pts/3 reb (3-6 FG, 0-2 3pt, 4-4 free throws), Nick Collison 6 pts/5 reb (3-5 FG), Danny Fortson 6 pts/8 reb (2-4 FG, 2-2 free throws), Vladimir Radmanovic 5 pts (2-6 FG, 1-3 3pt)
Jerome James Watch
16 pts/7 reb/3 blk (8-10 FG, 25 min)
team
shot 32-for-75 (42.7%) from the field, shot 4-for-18 (22.2%) from downtown, shot 27-for-32 (84.4%) from the line, outrebounded Detroit 49-33, were beat 56-40 in the paint, were beat 7-5 on the break, bench was outscored 30-27 (outboarded Detroit bench 17-9)
Seriously, the fact that the Sonics pulled this game out is incredible. Ray Allen was way off, like I said, though he still was a factor because he can still nail 9 of 10 from the line. Vladimir Radmanovic was not a factor. The Sonics were absolutely horrible from three-point range. Ben Wallace and Rasheed Wallace were on the other team.
What happens instead? Jerome James goes nuts, Luke Ridnour steps up, and the team kills Detroit on the boards. I'm amazed.
Normally, every time I think about facing the Pistons, I think about watching a game that I absolutely hate, where the game ends up with a score like 75-69 or something. That said, this game was thoroughly enjoyable, even though the Sonics didn't get to launch threes like crazy and Ray Allen wasn't hitting leaning bank shots from beyond the arc. This was a 48-minute chess match, and it was great to see certain players come out and make things happen.
But man, what a game by the big guys, and what a game for this team on defense.
In the games since the All-Star break, the Sonics have allowed 85, 85, 88, 99, 93, 86, and 87 points. All of those triple-digit numbers before the break and all those crazy 30-plus-point quarters by Sonic opponents hopefully are a distant memory.
Man, this feels good. It's like I've been anticipating both this game and the Phoenix game on Sunday all week, but this win is just too good to even think about Phoenix on Sunday.
When I actually look about the boxscore tonight, the distribution of minutes is incredibly more even than usual. Ridnour, Allen, and Lewis were all around 30, Reggie Evans got 21, James got 19, and the four guys off the bench got 13 and 12 each. Just a curious note there.
I would have asked Jinkies if he would ever tease his hair up into a Ben Wallace 'fro.
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LEON
Nigel Thatch, who plays "Leon" in the Budweiser commercials, with a few of the Eagles cheerleaders during Super Bowl week. This pic just has many things going for itself, let me tell you. Visuals are always good, I've learned throughout life.
Oh, and cross Jeremiah Trotter off your wishlist, Seahawks fans. He re-signed with the Eagles today. 5-year deal, terms not disclosed.
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YOU WON'T SEE THIS IN THE M'S TV COMMERCIALS
Seattle is a liberal town. But I just don't see this making the cut for the new Mariners television commercials.
Ideas being explored for this year's batch of commercials:
---Eddie Guardado telling Willie Bloomquist he's been sent down to Triple-A
---Adrian Beltre receiving the light bat from Edgar Martinez
---Scott Spiezio and Sandfrog performing songs from Cinderella, horribly
Who knows, maybe we'll expand on those ideas soon. You know how we do things here.
Ideas being explored for this year's batch of commercials:
---Eddie Guardado telling Willie Bloomquist he's been sent down to Triple-A
---Adrian Beltre receiving the light bat from Edgar Martinez
---Scott Spiezio and Sandfrog performing songs from Cinderella, horribly
Who knows, maybe we'll expand on those ideas soon. You know how we do things here.
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TOO DERRTY?
This story has hit the wire throughout the country and even in England. I'm not sure if this has hit the Northwest, however. If it hasn't, well, here's the info. Just another story that makes Arkansas look terrible. Ugh.
Church leaders in Jonesboro, Arkansas are not happy with R&B singer Nelly coming to Arkansas State University next Saturday, March 12.
"We first heard from a concerned parent," Rev. Adrian Rodgers of the Fullness of Joy Church said, "and we went searching online for some lyrics, and it is not what we want our children to be involved with. First, the kids said that he's fairly tame, but then we looked it up."
Yes, I know what I'm getting into. In case you missed it Wednesday, I am transferring to Arkansas State in August. Jonesboro is located in Craighead County, which is a dry county. Oh well, I think I can manage. Besides, Memphis is not too far away.
But getting back to the subject, Nelly in Jonesboro. I don't care for Nelly's music. But I am not one to tell a person that he or she should not go to his concert. People can listen to whatever they want to listen to, no matter how good or bad it is. And let's be serious here for a moment, who in the blue hell can trust a man who's from a church that sounds more like a cult? The Fullness of Joy? Come on.
I think ASU Convocation Center director Tim Dean said it best:
"If it's not illegal, then I'm not going to judge them," Dean said. "People know what they are buying a ticket to come see, but we are in the Bible Belt." The venue can hold about 6,500 concertgoers, and with about 5,500 tickets already sold, Dean expects the show to be near capacity. "The people have spoken," he said.
For those of you expecting a sports take from me in this post, well...
Nelly is from St. Louis.
You can take a wild guess as to where I would go with that one...
Church leaders in Jonesboro, Arkansas are not happy with R&B singer Nelly coming to Arkansas State University next Saturday, March 12.
"We first heard from a concerned parent," Rev. Adrian Rodgers of the Fullness of Joy Church said, "and we went searching online for some lyrics, and it is not what we want our children to be involved with. First, the kids said that he's fairly tame, but then we looked it up."
Yes, I know what I'm getting into. In case you missed it Wednesday, I am transferring to Arkansas State in August. Jonesboro is located in Craighead County, which is a dry county. Oh well, I think I can manage. Besides, Memphis is not too far away.
But getting back to the subject, Nelly in Jonesboro. I don't care for Nelly's music. But I am not one to tell a person that he or she should not go to his concert. People can listen to whatever they want to listen to, no matter how good or bad it is. And let's be serious here for a moment, who in the blue hell can trust a man who's from a church that sounds more like a cult? The Fullness of Joy? Come on.
I think ASU Convocation Center director Tim Dean said it best:
"If it's not illegal, then I'm not going to judge them," Dean said. "People know what they are buying a ticket to come see, but we are in the Bible Belt." The venue can hold about 6,500 concertgoers, and with about 5,500 tickets already sold, Dean expects the show to be near capacity. "The people have spoken," he said.
For those of you expecting a sports take from me in this post, well...
Nelly is from St. Louis.
You can take a wild guess as to where I would go with that one...
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TERTIARY
Welcome to Friday. The weekend is upon you. If you haven't gotten a chance to see how weird it is to try and make Mario fly in Super Mario 3 using your keyboard and reversing hand controls, then I'll give you just one more shot to find out.
Also, if you've ever wondered how Sue Bird keeps track of her favorite TV shows while playing in Russia, this (select curse words render it probably not work-safe) is how. The writers at Television Without Pity are absolutely insane, and boy, do they have the gift of ramble. An hour-long episode of ER? No problem; their writer will write 13 pages' worth of stuff on it.
For the random...one of the things I miss about Ellensburg is the snow, though obviously not even the mountains around here are getting snow this year. What's great about snow? For someone that played baseball for many years through to high school, I can say there's one great thing about snow: throwing snowballs. Sure, it's better not to throw at cars or people, but there were ample legal and inanimate targets at which to throw. Big tree outside the east door at Lind Hall? That was a favorite target of mine, I'd be the second baseman completing the double play. Of course, the tree had a lot of vertical reach, so I couldn't overthrow it. The best reward of that whole sequence, though, is seeing the nicely packed snowball just explode radially. Extremely gratifying, along with the "poof/paf" sound effect that you get upon impact. The tree was a great target, though a lot of times I'd gone with the submarine/sidearm rock-skipping technique to try and nail trees and the occasional sign. In the Student Village parking lot I had this slushball and I hit a sign by the sidewalk on Alder, and it was pretty loud. I hope it wasn't that late at night when I uncorked that one. I'm known to be up at insane hours. College is where I honed that craft, and it prepared me for things such as typing out these posts at insane hours of the morning.
To the post...
MARINERS
Today's fluff: Jeremy Reed. The first part's about when he got the news of being traded, and the second is about his possible role with this team, what he can bring to this team, and his work ethic, etc.
If I were an oddsmaker, I'd set an over-under for the number of times between now and Opening Day that we're going to get the "what if Felix is too good to keep off the big club?" article. There's about a month to go, so I'll have to say 12, at the least. Anyway, the article talks a little more at length about what he's got between the ears, and how he might handle adversity.
Also, Mike Hargrove likes Miguel Olivo's gun, along with (unfortunately) Willie Bloomquist. This of course must mean that Willie Bloomquist has incriminating photographs of at least three managers in the Majors.
Richie Sexson also likes the fact that he can check-swing during a game and not have his shoulder explode. This is good considering the money the team shelled out for him, as well as the fact that they didn't insure themselves when it came to the shoulder. If Arizona didn't unload the coffers for Troy Glaus, I seriously wonder sometimes about how much lower the Mariners could have gotten Sexson in terms of money.
SEAHAWKS
In an offseason in which the Seahawks already would have had to address their deficiencies in their defense, Ken Lucas just poured some more gasoline on the fire. Granted, the Seahawks probably weren't going to compete with a $13M signing bonus, but...DAMMIT! We learn in the Farnsworth article that Mike Holmgren declined comment. As per usual, if the Seahawks lose anyone vital this offseason or find themselves hamstrung, I'm blaming it all on Bob Whitsitt. Anyway, this leaves Bobby Taylor, Kris Richard, Jordan Babineaux, and Michael Harden on the depth chart to fill the void. That is, of course, before any possible free agents or draftees come into play. In the free agent department, Renaldo Hill of Arizona is named in both articles, while Farnsworth also mentions that Fred Smoot, Samari Rolle, and Ty Law are free agents. Itula Mili and Orlando Huff visited with Arizona yesterday, and Mili has quite the travel itinerary.
Named in the Times article as another possibility on defense is Jeremiah Trotter of the Eagles, a free agent.
BASKETBALL
The Miah Davis Update
In the Roanoke Dazzle's 94-90 win over the Florida Flame, 1999 Bremerton graduate Miah Davis played 38 minutes and had 16 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, and a steal. That's a Brent Barry circa-last year kind of line. Of course, the four turnovers, along with the shooting (3-for-12 from the field, 9-for-15 from the line from a good free-throw shooter) could have been a bit better, but Miah's only had starters' minutes for a couple games here.
The Roanoke Dazzle plays at Florida tomorrow and they host Florida the following Saturday.
The Marvin Williams Watch
In 2nd-ranked North Carolina's 91-76 win over Florida State, 2004 Bremerton graduate Marvin Williams scored 17 points and grabbed 4 rebounds in 24 minutes off the bench. He was 7-for-11 from the field and hit 2 of 3 from beyond the arc. Extrapolating totals out to 30 minutes, Marvin is averaging 15.6 points and 8.8 rebounds a game.
The Tar Heels host some team from Duke on Sunday (1p, CBS), the only game remaining before the ACC tournament.
Huskies
The Dawgs put a hurtin' on the Bears from Berkeley, a 106-73 win. Cracking the century mark against a team like Sacred Heart is one thing, but to do it against a Pac-10 team is something else. Bobby Jones tied a career-high with 22, Nate Robinson had 21, and Tre Simmons had 20. Three guys breaking 20? Not bad. Jamaal Williams and Brandon Roy also went for double figures off the bench as well, for good measure. Will Conroy scored two points, but had 14 assists to break Chester Dorsey's all-time Husky record. The Huskies shot 16-for-29 from downtown, so I guess the Sonics aren't the only team in town that likes threes.
Too bad the Cougars really cluttered up the Huskies' possibilities to get the first seed at the Pac-10 tournament. Not that it wasn't a great win for them on the road in Stanford, because it was. Of course, the team that gets that first seed in the Pac-10 tournament just might get the Cougars. I'll just say that if Arizona loses to Wazzu in the first round, hilarity will ensue.
The Huskies are at Stanford tomorrow (1p, CBS) before they open Pac-10 tournament play on Thursday, with the games being televised by FSN so that nobody on the east coast can see them.
Bulldogs
In the WCC tournament, the Zags get the winner of Saturday's game between San Diego and the winner of the Friday game between Pepperdine and Loyola-Marymount. The Zags' first tournament game will be at 6pm on Sunday, televised on ESPN2.
Sonics
Ray Allen. He scored 31 against Cleveland a couple days ago. The weird thing is, to me he has the quietest 30-point nights I've seen. I saw Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp play together when they were here, and they barely ever got into the 30s, and it was a pretty big deal if either of them did. Of course, their teams were so balanced -- they didn't have players like Reggie Evans and Danny Fortson, whose priority number one is rebounding, rebounding, and rebounding. On the Finals team, Shawn Kemp pulled down 11.4 boards a game, and no one else even pulled down half that many on average. This year's Sonics seem to spread the wealth a lot more on the glass. But about that article...how about Ray's dig on Elliott "Socks" Perry? I remember that year with the Suns and Perry and Rex Chapman falling out of bounds hitting three-pointers...bad times.
No, Les Carpenter isn't about to rain on this parade. The Sonics have some similarities with in terms of the team concept -- kind of like the same one that helped the Detroit Pistons fell the Lakers last year. Carpenter also brings up that although this is a jumpshooting team, it's how well the Sonics get their shooters open that's ultimately the deciding factor. That's where big bodies and setting screens and picks comes into play. This is why I'm so excited about this Sonic team having a chance in the playoffs, because they're so much better in the halfcourt sets than even the great Sonic teams were. I don't have the fear that the Sonics can't get out in transition when the playoffs come around, because that was back then (and for Phoenix, right now). These Sonics can run plays, get their shooters open, and sometimes get under the skin of opposing players down low. Ervin Johnson wasn't getting under anybody's skin when he was here, though Frank Brickowski might have.
Upcoming...
Tonight vs. Detroit (7:30p, FSNNW)
Sunday vs. Phoenix (6p, FSNNW)
Tuesday vs. Houston (7p, FSNNW)
HOCKEY
Upcoming...
Tonight: Portland at Vancouver, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 3 of best-of-5)
Saturday: Everett at Seattle, Tri-City at Portland, Kelowna at Vancouver, Rochester at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 4 of best-of-5 if necessary)
Sunday: Seattle at Portland, Vancouver at Kamloops, Rochester at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 5 of best-of-5 if necessary)
Wednesday: Tri-City at Seattle, Everett at Spokane, Manitoba at Grand Rapids
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Have a great Friday, and enjoy your weekend if you aren't reading us on the weekend. To those who can read us on the weekends, we'll keep the machine in operation, don't worry.
Also, if you've ever wondered how Sue Bird keeps track of her favorite TV shows while playing in Russia, this (select curse words render it probably not work-safe) is how. The writers at Television Without Pity are absolutely insane, and boy, do they have the gift of ramble. An hour-long episode of ER? No problem; their writer will write 13 pages' worth of stuff on it.
For the random...one of the things I miss about Ellensburg is the snow, though obviously not even the mountains around here are getting snow this year. What's great about snow? For someone that played baseball for many years through to high school, I can say there's one great thing about snow: throwing snowballs. Sure, it's better not to throw at cars or people, but there were ample legal and inanimate targets at which to throw. Big tree outside the east door at Lind Hall? That was a favorite target of mine, I'd be the second baseman completing the double play. Of course, the tree had a lot of vertical reach, so I couldn't overthrow it. The best reward of that whole sequence, though, is seeing the nicely packed snowball just explode radially. Extremely gratifying, along with the "poof/paf" sound effect that you get upon impact. The tree was a great target, though a lot of times I'd gone with the submarine/sidearm rock-skipping technique to try and nail trees and the occasional sign. In the Student Village parking lot I had this slushball and I hit a sign by the sidewalk on Alder, and it was pretty loud. I hope it wasn't that late at night when I uncorked that one. I'm known to be up at insane hours. College is where I honed that craft, and it prepared me for things such as typing out these posts at insane hours of the morning.
To the post...
MARINERS
Today's fluff: Jeremy Reed. The first part's about when he got the news of being traded, and the second is about his possible role with this team, what he can bring to this team, and his work ethic, etc.
If I were an oddsmaker, I'd set an over-under for the number of times between now and Opening Day that we're going to get the "what if Felix is too good to keep off the big club?" article. There's about a month to go, so I'll have to say 12, at the least. Anyway, the article talks a little more at length about what he's got between the ears, and how he might handle adversity.
Also, Mike Hargrove likes Miguel Olivo's gun, along with (unfortunately) Willie Bloomquist. This of course must mean that Willie Bloomquist has incriminating photographs of at least three managers in the Majors.
Richie Sexson also likes the fact that he can check-swing during a game and not have his shoulder explode. This is good considering the money the team shelled out for him, as well as the fact that they didn't insure themselves when it came to the shoulder. If Arizona didn't unload the coffers for Troy Glaus, I seriously wonder sometimes about how much lower the Mariners could have gotten Sexson in terms of money.
SEAHAWKS
In an offseason in which the Seahawks already would have had to address their deficiencies in their defense, Ken Lucas just poured some more gasoline on the fire. Granted, the Seahawks probably weren't going to compete with a $13M signing bonus, but...DAMMIT! We learn in the Farnsworth article that Mike Holmgren declined comment. As per usual, if the Seahawks lose anyone vital this offseason or find themselves hamstrung, I'm blaming it all on Bob Whitsitt. Anyway, this leaves Bobby Taylor, Kris Richard, Jordan Babineaux, and Michael Harden on the depth chart to fill the void. That is, of course, before any possible free agents or draftees come into play. In the free agent department, Renaldo Hill of Arizona is named in both articles, while Farnsworth also mentions that Fred Smoot, Samari Rolle, and Ty Law are free agents. Itula Mili and Orlando Huff visited with Arizona yesterday, and Mili has quite the travel itinerary.
Named in the Times article as another possibility on defense is Jeremiah Trotter of the Eagles, a free agent.
BASKETBALL
The Miah Davis Update
In the Roanoke Dazzle's 94-90 win over the Florida Flame, 1999 Bremerton graduate Miah Davis played 38 minutes and had 16 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, and a steal. That's a Brent Barry circa-last year kind of line. Of course, the four turnovers, along with the shooting (3-for-12 from the field, 9-for-15 from the line from a good free-throw shooter) could have been a bit better, but Miah's only had starters' minutes for a couple games here.
The Roanoke Dazzle plays at Florida tomorrow and they host Florida the following Saturday.
The Marvin Williams Watch
In 2nd-ranked North Carolina's 91-76 win over Florida State, 2004 Bremerton graduate Marvin Williams scored 17 points and grabbed 4 rebounds in 24 minutes off the bench. He was 7-for-11 from the field and hit 2 of 3 from beyond the arc. Extrapolating totals out to 30 minutes, Marvin is averaging 15.6 points and 8.8 rebounds a game.
The Tar Heels host some team from Duke on Sunday (1p, CBS), the only game remaining before the ACC tournament.
Huskies
The Dawgs put a hurtin' on the Bears from Berkeley, a 106-73 win. Cracking the century mark against a team like Sacred Heart is one thing, but to do it against a Pac-10 team is something else. Bobby Jones tied a career-high with 22, Nate Robinson had 21, and Tre Simmons had 20. Three guys breaking 20? Not bad. Jamaal Williams and Brandon Roy also went for double figures off the bench as well, for good measure. Will Conroy scored two points, but had 14 assists to break Chester Dorsey's all-time Husky record. The Huskies shot 16-for-29 from downtown, so I guess the Sonics aren't the only team in town that likes threes.
Too bad the Cougars really cluttered up the Huskies' possibilities to get the first seed at the Pac-10 tournament. Not that it wasn't a great win for them on the road in Stanford, because it was. Of course, the team that gets that first seed in the Pac-10 tournament just might get the Cougars. I'll just say that if Arizona loses to Wazzu in the first round, hilarity will ensue.
The Huskies are at Stanford tomorrow (1p, CBS) before they open Pac-10 tournament play on Thursday, with the games being televised by FSN so that nobody on the east coast can see them.
Bulldogs
In the WCC tournament, the Zags get the winner of Saturday's game between San Diego and the winner of the Friday game between Pepperdine and Loyola-Marymount. The Zags' first tournament game will be at 6pm on Sunday, televised on ESPN2.
Sonics
Ray Allen. He scored 31 against Cleveland a couple days ago. The weird thing is, to me he has the quietest 30-point nights I've seen. I saw Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp play together when they were here, and they barely ever got into the 30s, and it was a pretty big deal if either of them did. Of course, their teams were so balanced -- they didn't have players like Reggie Evans and Danny Fortson, whose priority number one is rebounding, rebounding, and rebounding. On the Finals team, Shawn Kemp pulled down 11.4 boards a game, and no one else even pulled down half that many on average. This year's Sonics seem to spread the wealth a lot more on the glass. But about that article...how about Ray's dig on Elliott "Socks" Perry? I remember that year with the Suns and Perry and Rex Chapman falling out of bounds hitting three-pointers...bad times.
No, Les Carpenter isn't about to rain on this parade. The Sonics have some similarities with in terms of the team concept -- kind of like the same one that helped the Detroit Pistons fell the Lakers last year. Carpenter also brings up that although this is a jumpshooting team, it's how well the Sonics get their shooters open that's ultimately the deciding factor. That's where big bodies and setting screens and picks comes into play. This is why I'm so excited about this Sonic team having a chance in the playoffs, because they're so much better in the halfcourt sets than even the great Sonic teams were. I don't have the fear that the Sonics can't get out in transition when the playoffs come around, because that was back then (and for Phoenix, right now). These Sonics can run plays, get their shooters open, and sometimes get under the skin of opposing players down low. Ervin Johnson wasn't getting under anybody's skin when he was here, though Frank Brickowski might have.
Upcoming...
Tonight vs. Detroit (7:30p, FSNNW)
Sunday vs. Phoenix (6p, FSNNW)
Tuesday vs. Houston (7p, FSNNW)
HOCKEY
Upcoming...
Tonight: Portland at Vancouver, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 3 of best-of-5)
Saturday: Everett at Seattle, Tri-City at Portland, Kelowna at Vancouver, Rochester at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 4 of best-of-5 if necessary)
Sunday: Seattle at Portland, Vancouver at Kamloops, Rochester at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 5 of best-of-5 if necessary)
Wednesday: Tri-City at Seattle, Everett at Spokane, Manitoba at Grand Rapids
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Have a great Friday, and enjoy your weekend if you aren't reading us on the weekend. To those who can read us on the weekends, we'll keep the machine in operation, don't worry.
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Thursday, March 03, 2005
KEN LUCAS SIGNS WITH CAROLINA
Yahoo Sports
The Seahawks have lost Ken Lucas to the Carolina Panthers. Lucas signed a 6-year deal today with the Panthers, terms not immediately known. He is believed to have received a signing bonus of $13 million.
Lucas said he desperately wanted to join Carolina's vaunted defense to play behind Julius Peppers and Kris Jenkins.
"I knew before I even got off the plane that I wanted to sign with Carolina," Lucas said. "Anybody in the NFL knows that the Carolina Panthers have the most talented D-line in the NFL. If I had to choose between Seattle and Carolina, I would have easily chose Carolina."
[...]
Lucas had six picks last season, tying him with Carolina cornerback Chris Gamble for most in the NFC. Now, he may push Gamble out of a starting job. Panthers coach John Fox said Lucas will start for Carolina, and Gamble and Ricky Manning Jr. will have to battle for the other slot.
"As far as corners in the NFL, I think I am one of the most complete corners there is. I can do a little of everything," Lucas said. "By me playing in a small market, a lot of people don't know about me. I have a lot to prove."
Gamble was a first-round draft pick last season, and Manning is best known for his three interceptions against Philadelphia in the 2004 NFC championship game.
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Seattle is a bigger market than Charlotte, by the way.
However, there is a difference between the Seahawks and Panthers. The Panthers have been to the Super Bowl and the Seahawks haven't. And as Lucas said, the Panthers have a better defensive line. Not even the most diehard Seahawk fan can argue that point.
Carolina head coach John Fox is a defensive-minded coach. He will get the most out of Lucas. Panthers fans should be happy today, not only with Lucas signing, but with former Packers guard Mike Wahle signing as well.
In other football news related to the Seahawks, the Rams have signed linebacker Chris Claiborne to a 3-year deal. Claiborne is the second linebacker to sign with the Rams in as many days, with Dexter Coakley agreeing to terms yesterday.
As ESPN's Chris Berman has said repeatedly over the last year or so, COME ON SEATTLE! The Seahawks can ill-afford to get behind the 8-ball as other teams in the NFC get better.
The Seahawks have lost Ken Lucas to the Carolina Panthers. Lucas signed a 6-year deal today with the Panthers, terms not immediately known. He is believed to have received a signing bonus of $13 million.
Lucas said he desperately wanted to join Carolina's vaunted defense to play behind Julius Peppers and Kris Jenkins.
"I knew before I even got off the plane that I wanted to sign with Carolina," Lucas said. "Anybody in the NFL knows that the Carolina Panthers have the most talented D-line in the NFL. If I had to choose between Seattle and Carolina, I would have easily chose Carolina."
[...]
Lucas had six picks last season, tying him with Carolina cornerback Chris Gamble for most in the NFC. Now, he may push Gamble out of a starting job. Panthers coach John Fox said Lucas will start for Carolina, and Gamble and Ricky Manning Jr. will have to battle for the other slot.
"As far as corners in the NFL, I think I am one of the most complete corners there is. I can do a little of everything," Lucas said. "By me playing in a small market, a lot of people don't know about me. I have a lot to prove."
Gamble was a first-round draft pick last season, and Manning is best known for his three interceptions against Philadelphia in the 2004 NFC championship game.
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Seattle is a bigger market than Charlotte, by the way.
However, there is a difference between the Seahawks and Panthers. The Panthers have been to the Super Bowl and the Seahawks haven't. And as Lucas said, the Panthers have a better defensive line. Not even the most diehard Seahawk fan can argue that point.
Carolina head coach John Fox is a defensive-minded coach. He will get the most out of Lucas. Panthers fans should be happy today, not only with Lucas signing, but with former Packers guard Mike Wahle signing as well.
In other football news related to the Seahawks, the Rams have signed linebacker Chris Claiborne to a 3-year deal. Claiborne is the second linebacker to sign with the Rams in as many days, with Dexter Coakley agreeing to terms yesterday.
As ESPN's Chris Berman has said repeatedly over the last year or so, COME ON SEATTLE! The Seahawks can ill-afford to get behind the 8-ball as other teams in the NFC get better.
/ Click for main page
BIEN
Welcome to Thursday. Same deal as yesterday.
For the random...I was flipping around the television yesterday and Reading Rainbow was on the telebox. I decided to see if they'd kept it mostly the same, or whether they'd messed with the theme, doubled all the dollar values, and shaved mustaches like on Jeopardy! In the first few seconds of the show, I realize they've changed the theme and made it sound a little less old, which is a bit sad, though it's mostly the same. It's not quite as drastically different as the current Jeopardy! theme is from its highly cheesy and enjoyable predecessor. There was only one other thing I was looking for, and that was the three-note salvo that end's every kid's book review. "Da-dum DUM!" They've still got that. Yes, it's pretty much the same show they were feeding to us back in elementary school, except now I think LeVar Burton is sporting more facial hair.
To the post...
[Edit ~4:08p -- The Husky and Tar Heel games are tonight, and not tomorrow, something I'd forgotten to change.]
MARINERS
Early returns are in, and it turns out that Richie Sexson and Adrian Beltre are fully capable of hitting homers in B games. Now that you know what he did on the field, how about some Beltre fluff?
Jim Moore interviews Jamie Moyer, even considering the apparent beef that Karen has with him. As I suspected all along last year, QuesTec is more than likely hurting Moyer than helping him. The two most-used words in the article are probably "bounce" and "back."
In the notebook, Chris Snelling is probably hating life right now, Eddie Guardado's still trying to fix his mechanics, Bobby Madritsch had the most sketchy performance out of the B game, Pokey Reese was out, and Jose Lopez apparently didn't do too bad.
SEAHAWKS
The hard part is definitely not over now. They've still got to try to keep a decent amount of the pieces they need that are unrestricted free agents. That does include Chike Okeafor and Ken Lucas, who are now testing the market. Yikes. But Jeremiah Trotter might come in for a visit, and they might restructure Darrell Jackson's contract. Things could get weirdly different at Camp Seahawk.
As reported by Clare Farnsworth in the P-I the day before, Anthony Simmons might have already played his last game as a Seahawk.
BASKETBALL
The Miah Davis Update
The Roanoke Dazzle plays at Florida tonight and Saturday.
The Marvin Williams Watch
The Tar Heels host Florida State tonight (6p, local only) before the ACC regular season ends...at home against Duke on Sunday (1p, CBS)
Huskies
Ha! I knew Tre couldn't be his real name. Tre Simmons has warmed up over the last few games, and he'll be looked on to produce the rest of the way for the Huskies. Of course, the immediate future contains two games in the Bay Area. The Huskies are winless at Cal since 1999.
The Huskies travel to Berkeley to face the Cal Bears tonight (7p, FSNNW) and to Stanford on Saturday (1p, CBS)
Bulldogs
The Zags skip all the way ahead to the semifinal of the WCC tournament. That's a two-round bye. They don't have to play until the early game on Sunday.
The Zags get the winner of Saturday's game between San Diego and the winner of the Friday game between Pepperdine and Loyola-Marymount.
The bracket as pulled from the Times...
Sonics
For my take on last night's game, scroll down a post or click here if this post is the only one on the page. The coach from the last Husky Pac-10 title has aptly warned Romar about looking past Cal to the Stanford game. That would not be good.
How many people out there thought the Sonics would even get to 40 wins, let alone do it this quickly? Even Ray Allen is surprised at this point. The P-I article says that Cleveland tried to get into a long-range shootout for a time in the third quarter (namely LeBron), but that ultimately the Sonics used the same method to bury the Cavaliers. Both articles pointed out the reappearance of Vladimir Radmanovic as a deadly weapon off the bench. The Percy Allen article gave some ink to Nick Collison for his defense on Zydrunas Ilguaskas.
As for the P-I columns lately, I'm hoping Danny O'Neil is doing all right, because I don't think I've seen his name for a few games. One game didn't get a P-I article, and these last two are probably freelance, or definitely names with which I'm unfamiliar.
Upcoming...
Tomorrow vs. Detroit (7:30p, FSNNW)
Sunday vs. Phoenix (6p, FSNNW)
Tuesday vs. Houston (7p, FSNNW)
HOCKEY
Seattle beat Vancouver 4-1. The Thunderbirds swept the six-game season series, which surprises me because Vancouver isn't a bad team. Mitch Bartley gave the Giants their only lead of the game, scoring the first goal just past the halfway point in the opening period. Derek Couture scored inside the final minute of the opening period to tie it, and Denis Tolpeko netted the winner 2:26 into the second. Ryan Gibbons put in another early in the third, and Nate Thompson played pile-on with an empty-netter. Chris Durand picked up three assists in the game. Seattle outshot the Giants 38-23. Marek Schwarz stopped 35 for the Giants, and Bryan Bridges stopped 22 for Seattle.
Upcoming...
Tomorrow: Portland at Vancouver, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 3 of best-of-5)
Saturday: Everett at Seattle, Tri-City at Portland, Kelowna at Vancouver, Rochester at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 4 of best-of-5 if necessary)
Sunday: Seattle at Portland, Vancouver at Kamloops, Rochester at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 5 of best-of-5 if necessary)
Wednesday: Tri-City at Seattle, Everett at Spokane, Manitoba at Grand Rapids
---
Have a wonderful Thursday, everyone.
For the random...I was flipping around the television yesterday and Reading Rainbow was on the telebox. I decided to see if they'd kept it mostly the same, or whether they'd messed with the theme, doubled all the dollar values, and shaved mustaches like on Jeopardy! In the first few seconds of the show, I realize they've changed the theme and made it sound a little less old, which is a bit sad, though it's mostly the same. It's not quite as drastically different as the current Jeopardy! theme is from its highly cheesy and enjoyable predecessor. There was only one other thing I was looking for, and that was the three-note salvo that end's every kid's book review. "Da-dum DUM!" They've still got that. Yes, it's pretty much the same show they were feeding to us back in elementary school, except now I think LeVar Burton is sporting more facial hair.
To the post...
[Edit ~4:08p -- The Husky and Tar Heel games are tonight, and not tomorrow, something I'd forgotten to change.]
MARINERS
Early returns are in, and it turns out that Richie Sexson and Adrian Beltre are fully capable of hitting homers in B games. Now that you know what he did on the field, how about some Beltre fluff?
Jim Moore interviews Jamie Moyer, even considering the apparent beef that Karen has with him. As I suspected all along last year, QuesTec is more than likely hurting Moyer than helping him. The two most-used words in the article are probably "bounce" and "back."
In the notebook, Chris Snelling is probably hating life right now, Eddie Guardado's still trying to fix his mechanics, Bobby Madritsch had the most sketchy performance out of the B game, Pokey Reese was out, and Jose Lopez apparently didn't do too bad.
SEAHAWKS
The hard part is definitely not over now. They've still got to try to keep a decent amount of the pieces they need that are unrestricted free agents. That does include Chike Okeafor and Ken Lucas, who are now testing the market. Yikes. But Jeremiah Trotter might come in for a visit, and they might restructure Darrell Jackson's contract. Things could get weirdly different at Camp Seahawk.
As reported by Clare Farnsworth in the P-I the day before, Anthony Simmons might have already played his last game as a Seahawk.
BASKETBALL
The Miah Davis Update
The Roanoke Dazzle plays at Florida tonight and Saturday.
The Marvin Williams Watch
The Tar Heels host Florida State tonight (6p, local only) before the ACC regular season ends...at home against Duke on Sunday (1p, CBS)
Huskies
Ha! I knew Tre couldn't be his real name. Tre Simmons has warmed up over the last few games, and he'll be looked on to produce the rest of the way for the Huskies. Of course, the immediate future contains two games in the Bay Area. The Huskies are winless at Cal since 1999.
The Huskies travel to Berkeley to face the Cal Bears tonight (7p, FSNNW) and to Stanford on Saturday (1p, CBS)
Bulldogs
The Zags skip all the way ahead to the semifinal of the WCC tournament. That's a two-round bye. They don't have to play until the early game on Sunday.
The Zags get the winner of Saturday's game between San Diego and the winner of the Friday game between Pepperdine and Loyola-Marymount.
The bracket as pulled from the Times...
Sonics
For my take on last night's game, scroll down a post or click here if this post is the only one on the page. The coach from the last Husky Pac-10 title has aptly warned Romar about looking past Cal to the Stanford game. That would not be good.
How many people out there thought the Sonics would even get to 40 wins, let alone do it this quickly? Even Ray Allen is surprised at this point. The P-I article says that Cleveland tried to get into a long-range shootout for a time in the third quarter (namely LeBron), but that ultimately the Sonics used the same method to bury the Cavaliers. Both articles pointed out the reappearance of Vladimir Radmanovic as a deadly weapon off the bench. The Percy Allen article gave some ink to Nick Collison for his defense on Zydrunas Ilguaskas.
As for the P-I columns lately, I'm hoping Danny O'Neil is doing all right, because I don't think I've seen his name for a few games. One game didn't get a P-I article, and these last two are probably freelance, or definitely names with which I'm unfamiliar.
Upcoming...
Tomorrow vs. Detroit (7:30p, FSNNW)
Sunday vs. Phoenix (6p, FSNNW)
Tuesday vs. Houston (7p, FSNNW)
HOCKEY
Seattle beat Vancouver 4-1. The Thunderbirds swept the six-game season series, which surprises me because Vancouver isn't a bad team. Mitch Bartley gave the Giants their only lead of the game, scoring the first goal just past the halfway point in the opening period. Derek Couture scored inside the final minute of the opening period to tie it, and Denis Tolpeko netted the winner 2:26 into the second. Ryan Gibbons put in another early in the third, and Nate Thompson played pile-on with an empty-netter. Chris Durand picked up three assists in the game. Seattle outshot the Giants 38-23. Marek Schwarz stopped 35 for the Giants, and Bryan Bridges stopped 22 for Seattle.
Upcoming...
Tomorrow: Portland at Vancouver, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 3 of best-of-5)
Saturday: Everett at Seattle, Tri-City at Portland, Kelowna at Vancouver, Rochester at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 4 of best-of-5 if necessary)
Sunday: Seattle at Portland, Vancouver at Kamloops, Rochester at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 5 of best-of-5 if necessary)
Wednesday: Tri-City at Seattle, Everett at Spokane, Manitoba at Grand Rapids
---
Have a wonderful Thursday, everyone.
/ Click for main page
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
GAME 56: SUPERSONICS 103, CAVALIERS 86
SuperSonics 103, Cavaliers 86
(final content posted ~8:19p)
Here's what I have for tonight's game. Postgame thoughts are below the in-game stuff, or at least for games that I actually see. It's not hard to tell which games I actually watched and which ones I didn't. Especially if I tell you.
1st qtr
The Sonics were hot for the second straight game in the first quarter, shooting 12-for-18. They nailed all four three-pointers they took. Ray Allen shot 5-for-7 and had 12 first-quarter points. In a battle of two good rebounding teams, Cleveland found themselves ahead in that department by a margin of 9-7. Five of Cleveland's nine rebounds were on offense.
After one quarter -- Seattle 28, Cleveland 19
2nd qtr
Fortson hit four free throws within the first 1:15, 13-2 run. Nick Collison had a nice rejection of an Eric Snow just inside 9 minutes. Cleveland over the limit at 8:06. Radmanovic hit threes on two straight possessions the latter giving the Sonics a 39-27 lead. Ridnour had a nice drive for a foul and one about halfway through (SEA 42-28). The Cavalieres are playing quite sloppy at this point, having seven turnovers at the 5:37 mark. Ridnour had a nice double-pump reverse inside the final minute.
After one half -- Seattle 54, Cleveland 45
This game might be a little less close if LeBron James didn't start warming up from beyond the arc. Trouble is, the Sonics' game plan was to not let him inside and make him settle for perimeter jumpers, if anything. Toward the latter half of the second quarter, he started hitting those jumpers.
Still, other than the 16 first-half points from Ray Allen, the Sonics' scoring was fairly balanced, and enough to put up a solid half of 54 points. Vladimir Radmanovic scored 11 off the bench, and nailed 3 of 5 threes. Rashard Lewis didn't shoot too well, going 2-for-7, and ending up with 8. Luke Ridnour had 7, and Danny Fortson had 4 points and 5 boards in his 6 minutes before getting his second foul.
3rd qtr
Allen packed with 9:36 through traffic SEA 58-50. Allen wide open for three about a minute later SEA 61-53. 7:37 creates space, gets another jumper for Allen SEA 63-56. LeBron hitting more threes to start quarter, Sonics not hitting shots other than Ray Allen. 5:23 tie at 65-65. 3:48 Radman three SEA 70-67. 3:02 Ridnour drive and foul, hits both SEA 72-67. 2:23 Sonics on 7-0 run after Collison free throws. 0:25.8 Fortson offensive board, fouled, hits both SEA 76-69. Radmanovic beats the buzzer with hits toe on the line, SEA 78-69.
After three quarters -- Seattle 78, Cleveland 69
What a weird little quarter. The Sonics have the same nine-point lead they had at the end of one quarter, but the Cavaliers had gotten quite hot at the start of the quarter, LeBron was hitting threes, the entire team was shooting a little better, and they managed to tie the score. Then the Sonics ripped off a 7-0 run, and Vladimir Radmanovic's punctuation ballfake and shot to beat the buzzer gave the Sonics a nine-point lead to end the quarter.
4th qtr
11:44 Radmanovic three SEA 81-69, 14-2 run. 10:28 Fortson and Traylor go down, earthquake. 10:08 Daniels pulls up transition SEA 85-72. 9:36 Fortson plows Z, banks one SEA 87-73. 9:22 Z offensive foul (Fortson). 6:25 Lewis offensive board, backs up, shoots three, fouled by LeBron, SEA 94-81. 5:12 Allen sideways baseline SEA 96-81. 4:27 Lewis draws charge on Welsch. 1:41 Allen free throws put Sonics over 100, SEA 101-84. 0:38.7 Collison rebounds missed dunk, lays in SEA 103-84.
In a way, this game was a lot like the one the night before. The Sonics started out great, opened up a double-digit lead in the first half, eventually lost the lead in the third quarter, and went on a final big run to pull away and put the game on ice. As a matter of fact, I'm amazed that a game that was tied on more than one occasion in the third quarter ended up looking like a 17-point blowout.
The notable off-game today went to Reggie Evans, but he only got 9 minutes. Needless to say, the other main minutes for the non-Rashard Lewis bigs went to Jerome James, Nick Collison, and Danny Fortson. Fortson had a very nice game, I thought, the nicest since he got back from his fairly long absence. James didn't have the great night he had last night, but he definitely wasn't inept. Collison had a solid night, even when he missed the dunk toward the end of the game. He rebounded the missed dunk and laid it in the second time. The frontcourt overall did a pretty nice job on Zydrunas Ilgauskas, as he wasn't able to post numbers quite up there with what he'd been getting as of late. LeBron did scored 32, but the frontcourt was doing their job on him too; LeBron was forced outside for a bunch of threes, but he did hit quite a few of them.
Like I said, I'm left with the impression that the game was close for a good deal of the second half, when in fact it was only close for a portion of the third quarter when Cleveland tied it. Then came the 7-0 Sonic run after the game was tied at 67-67. With Radmanovic's three to start the fourth quarter, that run ballooned to a 14-2 run. At that point, it was all over but the shouting.
How about that defense? They held the Cavaliers to 86 points. In the five games since the break, they've held all six of their opponents to under 100 points. Yes, they even held the Bucks under 100 in that Sunday blowout.
Tonight, the Sonics put the Cavaliers away mainly by holding them to 19 in the first quarter and 17 in the fourth quarter. The Sonics gave up 26 and 24 in the middle quarters, which is okay to mediocre, but the catch is that the Sonics also scored 26 in the second and 24 in the third. The Cavaliers warmed up, sure -- they did manage to tie the game in the second quarter, after all -- but the Sonics never really cooled.
So, what am I going to say after I peek at the boxscore? I'll probably say that the bench was great, Radmanovic warmed up (he was great), and Luke Ridnour may have shook off some shooting woes. He's fighting off the plantar fasciitis, you know. Sometimes I forget that when I'm angry about his recent bricks.
PEEK AT THE BOXSCORE
starters
Ray Allen 31 pts/5 reb/3 ast (11-22 FG, 3-5 3pt, 6-6 free throws), Rashard Lewis 20 pts/4 reb/3 ast (7-15 FG, 2-3 3pt, 4-6 free throws), Luke Ridnour 9 pts/2 reb/5 ast (3-5 FG, 3-7 free throws), Reggie Evans 2 pts/2 reb (1-2 FG, 20 min)
bench
Vladimir Radmanovic 19 pts/7 reb/2 ast/2 stl (7-12 FG, 5-8 3pt, 33 min), Danny Fortson 8 pts/7 reb (1-2 FG, 6-6 free throws, 16 min), Nick Collison 6 pts/6 reb (2-5 FG, 2-2 free throws), Antonio Daniels 4 pts/2 ast (2-5 FG, 17 min), Robert Swift 0 pts/0 reb (2 min)
Jerome James Watch
4 pts/2 reb/1 stl (2-4 FG, 4 fouls, 17 min)
team
shot 36-for-72 (50%) from the field, shot 10-for-17 (58.8%) from downtown, shot 21-for-29 (72.4%) from the line, outrebounded Cleveland 36-33, forced 16 Cleveland turnovers, bench outscored Cleveland bench 37-8 (outrebounded them 21-12)
Did I mention the Sonics were able to keep Zydrunas Ilgauskas from wreaking havoc on the offensive boards? That's been a big part of his game this season, and the Sonics were able to limit him to 2 offensive boards.
Luke Ridnour did shoot 3-for-5 tonight, though he'd been having some horrible shooting nights the last few games. Of course, he has been trying to ward off the plantar fasciitis as well. As for further evidence that he's still not all the way through...Luke Ridnour doesn't miss 4 out of 7 free throws. That doesn't happen, except for tonight.
Still along the injury front, Vladimir Radmanovic said to Brad Adam after the game that his wrist still bothers him, but he just tries not to think about it. It looked like a good wrist tonight. His three-pointers at times don't just seem like threes, they seem like psychological blows to the other team, especially if they're really timely.
In a weird note, I mentioned that LeBron James had shot a bunch of threes. He went 5-for-7 from downtown. How did the Sonics' frontcourt do against him? LeBron was 6-for-13 from inside the arc. That's 12 of his 32 points coming from inside the arc.
The Sonic bench obliterated the Cleveland bench, and even if you go the Stan Van Gundy route and consider Vladimir Radmanovic as getting starter-type minutes, the Sonic bench still walked all over the Cavalier bench.
You know, I always fear these back-to-back sets, but the Sonics always seem to do so freakin' well in them.
Looking at their record, this team is 20-8 on the road and 20-8 at home.
Folks, this team is at 40 wins. It's the second of March. There's still a month and three weeks' worth of games (26 in all) to go.
I asked Jinkies if he's ever made his own mistake by the lake. Correction -- I would have asked him that, but their little Flash thingie doesn't appear to be loading as of the moment. If it loads again tonight, I'll make sure to post the answer here. It might be because the Sonics re-did their site.
(final content posted ~8:19p)
Here's what I have for tonight's game. Postgame thoughts are below the in-game stuff, or at least for games that I actually see. It's not hard to tell which games I actually watched and which ones I didn't. Especially if I tell you.
1st qtr
The Sonics were hot for the second straight game in the first quarter, shooting 12-for-18. They nailed all four three-pointers they took. Ray Allen shot 5-for-7 and had 12 first-quarter points. In a battle of two good rebounding teams, Cleveland found themselves ahead in that department by a margin of 9-7. Five of Cleveland's nine rebounds were on offense.
After one quarter -- Seattle 28, Cleveland 19
2nd qtr
Fortson hit four free throws within the first 1:15, 13-2 run. Nick Collison had a nice rejection of an Eric Snow just inside 9 minutes. Cleveland over the limit at 8:06. Radmanovic hit threes on two straight possessions the latter giving the Sonics a 39-27 lead. Ridnour had a nice drive for a foul and one about halfway through (SEA 42-28). The Cavalieres are playing quite sloppy at this point, having seven turnovers at the 5:37 mark. Ridnour had a nice double-pump reverse inside the final minute.
After one half -- Seattle 54, Cleveland 45
This game might be a little less close if LeBron James didn't start warming up from beyond the arc. Trouble is, the Sonics' game plan was to not let him inside and make him settle for perimeter jumpers, if anything. Toward the latter half of the second quarter, he started hitting those jumpers.
Still, other than the 16 first-half points from Ray Allen, the Sonics' scoring was fairly balanced, and enough to put up a solid half of 54 points. Vladimir Radmanovic scored 11 off the bench, and nailed 3 of 5 threes. Rashard Lewis didn't shoot too well, going 2-for-7, and ending up with 8. Luke Ridnour had 7, and Danny Fortson had 4 points and 5 boards in his 6 minutes before getting his second foul.
3rd qtr
Allen packed with 9:36 through traffic SEA 58-50. Allen wide open for three about a minute later SEA 61-53. 7:37 creates space, gets another jumper for Allen SEA 63-56. LeBron hitting more threes to start quarter, Sonics not hitting shots other than Ray Allen. 5:23 tie at 65-65. 3:48 Radman three SEA 70-67. 3:02 Ridnour drive and foul, hits both SEA 72-67. 2:23 Sonics on 7-0 run after Collison free throws. 0:25.8 Fortson offensive board, fouled, hits both SEA 76-69. Radmanovic beats the buzzer with hits toe on the line, SEA 78-69.
After three quarters -- Seattle 78, Cleveland 69
What a weird little quarter. The Sonics have the same nine-point lead they had at the end of one quarter, but the Cavaliers had gotten quite hot at the start of the quarter, LeBron was hitting threes, the entire team was shooting a little better, and they managed to tie the score. Then the Sonics ripped off a 7-0 run, and Vladimir Radmanovic's punctuation ballfake and shot to beat the buzzer gave the Sonics a nine-point lead to end the quarter.
4th qtr
11:44 Radmanovic three SEA 81-69, 14-2 run. 10:28 Fortson and Traylor go down, earthquake. 10:08 Daniels pulls up transition SEA 85-72. 9:36 Fortson plows Z, banks one SEA 87-73. 9:22 Z offensive foul (Fortson). 6:25 Lewis offensive board, backs up, shoots three, fouled by LeBron, SEA 94-81. 5:12 Allen sideways baseline SEA 96-81. 4:27 Lewis draws charge on Welsch. 1:41 Allen free throws put Sonics over 100, SEA 101-84. 0:38.7 Collison rebounds missed dunk, lays in SEA 103-84.
In a way, this game was a lot like the one the night before. The Sonics started out great, opened up a double-digit lead in the first half, eventually lost the lead in the third quarter, and went on a final big run to pull away and put the game on ice. As a matter of fact, I'm amazed that a game that was tied on more than one occasion in the third quarter ended up looking like a 17-point blowout.
The notable off-game today went to Reggie Evans, but he only got 9 minutes. Needless to say, the other main minutes for the non-Rashard Lewis bigs went to Jerome James, Nick Collison, and Danny Fortson. Fortson had a very nice game, I thought, the nicest since he got back from his fairly long absence. James didn't have the great night he had last night, but he definitely wasn't inept. Collison had a solid night, even when he missed the dunk toward the end of the game. He rebounded the missed dunk and laid it in the second time. The frontcourt overall did a pretty nice job on Zydrunas Ilgauskas, as he wasn't able to post numbers quite up there with what he'd been getting as of late. LeBron did scored 32, but the frontcourt was doing their job on him too; LeBron was forced outside for a bunch of threes, but he did hit quite a few of them.
Like I said, I'm left with the impression that the game was close for a good deal of the second half, when in fact it was only close for a portion of the third quarter when Cleveland tied it. Then came the 7-0 Sonic run after the game was tied at 67-67. With Radmanovic's three to start the fourth quarter, that run ballooned to a 14-2 run. At that point, it was all over but the shouting.
How about that defense? They held the Cavaliers to 86 points. In the five games since the break, they've held all six of their opponents to under 100 points. Yes, they even held the Bucks under 100 in that Sunday blowout.
Tonight, the Sonics put the Cavaliers away mainly by holding them to 19 in the first quarter and 17 in the fourth quarter. The Sonics gave up 26 and 24 in the middle quarters, which is okay to mediocre, but the catch is that the Sonics also scored 26 in the second and 24 in the third. The Cavaliers warmed up, sure -- they did manage to tie the game in the second quarter, after all -- but the Sonics never really cooled.
So, what am I going to say after I peek at the boxscore? I'll probably say that the bench was great, Radmanovic warmed up (he was great), and Luke Ridnour may have shook off some shooting woes. He's fighting off the plantar fasciitis, you know. Sometimes I forget that when I'm angry about his recent bricks.
PEEK AT THE BOXSCORE
starters
Ray Allen 31 pts/5 reb/3 ast (11-22 FG, 3-5 3pt, 6-6 free throws), Rashard Lewis 20 pts/4 reb/3 ast (7-15 FG, 2-3 3pt, 4-6 free throws), Luke Ridnour 9 pts/2 reb/5 ast (3-5 FG, 3-7 free throws), Reggie Evans 2 pts/2 reb (1-2 FG, 20 min)
bench
Vladimir Radmanovic 19 pts/7 reb/2 ast/2 stl (7-12 FG, 5-8 3pt, 33 min), Danny Fortson 8 pts/7 reb (1-2 FG, 6-6 free throws, 16 min), Nick Collison 6 pts/6 reb (2-5 FG, 2-2 free throws), Antonio Daniels 4 pts/2 ast (2-5 FG, 17 min), Robert Swift 0 pts/0 reb (2 min)
Jerome James Watch
4 pts/2 reb/1 stl (2-4 FG, 4 fouls, 17 min)
team
shot 36-for-72 (50%) from the field, shot 10-for-17 (58.8%) from downtown, shot 21-for-29 (72.4%) from the line, outrebounded Cleveland 36-33, forced 16 Cleveland turnovers, bench outscored Cleveland bench 37-8 (outrebounded them 21-12)
Did I mention the Sonics were able to keep Zydrunas Ilgauskas from wreaking havoc on the offensive boards? That's been a big part of his game this season, and the Sonics were able to limit him to 2 offensive boards.
Luke Ridnour did shoot 3-for-5 tonight, though he'd been having some horrible shooting nights the last few games. Of course, he has been trying to ward off the plantar fasciitis as well. As for further evidence that he's still not all the way through...Luke Ridnour doesn't miss 4 out of 7 free throws. That doesn't happen, except for tonight.
Still along the injury front, Vladimir Radmanovic said to Brad Adam after the game that his wrist still bothers him, but he just tries not to think about it. It looked like a good wrist tonight. His three-pointers at times don't just seem like threes, they seem like psychological blows to the other team, especially if they're really timely.
In a weird note, I mentioned that LeBron James had shot a bunch of threes. He went 5-for-7 from downtown. How did the Sonics' frontcourt do against him? LeBron was 6-for-13 from inside the arc. That's 12 of his 32 points coming from inside the arc.
The Sonic bench obliterated the Cleveland bench, and even if you go the Stan Van Gundy route and consider Vladimir Radmanovic as getting starter-type minutes, the Sonic bench still walked all over the Cavalier bench.
You know, I always fear these back-to-back sets, but the Sonics always seem to do so freakin' well in them.
Looking at their record, this team is 20-8 on the road and 20-8 at home.
Folks, this team is at 40 wins. It's the second of March. There's still a month and three weeks' worth of games (26 in all) to go.
I asked Jinkies if he's ever made his own mistake by the lake. Correction -- I would have asked him that, but their little Flash thingie doesn't appear to be loading as of the moment. If it loads again tonight, I'll make sure to post the answer here. It might be because the Sonics re-did their site.
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ARKANSAS STATE TO PLAY AT ARROWHEAD
On Saturday, Sept. 3, Arkansas State will host Missouri at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. Gametime is tentatively set for 11 a.m. Central time.
Why am I mentioning Arkansas State at Sports and Bremertonians?
In August, I'll be transferring to Arkansas State University. I received my acceptance letter in the mail last week. The school is located in Jonesboro, Arkansas, so my location at the top of the page will obviously change from Pine Bluff to Jonesboro. Yes, I still plan on contributing to Sports and B's once I'm up in northeast Arkansas, as time allows, of course.
What does Arkansas State's football stadium look like? Well, it's no Arrowhead Stadium.
If I do get the opportunity to go to Kansas City Labor Day weekend, via student ticket or press pass, it will be the first time in my life that I'll actually root for the home team in Arrowhead Stadium. Vexing, indeed.
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CHEEKS FIRED BY BLAZERS
The Portland Trail Blazers have fired head coach Maurice Cheeks. Director of player personnel Kevin Pritchard will be the interim coach.
Cheeks was in the final year of a 4-year deal signed back in 2001. In his tenure in Portland, Cheeks was 162-139 with two playoff appearances. The Blazers are currently 22-33 and have lost 7 out of their last 9 games.
This is just another dark day in the recent history of what was once a proud franchise. The days of "Rip City", Clyde The Glyde, and championship-caliber ballclubs are long gone in the Rose City. Instead, the fans have had to deal with one off-the-court incident after another.
Maurice Cheeks deserves better. There is a coaching vacancy in Minnesota. I would have to think that coaching Kevin Garnett is a dream come true for a man who has had to put up with a bunch of classless individuals over the past 4 seasons.
So what's next for the Blazers? Will this organization ever be able to clean up the mess that Bob Whitsitt made? The fans of Portland deserve better.
Cheeks was in the final year of a 4-year deal signed back in 2001. In his tenure in Portland, Cheeks was 162-139 with two playoff appearances. The Blazers are currently 22-33 and have lost 7 out of their last 9 games.
This is just another dark day in the recent history of what was once a proud franchise. The days of "Rip City", Clyde The Glyde, and championship-caliber ballclubs are long gone in the Rose City. Instead, the fans have had to deal with one off-the-court incident after another.
Maurice Cheeks deserves better. There is a coaching vacancy in Minnesota. I would have to think that coaching Kevin Garnett is a dream come true for a man who has had to put up with a bunch of classless individuals over the past 4 seasons.
So what's next for the Blazers? Will this organization ever be able to clean up the mess that Bob Whitsitt made? The fans of Portland deserve better.
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INTERMITTENT
Welcome to Wednesday. Yes, I'm late. I'd had every part of this post done about six hours ago except for the Sonic part of it. Then I zonked in front of the computer, and I woke up with it in hibernate mode.
For the random note...there's a couple varieties of Campbell's Chunky soup that do the job for me, and it's clam chowder and the potato ham chowder, with the chicken noodle soup not far behind. The soups really do eat like a meal, which makes it great as a college meal, and there shouldn't be too much cleanup, especially if you let the soup cool down and use a plastic fork (then just toss the fork). I know I talked about this before, but I was blown away when an OSU volcanology student told me about putting a tortilla under a serving of spaghetti. It's genius, really, unless you chop through the tortilla with your fork. If not, that's one less plate that has to be washed.
If you want to drastically decrease your productivity, then go here. However, I could swear the version of Sonic the Hedgehog that's on there is the Game Gear version.
To the post...with a late add (~11a) for the Miah Davis update.
MARINERS
The spring training player article carousel stops today on Rafael Soriano. Instead of throwing in the B game, Soriano is relegated to catch and long-toss with Bryan Price or Allen Wirtala ("Big 88," if you will).
Okay, the carousel keeps rolling with a guy named Willie, and he's not a redheaded groundskeeper at Springfield Elementary. It's definitely fluff, sure, but man, it's one long Finnigan piece. With the meat of that article, though, I really can't bash anything about it this time, even with all the prior merciless Bloomquist and South Kitsap bashing we've done here at Sports and B's. I have to hold back here, though I always remember that I'm from Bremerton, and that South Kitsap is South Kitsap. I'm not sure it's quite as evil as that ESPNU commercial with the old folks and the Auburn/Alabama feud though.
Larry Stone has a piece on Mike Cameron. Of course, we pretty much know what it's going to be about, with the whole Carlos Beltran addition and the move to right and everything, so no surprise there. But the first thing I saw was the picture of Beltran and Cameron. I'm glad the Mariners haven't really gone too nuts with their spring training tops, but the Mets are schizos when it comes to this. In recent years, they'd preferred to look like bright oranges with numerals on them, but perhaps now it's Willie Randolph's idea to go with dominant blue with black numbers. The whole dark-numbers-on-less-dark-background thing (non-white background) reminds me a bit too much of the Calgary Flames' red sweaters of last year.
In high school, I'm not sure if we would have had enough time for this drill, especially considering we weren't as sure-handed as pro ballplayers. It's just another "don't make errors" drill, but staying on the field until you get 27...that's some conditioning right there.
That last article also reveals that the entire 40-man roster is now under contract.
SEAHAWKS
We suspected it at times during the season, and now it appears to be reality as the Seahawks and Tim Ruskell are finally cutting bait with Anthony Simmons. He's been just awesome at times, but when it's a given that you can count on him to miss a few games every year with an injury, that puts pressure on the team to be really deep at his position, and considering the many needs on a football team (especially this one), one can only put up with this so much. It sucks that he always gets hurt, but he gets hurt, and the Seahawks obviously don't want to risk that possibility again when Simmons would be counting $5.25M against the cap. Clare Farnsworth also says in the article that his college reputation as a productive blitzer was far from fulfilled on the NFL level.
As has been brought up in articles multiple times over the past week, the Seahawks have given one-year tenders to all five of their restricted free agents. The players involved are Rocky Bernard, Marquand Manuel, Terreal Bierria (once again, why?), Kris Richard, and Ryan Hannam.
BASKETBALL
The Miah Davis Update
The Roanoke Dazzle lost 92-89 last night, but 1999 Bremerton graduate Miah Davis played 36 minutes. He scored 19 points, pulled down 6 boards, and dished off 3 assists, along with a steal and a block for good measure. He shot 7-for-14, nailed the only three he took, and shot 4-for-6 from the line.
Roanoke plays at Florida tomorrow and Saturday.
The Marvin Williams Watch
The Tar Heels host Florida State tomorrow (6p, local only) before the ACC regular season ends...at home against Duke on Sunday (1p, CBS)
Huskies
Brandon Roy's knee probably won't fully heal until after the season. Until then, it's grimacing and toughing it out, hoping the Huskies win the national title. He'd definitely be resting the knee more if the team was crap. After postseason knee rest, it might be the NBA draft for Roy. Who knows?
The Huskies travel to Berkeley to face the Cal Bears tomorrow (7p, FSNNW) and to Stanford on Saturday (1p, CBS)
Bulldogs
The Zags are awaiting the semifinal round at the WCC tournament in Santa Clara, where they have a first-round bye. The tournament starts Friday.
Sonics
For my take on last night's game, scroll down a post or click here if this post is the only one on the page.
They shot better, and they went inside more with greater success. They were also less reliant on the three-point shot for the first three quarters. Great stuff.
Antonio Daniels will more than likely void the final year of his contract with the Sonics to test the market next offseason. It's just another reason the Sonics need to win the title, because there's no way they're going to be able to keep all of these guys.
David Locke puts the Sonics' success in the most basic way -- hold onto the ball, nail your shots, and grab your misses. When they're not nailing their shots, the other two factors still give them a chance to win. Also, some people put Seattle in the running/jumpshooting category that Phoenix is in, but that's far from the case, as Locke points out. This team is a jumpshooting team, sure, but they optimally kill a bunch of time on the shot clock, and when they're nailing their shots and getting offensive boards on a consistent basis, the opposing team doesn't have the ball as much as they're used to over the course of an entire game.
Upcoming...
Today at Cleveland (4p, FSNNW)
Friday vs. Detroit (7:30p, FSNNW)
Sunday vs. Phoenix (6p, FSNNW)
Tuesday vs. Houston (7p, FSNNW)
HOCKEY
The Everett Silvertips are trying to secure home-ice advantage in the first round of the WHL playoffs. Coach Kevin Constantine knows, however, that if the Silvertips were to get anywhere meaningful in the playoffs, they'd have to learn how to win on the road. That'll be a necessity if/when they lose home-ice advantage.
Upcoming...
Tonight: Vancouver at Seattle
Friday: Portland at Vancouver, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 3 of best-of-5)
Saturday: Everett at Seattle, Tri-City at Portland, Kelowna at Vancouver, Rochester at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 4 of best-of-5 if necessary)
Sunday: Seattle at Portland, Vancouver at Kamloops, Rochester at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 5 of best-of-5 if necessary)
---
Have a great Wednesday, all of youse.
For the random note...there's a couple varieties of Campbell's Chunky soup that do the job for me, and it's clam chowder and the potato ham chowder, with the chicken noodle soup not far behind. The soups really do eat like a meal, which makes it great as a college meal, and there shouldn't be too much cleanup, especially if you let the soup cool down and use a plastic fork (then just toss the fork). I know I talked about this before, but I was blown away when an OSU volcanology student told me about putting a tortilla under a serving of spaghetti. It's genius, really, unless you chop through the tortilla with your fork. If not, that's one less plate that has to be washed.
If you want to drastically decrease your productivity, then go here. However, I could swear the version of Sonic the Hedgehog that's on there is the Game Gear version.
To the post...with a late add (~11a) for the Miah Davis update.
MARINERS
The spring training player article carousel stops today on Rafael Soriano. Instead of throwing in the B game, Soriano is relegated to catch and long-toss with Bryan Price or Allen Wirtala ("Big 88," if you will).
Okay, the carousel keeps rolling with a guy named Willie, and he's not a redheaded groundskeeper at Springfield Elementary. It's definitely fluff, sure, but man, it's one long Finnigan piece. With the meat of that article, though, I really can't bash anything about it this time, even with all the prior merciless Bloomquist and South Kitsap bashing we've done here at Sports and B's. I have to hold back here, though I always remember that I'm from Bremerton, and that South Kitsap is South Kitsap. I'm not sure it's quite as evil as that ESPNU commercial with the old folks and the Auburn/Alabama feud though.
Larry Stone has a piece on Mike Cameron. Of course, we pretty much know what it's going to be about, with the whole Carlos Beltran addition and the move to right and everything, so no surprise there. But the first thing I saw was the picture of Beltran and Cameron. I'm glad the Mariners haven't really gone too nuts with their spring training tops, but the Mets are schizos when it comes to this. In recent years, they'd preferred to look like bright oranges with numerals on them, but perhaps now it's Willie Randolph's idea to go with dominant blue with black numbers. The whole dark-numbers-on-less-dark-background thing (non-white background) reminds me a bit too much of the Calgary Flames' red sweaters of last year.
In high school, I'm not sure if we would have had enough time for this drill, especially considering we weren't as sure-handed as pro ballplayers. It's just another "don't make errors" drill, but staying on the field until you get 27...that's some conditioning right there.
That last article also reveals that the entire 40-man roster is now under contract.
SEAHAWKS
We suspected it at times during the season, and now it appears to be reality as the Seahawks and Tim Ruskell are finally cutting bait with Anthony Simmons. He's been just awesome at times, but when it's a given that you can count on him to miss a few games every year with an injury, that puts pressure on the team to be really deep at his position, and considering the many needs on a football team (especially this one), one can only put up with this so much. It sucks that he always gets hurt, but he gets hurt, and the Seahawks obviously don't want to risk that possibility again when Simmons would be counting $5.25M against the cap. Clare Farnsworth also says in the article that his college reputation as a productive blitzer was far from fulfilled on the NFL level.
As has been brought up in articles multiple times over the past week, the Seahawks have given one-year tenders to all five of their restricted free agents. The players involved are Rocky Bernard, Marquand Manuel, Terreal Bierria (once again, why?), Kris Richard, and Ryan Hannam.
BASKETBALL
The Miah Davis Update
The Roanoke Dazzle lost 92-89 last night, but 1999 Bremerton graduate Miah Davis played 36 minutes. He scored 19 points, pulled down 6 boards, and dished off 3 assists, along with a steal and a block for good measure. He shot 7-for-14, nailed the only three he took, and shot 4-for-6 from the line.
Roanoke plays at Florida tomorrow and Saturday.
The Marvin Williams Watch
The Tar Heels host Florida State tomorrow (6p, local only) before the ACC regular season ends...at home against Duke on Sunday (1p, CBS)
Huskies
Brandon Roy's knee probably won't fully heal until after the season. Until then, it's grimacing and toughing it out, hoping the Huskies win the national title. He'd definitely be resting the knee more if the team was crap. After postseason knee rest, it might be the NBA draft for Roy. Who knows?
The Huskies travel to Berkeley to face the Cal Bears tomorrow (7p, FSNNW) and to Stanford on Saturday (1p, CBS)
Bulldogs
The Zags are awaiting the semifinal round at the WCC tournament in Santa Clara, where they have a first-round bye. The tournament starts Friday.
Sonics
For my take on last night's game, scroll down a post or click here if this post is the only one on the page.
They shot better, and they went inside more with greater success. They were also less reliant on the three-point shot for the first three quarters. Great stuff.
Antonio Daniels will more than likely void the final year of his contract with the Sonics to test the market next offseason. It's just another reason the Sonics need to win the title, because there's no way they're going to be able to keep all of these guys.
David Locke puts the Sonics' success in the most basic way -- hold onto the ball, nail your shots, and grab your misses. When they're not nailing their shots, the other two factors still give them a chance to win. Also, some people put Seattle in the running/jumpshooting category that Phoenix is in, but that's far from the case, as Locke points out. This team is a jumpshooting team, sure, but they optimally kill a bunch of time on the shot clock, and when they're nailing their shots and getting offensive boards on a consistent basis, the opposing team doesn't have the ball as much as they're used to over the course of an entire game.
Upcoming...
Today at Cleveland (4p, FSNNW)
Friday vs. Detroit (7:30p, FSNNW)
Sunday vs. Phoenix (6p, FSNNW)
Tuesday vs. Houston (7p, FSNNW)
HOCKEY
The Everett Silvertips are trying to secure home-ice advantage in the first round of the WHL playoffs. Coach Kevin Constantine knows, however, that if the Silvertips were to get anywhere meaningful in the playoffs, they'd have to learn how to win on the road. That'll be a necessity if/when they lose home-ice advantage.
Upcoming...
Tonight: Vancouver at Seattle
Friday: Portland at Vancouver, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 3 of best-of-5)
Saturday: Everett at Seattle, Tri-City at Portland, Kelowna at Vancouver, Rochester at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 4 of best-of-5 if necessary)
Sunday: Seattle at Portland, Vancouver at Kamloops, Rochester at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 5 of best-of-5 if necessary)
---
Have a great Wednesday, all of youse.
/ Click for main page
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
GAME 55: SUPERSONICS 101, PACERS 93
SuperSonics 101, Pacers 93
(final content posted ~9:47p)
Here's what I have for the game tonight. Postgame thoughts go below all the in-game stuff, as per hopefully usual.
1st qtr
11:10 James turnaround over O'Neal SEA 2-0. 9:25 Lewis running banker right SEA 6-2. 8:46 James works O'Neal for a foul low, hits both SEA 8-2. 7:33 Ray Allen three left SEA 11-6. 7:16 Rick Carlisle gets second T, tossed. 6:40 Evans foul and one, hits SEA 15-6. 5:21 James works Pollard near the paint SEA 17-8. 3:48 Lewis reverse through Jackson. 2:28 Lewis tip-in off Radmanovic miss SEA 26-17. 1:44 Evans hits two free throws SEA 28-17. 1:11 Daniels pulls up SEA 30-20. 0:45.1 Evans hits two MORE free throws SEA 32-20.
After one quarter -- Seattle 32, Indiana 20
The Sonics shot 11-for-19 in the first quarter after starting out crappy their last two games. Conversely, the Pacers started out like the Sonics have the last couple of games. Rashard Lewis was red-hot early, shooting 6-for-6 (12 points) as Ray Allen was on the bench for a good portion of the first quarter after getting whistled for two fouls. Danny Fortson is rocking a headband look, with the braids just flying all over the place. It's nowhere near worse than what Scot Pollard looks like, but that's Scot Pollard for you. Reggie Evans was actually hitting his free throws, shooting 6-for-7 from the line and getting 8 points along with 6 boards.
Kevin Calabro is stressing the second syllable in Rick Carlisle's surname. It's fun.
2nd qtr
10:48 O'Neal backs into Fortson for his third foul. 10:31 Collison inside SEA 34-22. 9:08 Daniels beats the shot clock from the corner SEA 38-25. 6:41 Miller working Ridnour...Ridnour called for third foul, Indiana on 7-0 run. 5:38 Allen hits two, first Sonic points since 9:21, SEA 40-33. 5:13 Allen pulls up top of key SEA 42-35. 4:39 Evans T'd. 4:00 Allen righty reverse SEA 44-38. 3:06 James offensive rebound, lays back in, fouled, hits SEA 47-41. 2:22 Lewis jumphook SEA 49-44. 1:36 James works Pollard, goes baseline reverse SEA 51-44. 0:35 Daniels pulls up SEA 53-46.
The Pacers got to the basket a lot easier in the early part of the quarter after Fortson went to the bench with two fouls, and Evans was on the bench as well. McMillan was going with Radmanovic and Collison up front with the two point guards and Ray Allen as the other three.
At half -- Seattle 53, Indiana 48
The Sonics started out a lot better than they did the last two games, and that's a good thing. The erasure of most of their lead by the Pacers wasn't so nice in the second quarter, and I think that had to with when Evans and Fortson sitting on the bench for a decent portion of the quarter, as Austin Croshere blew through the defense for multiple layups. It also had to do with the fact that the Pacers were nailing their threes.
The inside play, however, has been a key thing so far in the game. Jerome James has 11 points and 6 boards at the half, and Reggie Evans is at 8 and 8. Rashard Lewis was on fire in the first quarter and finished the half with 14 points on 7-for-9 shooting. Antonio Daniels has contributed some scoring punch off the bench, which is good because Luke Ridnour has shot horribly lately, and Ridnour got worked into foul trouble by Reggie Miller when he was in there.
3rd qtr
10:45 Lewis left baseline SEA 55-52. 9:36 IND 56-55. 7:51 Allen three SEA 58-57. 7:29 Allen layup on break SEA 60-57. 7:09 second straight Pacer turnover. 5:40 Allen blown past for a layup, McMillan calls time. 6:21 Lewis power hook low SEA 62-59. 5:32 Allen baseline jam SEA 64-61. 3:24 Fortson rebound and putback, TIE 67-67. 2:10 Radmanovic three SEA 70-68. 1:31 Collison puts back Daniels miss SEA 72-70.
After three quarters -- Indiana 73, Seattle 72
4th qtr
9:44 Radmanovic drive IND 77-76. 9:09 Daniels drive SEA 78-77, Indiana timeout. 8:23 Radmanovic running righty layup TIE 80-80. 6:57 Radmanovic beats clock on broken play IND 84-82. 6:20 James steps back baseline TIE 84-84. 4:54 Lewis three IND 89-87. 4:20 Radmanovic three SEA 90-89. 3:46 Lewis fakes a pass into the corner, sticks a three on the next possession SEA 93-89, 9-0 Sonic run. 3:31 James fouls out. 3:08 Lewis layup inside, nice pass Daniels SEA 95-90. 2:53 O'Neal travels down low, forced by Fortson. 2:38 Lewis misses two free throws. 1:36 Fortson fouls O'Neal, who hits both SEA 95-92. 1:21 Lewis hook goaltended low by O'Neal SEA 97-92. 1:07 O'Neal blows layup, ticked at no Fortson foul. 0:39.3 Fred Jones hits one SEA 97-93. 0:04.3 Daniels fouled...this should be it -- the Sonics bricked on their last possession, but killed a ton of time. 0:01.3 Radmanovic steals inbound, drives and is fouled, hits both SEA 101-93.
Final -- Seattle 101, Indiana 93
Wow, I haven't game posted that way in probably a couple weeks...
You know, a couple minutes into the fourth quarter, I didn't expect the Sonics to win this game, though I wasn't going to be surprised if they pulled it out of the hat. It might be time to change my expectations or something. The 9-0 run for the Sonics put them ahead. Radmanovic sandwiched a three between two Lewis threes to erase a five-point deficit and get a four-point lead. In the later minutes, the Sonics got the right amount of defensive stops, whether it was forcing turnovers, denying shots, or altering the shots that were taken by the Pacers. In practice, as was brought up multiple times during the game by the broadcast crew, the Sonics scrimmaged and required the half of their team playing defense to get five stops before they got to play offense. Since that's far from smooth sailing, I'm sure that helped motivate the Sonics late in the fourth quarter. Though he didn't score or rebound that much in the game, one of the key stops just inside the last three minutes was to the credit of Danny Fortson, who forced Jermaine O'Neal into a walk. Though Rashard Lewis ended up bricking a couple of free throws right after that, time isn't on the side of the team that's behind late in the fourth quarter, and Fortson helped kill a good deal of time that the Pacers could have used.
It was a bit disappointing to not see the Sonics stomp on the Pacers in the first half after they had the double-digit lead, but on the other hand, Indiana wasn't going to shoot that horribly for the whole game. They weren't going to pull what the Sonics pulled a couple days ago in Milwaukee. At the same time, I wasn't liking the ease with which Austin Croshere was blowing by everybody and getting layups. Steven Jackson was also going nuts from downtown, but I was less pleased with Croshere knifing through the defense.
I'll have more on this with the peek later, but for now, I'm hungry and it's dinnertime.
PEEK AT THE BOXSCORE
starters
Rashard Lewis 30 pts/2 reb (14-19 FG, 2-5 3pt, 0-2 free throws), Ray Allen 18 pts/3 reb/2 ast (6-14 FG, 2-4 3pt, 4-5 free throws, 35 min), Reggie Evans 8 pts/12 reb (1-2 FG, 6-7 free throws, 22 min), Luke Ridnour 0 pts/4 ast (0-3 FG, 22 min)
bench
Vladimir Radmanovic 14 pts/3 reb (5-10 FG, 2-2 3pt, 2-2 free throws, 30 min), Antonio Daniels 12 pts/6 reb/4 ast (4-8 FG, 4-4 free throws, 35 min), Nick Collison 4 pts (2-4 FG, 14 min), Danny Fortson 2 pts/4 reb (1-3 FG, 16 min), Ron Murray 0 pts/0 reb/0 ast (0-1 FG, 2 min)
Jerome James Watch
13 pts/7 reb/2 blk (5-8 FG, 3-3 free throws, 24 min, fouled out)
team
shot 38-for-72 (52.8%) from the field, shot 6-for-13 (46.2%) from downtown, shot 19-for-23 (82.6%) from the line, outrebounded Pacers 38-34, bench was outscored 33-32 (benches each rebounded 14)
Jerome James was a much welcome option down low in the start of the game, as he was, dare I say, having his way with Indiana's front line. Really. Rashard Lewis was on fire in the first quarter, and that helped the Sonics open up that big lead.
Then the Sonics were held to 21 in the second quarter. Indiana rained some threes and Austin Croshere drove for a bunch of layups. The good thing was that the Sonics started out shooting way better in the first half than they had in their two games beforehand.
The Sonics eventually lost their lead in the third quarter. Their saving grace was that they didn't totally tank it. There's a general rule when playing behind on the road that you want to at least be within 10 points going into the final quarter to have a shot at winning the game. Considering that, the Sonics were within one, and far from dire straits.
Then the Sonics were down by 5 with under five minutes remaining. Ray Allen wasn't having his best night, and Luke Ridnour was barely taking any shots (both had some foul trouble), but Vladimir Radmanovic started going to the basket and hitting some layups to make himself productive in this game. Of course, back to the situation...the Sonics were down 5 when Lewis nailed a three from the right corner. On the next possession, Vladimir Radmanovic sank one. On the very next possession came the highlight-reel pass fake into the corner (Radmanovic) by Lewis, where he decoyed the defense away from him before sinking the three. That was a 9-0 Sonic run, and they never coughed up the lead after that.
Vladimir Radmanovic stole a pass on Indiana's final meaningful possession, then drove all the way to the basket even though he could have easily just crossed the time line. Either way, Radmanovic sank his two free throws to put the Sonics over the century mark in the game. Too bad chalupas weren't on the line.
Well, it's been hard to tell if Radmanovic has had his wrist heal up or not. I know a week or so ago he had a somewhat Vlad-type game and then was in the crapper for the next couple games or so. I'm not sure what to expect tomorrow from Radmanovic.
I asked Jinkies which side he's on in the Pace vs. Old El Paso debate. His reply: "Yes, I am without the claws, but don't get any mental ideas."
(final content posted ~9:47p)
Here's what I have for the game tonight. Postgame thoughts go below all the in-game stuff, as per hopefully usual.
1st qtr
11:10 James turnaround over O'Neal SEA 2-0. 9:25 Lewis running banker right SEA 6-2. 8:46 James works O'Neal for a foul low, hits both SEA 8-2. 7:33 Ray Allen three left SEA 11-6. 7:16 Rick Carlisle gets second T, tossed. 6:40 Evans foul and one, hits SEA 15-6. 5:21 James works Pollard near the paint SEA 17-8. 3:48 Lewis reverse through Jackson. 2:28 Lewis tip-in off Radmanovic miss SEA 26-17. 1:44 Evans hits two free throws SEA 28-17. 1:11 Daniels pulls up SEA 30-20. 0:45.1 Evans hits two MORE free throws SEA 32-20.
After one quarter -- Seattle 32, Indiana 20
The Sonics shot 11-for-19 in the first quarter after starting out crappy their last two games. Conversely, the Pacers started out like the Sonics have the last couple of games. Rashard Lewis was red-hot early, shooting 6-for-6 (12 points) as Ray Allen was on the bench for a good portion of the first quarter after getting whistled for two fouls. Danny Fortson is rocking a headband look, with the braids just flying all over the place. It's nowhere near worse than what Scot Pollard looks like, but that's Scot Pollard for you. Reggie Evans was actually hitting his free throws, shooting 6-for-7 from the line and getting 8 points along with 6 boards.
Kevin Calabro is stressing the second syllable in Rick Carlisle's surname. It's fun.
2nd qtr
10:48 O'Neal backs into Fortson for his third foul. 10:31 Collison inside SEA 34-22. 9:08 Daniels beats the shot clock from the corner SEA 38-25. 6:41 Miller working Ridnour...Ridnour called for third foul, Indiana on 7-0 run. 5:38 Allen hits two, first Sonic points since 9:21, SEA 40-33. 5:13 Allen pulls up top of key SEA 42-35. 4:39 Evans T'd. 4:00 Allen righty reverse SEA 44-38. 3:06 James offensive rebound, lays back in, fouled, hits SEA 47-41. 2:22 Lewis jumphook SEA 49-44. 1:36 James works Pollard, goes baseline reverse SEA 51-44. 0:35 Daniels pulls up SEA 53-46.
The Pacers got to the basket a lot easier in the early part of the quarter after Fortson went to the bench with two fouls, and Evans was on the bench as well. McMillan was going with Radmanovic and Collison up front with the two point guards and Ray Allen as the other three.
At half -- Seattle 53, Indiana 48
The Sonics started out a lot better than they did the last two games, and that's a good thing. The erasure of most of their lead by the Pacers wasn't so nice in the second quarter, and I think that had to with when Evans and Fortson sitting on the bench for a decent portion of the quarter, as Austin Croshere blew through the defense for multiple layups. It also had to do with the fact that the Pacers were nailing their threes.
The inside play, however, has been a key thing so far in the game. Jerome James has 11 points and 6 boards at the half, and Reggie Evans is at 8 and 8. Rashard Lewis was on fire in the first quarter and finished the half with 14 points on 7-for-9 shooting. Antonio Daniels has contributed some scoring punch off the bench, which is good because Luke Ridnour has shot horribly lately, and Ridnour got worked into foul trouble by Reggie Miller when he was in there.
3rd qtr
10:45 Lewis left baseline SEA 55-52. 9:36 IND 56-55. 7:51 Allen three SEA 58-57. 7:29 Allen layup on break SEA 60-57. 7:09 second straight Pacer turnover. 5:40 Allen blown past for a layup, McMillan calls time. 6:21 Lewis power hook low SEA 62-59. 5:32 Allen baseline jam SEA 64-61. 3:24 Fortson rebound and putback, TIE 67-67. 2:10 Radmanovic three SEA 70-68. 1:31 Collison puts back Daniels miss SEA 72-70.
After three quarters -- Indiana 73, Seattle 72
4th qtr
9:44 Radmanovic drive IND 77-76. 9:09 Daniels drive SEA 78-77, Indiana timeout. 8:23 Radmanovic running righty layup TIE 80-80. 6:57 Radmanovic beats clock on broken play IND 84-82. 6:20 James steps back baseline TIE 84-84. 4:54 Lewis three IND 89-87. 4:20 Radmanovic three SEA 90-89. 3:46 Lewis fakes a pass into the corner, sticks a three on the next possession SEA 93-89, 9-0 Sonic run. 3:31 James fouls out. 3:08 Lewis layup inside, nice pass Daniels SEA 95-90. 2:53 O'Neal travels down low, forced by Fortson. 2:38 Lewis misses two free throws. 1:36 Fortson fouls O'Neal, who hits both SEA 95-92. 1:21 Lewis hook goaltended low by O'Neal SEA 97-92. 1:07 O'Neal blows layup, ticked at no Fortson foul. 0:39.3 Fred Jones hits one SEA 97-93. 0:04.3 Daniels fouled...this should be it -- the Sonics bricked on their last possession, but killed a ton of time. 0:01.3 Radmanovic steals inbound, drives and is fouled, hits both SEA 101-93.
Final -- Seattle 101, Indiana 93
Wow, I haven't game posted that way in probably a couple weeks...
You know, a couple minutes into the fourth quarter, I didn't expect the Sonics to win this game, though I wasn't going to be surprised if they pulled it out of the hat. It might be time to change my expectations or something. The 9-0 run for the Sonics put them ahead. Radmanovic sandwiched a three between two Lewis threes to erase a five-point deficit and get a four-point lead. In the later minutes, the Sonics got the right amount of defensive stops, whether it was forcing turnovers, denying shots, or altering the shots that were taken by the Pacers. In practice, as was brought up multiple times during the game by the broadcast crew, the Sonics scrimmaged and required the half of their team playing defense to get five stops before they got to play offense. Since that's far from smooth sailing, I'm sure that helped motivate the Sonics late in the fourth quarter. Though he didn't score or rebound that much in the game, one of the key stops just inside the last three minutes was to the credit of Danny Fortson, who forced Jermaine O'Neal into a walk. Though Rashard Lewis ended up bricking a couple of free throws right after that, time isn't on the side of the team that's behind late in the fourth quarter, and Fortson helped kill a good deal of time that the Pacers could have used.
It was a bit disappointing to not see the Sonics stomp on the Pacers in the first half after they had the double-digit lead, but on the other hand, Indiana wasn't going to shoot that horribly for the whole game. They weren't going to pull what the Sonics pulled a couple days ago in Milwaukee. At the same time, I wasn't liking the ease with which Austin Croshere was blowing by everybody and getting layups. Steven Jackson was also going nuts from downtown, but I was less pleased with Croshere knifing through the defense.
I'll have more on this with the peek later, but for now, I'm hungry and it's dinnertime.
PEEK AT THE BOXSCORE
starters
Rashard Lewis 30 pts/2 reb (14-19 FG, 2-5 3pt, 0-2 free throws), Ray Allen 18 pts/3 reb/2 ast (6-14 FG, 2-4 3pt, 4-5 free throws, 35 min), Reggie Evans 8 pts/12 reb (1-2 FG, 6-7 free throws, 22 min), Luke Ridnour 0 pts/4 ast (0-3 FG, 22 min)
bench
Vladimir Radmanovic 14 pts/3 reb (5-10 FG, 2-2 3pt, 2-2 free throws, 30 min), Antonio Daniels 12 pts/6 reb/4 ast (4-8 FG, 4-4 free throws, 35 min), Nick Collison 4 pts (2-4 FG, 14 min), Danny Fortson 2 pts/4 reb (1-3 FG, 16 min), Ron Murray 0 pts/0 reb/0 ast (0-1 FG, 2 min)
Jerome James Watch
13 pts/7 reb/2 blk (5-8 FG, 3-3 free throws, 24 min, fouled out)
team
shot 38-for-72 (52.8%) from the field, shot 6-for-13 (46.2%) from downtown, shot 19-for-23 (82.6%) from the line, outrebounded Pacers 38-34, bench was outscored 33-32 (benches each rebounded 14)
Jerome James was a much welcome option down low in the start of the game, as he was, dare I say, having his way with Indiana's front line. Really. Rashard Lewis was on fire in the first quarter, and that helped the Sonics open up that big lead.
Then the Sonics were held to 21 in the second quarter. Indiana rained some threes and Austin Croshere drove for a bunch of layups. The good thing was that the Sonics started out shooting way better in the first half than they had in their two games beforehand.
The Sonics eventually lost their lead in the third quarter. Their saving grace was that they didn't totally tank it. There's a general rule when playing behind on the road that you want to at least be within 10 points going into the final quarter to have a shot at winning the game. Considering that, the Sonics were within one, and far from dire straits.
Then the Sonics were down by 5 with under five minutes remaining. Ray Allen wasn't having his best night, and Luke Ridnour was barely taking any shots (both had some foul trouble), but Vladimir Radmanovic started going to the basket and hitting some layups to make himself productive in this game. Of course, back to the situation...the Sonics were down 5 when Lewis nailed a three from the right corner. On the next possession, Vladimir Radmanovic sank one. On the very next possession came the highlight-reel pass fake into the corner (Radmanovic) by Lewis, where he decoyed the defense away from him before sinking the three. That was a 9-0 Sonic run, and they never coughed up the lead after that.
Vladimir Radmanovic stole a pass on Indiana's final meaningful possession, then drove all the way to the basket even though he could have easily just crossed the time line. Either way, Radmanovic sank his two free throws to put the Sonics over the century mark in the game. Too bad chalupas weren't on the line.
Well, it's been hard to tell if Radmanovic has had his wrist heal up or not. I know a week or so ago he had a somewhat Vlad-type game and then was in the crapper for the next couple games or so. I'm not sure what to expect tomorrow from Radmanovic.
I asked Jinkies which side he's on in the Pace vs. Old El Paso debate. His reply: "Yes, I am without the claws, but don't get any mental ideas."
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NAMES AND CHANGES
Instead of being like Arte Moreno, Southwest Missouri State University is one step closer to changing its name to Missouri State University.
Missouri State University? How about Jackie Stiles College? After all, Stiles is the face of the Springfield school as far as I'm concerned.
While I'm on the subject, I was talking to David over the weekend about colleges and former athletes. I like to refer to Pacific as "Miah Davis University", for example. I'll bring this up in the weeks to come, as more fans start to pay more attention to Pacific. But this year's run by Pacific was started in last year's NCAA Tournament when they upset Providence in the 1st round.
Since I mentioned Stiles in this post, there's just two words that come to mind.
Got teeth?
Missouri State University? How about Jackie Stiles College? After all, Stiles is the face of the Springfield school as far as I'm concerned.
While I'm on the subject, I was talking to David over the weekend about colleges and former athletes. I like to refer to Pacific as "Miah Davis University", for example. I'll bring this up in the weeks to come, as more fans start to pay more attention to Pacific. But this year's run by Pacific was started in last year's NCAA Tournament when they upset Providence in the 1st round.
Since I mentioned Stiles in this post, there's just two words that come to mind.
Got teeth?
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MARCH OF THE PIGS
Welcome to Tuesday, and welcome to March. Yikes. Step right up. I'm not sure I needed yesterday to remember what rain was like here in the Northwest, but it doesn't take too much of it for me to have enough.
Today's random note...I've been watching the Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network for a few years now, and the new shows are sometimes hit-or-miss. Robot Chicken is a new show. Seth Green is prominently involved. "Why don't you just call it Project Bananarama?!" In the first episode, Optimus Prime died of prostate cancer. Last Sunday, I saw Voltron get into a breakdance-off with Robeast. No, the whole show doesn't revolve around '80s cartoon characters getting into inane plots. Anyway, it's a twisted, ADD-friendly show (perfect for me, in other words) which uses claymation for its figures. The 10-12 minutes goes very quickly, and robot chickens have absolutely nothing to do with the show past the opening montage and theme. Here's some episode synopses, for those who would like some. The show airs on the Cartoon Network Sundays at 11:30pm on both coasts, and 10:30 in the middle of the country.
MARINERS
The Chris Snelling MRI results have been sifted through, and wouldn't you know it, it's a torn medial meniscus. Surgery and six weeks off will be in order for Snelling. Maybe I should go pick up the DVD of Groundhog Day and watch it in honor of Snelling.
The pain doesn't stop there. Bucky Jacobsen has apparently had some soreness in his surgically-repaired knee, and the team is backing off on having him on the field every day, instead cutting it to every other day.
Scott Spiezio last year lost his stick, lost his playing time, and even lost his marriage. He's also lost some weight, which given his leaner apperance now is a good thing for him. Man, even when I was in college I couldn't eat pizza six times a week. That's insane. The best I could do was pull out a Papa Murphy's coupon for a family-sized Chicago-style pizza, bake it, eat two slices of it, call that a meal, and then throw the rest in the fridge. Thus, one pizza would last for about four meals, and I was eating cereal with banana slices every morning, so the pizza was not eaten at breakfast and therefore was well-distributed. The image I'm getting of Spiezio here is that he ordered a pizza, polished it off in two straight meals, then repeated that process six times in a week. It's a scary thought.
Spiezio apparently cut six percent off his body fat. When I saw that Jim Moore had a column talking about betting against The Boone, I thought I was going to find out what Willie Bloomquist had to do for payback after Boone won the body-fat related bet after the first physicals this spring. Unfortuantely, we don't find out with this column. I was disappointed.
Apparently Carlos Delgado wasn't doubting that the Mariners would come short in the money department, but he just wanted to take his sweet time when it came to who he would sign for in the offseason. Delgado's solid and everything, but I'm not shedding a tear over not having him on this team. Not when the Mariners had their best offseason ever. I know that's the best baseball day I've ever had in December.
One of these days I'll actually listen to one of the Mariners' broadcasts on Spanish radio, seeing as to how I did take three years of Spanish in high school (though it was Bremerton-taught Spanish). Of course, I'll have to wait until the Mariners secure a Spanish broadcast deal in the Seattle market before that happens.
SEAHAWKS
Jones, Hasselbeck, and Alexander are squared away. Now the focus shifts to Ken Lucas. The free-agency period starts tomorrow, and Romero gives a few words on the free agents not named Lucas. The Seahawks got the big three out of the way, but they've got to retain some of the bigger and necessary pieces that are still unrestricted free agents.
BASKETBALL
The Marvin Williams Watch
The Tar Heels host Florida State on Thursday (6p, local only) before the ACC regular season ends...at home against Duke on Sunday (1p, CBS)
Huskies
Art Thiel praises the team-wide discipline of the Huskies. The team hasn't gotten into any weird crazy fights or had any drastic rule violations by any players that have gone public. Of course, the message was sent last year when Coach Romar benched Will Conroy and Bobby Jones to start the first-round tournament game against UAB last March. Hopefully no one even thinks about screwing up this March.
Brandon Burmeister has probably gotten some splinters of pine in the ol' rear, but the walk-on just might have a chance to do some damage next year, with some expected departures and the fact that he can nail some threes.
Tre Simmons was named Pac-10 player of the week for his doings against the Arizona schools late last week. He put up 29 and 24 in those games.
The Huskies travel to Berkeley to face the Cal Bears on Thursday (7p, FSNNW) and to Stanford on Saturday (1p, CBS)
Bulldogs
In Gonzaga's 87-60 win over Northern Colorado in a non-conference tuneup for the WCC tournament, Ronny Turiaf had 22 points and 8 boards in his final home game. Sean Mallon had 17 points and 5 boards off the bench, and JP Batista had 16 and 6.
Also of note for the Zags, Ronny Turiaf was named the West Coast Conference men's player of the year, and Mark Few was named WCC coach of the year for the fifth straight year. Erroll Knight was named defender of the year, and JP Batista was named newcomer of the year. Adam Morrison and Derek Raivio were named along with Turiaf to the WCC first team.
The Zags are awaiting the semifinal round at the WCC tournament in Santa Clara, where they have a first-round bye. The tournament starts Friday.
Sonics
An influence of Ray Allen's is one Reggie Miller, who helped make shooting threes a cool thing. Of course, there was that span in the '90s where the three-point line was brought in to a uniform 22 feet, and I think it really cheapened the three-point shot. You had people out there shooting threes who had no business shooting threes. Of course, there's also something to be said about how defenses were being drawn up to counter the line being drawn closer to the basket. Though I don't know if it correlates, it seems to me that the Knicks/Heat rivalry was heating up around this time, and that scoring was way down. Yuck.
Former Temple assistant and current Sonic assistant Dean Demopoulos is a bit disturbed and saddened after John Chaney's well-publicized antics in the Saint Joseph's game. Demopoulos went with Chaney and the team to 17 NCAA tournaments, so there's a bit of an attachment there, however, Demopoulos' father died young, and Chaney served as somewhat of a father figure to him. Of course, none of this will cool the hot water that surrounds Chaney right now.
Upcoming...
Today at Indiana (4p, FSNNW)
Tomorrow at Cleveland (4p, FSNNW)
Friday vs. Detroit (7:30p, FSNNW)
Sunday vs. Phoenix (6p, FSNNW)
HOCKEY
At this point last year, the Canucks were coming off a 2-0 home win against the Blues, and were 35-19-7-4 at the end of a mediocre February. Their next game was a highly-entertaining, ESPN-televised game at Colorado that ended in a 5-5 tie after the Canucks scored twice in the final period after being down two goals. Of course, the next game involving the same two teams included a pretty big incident. You know, guy gets suckerpunched and piledriven into the ice, suckerpuncher gets suspended for the rest of the year and the playoffs, etc.
Upcoming...
Wednesday: Vancouver at Seattle
Friday: Portland at Vancouver, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 3 of best-of-5)
Saturday: Everett at Seattle, Tri-City at Portland, Kelowna at Vancouver, Rochester at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 4 of best-of-5 if necessary)
Sunday: Seattle at Portland, Vancouver at Kamloops, Rochester at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 5 of best-of-5 if necessary)
---
Have a great, grand, wonderful Tuesday, everyone. No yelling on the bus!!
Today's random note...I've been watching the Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network for a few years now, and the new shows are sometimes hit-or-miss. Robot Chicken is a new show. Seth Green is prominently involved. "Why don't you just call it Project Bananarama?!" In the first episode, Optimus Prime died of prostate cancer. Last Sunday, I saw Voltron get into a breakdance-off with Robeast. No, the whole show doesn't revolve around '80s cartoon characters getting into inane plots. Anyway, it's a twisted, ADD-friendly show (perfect for me, in other words) which uses claymation for its figures. The 10-12 minutes goes very quickly, and robot chickens have absolutely nothing to do with the show past the opening montage and theme. Here's some episode synopses, for those who would like some. The show airs on the Cartoon Network Sundays at 11:30pm on both coasts, and 10:30 in the middle of the country.
MARINERS
The Chris Snelling MRI results have been sifted through, and wouldn't you know it, it's a torn medial meniscus. Surgery and six weeks off will be in order for Snelling. Maybe I should go pick up the DVD of Groundhog Day and watch it in honor of Snelling.
The pain doesn't stop there. Bucky Jacobsen has apparently had some soreness in his surgically-repaired knee, and the team is backing off on having him on the field every day, instead cutting it to every other day.
Scott Spiezio last year lost his stick, lost his playing time, and even lost his marriage. He's also lost some weight, which given his leaner apperance now is a good thing for him. Man, even when I was in college I couldn't eat pizza six times a week. That's insane. The best I could do was pull out a Papa Murphy's coupon for a family-sized Chicago-style pizza, bake it, eat two slices of it, call that a meal, and then throw the rest in the fridge. Thus, one pizza would last for about four meals, and I was eating cereal with banana slices every morning, so the pizza was not eaten at breakfast and therefore was well-distributed. The image I'm getting of Spiezio here is that he ordered a pizza, polished it off in two straight meals, then repeated that process six times in a week. It's a scary thought.
Spiezio apparently cut six percent off his body fat. When I saw that Jim Moore had a column talking about betting against The Boone, I thought I was going to find out what Willie Bloomquist had to do for payback after Boone won the body-fat related bet after the first physicals this spring. Unfortuantely, we don't find out with this column. I was disappointed.
Apparently Carlos Delgado wasn't doubting that the Mariners would come short in the money department, but he just wanted to take his sweet time when it came to who he would sign for in the offseason. Delgado's solid and everything, but I'm not shedding a tear over not having him on this team. Not when the Mariners had their best offseason ever. I know that's the best baseball day I've ever had in December.
One of these days I'll actually listen to one of the Mariners' broadcasts on Spanish radio, seeing as to how I did take three years of Spanish in high school (though it was Bremerton-taught Spanish). Of course, I'll have to wait until the Mariners secure a Spanish broadcast deal in the Seattle market before that happens.
SEAHAWKS
Jones, Hasselbeck, and Alexander are squared away. Now the focus shifts to Ken Lucas. The free-agency period starts tomorrow, and Romero gives a few words on the free agents not named Lucas. The Seahawks got the big three out of the way, but they've got to retain some of the bigger and necessary pieces that are still unrestricted free agents.
BASKETBALL
The Marvin Williams Watch
The Tar Heels host Florida State on Thursday (6p, local only) before the ACC regular season ends...at home against Duke on Sunday (1p, CBS)
Huskies
Art Thiel praises the team-wide discipline of the Huskies. The team hasn't gotten into any weird crazy fights or had any drastic rule violations by any players that have gone public. Of course, the message was sent last year when Coach Romar benched Will Conroy and Bobby Jones to start the first-round tournament game against UAB last March. Hopefully no one even thinks about screwing up this March.
Brandon Burmeister has probably gotten some splinters of pine in the ol' rear, but the walk-on just might have a chance to do some damage next year, with some expected departures and the fact that he can nail some threes.
Tre Simmons was named Pac-10 player of the week for his doings against the Arizona schools late last week. He put up 29 and 24 in those games.
The Huskies travel to Berkeley to face the Cal Bears on Thursday (7p, FSNNW) and to Stanford on Saturday (1p, CBS)
Bulldogs
In Gonzaga's 87-60 win over Northern Colorado in a non-conference tuneup for the WCC tournament, Ronny Turiaf had 22 points and 8 boards in his final home game. Sean Mallon had 17 points and 5 boards off the bench, and JP Batista had 16 and 6.
Also of note for the Zags, Ronny Turiaf was named the West Coast Conference men's player of the year, and Mark Few was named WCC coach of the year for the fifth straight year. Erroll Knight was named defender of the year, and JP Batista was named newcomer of the year. Adam Morrison and Derek Raivio were named along with Turiaf to the WCC first team.
The Zags are awaiting the semifinal round at the WCC tournament in Santa Clara, where they have a first-round bye. The tournament starts Friday.
Sonics
An influence of Ray Allen's is one Reggie Miller, who helped make shooting threes a cool thing. Of course, there was that span in the '90s where the three-point line was brought in to a uniform 22 feet, and I think it really cheapened the three-point shot. You had people out there shooting threes who had no business shooting threes. Of course, there's also something to be said about how defenses were being drawn up to counter the line being drawn closer to the basket. Though I don't know if it correlates, it seems to me that the Knicks/Heat rivalry was heating up around this time, and that scoring was way down. Yuck.
Former Temple assistant and current Sonic assistant Dean Demopoulos is a bit disturbed and saddened after John Chaney's well-publicized antics in the Saint Joseph's game. Demopoulos went with Chaney and the team to 17 NCAA tournaments, so there's a bit of an attachment there, however, Demopoulos' father died young, and Chaney served as somewhat of a father figure to him. Of course, none of this will cool the hot water that surrounds Chaney right now.
Upcoming...
Today at Indiana (4p, FSNNW)
Tomorrow at Cleveland (4p, FSNNW)
Friday vs. Detroit (7:30p, FSNNW)
Sunday vs. Phoenix (6p, FSNNW)
HOCKEY
At this point last year, the Canucks were coming off a 2-0 home win against the Blues, and were 35-19-7-4 at the end of a mediocre February. Their next game was a highly-entertaining, ESPN-televised game at Colorado that ended in a 5-5 tie after the Canucks scored twice in the final period after being down two goals. Of course, the next game involving the same two teams included a pretty big incident. You know, guy gets suckerpunched and piledriven into the ice, suckerpuncher gets suspended for the rest of the year and the playoffs, etc.
Upcoming...
Wednesday: Vancouver at Seattle
Friday: Portland at Vancouver, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 3 of best-of-5)
Saturday: Everett at Seattle, Tri-City at Portland, Kelowna at Vancouver, Rochester at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 4 of best-of-5 if necessary)
Sunday: Seattle at Portland, Vancouver at Kamloops, Rochester at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 5 of best-of-5 if necessary)
---
Have a great, grand, wonderful Tuesday, everyone. No yelling on the bus!!
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Monday, February 28, 2005
KEEP BABELFISHING
I'm usually not one to bash the Bremerton Sun. There was an era in Bremerton daily sports in print was pretty basic, i.e., the ever-popular four-page sports section with nothing but articles off the AP wire, but the Sun elevated their output a couple years after they went from an afternoon paper (which I helped one of my friends deliver back in my early grade school days) to the morning paper that it is now.
That said, some sports-aligned people that hadn't already seen the boxscore of Sunday's Sonic game on the internet had another thing coming when they tried to see exactly how many bricks Luke Ridnour tossed up in the game against the Bucks...
To add to this, anything that was usually raw numbers, scores, or stats on the scoreboard page also looked like this.
Granted, this barely ever happens, but that's an entire page in the newspaper that was filled with gibberish. Anyone that wanted to find who was winning at the Nissan Open, or find out about the WHL standings, or find out the betting lines...they were going to come away empty-handed on this day.
That said, some sports-aligned people that hadn't already seen the boxscore of Sunday's Sonic game on the internet had another thing coming when they tried to see exactly how many bricks Luke Ridnour tossed up in the game against the Bucks...
To add to this, anything that was usually raw numbers, scores, or stats on the scoreboard page also looked like this.
Granted, this barely ever happens, but that's an entire page in the newspaper that was filled with gibberish. Anyone that wanted to find who was winning at the Nissan Open, or find out about the WHL standings, or find out the betting lines...they were going to come away empty-handed on this day.
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FREE MINUTES
I read today that the Charlotte Bobcats waived Jahidi White (you may remember his days at Georgetown) and signed point guard Cory Alexander from Roanoke of the developmental league.
Why would I bring this up? Bremerton 1999 graduate Miah Davis was the backup point guard on the Roanoke Dazzle's roster. Perhaps this would free up more minutes for the player that ran the point for Bremerton's 5th-place finish in the 3A state tournament in 1999.
I checked, and sure enough, Miah seems to be getting his chance. He played 41 minutes in a 97-93 loss to the Huntsville Flight on Saturday. He scored 12 points, pulled down 4 rebounds, and dished off 8 assists. He shot 3-for-8 from the field, and was 6-for-6 from the line. He recorded a steal, but the four turnovers aren't too nice. That hopefully will shore itself up.
A surprise in the boxscore was the revelation that Haywoode Workman is an NBDL official. Surprise! I never thought I'd see that name again.
The Dazzle play the Columbus Riverdragons tomorrow, so we'll see what Miah does then. The NBDL plays through the beginning of April. Hopefully Miah can play himself into the NBA with a 10-day contract at the least by the end of the year. It'd be something.
Why would I bring this up? Bremerton 1999 graduate Miah Davis was the backup point guard on the Roanoke Dazzle's roster. Perhaps this would free up more minutes for the player that ran the point for Bremerton's 5th-place finish in the 3A state tournament in 1999.
I checked, and sure enough, Miah seems to be getting his chance. He played 41 minutes in a 97-93 loss to the Huntsville Flight on Saturday. He scored 12 points, pulled down 4 rebounds, and dished off 8 assists. He shot 3-for-8 from the field, and was 6-for-6 from the line. He recorded a steal, but the four turnovers aren't too nice. That hopefully will shore itself up.
A surprise in the boxscore was the revelation that Haywoode Workman is an NBDL official. Surprise! I never thought I'd see that name again.
The Dazzle play the Columbus Riverdragons tomorrow, so we'll see what Miah does then. The NBDL plays through the beginning of April. Hopefully Miah can play himself into the NBA with a 10-day contract at the least by the end of the year. It'd be something.
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FOOTBALL IN LATE-FEBRUARY? WHY NOT?
First of all, I find the NFL Combine to be worthless at best. Oh my god, so-and-so only ran a 4.8! Personally, I'm more interested in what the player can do on the field more than seeing him run meaningless 40-yard dashes.
Two words fit the description of combine master:
Tony Mandarich
As for the football-related news I care about, Sports Illustrated's Peter King is a fan of Seahawks president Tim Ruskell:
4. I think Tim Ruskell is a darned good hire by the Seahawks as president of football operations. I've always respected him, from the time I got to know him in the Bucs' pre-good days a decade ago. A grinder. Hard worker who got to know the salary cap and talent-judging with the Bucs. Seattle didn't need a star. the Seahawks needed a talent-cultivator, and when Scott Pioli wasn't available, they got the next-best guy.
King is right on the money. When I need a national point of view on the NFL, I turn to King. Instead of wasting your time reading Gregg Easterbrook's dictionary every week, you should be reading King's Monday Morning Quarterback, which is also being written during the offseason. Yes, that's a "Sports and Bremertonians" recommendation. Take it or leave it.
Well, I just blew my 40-yard dash. I guess that means I won't be a first-round blogger this year. Such is life.
Two words fit the description of combine master:
Tony Mandarich
As for the football-related news I care about, Sports Illustrated's Peter King is a fan of Seahawks president Tim Ruskell:
4. I think Tim Ruskell is a darned good hire by the Seahawks as president of football operations. I've always respected him, from the time I got to know him in the Bucs' pre-good days a decade ago. A grinder. Hard worker who got to know the salary cap and talent-judging with the Bucs. Seattle didn't need a star. the Seahawks needed a talent-cultivator, and when Scott Pioli wasn't available, they got the next-best guy.
King is right on the money. When I need a national point of view on the NFL, I turn to King. Instead of wasting your time reading Gregg Easterbrook's dictionary every week, you should be reading King's Monday Morning Quarterback, which is also being written during the offseason. Yes, that's a "Sports and Bremertonians" recommendation. Take it or leave it.
Well, I just blew my 40-yard dash. I guess that means I won't be a first-round blogger this year. Such is life.
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BRING THE BANE
Welcome to Monday. If the weather forecast holds up, welcome back to crappy weather. Man, there's going to be a mother of a drought up here this summer. Hopefully I get hired out of the region so I don't have to worry about it. In other words, I'll be rationing water here soon, I'm sure.
Today's random note...it's lingustic-related, I guess. The word in question: jaguar. Of course, some children hear it wrong and say something like "JAG-wire," though there's clearly no "i" sound anywhere in the word, but I can see how they'd get confused. There's of course the run-on-the-mill "JAG-warr," but then those great car commercials with the British guy doing the voice-over. He says "JAG-yoo-wer." Tune in for later semi-random lingustic notes when I talk about the way that some Canadians say words like "out" and "apart." That's what a week of baseball camp north of the border and years of too much CBC will do to you.
Normally I'm not bringing up Olympic sport-type articles unless the Kirks are involved, but I couldn't help but get a kick out of the tail end of Ron Judd's piece, the part about the luge track in Turin, which is under a bit of scrutiny one year ahead of the Olympics. Why? It appears to be a centripetal terminal velocity luge track, of sorts.
On TV tonight -- Northern Colorado at Gonzaga (6p, FSNNW Seattle, Q6 NBC Spokane)
MARINERS
Yes, it's the too-many-righty-hitters debate. The thought of Bret Boone hitting 6th is a bit weird, if you're planning to slot Raul Ibanez 5th, but unless you want to move Boone one of those bigger bats to the 2-hole to get some pitches in front of Beltre, then I guess you could do that too. I would think whoever's batting second for this team should be seeing some meaty pitches.
Ichiro got the hook-up from Hiroshi Yamauchi when the latter sold his stake in the Mariners. Ichiro got 5000 shares of Nintendo stock out of it.
Also in the P-I article is also the question of righties, but this time in the bullpen. Bryan Price argues that the added depth at AAA resulting from the final cuts could result in more "hungry" kids at Tacoma.
Also in the Times article, Pokey Reese won't be taking the trip to the White House and won't be at Ring Day when the Red Sox get their rings with the Yankees at Fenway.
Unsigned players now include only Julio Mateo and Miguel Olivo.
Among the fun stuff at camp yesterday were Ron Hassey getting serenaded in celebration of 52 years on the earth, and then there was Richie Sexson hijacking a golf cart, loading it with the Mariners' other starting infielders, and driving it through the clubhouse and up to the trainer's room.
SEAHAWKS
I find it somewhat amusing that a bunch of people know about Tim Ruskell, but don't actually know him. Rich McKay definitely likes him, and he seems to have a tireless work ethic. Bonus points for having the same agent as Shaun Alexander.
Apparently, sources are saying that Koren Robinson just got out of rehab. Robinson's future as a Seahawk will be more defined after Holmgren and Ruskell get back from the combine and meet with him.
Also, the Seahawks will tender offers to Rocky Bernard, Terreal Bierria (why?), Marquand Manuel, Ryan Hannam, and Kris Richard, all restricted free agents. Jerry Rice may sign with the 49ers so he can retire with them, and new special teams coach Bob Casullo has pulled some strings and gotten punter Leo Araguz under the Seahawk banner. I'm not sure what to think of it, but if his aged leg does better than what we saw out of this team last year, then great.
BASKETBALL
The Marvin Williams Watch
In the Tar Heels' 85-83 squeaker of a win at Maryland, Marvin Williams didn't get off too many shots, and scored only 5 points and pulled down 5 boards in 19 minutes of play. As I alluded, Marvin was a mere 1-for-3 from the field and 3-for-4 from the line.
The Tar Heels host Florida State on Thursday (6p, local only) before the ACC regular season ends...at home against Duke on Sunday (1p, CBS)
Huskies
Some leftover Husky articles, and they're both mainly centered on Will Conroy, the elder statesman of the team, and the one remaining that remembers the tail end of some lean years for the Huskies.
The Huskies travel to Berkeley to face the Cal Bears on Thursday (7p, FSNNW) and to Stanford on Saturday (1p, CBS)
Bulldogs
The Zags host Northern Colorado tonight (6p, FSNNW Seattle, Q6 NBC Spokane) before starting WCC Tournament play, where they have a first-round bye. The tournament itself starts Friday.
Sonics
For my take on yesterday's game, scroll down a post or click here if this post is the only one on the page.
How bad was it? I wasn't aware of it until I read the article, though I knew it was bad. That was the Sonics' worst single-game shooting performance in the history of the franchise. They didn't bury their shots early, Ray Allen hinted that they might have gotten discouraged, the defense was lazy, and it was all downhill from there.
They crap the bed in Milwaukee, and now they have to go to Indiana. Yikes. THe schedule is a fickle mistress, indeed.
I'm sitting here about two hours after midnight...did the P-I just not put out a non-wire Sonic article for yesterday's game? I had to do a double-take when I checked.
Upcoming...
Tomorrow at Indiana (4p, FSNNW)
Wednesday at Cleveland (4p, FSNNW)
Friday vs. Detroit (7:30p, FSNNW)
Sunday vs. Phoenix (6p, FSNNW)
HOCKEY
Seattle shut out Spokane 3-0. Mitch Fadden's goal early in the second period held up for Seattle until the third period. Then Spokane pulled their goalie as Seattle killed a double-minor inside the final five minutes, but Matt Hansen and Derek Couture put the icing on the cake with the open net against a 6-on-4 situation. Seattle outshot the Chiefs 30-22, and Bryan Bridges stopped all 22.
Tri-City and Everett skated to a 3-3 overtime tie. It started out fairly well for Everett. They pounced on the Americans for two first period goals (Mitch Love and Alex Leavitt). They added another one in the second period thanks to Kyle Annesley. Tri-City scored their first goal just 30 seconds after the Leavitt goal, but the 'Tips still took a 3-1 lead into the third. Then Carey Price dug in between the posts for the Americans and held strong while two of his defensemen ended up scoring from the point. Marcus Jonasen and Andy Thompson completed the erasure of Everett's three-goal lead, and nothing was settled in overtime. Everett was outshot 39-25, and Mike Wall stopped 36.
Upcoming...
Wednesday: Vancouver at Seattle
Friday: Portland at Vancouver, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 3 of best-of-5)
Saturday: Everett at Seattle, Tri-City at Portland, Kelowna at Vancouver, Rochester at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 4 of best-of-5 if necessary)
Sunday: Seattle at Portland, Vancouver at Kamloops, Rochester at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 5 of best-of-5 if necessary)
---
Have a great Monday and a great work week, everybody.
Today's random note...it's lingustic-related, I guess. The word in question: jaguar. Of course, some children hear it wrong and say something like "JAG-wire," though there's clearly no "i" sound anywhere in the word, but I can see how they'd get confused. There's of course the run-on-the-mill "JAG-warr," but then those great car commercials with the British guy doing the voice-over. He says "JAG-yoo-wer." Tune in for later semi-random lingustic notes when I talk about the way that some Canadians say words like "out" and "apart." That's what a week of baseball camp north of the border and years of too much CBC will do to you.
Normally I'm not bringing up Olympic sport-type articles unless the Kirks are involved, but I couldn't help but get a kick out of the tail end of Ron Judd's piece, the part about the luge track in Turin, which is under a bit of scrutiny one year ahead of the Olympics. Why? It appears to be a centripetal terminal velocity luge track, of sorts.
On TV tonight -- Northern Colorado at Gonzaga (6p, FSNNW Seattle, Q6 NBC Spokane)
MARINERS
Yes, it's the too-many-righty-hitters debate. The thought of Bret Boone hitting 6th is a bit weird, if you're planning to slot Raul Ibanez 5th, but unless you want to move Boone one of those bigger bats to the 2-hole to get some pitches in front of Beltre, then I guess you could do that too. I would think whoever's batting second for this team should be seeing some meaty pitches.
Ichiro got the hook-up from Hiroshi Yamauchi when the latter sold his stake in the Mariners. Ichiro got 5000 shares of Nintendo stock out of it.
Also in the P-I article is also the question of righties, but this time in the bullpen. Bryan Price argues that the added depth at AAA resulting from the final cuts could result in more "hungry" kids at Tacoma.
Also in the Times article, Pokey Reese won't be taking the trip to the White House and won't be at Ring Day when the Red Sox get their rings with the Yankees at Fenway.
Unsigned players now include only Julio Mateo and Miguel Olivo.
Among the fun stuff at camp yesterday were Ron Hassey getting serenaded in celebration of 52 years on the earth, and then there was Richie Sexson hijacking a golf cart, loading it with the Mariners' other starting infielders, and driving it through the clubhouse and up to the trainer's room.
SEAHAWKS
I find it somewhat amusing that a bunch of people know about Tim Ruskell, but don't actually know him. Rich McKay definitely likes him, and he seems to have a tireless work ethic. Bonus points for having the same agent as Shaun Alexander.
Apparently, sources are saying that Koren Robinson just got out of rehab. Robinson's future as a Seahawk will be more defined after Holmgren and Ruskell get back from the combine and meet with him.
Also, the Seahawks will tender offers to Rocky Bernard, Terreal Bierria (why?), Marquand Manuel, Ryan Hannam, and Kris Richard, all restricted free agents. Jerry Rice may sign with the 49ers so he can retire with them, and new special teams coach Bob Casullo has pulled some strings and gotten punter Leo Araguz under the Seahawk banner. I'm not sure what to think of it, but if his aged leg does better than what we saw out of this team last year, then great.
BASKETBALL
The Marvin Williams Watch
In the Tar Heels' 85-83 squeaker of a win at Maryland, Marvin Williams didn't get off too many shots, and scored only 5 points and pulled down 5 boards in 19 minutes of play. As I alluded, Marvin was a mere 1-for-3 from the field and 3-for-4 from the line.
The Tar Heels host Florida State on Thursday (6p, local only) before the ACC regular season ends...at home against Duke on Sunday (1p, CBS)
Huskies
Some leftover Husky articles, and they're both mainly centered on Will Conroy, the elder statesman of the team, and the one remaining that remembers the tail end of some lean years for the Huskies.
The Huskies travel to Berkeley to face the Cal Bears on Thursday (7p, FSNNW) and to Stanford on Saturday (1p, CBS)
Bulldogs
The Zags host Northern Colorado tonight (6p, FSNNW Seattle, Q6 NBC Spokane) before starting WCC Tournament play, where they have a first-round bye. The tournament itself starts Friday.
Sonics
For my take on yesterday's game, scroll down a post or click here if this post is the only one on the page.
How bad was it? I wasn't aware of it until I read the article, though I knew it was bad. That was the Sonics' worst single-game shooting performance in the history of the franchise. They didn't bury their shots early, Ray Allen hinted that they might have gotten discouraged, the defense was lazy, and it was all downhill from there.
They crap the bed in Milwaukee, and now they have to go to Indiana. Yikes. THe schedule is a fickle mistress, indeed.
I'm sitting here about two hours after midnight...did the P-I just not put out a non-wire Sonic article for yesterday's game? I had to do a double-take when I checked.
Upcoming...
Tomorrow at Indiana (4p, FSNNW)
Wednesday at Cleveland (4p, FSNNW)
Friday vs. Detroit (7:30p, FSNNW)
Sunday vs. Phoenix (6p, FSNNW)
HOCKEY
Seattle shut out Spokane 3-0. Mitch Fadden's goal early in the second period held up for Seattle until the third period. Then Spokane pulled their goalie as Seattle killed a double-minor inside the final five minutes, but Matt Hansen and Derek Couture put the icing on the cake with the open net against a 6-on-4 situation. Seattle outshot the Chiefs 30-22, and Bryan Bridges stopped all 22.
Tri-City and Everett skated to a 3-3 overtime tie. It started out fairly well for Everett. They pounced on the Americans for two first period goals (Mitch Love and Alex Leavitt). They added another one in the second period thanks to Kyle Annesley. Tri-City scored their first goal just 30 seconds after the Leavitt goal, but the 'Tips still took a 3-1 lead into the third. Then Carey Price dug in between the posts for the Americans and held strong while two of his defensemen ended up scoring from the point. Marcus Jonasen and Andy Thompson completed the erasure of Everett's three-goal lead, and nothing was settled in overtime. Everett was outshot 39-25, and Mike Wall stopped 36.
Upcoming...
Wednesday: Vancouver at Seattle
Friday: Portland at Vancouver, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 3 of best-of-5)
Saturday: Everett at Seattle, Tri-City at Portland, Kelowna at Vancouver, Rochester at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 4 of best-of-5 if necessary)
Sunday: Seattle at Portland, Vancouver at Kamloops, Rochester at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Tri-City (Cascade Cup semifinal -- Game 5 of best-of-5 if necessary)
---
Have a great Monday and a great work week, everybody.
