Isaiah Thomas Snubbed from NBA All-Rookie Team

If you had told me the day after that Isaiah Thomas got drafted 60th (and last) in the 2011 NBA Draft that I would be writing a rant-article about him not making the NBA All-Rookie 1st team, I would have looked you square in the eyes, taken out my loaded 9 millimeter, and hit you in the face with it.

Hyperbole aside, that’s the situation we are facing. Thomas finished 10th in overall voting, which is odd because by my count there are only 3, at most 4 rookies who outplayed him. So read on as the rest of this article scorns the few rookies unfortunate enough to have beaten Thomas on the All-Rookie team voting. ESPN’s “The Brady Six” style.

The NBA’s Rookie Of the Year (and winner of funniest youtube video amongst rookies), Kyrie Irving had a great season and far and away deserves his spot on the first team. Adrian Brody Ricky Rubio finished second in voting, and for how adorable and awesome he made the Wolves look until he tore his ACL he certainly deserves it as well. I’ll have Boobie Miles sum up Rubio’s game. Boobie, how does Ricky play?

And he can pass!

Too bad Kobe treated Rubio’s knee like he probably treated Steve Blake after every Laker’s loss this season and we only got half a season out of him.

My Two Cents on Tony Wroten’s Decision

I preface everything I am about to say about Tony Wroten’s decision to enter the NBA draft in June with the idea that I have no idea what his personal situation is financially, and I absolutely cannot enter the mind of a 19 year old basketball player. That being said, Tony Wroten made what is unmistakably a terrible choice yesterday.

Wroten after missing four free throws in the final 18 seconds in the opening game of the Pac-12 tournament against Oregon State.

The above picture is Tony Wroten’s legacy at UW, whether he likes it or not. A season that was filled with plenty of highs, the mercurial freshman point guard’s biggest flaw in his game proved to be fatal for the Huskies. The Huskies lost 86-84 in the opening round of the Pac-12 tournament, a game that Wroten for all intents and purposes dominated. He scored 29 points on 10-19 shooting, had seven rebounds, three assists, two blocks and a steal. But unfortunately the game was in his hands at crunch time and he lost the game at the foul line. He shot 9-15 at the stripe on the day but going 0-4 when it counted. He then followed that up by shooting a combined 14-41 in the NIT. Not that it matters because the NIT is about as competitive as WSU’s admissions process. Boom. From a standpoint of his legacy at UW, Tony Wroten ended it about as poorly as you possibly could. People asked me what my thoughts were on whether Terrence Ross and Tony Wroten would leave for the NBA. I consistently said that I thought Ross was gone, but Wroten had no choice but to stay after how his season ended. Not only from a team standpoint but from his own skill set being utterly exposed. He can’t shoot. And this is coming from a guy that would probably have trouble putting Dick Cheney away in a three point contest. But aside from basketball, my perception of Wroten staying in school at least another year comes from another source.

Top 11: UW Basketball Players of Romar Era

To lighten the mood of Husky fans who, the more I think of it, got jobbed today I decided to reflect upon the great players that have come through UW under head coach Lorenzo Romar. Here is the second edition of The Top 11, which I can again best describe as “ambiguous sports rankings with considerable bias.” This list was harder than I thought it was going to be, as after the obvious choices it gets hard to choose from. I also made the distinction that the players have to have already cemented their legacy as Huskies. So no Tony Wroten, Terrence Ross, Aziz N’Diaye, Darnell Gant, or Brendan Sherrer on this list because they got some business to attend to. Also, my apologies to the family and friends of Zane Potter, but he also missed the cut. Here we go.

11. Ryan Appleby

Eating good in the neighborhood! Easily one of my favorite calls of Bob Rondeau, which he did after every made Appleby three. And there were a lot of them. Appleby sunk 231 treys

No one possessed the swag that Appleby did.

in his three year career at Washington, which makes him the all-time leader in the category. He has three of the top 5 most prolific three point shooting seasons in UW history. That’s pretty nuts for a guy who had the athletic ability of most of the fans who watched him. He was deadly from three throughout his career and although he rarely made a shot inside the arc, his work outside of it puts him in the Top 11. Appleby also had one of the biggest middle finger performances of all time. After getting punched in the face by Aaron Brooks of Oregon in the ’06 Pac Ten Tourney, Appleby met up with Brooks at Oregon in February of 2007. Brooks was suspended for the first game in Seattle that season, but was allowed to play in the game in Eugene. And this transpired.

I absolutely support this gesture, for a few reasons. First, Oregon sucks. And second, you don’t owe anybody anything after they disrespect you. UW lost that game, but Appleby hit five threes in the first half. Forget that Brooks had 30 that game, but remember that Appleby was an all-time great at UW.

Where They Stand: Husky Basketball

The stretch run is upon us and the Huskies are sitting firmly upon the NCAA Tournament bubble. What must they do to ensure a spot in the field of 68, or what will their possible falters result in? Let’s take a closer look.

I think we can all agree that when the Dawgs entered Pac-12 play with the lackluster record of 6-5, there was the feeling that this year could be a long one. We saw a lack of leadership, disorganization, and not playing to the high potential that is expected of by this team. Some of these answers still have not been addressed, but one thing we know for sure is that the Huskies are 12-3 in conference, which is good enough to be tied for first place. So good even, that it is only the second time under Lorenzo Romar that the Huskies have posted that record through fifteen conference games. The only other time was in the ’04-’05 season when Nate Robinson, Will Conroy, and Brandon Roy (to name a few) led the team to a 29-6 record and a number one seed in the tournament.

The '04-'05 Huskies. What's more to be said?

So what’s the difference between teams you might ask? It’s simple and very clear. Non-conference play. In that impressive ’04-’05 season, the Huskies boasted a 10-1 non-conference record, with their only loss coming at the hands of Gonzaga over at the McCarthy Center. But, that season the Dawgs played a total of zero ranked teams in non-conference play. As a matter of fact, they only played one ranked team all season: Arizona, who was ranked sixth both times the teams matched up.

This is Corvegas – OSU Trip Report

I had the pleasure of enjoying UW’s 75-72 win at Oregon State on Sunday from beautiful Corvallis, Oregon and not from a ROOT sports telecast. I needed a break from another Angie Mentink halftime show, sorry bout it. The five hour drive from Seattle was nothing a 5 Hour Energy couldn’t mess with and me and my man Matt (@BenMattBroTweet) arrived safely at OSU. We were greeted with the gracious hospitality of the Robin to my Batman, Jordan Coutts (@JCoutts_23) and the wonderful people of Floor 2 of Poling Hall. Including my man Ibs that can do unspeakable things with a yo-yo.

Saturday night in “Corvegas” was spent painting the town purple and just having a really really really good time. World renowned scholar and philosopher, Caleb Clearman (@ClearmanCaleb), made an appearance so it was safe to say that fun was had. It was a different world than what I was used to at UW but a great time nonetheless. Fraturday night came to a close, but not before testing the limits of every rule an RA has to enforce.

We woke up the next morning in near perfect condition somehow and began to formulate a plot on how to get Matt and myself into the student section for the UW vs. OSU game. This process for those of you that don’t know is basically a mass acquisition of Student ID’s that may or may not look anything like the person you are trying to get in. I was lucky enough to be given the OSU ID card of one Kevin R. Corey, who looked less like me than I look like Chuckie from Rugrats. But with the chillness of the folks who let students that I was accustomed to for UW games I figured I would be in with at worst a questioning look and a “go ahead buddy” from the attendant. 

The Legacy of Brandon Roy

Brandon Roy is the reason I love Husky Basketball. A warrior with a jump shot, Roy was an absolute force at UW throughout his career. He came to the UW after wisely turning down the NBA straight from high school from Garfield High School in 2002. Roy proceeded to become a standout part of the beginning of UW Basketball’s entrance into the national scene under coach Lorenzo Romar. Roy went from being on a 10-17 team as a freshman to taking the Huskies to three straight NCAA tournament appearances. He was an instrumental part of the #1 seeded 2005 team that included UW stars such as Will Conroy, Nate Robinson, Tre Simmons and Bobby Jones. After the crushing loss to Louisville in the Sweet 16 that season, the true Brandon Roy magic happened.

Brandon Roy’s senior season was my favorite year of Husky Basketball. Roy led the Huskies  in points, assists, and blocks that season averaging 20.2 points per game, 4.1 assists per game, and 5.6 rebounds per game his senior year en route to becoming Pac-10 player of the year and leading the Dawgs to a #5 seed in the NCAA tournament. But it was more than that. He was consistently dominant in 2006, with 19 twenty point games out of 33 games. This included back to back 35 point games against Arizona and Arizona State, and putting up 30 against Oregon in a season that earned him 1st Team All-American status. Roy lead the Huskies to beat UCLA twice that season, upset #4 seed Illinois to get to the Sweet-16 before an epic showdown with #1 seed UConn.

Growing Pains

Six seconds left. Down by two. Ranked opponent. Madison Square Garden… As a college basketball player this is what you live for. This is what all those hours in the gym have been for. It’s what is known as crunch time. A moment that separates the winners from losers, not just on the scoreboard but also in the way in which you truly play the game. This was the Washington Huskies on Tuesday evening, playing in front of a national audience. And as we’ve come accustomed to as Husky fans, they couldn’t overcome the challenge.

The young Huskies have stumbled out of the gates this season, having dropped three of their first seven games. You can point the finger at many different things whether it be foul shooting, youth, or lack of an inside presence (although Aziz has shown great improvement). But the two things that glaringly stand out, to me at least, are as follows: leadership and organization.

When you think of any elite team, or even a halfway decent one, you usually can link that team to a certain player that they have; the face of the program, per say.  When I think of the 2011-2012 Washington Huskies I think of Isaiah Thomas, and then I realize that he left for the NBA. Who is this team? Who leads them on the court? Who will be the one to take the last shot in a game like last night’s against Marquette? These are questions that need answers and they need to come quickly because before we know it conference play will be starting and that’s when every single game counts twice as much. As for the present, the player that is closest to being the guy would have to be Terrence Ross. Possessing the most talent on the team besides possibly Tony Wroten Jr., Ross is on the cusp of being an absolute force for this basketball team. When he makes the jump to that next level of basketball it could get scary for every team that has to face the Dawgs. But he hasn’t hit that stride yet, which puts us in the situation we’re in now. 

If a Three Falls in the Forest

We’ve found ourselves a posting mercenary here at Seattle S&O as the lovely and talented master beard-grower himself, Sean Carr of “Carr Talk” has given us another guest post. This post is about the NBA Lockout and the finances behind it. The NBA is a point of apathy in many people’s eyes around here, but the inner workings of this lockout are more than interesting. Carr is somewhat of a financial specialist and has a knack for breaking down some of this type of stuff that neither Stanton or I are well versed in. This is also my personal impetus for an article detailing the departure of the Seattle Supersonics, and explaining the cultural and personal impact the departure has created. So without further ado…

“This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.”
-T.S. Eliot

Last week, nearly $5 billion disappeared from the recession-riddled economy, and there were no emergency meetings, congressional hearings, or half-hearted riots on the street (see post #3 on Occupy Wall Street). In case you hadn’t heard, negotiations attempting to resolve the NBA lockout recently disintegrated, with one side (the players union) deciding to disband and pursue a class action lawsuit. While the T.S. Eliot quote may be overly dramatic, the lights of the NBA world certainly went out with a whimper, the whimper being the cries of those who saw the damage this failure to negotiate will do. Even if you don’t miss the NBA for its entertainment purposes, you could still appreciate its value to the economy. If you have no interest in the economy either, then all I have for you are a couple of amazing videos (here and here; there could be a whole post on the potential outcomes of swimming while covered in NeverWet) to try and pique some sort of interest.

The NBA lockout is the period of renegotiation of an expired Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the players and the owners of the league. This may sound familiar to more aware readers, because there was a similar lockout over a CBA before the beginning of this year’s NFL season. The NFL bargaining agreement was sorted out in time, however, and the only consequences were missed practice time and a shortened free agency period, all of the games have been played on schedule. This is because the NFL deal, while over the same legal issue, was a completely different argument. Now the most popular sports league in the world, the NFL, is a cash monster. It has become a $9 billion dollar industry where everyone involved is making money. There were too large of profit margins on either side of the table for the risk of a missed season to ever be a reasonable worry. The NBA, on the other hand, has been struggling financially for years. Paying out huge contracts to players (Michael Finley made 20 million dollars in 2008, averaging 8 points a game), the owners claim that 22 of the 30 NBA teams are losing money at the rate of nearly 370 million dollars for year. The hilarious coincidence with this devastation is that the NBA has the highest average salary for players of any sports league in America, averaging nearly 5 million dollars a year to play basketball for six months, working roughly one of every three nights during that duration. The owners could not give into the players until they reached a deal that would help them balance their cash flow and stop losing money, the lockout was a considerable option for them. The players, on the other hand, make boatloads of money, and have short careers, and the Players Union for the NBA failing to reach some sort of deal has cost them a season, with a ripple effect that will cause much greater damage than a lack of good basketball to watch on Tuesday night.

Michael Finley just wants his money

What We Know So Far: Husky Basketball

College Basketball has started with a bang this year. Coach K of Duke became the all-time winningest coach in Division I, we have seen high profile matchups between Duke-Michigan State and Kentucky-Kansas, and there have been a few upsets sprinkled throughout (thanks in most part to UCLA).  As for the hometown Huskies, they have performed the way everyone has expected them to. Yes, they have an undefeated record through three games, but what else have we seen that is noteworthy. Let’s take a closer look at each individual player…

Terrence Ross: As expected, Ross has been his usual self, averaging a solid 16.3 ppg and catching fire as of late (24 pts vs. Portland). His play will determine how far this team will go. If he can become the superstar that we all believe he is capable of, we could be in for quite the treat.

CJ Wilcox: I had a feeling this was going to happen. CJ “two-tre” has been lights out from beyond the arc, shooting an impressive 61% from downtown. He currently leads the team with 19.3 ppg and has shown us that he is more than just one-dimensional. He can drive the lane, which makes him a handful to cover on defense. Look for him to take over games with his shooting throughout this season.

Tony Wroten Jr: It seems as though “Tone Tone” hasn’t missed a beat with the transition from high school to college ball. Dishing acrobatic passes left and right, his on-court vision is as good as I’ve seen in the game of basketball. Through the first three games he is averaging 12 ppg and a little over 4 apg. As usual, there have been some freshman mistakes; instances where he has held on to the ball a little too long or has tried to force some things. Also, his assist to turnover ratio is almost even, which is something that must improve. He will only get better as time goes on and he will continue to amaze all of us with his flashy, yet unselfish style of play. And as for the free throw struggles, I blame it on nerves. He has hit thousands of shots from the stripe in his lifetime. He will be fine.

Abdul Gaddy: When I think of Abdul, one word comes to mind: smooth. The third year point guard, coming off of knee surgery that sidelined him for most of last season, has continued his impressive play that he showed us at the beginning of his sophomore year. Now as a junior, he possesses a great feel for the game at this level and is showing it on the court. Averaging over 6 assists per contest and 12.3 ppg, Gaddy is the perfect type of player to pair with Wroten in the backcourt. They balance each other out. Abdul is a nice change of pace because of his calm demeanor on the court. He has even shown some signs of leadership, which was surprising given the fact that he seems like a quiet player, but you have to love that he is coming into his own. Expect great things to come for Abdul in his third year.

2011-12 UW Men’s Basketball Season Preview

Your 2011-12 UW Husky Hoops Team

It’s an exciting time to be a Husky fan. The football team has an absolutely enormous game with Oregon on Saturday that may prove whether or not this team is legitimately a contender or simply a good football team. But as football season starts to enter its mid-season climax, basketball season kicks off. Husky basketball tips off for the first time this season on Friday November 4th at 7PM against SPU, who just beat Arizona, in an exhibition game. So let’s preview UW Basketball as only Seattle S&O can.

Last season was one of ups and considerable downs for the Hardwood Dawgs. They ended the year with a 23-10 record after losing to North Carolina in a heartbreaker in the third round of the NCAA tournament. The Dawgs got to the Big Dance after winning their second straight Pac-10 Tournament, and of course, this.

The season overall was somewhat of a disappointment for the Dawgs though, as the team at times played like title contenders such as at home against Arizona and for stretches against North Carolina in the tournament. But the team succumbed to too many mistakes late in games such as against Kentucky and Michigan State in the Maui Invitational and again against UNC in March. Back to back losses at Oregon and Oregon State were devastating in the middle of the season and prevented UW from achieving a higher seed in the NCAA tournament to avoid playing a team like UNC in the third round. But all that is last year’s news. This year’s team loses the two top scorers from last year in Isaiah Thomas and Matthew Bryan-Amaning, as well as Thomas’ 6.0 assists a game and MBA’s 8.1 rebounds a game.