UW moved up to 17th in the Coaches/ESPN poll and 18th in the AP poll. Arizona dropped to 27th in both polls following their split of the Washington Schools.
Joe Lunardi, the "expert" on bracketology, released his newest prediction of tournament teams. Somehow, UW remained at the 4 seed, while Arizona moved up to a 7 seed despite losing this week. UCLA also moved back into the bracket as a 12 seed and WSU is in the First Four Out category. Gonzaga remained in the bracket as a 10 seed despite losing to USF for the second straight year as well as posting a 3-2 conference record, 13-7 overall. He still has 11 Big East teams in the bracket. 11. I understand the east coast teams are pretty good, but that is just absurd especially considering the Big East hasn't sent a team to the National Championship game since 2004 and only one of the Big East teams made it to the Sweet 16 last year.
The East Coast Bias is still alive and strong. The "experts" try to correct this by over loving Gonzaga, UCLA, and Arizona to the point of ridiculousness as they consider those schools the cream of the crop regardless of how well they actually perform. Sure those schools have traditionally done well in the tournament, but their past season performances should have no actual bearing on their seeding for this year. While I am happy to see more Pac-10 schools being represented, it is sad to see UW posting a 7-1 conference record in a Power 6 conference and not receive more love. I am not expecting a 1 seed by any means, but you would think if we beat WSU on the road this Sunday we would move up to a 3 seed. An 8-1 record, 4-1 on the road, is very solid in any conference.
Isaiah Thomas won his second Pac-10 player of the Week award after averaging 20.5 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds, and 2 steals against the Arizona schools. Tremendous stats and a well deserved award. You have to imagine Matthew Bryan-Amaning also received considerable thought from Romar towards nomination as he played well against both schools, averaging 24 points, 8 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks.
I believe I.T. was nominated by Romar because he is the catalyst that allows MBA to perform so well. I.T. does a fantastic job of drawing defenders and dishing the ball down low for MBA to finish at the hoop. MBA did his part by shooting well and making shots. MBA showed some great post moves and finished 8-8 from the free throw line against ASU, a place he normally struggles.
Both I.T. and MBA have made huge strides towards becoming more complete and dominate players when conference play began. It was fantastic to see, especially in light of Gaddy's injury. Holiday has also stepped up his play, though he is a tad more inconsistent.
Wilcox's slump continues, though Romar did play him 17 minutes off the bench. He looks as though his rhythm and form are coming back after the Staph infection in his hip. He moved much better and shot with more confidence.
This week we play the Cougars in Pullman to round out the first half of conference play. It will be a tough game, no doubt, as this rivalry always brings out the best in both teams. I'll be posting my preview over at montlakemadness.com and will put a link to the article here. The review for the game will also be posted on Montlake.
I will also have a first half review of our players' performances sometime after the WSU game. Right now I.T., MBA, and Holiday have been the best by far and Terrence Ross has surprised a few people with his explosive games against USC and Oregon. I am hoping for another great game from Ross this Sunday against WSU.
Angelo Chol, the best remaining big man in the 2011 class, is visiting Arizona this week and is scheduled to visit Washington on February 12th for the Stanford game. His commitment is crucial for the Dawgs as we lose MBA next year to graduation and we have yet to find a high scoring post player yet. Jernard Jerreau, a 6-10 power forward from New Orleans, is a bit undersized weight wise and has a ways to go in terms of bulking up to become a real scoring threat in the post. UW also has Kevin Davis, a possible 2011 commit that stands at 6-9 and also plays the power forward position. Davis is currently attending Tacoma Community College where he has been putting up decent numbers. Like Jerreau, Davis has some work to do before becoming a polished post player. This leaves Chol, who is by far, more developed and prepared to immediately impact the game. Missing out on Chol will be another huge miss, something Romar has been criticized for after missing out on Terrence Jones, Marvin Williams, and Charles Garcia (to be fair he did not meet grades). We also lost Breshers to an undisclosed medical issue. This has left us with a big hole in our frontcourt and it needs to be filled quickly.
All for now, more later this week.
*Edit*
Thank you to Scott for pointing this out to me. Austin Seferian-Jenkins, a 6-6 250lb football recruit for UW, has stated he would try out for the basketball team. At 250lbs you have to imagine he would play the 4. He is a bit undersized at 6-6, but as Jon Brockman showed, undersized means nothing if you are strong enough and determined enough. He could fill in nicely as Breshers did, a strong body to crash the boards and play tough defense. I have not heard about his skills on the basketball court, but I shall reserve any criticism, positive or negative, until I see him on the court.
Another dual sport athlete UW might acquire is 6-8 305lb Zach Banner out of Lakes High School in Washington. He is in the 2012 class and will not likely make a decision until late next season. He is on the ESPN 150 for football and the ESPN 60 for basketball juniors. To say the least he could bring a lot to both programs. He is said to be able to play any position on the basketball court due to his size, strength, speed, and agility.
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