Washington softball beats Harvard, advances to NCAA super regional

Source: The Seattle Times

A 4-0 victory Sunday earned the Huskies an appointment with top-ranked California next weekend.

Williams, revitalized Huskies bring home regional titles

Source: Daily UW by Daniel Rubens

The Washington men’s golf team found a way to bust out of a slump. And the UW did it in style.

Washington baseball edged at Arizona State, 9-6

Source: The Seattle Times

The Washington baseball team went back and forth with 19th-ranked Arizona State, but the Sun Devils emerged with a 9-6 victory Sunday in...

Justin Dentmon has been well-traveled in pursuit of sticking in NBA

Source: The Seattle Times

The former Husky guard has played with nearly a dozen teams around the world since leaving UW in 2009.

Babiash talks Huskies' de-comittment - Washington [$$] (Rivals)

Source: Yahoo! NCAAF

Baseball. ASU Wins Seesaw Game Vs. Huskies, 9-6

Source: UW Official Site

The Washington baseball team went back and forth with 19th-ranked Arizona State, but the Sun Devils emerged with a 9-6 victory over the Huskies in the final game of a Pac-12 series at Packard Stadium.

Softball. Huskies Regional Champs, Headed To Supers

Source: UW Official Site

The UW got its third shutout on the weekend with a 4-0 victory in the 2012 NCAA Seattle Regional Championship over Harvard Sunday afternoon.

UW Men Advance in NCAA Golf Tournament

Source: UW Dawg Pound by Gekko Mojo

UW Men Advance in NCAA Golf Tournament

The UW Men's team, powered by a Chris Williams eagle on the final hole, held off Texas to win the Region in Norman, OK. It was a record sixth career win for Williams. The Dawgs are moving on to Pacific Palisades to compete for the National Title. Go Dawgs!

Lady Huskies Move Into Regional Championship Round

Source: UW Dawg Pound by Gekko Mojo

Lady Huskies Move Into Regional Championship Round

The Huskies Softball team won their second tournament game in a row with a dominating 2-0 victory over the higher-seeded Texas Tech. The Huskies will rematch with Harvard, who they beat earlier, in the final elimination game. The Huskies only need to win one game to advance. Because this is a double elimination tournament, Harvard would have to win two games to knock out the Dawgs. Go Huskies!

Sunday Poll

Source: UW Dawg Pound by Gekko Mojo

Things seem pretty slow around the blog this week, so instead of putting in the time for dots, I'm going to drop in a quick little poll that is sure to drive controversy and debate. Make your pick and leave some comments.

Poll Assuming Keith Price is ineligible, which of the following will be the MOST IMPORTANT offensive player for the Huskies in 2012? Jessie Callier
Drew Schaefer
Austin Seferian-Jenkins
Kasen Williams
Bishop Sankey
Erik Kohler
James Johnson
Derrick Brown
Michael Hartvigson
Kevin Smith

The Mystery of William Howard Revealed!

Source: The Husky Haul by Jeff Taylor

William Howard playing for the French national junior team

visit site to read more]

The Mystery of William Howard Revealed! - The Husky Haul - The Husky Haul - A Washington Huskies Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and more.

Baseball. No. 19 Sun Devils Hand Huskies 8-4 Loss

Source: UW Official Site

Trailing 2-0 after an inning, 19th-ranked Arizona State got a three-run homer in the second and went on to beat the Washington baseball team, 8-4, Saturday night in the second game of a three-game, Pac-12 series at Packard Stadium.

UW men win NCAA golf regional

Source: The Seattle Times

Chris Williams eagled the 18th hole to earn medalist honors and Washington held off a final-round charge from top-ranked Texas to take home the team title at the NCAA Southwest Regional on Saturday in Norman, Okla.

UW softball blanks Texas Tech, moves into final

Source: The Seattle Times

Washington softball coach Heather Tarr, an infielder during her UW playing career (1994-97), showed Saturday that she also knows how to...

UW blanks Texas Tech, moves into final

Source: The Seattle Times

Washington softball coach Heather Tarr, an infielder during her UW playing career (1994-97), showed Saturday that she also knows how to...

Chek-mate

Source: Daily UW by Kevin Dowd

An unusual suspect trotted out to the circle in the first inning for the Washington softball team Saturday afternoon. And once she got there, freshman Kasey Stanchek did her job unusually well.

M. Golf. Huskies Hold Off No. 1 Texas To Win NCAA Southwest Regional

Source: UW Official Site

Chris Williams eagled the 18th hole to earn medalist honors and Washington held off a final-round charge from top-ranked Texas to take home the team title at the NCAA Southwest Regional on Saturday.

Softball. Huskies Advance To Championship

Source: UW Official Site

Runs in the second and third lifted the UW to its second-straight 2-0 win as the No. 18 Huskies advanced to Sunday's Seattle Regional Championship with the shutout vs. No. 23 Texas Tech.

May questions, volume four

Source: The Seattle Times

Time for another round. ...

May questions, volume four

Source: Husky Football Blog

Time for another round. ...

Q: Has there been a study done on shoulder injuries? I know they track concussions and there was a recent report on the correlation between turf and ACL injuries. It seems to me that with the new lighter, smaller shoulder pads there have been a lot more shoulder injuries than there used to be.

A: I looked around a little and couldn't really find anything definitive like that on shoulder injuries. My feeling is there have probably always been a lot of shoulder injuries --- given the nature of football, shoulder injuries will be impossible to ever eliminate.

But like almost everything involving everything these days, there's so much more information available --- and by-the-minute coverage of everything --- that news of things such as injuries may simply resonate more than it did before. I haven't really hard from coaches or others in the sport that there are more now, or that they need to go back to the old pads or anything.

Also, if you are referring simply to some of the shoulder injuries UW has had of late, it's worth remembering that two of the more high-profile ones --- those of Colin Porter and James Sample --- dated to old high school injuries. And I point that out in part because it's things like that that make it hard to make sweeping judgments on this stuff, sometimes. That unless you know every aspect of a player's medical history (and we rarely get access to that) it's really hard to assess a cause or a reason.

Q: I'm curious if you know why ESPN has a dedicated Stanford blog? If you scroll to the top of the Pac 12 blog, you'll see Stanford next to Notre Dame. Yes, USC has a blog associated with an affiliated fan website, but that is different from Stanford's blog. Stanford has the smallest fan base in the P12....strange...are they paying ESPN?

A: Obviously, since I don't work for ESPN, I'm not real privvy to their decision-making process. But I would point out that they have dedicated sites for lots of teams around the country --- Texas, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Oklahoma, just to name a few --- and are adding new sites all the time. They may have just wanted to jump on the Stanford bandwagon last year due to Andrew Luck and knowing the Cardinal would be a legit BCS contender.

Also, they may have thought Stanford was a pretty underserved team in terms of media coverage with an alumni base that is all over the place, and maybe that would allow it to attract more of an audience. Stanford may have a small fan base, but I also think it's a pretty influential and attractive one to try to capture. And again, I'm sure Luck and a national-title team had a lot to do with it. If the current team sites are a success, it would be no surprise to see ESPN continue to expand.

Q: Any idea when we might hear about Oregon and its possible sanctions?

A: Not really. The NCAA doesn't give out specific timelines so it could be next week and it could be much later --- just depends on how long it takes. Also worth remembering is that the school is usually given notice the day before an announcement, so sometimes something leaks the day/night before an actual announcement. When the NCAA does have an official announcement it sends out an e-mail notice that morning of a press release/news conference later in the day.

Q: If you just look at the first 6 games of next season, do you think the Huskies have the toughest schedule in the country? What about the last 6 games? Any teams there that could end up being ranked?

A: No question UW has as tough a schedule in the first six weeks as any team in the country. We're beginning to now see some of the more traditional/respected national rankings unveiled, and in some of those, UW is playing four teams ranked among the top 12 in the country in the first six weeks (LSU, Oregon. USC, Stanford) with two on the road (LSU, Oregon).

It's a gauntlet, to be sure, and the Pac-12 part of it is simply the way the schedule fell this year and being in a six-team North Division that looms as stronger than its South counterpart this year.

As for how tough the second half is, a lot may depend on how UW navigates the first half. If UW is 2-4 and beat up physically and mentally, some of those games (such as at Arizona and home to Utah) might be that much more difficult. If UW is 3-3 or better and relatively unscathed physically, then the Huskies could make a good second-half run. What makes the schedule a little tougher this year than last year is having five Pac-12 road games instead of four --- essentially, having the Apple Cup on the road instead of in Seattle.

So while the second half of the schedule could include six unranked teams, it also includes four games on the road (Arizona, Cal, Colorado and WSU). UW could be favored to win them all, but also could be underdogs in at least two (Cal and WSU the most likely). And a game at Colorado on Nov. 17, when who knows what the weather might deliver, could be dicey depending on the health of the two teams, the direction of their respective seasons, etc.

I say this not to be all doom-and-gloom. But by any realistic measure, the schedule isn't easy even if in many ways it's not all that different than last year's --- the same sort of A-B-C non-conference with the A team on the road and B and C at home, and the same nine conference opponent. It's simply where and when UW plays some of these teams that makes it look a little more difficult right now than last year's did.

GUEST POST: 2013 Basketball Recruiting Wishlist

Source: The Husky Haul by Mark Knight

This is another guest post from Sean LeRoy, a local Husky fan, who is so passionate about his Huskies it spills over into written word.

GUEST POST: 2013 Basketball Recruiting Wishlist - The Husky Haul - The Husky Haul - A Washington Huskies Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and more.

Dot...Dot...Dawg (5/19)

Source: UW Dawg Pound by Gekko Mojo

There are three things that a man should do every day. Dots are not one of them. Yet.

Mark Schlaback has the Huskies in his top 25. Slots 19 through 24, where the Dawgs fall, are made up of a fascinating mix of teams. It's also mind boggling to think that UW is going to get a stretch of six games where they will play four of the top 12 teams on this list.
Ted Miller assesses his conference power rankings for May. It feels as good as one could expect. I have to say, I really do

Mailbag: What happened to Allie Quigley?

Source: The Seattle Times

Storm coach Brian Agler finalized his roster on Wednesday, cutting rookie G Ashley Corral and veteran Allie Quigley, but the latter was really a smooth transition. She obtained her Hungarian passport, which enables her to compete for the country's national team.

Is the Rose Bowl shaking in its collective boots?

Source: UW Dawg Pound by John Berkowitz

The SEC and Big 12 announced a five year contract on Friday that their champions will play each year in a New Years Day evening prime time bowl game right after the the Rose Bowl is concluded.

The location of the match-up which begins in 2014 is currently undecided but you can bet that the Sugar, Fiesta, Cotton, and the city of Atlanta will all be bidding on the thing...heck I wouldn't be surprised if the recently beleaguered Orange Bowl didn't also jump into the fray.

The whole idea is the create a spectacle that can compete on an equal footing with the Rose Bowl as far as prestige and potential payout is concerned on January 1st. The folks back at the ESPN/ABC figure that a steady diet of "Oklahoma/Texas" vs

USC Trojans Chat With Michael Castillo of Reign of Troy

Source: The Husky Haul by Mark Knight

Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE

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USC Trojans Chat With Michael Castillo of Reign of Troy - The Husky Haul - The Husky Haul - A Washington Huskies Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and more.

UW softball ends drought at just the right time

Source: The Seattle Times

Sophomore Kaitlin Inglesby tossed a three-hitter and struck out five, and UW's No. 9 hitter, freshman Kimberlee Souza, smacked a two-run double in the fourth inning to lift the Huskies to a 2-0 win over Harvard Friday night in a first-round game of its NCAA regional.

Washington men surge into lead at NCAA golf regional

Source: The Seattle Times

Every member of the Washington men's golf team scored birdie or better on the final hole of the day Friday to highlight the Huskies' second...

UW ends drought at just the right time

Source: The Seattle Times

Sophomore Kaitlin Inglesby tossed a three-hitter and struck out five, and UW's No. 9 hitter, freshman Kimberlee Souza, smacked a two-run double in the fourth inning to lift the Huskies to a 2-0 win over Harvard Friday night in a first-round game of its NCAA regional.

Baseball. No. 19 Sun Devils Edge Huskies, 7-5

Source: UW Official Site

Washington and Arizona State traded runs in the early innings, but the 19th-ranked Sun Devils emerged with a 7-5 win over the Huskies in the first game of a three-game, Pac-12 series Friday night at Packard Stadium.

Softball. Souza Lifts Huskies Over Harvard, 2-0

Source: UW Official Site

A two-RBI double with two outs in the fourth by freshman Kimberlee Souza was the deciding factor in the UW's game one victory over Harvard to begin the Seattle Regional Friday night.

Huskies edge Crimson 2-0 in regional opener

Source: Daily UW by Kevin Dowd

Heather Tarr had just one thought while walking off the Husky Softball Stadium turf Friday evening.

Softball. Souza & Huskies Escape Harvard, 2-0

Source: UW Official Site

A two-RBI double with two outs in the fourth by freshman Kimberlee Souza was the deciding factor in the UW's game one victory over Harvard to begin the Seattle Regional Friday night.

Live game thread: Los Angeles at Seattle

Source: The Seattle Times

YOLO: After Thursday's final tune-up for the season, Little was asked to pick the song when the Storm takes the court. It's a tradition that started with Bird and was dished to former F Le'coe Willingham. If Little did follow through, she picked a good one for this season: Drake "The Motto," which essentially is you only live once.

Friday links --- SEC/Big 12 align, Schlabach rates UW No. 21, early Pac-12 power rankings, and more

Source: The Seattle Times

A little late getting to it today --- hey, it's Friday.

Mailbag: Best Big Ten-Pac-12 matchups

Source: Pac-12 Football Blog

Happy Friday. This is where you follow me on Twitter. To the notes. Dave from Birmingham writes: Not sure I get you. Why would you not want the four best teams to play in a playoff? That's what a playoff is about. I know there's a subjective part to this but that's inevitable. Is everyone that afraid of a consensus favoring the SEC because the SEC is the best conference? Ted Miller: In a word, yes. And no matter how you frame it, that so-called consensus remains subjective.

Husky Stadium - The wind is starting to pick up!

Source: UW Dawg Pound by Lear Pilot

Ten days ago I commented that we were in the calm before the storm, this week, the wind is definitely starting to pick up! The last week has provided quite a bit of visual stimulation, which you'll see below. All pictures are from the Husky Stadium webcams at http://oxblue.com/open/huskystadium, be sure to keep an eye on them, things are beginning to change quickly. As always, don't forget to click on the pictures to see the full resolution image.

Picture #1 - The foundations of the football facilities building are 99% complete, the only thing left is a rather small section of the front wall that is being used as an access point. I expect to see major changes coming very soon to

M. Golf. Sizzling Second Round Propels UW To First

Source: UW Official Site

Washington jumped into the lead at the NCAA Men's Golf Norman Regional after a scintillating 7-under 281 on Friday. The Huskies will take a four-shot lead into Saturday's final round at Jimmie Austin OU Golf Course.

Video: Entering the offseason -- Arizona St.

Source: Pac-12 Football Blog

Arizona State enters the offseason uncertain at quarterback, and that means the competition is ongoing, even without coaches around.

WeAreSC links: Heck of a week

Source: Pac-12 Football Blog

Greg Katz writes : Any sort of May malaise USC fans might have been in was eradicated with two four-star RB commits, a Hall of Fame inductee, a goodwill mission and long-awaited control of their home stadium. WeAreSC Mailbag : In this weekly feature, Erik McKinney answers reader questions on the strength of Kenny Bigelow's recruitment, out-of-state recruits and the presence of negative recruiting in sales pitches.

Pac-12 links: Leach shoots a Bear (really)

Source: Pac-12 Football Blog

Happy Friday. My take-away from this interesting column from George Schroeder about Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez is how good a dude Mike Stoops is. Former Arizona State QB Brock Osweiler knows he's made it now. Checking in with California RB Brendan Bigelow. Some Colorado hand-wringing, but guys did you see this! A 4-0 start is possible. Oregon's athletic department revenue is good, but not as good as some numbers suggest. A look at BYU, a team Oregon State, Utah and Washington State play this fall.

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Source: Yahoo! NCAAF

USC, Oregon lead top-25

Source: Pac-12 Football Blog

Mark Schlabach has published another iteration of his way-too-early power rankings, that now no longer seem that way too early. You can see them here. LSU is No. 1, which makes perfect sense to me. USC is No. 2. Ditto on that. Oregon is No. 4. Alabama is No. 3. That means we could end up with the SEC and Pac-12 giving us a pair of national semifinals in the BCS's penultimate season. Schlabach on the Trojans: With 19 starters coming back from a 10-2 team in 2011, including star quarterback Matt Barkley, USC seems armed to return to national prominence.

Friday links --- SEC/Big 12 align, Schlabach rates UW No. 21, early Pac-12 power rankings, and more

Source: Husky Football Blog

A little late getting to it today --- hey, it's Friday.

And the big news in college football today is already almost old news in the new Twitter-fied media world we live in --- an agreement between the Big 12 and the SEC to play annually in a bowl game.

As this story notes, the agreement is as much about the SEC and Big 12 aligning for political purposes, to allow them to rival the longtime Pac-12-Big Ten alliance, as it may be about a football game.

And as a few others have pointed out on Twitter, this also seems to create a clear wall between those four conferences and everyone else in college football --- not that it maybe wasn't already there, but now it's more obvious than ever. What it also does is give a lot more security to a Big 12 that a year or so ago seemed pretty tenuous --- and maybe for now put an end to thoughts of a further expansion of the Pac-12 that would include the likes of Texas and Oklahoma.

IN OTHER NEWS. ...

--- ESPN's Mark Schlabach rates UW No. 21 today in his latest "way too early'' pre-season Top 25.

Schlabach writes of UW:

"About the only defense that looked worse than Washington's during bowl season was Clemson's. The Huskies were ripped for 777 yards, including 482 rushing, in a 67-56 loss to Baylor in the Valero Alamo Bowl. As a result, Huskies coach Steve Sarkisian revamped his coaching staff, bringing in five new assistants, including former Boise State and Tennessee defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox. The Huskies bring back quarterback Keith Price, who threw for 3,063 yards and 33 touchdowns last season. But they'll have to replace tailback Chris Polk, who ran for 1,488 yards and 12 touchdowns. Perhaps no team faces a more difficult start to the season; UW plays LSU (road), Stanford (home), Oregon (road) and USC (home) in its first six games."

He also has LSU No. 1, USC No. 2, Oregon No. 4 and Stanford No. 12 --- all teams UW will play in the first six weeks of the season.

--- The ESPN Pac-12 blog has UW fifth in its post-spring power rankings, behind USC, Oregon, Stanford and Utah --- exactly how yours truly has them ranked at the moment, as well. In fact, I really can't argue with much of any of it other than that I have the two Arizona schools ahead of Oregon State at the moment (so the Beavers at 11). Otherwise, I'm pretty much in agreement with them on this.

--- Ted Miller also writes that the UW-Stanford game is one he really can't wait for, for many of the same reasons we discussed here the other day.

--- Orange County Register picks UW third in the Pac-12 and No. 2 in the North.

--- Good stuff from George Schroeder of the Eugene Register-Guard, who looks behind the numbers from that USA Today story earlier this week and reports that they aren't really what they seem.

--- Finally, here's a link to the audio to the interview with UW coach Steve Sarkisian on ESPN 710 Seattle yesterday (sorry, I haven't gotten around to transcribing this one yet).

More audio at MyNorthwest.com

Imitation is the highest form of flattery

Source: Pac-12 Football Blog

SEC and Big 12 folks been tweaking the Big Ten and Pac-12's love of the Rose Bowl of late. That made me grin because the primary motivation for those tweaks was jealousy. Don't buy that assessment? Well, then what do you make of this? The SEC and Big 12 champions, starting in 2014 after the current BCS contract expires and we presumably adopt a four-team playoff, will meet annually in a prime time New Year's Day "bowl" game. Unless, of course, the SEC and/or Big 12 champions are selected for the four-team playoff, which one is almost certain to be and both are likely to be.

Dot...Dot...Dawg (5/18)

Source: UW Dawg Pound by Gekko Mojo

The sun was breaking through as the mist rolled lightly off of the surface of the water. Dots were everywhere. All was as it should be.

Matt Hayes has a very nice article on Keith Price. Even more compelling than the Alamo Bowl performance as an indicator of 2012 success is the leadership that this young man continues to demonstrate. I know it sounds cliche, but when you see him quoted, the nature of the comments he's made this past off-season are more frank, more accountable and more forceful than the "aw shucks" stuff we got from him last year. I'm eager to

Softball. Renewed UW Primed For `Completely Different Season'

Source: UW Official Site

It's a measure of the national respect for Heather Tarr's Husky softball program that Washington is hosting an NCAA tournament regional this weekend despite a 7-16 record inside the ultra-competitive Pac-12 Conference.

Take 2: Pac-12 games we can't wait for

Source: Pac-12 Football Blog

In case you haven't noticed, we've got a bit of a theme going on this week -- important games in the Pac-12. Obviously, everyone is circling the Nov. 3 showdown between USC and Oregon in Los Angeles. But there are other games to enjoy along the way. So this week we're looking at games we're most excited about. Ted Miller: I like measuring-stick games, games that perhaps reveal the talent and heart of a team, as well as, of course, where they rank in the Pac-12 pecking order.