Ex-Huskies Donald Watts and Jamie Booker are scheduled to be among those playing for the Seattle team in the new 3BA league that will make its area debut Friday night at KeyArena playing a team from Portland.

Here is the home page for 3BA with details on the league and other info.

As a league release says, the court is 50 feet wide and 72 feet in length. It uses 18-second shot clocks.

The game here is Friday night at 7:30. Booker apparently scored 57 points in a game in Portland last week.
The Portland team includes Rainier Beach alum C.J. Giles and a few other OSU alums such as David Lucas and another UW fan favorite, Marcel Jones.

The game will be shown on FSN.

A couple things to pass along after being away for a few days:

--- First, the UW game at Stanford this year has been changed from Saturday, Feb. 7, to Sunday, Feb. 8 for TV purposes. That change is now reflected on the official schedule, which you can find here.
That's the week after the Super Bowl, for anyone wondering.

--- Former Husky Patrick Femerling didn't have a very good day for Germany against the Reedem Team today, going 0-3 with no points in eight minutes of a 106-57 win for the U.S.

--- Former North Carolina Tar Heel Alex Stepheson is apparently transferring to USC.

--- Abdul Gaddy is going to play in the Elite 24 Boost Mobile Classic next week.

--- Yes, I, too, thought Spencer Hawes had chosen a new career when the Olympics began this year, as well. Maybe that's why all those NBA guys came to all the swimming events.

All for now.

A few days late with some of this, I know, but wanted to pass these along:

--- First, Bellarmine Prep PG Abdul Gaddy said this week he had narrowed his list of college choices to five --- UW, Oregon, Arizona, Memphis and UCLA.

--- Gaddy's teammate, Avery Bradley, says UW remains on his list and that he plans to take his trips during football season so he can get the true college atmosphere.

In case you missed it, the Blazers announced last night that Brandon Roy will have surgery today to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee.

This is a similar surgery to the one Roy had at UW in 2004 after he was injured early in the season, though to the other knee.

Jason Quick of the Oregonian points out that when he had that surgery, he was back playing in three weeks. Indeed he was, though the knee also bothered him all season, and still wasn't 100 percent by the spring, one of the biggest factors Roy decided not to put his name in for the NBA Draft.

That will always be one of the great mysteries of Husky basketball --- just how good could that 2004-05 team have been if Roy were 100 percent the whole season?

As for this surgery, it looks as if he should have enough time to recover before the season really begins.

The UW athletic department pointed out today that former Husky Patrick Femerling is participating for the German National Team in the Beijing Olympic Games.

Germany defeated Angola 95-66 and lost to Greece 87-64 in Group B play, a game in which Femerling scored seven points. Germany, which also has Dirk Nowitzki and Chris Kaman on its team, is in the same group as USA, Spain and host China and will play the USA on Thursday

For those who've forgotten, Femerling lettered at UW in 1996, 97 and 98 for Washington. He averaged 5.7 points and 6.1 rebounds per game as a junior in 1998 as the Bob Bender-coached Huskies advanced to the Sweet 16, losing memorably to UConn.

A lot of people close to the Bender teams will tell you that the beginning of the end for his regime came the following summer when Femerling decided to forgo his senior year and play professionally in Germany. The move came too late for the Huskies to adequately replace him. UW may the tournament the next year in what was Todd MacCulloch's senior year, but the team was never as good as it had been at the end of the '98 season with Femerling teaming with MacCulloch to give UW one of the more imposing front lines around.

Here is Femerling's page with up-to-date stats from FIBA.com.

Sounds like former Husky Joel Smith has landed on his feet just fine.

According to the blog "Hotdog & Friends'' he will be playing this season at Chaminade University in Honolulu.

Chaminade is the same school that gained fame in the early 1980s for a monumental upset of a No. 1-ranked Virginia team during the Ralph Sampson era.

Chaminade is an NCAA Division II school, so Smith will be eligible to play immediately.

But Smith will get one more chance at playing in the big time as Chaminade hosts the annual Maui Invitational, which pits Chaminade against North Carolina in the first round with a possible game against Oregon in the second round.

Smith did not return to UW for his fifth-year senior season as the Huskies needed to clear a scholarship spot to fit in all of its incoming freshmen class.

The Las Vegas Sun has this story today quoting Chace Stanback as saying that he will transfer to UNLV.

Stanback had also considered transferring to UW but decided on UNLV after a visit there this weekend. The fact that UW didn't have a scholarship doesn't appear to have been the issue for Stanback as he will also spend a year as a walk-on at UNLV before getting a full ride the following season --- same as was apparently in the works if he had become a Husky.

MBA UPDATE --- UW center Matthew Bryan-Amaning scored 14 points and grabbed two rebounds today in leading Great Britain to an easy 88-55 win over Ireland in the European U-20 Championships.

Here are his cumulative stats for the tournament, showing he is averaging 16.9 points and 7.3 rebounds.

The tournament is now over and Great Britain finished in 15th place out of 19 teams. My understanding is Bryan-Amaning is now headed back to Great Britain to continue tryouts for setting a roster for the team in the future.

Quick note to post a link that USC point guard Angelo Johnson is transferring.

Here's a report from the Las Vegas Sun on the rumors that Chace Stanback is headed to play for the Rebels. The story says Stanback will visit there this weekend and that while nothing is final, the coaching staff there hopes that he will be a Rebel by the end of the weekend.

As reported here earlier, UW is apparently now out of the picture.

UW center Matthew Bryan-Amaning had his best game in the U-20 European Championships today with 41 points and 11 rebounds. Alas, it wasn't enough as the Czech Republic defeated Great Britain 104-93.

But Bryan-Amaning was the clear star of the game, hitting 16-28 field goals and 9-12 free throws and also blocking four shots in 35 minutes.

Here is his complete statistical log for the tournament, showing he is now averaging 17.7 points and 8.2 rebounds for the five games.

Great Britain, which is 2-4 in the tournament, will play next on Saturday.

Rumor making the rounds is that Chace Stanback is headed to UNLV to continue his career there. One person close to the situation said today that UW is not in the mix for Stanback anymore.

Stanback has yet to say anything publicly.

Stanback visited UW in late June and then later it was revealed that his mother had won $25,000 in an on-line video game that would allow her to pay for her son to walk-on at UW if he so desired --- Washington did not have an open scholarship for Stanback.

Stanback visited UNLV shortly after he visited UW.

In case you missed it, the Miami Heat signed former Husky Bobby Jones on Tuesday. Sounds like he has to stick on the roster until Aug. 15 to get his contract guaranteed for next season, which would then increase his chances of making the team.

UW center Matthew Bryan-Amaning scored 11 points today as Great Britain lost to Norway 88-75 in the U20 European Championships.

Here's the boxscore, showing MBA going 4-13 from the floor and 3-8 from the free throw line along with 10 rebounds, a surprising five steals and five turnovers in 28 minutes.

Great Britain will play again Wednesday against a team still to be determined.

Here are MBA's stats through four games, showing he is averaging 13.8 points and 7.8 rebounds while shooting 37.5 percent from the floor and 13-29 on free throws.

Had a chance yesterday to watch the UW basketball team for a few minutes in between football duties, and noticed that Joe Wolfinger was back on the floor. He had been sitting out, resting his foot. I'll try to get more of a peek at the hoops team again sometime this week. Many of the players are working this week with the Lorenzo Romar basketball camps on-campus.

UW center Matthew Bryan-Amaning had team-highs of 17 points and 10 rebounds, but it wasn't enough as Great Britain lost to Macedonia 80-75 in its third game of the U-20 European Championships. Here are the final stats. Great Britain is now 1-2.

Despite good overall numbers, Bryan-Amaning had a tough shooting night, going 6-19 from the floor and 5-9 from the free throw line. He played a team-high 34 minutes, also dishing out four assists with two blocked shots and two turnovers.

Here are his accumulated numbers for the tournament. As you can see, he is averaging 14.7 points and seven rebounds a game and is 17-43 from the field (39.5 percent) and 10-21 from the free throw line (47.6).

Great Britain will play again on Tuesday against Norway.

UW sophomore Matthew Bryan-Amaning scored 14 points, but it wasn't enough as Great Britain dropped a 73-62 decision to Portugal in the U-20 European Championships.

Here's the box score, showing MBA going 6-17 from the floor and 2-6 from the free throw line, with five rebounds, four turnovers, three fouls, and two assists and blocked shots in 26 minutes.

Here are his totals for the first two games in the tournament, with an unfortunately glaring 5-12 from the free throw line among the numbers. (And I wouldn't read much into the position listing of guard --- even if he's doing it for GB, and I really can't tell looking at the stats, he won't suddenly be a guard for the Huskies).

Great Britain will play again on Sunday against Macedonia.

UW sophomore center Matthew Bryan-Amaning scored 13 points and had six rebounds and three assists in helping lead Great Britain to a 90-73 win over Finland today in a preliminary round game of the U-20 European Championships.

Here's a link to the home page for the championships, which has all the stats and schedules for the tournament.

Thanks to MT Husky for passing along a link for how to follow Matthew Bryan-Amaning's play in the U-20 European Championships.

Decided I'd give it a wider audience and put it here, so here it is.

As I type this, it's halftime and Great Britain leads Finland 49-29. MBA has five points, three rebounds, two assists and a foul. He also appears to have four turnovers if I'm reading the play-by-play correctly. To follow the game, just click on the link at the right and you'll get a running box score and play-by-play.

I'll actually be away from the computer for a little while so I'll leave this post here as a way for others to update the action in the comments section. I'll update it later here, as well.