Husky Men's Basketball Blog

Stuck here in the Sacramento Airport for reasons that don't need explaining other than to say that I unexpectedly got to watch all the games today and browse the net more than I thought.

We don't usually talk UW women's basketball on here since I don't cover that team. But obviously the firing of June Daugherty is a matter of a lot of interest to Husky fans, so if you want to discuss it here, go ahead.

Here's our story on the firing as well as a blog posting from UW AD Todd Turner on gohuskies.com explaining the move.

In other matters, there was some good news for the men's team over the weekend as UW recruit Justin Holiday led Campbell Hall into the California State Division IV title game with a win in the regional final Saturday. As this story reports, Holiday had 24 points and 20 rebounds. He's a 6-6 swingman who has drawn some comparisons to former Husky Bobby Jones. His brother, Jrue, a junior guard, also plays on the team and is being recruited by UW.

In what was interesting news for the UW team, Spencer Hawes was shown on TV during the USC-Texas game sitting next to the father of Kevin Durant. I know Hawes knows Durant from the summer league circuit, and it's certainly intriguing was there. But I don't know what it means.

As for USC, more good news for the Pac-10 --- consider there are three Pac-10 teams in the Sweet 16 and just one from the ACC (North Carolina).

Sitting here at the Sacramento Airport watching Oregon finish its whupping of Winthrop, which is more good news for the national perception of the Pac-10 (and yet another predicition of a Pac-10 loss that Seth Davis whiffed on).

The Pac-10 now has two teams into the Sweet 16 for the third straight year --- something that has never happened before, and yet another sign that the conference is beginning to become a consistent power.

It is also the fifth time in the last seven years that the Pac-10 has had two or more teams into the Sweet 16.

Considering the recruits coming in next season and the overall youth of most of the teams, there is no reason to think the conference won't be as good or better next year.

Now USC has a chance to get three teams into the Sweet 16 --- only four times have three or more conference teams made it that far, most recently in 2002.

Also, here's an interesting overview of Arizona's season from the Arizona Daily Star, postulating that everything changed for the Wildcats when they lost at Washington State two days after winning at Washington --- a night when UA certainly looked like one of the best teams in the country.

UPDATE --- And make sure you look in the comments section for an interesting post from reader Dana about Ernie Kent's interest in the opening at Michigan. As Dana points out, with Tony Bennett's situation also in some flux --- check Steve Kelley's column today on that --- there could be a lot of activity in Northwest coaching circles in the coming weeks. As for UW, word I got again from Todd Turner recently is that the extension that Lorenzo Romar and Turner agreed on before the season should be officially signed soon. Turner said there were some final details to work out and that it was decided to wait until after the season to get it all done.