Monday Morning Review Jan 22nd

Sports are starting to wind down. Football playoffs are still going, but they're almost over, and Seattle's out anyways. That just leaves basketball, though football's offseason will be exciting (would be more exciting if the Seahawks actually had a first round pick). NBA midseason report should be coming back, as well as a discussion of who the best college basketball players are and what their draft status is so far.
Sonics:
Sonics went 2-0 against Cleveland and Milwaukee. The win against Cleveland would look better if they didn't also lose to Portland. Ray Allen has 22 points 11 assists with a horrible 6-21 shooting. Collison and Wilcox continued their strong play with lines of 14 12 and 16 12 respectively. I'm not too sure why we won because LeBron had 30/7/8 and Ilgauskus had 24 11. We had the same amount of shots, shooting percentage, and turnovers roughly, but I guess the +10 team rebounding is a big reason why we won.
We then blew out Milwaukee, who didn't have Redd, Villanueva, or Maurice Williams. So that would be like us not having Ridnour (or Watson), Ray Ray, and Rashard. Collison had 13 points 16 rebounds 2 steals 2 blocks in just 33 minutes. Ray Allen put up 21/4/3 in 28 minutes. No one else really had good stat lines because we were winning by 30 at one point. Petro got 9 pts 9 rebs in limited minutes, and Wilkins showed that he deserves playing time. Ridnour also played well getting 13 points on 5-6 shooting, 6 assists, a steal and a block. Overall, about as good of a week for the Sonics as you can get. Too bad their season is almost over, barring a miracle run with the return of Rashard.
Huskies:
Just about as much of a nightmare as one could dream up. Our only Pac-10 win is against Arizona State, the 2nd worst team in the Pac 10. We then lose to Washington State by almost 30 points. Granted we didn't have Hawes, but we still shouldn't have lost. I wish Artem Wallace didn't suck so much, because Hans Gasser is horrible. As a team, we shot 28% which is never going to win a game, and they shot 54%, which is also not going to win many games, so I guess you mix those two and you get a blow out. Oliver and Nelson weren't very good at all, and combined with Artem Wallace our third starter, we got 0 points out of 60% of our lineup. I think its time to start Pondexter and Dentmon again. They're not that bad at shooting, and we need their athleticism and defense. Washington State isn't very big, so I don't know why we played Gasser for 26 minutes, I'd rather play Burmeister, who shoots well and doesn't make many mistakes. Gasser managed to only get 3 rebounds in that time, block 0 shots, and get 0 fouls. To sum it up, pretty much only Brockman and Pondexter played well at all. For Washington State, Derrick Low and Kyle Weaver look like 2nd team Pac 10 players at this rate. Coming up is Oregon and Oregon State. Oregon State should be a gimme (and congrats to them for picking up oft-troubled Seattle product CJ Giles who transferred from Kansas, their second Seattle transfer in 2 years) and Oregon should be hard, but if Hawes is back I still think we're the 3rd most talented team in the conference. Good news also, Aaron Brooks is sitting this game out because he elbowed Appleby last year. Sucks for the Seattle product, but good for us. He's been talked about as player of the year anyways, so he shouldn't be too mad. Also, USC is now ranked 25th, making it 5 Pac 10 teams in the top 25. I thought this would happen, I just thought it would be Washington, not Washington State. Also, Oregon is ranked 7th, but with only 1 loss to USC, and wins against Georgetown, UCLA, and Arizona, they should be ranked higher. If they were in the ACC, they'd be ranked top 5. And according to "bracketologist" Joe Lunardi, the Huskies last week weren't even in the tournament, but after this past week's loss, I might have to agree with him.
Seahawks:
Seahawks signed Jim Mora as their Assistant Coach/Secondary Coach. This is good news because he's a good coach and our secondary has problems. I'm guessing this is real temporary, and he'll replace Holmgren or Willingham in a year.
Rumors:
Pau Gasol is being rumored in a trade, and I say the Sonics should try to get a trade done. With the exceptions of Ray Allen, Nick Collison, and Ridnour, I'd say anyone should be up for a trade. Pau Gasol is an extremely skilled big man, and while he's not a true center, he is a big power forward.
Kirilenko has also expressed some unhappiness, and while the Jazz probably wouldn't even consider trading AK-47, they might think that Deron Williams and Boozer is their future. I'd also be interested in trading for him, as I think when he's healthy he's a top 10 player in this league.