Monday Morning Review Jan 29th

Lots of stuff happened this week, so despite what I said earlier, it wasn't a slow week.
Huskies
Huskies rebounded and finished our first round of Pac-10 opponents at 3-6. Not very good, considering two should be gimmes. But we did win the last two, and we still have lots of home games to play.
We played well against Oregon, who was without their MVP, but they have so many guards that it shouldn't have hindered them that much. Dentmon had another huge game with 24 7 and 6, although he looked too much for his own shot in my opinion. Brockman also had a good night with only 14 8, but played with so much heart and hustle that doesn't get put on the stat sheet. Hawes actually looked solid off the bench, he wasn't his usual self, but he looked capable at least. Oregon did have 6 players in double figures however while shooting 55%. We shot 52% and used our size advantage to get 9 more rebounds. We looked like we were in control most of the way, except when in the middle of the second half they surged to gain the lead, but after that we went on a tear. Good win against an 18-1 team.
Against Oregon State we looked just so so the first half. We looked like were up by a decent amount, but never really took a commanding lead. In the second half, we just exploded and the game was put away really quickly. Brockman played really well, as usual. Dentmon got a 5th foul with 4 to go, but the problem is, why did Romar have him in in the first place? If you're winning by 20, put in Oliver, Burmeister, Nelson, Wallace, Gasser as a lineup. Both teams shot 52%, but we outrebounded them 38 to 21, which goes to show that our size advantage is working. The only problem with this game is that Hawes looked horrible. Apparently he lost "15" pounds and is still slightly injured too, but whatever it is, we need him for Saturday against Arizona.
Coming up is the Arizona's, with ASU first, so we should have at least a 3 game win streak.
Sonics:
First, we lost a high scoring game to Denver despite shooting 5% higher and nabbing the same amount of rebounds and getting the same amount of turnovers. It's probably because they had 32 foul shots compared to our 17. We were the home court so I don't want to blame the refs, but I have to a little bit. I can't see the NBA not wanting Carmelo and AI in the playoffs, so they'll take any win they can get. I really didn't want to lose this game because I hate both those players because they can't shoot worth a lick. Also on the headlines it said Carmelo's 34 downs Sonics, but I would have put up a headline like "Ray Allen's 44 not enough in losing effort to Fat Carmelo, Ball Hog AI and the sucky Nuggets". Another positive out of this is that Wilcox and Collison are looking great, Wilcox is the finesse talent, and Collison is the gritty, down and dirty player.
We squeeked out a win against Minnesota by getting only 7 turnovers. Ray Allen took 30 shots and scored 36 on amazing shooting across the board. Wilcox and Collison got double doubles againt, and Collison also had 2 assists, 2 blocks, and 2 steals. Craig Smith, a beast from BC, got 26 and 8 off the bench for Minnesota and Garnett was one shy of a triple double, but I think Garnett's lack of aggressiveness on shooting (which is Garnett's biggest weakness I think), and the fact that Randy Foye isn't good enough yet to take the big shot in the end killed them. Right now it's just Ricky Davis taking their last shots and he is unreliable both in basketball, and in life.
Yesterday's game against the Clippers was pathetic. After 3 quarters, we were losing 89-56. None of the stats mean anything because we put in all our reserves really early. The only positive things about this game are that Petro and Sene did well, and we have a better chance at a good lottery pick. Right now, the lottery's looking pretty good with all these stud freshman.
Mariners:
Mariners are reportedly about to sign Weaver for a one year 8.325 million dollar deal. I was high on Weaver halfway through last year, but now I don't know. He was at his low point then, and now he's at a semi-high point. St. Louis can make anyone look good apparently so, I'm not completely sold on him. He had a .303 batting average against him last year, and Lefties slugged .609 against him last year. He also never had an ERA less than 5 for a month when he was in the AL. This deal isn't that bad though. It's only one year, and he might do well. We'll take anything to get Ichiro back on board at this point. If he can regain those 3 mph on his fastball, he can be the effective pitcher he was projected to be, or at least a good 4th starter. I wasn't sold on Baek or Woods, but I don't know if $8 million dollars is worth the extra 2 wins.
We also signed Arthur Rhodes, which reminds me of the early 2000 seasons when he had 10 wins or sub 2 ERA. Rhodes was horrible last year in Philly, but just the year before, he had a 2. flat ERA in Cleveland. Giving him a minor league contract is a great idea, low risk high reward.
Also in not so recent news, Felix Hernandez is looking slim. This is great news because most people believe that the shin problems he had in spring training were from the 230 pounds on his frame, and the extra relief on his legs will make him a better pitcher, and that if he wasn't hurt then, his season would have been better. (Jon's note: the biggest problem Venezuelans have is that they are FAT and LAZY. Miguel Cabrera oozes with talent but coaches question his work ethic. He is also fat.) The weight loss, plus the increased trust in Johjima should make him a better pitcher.
Pac 10:
I watched the Stanford USC game Thursday night, and Brook Lopez was the man that day. Triple double with 12 blocks! He isn't really much of a block machine, but he was on that night. His coach said that that day will cement his draft status in the lottery which is ludicrous because he needs to be more consistent. Stanford then went on to beat UCLA, proving to me that the Pac-10 has 7 studs, 1 fairly good team, and 2 mediocre ones.
Also on TV was UNC's domination of Arizona. I was rooting for Arizona, but they look like a team in disarray. Marcus Williams was hurt, but the game should have been close at least. Most fun to watch was Psycho T's monster dunk, and the two times Mustafa Shakur had stupid turnovers, he ran back and had monster blocks to make up for it. Also what hurt Arizona was that Budinger had early fouls and couldn't play much until the game was already out of hand. Another big factor was luck, 1 for 23 in 3 pointers just isn't very good.
Seattle Products:
Jamal Crawford made 16 straight shots including 8 threes and 52 total points. I don't think he dunked it once, and my brother and I were going crazy because he was putting up long threes and fadeaways. I'm just glad one of my favorite players is doing so well, and it was awesome to watch.