Monday Morning Week in Review Jan 8th

Mariners:
Not much has happened, it seems. They signed Reitsma, a decent bullpen arm who sucked last year before being put away because of injury, for a one year deal. There's a team option for a second year, and 700k buyout. This move is ok, but I think we have enough bullpen. Still, one year deal never hurts I guess.
Mariners are also in the hunt for Brian Lawrence supposedly. He was ok for a few years but then sucked last year because of injury, so he pretty much fits in with our offseason gameplan. Buy low because of injury/off year.
Randy was traded to Diamondbacks for Vizcaino and two fairly good prospects. Someone in ESPN speculated that with the prospects that the Yankees got from the Sheffield and the Randy trade that they would make a run at Johan Sanata for a trade because if Zito's contract was as large as it was, then Santana's is going to be in the $200 million range, and only 3-5 teams can afford that.
Huskies:
Huskies split their week, losing barely at home to Arizona, then winning by only 10 to Arizona State. Arizona game wasn't really a surprise because I have them as a top 5 talent team overall. Reason we lost to Arizona? Appleby wasn't on his game, and Arizon shot 65%. Same as the UCLA game, even if you shoot over 50% and outrebound your opponent if they shoot over 60%, you're going to lose. Budinger, Marcus Williams, and Mustafa Shakur all had 20+ points, and all shot well. Hawes did a good job against Radenovic, but the other guys need to learn how to play team defense and get back quicker. I actually like Romar's move of shaking up the starting lineup. He benched Dentmon and Pondexter and started Nelson and Appleby. If Romar was white, I think there would be a bigger fuss about this because that means no black starters (I think Oliver is part Native American, I can't tell though, maybe a mixture). Anyways, that lit a fire under Ponderxter's ass, and Nelson also thrived hitting big shots. Obviously what hurt us the most was not making a single shot after 4:32 left second half. That will always ensure a loss in a close game. Arizona's bench, as I said before, isn't very good, but they hardly played, so it didn't really matter. That's why this starting lineup might not have been as good because Appleby and Nelson don't really drive that much, and if you could get some fouls, than Arizona's weak bench would be exposed.
Against Arizona State, we had the same lineup. This time, Appleby was on fire and proved my McNamara Redick comparisons right. Unfortunately, Brockman's 16 10 was the only other respectable player, and the team shot 42% as a whole. ASU shot 35%, so either they just got unlucky, or Romar drilled defensive pressure and getting back into their heads. We shut down Christian Polk, but Pendergraph had a great game, overall we should have won by more.
Also in the Pac 10, UCLA lost to Oregon, who lost to USC, and Washington State beat Arizona, so their might be 6 ranked teams in the Pac-10.
Seahawks: (by AndoverJon)
Seahawks Baby! Wow! What an amazing game. Best game I have seen in a while. While I like the result of the game (a big W and keeping our playoff hopes alive) the game seemed to show the same Seahawks that I have seen all year. Hasselbeck still looks off and Alexander is still pretty ineffective. The one highlight of our offense was Stevens who came up big with 7 catchs for 80 or so yards and TWO TDs.
Our defense looked GREAT though. Really, they only gave up 13 points because 7 were off a kick return. Also, they had a safety and obviously that HUGE stop in the end. The safety was an amazing play and so was the Romo fumble. I don't think people understand how big Jordan Babineaux was on that play to stop Romo. He still could have gotten a first down, so JB's hustle was very important. The Seattle secondary performed admirably without key guys. Another key for the Seahawks was that the defense did not let up any big plays (one on special teams). If the Seahawks want to win next win next week in Chicago, their offense needs to click more and we need Grossman to have one of his OFF days.
Sonics
What a bad week for the Sonics, they went 0-4. I was wrong about their game against Dallas, Nowitzki did play, it was his first game back. Ray Allen played well, shooting 5-8 on three points, but still only 4-6 on free throws. Earl Watson also did well, but mainly in the first half. Sene had three great blocks, but after that, not much good happened. Dallas' whole starting lineup went off at us, and had a quiet 31 15.
Next day at Houston, we lost to a Yao-less rockets. McGrady went off for 31 6 7, and 4 members of their starting lineup had double digit points. Ray Allen had 32 points and Wilkens had 19, but Ridnour struggled to score.
Against NY at home we lost again. Nate Robinson didn't get to play in front of his home crowd because of the Brawl, which is unfortunate. Ray Allen only went 3 for 10, and Marbury, Crawford a Seattle Native, and Curry went off for 22+ points each.
We then lost another away back-to-back at Golden State. Ray Allen hit 7 threes and was 9-9 from the charity stripe. Ridnour was benched for Watson, who did no better. I've been a big believer in how good and deep Golden State is. Biedrins had a 15 16 game, which hurts because we here at Seattle Sports Maniacs wanted the Sonics to trade up and draft him 3 years ago, instead we settled for Swift, and have drafted 2 more young centers since. Davis also went off for 22 11 7, which sort of shows that Watson isnt necessarily better at defending then Ridnour.
The Sonics looked like they could make a run for the playoffs, but after this week, we pretty much have no chance to make the playoffs. What a dissapointment.