Tuesday Morning Review Feb 20th

So the week wasn't that great for Huskies fans, but ok for Sonics and Mariners fans.
Mariners:
Spring training is about to start and there's nothing but hope for Mariners fans right now. Some people think Felix will have a sub 2.5 ERA, many people think that Johjima, Lopez, and Betancourt will improve their walks. Beltre is supposedly bigger, and will break the 30 hr barrier and possibly the 40 hr mark too. Guillen's elbow feels great. I can't wait for Mariners baseball.
Sonics:
We played one game, and it was against the Suns without Nash or Diaw. We creamed them, as we can with any team, because our firepower is pretty damn good. Collison had a great game with 22 and 15, Ray Allen had 31, Rashard had 20, and our team shot 54% on FG and 50% on 3pointers. The Suns shot just 39%, furthering Nash's case for MVP. After our midseason MVP predictions, it looks like its between Nash and Nowitzki, with Kobe still hanging in there. "Hibachi's" cockiness is getting to some people, and he's been slumping as of late also.
Huskies:
Now for the bad news. We lost both games, and they were both close (65-61 for both). If the rankings were good, they'd reflect that we just lost to two top 11 teams by only a little bit, but they don't.
Against Washington State, it was the Hawes and Brockman show with Dentmon shooting poorly, and Appleby not getting enough shots. Pondexter is still struggling, which is odd, because given his athleticism and height, you'd think he'd be good for at least defense and rebounds. Only Oliver got any minutes off the bench and he only played adequatley. We played like we always do, we outrebounded them 30 to 20, but they shot 51% to our 37.5%.
Against Pittsburgh, it was again the Brockman and Hawes show, with Appleby doing his part. Dentmon shot a good percentage, and the team as a whole played well. We stopped Aaron Gray to just 10 rebounds. We outrebounded them 39 to 28, and outshot them 43% to 36%, but we had 15 turnovers (5 for Brockman 4 for Dentmon) to their 6 and shot 8 free throws to their 25. I always point this out, but it seems like home teams always get more calls, and if this hadn't happened, we would have won.
Anyways, two heartbreaking losses, that would have put us in the tournament if a few shots had gone in. We can still make it I think, because we play Oregon, USC, and UCLA, plus we still have the Pac-10 tournament. It looks hard, but this team has the talent and size to make the tournament still.
All-Star Weekend
The Dunk Contest was pretty weak. Dwight Howard asked if he could put the rim at 12 feet, and it was rejected, which is dumb because it needs something to make it more exciting. Jason Kapono won the 3-point contest, which isn't surprising given his shooting thus far. What's weird is that he had to fight his way to get into the contest, when he's shooting at a 56% clip while making over 2 a game. Just because he doesn't have a star name doesn't mean that he should be excluded from this contest. In fact, it's more likely that a star person won't win in the contest. The game was boring, unless you like guys just dunking and cherry picking. The fact that it was in Las Vegas wasn't too appealing either, the half-time show was a joke. I don't think they should be like baseball and make the game meaningful, but Chauncey is sort of right when he says that people want to see how a team of superstars would do in a real game. The PTI guys' idea of international vs America isn't bad. A team of Nash, Nowitzki, Yao, Pau Gasol, Kirilenko, Okur, Ginobli, and Parker would be fun to watch. Especially against a team full of Lebron's and Carmelo's. Style over substance in my mind, I don't know if America would root against America, but I know that I would root for the International players.