The Worst Is Over

A national championship contender from a tradion-steeped Midwestern program visits the West Coast, in what turns out to be a blowout. USC-Ohio State? Of course not. We're talking about a battle played deep in that game's shadows, surely seen by dozens of viewers on ESPN. They saw Oklahoma ruin a beautiful afternoon at Husky Stadium, crushing Washington 55-14. UW's same old problems cropped up: poor tackling, dropped and airmailed passes and a frightening 591 yards given up. Now the Huskies are 0-3 and staring at the abyss, with chants for the coach's head growing louder. But really, this is a script anyone could have seen coming, so let's not get rash.

I heard a radio caller on the Huskies postgame show say that the Huskies were more poorly coached than mighty Bellevue in their victory over Bothell. That's Bellevue High School. Really, is this what things are coming to? Now "fans" are calling in to say Tyrone Willingham couldn't even outclass his opposite number on a high school sideline? People need to get a goddamn grip.

This is where we step away from the ledge. Everyone knew the Huskies' first three games were an unholy trilogy that would probably leave them winless. Those three opponents -- Oregon, BYU, and Oklahoma -- are ranked 17, 14 and 2, respectively. Yes, UW took a step back after last week's hearbreaker, but OU is going to make a lot of teams look foolish this year. And if it's possible for a team to take refuge in its conference schedule -- because it's so much easier than its non-conference slate -- then the Huskies can be that team.

UW has a bye week, then plays three of its next four games at home: Stanford, at Arizona, Oregon State and Notre Dame. All of those are winnable. Suddenly, the Pac-10 looks very weak. The conference went 3-7 against non-league foes on Saturday, lowlighted by inexplicable losses by Cal-Berkeley to Maryland, Arizona State to UNLV and Arizona to New Mexico. UCLA, thought to be resurgent under Ricky Neuheisel after an upset of Tennessee, got whacked by 59 points to a BYU team UW took to overtime last weekend -- oh sorry, I forgot. Aside from USC and Oregon, the Pac-10 now appears filled with teases, have-nots and never-will-be's.

Conventional wisdom said Willingham needed to make a bowl this year to save his job. So UW would have to go 6-3 onward to get there. That looks unlikely, but fans need to use a different ruler to measure success from here on out. Let's see how hard this young team plays for its coach. If they still put up a fight and are consistently competitive, then Willingham deserves a chance to keep coaching his talented charges. If they roll over and die and go 0-12, then we'll talk. But if that happens, impatience dictates that Willingham would be long gone by then.

Bill Simmons Gets It Backwards

From his reader mailbag:

Q: Brady's out. That really sucks. But it could be worse -- you could
be a Seattle sports fan. Let me break it down for you: The Mariners
are struggling through one of their worst seasons ever. Our Sonics,
the only team to win a professional title in Seattle, moved the team
to Okla-friggin-homa and stuck us with the Storm. And the Seahawks --
in Holmgren's final year, mind you -- are now without their TOP FOUR
RECEIVERS! Imagine losing Moss, Welker, Gaffney AND Kelley Washington.
Plus our quarterback is having back problems (including rumors of
bulging discs), and our best running back left last week's game with
an injury. Of course, a 6-10 record might win our division, which
means we get to lose in Round 1. Oh, and the travesty that was the
excessive celebration call on Washington's Jake Locker. But on the
bright side … well, I give up. Be thankful you don't live in Seattle.
-- Dan Gomez, Seattle

SG: I have to say, that made me feel a little better. Maybe the good
people of Seattle should form an organization called "It Could Be
Worse," in which they send e-mails to suddenly traumatized sports fans
from other cities to talk them off the ledge.

He's got it precisely backwards. We should be the ones getting the condolences: "I'm a Patriots fan, but man, it really sucks to be you."

Doing what's right

Too often in sports, we dwell on the shortcomings of referees. But I'd like to take a moment to remind fans that a ref has an extremely difficult job. We drop them in a thick tangle of limbs -- limbs that collide, pull and grab -- and ask them to correctly identify a single violation in a fraction of a second. And we ask them to do this in a hostile arena in front of a loud, angry and boorish throng of shirtless assholes.

So it's especially nice when you have a chance to congratulate a ref for doing what's right. With a little over three minutes to go in Saturday's game against BYU (AP ranked 15), Washington lined up on their own 25 and eyeballed a confident defense and a 7 point deficit. Jake Locker (203 yards passing, 67 yards rushing and 4 total TDs) and a fleet of freshman receivers put together a dramatic 14 play drive to bring them to BYU's 3. First and goal: fade route right, perfect pass but better coverage. Second and goal: fade route left to the tight end - bad pass. On third down, Washington spread its offense and ran a QB draw. Locker stumbled laterally about 10 yards, broke two tackles and stretched into the endzone. BYU 28- Washington 27.

This is when things got out of hand.

Locker jumped up, tossed the ball behind his back and jumped into the arms of the nearest husky. He continued in this tasteless manner for nearly 5 full seconds. A proud BYU defense was helpless - they were forced to watch this gratuitous display of joy.

I, as a sports fan, was disgusted.

Thankfully, someone stepped up. The ref called unsportsmanlike conduct for excessive celebration and pushed the huskies extra point attempt back 15 yards. BYU blocked the extra point, Washington fell to 0-2 and the integrity of college football was preserved. We can't allow this unabashed camaraderie to go unchecked, and I'd like to take this moment to thank the ref for standing up and doing what's right.

How to Stop LeBron

Nothing to do with Seattle, but the basketball fan portion of my brain is somehow still in tact. Not sure how that wasn't lost in the settlement as well... maybe that's what we got for the basketball inflating machine?

Anyway, those who managed to catch the Redeem Team's impressive run at this year's Olympics (and weren't stymied by the USA network's unfathomably daft decision to air fucking ping-pong over Greece v. USA), had to be impressed by BronBron. In 24 minutes a game, he averaged 15.5 points, 5 boards, almost 4 assists, 2.3 steals and 1 block. He shot 60% from the field, including 46% from 3 (46.4% to be precise, which is 2 tenths higher than Kobe's field goal percentage... but I digress).

Without exaggeration, he was unguardable. As true hoop put it, Argentina switched to zone in the gold medal game to goad Kobe into chucking threes and avoid "LeBron James and his freight train of destruction at the rim." This slowed LeBron down, but didn't stop him.

So how do you stop him? Well, apparently with a few variations on the old Larry Bird behind the backboard shot and a granny shot.

David Kalb, famed nobody, beats LeBron James at HORSE. Twice. From the LATimes website:

Are you ready for some football?

The NFL kicks off tonight. Here's a little gift for fantasy football fans.

Can You Hear It From Here?

In this time of underwhelming Seattle sports teams, anything will make one irritable. That goes even for the unveiling of open secrets: the former SuperSonics are now officially the former SuperSonics. Folks, a big hand for YOUR Oklahoma City Thunder. Many people knew this name for weeks, and team merchandise showed up online just before the public announcement. Owner Clay Bennett summoned the gall to lament this at the press conference: "I was disappointed in the image being released." Oh, so the NBA didn't make a good-faith effort to keep your team's surprise name under wraps? Mr. Bennett, I hope this is the first of many disappointments for you.

Of course this was little more than a formality, but its symbolic weight is heavy. TrueHoop puts it nicely. This is just one more milepost as the Sonics shrink in the NBA's rear-view mirror. Another one was Howard Schultz dropping his half-court heave of a lawsuit. Yet another will be the first game the Thunder take (takes?) the floor. 

An ESPN SportsNation poll notes, "This is a very bold choice by Oklahoma City, becoming only the fourth NBA franchise to choose a non-plural team name." How many Oklahomans do you think know their team's name is a collective noun? Yes, I nitpick, even as I realize its uselessness. If we keep carping, we risk looking like the ex-boyfriend who says he's better off without the girl, as he does slow drive-bys around her house. But seriously, who cares?

Therefore we're left with undignified attempts at salvaging dignity wherever we can find it. So here goes: the aforementioned SportsNation poll finds that 46.1% of voters hate the new nickname, while only 12.2% love it. (That'll learn 'em.) It also found that most respondents' favorite number is purple. However, that information is embargoed until tomorrow. But don't worry, David Stern will steal its thunder and release the results prematurely online.

Putting a ribbon on a turd...

I doubt this is even worth mentioning, but the Mariners have won 8 of the last 10 and four in a row. They've done this with their best relief pitcher learning to be a starter and with a line-up comprised mostly of guys who started the year with the Tacoma Rainiers. So how is this happening?

Ryan Rowland-Smith can pitch. Over his last three starts, 20.1 innings, 4 earned runs, 13Ks, 6 BBs. He's also managed to go past six innings in each outing. (Take note, Erik Bedard)

Adrian Beltre is playing like he's up for a new contract. Someone must have told him that he signed a 4-year deal in 2004 instead of a 5-year deal to explain his production of late. He hit for a cycle on Monday and over the last 6 games, he's hitting .538, 3 HRs, 7 RBIs and OPS of 1.595. We haven't seen production like that from Adrian since his contract year numbers of .334, 48 HRs, 121 RBIs in 2004. I may take Beltre number 1 in my fantasy baseball draft next year.