Greetings Cougies,
Is it me, or are there more pumpkins on front porches than Christmas lights? It sure doesn’t seem like Christmastime to me but I hope everyone’s enjoying the season. Which reminds me, here’s a bunch of random thoughts from a guy who knows nothing about anything…
You wanna know what I think about steve sarkisian’s hiring over at uw? Really? Well…he’s got a very unique and somewhat controversial method for getting the best effort from his players…but otherwise…
…Meh.
Thanks to my friend, the mayor of Leavenworth, I spent Saturday night one row behind the scorer’s table on one side of the halfcourt stripe and mi amigo Damone sat on the other for the Baylor game. What a great perspective. I’m a casual basketball fan at best but sitting that close to the action really gave me a new appreciation for the way the game is played. I’m a long way from being so in love with the game that I’d drive to Pullman on a Sunday night to watch the women play but after seeing June Daugherty talk today, I’m a fan. What?
I finally decided to attend one of the Spokane Cougar Club Coaches Luncheons today and it was pretty cool. Well, it was at least pretty cool to be one of the youngest guys in a room full of people. Pushing 40, that doesn’t happen to me much anymore, but I looked like a ripe grape in a bowl full of raisins today.
One of those raisins was none other than Cougar and Detroit Lion legend Gail Cogdill, whom I had never seen before. He’s a big man and looks like he could still kick my ass.
My attendance today was rewarded by the pleasant surprise of hearing Big June speak. I tell you what, as lucky as we feel to have coach Bennett in the fold, true fans of the women’s game will probably tell you that we should feel the exact same way about JD. She’s been winning some incredible recruiting battles which includes this year’s #16-ranked class in the nation and nationally-ranked, ’09 recruit Ki-Shawna (Ki-Ki) Moore, whom Daugherty says will make fans of all of us; and oh yeah, she has already guided the Lady Cougs to 5 victories in 7 tries this year – or the exact same number of games they won all last year (her transition year.) Coach Daugherty is very convincing when she says she expects very special things from her girls the next few years.
OK, enough about that but with all sincerity, I’m officially a big fan of Big June. If you get a chance to see her talk, do it. She’s awesome.
Unfortunately, no football coaches attended, so I have nothing to share in regard to that particular sport of interest but suddenly I am the resident expert on the women’s basketball program. Any questions?
Actually, Men’s Assistant Coach Matt Woodley also spoke but he had the misfortune of following Coach Daugherty so I already forgot what he said. Actually, I thought it was pretty neat that he still stays in regular contact with Derrick Low who has been playing professionally in Australia and is currently the number 11 scorer in the NBL. Unfortunately, his team just (Low called Woodley and told him this at 3AM) went bankrupt and his agent is currently fielding requsts for his services. Looks like he’ll be off to Europe soon. Good luck, D-Low.
If you’re in the Spokane/Cd’A area and haven’t heard about it, you should consider RSVPing for the 2008 Cougar Holiday Lights Cruise on Lake Cd’A on Wednesday. Bring the kids for pictures with Santa Butch!
I just saw a commercial for the Heisman show. How great is this year’s race? Good enough to make Iowa RB Shonn Greene and Texas Tech WR Michael Crabtree effectively irrelevant. It’s a shootout among 4 QBs this year: Sam Bradford, Graham Harrell, Colt McCoy and Tim Tebow. ESPN experts seem to think Bradford will just edge out McCoy, followed by Tebow and Harrell.
Professor McBoob begs to differ. According to my highly scientific formula of ranking the players based on 5 statistical categories and assigning 1-5 place values, it should be Bradford by a longshot and a three-way tie for second place. Of course my formula includes each player’s team BCS ranking so that all but confirms the pointlessness of how I just spent the last 15 minutes of my life. But since I went through all that trouble, here’s what it looks like:
Speaking of Michael Crabtree, I just saw ESPN’s first 2009 draft projection and it has the Seahawks taking him at #3. That would be sweet but I’m starting to wonder if QB isn’t a more glaring need. I just hope they don’t screw up their draft standing by winning any more games.
So I was obviously watching a little ESPN tonight and one more thing I saw was a little soundbite from Peter Gammons. This guy has to make some pretty decent coin, no? That being the case, why not invest in some dental work, Pete? With Pac-10 football still top-of-mind, all I could think of when he flashed a grin at the end of the interview was that his chompers are the exact same color of ASU’s helmets – and that’s just gross.
Yes, Cougar fans, welcome to football’s off-season. Only 8 more months of stories about women’s basketball and Peter Gammons’ teeth.
ENJOY!
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