Greetings Cougs! Hope you are all winding down your week as the weekend starts to get larger and larger out the windshield, and the rest of the week starts to shrink as you peer back at it in the rear-view (and thanks to Will Walker for the pic from Facebook).
Apologies are in order for the lack of posts lately. There are a few reasons, mainly real life getting in the way for many of us. Plus, hey, it’s Apri, and we’re supposed to be a football blog or something like that? Really we write about pretty much everything, but even with spring ball going on right now, it’s kinda/sorta a “dead time” for us. So yeah, we have to dig a little bit right now, but that won’t stop us from posting.
So yesterday, there was a bit of a stir when the elder Thompson told Howie Stalwick that Klay is “a first round draft pick”, and says that some NBA teams even claim he could be a lottery pick. This is all based on who Mr. Thompson has been talking to in his calls around the NBA. However, it must be noted that these are NOT the words of the so-called “NBA Adivsory Committee” or whatever it is they call that group who analyzes incoming underclassmen and tries to project where they may end up. While the article is premium, Mr. Thompson does say that even though he’s getting told this as he is making the rounds, that it’s possible that “people are just being nice” to him. But there seems to be little doubt that the more they snoop around, the better things sound for Klay to make the leap.
Who knows what happens next, but it’s starting to sound like it will be a bit of an upset if Klay doesn’t at least throw his hat in the ring and see what they tell him once he’s officially on the market? If he doesn’t like what he hears, he could always come back to school provided he does not hire an agent right away, I think we all know that. But man, you think of his solid length at 6-6, his sweet shooting stroke, and his overall improvement on his game that he showed last season? It may not be what fans want to hear, but you gotta go get it while you still can.
I think it was when Isaiah Thomas broke the news that he was going pro that reality hit me in the face. If you recall, he was asked several times by both print media and on the radio about his so-called legacy at UW, and if he has any regrets leaving the team when if he came back for one more year, they could make that deep run in the tourney AND he would be regarded as one of the best players in school history and in the record books? He answered multiple times that the legacy and that sort of thing really didn’t have any influence whatsoever on his decision to go pro. Yeah, he cared about the school and all that, and he wanted to win. But his dream was and is to become an NBA basketball player, and part of the reason he came to UW was to get coached by Lorenzo Romar and have them help him achieve that dream.
I’m sure that sentiment must have made some UW’ers a little unhappy. How could Thomas not have the same burning desire they have to get to a Final Four, or at least one step past the Sweet 16, something Romar has never done at UW?
The thing is, I have always been “pro” player, and that in life there just aren’t any guarantees, so if/when you can actually get that guarantee of a first round draft pick, you take it. Deep down we want to believe that these kids aren’t just in it for themselves, but they actually care about the name on the front of the jersey as well, just as much as you and I do. But the question you have to ask is, well, what is that kid’s dream? Is their dream to make a deep run in the NCAA’s, maybe even get to a Final Four? Or is their dream something considerably bigger, like winning an NBA championship, making an NBA all-star team, getting a $100 million dollar contract??
As fans we want their dreams to be aligned with our own, and that is of a glorious run up the ladder for our Cougs. But is that reality? Everyone is wired differently, and we all have different goals and ideals about what we want out of life. If Klay Thompson’s ultimate dream is to make it to the NBA, and he’s getting assurances that he’s a lottery pick, and no worse than a first-round draft choice? Then I think we can all say good luck to the young man, thank him for his three full seasons at WSU, and everyone can simply move on. Instead of lameting him leaving a year early and wring my hands over what could have been over the last few years, I am going to focus on the future and see what happens next.
Moving on….
Monday is the day we’ll finally get to check out the new Coug uni’s. There are a lot of rumors and speculation as to what we are going to see, and it’s pretty exciting to get an idea of what we will look like going forward. But are you at least a little nervous about what might happen? I don’t know if you saw this, but TCU just broke out some new Nike uni’s this week. What do you think?
I know, I know….purple and black aren’t exactly popular around these parts. But if you can past that, you can see some of the basics, like the font, the sleeves, the alternate black jersey, etc. Not exactly wild about the numeric font, but it’s not bad. Overall isn’t kind of a clean, basic look, and might be a bit of a preview as to what we’ll see on Monday?
Other stuff:
Jake Locker works out of the Seahawks today. Some of the latest mocks, from McShay to Kiper, think there is a real good chance that Locker will be there, and that the Seahawks wouldn’t be able to pass him up. If you are the ‘Hawks, do you take him? Would the home town pressure be too great? Would he actually work in a west coast offense, a system predicated on being quick and accurate in the short passing game? Or would they revamp their offensive system to take advantage of Locker’s strengths? Yeah, Jake had a strong pro-day showing against air. But what about the four years of game tape, how much do teams value what he did or didn’t do on the field? How does he really translate to the next level?
Lots to chew on there, but while earlier in the offseason the rumors were that Seattle wasn’t interested, well, it seems like they might be changing their tune. A lot of pre-draft stuff can simply be smoke and mirrors though, so we’ll see!
Sounds like the Cougs more or less “slogged” through spring ball day 10. I guess that’s kind of expected at some point during spring ball, where you get a practice or two where the energy and intensity just isn’t there. I do like the sound of Alex Hoffman-Ellis calling people out who didn’t bring it though. That leadership from upperclassmen has been lacking in recent years, so while it may rub some people the wrong way, it’s a good thing for the bigger picture. The team has won five games in three years, so the old way just isn’t acceptable anymore.
Finally, Paul Wulff jumped on the Kevin Calabro show on ESPN radio yesterday, and you can catch the audio here. Love what he says about Jeff Tuel too! I am right there with you coach, Tuel is going to have a big 2011 season!
That’s it for now. Enjoy your day, and as always, GO COUGS!
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