isaiah thomas – Rush The Court

Best YouTube Moments In Washington Basketball: The Nominees

Connor Pelton (@ConnorPelton28) — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 20:01:52 +0000

Last month we introduced our new project, which is centered around determining the top YouTube moment in Pac-12 basketball history. We start the nomination portion with Washington. [ed note: These are just the top moments we could find on YouTube, which has a vast number and array of videos, but we won’t be able to cover the entire 99 years of the conference.]

Take Our Poll

Up first is this beauty of a hustle play from point guard Isaiah Thomas. While they are few and far between, we really appreciate hustle plays in this project. This also came at a crucial moment in [...]

Big Ten Coaches on the Not-So-Hot Seat, Part II

Alex Moscoso (@AlexPMoscoso) — Wed, 30 Oct 2013 19:31:46 +0000

Yesterday, we examined why John Groce, Tom Crean and Fran McCaffery are currently not in danger of losing their jobs. Today, we continue our examination of the conference’s coaching landscape. Specifically, we’ll explain why we expect the head men at Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Penn State and Purdue to be here next year. Here’s our take:

Matt Painter’s past successes, and his very large contract, are among the reasons why he’ll be in the Big Ten for a while.

Richard Pitino (Minnesota): This is Pitino’s first year as a head coach in the Big Ten and second year as the head coach of [...]

Solomon Hill: The Next Great Leader of the Pac?

KDanna — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 22:51:01 +0000

With a new season on the horizon, many teams around the conference will be looking to new leaders to fill in the roles of captains’ past. Solomon Hill indirectly made his case at Pac-12 Media Day as perhaps the most mature and confident team leader out of any in the Pac-12. It’s one of the most-used clichés in all of sports, but upperclassman leadership can really provide that extra boost for a team looking to get to the NCAA Tournament or make some sort of postseason push. Can Hill be next in a long line of postseason heroes – sung or [...]

Pac-12 Basketball Fantasy League Voting: Championship

Connor Pelton — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 23:44:35 +0000

Our championship game pits fourth seeded Connor Pelton up against the fifth seeded, two-headed monster in Mark Sandritter and Jeff Nusser (CougCenter). Below are the rosters, followed by commentary from the respective owner:

Connor Pelton

Head Coach – Slats Gill, Oregon State Guard – Reggie Miller, UCLA Guard – Isaiah Thomas, Washington Guard – Chauncey Billups, Colorado Guard – Baron Davis, UCLA Forward – Kiki Vandeweghe, UCLA Forward – Klay Thompson, Washington State Forward – Richard Jefferson, Arizona Forward – Jon Brockman, Washington Center – Steve Johnson, Oregon State Center – Robin Lopez, Stanford

Connor’s Take:

Obviously, CougCenter’s team is loaded with talent. Behind my own, of course, it’s my favorite in the field. But you can’t tell me that Darren [...]

Washington Week: Evaluating The Recent Past

Connor Pelton — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 17:34:26 +0000

Despite winning the regular season Pac-12 title, a conference Coach of the Year award, and a run to the Final Four of the NIT, 2011-12 was considered a mediocre year by many in Seattle. That’s what happens when you make three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances coming into last season. Between the 2008-09 and the 2010-11 seasons, Washington posted a combined 76-30 record, with 11 of those 30 losses coming against teams ranked in the Top 25. Last season was a rollercoaster ride with too many “downs” for the selection committee’s liking, even if there were a lot of “ups” to go [...]

Pac-12 Basketball Fantasy League Voting: Round One, Game Three

Connor Pelton — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 20:31:30 +0000

Our third matchup of the summer pits the third seed, myself, Connor Pelton, up against sixth seeded Ben Knibbe (UW Dawg Pound). The winner of this one is off to the semifinals, where it will meet the winner of our matchup to be revealed on Tuesday. Below are the rosters, followed by some commentary:

Connor Pelton

Connor’s [...]

Washington: 2011-12 Post-Mortem

Connor Pelton — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 17:11:29 +0000

Over the course of the next two weeks, the Pac-12 Microsite will break down each team’s season: what went well, what didn’t, and a look ahead at the future. Today’s subject: Washington.

What Went Wrong

Going into the year, a major question facing Washington was how quickly it would gel after losing its top three players from the 2010-11 season. That proved to be a big challenge as the Huskies started the season 5-5, their worst start since the 2003-04 campaign. While four of those defeats were to NCAA Tournament teams, there was no doubt about it; the Dawgs were playing bad basketball. However, once December came to an end [...]

It’s A Love/Hate Relationship: Volume XIII

jbaumgartner — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 18:31:03 +0000

Jesse Baumgartner is an RTC columnist. His Love/Hate column will publish each week throughout the season. In this piece he’ll review the five things he loved and hated about the previous seven days of college basketball.

Five Things I Loved This Week

I LOVED….pureness. Some would argue that there’s nothing better than a last-second buzzer-beater. FALSE. There’s nothing better than a last-second buzzer beater that also touches zero iron on the way down. Ohio State’s William Buford gave us one of those on Sunday against Michigan State for a huge win, and for me the swish adds even a little bit more [...]

Predicting the All-Pac-12 Team

Connor Pelton — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 01:11:27 +0000

With players like Derrick Williams, Isaiah Thomas, and Klay Thompson departing for the NBA, the talent level from top to bottom in the Pac-12 this season isn’t exactly at its peak. That means guys who had a mediocre season or played a role on a team last year will be looked at to step up and become the next big stars of the conference. This is evident as we have compiled our best guess as to the All-Pac-12 team, and only one player from last year’s team has made the list. Here we go!

G Jorge Gutierrez, Sr, California – We begin with the only player from last season’s all-conference [...]

Pac-12 Morning Five: 10.31.11 Edition

Connor Pelton — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:00:25 +0000

Washington point guard Abdul Gaddy was one of the top recruits in the country when he came aboard in 2009, but after a disappointing freshman season and a torn ACL midway through his sophomore year, Gaddy has since fallen off the radar. But while the preseason focus is on guards Tony Wroten, Jr., and Terrence Ross, Gaddy will also be looked at to lead this team because of his experience. Percy Allen has a great feature on Gaddy, which includes some background and an interview with the point guard. The best part of the interview is when Gaddy talks about [...]

Pac-12 Morning Five: 10.28.11 Edition

AMurawa — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:00:25 +0000

The first exhibition game for a Pac-12 team this year went down on Thursday night, and while the rest of the sports world was enthralled by a magical World Series Game Six, or even Case Keenum throwing like nine or 12 or 15 touchdowns (sorry, lost count) against Rice, defending Pac-10 champion Arizona was busy losing to Seattle Pacific. Sure, it was an exhibition game, and sure, anyone who wants to overreact to this game needs to remember Syracuse losing to Le Moyne a few years back and then proceeding to be a top five team all year, but we [...]

Pac-12 Team Previews: Washington

Connor Pelton — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 18:00:33 +0000

Over the next two weeks, we’ll be previewing each of the Pac-12 teams as we head into the season.

Washington Huskies

Strengths. The main thing that jumps off the page is the Huskies’ talent and depth at guard. In order to get all of the talent on the floor at the same time, Lorenzo Romar could go with the rarely used four-guard lineup since both Tony Wroten, Jr., and Terrence Ross have the size to play down low. Watch out for the other freshmen as well. Romar has a stellar recruiting class coming in, led by the aforementioned Wroten Jr., guard Hakeem [...]

NBA Draft Thoughts From a College Perspective

rtmsf — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:00:34 +0000

The NBA Draft has come and gone with one of the most boring evenings in its televised history. Maybe it was the arena setting, maybe it was the lack of marquee names, maybe it was the fact that none of the draftees wore anything particularly ridiculous, but the league’s capstone summer event was so uninspiring that even Bill Simmons’ usually-hilarious draft diary felt trite and mailed in. Still, the draft represents to every major college basketball player the culmination of a lifelong dream to hear one’s name called by David Stern, and it’s worth a quick reflection on [...]

Conference Report Card: Pac-10

Brian Goodman — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 17:56:05 +0000

Andrew Murawa is the RTC correspondent for the Pac-10 and Mountain West conferences. We will be publishing a series of conference report cards over the next week for conferences that received multiple NCAA bids to recap the conference, grade the teams, and look at the future for the conference.

Conference Recap:

After an awful 2009-10 season in which the Pac-10 had to limp into a second NCAA Tournament bid when Washington hit the gas pedal down the stretch, the four tournament bids the conference received this year was a huge improvement. With Arizona advancing to the [...]

2011-12 RTC (Way Too Early) Top 25

KDoyle — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 22:36:24 +0000

The 2010-11 season just concluded — we are just as sad as you guys are — but rather than get all nostalgic, teary-eyed, and lament the next seven months without college basketball, let’s look towards the future. That’s right, folks, hot off the presses: the first 2011-12 Top 25. Our assumptions on who is staying/leaving are within the team breakdowns.

North Carolina—The Heels have a whole lot coming back and lose next to nothing. Harrison Barnes looked like the stud he was advertised in the preseason as he developed into Carolina’s top player down the stretch, and Kendall Marshall flourished [...]