They are the two hardwood goliaths of Class 1A, Lynden Christian and King’s. Boys and girls basketball combined, they are the winners of twenty-two state championships, including the boys-girls sweep King’s completed last March in Yakima. So far, this season has been a particularly good one for the two private Christian schools. The Lyncs entered the weekend as the No. 1 team in the state in both genders, according to the AP, and both teams from King’s were ranked No. 3.
They had not yet played each other, though, which made Saturday’s double-header — Lynden Christian vs. King’s girls at 5:30, the boys following a half-hour later — all the more appealing. The rainswept drive from Seattle to Mt. Vernon H.S. was not, but I made it anyway, and settled into my place in the bleachers of the big, old, wooden barn a few minutes before tip.
I’m a believer in writing-as-therapy, so consider this a self-prescribed session on the couch in hopes of getting over Washington’s heartrending home defeat on Saturday against the ‘Cats — a game that would have been very nice to have for a team that’s fighting for an NCAA tournament berth and will spend the rest of the season trying to make up for home losses to Oakland and UC Santa Barbara in December, which … see, I’m getting upset again. Time for some optimism.
1. The audacity of youth
At one point in the first half, Marquese Chriss went up for an attempted dunk over Arizona center Kaleb Tarczewski that, if completed, would have perhaps been the greatest moment in the history of Hec Edmundson Pavilion, a building that has hosted presidents. (Fine, maybe second-best behind Nate Robinson’s alley-oop against Arizona in 2004). Later, DeJounte Murray had a clear path to the basket on a two-on-one break, but instead tried a behind-the-back dribble that resulted in a turnover and, shortly thereafter, two points for the Wildcats.
In retrospect, it would be easy to point to these two plays and think, man, those two missed opportunities could have been the six-point swing the UW needed to win. But to do so would be to miss the point.
The period of time I spent waiting in line to get into the gym at Lynnwood High School on Friday night was longer than the period of time that the game between the Royals and visiting Glacier Peak was actually competitive. And I didn’t even have to wait that long.
All those hundreds of people were there to see what was on paper the last, best chance for AP No. 1 Lynnwood (19-0) to be challenged during the regular season. When the two teams played up in Snohomish on Jan. 13, the defending 3A state champs narrowly escaped with a 60-54 win — to date, the only time this season their margin of victory was fewer than 14 points.
But this time around, on senior night at Lynnwood, when perhaps the two greatest girls basketball players in school history were on their home floor for the penultimate time, the Grizzlies never had a chance. Lynnwood jumped out to a 24-10 lead after the first quarter, which swelled to 49-25 shortly after halftime and 63-29 with 2:11 left in the third period. The final margin was 79-49, according to those who stuck around to watch the fourth quarter. I was not one of them.
Three years ago, the Lakeside boys basketball team was one measly point away from a state title. If star guard Tramaine Isabell had converted the front end of a one-and-one with one second left in regulation of the Class 3A championship game against Rainier Beach, the relatively small, extremely wealthy private school on the Seattle-Shoreline border would have won it all in Washington’s toughest division.
But Isabell missed the free throw, and the Vikings went on to a 62-59 victory in overtime to earn their second straight crown.
Seventeen months later, reporter Mike Baker of The Seattle Times published a lengthy investigation of the program’s surprising rise to prominence. The findings weren’t pretty. Lakeside, the Times alleged, had been a party to a series of WIAA rules violations and other unsavory activities, including illegal recruiting through the A PLUS Youth Program, a basketball nonprofit run by Lions head coach Tavio Hobson. The school had also relaxed its admissions and eligibility standards for basketball players and provided unusual benefits to some of its stars, including Isabell, whose driver’s license listed as his address the $6 million lakeside home of Rich Padden, a lawyer and prominent booster of Lions athletics. At the center of the Times story was former Microsoft CEO and future Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, whose three sons all attended Lakeside and who, it was alleged, had catalyzed the school’s newfound commitment to athletic excellence.
I think I’ve gone to watch four Metro basketball games in the past few weeks and all four games were decided by double figures. Which reminds me of two football seasons ago, when the first three games I covered for TDN were all shutouts. Not a lot of late-game thrills.
The most recent was the Roughriders of Roosevelt taking care of the Chief Sealth Seahawks on Friday night, which I wrote about here. Not the most exciting game in the world, but it did feature two of the more historically interesting girls basketball programs in Seattle.
Roosevelt is, I would venture a pretty strong guess guess, is the only girls basketball team in Metro to have a documentary made about them that was featured at the Toronto Film Festival. That would be “The Heart of the Game,” from 2005, the story of the school’s 2004 state title team led by basketball star/teenage mother Darnellia Russell and her coach, Bill Resler (who, fun fact, taught my mom in tax law at the UW). I’d give it a hearty recommendation, but I’d recommend just about any basketball documentary ever made, so maybe the endorsement’s not worth that much.
Then there’s Chief Sealth, which in 2005 and 2006 fielded one of the greatest collections of talent in state history. Regina Rogers and Charmaine Barlow went on to play at the UW, Nia Jackson starred at Oregon, and Christina Nzekwe was a UCLA Bruin. (It’s probably weird I can remember those names off the top of my head ten years later.) The only problem was that Seahawks coach Ray Willis had stacked his roster by misbegotten means, and Sealth’s two state titles were soon stripped by the WIAA for illegal recruiting. But man, those teams sure were good.
I covered the much-anticipated (by people who anticipate such things) girls basketball tilt between West Seattle and Bishop Blanchet on Wednesday for The Seattle Times. You can read the game story here.
Now, a few spare thoughts on the showdown between the city of Seattle’s two finest teams:
-The main attraction Wednesday night was the battle between Blanchet forward Jadyn Bush, the leading scorer in Metro, and West Seattle center Lydia Giomi, last year’s league MVP. So it was a shame to see Bush pick up three fouls in the game’s first four minutes and spend the rest of the first half on the bench. She then picked up a quick fourth early in the third quarter. Bush finally got going in the fourth, when she scored all six of her points and guided the Braves back to within single-digits, but the damage had been done. Continue reading “Metro Girls Basketball: West Seattle 44, Bishop Blanchet 30”
I love names, and professional football players tend to have extremely interesting ones. These are the best of the bunch, as decided by combing through every NFL roster in search of the lyrical, the alliterative, and the downright strange.
Two personal favorites: Cowboys receiver/return man Lucky Whitehead, who sounds like a gangster from 1920s Chicago, and Jaguars linebacker Thurston Armbrister, who almost certainly served in the House of Lords during the 19th century. But the beauty of this list really is in the eye of the beholder.
Away we go, from A to Z — or, rather, from Prince Amukamara to Frank Zombo.
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After being picked to finish eleventh in the Pac-12 by media members during the preseason, the Washington men’s basketball team is currently in sole possession of first place at 5-1. The more pertinent question is probably if the Huskies will make the NCAA tournament, but when to dream big if not now?
The absence of a dominant team in the Pac-12 makes it look a lot more possible. Arizona was the media’s preseason pick to win a third straight conference title, with California and Utah in close pursuit. But all three frontrunners have shown holes to date. An injury to Allonzo Trier (formerly of Federal Way) leaves the Wildcats without a perimeter scoring threat capable of creating his own shot (not a huge Gabe York fan). Cal’s best player, senior Tyrone “Smoochie” Wallace, is out four to six weeks with a broken hand, and the Golden Bears are off to a mediocre 3-3 start in conference play. Utah lost three of its first four Pac-12 games. These aren’t insurmountable obstacles, but the point is that the door looks much more open than it did in November.
First, who exactly are the 2015-16 Washington Huskies? The statistics paint a clear picture. They play at a breakneck pace, forcing lots of turnovers and scoring lots of points. They take good care of the ball, but they don’t make very many shots. They crash the offensive glass like crazy and allow other teams to do the same. And they block an unholy amount of shots, more than any other team in the country. Continue reading “Can The Huskies Win The Pac-12?”
I enjoy watching good basketball, and the Garfield boys are by all accounts the best high-school team in Washington. As such, I figured it would be a good Tuesday evening to go watch the Bulldogs play O’Dea in Metro League action.
No game story, per se, but here are a few things I noticed from a 91-59 victory for the state’s top-ranked team in Class 3A:
1. If the game had ended at halftime, I would have left the gym thinking the Bulldogs were severely overrated. A lot of talent, to be sure, but O’Dea kept pace, trailing just 41-35 at the break. Garfield’s press led to a few easy buckets, but it was mostly ineffective thanks to a strong performance by O’Dea point guard Quin Barnard. Backcourt-mates Xavier Smith and Michael Carter knocked down a few long jumpers. Longtime Franklin coach Jason Kerr is looking for a signature win in his first season on the bench at his alma mater, and after sixteen minutes of action, it looked like a real possibility.