By Kevin Dowd

This piece aims to answer one simple question: Which is the best athletic program in the Pac-12? It’s easy enough to look at the past few seasons of results and notice Oregon and Stanford are great at football, while Washington and Cal dominate in crew. But what about the entire span of Pac-12 sports, from men’s tennis to volleyball to track and field? Who’s number one?

To figure it out, I gathered the full league standings for nineteen different sports from the past four years. I then calculated each school’s average place in the standings for each year, plus each school’s overall average from the past four years combined. The primary result is a ranking of which school’s athletic programs are the best over the full breadth of Pac-12 sports. But the data includes plenty of other interesting nuggets, like which school has had the single most dominant school year since 2012-13.

Continue reading “The Pac-12 All-Sport Standings”

And now for the finale of our state-tournament recap, covering the small schools from Class 2B and 1B. We covered Class 4A and 3A here and Class 2A and 1A here to get this miniseries kicked off.

There may be one or two more things coming on the blog later this week, but this for all intents and purposes concludes our coverage of the Washington prep basketball season. So pardon the navel-gazing, but: A very major thank you to anyone who’s read anything I’ve written on this site, and a very major thank you to everyone who’s encouraged me to keep it up. I wasn’t sure what the future would hold writing-wise when I left TDN last fall, and it’s been a blast to be able to continue covering all these kids and their teams. It seems like local news organizations are just going to keep scaling back their coverage of prep sports, so hopefully, going forward, this can continue to be a place people can arrive at by random Google searches to read interesting things. It’s important stuff that a lot of people care about, and I have a lot of fun writing about it. So again: thanks for reading.

2B Boys

Results

First: Northwest Christian

Second: Mossyrock

Third: Brewster

Fourth: Life Christian

Fifth: Lind-Ritzville/Sprague

Sixth: Morton/White Pass

Continue reading “State Basketball Recap, Part III: Spokane”

To the center of the state we go for the second leg of this state-tourney-recap triathlon, where the Class 2A and 1A boys and girls battled for supremacy in Yakima.

You can find a recap of Class 4A and 3A here, and of Class 2B and 1B here. Without further ado:

2A Boys

Results

First: Clarkston

Second: Shorecrest

Third: Lynden

Fourth: River Ridge

Fifth: Tumwater

Sixth: Wapato

Recap

No surprise here — Clarkston won its second straight title. But Shorecrest made it much tougher than most people expected, battling the Bantams back and forth the entire game before Clarkston star Trevon Allen sealed a 60-59 win with a free throw in the final seconds. The Scots were a true surprise this postseason, a group that was rarely (if ever) ranked during the regular season emerging during February as the most talented team on the west side of the state. Don’t expect a repeat performance next year, though, considering Shorecrest will return to its rightful place in Class 3A. Lynden edged Tumwater 54-52 in the third-place game, the third straight thriller in a high-stress weekend for the Thunderbirds. River Ridge, the state’s No. 1 team at the end of the regular season, bounced back with two consolation wins after losing by ten to Shorecrest in the quarterfinals.

Continue reading “State Basketball Recap, Part II: Yakima”

Basketball season is so much fun, and it’s always a bit depressing when it ends — although I’ve certainly spoken to a few coaches, players, and reporters who are all ready for a break. After twelve state championships were handed out on Saturday night in Tacoma, Yakima, and Spokane, it’s now another nine months until the state’s preps will return to the hardwood.

To help pass the time, here’s a three-part post to rehash the weekend’s state-tournament action, including a full list where teams finished, a recap of how it all went down, and a sneak peek at who some of the best teams figure to be when we get back down to the business of high-school hoops next November.

This post covers the Class 4A and 3A tournaments in Tacoma. You can find a Class 2A and 1A recap here, and Class 2B and 1B here.

4A Boys

Results

First: Federal Way

Second: Kentwood

Third: Gonzaga Prep

Fourth: Union

Fifth: Curtis

Sixth: Issaquah

Continue reading “State Basketball Recap, Part I: Tacoma”

At long last, after a season’s worth of upsets and buzzer beaters, early-morning practices and long, uncomfortable bus rides, the state tournament is here. Beginning Thursday morning at 9 a.m., it all gets decided on the court.

So we’ll get right down to the last of our previews, which began earlier this week with the Class 2B and Class 1B tournaments in Spokane and continued with the Class 2A and 1A tournaments in Yakima. Now, it’s time for Class 4A and Class 3A, home of the finest teams and players in the state. This is the cream of the crop.

CLASS 4A BOYS

The matchups

Curtis (24-3) vs. Central Valley (20-5), 3:45 p.m.

Kentwood (20-6) vs. Issaquah (21-3), 5:30 p.m.

Lewis & Clark (20-6) vs. Federal Way (26-0), 7:15 p.m.

Union (22-2) vs. Gonzaga Prep (23-1), 9 p.m.

Continue reading “High School Basketball State Tournament Preview, Part III: Tacoma”

Imagine being Scott Kelly, the astronaut who on Tuesday night touched down his landing craft in Kazakhstan after spending the previous 340 days aboard the International Space Station. It was longer than any human being has ever been in space. Imagine that. Try to remember last March 25, the day Kelly launched, how long ago that feels, and remember everything you’ve done since then: All the people you’ve seen, all the meals you’ve eaten, all the times you’ve looked at a tree, or felt sand beneath your feet, or the wind on your face, all the nights you’ve slept in your own wonderful bed. Imagine if that whole time, all those many days and nights, you were instead orbiting 250 miles up above the Earth, moving at nearly five miles per second, encased in a hunk of metal.

Five thousand #sunrises during my #YearInSpace. Wish I could have seen them all! pic.twitter.com/s2Slz6NH4n

— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) February 27, 2016

Continue reading “The Spaceman”

We’re back with a plan of attack for our second state tourney preview, heading now to Yakima — the Palm Springs of Washington — where the venerable old SunDome will play host to the Class 2A and Class 1A brackets.

While there are fairly clear favorites in 1A for both the boys and girls, 2A is as wide open as any classification in the state. For both genders, there are four or five different teams that have a real chance to bring home the largest piece of hardware.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. More on that to come.

If you missed Monday’s preview of the Class 2B and 1B tournaments, it can be found here. Check back on Wednesday for part three, taking a look at the big school action in the Tacoma Dome.

Continue reading “High School Basketball State Tournament Preview, Part II: Yakima”

In three cities across the state of Washington this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, a grand total of twelve basketball teams will be crowned state champions. It’s a crazy 72 hours of hoops ahead, with 96 teams in action and well over a hundred games scheduled to be played. It can all be a little much for even the most seasoned rooter to keep track of.

So to set the stage, we’re gonna bust out a three-part preview that breaks down all the boys and girls brackets for all six classifications, analyzing the first-round matchups, highlighting some of the teams and players to watch, and outlining a few key storylines. We’ll kick things off with the Class 2B and Class 1B tournaments, to be played at the Spokane Arena, with Class 2A and 1A to follow on Tuesday and Class 4A and 3A on Wednesday.

Usual disclaimer: I haven’t ever seen the majority of these teams play and don’t claim to be an expert on the ins and outs of the Class 1B scene. Many predictions herein will be wrong. This is supposed to be fun.

Continue reading “High School Basketball State Tournament Preview, Part 1: Spokane”

Twice on Saturday, the Kalama Chinooks jumped out to a double-digit first-half lead over the Seattle Academy Cardinals. A stingy defense set the tone, and an inside force named Esary handled much of the early scoring. But as the second half progressed, the Cardinals began to inch their way back into things, forcing the Chinooks into turnovers and converting those turnovers into points. Seattle Academy had its chances, in one of the games drawing as close as a single point. But the Cardinals never again took the lead. And when the final whistles blew, both times it was the Chinooks who rushed the floor and celebrated, a trip to the Class 1A state tournament in Yakima now on the docket for next week.

On a whirlwind day in Washington prep sports, some confusion could be forgiven about the déjà vu doubleheader at Rogers High School in Puyallup. But there were no hijinks afoot — just two boys and girls teams who each finished second in their respective district tournaments, and who were thus seeded into the same spots on the regional bracket. The WIAA ain’t perfect, but it thankfully managed to schedule the two games back-to-back, the girls at 2 p.m. and the boys at 4. The Chinooks are an old friend from my stint at TDN who rarely venture into my new neck of the woods, so the occasion seemed liked a good one to go say hello.

Continue reading “Kalama-rama: Chinooks Thrive, Then Survive To Make State”

As of this writing we are less than 24 hours away from the start of Washington state regional basketball action, and so we come at last to the fifth and final stanza of this extensive examination. It’s time to look at Class 4A, the biggest schools in the state, and make our best guesses as to who will qualify for the state tournament March 3 through March 5 in the Tacoma Dome.

Last year’s 4A champs have taken divergent paths. The Federal Way boys are undefeated and top-ranked, back and perhaps better than ever. The Gonzaga Prep girls, meanwhile, are nowhere to be found in the final sixteen, their season already over. Last year’s runner-up on the girls side, Inglemoor, has also already been eliminated, meaning we’re guaranteed two fresh finalists.

At five schools are the boys and girls teams both still kicking: Bellarmine Prep, Central Valley, Curtis, Kamiak, and Lewis & Clark. All five except Kamiak have a decent chance on getting both groups to state, but it would be a major stunner if anyone pulled off the sweep.

And so with our usual pleasantries out of the way, let’s dive in. For those joining the preview party late, here are the previous four parts, covering the other five classifications in the state:

Continue reading “High School Basketball Regionals Preview, Part V”