By Kevin Dowd

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.

Continue reading “The Last Lion: Isiah Brown, Steve Ballmer, And Lakeside Basketball”

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.

FIRST-TEAM OFFENSE

QB Teddy Bridgewater, MIN

RB Charcandrick West, KC

FB Kyle Juszczyk, BAL

WR Lucky Whitehead, DAL

WR Jerricho Cotchery, CAR Continue reading “The NFL All-Name Team”

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.

Continue reading “Six Thoughts on Garfield”

Dusted off the ol’ voice recorder to go cover a game for The Seattle Times this week. Here’s the story.

Couple other thoughts from West Seattle’s dominant showing:

-West Seattle looked like the greatest offensive basketball team of all time in the first quarter, scoring 29 points on what had to be close to 80 percent shooting. They broke the Cleveland press like nobody’s business, which is a lot easier when all five players on the floor can effectively handle the ball. Things cooled down after that, but WS showed it’s capable of playing lights-out for extended stretches. Continue reading “Metro Girls Basketball: West Seattle 80, Cleveland 55”

 

When I saw the WIAA was trending on Twitter today, I assumed Mike Colbrese and Co. had been up to something. But nope — this was in reference to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association, which is in the news for sending one of the most asinine emails in the history of the medium, which is really saying something.

According to USA Today, the good folks in Stevens Point, Wisc., were fed up with what they perceived as unsportsmanlike chants at the state’s high-school sporting events. Their solution was to send out a list to member schools of 23 things fans are no longer allowed to do at WIAA events. Because everyone knows the best way to get teenagers not to do something is to tell them they can’t do that specific thing.

A complete list of banned activities:

1. Booing of any kind

2. “Over-rated” chant

3. “Scoreboard” cheer Continue reading “WIAA Does Something Breathtakingly Stupid (Not That WIAA)”

Alabama’s 45-40 win over Clemson in Monday’s national title game was a blast. Such a blast, in fact, that it got me thinking where the Tide’s win would rank in the annals of title-game history.

So I decided to do the math, and here’s the result: A comprehensive ranking of every college football contest ever played that could honestly purport to be a national championship game, including the failed Bowl Coalition (1992-1995), the failed Bowl Alliance (1996-1998), the failed BCS (1998-2013), and the College Football Playoff, which hasn’t failed yet. Thousands of Saturday hours spent on the couch have all led to this.

(all years in parentheses refer to the dates of the regular season, not the year of the actual championship game; for instance, the first game here was played on Jan. 4, 2005, but capped the 2004 season)

TIER 4: THE BLOWOUTS

24. USC 55, Oklahoma 19 (2004)

Rarely has such an impressive collection of skill-position talent been gathered on the same field: This one featured the previous two winners of the Heisman Trophy (USC QB Matt Leinart and Oklahoma QB Jason White), plus four of the 2004 season’s five Heisman finalists (Leinart, White, USC RB Reggie Bush and Oklahoma RB Adrian Peterson). Instead of an all-time classic, though, the result was the second-most lopsided game in championship game history — the Trojans led 38-10 at the half and kept rolling from there. They eventually vacated the title in the wake of the Bush Brouhaha, which doesn’t exactly add to this game’s lasting impact. As forgettable as they come.

23. Nebraska 62, Florida 24 (1995)

The game in a nutshell.

Continue reading “Twenty-four National Championship Games, Ranked”

At this juncture, the state girls basketball picture breaks down into two distinct tiers. Dominant teams are the norm in the three smaller classifications, where Lynden Christian, Okanogan and Colton appear to be clear favorites to win state at 1A, 2B, and 1B, respectively. All three teams are undefeated against opponents in their own classification, and all own an average margin of victory of at least 18 points per game.

At the upper levels, though, parity reigns. The 4A field is as wide open as it’s been in recent memory. The race is a bit slimmed down at 3A — one could probably call Lynnwood the frontrunner — but the depth of talent concentrated in Seattle and Tacoma means the road for the Royals will be anything but easy. And the craziest classification of them all may be 2A, where four different teams are ranked No. 1 by various polls around the state. The days of Mark Morris and W.F. West hegemony are kaput.

We took the temperature of boys basketball in Washington on Thursday. Now it’s time for the girls. Same style: I divided the state into five regions and highlighted the good, the bad, and the interesting from each after a month-plus of action.

Once again, thanks to ScoreCzar.com for their stellar database of prep information, as well as Tim Martinez at The Columbian for compiling this lovely table  detailing the different top ten rankings released by various outlets around the state.

Continue reading “High School Basketball Halfway Report, Girls Edition”