Seattle Sportsnet

League Bias is a periodic segment examining interesting stories around our local teams’ respective leagues. Be it the NFC West, the AL West, or the Pac-10, League Bias will be there to cover the breaking story and put an interesting spin on it. Enjoy.

University of Arizona swingman Jamelle Horne isn’t entirely to blame for the Wildcats non-conference loss to UAB last night, but he sure can’t hide from the huge blunder he committed in the waning moments of the game (seen here).

With a 71-71 tie intact at the end of regulation, Arizona had crawled back from a 41-31 halftime deficit to push the UAB Blazers to the brink of overtime. With the game clock winding down and a chance to take the lead, the Wildcats missed on what would have been the go-ahead basket and UAB hauled in the rebound. Upon corralling the loose ball, Blazer guard Paul Delaney had just under three seconds to heave a midcourt desperation shot for the win.

At that very same moment Horne, a sophomore participating in his 28th college basketball game, began streaking towards Delaney thinking the ‘Cats had their “foul” play on (where as soon as the opponent gains possession of the ball, you foul as quickly as possible). Then, armed with the decision-making skills of a 15-year-old mother of two, Horne committed a Chris Webber-esque faux pas of epic proportions. Lunging with the entirety of his 6’6″ frame, Horne managed to snag Delaney’s jersey around the waist with 0.88 seconds left, sending the Blazers to the line with a chance to win the game.

Delaney went on to knock down one of two free throws and UAB was re-granted possession of the ball because Horne’s foul, in addition to being very stupid, was also ruled intentional (since Horne made no effort to go for the ball). That allowed a very lucky Alabama-Birmingham team to escape Tucson with a one-point victory in a game that should have been decided in OT.

Getting back to the embattled Jamelle Horne for a minute, we can legitimately sum up his performance with three letters: WTF. WTF, Jamelle! Have you never seen a basketball game before? Unless you are losing, you do not foul, and especially with 0.88 seconds left. Whether or not a play was on is beside the point. It’s straight mind-blowing. It’s the Mariners winning a World Series, it’s Michael Jackson running a KinderCare, it’s the Steve Bartman Pop-Fly Catching Clinic, it’s the Oprah Winfrey weight-loss plan….these things just aren’t supposed to happen! You effed up royally, and the only thing to save you from further embarrassment is the fact that this game was on ESPN2, and concluded around 1:30 AM Eastern time. So luckily, there weren’t too many people watching you go Mariah Carey crazy on the world for that short amount of time.

Of course, as alluded to earlier, Horne’s WTF moment isn’t entirely to blame for the Wildcats defeat. A minute earlier, teammate Kyle Fogg scored the game-tying basket then immediately fouled a UAB player on the ensuing inbounds play, convinced it was the right thing to do. Luckily for Fogg, he was spared public humiliation when the Blazers failed to convert at the line and play resumed.

Needless to say, two plays of similar boneheaded nature are a reflection on the coaching staff and the team’s inherent lack of awareness. If Arizona intends to compete this year, they’ll need to avoid similar gaffes in the future.

Naysayers will chalk this game up as a meaningless notch on the Huskies belt, but let’s not sell the Vikings of Cleveland State short. The Cleveland State team that was victimized Tuesday night by a rejuvenated Washington club is projected to win the Horizon League. Not impressed? The Horizon League is home to Butler, the little school that’s quickly displacing Gonzaga as the annual Cinderella come tourney time. If that’s not enough evidence in the Dawgs favor, the Valparaiso team that walked into Hec Ed last season and toppled the Huskies in the first round of the CBI Tournament lost to Cleveland State three times last season. So this victory is no small feat.

The Dawgs still have plenty to work on, with uninspired backcourt play for a second game in a row, as well as poor free-throw shooting yet again (though greatly improved from past showings at 62%). Jon Brockman finished with 23 points and 13 boards to remain consistent with his preseason second-team All-America honoring. Help came in the form of Quincy Pondexter (15 pts, 9 rebs) and Joe Wolfinger (12 pts, 5 rebs), two players who needed a game like this to boost their confidence.

Wolfinger and Pondexter were arguably the two most picked-on Huskies as far as fans are concerned, and did their best to quiet the critics for an evening at least.

The Huskies now take on a Florida International ballclub on Thursday that is a clear step down from the Viking team they saw Tuesday.

The Mariners just announced the hiring of Don Wakamatsu as their new manager. Wakamatsu had previously been the bench coach of the Oakland A’s.

Like the majority of the candidates interviewed, Wakamatsu is a virtual no-name and will have a tough time convincing Seattle fans that he’s the right guy for the job (that is, until he starts winning).

An interesting side issue to this story is Wakamatsu’s heritage, Japanese. It’s no secret that the Mariners Japan-based ownership group has an affinity for players of Japanese descent, and fans will undoubtedly wonder if this has now carried over to the coaching staff. While I highly doubt that Wakamatsu was hired in simply because of his ethnicity, the M’s owners have been known to meddle in personnel decisions before (Kenji Johjima can thank them for this). Therefore, it’s worth asking if race played into the decision at all.

Personally, it didn’t really matter which of the seven interviewees the team hired (except for maybe Joey Cora) because no one knows who they are anyways. Any of the seven would have had to go out and win games in order to get the respect of the fan base. Like I alluded to earlier, Wakamatsu has a huge task at hand in turning this club into a winner and gaining the respect of the fan base.