Seattle Sportsnet

You probably don’t care much about women’s basketball. Which is part of the reason why UW women’s basketball coach Tia Jackson is still employed. No one cares. They don’t care much about the team, the players, the coach, or the fact that the Huskies were embarrassed over the weekend, losing by a combined 105 points to Stanford and California. Were this men’s basketball, Jackson would be on her way out at season’s end, or worse, already gone.

True, there needs to be some level of patience with a new coach (Jackson is in her second year with Washington), but this Husky ballclub is setting the benchmark for futility. Two records were set by the Washington women over the weekend: largest margin of defeat, and lowest-scoring first half. The 77-point loss to Stanford was the largest gap in points scored between the Huskies and any of their opponents in history, while the nine points registered in the first half of the game against Cal was the fewest ever by a UW women’s team. All of which went largely unnoticed by the greater spectrum of Seattle sports fans.

It’s one thing to have a bad day (or bad days, in this case), but it’s a whole ‘nother matter to suck as bad as the Husky women’s basketball team sucks. There’s no getting around the fact that they’re pretty darn terrible right now, and a lot of the blame for that needs to be placed on the coach.

Yesterday, Jackson asked the media (and presumably the fans, as well) to “keep it in perspective,” when discussing the losses over the weekend. Keep what in perspective? The fact that this might be the worst basketball team in school history? That, along with the ’08 football squad, we may be witness to two of the worst UW sports teams ever just happening to play in the same year? Jackson needs to realize that the only reason she still has her job, is that a) she coaches a women’s basketball team that few people pay attention to and b) most Husky sports fans have yet to realize that our women’s hoops team is, in fact, this downright bad. For Tia Jackson, at least, the fans ignorance is her only bliss.

Jon Brockman can’t shoot free throws. We all know this, but so many of us have refused to accept it. Currently, he’s shooting a Shaq-esque 53.8% from the line, meaning he’s good for one-of-two on just about every trip to the stripe. As is the case when anyone struggles at the free-throw line, the critics have come out in full force to assess a) what Jon is doing wrong and b) what Jon can do to right his wrongdoings. Of course, the all-time favorite remedy for poor free-throw shooting, as prescribed by old white guys who last took to the court at a local YMCA in Chuck Taylor’s and sport goggles, is to be a man and fire those shots away underhand, “granny style,” if you will.

We all know where the underhanded free-throw got its lifeblood. That would be NBA Hall of Famer Rick Barry, a man who shot 90% from the band of charity over his career, all the while doing it with bucket shots. Other players messed around with the oddball method (most notably Wilt Chamberlain), but only Barry stuck with it and formulated real success while sacrificing style points in the process. Since Barry exited the game, fans who watched him play have been pining for someone, anyone to pick up his underhanded legacy. These days, it seems like any college or professional player who can’t top 60% at the stripe is a candidate for Barry-style shooting. Just ask Brockman, who I’m sure has had his fair share of old, white guy critics tell him he needs to granny that ball up there.

Unfortunately for Barry fans, the bucket shot is about as likely to make a return as short-shorts and the old Horace Grant googly sport goggles. Basketball, these days, is more about looking good than having success. Just ask any of the hundreds of NBA players with shoe deals. Or even the college programs with sponsored uniform contracts. Or maybe the teens with floor-length shorts that can’t dribble between their legs because of it. If players weren’t concerned about style, then who knows, maybe every kid in the country would be practicing his scoop shot, but that’s just not the case. Which means a recognizable figure like Brockman probably won’t be making any major changes to his shooting style anytime soon.

My solution to Brockman’s problem: shoot jumpers. Brockman has a textbook jumper. Good form, nice rotation on the ball, and he can extend that shot to about 20 feet with consistency. Which means a 15-foot free throw (maybe 17- or 18-feet when you account for the initial leap) should be no problem. It’s not an unprecedented change. Ten years ago, ex-Husky forward Greg Clark utilized the J to put his free throws in the hole, and he averaged just under 70% during his junior season (to be fair, he was only a 54.6% career shooter at the line, which essentially led him to the jump shot in the first place). It really can’t get much worse for Brockman, so at this point consistency is the thing. He just needs to find something that works and stick with it. For most old white guys, that means a resounding “no” to the underhanded bucket shot. Sorry.

The NCAA basketball Player of the Year debate has been infiltrated by a man named Jodie. Jodie Meeks, that is, a junior guard from the University of Kentucky. The 6’4″ shooter erupted onto the national scene last night with a 54-point outburst against the University of Tennessee, in Tennessee, on ESPN’s Tuesday night primetime game. The 54 points broke a 39-year school record for single-game scoring held by Dan Issel (53 points). In the process, Meeks also set a school record for three-pointers in a game by knocking down 10.

You probably haven’t heard about Jodie Meeks (I hadn’t, prior to yesterday), but this isn’t the first time this year he’s had a scoring explosion like this. In Kentucky’s first game of the season, a 111-103 loss to the unheralded Virginia Military Institute, Meeks poured in 39 points on 13-27 shooting (Kobe numbers). Four games later, a 74-72 victory over Kansas State, he contributed 37 on a much more respectable 11-17 shooting. On December 20th, in a matchup with Appalachian State, Meeks totaled his previous season-high of 46 points on 14-21 shooting, including nine treys.

For the record, Meeks has recorded double-figures scoring in every game this season. His season-low is 10 points. In the Wildcats 17 games thus far, Meeks has scored more than 15 points in all but two contests. He’s currently averaging 25.9 points per game, after averages of 8.7 PPG and 8.8 PPG in each of his first two seasons.

All of this has combined to put Meeks in the national eye and in the thick of the college Player of the Year race. Along with bigger names like North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough, Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin, and Arizona State’s James Harden (among many others), Meeks has to be considered as one of the nation’s best. For this week, at least, he’s managed to push the big guys aside and turn “Jodie Meeks” into a household name. Get to know him.

Texas Tech wide receiver Michael Crabtree made a bold decision yesterday, opting to declare himself eligible for this year’s NFL Draft knowing full well that the Detroit Lions have the first overall selection. Uh oh. Crabtree, one of the Draft’s biggest names, is a surefire Top 10 selection and will probably garner the interest of the Lions, whether he (and Detroit fans, for that matter) likes it or not.

• 2007: Calvin Johnson, WR, #2 overall pick




• 2005: Mike Williams, WR, #10 overall pick




• 2004: Roy Williams, WR, #7 overall pick




• 2003: Charles Rogers, WR, #2 overall pick
  

Of that quartet, only Johnson is still with the team, and he’ll remain in a Lions uniform (barring trade or release) until 2013 thanks to his six-year, $64-million rookie contract. Roy Williams was traded during the ’08 season to Dallas, and Mike Williams and Charles Rogers are currently out of the NFL.

So what’s to stop Detroit from picking Crabtree? Well, nothing really, save for the fact that the NFL’s worst franchise is currently under new management. Embattled general manager Matt Millen was canned midseason, and without his iron grip on the team’s personnel decisions, the Lions may actually stand a chance at having a good draft this year (meaning no Crabtree, if you’re scoring along with us at home). Somewhere, you can picture poor Millen being held back by two bouncers in a bar, sobbing uncontrollably as he learns of Crabtree’s decision to turn pro. We know you want it, Millen, but it’s time to move on.

Jim Mora talks strategy as he’s introduced as head coach of the Seahawks during his inaugural press conference Tuesday.