Spent some time with the University of Washington women’s basketball team last week and came away impressed.
It’s funny. I caught a lot of heat for watching the Huskies play both ends of the series with the Arizona schools and doing some interviews Friday. At the beginning of last week, they were 7-12 and headed nowhere in the postseason. What are you wasting your time with this, I was asked.
But I would have gone to the weekly press soiree Tuesday — and did before being called away to Mike Holmgren’s press conference.
There are those who look at the UW women and see a floundering team. I see a young one that’s maturing. Compare them to the beginning of the season, the one that lost to Division II Seattle Pacific Nov. 6 in an exhibition game. At that time, they had to lock the doors to avoid losing ill-passed basketballs. Improvement is obvious.
The freshmen are showing what all the fuss was about.
Katelan Redmon can flat play. Kali Bennett can be a force in the paint and beyond the 3-point line. Sarah Morton, a Monroe High School grad, is the point guard of the future and can also play the two guard. I can’t wait to see her with Jackson’s Kristi Kingma in the UW backcourt. Jess McCormack, a 6-5 center from New Zealand, will be just plain frightening soon and isn’t far from there now.
They’re 8-13 now. By this time next year, they could flip-flop that mark. They already have internalized first-year coach Tia Jackson’s system that demands white-hot pressure defense.
I love the way Jackson gets her point across. Dissatisfied with one unit’s defensive effort against ASU, she pulled the entire five and sent in another group.
She was asked why after the game.
“I got (bleeped),” she said.
Jackson’s fabulous. The woman can coach. She’s smart. She can motivate. Her players obviously trust her. In five years, maybe fewer, Washington will have to fight off a lot of schools that want her services. Jackson has Rising Star written all over her.
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Have to admit I’m a little bummed the Seahawks lost quarterbacks coach Jim Zorn, who will go to the politically incorrect Washington Redskins as offensive coordinator.
The Seahawks are losing a good guy and a really good coach. Holmgren gets a lot of credit for Matt Hasselbeck’s development, but it was Zorn who worked with him every day in practice.
Not only that, but Zorn represents the Seahawks’ origins. Who can forget Zorn madly escaping the inevitable pass rush an expansion team yields and hitting Steve Largent downfield?
Those were fun years. Yes, the Seahawks were bad then. Nobody expected them to win, so when they did, everyone went bonkers. They ran trick plays, fake field goals and entertained.
At the center of it all was Zorn, a walking reminder of some really, really fun times in Seahawks history. We’ll miss him.
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Why do I think Tom Brady’s limp is all a ruse? I just have the feeling he’s pulling all the media attention to himself, taking pressure of the undefeated season off the rest of the Patriots.
Remember, the Patriots reveal exactly zero about themselves to the media. Coach Bill Belichick locks up information tighter than the Pentagon.
So all of a sudden, here’s Brady in New York, limping around in a boot, carrying flowers to his supermodel girlfriend?
Give me a break.
Maybe it’s because I used to live and die with the early-’70s Dolphins, including the 17-0 Super Bowl champs in 1972, but I don’t buy any of this schlock and hope the Giants take it Sunday.
Giants 23, Pats 20.
Sports columnist John Sleeper: sleeper@heraldnet.com. To reach Sleeper’s blog, go to www.heraldnet.com/danglingparticiples.
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