Seattle Sports: In the Morning

Adam Jones finally took that physical, the P-I's John Hickey reports. The Eric Bedard trade will presumably be announced soon.

Wednesday is National Signing Day for college recruits, and both Washington and Oregon are expecting LOIs from some outstanding players.

Oregon DC Nick Aliotti tells John Hunt of The Oregonian he's surprised by how well-known the Ducks are out of state: "We don't realize sometimes that kids back on the East Coast or the other side of the Mississippi, to them Oregon's a big deal -- you don't realize it because you're not out there. All the (publicity) we get with Nike, the facilities, all that other stuff, that piques their interest. Dennis Dixon with the Heisman hype, the offense the way the way it was flying, the two (ESPN College GameDays) we got -- we got a lot of great pub this year."

Why is Oregon replacing MacArthur Court, which is the best place to watch a sporting event in the U.S.? Because Phil Knight told them to: "In August, [Knight] created a $100 million endowment fund to help ensure the athletic department's long-term financial security. A condition of Knight's gift was that the school build a basketball arena, said Allan Price, UO's vice president of university advancement." This from the Oregonian's Rachel Bachman, who has a long story about the university's push to get the state to back $200 million worth of bonds to build the arena, a proposal that will likely pass.

Why have the Sonics won three straight? Defense, say the beat writers. Credit is due to Carlesimo on this--he was brought in to improve the team's defense, and that's what he's done. The turning point, writes Gary Washburn, came Jan. 19, after Dallas put up 66 points in the first half: "At halftime, Carlesimo tore into his team about its effort, pleading with them to execute and not succumb to a superior team. The Sonics reduced a 22-point lead to 14 and they held the Mavericks to 45 percent shooting after halftime. Including that second-half improvement, the Sonics have held opponents to 43.6 shooting in the past 7 1/2 games and haven't allowed a team to shoot more than 50 percent since that infamous Dallas game."

Jayda Evans points to Carlesimo's use of offense/defense substitutions at the end of games. One such substitution had Earl Watson in at the end of the Knicks game, he smartly left 0-fer Nate Robinson to double Zach Randolph. The ball went back to Robinson, who bricked a three.

TNT's Eric D. Williams points to the Sonics' rebounding: "The Sonics have outrebounded their opponents by an average of 11 rebounds per game during the winning streak, while averaging 12.7 offensive rebounds a game."

The Huskies aren't winning for a simple reason--they don't have enough scorers. Writes the P-I's Dan Raley: "They once had five players capable of providing a 20-point game or leading the team in scoring in any game. It's Brockman and Appleby now, and not much else."

Oregon State is halfway to becoming the first Pac-10 team ever to finish 0-18 in conference. They hope the fact that they were within one of Oregon with nine minutes left on Saturday portends good things, writes the Oregonian's Paul Buker.

A little recognition is due to the UW women, who steamrolled Wazzu 84-40 yesterday. Wazzu is coached by former UW coach June Daugherty--our biggest problem with her teams were that they couldn't score because they tried to run but didn't have the personnel to do it. Looks like Daugherty's back to her old tricks--her team had 27 turnovers and shot 20%. Ugh.