Northwest Sports: In the Morning

Venoy Overton's take on the CBI: Consider the alternative--"I'd rather play in this tournament than just sit at home doing nothing," he tells Bob Condotta.

The CBI pairings came in so late, Quincy Pondexter started to think it might be a hoax. He told his harrowing tale to Don Ruiz of TNT: "I was laying in bed looking (for CBI news on the Internet) and hitting the ‘refresh’ on the Google button non-stop. Nothing new was coming up. I was starting to get worried, and my friends were texting me and calling me: ‘When can they fly out?’ and stuff. I made a joke with my dad and a couple of friends that maybe it was like one of those Internet jokes that a couple of guys put together an imaginary tournament. … It was scary for a little bit until about 11:45 when I clicked on there and actually saw a real bracket. I said to the person I was with, ‘This has to be real. They can’t be kidding me. It’s not a fake thing.’ So I guess we are playing in a 16-team tournament starting Wednesday."

Lookout Landing, continuing their recap of the top 50 Mariners moments of 2007, takes time for a hilarious digression: just how slow is Manny Ramirez, anyway?

Ellis Wyms, who had 11 tackles and 2 sacks as a defensive lineman for the Hawks last year, signed with Minnesota. No poison pill necessary.

Should you want to email all nine city councilpeople about the Sonics, Save Our Sonics has set up a single email address that will do just that. It's council@saveoursonics.org.

Didn't know this: Cha Baek is out of options, so the M's have to keep him on the roster or risk losing him on waivers. Probably a few teams would want a guy with an 0.82 spring ERA.

In that same Geoff Baker story, good news on Brandon Morrow--he threw without pain in a side session, he'll throw again on Wednesday, and if all is hunkydory, get back into games.

Neat piece from the Times' Percy Allen, who talked to a member of the Sonics '67-68 team about a game when they gave up 160 points to Wilt Chamberlain and the 76ers. Allen also spoke to the original Sonics coach, Al Bianchi. Bianchi saw the Denver score and thought it was a misprint. He told Allen: "I felt compassion for them because I've been there before."

News from Wazzu football practice, via the Times' Craig Smith.

The undefeated SPU women's hoops team lost their first game of the year. Bad timing--it was in the NCAA West regional.

The Times' Bud Withers relates this terrifying statement: "Ed Rush [ex-NBA director of officials] was at the entire Pac-10 tournament. He said, 'There's no better officiating than what's going on in the Pac-10.'"

The Times picks their all-state basketball teams. They named DeAngelo Casto the state player of the year.

TNT says Rainier Beach's Reggie Moore was the best player in the state. Here are their all-state teams.

Watch out for former Coug Josh Akognon, who's the leading scorer for Cal-State Fullerton. They face slow-down Big 10 thumpers #3-seed Wisconsin--if Akognon gets hot, CSF wins.