Northwest Sports: In the Morning

Billion-dollar arena proposed...
As the Sonics situation gets weirder and weirder, Downtown Freddy Brown and the head of an ad agency called Wongdoody proposed a billion-dollar arena/Epcot-Center-like exhibition center on the waterfront.

Art Thiel says: "Brown in his NBA career spent entirely Downtown, never attempted a longer shot."

On yesterday's M's loss...
John McLaren: "We had some things going, but it was just one of those games where we couldn't get runs across." Hrm...well, with Richie Sexson in the middle of your lineup, you may have a few more like it.

The pitch Putz threw to Hamilton was simply a fastball that got too much of the plate--it looked like it had more movement on it than Putz wanted. MLB pitchtracker bears that out, saying it moved five inches laterally, Putz' pitches usually move only three or four inches. That's baseball.

Maybe they should just name the award after him...
Durant won Western Conference Rookie of the Month again, his fourth such award.

Huskies start spring practice...
News of yesterday included that J.R. Hasty and E.J. Savannah are off the depth chart, the assumption is that they didn't do what they were supposed to in off-season conditioning. Said Willingham: "(They) will not be, at this date, involved in spring practice. They have not lived up to all the responsibilities of the football team. They are eligible and could be back at any time.” Mind you, the spring football depth chart is about as final as a Mideast peace treaty.


Ruskell thinks Olindo Mare can do the job...
Look at Mare's stats and you're unimpressed, but Ruskell believes it wasn't Mare's fault--it was the fault of a bad holder/snapper team. He tells TNT's Frank Hughes: "I always underestimated that. You get a snapper, you get a kicker, you get a holder, we should be fine. It is not quite as easy as that. Our example (from last year) is a great one. Once we solidified that battery, we didn’t miss a kick at the end of the year. So we will pay attention to that. And I think that will help Olindo as well."

Local high schoolers in the NBA...
I saw Roosevelt alum Marcus Williams walking down 5th Avenue last night, and assumed he was back in town doing offseason workouts. Wrong--turns out he signed a 10-day contract with the Clippers, who play the Sonics tonight. The P-I's Jon Naito has a neat piece about Williams, who's had a tough year--getting picked a disappointing 33rd in the draft, being released by San Antonio, then called up, then released after a game.

Rodney Stuckey, once of Kentwood, had 27 points in the Pistons win over Minnesota. Stuckey's averaging 6.9 ppg in 17 minutes this season.

Bunches of college coaching news...
--Marquette's Tom Crean goes to Indiana.
--With Lute Olson coming back, and planning to coach until 2011 (when he'd be 76), Kevin O'Neill is leaving Arizona...maybe he can get his old job at Marquette back.
--Bill Grier, once a Gonzaga assistant and last year at San Diego, is said to be "considering" the Oregon State job.
--Sean Sutton, Eddie's son, resigned at Oklahoma State...apparently too many of his players were graduating.

Today's Action...
Arsenal vs. Liverpool, 1st leg of Champ. Lg. quarterfinals, 11:30am, ESPN2.
Sonics vs. Clippers, 7pm, 117 (Comcast), 650 (DirecTV), 444-453 (Dish).
M's (Silva) vs. Texas (Jason Jennings), 7:10pm, FSN.
Blazers @ Lakers, 7:30pm, KGW-8.