Archive for February, 2006

It’s no surprise that the Dick Bennett era at WSU is coming to an end — it’s been talked about for a good part of his 2+ years in Pullman. Bennett didn’t set the world on fire, but he certainly has gotten the most out of the players he had. And that’s the main question now facing his son, Tony.

Can WSU basketball bring in guys with enough talent to compete in the Pac-10?

The current Cougars are young, and they play hard, but not one of them appears to be the kind of guy who’s gonna scare the other team. Where are the guys like Mark Hendrickson and Ike Fontaine — both 2-time all-conference choices? Turning the clock back further, where are guys like Brian Quinnett, James Donaldson, and Craig Ehlo, all of whom went on from WSU to play in the NBA? Can Tony Bennett bring back guys of that caliber to Pullman, or will it just be more castoffs that the rest of the Pac-10 doesn’t want?

Cougar fans have always said Pullman is the biggest problem for recruiting, esp. in basketball where it’s hard to get urban stars to play in the middle of nowhere. No doubt there’s some truth to that, but then how do you explain the success Dick Bennett had at Wisconsin — which isn’t exactly a downtown metropolis attracting the best city kids in the midwest?

At Wisconsin, Bennett didn’t have much in the way of competition. And that’s the biggest problem facing WSU basketball right now — not location, but competition. The Cougs are a distant 3rd among Div. 1 teams in this state. The success of Gonzaga and, to a lesser degree, UW, is killing WSU hoops. Is it coincidence that Gonzaga’s rise coincides exactly with the end of the WSU careers of some of the guys mentioned above — Hendrickson and Fontaine? All the guys who want to stay in state and don’t care about being away from Seattle are going to go to Gonzaga — at least the talented ones, that is. And now with UW solidifying itself on the basketball court, the talent pool open to the Cougars is even smaller.

The official release announcing Tony Bennett’s hiring brags about the work he did recruiting Wisconsin’s top players when he and Dick were there. He’ll have to work the same kind of magic in Pullman — but he’ll have to do it against the goliaths of Gonzaga and UW. Good luck, Mr. Bennett.

It’s a semi-rhetorical question — surely there will be teams speaking with Shaun Alexander when free agency begins this week. But how many of those teams will be serious about pursuing him and shelling out the Big Money it’ll take to sign him? If the NFL labor situation is as dire as it’s said to be, that will reduce the number of potential suitors for Alexander.

Who might be interested? Apparently not the Carolina Panthers. Although Alexander wore their hat in Honolulu, and Steve Smith pressed him hard to move to Charlotte (“We’ll have the leader receiver and the leading rusher on the same offense!”), the Panthers last week put the transition tag on DeShaun Foster, meaning he’s likely to be back in Carolina next year.

This weekend at the NFL combine, Cardinals coach Dennis Green essentially ruled his team out of the Alexander sweepstakes.

“If you ask me if we’re going to go after one of the incredible backs that might be available in a blockbuster deal, that probably will not happen. We’ve not had a blockbuster deal, and a blockbuster deal in my opinion is a deal that eats up most of your cap space,” Green said. “It means you get one player and one and done. And we’re not going to do that.”

Is it just coach speak? Might be. It might just be Green trying to throw everyone else off the scent. Or maybe it’s not. Based on the success the Patriots have had in recent years, front offices seem to be getting smarter about not throwing too many big contracts at one guy, and instead spreading your money out amongst a handful of guys who can contribute. In any case, it’s a very legitimate question to ask this week: Just how big will the market be for the reigning NFL MVP?

Meanwhile, Hawks’ WR Joe Jurevicius is a rumored target of his hometown Cleveland Browns, and last week JJ gave the Plain-Dealer some mixed signals about his interest in playing in Cleveland. On the one hand:

“For me personally, of course, I’d love to come to the team.”

And then, on the other:

“Weirder things have happened.”

Weirder things have happened? That doesn’t sound like the comments of a guy who wants to play for the Browns, hometown or not. And why would he? Would you rather play for the defending NFC champs, or for Cleveland? Me, too. And I’m hoping that’s how JJ feels, too.

There’s a he-said, she-said thing going on today with the Mariners, Raul Ibanez, and the media. It started with Bob Finnigan’s report in the Seattle Times that Ibanez has signed a 2-year, $11m extension — which immediately made me think, “Damn. That’s a lot of money for a guy who’s in his mid-30s and is destined to hit about .290 with 20 HRs and 90 RBIs every year.

Then Jim Cour of the AP filed a Lee Corso special — not so fast, my friend — saying no deal has been reached. But for his part, Raul makes it sound like just a matter of time:

“I would say that things are going well and I’m optimistic.”

So what about those numbers, assuming they’re accurate? Is $11 million too much over two years? I thought so, but two guys with comparable numbers — Jeromy Burnitz and Shea Hillenbrand — recently signed new contracts with other teams. Both of their contracts were bigger than what Ibanez might be getting.

Ibanez:
2-years, $11m, .280/.355/.436, 172 h, 92 r, 32 2b, 20 hr, 89 rbi, 268 tb
Burnitz:
1-year, $6.7m, .258/.322/.435, 156 h, 84 r, 31 2b, 24 hr, 87 rbi, 263 tb
Hillenbrand:
1-year, $5.8m, .291/.343/.449, 173 h, 91 r, 36 2b, 18 hr, 82 rbi, 267 tb

So based on a quick, unscientific comparison, the quoted Ibanez deal is pretty much right in line with the market.

… not the “franchise” tag. Mike Sando seems to be the first to mention it on his TNT blog.

So Hutch gets a one-year deal at the average of the 10 highest paid guards in the NFL. He’s free to sign with another team, but the Seahawks have the right to match any offer he gets. If they choose NOT to match, Hutch is free to leave and the Hawks get no compensation.

Had they given him the franchise tag, he’d get a slightly higher salary, but … and this is big … if he signed with another team and the Seahawks decided not to match the offer, the other team would owe the Hawks two 1st round draft picks.

So why go with the transition tag? That compensation — the loss of two 1st round picks — would likely scare every other team away from even approaching Hutch. And the Seahawks want to see just how much a 3-time All-Star guard is worth in this market. So by eliminating the potential loss of draft picks, other teams might be more likely to make an offer — which gives the Hawks an idea of his value both this year (do we match the offer or not?) and for the future (what should we pay him over a long-term deal?).

It’s a low-risk move — some other team would have to come in with an outlandish deal for the Hawks not to match. Still, franchising him would’ve been just about no-risk.

UPDATE: Official release now on Seahawks.com, which includes the one bit of info. I was wondering about: they can still negotiate with Hutch until March 17th, two weeks after free agency is due to begin.

Here are the first words my 8-year-old said to me this morning:

“Daaaad, the NFL combine starts today. I’m gonna watch it on NFL Network. And then the draft is coming up — I can’t wait to find out who the Seahawks are gonna take!”

So, how was your morning?

Earl Watson isn’t worth the $5 million/year he’s getting paid, but after the loss of Antonio Daniels last summer, the Sonics don’t really have room to be picky about a million dollars here or there.

ESPN: Sonics work three-way deal to get PG Watson

Update: Sonics acquire Watson in 4-way deal — and it involves the Blazers, too, who finally dump Ruben Patterson and get a couple guys with expiring contracts.

Losing Daniels was the worst thing to happen to the Sonics during the off-season, and Watson will provide a lot of what they lost. Point guard has been a real weakness this season with Ridnour struggling and no adequate backup in sight. So this is a small step, but a step in the right direction.

Update #2: The Sonics also dealt Flip Murray to Cleveland and got just about nothing in return.

Good article about Adam Jones on the Mariners’ official site. The kid has a good attitude – change positions? Center field? Sure thing, no problem at all.

“You always want to move up, no matter what level you’re at,” Jones said. “I just want to keep making that next step. One thing I’m definitely not going to do is act like I deserve anything. I don’t deserve anything yet.”

That’s why Jones says he won’t be upset if he starts the season back in Double-A.

“If they send me there, how can I complain?” Jones said. “I’m 20 years old.”

Of course, it’s not a ringing endorsement of Jeremy Reed when the organization is telling Jones that CF is the quickest path to the big leagues. But Jones is at least two years away, so Reed has time to lock down that spot if he’s good enough.

I missed this over the weekend, and figured there was no sense mentioning it several days later just for the sake of mentioning it … but now there’s a good reason to post about it 5 days after the fact.

NBA 2006 Dunk Contest highlight compilation — great video showing all the dunks (I think) from the contest.

Nate R. – wow! … the Spud Webb dunk is amazing, but he had 2-3 others that were no less sensational. Well-deserved win.

With all the hype happening during the Seahawks’ run to winning getting screwed in the Super Bowl, I never made any mention of voting for the 3rd annual readers’ awards over at Football Outsiders. Voting came and went while we were still hyperventilating about the excitement crap officiating in the Big Game … but no fears, because the Seahawks are still representin’ in a big way in the results.

2005 Football Outsiders Awards, Part I

I know it’s completely unscientific and all that, but it’s just FUN to read what other football nutters have to say about the season just gone by. And I’m quite glad, in particular, to see the FO readership vote Lofa as R-O-Y, MattHass as Most Underrated Offensive Player, and Tim Ruskell as (tied for) Executive of the Year. Amen, brothers and sisters.

From The Sporting News to Clare Farnsworth of the P-I and via Mike Sando at the T-N-T (quiz tomorrow on that) comes this list of 2006 NFL Free Agents in a convenient, sortable MSFT Excel file. Download and study. Free agent signings can begin a week from this Friday.