As the New York Times proudly trumpets that only four Big East teams made the Elite Eight, I wallow in the shame of picking Gonzaga to beat UNC, of picking Washington to beat UConn (which they would have had a chance to do if they played a 41-minute game against Purdue), and most of all, picking Portland State as my crazy Sweet 16 pick.

Now it’s all on Terrence Williams, Seattle native and Louisville All-American to redeem my bracket.

Another excellent Outside the Lines article from ESPN.com. Several years ago I read “My Losing Season,” a memoir about life as a son, basketball player, and cadet at the Citadel by Pat Conroy. Then I read “The Lords of Discipline,” a less-direct examination of life at the Citadel, a military academy in South Carolina.

This article looks at Conroy’s reconciliation with his father and with the Citadel after years of antagonism. Great insight into family, tradition, and the intersection of sports with life.

No game thread, no game comments. Just this: Seattle U has a starting forward named Austen Powers. They’re also getting owned.

Check out the video of Jim Calhoun bullying a Connecticut activist at a news conference Saturday. Calhoun might be right, the guy might be wrong, but Calhoun’s behavior is flat-out embarrassing. He’s still as arrogant as I observed at the UConn-Gonzaga Battle in Seattle back in December. Calhoun’s not a guy I’d want to confront. Maybe it makes him a really good basketball coach. Also, try to find his joke in there.

The University of Washington now owns the local basketball scene, thanks to the departure of the great Kevin Durant and the Seattle SuperSonics. That’s obvious. The women Huskies haven’t done much to speak of, but the men hit 20 victories with a win at USC this evening.

They’re also in the running for a national recruit from a completely unfamiliar region.

With three home games remaining, the Huskies can win out for an outright Pac-10 championship. Take that, heralded UCLA. Take that, Arizona State, which remains ranked ahead of the Huskies despite a UW victory over ASU in Tempe.

The Huskies have been by far the most consistent team in the Pac-10. Throw out their frustrating early-season triple-OT loss to Cal at home, and all of their Pac-10 losses were Thursdays to begin a road trip – Arizona, UCLA, Cal.

I’m rambling. Basically I’m just excited.

After a two-game sweep of the Los Angeles schools, it seemed almost inevitable that the University of Washington men’s basketball team could crack the Top 25.

The Associated Press got it right, ranking Washington 23rd in the country, but the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll still had the Huskies all the way down at #30, 19 points away from cracking the poll.

Washington’s resume:
1st in the Pac-10 (6-1), 15-4 overall, only Pac-10 loss in triple overtime to Cal, win over Oklahoma State, close loss to Florida, 1-2 against ranked teams

A short list of teams ahead in the coaches’ poll:
#16 UCLA – identical record, 5-2 in conference loss, head-to-head loss (note that over the middle 38 minutes of Saturday’s game, Washington outscored the Bruins 86-65), no quality nonconference wins, two close non-conference losses to Michigan and #8 Texas, 0-2 against ranked teams

How are the Bruins, despite Washington’s better NCAA resume and head-to-head demolition, ahead of the Huskies?

Two factors: the UCLA name, and the incremental approach to polls. Especially in the coaches’ poll, voters have little time to look at actual resumes with the same critical eye as bloggers or writers. Hence the AP poll is less far-fetched than the coaches’ poll. In addition to the UCLA pick, the coaches have 12-6 Notre Dame and their three consecutive losses still slotted eight spots ahead of UW. Of course, ND plays in the Big East, by far the most competitive conference, and are 2-4 against ranked teams. Even with a mediocre conference record, a Big East team like Georgetown or Notre Dame will make the NCAA Tournament.

Briefly, let me explicate my point about “incremental” voting. Even though Washington beat UCLA head-to-head, voters won’t let UW leapfrog UCLA by 19 spots in just one week. UCLA, overrated to begin with, simply can’t drop ten slots after a road loss to a competitive team.

I don’t claim that Washington is the Pac-10’s best team, but they are in first place right now, and the polls’ treatment of their achievement only further demonstrates the irrationality of rankings.

1. I appreciate all of the national commentators noticing Seattle’s sports woes here at the end of 2008. Where were you when the Sonics moved and the national reaction was … mute? You’re a little late, thank you. But all of this moaning shouldn’t distract us from the true positives in Northwest sports. I’m not trying to put a feel-good spin on an awful year, or to deny the pain of the Mariners season, but I hope we recognize where things have gone well. There’s no curse on Seattle – the Seahawks, Sonics, Huskies and Mariners all made major mistakes to end up in the pits (or oblivion, in the Sonics’ case).

I wish that the incredible high-school basketball landscape in Washington for both men and women would continue to flourish and garner attention on the national stage. I wish to applaud the individual and team efforts of the University of Washington women’s cross country team. I wish that the new Seattle Sounders FC can bring more big-time soccer to the Seattle metro area. I wish to marvel at Gonzaga University’s sustained national success in major college basketball and their graduation from mid-major status.

2. I wish that Jim Mora will continue the professional approach of Mike Holmgren’s Seahawks. I expect nothing less from the continually classy Seahawks organization, but I also worry about the hotheaded Mora, who hasn’t held his tongue in important situations before and already brings a little controversy to the table. With Mike Holmgren, you expect greatness. You expect absolute respect to the players and the game. You appreciate that he’s put that whole general manager fiasco behind him and concentrated on coaching a great football team.

Holmgren will probably return to coaching after his upcoming sabbatical. Good for him. I’m almost more excited to witness what he does during his sabbatical. Will he write an authoritative coaching book? Will he join the rest of his family in missionary and service work around the entire world (I think this is pretty likely)? Will he lay low and not fluff up his hair for a pregame show gig? Heavens no. He’s too erudite and substantive for a TV show. Let’s just hope that Jim Mora spent all his time over the last two seasons drinking Holmgren’s brain fluid. If so, maybe that’s why Mora’s secondary has been so lackluster until the last couple weeks. Football, more than any other sport, is about the entire team, the entire 52-man roster. That’s why good coaches mean so much. Please, Jim Mora, be a good coach.

3. I wish that the Mariners would trade Ichiro. If your team’s identity was found in a $100 millionleadoff hitter who rarely walks, sells team merchandise like crazy, seems very interested in an entertainment career, speaks like a philosopher and made waves last season because many of his teammates apparently hated him, you might have some issues. The Mariners still have no leader and now they’ve lost Raul Ibanez. My wish: trade Ichiro and his ridiculous contract for whatever we can get. Just see what we can get in return. We need position players. Why not sign Pat Burrell? Please, I’m done with Ichiro. It’s apparent he’s a clubhouse cancer, but he doesn’t make the same waves as others like T.O. because he lives in Japan half the year and because his selfishness isn’t so public. The guy won’t participate in the Home Run Derby even though he could create record ratings!

To be fair, it’s not that Ichiro is bad. Calling him a clubhouse cancer is probably going too far. He’s a good major league leadoff hitter and a very good defensive outfielder, but ultimately replaceable. His time with the Mariners has come to an end. He is not a team leader and at his contract, he needs to be one. If we’re going to rebuild, let’s rebuild. That means saying goodbye to easy merchandise money for a while and trying to move forward without Ichiro. The million-dollar leadoff man model is broken.

At Saturday’s epic Gonzaga-UConn game, I was across the arena from Calhoun, but I still had a great view of him mugging for the referees all game long. Allow me to come clean: I am only a casual Gonzaga fan and rooted more for the impressive career-best performance by Bainbridge Island’s Steven Gray. But I am a slightly-more-than-casual University of Washington fan, and I’ve suffered two awful Husky-Husky losses, one rolling on my living room floor and one followed by throwing pillows around a hotel room before a Knowledge Bowl tournament. In other words, my beef is with UConn and I don’t love Gonzaga.

Calhoun first caught my eye with his championships, his sneers, his rosters full of prep-school athletes (presumably fifth-year players) and the occasional controversies surrounding his Huskies. Remember the Marcus Williams-A.J. Price laptop theivery? Well, Price figured pretty strongly in today’s game but I didn’t hear any “thief” chants. I guess I’m just being bitter here – I’m all for forgiveness, and I don’t want to bash the players.

It’s more about Calhoun. Almost every time a call went against his team, he berated the referees. Except he didn’t just yell. During one timeout he stood with his hands on his hips and just stared at a referee for about ten seconds. Another time he beckoned a ref with a dismissive hand motion that recalled a principal about to punish a wayward middle schooler. Consistently, though, when a referee explained the call or didn’t even respond to his antics, Calhoun would turn to the sycophantic suits on his bench, throw up his hands, and beg for affirmation. Am I right, guys? Aren’t these refs stupid?

It was so childish. Perhaps Calhoun has perfected this routine over the years to manipulate referees (after all, three Gonzaga players fouled out) or perhaps he’s just immature. To be fair, the referees missed some calls. On both sides. That happens in basketball – the game moves too quickly and referees too often have to react to the result of a play because they can’t see what actually happened.

Calhoun seems overwhelmingly arrogant and dramatic. This probably makes him a great college coach. Too bad.