Huskies' eyes will turn north to Bellingham for a couple of events this week.

On Friday, UW quarterback Jake Locker is expected to return to the outfield as the Bellingham Bells summer baseball team begin their season.

On Thursday, Locker will appear at the Bellingham stop of the UW Coaches Tour, featuring Tyrone Willingham, Lorenzo Romar, Tia Jackson and others. Locker, of course, is a native of nearby Ferndale.

More information is available at the UW Alumni Association Web site.

Bellarmine point guard Abdul Gaddy no longer considers himself committed to Arizona, and says he and Bellarmine shooting guard Avery Bradley are listening to interested teams as a pair.

It's quite a pair, as Scout.com lists Gaddy as the nation's No. 2 point guard, and Bradley as the No. 9 shooting guard.

UW has scholarship space available if the pair want to stay home -- four seniors depart after the coming season and the Huskies have no announced commits for the class of '09. However, the class of '08 is bringing in three highly regarded guards, so things could get crowded back there. But probably the kind of crowd coach Lorenzo Romar would be happy to sort out.

Four All-Americans, a national coach of the year and a pair of national champion rowing squads are among the individuals and teams selected to enter the Husky Hall of Fame as its Class of 2008, the school’s Big "W" Club announced today.

The class is made up of football players Blair Bush and Mark Stewart, former women’s tennis coach Mary DeLay, record-setting baseball player Chris Magruder, women’s soccer standout Hope Solo, the IRA national champion 1997 men’s varsity eight crew and the NCAA team champion 1997 women’s crew.

The complete release is available at GoHuskies.com.

Last time we were discussing the allegations regarding improper payments to one-and-done basketball star O.J. Mayo at USC, some of you asked for an update on the NCAA's investigation into similar allegations regarding former USC football star Reggie Bush.

Not much, as far as I can tell. Bush is moving into a civil suit brought by one of his accusers, and it seems that the NCAA wants to see what comes from that before announcing anything from its own investigation.

Here's an update from ESPN.com.

Here's an update from the UW sports information department regarding starting center Juan Garcia, who suffered a potentially carrer ending foot injury during spring practice.

Shortly after the injury, Garcia decided against immediate surgery and in favor of rest and rehabilitation, which he felt was his best chance of playing a meaningful role in the 2008 footballs season:

Here's the update from UW:

Juan visited with a specialist on Tuesday and the doctors remain optimistic that the conservative approach toward recovery is progressing as expected. They are remaining with the rehabilitation schedule that was prescribed at the early stages of his injury. The cast on his foot has been removed and he will bear partial weight on the foot over the next four weeks. After that period, he will be able to put full weight on his foot. He will remain on crutches the next few weeks in order to keep his full weight off the injured foot.

Coach Lorenzo Romar said that Jon Brockman's Friday surgery (see post below) went well, and that his All-Pac-10 forward should be running in a month and fully ready for the start of the new season.

"Jon has a chance to be an All-American next year," he said, "and we've got a chance to be a very good basketball team."

Romar said he bases his optimism on the fact that there are more returning veterans with solid histories of playing together, and also on his belief that the team's guard play will be "much improved."

However, he cautioned that he thinks some folks are wrong in expecting some Pac-10 teams to fall off this season.

He said that he expects are eligible veterans to return and for all four freshmen to qualify.

"We're excited that those four guys are coming, and that they're all going to be here," he said. "And we're going to have everybody back (except Ryan Appleby and Tim Morris)."

Without a change in anyone's status, that would seem to put the team one over the scholarship limit of 13, but Romar never discusses such matters except to say that they will be at the limit by the start of fall classes.

In other health issues, Romar said Artem Wallace is "making very good progress." And he said that while Joe Wolfinger is "taking a little time off to give his foot some rest," he expects him to be ready for the coming season.

UW forward Jon Brockman underwent surgery Friday to remove bone spurs from his left ankle.

The issue isn't considered a threat to his availability for the coming season.

However, we're supposed to get word from Coach Romar a bit before noon, and I'll click back in with more details then.

The Sunday Morning Quarterback website is taking a series of looks at college teams with a shot at the 2008 national championship.

They recently took a deep look at the Oklahoma Sooners, who visit Husky Stadium on Sept. 13.

That's an odd little video up there, but 40 seconds into the national anthem comes one of the most amazing runs in college football history, and certainly one of the plays of my life: Billy Cannon's 1959 Halloween night punt return against Ole Miss.

As some of you know, I grew up in Louisiana. And this amazing run -- I count nine Rebels who had a shot at Cannon over those 89 yards -- was replayed every Halloween night through the years that I lived there, and it's likely the tradition continues still.

The run came in the year of Cannon's Heisman Trophy and the year after LSU's first national championship. Now, of course, the Tigers are going through their second great stretch of national success.

And so it was especially interesting to me to learn Friday that the Washington Huskies and LSU Tigers -- the Bayou Bengals -- have agreed to a two-game home-and-away football series.

The first meeting will be the Huskies 2009 season opener at Husky Stadium (see our Saturday story and the post below for full details). And I'm sure a lot of Huskies fans are excited about LSU's gleaming gold helmets gliding into Husky Stadium on an early autumn day of what will be Jake Locker's junior season.

However, fans who sometimes travel with the Huskies should be especially excited about following their team to the 1012 game in Baton Rouge and LSU's famed Tiger Stadium. If a Martian ship came down and asked to sample the excitement of college football, they could be offered few better examples than the excitement of Baton Rouge's Death Valley on a muggy Saturday night of early autumn down South.

Pass the hours before the game with helpings of Louisiana seafood, look down on the Mississippi River from levees just about a mile from the campus, visit the Indian mounds that have stood for thousands of years and no one alive knows what they were used for, visit Mike the Tiger's den just outside the stadium, and then walk in amid some of the most passionate fans in Southern football ... which, of course, means among the most passionate fans on Earth.

UW administrators over the years have done one thing consistently well: They have matched the Huskies with many of the great programs in college football. LSU is one of the few great ones that has never visited. It's something to look forward to. And so is that return visit to Baton Rouge.

Washington and Louisiana State have agreed to a two-game football series.

The 2007-national-champion Tigers will visit Husky Stadium for the season opener on Sept. 5, 2009. The Huskies will make their visit to Tiger Stadium -- the famed Death Valley of Baton Rouge -- on Sept. 29, 2012.

Despite long histories, including national championships for each, the schools have met only once before, on Sept. 24, 1983, in Baton Rouge, when LSU pounded the ninth-ranked Huskies, 40-14.

Washington is 2-5 all-time against current members of the Southeastern Conference, and hasn't played an SEC school since beating Florida, 34-7, in the 1989 Freedom Bowl.

The game completes the Huskies' 2009 schedule, which also includes out-of-conference opponents Idaho andNotre Dame, in addition to the nine annual Pacific-10 Conference games. The 2009 home schedule features LSU, Idaho, USC, Oregon, Arizona, California and Washington State.

Here is the UW news release.

Former UW quarterback Marques Tuiasosopo has signed on to return to the Oakland Raiders.

Interesting ESPN hoops article ranks UW's incoming recruiting class No. 21 nationally, and fourth in the Pac-10 behind UCLA (No. 1 nationall), Arizona and Oregon.

Oddly, though, it praises Scott Suggs and Elston Turner Jr. as the top two of the class, apparently rating them ahead of Tacoma's Isaiah Thomas.

As the Sonics research their fourth pick in the coming NBA draft they are likely to focus on three Pac-10 players: center/forward Brook Lopez of Stanford, guard Jerryd Bayless of Arizona or guard O.J. Mayo of USC ... according to TNT Sonics writer Eric D. Williams in today's paper.

Given the current Sonics needs, I wouldn't consider Mayo. I can see advantages to either Lopez or Bayless. But considering the Sonics' apparent curse on big men ... plus my answer in the Oakland Tribune's annual Pac-10 survey that Bayless will have the best pro career of anyone in the league ... I guess I'd lean to the Wildcat.

Here's the way Eric previews it:

With the No. 4 pick overall in this year’s NBA draft, here are three players the Sonics may be interested in come June 26.

Brook Lopez, Stanford
7-0, 260, center
The skinny: Lopez’s stock has risen since he played well in the NCAA tournament, leading the Cardinal to the Sweet 16. Lopez has a big body and a soft shooting touch from the perimeter and around the basket. He’s a decent defender, but may lack the explosiveness to be a feared shot-blocker in the NBA.

Jerryd Bayless, Arizona
6-3, 190, point guard
The skinny: An ultra-quick, explosive guard who likes to play up-tempo and has unlimited range, Bayless would be a nice complement to Kevin Durant in the backcourt. However, Bayless has a score-first mentality and will have to work to become a better distributor and floor leader.

O.J. Mayo, USC
6-4, 195, guard
The skinny: Off-the-court issues involving his agent have affected his stock, but Mayo has an NBA-ready body and is considered one of the most talented players in the draft. He’s one of the best pure scorers coming out of college, but he may have trouble finding shots with Durant already in the fold.

Fox college football columnist Pete Fiutak has taken what he admits is an absurdly early stab at predicting the coming postseason college bowls. And while he admits its absurdly early, it is interesting to see that the Washington Huskies are absent from his list.

That indicates that at least he is expecting an extremely poor showing from the Huskies this season, because the Pac-10 has a league-record seven bowl tie-ins this season -- one more than last year, and enough to virtually assure that any bowl-elegible (.500 record) Pac-10 team will go bowling.

Here's the Pac-10 bowl lineup for the coming season: Rose Bowl, Pacific Life Holiday Bowl, Brut Sun Bowl, Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl, Emerald Bowl, Hawaii Bowl and Poinsettia Bowl.

UW coach Tyrone Willingham is in Dallas this week, appearing this week at a football forum hosted by the National Football Foundation and the Football Writers Association of America.

There, he was on a panel covering several topics related to college football, when moderator Chris Rose asked this question: "I'm curious, I want to see hands from everybody on the panel, on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being most trustworthy, 1 being least trustworthy, how many of you guys on the panel trust the media more than 6, from 6 to 10? I'm talking about a decent amount of trust in the media."

Up went the hands of Kansas coach Mark Mangino, Ohio State coach Jim Tressel and TCU coach Gary Patterson.

Willingham's hand stayed down.

Here is the transcript of what followed:

COACH WILLINGHAM: My level must be obviously a little lower (laughter). Chris, you'd probably like some type of explanation for that.

CHRIS ROSE: I'm just a man looking for answers.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Let me give you a couple. I think I'm blessed in my background that obviously most of the coaches will tell you they have wonderful wives, and I have a wonderful wife. My wife in her early career was a newscaster, and about the time that we had children she made a decision, one, because we had children to take care of them, but the other one was because the media at that time was changing. It was changing in the media what we thought, and we talked about it in our home, that it was changing from reporting news to making news, and to me that's a huge distinction between those two.

So therefore when you go about making news, and obviously with the internet and all the other things that are happening, the speed of information now and trying to produce a story and get the big one has kind of changed perspective. So therefore I don't have quite the trust in those that are making news as opposed to reporting news.

CHRIS ROSE: How do you decipher that?

COACH WILLINGHAM: It's just the nature of the environment that we're in. I don't blame those that have to do it because that's their business. So it is a change.

CHRIS ROSE: So you have a protective guard with everybody? Do you feel that guard come up when you speak to the media?

COACH WILLINGHAM: No. I understand their job very well, but for me it works better if I'm that way.

CHRIS ROSE: Coach Tressel, you're the biggest game going in the state of Ohio basically, we're talking even pro teams, as well. I mean, Ohio State football is king, I can tell you that. Do you watch, do you read, do you get on the internet?

COACH TRESSEL: You know, our world, the four people here, is really a race against time, and the biggest problem we have is time. I wouldn't even know how to get on the internet to look at a thing, a website or something like that.

Now, do we have people that keep us aware of this recruit is visiting Kansas this week and he's in Washington and all that? We're kept aware. But along with what Ty is talking a little bit about, I think my sense is not a distrust of the media; I feel bad for the media because there's a lot of guys that cover us every day that have wonderful things in mind and get pushed from somewhere else to talk about this or talk about that. You're getting ready to go on interviews sometimes and the guy puts the microphone down and says, I don't really want to ask you this, but upstairs they're making me, and all that business.

As Malcolm mentioned with our group that we had yesterday or two days ago at the Big Ten, it's become a thing of who can get something first versus who can get something right. And if coaching ever becomes all about who's in first rather than who's doing it right, I don't want to coach.

So I feel bad for the media. I don't distrust them, but I know, as Ty said, what they have to do. I feel bad about that.

The other thing I feel bad about is that our worlds are so busy that we have a lot less time available, and we have to make decisions where we're going to spend our time, because recruiting is way out there now, and you're looking at sophomores, you're getting phone calls and texts we can't call them; I've had three phone buzzes from recruits. I'm thinking, now who's more important? I look around this room (laughter), and for the moment I'm going to say this group is, but our time is so pulled Mark and I were talking, it's so easy to communicate with us that every person from the state of Ohio that's in Iraq I hear from, every person that's in every one of our University hospitals, I hear from them or their cousin or whatever.

So we have all of these things that are pulling at us, not to mention our 105 teenagers and the 30 that we're recruiting forward and the other good causes that we'd like to be a part of. I feel bad to when it comes down to you don't give the media as much access. Our time is limited and we give them less time.

I don't think that it's the trustworthiness of it. I enjoy the time I have with the media, I really do. I just don't have as much time. We had a guy in our panel the other day who was a blogger, and I've never even seen a blog. But he said, you ought to take time, coaches, to have lunch with a blogger (laughter), and I said, I don't even have lunch with my wife (laughter). I don't know when I would have time to have lunch with a blogger and get to know where they're coming from and all that.

So I feel bad for the media. I don't distrust them, and I don't think he distrusts them.

COACH WILLINGHAM: He does (laughter).

COACH TRESSEL: But I feel bad for them, and I feel bad that we don't have more hours in the day. When I start writing down my priority list, should I talk with my freshman who's struggling a little bit or should I stop over at the hospital to see this person or should I return an email to a young man or young woman who's serving in Iraq or should I maybe even watch some film which would be fun, wouldn't it, to have a minute to watch some film? calling another press conference or going to have lunch with a blogger or whoever, I feel bad that those times with the media don't rate up there.

CHRIS ROSE: Well, we are in a different time, and although I love your comments about bloggers, it's changed. The players you guys coach are blogging. Those are facts. They're out there, and bloggers, they're out there to just share their opinions.

COACH TRESSEL: The good news about our players, everyone keeps bringing that up, that they're the bloggers, when they get hit in the head with that silver helmet in practice, they're not thinking about that blog anymore. I don't care what that blogger said, that they should be playing or this or that; there is a good dose of reality when they walk into our building.

CHRIS ROSE: But I've got to guess that you guys do hear some things, even though you don't maybe check out the computer and watch TV as much as you would like, or maybe not like. But I remember a few years ago there was that website, fireronzook.com at Florida. And I felt terrible for the guy. Whether you think he was a good coach or not a good coach, I'm sure, Coach Tressel, you probably think he's a better coach now than he was a few years ago, but the fact that those things are out there, does it bother you, Coach Patterson?

COACH PATTERSON: I think you have to use it to your advantage. I don't think coaches have time to look at it, but I think it's in our best interest that if somebody is giving out bad information that you have some way to give out the right information.

CHRIS ROSE: How do you fight back?

COACH PATTERSON: For me I'm not going to look at it. For me, for recruiting purposes, for program purposes, I tell my kids all the time not to look at it because I do believe they're influenced by it. They're freshmen, that's one of the hardest parts I have about playing a freshman; if it doesn't turn out well for him, he's mentally not stable enough sometimes to be able to handle it and it can break him. I think you have to be able to have somebody within your system that goes out and checks what is on line so that you know what people are saying so that you can actually give out good information, not necessarily fight it.

I've always felt like, I guess because of growing up in the metroplex, being here as my first job as a head coach, I took the stand that I was going to help the media do their job. But under the same breath, I also felt like also it's my job to protect my kids, my program and my university. And if I can do at some point in time if I can do both of those at the same time I have to give them a lot of credit.

I had a young man this year that was a preseason all American that had a lot of troubles off the field, and I think because of our relationship with the media here and always being as honest as I could be, I think that they helped protect the young man as much as we could as far as trying to get him back on track without the whole world thinking I do believe they have to be our friends. I think there's only one way we're going to get through it is if we're on the same page.

I feel bad, Coach Willingham, that there is not a trust, because I think in some way it's hard to do our job without it.

CHRIS ROSE: Coach Mangino, a few years ago we talked about it on Best Damn, the comments you made I think it was after the Texas game, was it not?

COACH MANGINO: Uh huh.

CHRIS ROSE: After that happened, did you think to yourself, boy, this is it, or did you say, boy, I said what I said, I'm living with it, that's okay?

COACH MANGINO: Well, the way I approached it, first of all, is I had a reason to do it. My reasons are such that we had lost some difficult ball games that year, and our kids after that game were just crushed. I had never been around a team that had been so disheartened about a loss.

So I just warned people, some administrators on my way to the pressroom, what I was going to do, and it was to save the team. I knew I was going to get criticism for it and take some bullets, but Kansas hadn't had a winning program for many years, we were trying to get it on its feet, we were getting close but just couldn't get it over the hump, so I took a bullet for it.

But I do understand that that's not the way to do it. I learned a lesson that there's other ways to get that done. But at the time I felt that was the best way to do it.

Was it good judgment? It wasn't. But my feeling is that we're talking about our dealings with the media here, and I want to get back to what we were saying here a minute ago.

I feel dealing with the media is like anybody else, any other profession in life. I call it the 90 percent rule. 90 percent of the members of the media are hard working people trying to take care of their families, trying to do a job. They have a boss to answer to, and I understand that. I don't care if you're talking about football coaches, if you're talking about businessmen, if you're talking about the media. 90 percent of them are going to do a great job.

There's 10 percent that are lazy sometimes or they take shortcuts, but every profession sees that. The way we deal with the media, and my thoughts are that the media is a general term. You're encompassing a lot of people when you say "the media." I base my respect or like or dislike on an individual basis with the members of the media that cover us, whether it's nationally, regionally or locally. That's how I do it. I judge everybody and they judge me, too. But it's on my relationship with them.

That doesn't mean they have to write nice things about us all the time. A lot of them don't. But I think they're doing an honest job. They're doing it to the best of their ability, and they're not trying to create news, they're covering what's taking place.

... (This is a very loooong transcripe, so I've weeded out a middle part about bloggers from major media and bloggers who blog from home, etc.)

I'll pick up again here as the coaches discuss what they withhold from the media.

COACH TRESSEL: My dad gave me advice long before the bloggers. He was a coach, and Mark was on my staff my first year as a head coach, and I tried to follow this advice, he said, "You'll have 1,000 opportunities in your life to keep your mouth shut; use every one of them" (laughter). You know what? I've had a lot more than 1,000 opportunities. He didn't know about all the bloggers that were going to come along.

As Mark said, we don't ever want to say something that would hurt one of our kids and say, well, this was the reason we lost the game, gosh, if he would have made that tackle or whatever. We're not going to do that.

So sometimes we get looked upon as not wanting more access or not telling more about what the story is. I think all of us enjoy our time with the credible media and so forth, but we're never going to do anything to hurt our kids. They're like our own children, and we're not going to do anything to hurt our university and hurt our game.

When you lump all of media as one thing and lump all of football as another thing, and Grant, and Tyrone is our president of the AFCA, football is more than just about the teams that go to the BCS. Football is about ... 700 college football teams. We don't lump it all together. Granted, he said what about the sponsors and all the money. We agree. We give them as much as we possibly can, but we're never going to hurt our kids, and we're never going to break federal laws. As Mr. President said, I'm not going to go out there and say this happened on campus and I'm going to kick him off. You guys are going to write that I'm a great disciplinarian. I'm not going to do that.

COACH WILLINGHAM: My perspective is we're not too far down the road, but the concern that I have is the speed, the speed of information. When you put a story out there and you don't tell the whole story, that individual that's in trouble, you know, you may list something that's really not what's taking place, and you have to be vague because you have to protect the athlete or the individual. So that would be my concern.

But I think the key to all of this will be both sides' ability to be honest and shoot straight with what's going on. You can be open and meet with the media every day, but there are certain times that you can tell them certain things based on the release of the information, and you just can't give them any more at that time. I don't think we're too far down the road, but I do think obviously there needs to be some adjustment on both sides.

Q. I see it kind of occurring now, but I'd just be interested from a coach's perspective, start with Coach Willingham, how concerned are you with all this talk about mainstream media and new media, that the new media seems to have more and more of an influence in recruiting, where you have less contact now with the athletes than you've ever had before and these non mainstream media now are influencing recruiting, much like just to make a parallel, the AU coaches did in basketball. How much of a concern is that for you guys?

COACH WILLINGHAM: Very concerning, because I've always said I have to win two recruiting wars. One is the publicity war, and one is the actual war in terms of getting the right kids. You have to win both of those, because the day you don't, then you don't build up the enthusiasm in the public about your program, so therefore you don't get the energy, you don't get the funding, you don't get the support. All those things seem to be minus. And if you don't get the right players, you're certainly not going to win on the field.

I'm certainly concerned about being able to match up both of those. But I do place a lot more value in our ability as coaches to look at players and make the decision on who we think is right based on the public opinion of who is right.

Q. Going back to the access issue, I don't think many of us have a problem as far as access to head coaches, but one of the problems we have is in many places you can't talk to assistant coaches or coordinators, you can't talk to freshmen. You have very limited time with players to talk with them, understanding there's schedule. But what I hear from coaches is mostly, how come you guys don't write more feature stories; how come it's always a news story or maybe negative? And one of the reasons is when you write a feature story you like to have as many voices from assistant coaches who knows the kid that's a position coach or grab the kid more than just coming off the practice field when he's tired and wants to go eat. That's the access problems we have, and that's what we're trying to bridge. How can y'all help us or we can come to a meeting in the middle here on access? We don't have an access problem with head coaches, but I know they want to limit information so you can't talk to assistants, you can't talk to freshmen, more and more keep you out of scrimmages. You can't talk to parents, and in some places when you're trying to do a story on a kid, a good story that y'all like to see but we can't do because we don't have access, so what ends up happening is the editor says what do you have for tomorrow, and you say, I was going to have a feature but I don't, so what you've got is you take what ends up being a little part of your notebook and you blow it into a news story that you know in your heart that this is garbage, you shouldn't even write this but he wants something. The coach might say, why is that even in the newspaper? That's the process that happens with us. So we're trying to get from y'all just a little access, not from y'all because y'all are great. You have press conferences, we can catch you at certain times. It's the people around you that we have trouble getting to. I just wanted to know where y'all stand with that.

... (Here's I've cut more general discussion from other coaches, and pick up again with Willingham:

COACH WILLINGHAM: I wanted to answer your question from my perspective. Obviously almost every coach in the country will be different in how they handle this, but I have never limited a player or assistant coach's access to the media, nor for the most part have I ever limited mine, even though I still respect what they do, but I have that distrust of what they make mistakes on.

But I do limit practice. I limit practice for this reason. In many cases, the error that is often reported by our reporters is not an error by the individual that they reported on. Some days my receivers drop a lot of passes, and yet it'll be written that our quarterback had a terrible day, okay, didn't have completions, didn't do this, and I'm the one that has to go back in there and build my quarterback back up when he's had that public embarrassment about what happened that day, and the accuracy of what is being reported is a problem with me. So therefore I limit that aspect of it, and then I can answer to what did or didn't happen at practice, et cetera.

If you want to read every word, here is a link to the full transcript.

USC star guard -- actually, one-and-done former star USC guard -- O.J. Mayo answered claims that he received payments while in college with denies all around.

Here's the story from the LA Times.

USC and the LA Coliseum officially ended their not-always-so-friendly lease negotiations yesterday, with the Trojans signing on for another quarter-century at what will apparently become an improved Coliseum.

If those improvements don't come, the Trojans can walk in two years. But if they do, the lease could be extended for nearly half a century.

Here's the story from the LA Times, complete with timeline for the stadium improvements.

The Huskies visit the Coliseum this season, on Nov. 1.

A reminder that the Pacific-10 Conference isn't immune to the economic realities of the day: Arizona State has announced that it's dropping three sports.

Here's the school's news release.

Former UW receiver Marcel Reece, who's first NFL shot with the Miami Dolphins didn't go so well, is going to get another shot: this time with the Oakland Raiders.

Read down to the final paragraph of this AP report in the San Francisco Chronicle.

The long dance between USC and its home stadium seems down to its final days. The Coliseum has approved a deal to keep the Trojans as their prime football tenant, and SC is expected to make it official tomorrow.

Here's a link on the latest from the LA Times.

Washington is scheduled to play USC at the Coliseum on Nov. 1.

Things haven't gone well for the USC basketball program, right from the moment of their early exit from the NCAA tournament.

Their roster had been juggling constantly with reports of who will and won't jump to the NBA, and now comes what is clearly the most potentially serious issue: claims that O.J. Mayo may have received payments while at USC ... claims serious enough to raise the possibility of serious sanctions against the school.

Here's our report from today's paper. Here's a take from the LA Daily News. And here's an opinion piece from ESPN's Pat Forde, raising the (unlikely) possibility of the death penalty.

This has nothing to do with "Bow Down to Washington," which will continue to praise the boys with bells and fighting blood that excells, and, of course, those Dardanelles.

What they're after is a new alma mater. Here is a link to the details.

Obviously, we've reached that time of year when news won't be breaking daily out of UW football and basketball. However, there's usually something related to the sports hapening somewhere, so I'll try to shift a bit to that until fall camp begins again in early August.

The most interesting news I saw this week was Arizona State and Notre Dame agreeing to a football series including one meeting in the new stadium being built for the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas.

That sheer size and luxury of that stadium is going to make it a serious player in the nation sports scene, and my hunch is that this is only the first of many indications of that. The place also was designed to bring record crowds to future Final Fours. And there is lots of talk that this stadium could bring the Cotton Bowl into the BCS rotation, perhaps at the expense of New Orleans and the Sugar Bowl.

The NCAA's annual Academic Progress Rate report was released today and the bottom line is good news for UW: General improvement, third-best score in Pac-10 football, no scholarship losses.

Stanford led all Pacific-10 football programs with an APR of 986, followed by California (967), Washington (948), Southern California (948), UCLA (941), Arizona State (933), Oregon State (926), Oregon (921), WSU (916) and Arizona (902).

Washington also had an APR of 943 for men’s basketball.

The NCAA average is 934 for football and 928 for men’s basketball, and the benchmark score is 925.

“Of course we always want to be the best, and it would be nice to be No. 1 in APR in all sports,” said John Morris, UW senior associate athletic director for compliance and student development. “Sometimes that’s a challenge with a school like Stanford in the conference. All in all, I think we feel pretty good about it. None of our sports are at risk of having any penalties under the APR. Most of them are trending upward in the last year or two, so I think all in all we feel pretty good about it.”

They're not feeling nearly as good at Washington State, which will be hit with the loss of eight football scholarships.

Here are the details of their situation.

Also penalized was USC hoops, which loses two scholarships. Here are the details on that.

KRJ radio host Dave Grosby announced today that he will no longer be hosting his solo show from 1-3 p.m. weekdays. His 3-5 p.m. "Groz with Gas" show will continue.

The Groz has been a good friend of this blog, and his solo segment will be missed.

Here is his announcement.

Former Curtis star Isaiah Thomas has notched an ACT score high enough to assure that he will be part of the Washington Huskies basketball team next season.

Thomas, who will graduate from the South Kent prep school in Connecticut at the end of this month, got the good news late last week, and I got a chance to talk to him Saturday.

A few of his thoughts:

On his test results:
"I feel so good. This is the best I’ve felt in a long time. This was the biggest relief, getting this off my shoulders. Now I can just finish the school year strong. The hardest part was getting past this. ... I thank God for the opportunity I had to do what I did."

On his two seasons at South Kent:
"At the time (of the decision) I was in high school, so I wasn’t looking to move away from home. But now, it’s made me such a better person overall and also a basketball player. I think it was the best decision for me and my family."

On how he has improved on the court since his days at Curtis:
"I’m a better player, a more mature player. They said I couldn’t play defense or whatnot, but I’m playing it now. I’ll just be ready to put on a show when I get to the U-Dub."

On whether he sees himself as a point guard or shooting guard:
"I really like the ball in my hands most of the time, so basically as point guard. When I have talent around me, it’s easier for me to showcase my point guard skills. But I do like to shoot it, so it doesn’t bother me."

On whether he can pair with Venoy Overton, UW's returning starter at the point:
"I think we’re going to do tremendously well. Me and him are going to try to bring back the days like Nate and Will and B-Roy and all of them. We’re going to try to get back at it."

On his summer plans:
"I’ll be working out at Washington, playing pickup games and whatnot, just getting ready for school and getting ready for college basketball."

Meanwhile, father Keith Thomas said that he has spent the past two seasons watching his so play online. So he is expecially pleased with the prospect of watching Isaiah just up I-5 come November.

"That’s the best news I’ve heard since he started high school at Curtis." Keith Thomas said. "He’s my oldest kid and I wonder all the time about all this basketball hype, and we finally see that he’s gotten over that first brick wall of finishing high school."

Two of the most attractice home games on Washington's coming football schedule will kick off in late afternoon to accommodate national broadcast.

Oklahoma's Sept. 13 visit to Husky Stadium will kickoff at 4:45 p.m. and will be shown on either ESPN or ABC.

Notre Dame's visit on Oct. 25 will kickoff at 5 p.m. and be shown on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2.

Here's a full release from UW.

The news is in the next post down ... the one about acting atheltic director Scott Woodward deciding not to apply for the full-time job and to remain instead as the university's vice president for external affairs.

However, the most interesting thing Woodward said today was an impression he has picked up over the past few months running the UW atheltic department:

"My only concern is a worry about some complacency issues and an acceptance of mediocrity," he said. "People were assuming that doing the right thing and winning were mutually exclusive, and they're not. … Winning is a very important core value of what we do. Frankly the other things – being compliant, doing things in the best interest of the student-athlete – are underpinnings. They're what we do, and to accept anything less is in my book a non-starter."

It's an interesting statement, although largely meaningless without names attached. However, it's very close to the language university president Mark Emmert used when he and athletic director Todd Turner decided to part ways.

And it certainly indicates that the highest reaches of the university believes that some folks in athletics need to raise the bar of their own expectations.

The 2008-09 athletic year should be fascinating.

Scott Woodward, who has been acting as UW athletic director since the departure of Todd Turner, announced today that he will not seek the permanent job.

Woodward sounded like he enjoys the duties but that president Mark Emmert seems to need him doing other jobs for the good of the overall university.

One of those jobs will be continuing in a lead role of trying to get legislative funding for a major renovation of Husky Stadium. That plan failed last session, but Woodward said he will work the political process to try to have been success for the proposal in the next session.

An Emmert-appointed committee is already working to identify candidates for the athletic director job, and Emmert is expected to name someone over the next month or so.

Former WSU running back Reuben Mayes was named today to the 2008 College Football Hall of Fame class.

Here's the full list:

PLAYERS
TROY AIKMAN- QB, UCLA (1987- 88)
BILLY CANNON - HB, LSU (1957- 59)
JIM DOMBROWSKI- OT, Virginia (1982- 85
PAT FITZGERALD- LB, Northwestern (1994- 96)
WILBER MARSHALL- LB, Florida (1980- 83
RUEBEN MAYES- RB, Washington State (1982-85)
RANDALL McDANIEL- OG, Arizona State (1984-87)
DON McPHERSON- QB, Syracuse (1984- 87)
JAY NOVACEK - TE, Wyoming (1982- 84)
DAVE PARKS- SE, Texas Tech (1961- 63)
RON SIMMONS- NG, Florida State (1977- 80)
THURMAN THOMAS- RB, Oklahoma State (1984- 87)
ARNOLD TUCKER- QB, Army (1944- 46)

COACHES
JOHN COOPER- 192-84-6 (.691) -- Tulsa (1977-84), Arizona State (1985-87), Ohio State (1988- 2000)
LOU HOLTZ- 249-132-7 (.651) -- William & Mary (1969-71), North Carolina State (1972-75), Arkansas (1977-83), Minnesota (1984-85), Notre Dame (1986-96), South Carolina (1999-2004)

It's a nice list, but my main reaction is to wonder how Billy Cannon took this long. I was just getting old enough to start following sports when Cannon was becoming a living legend in my homestate of Louisiana. He led LSU to its first national championship. He made a long and amazing punt return against Ole Miss which was replayed on local sportscasts every Halloweeen night for as long as I lived there. He went on to a nice pro career and was the model for the sports/soap opera movie "Everybody's All-American."