Wednesday is the start of the national signing period for the men's basketball freshman class of 2009.

However, UW is not expected to announce any signees on Wednesday and won't until Thursday at the earliest and more likely Friday.

However, fans of Huskies hoops shouldn't panic. Or even worry. All indications are that the announcements are being held up for dull practical reasons, and all of the reported oral commitments are still expected to come through.

The class, rated No. 10 by Scout.com and 19th nationally by Rivals.com, is expected to include:

Prize point guard Abdul Gaddy of Tacoma/Bellarmine (Here's a link to Doug Pacey's story about Gaddy picking UW.)
Power forward Clarence Trent of Nevada
Shooting guard C.J. Wilcox of Utah
And power forward Charles Garcia of City College of San Francisco.

Here's more on the class from Dawgman.com.

Obviously, I have come to understand what the name "Rick Neuheisel" means up here.

But all the name meant to me for a decade or so was the name of a mediocre quarterback of my awful local pro team -- the San Antonio Gunslingers of the USFL -- when I lived in the Alamo City in the mid-1980s.

I asked Neuheisel today if he had any particular memories of those days.

"I thought those were great days," he said. "It was unpredictable as to whether we were going to get paid or not. But I cherish the memory of playing with all the characters that were on the team. It was a great chapter of my life."

Neuheisel isn't joking when he mentions the missing paychecks. The Gunslingers were one of the least stable teams of instable league. They lasted two seasons and were gone. But for both of those seasons, Neuheisel was their quarterback.

And by Gunslinger standards, he was quite a catch. A golden guy from the golden West and with a Rose Bowl background to boot.

Here's a little background, for anyone who might care.

And by the way, I'll have a story Wednesday on a different UCLA coach: defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker.