Tuesday Morning Links: Starring Terrence Jones, Abdul Gaddy, and Dwayne Polee

Ryan Petitt / UDubSports.com

A bunch of links to share this morning. Up tomorrow, a preview of the Dawgs biggest test to date on Thursday at Texas Tech.

Interesting piece yesterday in the LA Times about Dwayne Polee, Jr., a 6’6″ (ESPN says 6’7″) wing player out of Westchester HS in LA. Polee had committed to USC years ago, but announced this week that he was reopening his recruitment and was considering five schools, one of them being UW.

Well, if Romar Math says we could conceivably fit Desmond Simmons, Enes Kanter and Terrence Jones into next year’s plans, does it also compute that we could fit in another prospect? My sense is that Polee, a top 100 prospect, is a backup to Jones for the Dawgs. Still, interesting to hear him put UW in his final five. . .

Speaking of Terrence Jones, you’ve got a chance to see him play at Hec Ed on Monday, January 18th, at the King Holiday Classic. Jones’ Jefferson HS will take on Federal Way at 6 PM. No word on how to get tickets in advance yet, but tickets were available at the door for last season’s event.

Mike Seely from Seattle Weekly did this piece linking what he feels is an inflated rank for the Huskies with Abdul Gaddy being, essentially, overrated. I left a comment on this story because I felt it was a bit unfair to base his assessment essentially on one game, and not to even mention Gaddy’s sweet showing against San Jose State.

It’s apparent to me, at this point, that Gaddy isn’t instantly going to be either a big scorer or an All-American caliber point guard until he gets some more experience. But, to ignore the good things Gaddy has done so far is, I think, short-sighted and based on what may have been unrealistic expectations on the part of fans and media following the team.

The Dawgs climbed to #10 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ Poll, and #12 in the AP Poll. If we’re the #10 team in the country, we should win four of the next five games (at Texas Tech, vs. Cal St. Northridge, vs. Georgetown in Anaheim, vs. Portland, vs. Texas A&M), which are all tougher (except Cal State Northridge at home) than any we’ve played so far. Winning less than four won’t be cause for alarm, but will say that the Huskies are ranked slightly too high at this point.

That’s all for now! Thanks for coming!