The Washington Huskies may have landed a big man to step in immediately when Jon Brockman leaves after the coming men’s basketball season.

Six-foot-9 power forward Charles Garcia has verbally committed to join UW’s incoming class of 2009, according to Scout.com.

Garcia averaged 16 points and eight rebounds last season as a freshman at Riverside (Calif.) Junior College. The team went 25-8, and Garcia was named first-team all-state and was runner-up for junior college player of the year honors.

Scout reports that Garcia had received an offer from San Diego State and had drawn interest from

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Monday is deadline day for college basketball underclassmen to declare whether they’re going to make themselves available for the NBA draft or return to school.

Apparently taking their decision down to the final day at Chase Budinger of Arizona, Ryan Anderson of Cal and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute of UCLA.

And from this distance, I think its fair to say that UW’s coming hoops season could be significantly affected by those decisions.

For now, I think UW projects as very close to Arizona and Cal … close enough where the Huskies would likely move past

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Now that Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen has announced that he will step down next summer, speculation about his replacement has begun.

Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News offers this good roundup of potential candidates.

One of those floated names is Bill Moos, former Oregon AD. However, John Hunt’s blog from the Oregonian reports that Moos considers that unlikely.

Former P-I reporter Ted Miller, now of ESPN.com, has a good piece online on UW center Juan Garcia, and his fight back from a leg injury that could — but might not — cost him his senior season.

Star receiver Jermaine Kearse of Lakes High School, one of the top recruits of the incoming UW freshman class, has been selected as The News Tribune’s high school Male Athlete of the Year.

Here’s a good profile by reporter Doug Pacey from today’s paper. And here’s our video package.

If the Huskies are going to break through as a bowl team this season, they’re going to have to earn it. At least, according to Phil Steele’s College Football Preview which ranks UW’s 2008 football schedule as the toughest in the nation.

By some figuring, last year’s schedule also was the toughest. And this one certainly ranks in the same neighborhood, with an out-of-conference schedule with Oklahoma (comparable to last season’s Ohio State), Brigham Young (comparable to last season’s Boise or Hawaii), and Notre Dame (even at their worst, a considerable upgrade from last season’s Syracuse).

Then

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The Pac-10 has announced the advanced section of its TV packages for the coming football season.

The Huskies season-opener Aug. 30 at Oregon will kick off at 7 p.m. and be televised on FSN.

The schedule also shows noon kickoffs for Washington’s home opener Sept. 6 against BYU, as well as for the Apple Cup on Nov. 22 in Pullman.

Here is the current TV/time UW schedule

at Oregon: 7 p.m. Aug. 30 on FSN.

BYU: Noon Sept. 6 on FSN.

Oklahoma: 4:45 p.m. Sept. 13 on ESPN.

Oregon State: 4 p.m. Oct.

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Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen will step down on July 1, 2009. Here’s our story from today’s paper.

Hansen took over at the Pac-10′s fifth commissioner on July 1, 1983. That gives him the longest reign of any Division I commissioner…. ever.

He said he decided to retire now because he has just turned 70, and that the travel the job requires has become less enjoyable. Also, he said the timing works well because the Pac-10 had four more years on its TV contracts, two more years on its bowl contracts and four more years on its men’s

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