UW senior forward Jon Brockman is among the players invited to the 2009 NBA Draft Combine in Chicago.

Here’s the full list:

PLAYER COLLEGE/CLUB

Jeff Adrien Connecticut

Rodrigue Beaubois Cholet (France)

DeJuan Blair Pittsburgh

Jon Brockman Washington

Derrick Brown Xavier

Chase Budinger Arizona

Nick Calathes Florida

DeMarre Carroll Missouri

Omri Casspi Maccabi Elite (Israel)

Dionte Christmas Temple

Earl Clark Louisville

Darren Collison UCLA

Dante Cunningham Villanova

Stephen Curry Davidson

Austin Daye Gonzaga

DeMar DeRozan USC

Toney Douglas Florida State

Wayne

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Desmond Simmons, a 6-foot-7 small forward who was choses All-East (San Francisco) Bay Player of the Year has given his oral commitment to play at the University of Washington.

“After visiting the school and sitting down and talking to the coaches one-on-one, I got a good vibe,” Simmons told InsideBayArea.com. “I felt confident that was the school that best fit me.”

Scout.com lists Simmons as the 18th best small forward prospect in his class. The story says he chose Washington over Oregon State and Saint Mary’s among others.

Here’s a link to the full story from

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After years of consideratin, UCLA is going about the tricky business of renovating Pauley Pavilion.

While the place is no architectural marvel, and it’s sightlines sure weren’t designed with fans in mind, much of the design came from John Wooden himself and there’s a lot of history in there.

However, UCLA now has this plan (outlined in an LA Daily News story), which should make the place a bit better from the outside and a lot better on the inside — for fans and players.

However, the renovation is expected to force the Bruins into a

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Lots of opinions about the new football uniforms that were unveiled before the Spring Game. Personally, I was expecting a little bit more of them, but thought they were OK – and better than what I’ve seen recently.

Anyway, here’s a link to the university’s video of the players’ modeling of the uniforms. Be warned, it might take a few minutes to upload. Worth checking out.

By the way, good news for Husky center Juan Garcia. After his weekend workout at the Minnesota Vikings mini-camp, the team signed him.

USA Basketball has invited UW senior-to-be Quincy Pondexter to the trials that will select the United States team that will compete at the World University Games this summer.

The trials will take place June 16-18 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. Pondexter will compete against approximately 25 of the United State’s top players who are between the ages of 17 and 24 or are or have recently been college students.

The World University Games will be played July 1-12 in Belgrade, Serbia.

Full information is available at GoHuskies.com

If that delayed-for-TV start to the Huskies’ season-opener against LSU is an inconvenience for UW fans, this blog post from Louisiana indicates it’s not going over any better two time zones to the east.

Here’s the UW release on the two games picked up for TV so far.

Obviously we don’t talk a lot of swimming here, but this is just a reminder of the sobering financial times we’re in. And even for those who care nothing about swimming, there’s no way to read this as good news.

Here’s the release from the university:

As part of a series of budget reduction measures, the University of Washington has made the difficult decision to discontinue its men’s and women’s swimming programs effective immediately, Director of Athletics Scott Woodward announced today.



The decision reduces the number of intercollegiate sports sponsored at the UW to 21,

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