Louisville, Peyton Siva, and notes on Seattle’s connections to the NCAA championship

With Louisville knocking off Michigan and becoming national champions last night, Franklin graduate and starting point guard Peyton Siva put the crowning achievement on his already stellar college career.

Siva became the first player from Washington to win the D-1 men’s national championship in six years. The most recent before that? As UW’s Hikeem Stewart was kind enough to remind me, it was actually his brother Rodrick, who was on the team at Kansas when the Jayhawks won the championship in the mid-2000’s.

Bremerton-born Marvin Williams also got a title with North Carolina in 2005. He wound up getting drafted 2^nd overall after that season and later signing a $40 million contract in the NBA. Before that, there was another Franklin grad, Jason Terry winning the title with Arizona in 1997 – and he ended up having a fairly decent NBA career himself.

Between those two and Siva, the three are as close to an NCAA title as the city of Seattle has ever had. Or at least, as close as Seattle has been in 55 years, when the Redhawks famously made it to the 1958 national title game against powerhouse Kentucky,

Before falling to Adolph Rupp’s Wildcats squad 84-72, Seattle U knocked off Wyoming, San Francisco and Cal to get to the final four, and dispatched Kansas State to reach the championship game. That list of wins looks impressive, even today.

That team had two players from the state of Washington. Jerry Frizzell, who started on the front line alongside one Elgin Baylor, hailed from Montesano (a small town near Grays Harbor) and Jim Harney, a starting guard, was actually a Seattle native.

Washington State is the only other school from the state to ever reach the D-1 title game. They pulled it off in 1941, losing in a 38-33 “shootout” to Wisconsin.

Redhawks must continue to improve on retaining Seattle’s high school hoops talent

You don’t have to look very hard to find evidence that the Seattle area is a hotspot for young basketball talent.

Zach LaVine, a UCLA commit and superstar-in-waiting, is the latest example. So is D.J. Fenner, or Tony Wroten, or Tramaine Isabell, or Tucker Haymond, or any one of about 50 other names that come to mind easily.

Some of that talent stays in-state. A lot doesn’t. That’s just how college basketball works, and anyone expecting Seattle U to get every kid from the 206 or 425 has expectations set way too high. I get that.

But how does a kid like Haymond, a Garfield High School star from the heart of Seattle, choose Western Michigan over Seattle U?

The location is much closer to home. The academics are better at SU. And it’s not like Kalamazoo, Michigan, is going to provide a more active social life than the Emerald City does.

Haymond, a 6’6” swingman, was recruited by the Redhawks but originally committed to Western Michigan. He backed out of that commitment. He came to KeyArena to check out SU’s play. He probably met with the coaching staff. He was down to two schools. And then he recommitted to Western Michigan.

The reason for that is actually pretty simple. He probably saw the Redhawks struggling in conference play and adjusting to the WAC, as well as the Broncos starting hot this season and rolling to a 17-9 record, including a road win over Big East school South Florida.

I have a feeling Cameron Dollar will sorely regret not landing Haymond, who could have been a fantastic scoring complement to Deshaun Sunderhaus.

It’s going to be hard to keep any of the guys like Haymond in-state. But you’d still like to have the Redhawks coaching staff be able to keep one solid Seattle-area player a year from leaving the state to play for a mid-major school in an inferior conference.

Preview: Redhawks look to stop the momentum of red-hot Boise State

Boise State has been making noise – and deservedly so – in the media over the last few days.

They only went into the gym of #11 Creighton and whomped on the top mid-major team in the land by 13 points. A week before that, they nearly knocked off #15 Michigan State, so the upset win was no fluke.

Now they roll into Seattle on Sunday afternoon with a 5-1 record and all kinds of momentum.

Powered by Chicago-area sophomore Derrick Marks and his 19.5 points per game (including an incredible 35 on the road at Creighton), Boise State has a dynamic offense. They shoot the ball well at nearly 47% per game from the field.

They also have an extremely young team. The top two scorers, Marks and small forward Anthony Drmic (who averages 14.3 per game), are both sophomores. There’s just one senior on the roster. The roster makeup is not that of a team expected to be competitive this season, especially in a very good Mountain West Conference, but so far they’re defying that.

Since the Broncos are a young team, it’s entirely possible that a road trip to Seattle will be a little bit of a “letdown” game. Sunday’s contest is the second on a three-game road trip. Boise State will travel to Utah before heading home to host LSU, and might be looking ahead a little.

The Redhawks will need to take control of this one early. If Boise State can jump out to an early lead like they did at Creighton, when the only lead the Broncos surrendered was at 3-0, it will be tough for Seattle to come back.

Another key will be Prince Obasi. The starting point guard will need to have a strong defensive game and keep Marks from getting to the rim at will. Keeping Boise State’s leading scorer from getting hot is a task easier said than done, but it will be crucial for the Redhawks to have a chance in this one.

Seattle U is getting their toughest non-conference opponents early. First Virginia, then Stanford and now Boise State. Stealing a game against a red-hot school from a bigger conference would inspire quite a bit of confidence in this Redhawks team.