The Sports Corner

Isaiah Thomas resurrected as a ‘Dawg’

Watch this YouTube video to get your first impression of this new talent

No, it’s not the ex-Knickerbocker coach who “threw his daughter under the bus,” it’s the next incarnation of current Knickerbocker Nate Robinson at the University of Washington.

This 5′8″ freshman guard with pure scoring ability has pretty much locked up a spot on Udub’s starting lineup, bypassing last season’s starting point guard Venoy Overton, who will still get solid minutes when Lorenzo Romar wants to run less of a run and gun offence.

Combining those two with senior guard Justin Dentmon, that provides a pretty serious backcourt. One that won’t be able to hang with UCLA’s though, but let’s be honest and try to find a backcourt that can.

Back to Thomas. In his first pre-season game, he dropped 27 points in 19 minutes of playing time. Yes, that came against division two Western Washington, but it still shows how much confidence that Romar has in his new freshman guard. Romar even stated publicly that he wasn’t going to over-coach him and that he was just going to let him play so that he isn’t thinking too much. 

(Probably a good thing when it’s considered that Thomas had to attend an extra year of high school in order to qualify academically for the UW.)

What will really help set off Thomas’ new college career is the fact that opposing defenses will not be worried about him. No, they’ve got bigger issues on their hands, with the nation’s top returning rebounder Jon Brockman patrolling the middle.

Brockman will also be the guy leading the Huskies in scoring, and pretty much goes out and gets you a double double on a nightly basis. The senior forward is being pumped as a potential Pac-10 player of the year and All-American. Tough to do with Darren Collison racking up wins over at UCLA, but you get my point.

Brockman is going to seriously open things up for Thomas, who can benefit from Brockman’s rebounding and get going off the fast-break, ultimately finishing with moves like shown in the link above this article.

It’s just too bad that Thomas couldn’t have played last year so that Brockman could of had two seasons with this new sensation.

What’s really surprising is the fact that he’s flown under the national radar, especially with a name like Isaiah Thomas. 

With the Huskies’ last trip to the NCAA Tournament being from the years of Brandon Roy and Bobby Jones, Dawg fans finally have something to get excited about, as their beloved Huskies are almost everyone’s sleeper pick to make the tournament out of the Pac-10.