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There’s been very little for the University of Washington fans to celebrate outside of the comfort of Bank of America arena.  After last nights 93-81 beating by the Cal Bears — the huskies have now equaled the win total of the 2008 Detroit Lions on the road.

Zero. Zilch. Nada. And minus the heart-breaking losses to UCLA and Texas Tech — the majority of the losses have been poorly defended, turnover infested blow-outs with appalling shot selection where the team has not only been outplayed, they’ve also been — sorry Romar defenders — outcoached.

If you had just read the box-score, or only watched the first half of the game, there wouldn’t be too much reason for optimism.  The Huskies shot below 45 percent from the field, had only seven assists, and were out-rebounded by nine — not exactly the definition of how to win on the road.

If you take a look at the bigger picture (and in a year where you have zero road wins, you kind of have to) — you will see there were a lot of things the Huskies can take into the final third of the season.

First, lets keep in mind that Cal is not only arguably the best team in the conference, but a bad match-up for the Huskies. Jerome Randle is nearly an impossible matchup for both Venoy Overton and Isaiah Thomas — they just aren’t big or long enough to close out on his quick release, and when forced to play close he’s quick enough to blow by, as we saw on numerous occasions last night. Jamaal Boykin is another tough matchup, too big for Quincy Pondexter and Justin Holiday, too quick for Tyrese Breshers or Matthew Bryan-Amaning.  Yes, they were able to have their way with the Bears at home, but it took one of the best shooting days of the year to complete the effort.  The Dawgs should hope that someone pulls an early upset and Cal can be avoided in the Pac-10 tournament.

Despite the poor match-up, the Huskies were also still able to finally put together a decent offensive effort on the road. The 81 points could have easily been 90 to 95 if a few balls bounce in the right direction. Shooting 26 for 30 from the free throw line will usually help you win a lot of games, it just didn’t today.  There are still major concerns about the ball movement when Abdul Gaddy isn’t on the floor, but it was still one of the better offensive performances of the year.

The biggest reason to have optimism though, is that the Huskies didn’t give up. When the Dawgs were down by 17 with around four minutes left in the first half — it would have been easy for the team to pack it in and hope that Stanford gets the team of the snide.  There was no sign of that, however. The Huskies competed for loose balls throughout the game, made a few adjustments to try and create some pressure, and at no point gave the “oh well” body language. Lets not forget about the gigantic amount of minutes being played by sophomores and juniors — with quite a few of the players not being regular members of the rotation last year. It would be easy for these kids to say ‘wait til next year’ — but last night that wasn’t there, and that’s something to admire.

The last six games are all winnable — in fact winnable may be an understatement. The chances of an at-large bid may have already slipped away — but there were things to take from last nights game that bode well not only for next year, but for mid-March as well.

Technology has changed the way we receive the majority of our information forever. We don’t bother to call people because we can convey our feelings on a social networking website. If we need to give information as quickly as possible, we don’t dial a number, we turn on our T9 or autofill on our cell phones and have it typed up faster than we could ever communicate it verbally. And we no longer get our sports just from Joe Local-TV, we get the information from our lap-tops and our phones as quickly as said information occurs.

Not only do we get that information as quickly as ever, it has become as specialized as ever, and recruiting is no exception. Numerous websites are focusing more and more on prep sports, offering their takes on who the best players are in the country, giving high school kids rankings and of course, the aesthetically pleasing stars, usually between one and five.

Youre going to see the Washington Huskies class rankings vary — there have been some that have it as a top 10 class, and some that have it as low as 30.

These rankings don’t tell the story of how important this 2010 class is for the Washington Huskies — nor what an amazing job coach Steve Sarkisian did assembling one of the best classes in the Pac-10.

Lets first keep in mind that this is a team that hasn’t been to a bowl game in over half a decade, and just over a year ago was coming off a season of going defeated. While there still is as much history for Washington as any pac-10 program not named USC, this history just doesn’t mean as much to 17 and 18 year old kids. Coach Sarkisian had to be able to sell these kids on the ability to win not just soon, but immediately. Yes, the Huskies had an advantage of being able to offer playing time sooner than some of the other schools they were competing against because of unfruitful classes under Tyrone Willingham, but getting to play early and not going to bowl games isn’t what these kids sign up for, they sign up to compete for conference championships and more.

And the Huskies got the good ones today. The best part of this class is not just the quality, its where the quality comes from. Nearly 2/3 of today’s class came from California, and despite it being a fairly down year for the state of Washington, Coach Sark was still able to sign seven of the top 10 from the state.  If the Huskies are going to be able to compete for Rose Bowls on a consistent basis, he’s going to have to be able to recruit not only the in-state talent, but steal the kids from down south as well. Not only that, but we once again saw the dawgs be able to emphasize their efforts on the California kids but were still able to bring in an abundance of talent from Hawaii as well. Recruiting nationally is a great advantage, but you can win when you recruit locally and have connected resources in the right places.

The depth of the class is simply astounding as well.  Everyone knows about Nick Montana, but the Huskies got quality players in every aspect of the game offensively and defensively. On offense, the interior (Colin Porter, Erik Kohler, Micah Hatchie just to name a few) the playmakers (Deonte Cooper, Kevin Smith, Jesse Callier) and of course, the leader (Montana).  On defense, the interior (Sione Potoae, Andrew Hudson, Hauili Jamora), the linbackers (Victor Burnett, Darius Waters, Chris Young) and the defensive backfield (Sean Parker, Taz Stevenson and Jamaal Kearse (though he may play wr).  The Huskies didnt just address these positions with mediocre kids whom they knew were likely to sign. They went out and they worked — hard– and signed real players, with real potential.  They weren’t competing for the same kids Idaho or Washington State were competing for. They were going after guys that were wanted by the USCs, the UCLAs and the Cals, and they won.

These are the kind of classes that you can potentially look back upon and say were the foundations for something special. And I can’t guarantee that all these kids will work out — I can’t even say for sure that any of them will. But just based on the sheer depth of the class, and a general understanding of what talent is — it’s very likely that we are looking at something remarkable beginning in Montlake.

We don’t really want Pete Carroll to be Jim Mora’s replacement, so 206Ball’s Chris Crawford decided to make a mixed tape — not a CD, a tape — and send it out to coach Bill Cowher to try and convince him to come to Seattle. Ya see, we assume that Paul Allen and Tod Leiweke are wise enough to check in on Cowher’s level of interest in a job way up in South Alaska. So if the Seahawks are offering the job to Carroll, we have to assume it’s because Cowher either did not want to come this far north and west, or he wanted to be team president, GM and head coach all wrapped into one.

So Crawford, who has a man crush on Cowher like nobody’s business (seriously, he talks about Cowher more than any other human being not named Michael Scott), put together his tape and sent it off Friday.

Here’s what was on the tape, to go with a little explanation or a note to Cowher himself.

1. Perry Como’s “Seattle” — Perry Como said that the bluest skies he’s ever seen are in Seattle … why would Perry Como lie, Bill?
2. Nirvana’s “Memorabilia” –  You can come as you are, as you want to be. Just come Bill, come.
3. Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” –  Excuse me while I kiss your ring, Mr. Cowher. Listen to that solo, tell me that doesn’t inspire you to come to the 206.
4. Heart’s “Barracuda” – Hear that bass? Thats the sound of 67,000 Seahawk fans rumbling. Nancy Wilson is asking for you Mr. Cowher, won’t you heed her call?
5. Sir Mix A Lot‘s “Posse on Broadway” — Not only is it a cool song? It’s a map, your eminence. All the cool spots in one song, Bam!
6. Presidents of the United States of America’s “Lump” – There’s a lump in my throat just thinking of how great it would be to have you on the sideline.
7. Faith Hill’s “This Kiss” — Okay, this one has nothing to do with Seattle, but it’s that pivotal moment, Bill. Its perpetual bliss.
8. Temple Of The Dog’s “Hunger Strike” — Not only a great song featuring two of Seattle’s most prominent singers, but I’ll do it if it means you are here and not Pete Carroll.
9. Flamingos’ “I only Have Eyes For You” – I don’t have to explain what this ones about. And by the way, I totally get that I’m to stay 500 feet away from you after games.
10. The PostalService’s “Such Great Heights” — No one else out there can take you to the top, your majesty. Not Pete, Not any coordinator. It’s you Bill, it HAS to be you.