Dawgman Radio: A Washington Huskies athletics podcast

Sam Timmins wasn't going to wait that much longer, because he doesn't have that much longer to go. In fact, the senior from Dunedin, New Zealand, is set to start his 61st, and final home game for the Washington Huskies (13-15, 3-12) Friday night against cross-state rivals Washington State (14-14, 5-10). So needless to say, he's happy that the Huskies finally broke their 9-game losing streak with a resounding 35-point win over California, but the Cougars will be a different test. 

The senior center went from being a starter his first two seasons to a role player under UW Head Coach Mike Hopkins, but his commitment to Washington has never wavered, even when he could have gone elsewhere. 

The media spoke with Timmins and Hopkins Wednesday on a number of subjects. Timmins talked about his road to Seattle, his official visit to UW, and staying with the Huskies even when Lorenzo Romar left. Hopkins talked about the improvements made by the Huskies between the Stanford and Cal games, what they need to do defensively to slow WSU down, and the impact Timmins has made on the program.

Isaiah Stewart, Nahziah Carter, and Mike Hopkins spoke post-game after Washington's 87-52 demolishment of Cal Saturday afternoon at Alaska Airlines Arena, snapping UW's 9-game losing streak.

Sam Timmins, Nahziah Carter, and Mike Hopkins spoke to the media Thursday night after Washington blew a halftime lead, eventually losing to Stanford 72-64 in Seattle. It was the ninth-straight defeat for the Huskies, who are now 2-12 in Pac-12 Conference play.

Dawgman.com's Kim Grinolds spoke Friday morning with 247Sports' National Recruiting Editor Brandon Huffman, who also happens to live in the greater Seattle area, to break down the new 2021 recruiting re-rankings, how the re-rankings are done, and why this particular set of re-rankings is very important.

A prospect's junior season is their moving year. It's the time where they really get on the recruiting radar and colleges start following them heavily and/or offer them and try and get them to visit their campuses.

With so many top in-state prospects included in the 2021 class, including the national No. 1 player who lives 30 minutes away from Montlake (J.T. Tuimoloau), it felt important to get a detailed breakdown on just how the 247Sports' recruiting experts get together and communicate with each other to come up with a comprehensive national ranking of the top players that they can justify to their membership.

Huffman also gives his opinion on all the top local 2021 prospects, including Tuimoloau, UW QB commit Sam Huard, Steilacoom ATH Emeka Egbuka, Julien Simon, Owen Prentice, Clay Millen, Junior Alexander, Jabez Tinae, Will Latu, as well as some names of local players who aren't necessarily household names now but will become known as the months go on, and that includes prospects for future classes.

Mike Hopkins said it best; you have the answers to the test. That's the way it is when you're playing in your conference, and the Washington Huskies are now in the middle of playing against league foes the second time around.

It just so happens that their current eight-game slide started in Palo Alto, shortly after the Huskies learned their point guard, Quade Green, would be ineligible for the rest of the season through the Pac-12 Tournament.

It's not exactly a coincidence that Green's exclusion was at the same time the Huskies lost their way, but the correlation of the two events doesn't imply causation. Washington was still up double-digits against Stanford in the second half before UW started turning the ball over, missing every free throw, and the Cardinal hit every three-point shot they looked at.

What's interesting is that Stanford was 13-2 at the time of their win over UW, but since that time they've gone 3-7, including a current 4-game losing streak.

So Thursday's showdown in Seattle feels like a battle of who wants it more.

UW Head Coach Mike Hopkins talked about taking that opportunity, what they've been working on to shore up deficiencies on both sides of the ball, and also about the Board of Regents approving construction of a men's and women's basketball facility.

The media also talked to freshman point guard Marcus Tsohonis about the difficulty of playing through this current losing streak, how much he's putting on himself for that, and what it's going to take to put an end to the losing.

The guys from Dawgman were at the Starfire Training Facility on Friday to watch several former Huskies as they went through the paces in a "Mock Combine".

They talked about what each of them saw as well as what each heard during their interviews with all six of the Dawgs on hand -- Trey Adams, Benning Potoa'e, Jared Hilbers, Salvon Ahmed, Hunter Bryant and Chico McClatcher -- as well as their thoughts on the recent offer to 2021 Kennedy Catholic (Burien, Wa.) wide receiver Jabez Tinae.

What does the talented wideout bring to the table and how many receivers will Washington take in the 2021 class? That is discussed as well.

The Husky coaches have also extended their recruiting reach to some areas outside the usual Pac 12 footprint with offers out to prospects in Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Iowa. What does that mean and why were they doing it?

All of those topics and more are discussed in today's podcast.

These days, Tracy Ford has his irons in a lot of fires. He's heavily involved in 7-on-7 tournaments and putting teams together under the FSP (Ford Sports Performance) banner, and his gym is an off-season haven for high school players of all sports to help improve their speed, strength, agility, and quickness.

But one of Ford's biggest moves was getting involved in NFL combine prep. He takes 20-30 guys a year after their college careers are over and puts them through a rigorous training regime with one thought in mind: get them bigger, stronger, and faster for the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, and/or their respective Pro Days.

To that end, he puts together a mock combine roughly two weeks before the NFL Combine is held. It's a great opportunity for those attending to get one last report card before they head to Indiana. And for those pro hopefuls that didn't get an invite? It just means an early benchmark to judge where you need to focus your energies for the next six weeks before your Pro Day. They go through the normal testing (40-yard dash, 20-yard pro agility shuttle, vertical jump, etc...), and then go through a couple periods of position work.

Six former Washington players - Trey Adams, Salvon Ahmed, Hunter Bryant, Jared Hilbers, Chico McClatcher, and Benning Potoa'e - were all in attendance Friday at Starfire, but only four of them worked out. Two that are headed to Indianapolis, Ahmed and Bryant, went through the full battery of tests and drills, while the other Husky heading to Indy, Trey Adams, chose to sit out while he finalizes his preparations.

Two of the others, Hilbers and McClatchers, also went through the full workout, while Potoa'e did not work out. But all of them are scheduled to work out during Washington's Pro Day, scheduled for March 31.

Dawgman.com's Chris Fetters talked to Ford about all six Huskies, how they've done so far in their combine/pro day prep, and where he sees their futures as professional football players.

Mike Hopkins has been in the basketball business long enough to know you can't wave a magic wand to make your troubles on the court disappear. The only way he knows how to get through the low points is to get back to the process that works. And that's exactly what he talked to the media about Tuesday as the team gets ready for their fourth Pac-12 road trip of the season, this one to the Los Angeles schools. Both games will be shown on ESPN2. They play USC at 6 pm Thursday night, and UCLA at 7 pm Saturday night.

The Huskies are 0-5 so far on the road in-conference and are currently on a six-game losing streak. These are circumstances not just unfamiliar to Hopkins, but for all the Huskies. They are all used to winning and winning a lot.

But if you look at the things that got them to a Pac-12 regular-season title last year, namely defense, those aren't things they're doing at present. Last year they led the league in defense, surrendering a little more than 62 points per game. But the last three games they've given up an average of nearly 80. That's the opposite of a Mike Hopkins defense.

He talked about that, the 'burn the boats' commitment he's asking of the players as they fight through their current struggles, and how it all comes back to him doing his job when talking about making the players better, both on and off the court.

The guys from Dawgman.com - Chris Fetters and Head of Hoops Aaron Beach - come at you strong on a Friday afternoon to talk all things UW Men's Basketball.

First, we go through the walking conundrum known as Jaden McDaniels. An NBA team is going to make him very rich soon, but can he keep it together and still impact the team he's currently on? And in what ways can the freshman G/F get that done? And what do you do if you're UW Head Coach Mike Hopkins?

Then we move on to a couple of the more positive aspects of the team to date: the play of Isaiah Stewart all year, and the play of Hameir Wright during Pac-12 play.

Then it was time to really dig into the current situation and how they get out of their five-game skid. Beach talks about the fortunes of the team being on a knife-edge, and how they are finding ways to come up short this year in a way where they were able to find wins last year.

They talk about the freshmen guards - Marcus Tsohonis and RaeQuan Battle - and how they've done so far and what they're going to have to keep doing in order to push the team forward.

The enigma that is Nahziah Carter is next on the list to talk about and how he's struggled to find his groove with this lineup. But why?

And last, with a trip to Washington State next on the schedule, Fetters and Beach break down what they think has to go UW's way to get out of Pullman with a win, as well as what they might do in the Pac-12 Tournament. Beach has felt for a long time UW is the team no one wants to face in Vegas because they have the ability to beat anyone at any time.

Does he still feel that way?

The Washington Huskies had no way to know how it would work out, but the fact that they play only one game this week - and it's on a Sunday - means they've had extra time to assess what has gone wrong during their current five-game losing streak.

In other words, the break couldn't have come at a better time, and if you take Mike Hopkins' word for it, it's allowed the team to recharge their batteries, get away for a bit, come back and get prepared to finish off the rest of their season with a flourish.

Apparently it's also produced two of the best practices the Huskies have had since the end of December.

"These rivalry games are just incredible because everybody gets excited to play in a high-level arena against competition that is going to play at 110 percent going at each other," Hopkins told the media Thursday ahead of the team's travel to Pullman to face off against Washington State Sunday afternoon. Game time is 3 pm Pacific Time and will be shown on ESPNU.

"I think our biggest focus right now is just making sure we're playing our best game and we're focused on playing as one. And then competing at a level like no other. These guys have done an incredible job of doing that in practice the last couple days. It's probably been the best two practices we've had in the last month-and-a-half. That's always a positive things as coach, you see the confidence is still there and you see the belief is still there and you see the work ethic is still there and you see them wanting to get better and wanting to grow. And most importantly, understanding that there's a lot to play for. It's real. And that's what I'm so excited about."

The media spoke with Hopkins and Isaiah Stewart to get a feel for how the break has benefitted the team and what they need to do to get back to winning ways.