The Hoops pod is back! Jack McCauley is joined by former UW players Noah Dickerson and Jason Crandall to recap their thoughts on the Huskies recent road swing through Michigan State and Michigan, otherwise known as the 'Welcome to the Big Ten' road trip.

Starting with the 88-54 loss to Michigan State, the guys talk about the slow start, why it happened, and is it something UW fans might expect to see more of throughout the season?

The guys also offered up insight on what it's like to get hit in the mouth like UW did last Thursday night, lose big, and what the next day is like at practice. And especially on the road, what was that like?

Then they talked about the 16-point loss at Sunday Michigan and whether that's more in line with what UW fans should see from the Huskies moving forward, especially teams that have multiple big men.

That talk turned into the play of Great Osobor, who tied a season-high with 23 points. He also showed up with 11 rebounds. How has his progress been, and can UW win games when he's not at 100 percent?

After a quick break, the guys move forward and look to the next three games on this current gauntlet of playing six-straight ranked teams. Washington hosts Purdue Wednesday night, travel to Oregon to play the Ducks on Tuesday the 21st, and then they come back to Seattle to host UCLA three days later.

With those three games all in the Pacific Northwest, and two at home - does that help shift the energy? And can the Huskies pull off an upset in one of the next three games?

Noah and Jason also took some time to answer a couple of fan-submitted questions before wrapping up this podcast.

When did they know that they had a team capable of making the NCAA Tournament? And what would it have been like if Dejounte Murray and Marquese Chriss had come back after their freshman seasons instead of turning pro?

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The guys from Dawgman.com - Kim Grinolds, Chris Fetters, and Scott Eklund - dumped out the mailbag this morning and got after all the relevant UW topics right now. First is the transfer portal. Has the time come and gone for UW players to officially enter their names into the portal? And what is the latest with cornerback Thaddeus Dixon, especially now that former Arizona CB Tacario Davis has announced his intentions to become a Husky?

Talk then turns to staff changes, especially with regard to the NFL. With Pete Carroll recently interviewing with Chicago, what does that mean for Brennan Carroll? Could we see the son go back to coach with his father, like we saw with Steve Belichick? And could that open up another spot for a former OL Coach like Scott Huff?

After a quick break the talk turns to the playoffs, starting with the coaches with UW ties that are still playing. Notre Dame's Mike Denbrock, along with Texas's Steve Sarkisian and Pete Kwiatkowski are still alive and well. And what to make of the quarterbacks that are playing in the semifinal games? Former Georgia QB Carson Beck is heading to Miami; should he be getting the most NIL money?

Because of the quarterback talk, the guys also talk 2025 NFL Draft. Who is the most draftable UW player right now? Opinions certainly vary. And opinions also vary when it comes to former Rainier Beach star Josh Conerly. Will the Oregon left tackle be a first or second-day pick?

Kim and Chris then get to the painful stuff, Washington's 34-point loss to Michigan State last night in East Lansing. Was it avoidable, or was it inevitable? And there was a silver lining, as French forward Dominique Diomande got his visa and joined the team in Michigan. What can UW fans reasonably expect from him before the season ends?

Scott offers up one more recruiting update, with a focus toward 2026, and then the guys give their final thoughts on the pod before wrapping things up.

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The Hoops guys are back! Jack McCauley is once again joined by former Huskies Noah Dickerson and Jason Crandall to get their takes on Washington's latest games and also what they expect to see from the next stretch of games.

What has stood out over the last few weeks? How much of a stain was that loss to Seattle University, or was it exactly what the team needed at the time?

The guys also talk about the big Maryland win and why is having an early conference home win like that so important, especially before a brutal schedule?

And even though it was a loss, how did the guys feel about the Illinois game?

After a quick break to pay a couple of bills, Jack comes back with Noah and Jason to talk about the upcoming games for the rest of the month, arguably the greatest gauntlet of games in a row Washington has ever faced in the history of the program.

What game(s) scares the guys the most? And what game (if any) is the most winnable?

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The guys from Dawgman.com - Kim Grinolds, Chris Fetters, and Scott Eklund - were quick to hit all the main talking points in Washington's 35-34 loss to Louisville in the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl, a game that eventually hinged on a two-point play by the Huskies to win it all.

After setting the scene in El Paso, the guys went right into the main takeaway of the day; Demond Williams is the real deal. The true freshman quarterback threw for 374 yards and 4 scores, while also giving up a pick-six, perfectly summing up the highs and lows that come with having a prodigious, but inexperienced, talent running the show at quarterback.

After talking about Williams and his special day, the guys also talk about the mystery that was Jonah Coleman. He finished with just 9 carries on the day. Was he limited? Was he just not as big in the game plan as would have been expected?

And that led right into the discussion of physicality and how Louisville was able to impose their will, especially on the offensive line of scrimmage. Both of their true freshmen running backs went for over 80 yards apiece.

After a quick break, the talk stays along the line of scrimmage, but with a twist... what is Washington going to do with their defensive front? They didn't bother Louisville QB Harrison Bailey at all in terms of pass rush.

The guys also talked about the fourth quarter, and especially the call by UW Head Coach Jedd Fisch to go for two and the win at the end of the game. The play was there, but Williams wasn't able to put enough air on the ball to find Jeremiah Hunter in the back of the end zone. It was also a phenomenal play by Louisville LB Antonio Watts to swat the ball away after coming off his primary read.

Was the call to go for two the right decision?

Before the guys offered up their final thoughts, Kim was able to get to the bottom of the Eric Bieniemy-to-UW rumor. Suffice to say, it's exactly what we thought it was.

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The guys from Dawgman.com - Kim Grinolds in El Paso and Chris Fetters and Scott Eklund back home in Seattle - got together to talk about today's Sun Bowl game between Washington and Louisville.

In setting the scene, the guys talk about Louisville, the players that will not be playing in the game because they have opted-out - like QB Tyler Shough, DL Ashton Gillotte, WR Ja'Corey Brooks, and CB Quincy Riley - as well as who will be starting at QB for the Cardinals, Harrison Bailey, and their talented freshman running back duo of Isaac Brown and Duke Watson.

Talk then turned to Demond Williams getting his second start as Washington's quarterback and the opportunities made available for some of the younger players because of a number of contributors entering the transfer portal. With Cameron Davis leaving UW for Minnesota, will that mean more carries for freshman RB Adam Mohammed?

After a quick break, Kim offers his first-hand thoughts from down in El Paso about who he thinks wants to be there more. The guys also talk about how the portal has affected both teams and who should step up for the Huskies in some key areas along the offensive line?

There's some quick chat about future coaching changes happening at Washington after the game. It's already been reported that Steve Belichick will be joining his Dad at North Carolina, and it's also been reported that UW has already lined up his replacement in former Purdue Head Coach Ryan Walters. How quickly will these moves be made? And will they be the only moves made?

Then there's some odds and ends that get tied up, including Michael Penix's end of season work, a quick men's basketball update, and Scott updating us on the latest UW portal additions, including some talk on former Texas WR Johntay Cook.

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The Dawgman.com interns - Jack McCauley and Luke Mounger - got together late this holiday season, but just in time to give UW fans the inside scoop on this New Years Eve matchup between Louisville and Washington, the first time the two teams have ever met.

But before they get into the various matchups they expect to see on both sides of the ball, the guys give their thoughts on the crazy transfer portal, the players the Huskies have gotten commitments from and also players that have left for other schools.

Then the talk dives straight into the matchup of Louisville's offense, led by quarterback Harrison Bailey, against Washington's defense. And then they turn the tables and look at Washington offense, led by quarterback Demond Williams, and how the Huskies expect to do against Louisville's defense.

After a quick break, it's time for Jack and Luke to give their Bets to Bark - players they expect to see do well on Tuesday - and then they give their Sun Bowl picks, as well as some bonus picks on the playoff games that also start on Tuesday with Penn State and Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl.

And to finish off the preview pod, the guys offer up their confidence levels, meaning how strongly are they convinced of a Washington win over Louisville?

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The guys from Dawgman.com - Kim Grinolds, Chris Fetters, and Scott Eklund - are back heading into the last recruiting weekend before the dead period hits for the holidays, so that means another chat about the transfer portal, the players that are coming and going, and who the Huskies have targeted to get in the boat now so they can enroll in time for winter quarter, which starts in early January.

They start with the positive news, which is the transfer players that have committed to play for Washington next season, including a local player in former Lynden Christian star TE Kade Eldridge, who left USC for the portal and just announced his verbal commitment to the Huskies right before the start of our broadcast.

Talk then moves to the UW players that have recently moved into the portal, with specific talk about Elijah Jackson and Khmori House. Were the guys surprised by those moves, and specifically with House - how much of his portal entry was dictated by the idea of Steve Belichick leaving UW to reconnect with his Dad Bill at North Carolina. Or does it also assume his position coach, Robert Bala, is also out the door?

And then there's a little side detour with regards to former juco star Thaddeus Dixon, who may end up with more eligibility if the recent Diego Pavia decision means former juco players can get those junior college years back. It's certainly not a sure thing.

After a quick break the guys come back to talk about recent visitors and those the Huskies are targeting now ahead of the dead period, which starts Monday, December 23 and goes through Sunday, January 5. And could there be a straggler or two that make decisions at that time but won't be able to enroll until spring? Scott talks about that. Also don't forget the fact that now players who play in college football playoff games get five days from after their last game to enter their names in the portal too, which they couldn't last season. Will that potentially mean UW holds back a spot or two if they've targeted players from those playoff teams?

Kim also spoke this week with some UW players, who gave some candid thoughts on their own experiences with the portal, getting recruited behind the scenes, and how they've dealt with the attention. Jonah Coleman, Denzel Boston, and Demond Williams certainly had thoughts about it all.

After that, Kim and Chris delve into Washington's 89-73 win over cross-state rival Washington State (is a basketball game between UW and WSU an Apple Cup game? The debate rages on...).

And before final thoughts from the three, Kim brought up a somewhat humorous encounter he had pre-game with notorious Cougar-backer Jim Moore. It's worth listening to the end to get the whole story.

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The guys from Dawgman.com - Kim Grinolds, Chris Fetters, and Scott Eklund - have been very busy since the end of the regular season for football, because that's when the mid-year signing period for high school players and the beginning of the transfer portal for current college players happens.

Chris and Scott already talked at length in the previous podcast about the 29-player high school recruiting class that Washington signed back on December 4, but they haven't talked about the transfer portal yet - until today.

As of today (Friday 12/13), nine current UW players on scholarship have entered their names into the transfer portal (OL Kahlee Tafai, DB Curley Reed, OL Gaard Memmelaar, RB Cameron Davis, DB Tristan Dunn, RB Sam Adams, EDGE Maurice Heims, EDGE Lance Holtzclaw, and LB Bryun Parham).

And also as of today, Washington has two portal commits (Oklahoma OL Geirean Hatchett, and Kansas State OL Carver Willis).

There's seven portal visitors expected on campus this weekend, as well as a visitor Scott alluded to in the podcast that has since become known via his social network accounts, and we posted that information HERE. 

After nearly 40 minutes of portal talk, the chat turned to the other big college football story of the week, former New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick taking over as the new head coach at North Carolina.

This new has obvious connections to Washington, as Bill's son Steve is the Huskies' current defensive coordinator. Is it a done deal that Steve is going to join his Dad in Chapel Hill? At the very least it seems like $1.2 million things need to happen before January 1st if Steve plans on joining his Dad. That's the number of his buyout if he left Montlake now before the end of the year. But is that the only thing holding him back?

And then before offering up our final thoughts on the beginning of an eventful post-regular season for UW Football, Kim and Chris had to offer some thoughts on what's going on with men's hoops, especially with the Washington State game coming up next Wednesday. What's working well for UW, what needs improvement, and just how much are they missing Franck Kepnang?

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The Guys from the Husky Hoops Pod on DawgmanRadio, Jack McCauley, Noah Dickerson, and Jason Crandall are back with another episode, and this time there's a ton of things to talk about ahead of Washington's first ever B1G home game versus USC.

To start, they talk about the Huskies currently having the No. 1 recruiting class in the Big Ten for 2025, having signed four players - JJ Mandaquit, Courtland Muldrew, Niko Bundalo, and Mady Traore. Noah adds an anecdote about his own recruitment and how he visited Washington and immediately committed to another school!

Next, the guys recap the Acrisure Invitational Championship, where Washington beat Colorado State on Thanksgiving and then Santa Clara the following day to bring the hardware home to Montlake. They talked about the things they saw that went well, what needs improvement, and overall how hopeful they are of success from this group of Hoop Dawgs moving forward.

After a quick break the guys talk about Washington first-ever Big Ten road game at UCLA, where they lost by 11. What did they see from that game? And what is it going to take in order for the Huskies to break through?

The guys also talk about certain key themes to the season so far that have started to forge the identity of the team, like the lack of offense, how the offense revolves around Great Osobor, free throw shooting (Noah has a revelation on this topic!), and more.

UW Head Coach Danny Sprinkle has comped Noah and Great, so Noah offers his thoughts (Jason too) on Great's game and where improvement is going to come over the course of the year.

The Huskies are now back in Seattle after the UCLA game and they next play USC Saturday afternoon. What about the Trojans? They react to St. Mary's holding the Trojans to 36 points and they just lost to Oregon in LA too. What are the guys expecting from Saturday's game, and more specifically how can the Huskies add to the Trojans' woes and at the same time maintain their 100 percent home winning record? Jason offers up some insight into a factor you might not think about when it comes to having a home-court advantage.

And both Noah and Jason have strong connections to former UW Coaches Will Conroy and Quincy Pondexter, who are both now at USC. Are they having mixed emotions about seeing the former Dawgs on the other side of the court? Here's a hint; for guys outside the area, it didn't matter as much, but for the local guys? It's everything.

Jack jumps ahead and asks Noah and Jason about the upcoming Washington State game, one where the Huskies will be hosting former UW player Nate Calmese. And how do they think Sprinkle will deal with his first game against WSU as Washington's head coach? Sprinkle was born in Pullman!

To wrap up this most recent hoops pod, Jack asks Noah and Jason; what aspects need to improve in these next handful of games before Big Ten play ramps up in earnest in January?

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The guys from Dawgman.com - Chris Fetters and Recruiting Editor Scott Eklund - caught their breath after Washington signed 29 players in their mid-year signing class for the 2025 season, slept on it, and then came back refreshed to talk about the class.

For those hoping for a breakdown of every single signee, you're out of luck. We wanted to keep this podcast at a reasonable length, but included here is the official press release, which gave biography information on every prospect signed.

To start the podcast out, Chris and Scott broke down the top storylines that immediately stood out. Were the UW coaches able to adequately address need? Did they get bigger, something UW Head Coach Jedd Fisch has talked about constantly since coming to Montlake in January?

Fisch spoke at Washington's Signing Day press conference along with UW Football Director of Player Personnel, Matt Doherty. Including Doherty signals just how much has changed in recruiting, because now you not only need to scour the country for the best prep talent out there, but you also have to recruit with the transfer portal in mind.

After setting the scene, Chris and Scott broke down some of the players mentioned in Scott's Signing Day Superlatives piece, including who he thinks are undervalued, instant impact players, the top recruiting battles, and then we also had to talk a moment about the first signing of the class, Adelaide, Australia punter Dusty Zimmer.

And that lead into talk about the transfer portal, which opens up this coming Monday, December 9. We broke down the current numbers, including the 29 prep signees and all the players recently lost to graduation. But the X factor is the expected attrition, as current Huskies will enter the transfer portal. And there needs to be a lot of attrition if Fisch sticks at the current number of 85 scholarships as he wants to (NCAA rules now allow teams to scholarship as many as 105 players starting for the 2025 season).

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It wasn't pretty, and it wasn't expected to be. Given their massive talent gap on both sides of the ball, as well as their coaching continuity and ability to reload at key positions - like quarterback - No. 1 Oregon was able to brush Washington aside with relative ease en route to a 49-21 shellacking Saturday night in Eugene.

For Kim Grinolds, who was on site at Autzen Stadium, as well as Chris Fetters and Scott Eklund back home in the greater-Seattle area, the result was hardly surprising. It was the expected outcome given how their offseason took place, as well as the divergent they took when it came to how their seasons unfolded. One program ran the table en route to being the No. 1 team in the country; the other had to scrape by on the second-to-last game of the season just to get bowl-eligible.

But the biggest talking point, and the first thing discussed tonight, was the move from UW Head Coach Jedd Fisch to have true freshman Demond Williams make his first start of the season in Eugene. Without doing an exhaustive look at the record books, we have to believe this is the first time in UW history a true frosh quarterback made his first start ever on the road against the No. 1 team in the country. And he performed really well, all things considered. He finished with a higher passer rating than his Oregon counterpart, Dillon Gabriel, and also led UW to 21 points against a Duck defense that was surrendering less than 16 points a game.

However, it was the inability of Washington to muster anything on the ground, coupled with Oregon's ability to pick and choose the kind of running game they wanted all night long, that proved to be the difference in the game. Gabriel really didn't have to test Washington's defense because their best offense was handing the ball off to Jordan James and Noah Whittington.

And defensively, Oregon was able to wreak a ton of havoc with their base attack, eventually forcing 16 tackles for loss and 10 sacks against a Washington offensive line that was outmatched at every turn. Most of the night, Williams had little to no time to look downfield, let alone go through a progression.

Now that the game is over, what does Washington do going forward? Signing Day is this coming Wednesday, and the transfer portal window opens up the following Monday. It's safe to say the UW coaches have their hands full, as well as their plates because right around when the portal opens is the same time the team will learn which bowl game they will be playing in.

And before the guys gave their final thoughts on the game and what UW needs to do moving forward, they talked about what bowl game the Huskies will likely go to. There were Independence Bowl reps in Eugene Saturday night, so is it a done deal that the Huskies will be heading to the Bayou? Kim has been hearing about another bowl that could be a possibility, and this destination is much closer to home.

And lest we forget, Dawgman.com is running our biggest sale of the season: 75 PERCENT OFF a yearly subscription, and just in time for the holidays! Consider it a great stocking stuffer for the UW sports fan in your family. They'll love you forever. You can get details on the sale HERE.

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