dherman, wrote

Cougar hurdler Jeshua Anderson finished fifth in his heat during the semi-finals for the U.S. Olympic team in the 400m hurdles, meaning he won’t qualify for the finals to be run tomorrow. Although Anderson ran the eighth-fastest time, the winners were determined based on the top four in each heat, and Anderson had Kerron Clement and Angelo Taylor (the reigning world champion and the 2000 Olympic gold medalist, respectively) racing alongside him.

Despite the setback, Anderson sounded upbeat in a news release from USATF. “”I’m just blessed to get this far,” he said.

Anderson will still compete in the 2008 International Association of Athletics Federation World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, July 8 to 13.

Top 4 in each heat qualify for the finals, to be held Sunday at 4:17 p.m. in Eugene, Ore.

1 Kerron Clement               Nike                     48.20Q
  2 Reuben McCoy                 Auburn                   48.37Q
  3 Angelo Taylor                Nike                     48.59Q
  4 Brandon Johnson              Nike                     48.68Q
  5 Jeshua Anderson              unattached               48.92
  6 Eric Dudley                  unattached               49.37
  7 Nathaniel Garcia             U.S. Army                49.52
  8 Brian Derby                  Phenetix Intl            59.07

Heat  2 Semi-Finals
  1 Bershawn Jackson             Nike                     48.63Q
  2 Johnny Dutch                 South Carolina           48.71Q
  3 Justin Gaymon                Georgia                  48.77Q
  4 LaRon Bennett                unattached               49.25Q
  5 Robert Griffin               Baylor                   49.38
  6 James Carter                 Nike                     49.45
  7 Terry Thornton               unattached               49.90
  8 Joey Woody                   unattached               50.34

dherman, wrote

WSU freshman hurdler Jeshua Anderson ran the 400m hurdles in 49.05 seconds to gain the fastest qualifying time in the quarterfinals of the 400m hurdles at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore., on Friday. Jeshua, who raced in the fourth heat, came in a full half-second faster than his nearest challenger, Terry Thornton of Hampton University (Thornton ran in the first heat).

Anderson won 400m hurdles at the NCAA Championships and the USA Junior Outdoor Track & Field Championships in June. His win at the USA championships qualified him for the 2008 International Association of Athletics Federation World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, July 8 to 13.

Anderson will vie for a spot in the finals Saturday, with the semifinals scheduled to start at 3:55 p.m. The top eight runners in the semifinals will advance.

Angelo Taylor (9th) won the gold medal in Sydney in the event in 2000, and Kerron Clement (5th) is the current world champion. Thornton finished seventh at the NCAA championships.

When asked about beating Clement in the prelims, Anderson said, “It doesn’t mean anything right now; I just need to make it to the finals, that’s all I’m worried about.”

Results for the runners who qualified for the semifinals, from the USA Track & Field Web site:

Preliminaries
  1 Jeshua Anderson              unattached               49.05Q
  2 Terry Thornton               unattached               49.54Q
  3 Bershawn Jackson             Nike                     49.63Q
  4 Reuben McCoy                 Auburn                   49.87Q
  5 Kerron Clement               Nike                     49.13Q
  6 Justin Gaymon                Georgia                  49.64Q
  7 LaRon Bennett                unattached               49.99Q
  8 Brandon Johnson              Nike                     50.11Q
  9 Angelo Taylor                Nike                     49.34Q
 10 Robert Griffin               Baylor                   49.74Q
 11 Joey Woody                   unattached               50.34Q
 12 Nathaniel Garcia             U.S. Army                50.35Q
 13 Eric Dudley                  unattached               49.39q
 14 James Carter                 Nike                     49.94q
 15 Johnny Dutch                 South Carolina           49.96q
 16 Brian Derby                  Phenetix Intl            50.19q

dherman, wrote

42 – Sacramento – Sean Singletary

43 – Sacramento – Patrick Ewing, Jr.

44 – Utah – Ante Tomic

45 – San Antonio – Goran Dragic

46 – Seattle – Trent Plaisted

47 – Washington – Bill Walker

48 – Phoenix – Malik Hairston

49 – Golden State – Richard Hendrix

50 – Seattle – DeVon Hardin

51 – Dallas – Shane Foster

52 – Miami – Darnell Jackson

53 – Utah – Tadija Dragicevic

54 – Houston – Maarty Leunen

55 – Portland – Mike Taylor

56 – Seattle – Sasha Kaun

57 – San Antonio – James Gist

58 – L.A. Lakers – Joe Crawford

59 – Detroit – Deron Washington

60 – Boston – Semih Erden

Notes: Hairston, Leunen (Oregon) and Hardin (Cal) played in the Pac-10, bringing the total up to 12 players drafted from the conference … Taylor was drafted from the Idaho Stampede of the NBA Development League, thanks to some bizarre circumstances involving being kicked out of Iowa State. He was later traded to the Clippers for a future draft pick and some cash … Darrell Arthur (AKA the Brady Quinn of basketball) was traded to Portland for cash (pending verification by the league, as with all trades). Mario Chalmers will be traded from Minnesota to Miami for two future second-round picks and cash. Washington traded Walker to the Celtics for cash … Foster actually wrote a song for the draft, which ESPN then played. Let’s just say it’s a good thing he got drafted before anyone heard it … The Atlanta Hawks had no draft picks.

That’ll wrap it up for this 4.5-hour (!!!) draft coverage. We’re all happy for Kyle Weaver, and wish him and Derrick Low the best. As we said, he can still sign undrafted or even play overseas and still do well. We’ll be sure to watch their professional careers – when the Cougars aren’t playing, of course.

dherman, wrote

31 – Minnesota – Nikola Pekovic

32 – Seattle – Walter Sharpe

33 – Portland – Joey Dorsey

34 – Minnesota – Mario Chalmers

35 – L.A. Clippers – DeAndre Jordan

36 – Portland – Omer Asik

37 – Milwaukee –Luc Richard Mbah A Moute

38 – Charlotte – Kyle Weaver

39 – Chicago – Sonny Weems

40 – New Jersey – Chris Douglas-Roberts

41 – Indiana – Nathan Jawai

Notes: Weaver was originally expected to go as high as #33 to Portland … Mario Chalmers was the only person left ranked ahead of Weaver in the PG rankings … Mbah a Moute (UCLA) is from the Pac-10, the eighth player from the conference to be drafted (Weaver was the ninth). Mbah a Moute was largely considered a late-second round pick … Pekovic won’t play for Minnesota for some time, since he signed a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract to play in Europe. Asic is expected to do the same shortly (he plays in Greece).

dherman, wrote

“With the 38th pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, the Charlotte Bobcats select Kyle Weaver from Washington State University.”

“I don’t know if he can shoot, but he has 188 career assists,” - Stuart Scott. Andy Katz had good things to say about him.

Congratulations to Weaver, who is only the second Cougar ever selected in the draft. The other was Don Collins, the 18th pick in the 1980 draft by Atlanta. We’ll be keeping a watchful eye on his career as he progresses. Weaver will join DJ Augustin and Alexis Ajinca in Charlotte, who were selected earlier in the draft.

Derrick Low has yet to be picked, but even if he doesn’t get picked it’s not the end of the world. He can always sign undrafted and continue to work up through the NBA’s development league. In the article we linked to earlier, he said scouts had been talking with his agent, with favorable impressions.

dherman, wrote

19 – Cleveland – J.J. Hickson

20 – Charlotte – Alexis Ajinca

21 – New Jersey – Ryan Anderson

22 – Orlando – Courtney Lee

23 – Utah – Kosta Koufos

24 – Seattle – Serge Ibaka

25 – Houston – Nicolas Batum

26 – San Antonio – George Hill

27 – Portland – Darrell Arthur

28 – Memphis – Donte’ Greene

29 – Detroit – D.J. White

30 – Boston –J.R. Giddens

Notes: Anderson (Cal) is from the Pac-10. Seven players from the conference have been selected … Jerryd Bayless (Arizona) looked really, really sad when Andy Katz talked to him about going to Portland. Katz said, “You should hook up with Brandon, maybe trade hats,” and Bayless looked at the ground. I thought he was going to cry … It’s unknown at this point who might choose Weaver, since the draft has only been barely been unfolding as predicted. He’s still got a good shot at early second round, though. Mario Chalmers, from Kansas, is still available and widely considered to be ahead of him in the PG standings. Naturally, we disagree, but we’ll wait and see.

Darrell Arthur is the official Brady Quinn of this draft, falling from an expected top-10 pick down to #27. They didn’t show him from pick 18 to 25, reminiscent of when they hustled Quinn out of the green room for the NFL draft when he didn’t get picked at #13. They interviewed him at #25, and he sounded down. Finally, we heard some information. Arthur has an undisclosed kidney condition, and neglected lab work when he underwent physicals for individual teams, and the teams don’t want to risk it. Kansas, according to Andy Katz, says their tests revealed no issue.

Portland’s #27 pick was actually selected by Charlotte, who has traded it away for cash pending verification by the league … We have no official statistics on this, but with Brook, Robin, Alexis and Courtney this might be the girliest draft ever, outside of the WNBA … The ESPN analysts are getting bored, they’re already talking about their childhoods … I’m not judging, but Seattle has a habit of picking foreign big men who end up doing nothing. Serge Ibaka is different, because he’s staying in Spain for three more years. Wait, how is that better? Luckily, no one cares in Seattle, because they’re leaving, or Oklahoma City, because they’re getting a team … Watching the draft on TV, with two horizontal and a vertical info bar, in addition to the draft Web site (so many scrolling things) is giving me a huge statistical overload, in addition to a splitting headache.

dherman, wrote

We’re in the middle of the two rounds.  One of the biggest things out of this draft is the absurd number of freshmen selected in the first round, which already set the record for most freshmen selected in a draft, period. It’s difficult to understand exactly why this is such a shock, given the recent decision by the NBA to institute a rule requiring all incoming players to be at least one year removed from high school before they can enter the draft. Naturally, this means that the best high school players stay in college for … one year. Making them freshmen. And yet, no one bothered to mention it until Dickie V started yelling as I was typing this.

dherman, wrote

11 – Indiana – Jerryd Bayless

12 – Sacramento – Jason Thompson

13 – Portland – Brandon Rush

14 – Golden State –Anthony Randolph

15 – Phoenix – Robin Lopez

16 – Philadelphia – Marreese Speights

17 – Toronto – Roy Hibbert

18 – Washington – JaVale McGee

Notes: Bayless (Arizona) and Lopez (Stanford) are from the Pac-10. Lopez was a HUGE surprise (pun intended), since he wasn’t supposed to go until the late first, or even early second rounds. You can bet the Lopez’ mother will be set in her retirement. Yikes. Six Pac-10 players have been selected in the draft so far. Thompson, at #12, was the first senior to be selected in this year’s draft. The Raptors’ pick (#17) will likely go to Indiana because of a proposed trade. Hibbert was booed when he was selected, but not nearly as bad as Gallinari was (the Knicks fans never like their draft picks, and are known for booing no matter who it is. Given that they haven’t had a winning record since the 2001-2002 season, they may have good reason for doing so).  The record for freshmen picked in the lottery was set, with seven. The record for freshmen picked in the draft overall is eight. Weaver is listed as the second-best remaining PG on ESPN’s site. McGale’s mother played in the WNBA, making their bond the first WNBA-NBA legacy ever. Portland proposed a trade where they would acquire Ike Diagu and (#11) Jarred Bayless from Indiana for (#13) Brandon Rush and Jarrett Jack.

dherman, wrote

The first ten picks are gone, and a few surprises along the way.

1 – Chicago – Derrick Rose

2 – Miami – Michael Beasley

3 – Minnesota – O. J. Mayo

4 – Seattle – Russell Westbrook

5 – Memphis – Kevin Love

6 – New York – Danilo Gallinari

7 – LA Clippers – Eric Gordon

8 – Milwaukee – Joe Alexander

9 – Charlotte – D.J. Augustine

10 – New Jersey – Brook Lopez

Notes: Mayo (USC), Lopez (Stanford), Love and Westbrook (UCLA) are all from the Pac-10. Brook Lopez fell much farther than everyone expected, with some tapping him to go as high as third. Six freshmen selected so far, only two off the record for freshmen selected in the draft period (eight), set last year. Seattle has six draft selections, or 10% of the entire draft. With all the surprises, unless things start shaking out soon it could push Weaver and (potentially) Low back even further

You’ll notice the Nets, who had the tenth pick, have an odd logo:

Because there’s no net to be found.

dherman, wrote

It’s 7:30 p.m. (Eastern), and the draft is officially underway. Andy Katz had official word as of half an hour ago that Chicago will take Rose, and the Heat are taking Beasley. After that, it’s all up for grabs. The minute we hear anything about Low or Weaver, we’ll be sure to let you know.

Snarky question:Will NBA Commissioner David Stern say the “Seattle” Sonics, or just “Sonics?” My money’s on a stumbled “Oke… SONICS!”