Does ice cream make you scream at hoops?

C olumn as I see ’em …

The Washington basketball team won’t forget its weird trip to the Willamette Valley. A traffic accident en route to the Oregon game on Thursday night delayed their bus by almost an hour, forcing the Huskies into hurry-up mode from the moment the players stepped into the gym.

(By the way, props to coach Lorenzo Romar for not using the highway snarl as an excuse for the lethargic effort against the Ducks. The accident involved a fatality. Some perspective was required, and Romar supplied it.)

Sunday afternoon at Oregon State, the Huskies found themselves in another delay when a front-row fan spilled a cup of ice cream on the floor. The cleanup took five minutes. For ice cream.

Since my dad took me to see my first basketball game in 1966, I’ve been to maybe 200 different arenas. Over all the years I’ve enjoyed the bliss of a hot gym on a cold winter night, never have I said to myself: “Gee, some ice cream right now would really hit the spot!”

Washington weathered the ice-cream spill, in any case, and while its NCAA tournament status figures to be touch-and-go for the next month, I’m putting a hunch on the go.

Remember, the “play-in” round has fattened the tournament field from 64 to 68. The Huskies are flawed – they’re still trying to figure things out, less than a week before their home finale – but I can’t imagine a committee concluding they aren’t among the 68 best teams in America.

 • Baltimore Ravens running back Ricky Williams, whose enigmatic career will be recalled for its unfulfilled potential, retired from the NFL the other day.

Again.

And this time, he means it.

The surprise isn’t that the 34-year old Williams has lost his desire to play football – desire was never a word associated with the 5-foot-11, 235-pounder. The surprise is that he lasted as long as he did: 11 seasons over 13 years.

Despite his indifference about playing pro football, Williams rushed for more than 10,000 yards. Only 25 other running backs have reached the 10,000-yard mark, and the majority of them are in the Hall of Fame.

Ravens teammate Ray Rice credited Williams for his mentorship, and nominated him for Canton.

“I believe that Ricky Williams is a Hall of Famer,” Rice told reporters last week. “All that he has done in his career, he deserves it.”

Hall-of-Fame ability? No question. A Hall-of-Fame plaque? No way.

 • Mike Ditka, who was both coach and general manager of the Saints, arranged the infamous trade with the Redskins for Williams.

In exchange for the right to select Williams at No. 5, Ditka shipped the Saints’ entire allotment of 1999 draft picks to Washington, as well as their first and third picks in the 2000 draft. The cost of acquiring Williams seems preposterous in retrospect, but then, the cost seemed preposterous in 1999.

But at least the trade helps explain how the NFL has evolved into a pass-oriented league over the past 13 years: Running backs today aren’t considered worth a top-5 draft pick.

 • My assessment last Friday of Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik’s best and worst trades failed to include the midseason 2009 deal that sent Mike Morse to Washington for journeyman outfielder Ryan Langerhans.

True, Morse played no specific position – one reason he’d cleared waivers before the Mariners sent him to Triple-A Tacoma – but Morse always could swing a bat.

He hit .303 for the Nationals last season, with 31 home runs and 95 RBI. His .550 slugging percentage ranked fourth in the National League, behind only MVP Ryan Braun, Matt Kemp and Prince Fielder.

And Langerhans? The .229 career hitter shuttled between Tacoma and Seattle for a couple of seasons, then was traded for cash considerations, last June, to the Diamondbacks.

 • Paul Sturgess signed a contract with the Harlem Globetrotters the other day. This is noteworthy because, at 7-foot-8, Sturgess is the world’s tallest basketball player.

Sturgess played center (I presume) at Mountain State University.

That’s not a typographical error. There really is a Mountain State – it’s in West Virginia – that produced a 7-8, uh, mountain.

It’s the Globetrotters’ tradition that every player be attached with a nickname. Paul Sturgess’ nickname?

“Tiny.”

 • Speaking of nicknames, Jeremy Lin’s astonishing burst from obscurity – the Knicks’ second-year point guard, recently released by the Warriors and Rockets, might be the NBA’s most popular player – has created a nickname-search frenzy: What do you call an instant superstar whose parents immigrated to the United States from Taiwan?

With a nod to the great Johnny Rivers, here’s my contribution:

Secret Asian Man.

 • Pitchers and catchers have reported to camp for the Mariners. Hoo-ray.

Only 44 days until the international opener in Tokyo, and 52 days until the domestic opener in Oakland, and 59 days until the home opener.

In other words, we’re looking at a two-month wait, and a lot can happen in two months.

The Seahawks could sign a free-agent quarterback. An NBA team from Sacramento could announce its intention to relocate to Seattle, and an NHL team from Phoenix could take the same path.

I’m not sure what life has in store for any of us over the next two months, but I know this much: When the Mariners face the Oakland A’s at Safeco Field on April 13, I’ll have an appetite for ice cream.

john.mcgrath@thenewstribune.com