Roundup: The Big Unit goes into the Hall of Fame

Former USC pitcher Randy Johnson was inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame Sunday afternoon. The Big Unit is the third Trojan to reach Cooperstown. As MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert points out, Johnson was emotional in his Hall of Fame speech (video of speech is included in the link). USC gets some love in his speech.

While we’re on the subject and while we’re down in SoCal, former UCLA women’s basketball great Natalie Williams was named to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2016. Williams, the first woman to earn All-American honors in basketball and volleyball in the same year (whoa), was a three-time All-WNBA All-Star and three-time All-WNBA first-teamer and led the USA to gold in 2000.

Former Utah softball player Kate Dickman was named Utah’s top senior female athlete in a team sport and thus will receive the Occie Evans Award. Dickman was a three-time All-Pac-12er in the diamond sport.

Let’s all see the many hand signals employed by Todd Graham. The Arizona State ball coach will be in Burbank along with 35 other coaches and players for Pac-12 Football Media Days Thursday and Friday.

Speaking of which, Jacob Thorpe gives us a little preview of Washington State at Pac-12 Football Media Days. Who’s going down there (Leach, Joe Dahl and Jeremiah Allison) and topics that are going to be covered (more from a conference perspective) are touched on in this link.

Grantland has decided that former Cal quarterback Aaron Rodgers is the best player in the NFL. Andrew Luck was No. 2, so take that, Stanford.

The national championship game loss to Ohio State is motivating some players on Oregon’s defense, writes Andrew Greif. Ezekiel Elliott and Co. ran roughshod over the Quacks in the convincing 42-20 victory for the Buckeyes.

New Oregon State defensive coordinator Kalani Sitake is looking to build depth in the secondary, notes Gina Mizell. Oh and how about this – Michael Conforto went 4-for-4 in his second MLB game. He is the first Metropolitan to accomplish that feat.

UW Dawg Pound gets you ready for Washington football fall camp by previewing the Huskies’ wide receivers and tight ends. Get ready for the Jaydon Mickens Show.

Brian Howell features Colorado men’s basketball player Dominique Collier. Dude has put on 13 pounds of muscle in the offseason already and is looking to have a breakout sophomore campaign.

Cool feature from Mark Soltau of GoStanford.com on Anthony Brown playing with the Los Angeles Lakers, the team he grew up cheering for.

Fox Sports Arizona tells us that Arizona football has been hot in recruiting lately.