Number 2 in Your Program. Number 975-09-876 In Your Heart

When the Huskies and Aggies (again, not the Texans who think that they own numbers, but the Utah State variety) tip-off their first round NCAA tournament game later tonight, eleven years will separate the ages of the two point guards: Washington's Justin Dentmon, 18, and Utah State's David Pak, 29.

While it's not unusual for players on Utah-based teams to be a smidge older because of religious obligations, Pak was away on a special kind of mission. You see he wears number two on his jersey to signify his second chance at life. He spent eight years in prison and is now trying to turn his life around.

And while it's not unusual for win-hungry basketball coaches to give talented athletes a second (or third, or fourth, or fifth) chance, most of these players have committed minor indiscretions such as stealing cars, theft, using drugs. Pak, um, well...Pak raped a woman at knifepoint…Yeah, that is what we thought…Yeah.

Needless to say eight years in a California State Penitentiary can shape a man. As the Huskies' Brandon Roy put it, "I'm not going to try and intimidate this guy." The Huskies also may not want to waste time sneaking up behind him to try for a steal; something tells us that prison may have sharpened his sense about that sort of thing.

Tonight's game is at 6:45 on KIRO, where you can hear the announcers employ euphemisms like "run-ins with the law" and "youthful mistakes" to avoid stating the plain fact that Utah State brought a convicted rapist and registered sex offender on campus to try to win basketball games. Our enjoyment of sports just dropped a bit.