Blog matters: Two Zags honored, Clarence ‘Clancy’ Williams and Ronnie Hamlin

A sampling from the past week of entries in The Spokesman- Review blog SportsLink at spokesman.com/ sportslink.

Kevin Pangos and Sam Dower Jr. made the All-WCC first team but regular-season champion Gonzaga was blanked on the four major individual awards. Przemek Karnowski was given honorable mention.

Gonzaga’s best chances individually were Mark Few for coach of the year and Karnowski for defensive player of the year. WCC coaches opted for San Francisco’s  Rex Walters for the coaching honor over Few, who kept GU on track despite injuries to its top three scorers early in the conference season. Walters guided USF to a tie for second place (the Dons were picked fourth in the preseason poll), but his methods have been called into question.

Karnowski anchored a defense that ranked first in scoring defense (61.6) in WCC play.

“He’s a real problem-solver when you can put him in there and not require any help,” Few said of Karnowski. “He’s protected the rim as good as we’ve had in a long time. Our guards turned a lot of guys loose at the rim and he was able to master staying vertical and affecting shots by the guards. And through long sections of the league he stayed out of foul trouble.”

On Thursday, the National Football Foundation released a list of 81  candidates for the College Football Hall of Fame. Former Washington State running back Clarence “Clancy” Williams was among those nominated.

Williams came to WSU after playing his prep ball at Renton HS and played for the Cougars from 1962-64. He was named a first-team All-American in 1964 after leading the Cougars in rushing, scoring and kick returns.

Williams also starred for WSU as a defensive back and was drafted by the Rams in the first round and went on to an eight-year NFL career. He combined for 15 interceptions over the 1967 and ’68 seasons.

The NCAA has granted Eastern Washington linebacker Ronnie Hamlin a sixth year of eligibility, the school announced Tuesday afternoon.

Hamlin, whose 361 tackles rank third in school history, was given the extra year because he missed the 2009 and 2010 seasons with an ACL injury.

Hamlin, a team captain last year, was an all-Big Sky Conference performer last season with 140 total tackles.