One and Done Ducks

Well the NCAA Tourney is up and going strong and my braket couldn't be in any more disarray! Very strange tournament so far we had 2 games in the second round of 12vs13 seeds. That's just insane! Way to go Villanova, Siena, Western Kentucky and San Diego. All four number one seeds are still alive but UCLA and Memphis had tough second rounds. Hopefully for UCLA my champion pick it was just a fluke and they'll run over the rest of the way to the Final Four. Two 2 seeds both lose. Too bad Duke was one of them I was really looking forward to two freshmen from the state of Oregon to face off for the right to reach the Final Four.

As for my Ducks nothing new to report yet again they have a double digit lead in the second half of a game only to lose yet again! Both UCLA and USC games were that way and we couldn't pull those out either. They just don't seem to be able to put people away when they should! Oh well now it's waiting time for the Maui Invitational next season for which I'll be there to root them on! Go Ducks!

Bask Season Not Going Well

Well as many of you out there especially those who have no Idea who I am probably don't know is I love the sport of Basketball. Have always loved playing, watching and attending games.

This year what was a very hopefull begining has turned out bad for my Alma Mater the Oregon Ducks. After only losing a couple of players only one of whom started I thought we'd be able to get back to the tournament again this year. Early season stumbles were due to injuries more then anything. The second half season collapse though has me baffled, since I don't get many of the games down here in the Bay Area I don't get to see for myself what's going on. It seems we're winning most games until the very end. And games we're not in are due to a fall off of shots being made. Under Kent the team has always relied on being able to shoot the outside shot especially from 3 range. So if we struggle from there we have tough times. Another staple of the Kent era is defense. While some years we've had great defensive teams most others seem to be lacking. I'm not sure if this is just due to lack of talent or motivation on that end of the floor. I like Kent and what he has done for the program which probably puts me in a minority of Alumni who do as he always seems to be on the hot seat. However, I'm not sure what to make of this ever couple of years break down the team seems to have under his leadership. Is it just cockiness of the players who've been winning that cause the collapses? Or being told you're good by the media causes them not to fight like they do when they are being written off. Without some kind of Miracle or another Conference Tournament Title I'm don't think there is much chance of getting into the Big Dance and might have to settle for the NIT.

The Pac-10 is strong this year. UCLA and their traitorous big man Kevin Love (note: for those of you who don't know his old man played ball for the Oregon Ducks) have the most talent of the bunch but I don't think they'll win it all. They should get close to another Final Four appearance but not sure if they'll get much past there. Stanford is just a seriously dangerous team for anyone as the season moves along. With the twin Lopez brothers leading the way they should go deep into the NCAAs and probably have the best shot at making the Final Four of any Pac-10 team. WSU is just baffling they look so good one game then so bad during another. Until they can get settled down I don't think they'll make it out of the second round. USC is a team I don't understand how they have won that many games. Yes Mayo is a star player but I don't see much team in his game reminds me of Luke Jacksons Senior season at Oregon. They will bow out first or second round of the tournament. Arizona State, Arizona, Oregon, Washington and Cal all have shots at making the tournament. I think Arizona is probably on lock because of who they are. The other teams need to win out and/or make a statement in the Conference Tournament. As for the Pac-10 Player of the year I would vote for Ryan Anderson of Cal followed by Jon Brockman of (ugh hate to give them any props) Washington and Kevin Love of UCLA.

One thing that is really great for the State of Oregon is that two Freshman, Kevin Love and Kyle Singler, are shining so bright after all the hype they've had coming from Oregon. It's a great thing to see. Hope we don't have to wait this long again for some super star players to come again. Way to go Kevin and Kyle!

As for my Orangemen of Syracuse yet another year where they are a bubble team who will probably be kept out of the Big Dance due to lack of quality wins. Ugh so diapointing. I'm hoping one day to see a game in the Carrier Dome before Coach Boeheim calls it quits which I hope is a long way off.

The Portland Trailblazers are having a decent season with an excellent stretch of games that they had for a while there. They are back to being where I thought they would be but the sudden burst they put on there for a while bodes well for the coming years as these young players with talent and more importantly heart and the ability to listen to Coach McMillan. Next year they get Oden back to complement and allow LaMarcus Aldridge to move over to a PF position. Those two down low will be a beast of a duo that will put Portland back into the Playoff picture and along with Roy a potential run at a title in the next 5 years. Keep up the good work guys!

Been awhile but.....

Well it's been some time since I've posted anything. That is due to Hectic Holidays and being sick for 3 weeks. Well it's time to get back to it. Let's see since last I wrote:

The injuries to the Ducks, mainly Dixon, caused a major melt down. Finally in the Civil War they showed signs of life again. Oh well time to look forward to the bowl game and next season.

Meantime the other Ducks the Men's Basketball team have had 3 big lapses. 1 against a decent opponent and 2 against what I'd call the dregs! Ugh well luckily unlike in football as long as you get an invite to the Big Dance you can still win a National Title!

The Wife and I traveled back to the Portland area for her family's big Thanksgiving feast. This was her families turn to host. About 70+ people showed up for food and other goodies. We stayed with my wife's Brother and Sister-In-Law. Our Nephew is so much fun to hang out with and is growing like a weed. We got to have dinner with our friends the Greens while we were there which was great as we don't get to see them that often especially now. We were also able to visit for a short while with our friends the Dawgs! They have a little man who I just love to see and hang out with. Oh and his parents are fun to see too! Hi there D and J! This was also time for my sickness to get worse as well.

After Thanksgiving I had just the blahs that come with being under the weather. Then the following week I had a terrible cough and 100+ temp for a couple of days. So off to the doctor after my Mother-In-Law and Wife harassed me enough. Turns out the doctor thinks I had Bronchitis (SP??) so time for the anti-biotics and some serious cough medicine. And did they do the trick I finally got more then a couple hours of sleep in a day since three weeks prior!! That in itself was a big deal.

Well the sickness put me back a bit on my Christmas shopping for friends and family. So the Wife and I were pushing it in terms of getting everything we needed and still have time to get them shipped. We were able to pull it off as well as get our Christmas Cards out as well.

For Christmas this year we had the opportunity to attend the Monday Night football game in San Diego on Christmas Eve. How you might ask? A Partner that my wife works with is married to the Offensive Coordinator of the San Diego Chargers and she was kind enough to invite us along! This was so cool that I was looking forward to this so much! I'm not a Charger fan as most of you know or can tell from my posts I'm a 9er but you can't pass up an opportunity like this. Plus one of my really good friends, Bef, is a life long fan so at least I could go root on his team against the hated Broncos from Denver! The seats were great and the game was a blast especially since the team we wanted to win did!! Way to go Chargers!! Below you'll see some pictures from the game. Oh yeah while waiting before the game I got a quick shot of 2 of the announcers of the game good ol' Ron Jaworski and Tony Kornheiser. Didn't see Mike Tirico. The day before the game we went and visited the San Diego Zoo. That place was cool and nicely put together even though there were major remodels going on.

We got back on Christmas day where upon arriving home we found some presents left by the big man himself....Santa! The Wife got a GPS unit to help find her way around our new surroundings. The family picked up a Digital Video camera for filming life's little events like the one coming up in the near future. I got some Video editing software. Man we must have been really good this year!

To top off our Holidays we attended the Beaver Bowl Game here in San Francisco with my Wife's Aunt and Uncle who were kind enough to bring us along with them for the exchange of a couple nights stay. That was greatly appreciated. It was my second bowl game, first was 1995 Rose Bowl game Ducks versus Penn State, and the wife's first Bowl game. It was also our first time in AT&T Park as well. But we'll visit that place many times in the future as my Mother is a huge Giants fan. Anyway the game while being cold and rainy, luckily we were under an overhang, was just a blast! Especially since the Beavs pulled off the victory!! Whoot that was two games during the holiday's that we attended that the team we wanted was victorious!! Whoot!

Well that's really about it for all that you've missed up to this point. In the coming year we already have a couple trips thought out. In late January we'll be heading to Whistler, B.C. for a long weekend. Hopefully we'll get some company from some friends as well. Then around Thanksgiving time we hope to be in Hawaii for the Maui Invitational with our friends Bar, Kong and Bef and a big group of their family from back east. Both the UO Ducks and UNC Tarheels will be attending the tournament. I'm of course a Duck Alumni and Bar and Bef's family are Tarheel fans. We're not sure about ticket availability right now but we do know we'll be heading to Hawaii no matter!

Well I'll post more as it comes up and hopefully won't get a big blank area again.

MNF Announcers Kornheiser and "Jaws" Plus special appearance by Santa

Welcome to Qualcomm Stadium

Final Score of the MNF game

Forgot to mention that OSU Alumni Gary Payton was 3 rows in front of us at the Bowl Game! Nice!

Final Scoreboard of the Emerald Bowl

Injuries doom the Ducks

Well it was a hard fought battle by many backup players for the Ducks. They almost had enough to make it back into the game. But just not enough. In a game that saw Dennis Dixon leave early by re-aggravating his knee after a brilliant start and Jonathan Stewart go out late in the game it was still a great showing by the backups even if it did take Brady Leaf a while to warm up. Hand it to Arizona they capitalized on Leaf's rusty play and injured ankle. Heck even if Dixon had stayed in I think they would have made it a tough game. Our Defense in the second half was stellar! Now if they could play like that all game long!

Well until we know the extent of Dixon and Stewart's injuries it will be a tough last two games. Dixon Heisman hopes probably went with his knee in this game as most voters will not have watched the game and all they'll see is Leaf throwing a Int for a TD and tag it to Dixon. If the injury is bad enough that he's done then his chances are also gone. This all has some deja vu for me in that it was Dixon and Leaf getting into their first serious action happened a few years back at Arizona when Kellen Clemens broke his leg and was lost for the remainder of the season. I hope the same is not true with Dixon. But I also hope he doesn't risk his future football or baseball career by trying to do too much with that knee.

Well it was a good season so far and with games against UCLA and Oregon state we can still possibly make the Rose Bowl or a decent bowl outside of the BCS.

Beaver News as Requested

At the Request of my friend Bar here is some news about that other Oregon school the Beavers of Oregon State. Well really more of an update on the best quarter back to come out of OSU in a long, long time. Nope I'm not talking about the much beloved Jonathan Smith, who's coaching at the University of Idaho, but the much maligned Derek Anderson! Yep I said it back then and I'll say it now Beaver Nation he is the best Quarterback to ever grace your campus. Did he make you want to cringe and cower throwing over the middle late in a losing game. Yes! He made mistakes but many of his mistakes were due to receivers dropping the ball and worse yet deflecting the ball to the defense. His numbers would be out of this world and he would own every record if his receivers would have just caught 1/4 of the balls they dropped. Now on the one point I think everyone saw and agreed on was that he was slow and had trouble moving out of the way. Well we were all wrong! In the last 5 games of his Senior season he moved the ball really well with his legs. Did we forget that this guy was the Oregon High School Player of the year in both Football and Basketball? Oh yeah he was also on the track team in High School, go figure. But I figured it out he's not so good at the side to side speed but once he gets moving North and South he just lopes out there. He beat my Ducks his senior year by running not by passing. I thought he'd make a good to above average NFL QB. Look at his size and arm strength and there are not many that match up to him in the NFL. Now the biggest issue with him is his ability to forget what happened before. All Beaver fans remember that Junior year where he'd get one Pick, his fault or not, and he'd end up turning the ball over more or just being so damn tentative it just made you want to close your eyes. His Senior season he won me over in the department as the year went on he seemed to mature vastly in this department.

Last season due to injuries to Charlie Frye Derek was given his shot at leading the team. He didn't put up great numbers but he did lead his team to a comeback victory with his running ability against Kansas City. After that he struggled much like he did at times in his college career. And that brings us to the present.

Now in his third season in the NFL he finally was given the reins to the Browns. After game one the Browns unloaded their starting quarterback....Huh? Who does that? Weird but it was a move that has payed great dividends for the Browns. In his first game as a starter this season he went 20 of 33 for 328 yards 5 TDs and 1 Int against the Bengals in a match up featuring a couple of Great and I mean Great OSU receivers in Chad Johnson and TJ Houshmandzadeh! He since has still put up good numbers while still having a huge INT day especially on the road, he's thrown 5 of his 8 picks in 2 road games. So far his total stats for the season are 7 games 6 Starts 119 of 209 (56.9%) 1,744 Yards 8.3 Average Yards per Completion 17 TDs 8 Ints and a QB rating of 95.5 for the Cleveland Browns of all teams!! Now I'm not saying he's made it but he sure has proven he belongs and should be able to hold off Brady Quinn for a while if he keeps playing like this. I've watched almost all his games this season, as I have Sunday Ticket, and have been greatly impressed with him even in the bad games. He seems to just shake it off and continues to sling them in there. Maybe that's why I like him is he's a big QB who just rifles it in there even when he shouldn't. So far his receiving core in Cleveland (Braylon Edwards, Kellen Winslow and Joe Jurevicius) are making the plays for him to keep him able to thread the needle. I hope he can continue his play and will be able to play for a couple of years with this team to see if he settles in or has a fall back to earth. In either case he's still making plays and leading his team 4-3 (4-2 as a starter) and in second place by one game in the AFC North.

Note: If Matt Lienart were healthy and playing still we would have 3 of the top 5 QBs from the same High School Recruiting Class starting this week with Clemens getting the nod with the Jets. Anderson and Clemens were the top two QBs that year. And I believe they were the top two QBs in the Pac-10 during their tenure as well.

Ducks Rock USC!

Whoot Ducks finally beat USC again. It's been a few years. So now that USC is no longer a National Title contender and more then likely out of Pac-10 but not really yet. It's time to move on to our next challenge taking on ASU. ASU usually gives the Ducks fits. Which like Cal has had an ex-offensive Duck Coordinator as their head coach. But now it's that wiley guy who wins everywhere but the NFL, Dennis "the Menace" Erikson. Welcome back to the Pac-10 and a nice ride his teams had. No one knew what to expect from them but they've played really well and look like they are for real. I'm not sure how their defense will stack against or offense only USC has really stopped us. Cal did an Ok job but the Ducks stopped themselves mostly in that game and couldn't get a stop when needed against Cal. But since that game the Ducks have been on a scoring tear all be it against the bottomfeeders. But even the USC game we moved the ball at will and should have had another 100+ yards of offense but we went conservative with the lead and it almost cost us. And this against one of the best Defenses in the Nation. So we'll see how this goes could be a big shootout like in past years with the score up in the 40's for both teams. Should be a good game and luckily it's at home!

Well the 9ers lost yet again. With Norv gone and the injury bug going on the team just isn't playing well. The Defense even seems to have taken a step back as the seasons gone on. But that's probably due to the Offense being bad. Alex is back and if he stays healthy maybe they can get something back, but that's a big if as he looked like he reagrivated the shoulder again. Adam Snyder has been playing lately and doing an Ok job as you don't hear his name mentioned much after the introduction of the starters. Which is a good thing for an 0-line as he's not making the big mistakes.

Ducks Stumble

Well the Ducks finally stumbled and while I'm upset about that for losing. The good thing to take from it is we lost not necessarily to a better team but to one that we're on an even par with really. The Cal Bears won by a narrow margin and even if we had finished the game without imploding I would still say what I was saying before the game that it is a coin flip between the two. Now let's see if we can win out which will be tough as pointed out by the UW (ugh)/USC game this past week. USC is going to have real problems winning out I think as they have both us and Cal on the road. Cal could win out but with USC, at UCLA and at UW might be tough. For the Ducks they have a tough road with USC, at UW and at UCLA (where the scores always tight it seems).

Well I'm hoping that last year's 4-0 stumble doesn't repeat this year. Hopefully the team is in a better place mentally and will recover and play well again.

9ers Lucky to be 2-0, QB's with Oregon ties perform well

Now don't get this post wrong I'm happy that the 9ers are 2-0 in both league and division standings. However, how they got there has to be the ugliest, sloppiest games I've seen in a long time. Not to mention a little luck! Our offense other then one or two drives in two games looks like absolute shit! Our call playing leaves a lot to be desired. Come on could you use your mobile Quarterback more in the mobile category? He wins the first week for us on a broken mad dash scramble to save the winning drive and you don't do more to get him out running? Come on coaches take you heads out of your collective asses. Defense still doesn't look all that well yet but at least they haven't given up or broken down too much yet. Just shore up the little stuff and they'll be a good defense. Where the heck are the plays for Vernon Davis? The guy is just a freak of an Athlete and you don't run more plays for him? See comment on not using the QB above. Again glad to be 2-0 but we need to see more improvement on Offense as so far it looks like the entire offense has taken a step backwards! Speaking of Offense what's up with the choices on the line? I know I'm a Duck and a homer but come on last season Adam Snyder played better then a couple of linemen *ahem* *cough* Kwame *ahem* Baas. I know they have more invested in these other guys but give him some equal playing time as they're getting in back up roles.

Well onto other updates in the world of the NFL and players from the state of Oregon we had a few QBs in action today. Joey had a game where he didn't cost his team but also didn't do anything spectacular to help his team either. Off to another under his potential season. If I could get all the writers off his back maybe he'd start winning. I mean look at college his stats were good but his biggest quality was at being a leader and doing what it took to win. He also had track stars at WR and a couple strong RBs to help him during his years as the head Duck. So while I've been disappointed with his pro career as many I also realize probably too much was expected of him stat wise at the NFL level. I think this is his last chance and stop on the circuit. Derek Anderson the much maligned QB for the Beavers, although I thought Beaver Nation never gave him a fair shake. I mean come on he leads the league in offense and yes he had way too many INTs. But in both cases if his receivers wouldn't have had butterfingers or short arms stuff both those numbers would have been even better. I can't count the number of times his OSU receivers would have it hit them square in the chest and the other team would get the carom. Anyway back to his day it started off horrid missing on his first 5 passes but then he just goes ballistic on the Bengals defense for 5 TDs and one INT. What a huge game he had. I watched this game and yeah he got a couple of lucky breaks on some passes but that is just make up for all the bad luck he had with his OSU receivers. Karma always evens things out in the end!! Way to go Derek!! Now just have a decent game next week and the talk of Quinn stepping in will quite out for most this season. Good luck man!! And last but not least Kellen Clemens got his first career start for the NY Jets, because that snake Chad didn't want to get beat up by Baltimore! Well for 3 quarters that is what happened to Clemens he got beat up including a couple of hellos with his old Duck teammate Haloti Nagta. But in the 4th quarter down 17 he just went ballistic, or as in the old classic video game NBA Jam HE'S ON FIRE. He leads the team back on 3 pretty impressive drives. On the third of those drives he had one TD pass dropped by a wide open receiver, under threw a second TD pass and then finally the 3rd TD, a little high, pass got tipped and intercepted in the end zone. Now if he can just show up at the beginning of a game he looks like he'll have a decent career in the NFL. The game was a loss and that's never good but the Jets at least know they have a good backup QB who will continue to push for Chad's job. Although he might not be ready to be the full time starter yet I don't think it will be more then a year out before he is a starter in this league.

Well good job by all the players with Oregon ties all throughout the day.

No Ducks on TV but sounds.....

Well down here in the Bay Area I no longer get the Fox Sports Northwest, guess I should get the Sports Package for DirectTV, so probably won't get to see many Duck games unless they are on National TV. This week they took care of the always pesky Fresno State Bulldogs. Again the offense stats look great. The Defense based on the score must have done their normal adequate job. Biggest boost this week was the Michigan shellacking of Notre Dame.

Pac-10 was looking at a good weekend what with Washington, ugh can't believe I was routing for them for conference power, held their own for almost 3 quarters with OSU. But then UCLA decides to make a no show against Utah and just got dismantled!! That has to hurt the conference's National reputation. What was arguably the 2nd best team in the conference getting man handled. We'll see how it goes once the conference play starts in earnest.

Are you kidding me????

Holy Cow!!! That's about all I can say after my Ducks waddle into Michigan and just destroy them!! I thought that Big Blue would be just seriously pissed off after losing to a great Div I-AA team the previous week and just had us our collective asses. This game from a scoreboard looked like we just dominated. However, in actuality Michigan was doing quite well for most the game. They moved it well against us but like the old Rich Brooks teams our defense bent but didn't break. They even came away with some great stops in the Red Zone. Great going guys! And as the game moved on they just started to push around Michigan and started to just dominate the tone of the game. Meanwhile on the other side of the ball Dixon after a horrible end to last season looked like he was unstoppable for most the game. Those 2 statue of liberty plays were quite unexpected and worked to perfection. Our double headed running backs just pounded the D relentlessly even the reserve running backs looked good. Dixon gets the game ball and well deserved! Those long passes right on the money in stride was his weakness last year as he tended to under or over throw them. Great off-season work to get that corrected. I don't think I've seen passes that on the money since Joey and Sammie were here!

I would love to say coming out of this game things look really great for the rest of the season. But somehow I just can't. We proved we could play offense and score but it seemed like we left quite a few points off the board there in the second half by just not concentrating. Also the defense which got better as the game went on needs to shore it up early. But if they can continue to progress forward they should be able to compete with anyone in the league and it looks like the league will have some contenders this year. But is everyone playing for 2nd or have teams caught up to the Trojans finally? Well only time will tell.

Flags at Half Mast in 9er Land

It is with a heavy and sad heart that I write this entry. Bill Walsh the man who is the San Francisco 49ers to many of us fans passed away this past week after battling leukemia. The Bill Walsh era of the 49ers happened during my childhood so it is the 9ers that I remember the most and still to this day love. Eddie DeBartalo, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Dwight Clark, Tom Rathman, Ronnie Lott, Roger Craig (the greatest and most under-appreciated RB)..... The list goes on for those teams of my childhood but the man at the helm has always topped that list in my opinion when it comes to the 9ers. While he had all those great players it was his ability to get the most out of them and to utilize their talents properly that made all of them Super Stars.

I can remember one year in College when Stanford came to play my Ducks I sat there the entire time looking at Stanfords sidelines looking at the living legend for the entire game. I can't even tell you who won that game because one of my Idols from childhood was there doing what he does best coaching. And I see it as a great great honor that I got to have that experience in my lifetime. The only thing that would have been better was to be at a 9er game when he was still coaching.

Well Coach Walsh you will be missed but you have impacted many people over the years that you will live on in memory for a very, very long time.

‘Cuse out and now the Ducks!

Well ‘Cuse lost last week to Clemson. They were way back but at least stormed back to make it a game near the end. Good job and way to continue to fight and scrap until the very end. I’m of course disappointed in the loss but I am glad they never gave up. Hopefully they can replace the key seniors leaving but somehow I don’t think you can replace a player like Nichols right away nor the big man down low. But do have a good core nucleus coming back which bodes well.
Ducks oh my wish I could have seen the games but unfortunately I was traveling this weekend (see post on this). Looks like they were in control of the game against UNLV until the end when they let them get back into it. Luckily they did enough to fend them off. Nice job!! Way to go TP huge game in the National Spotlight!!! Against Florida it sounds like they put up a fight but weren’t quite shooting as well as they had been. At least it was a game and not all one sided. Man I can’t wait for next year. Aaron meant a lot to the team this season but we return 4 of the starting 5 and get some in coming talent coming that should help out. Ohh boy this should be good. I’m hoping all the Kent doubters will stay off his back for a while, doubtful, but I can hope. But I know if they don’t finish in the top 3 of the Pac-10 and go deep into the NCAA’s next year they will be calling. Unfair but that’s the way it goes I guess. I would have to say the Pac-10 looks set for next year to dominate the nation again. Oregon will stay strong, UCLA barring something surprising gets even better, USC gets stronger, Arizona after a off season should be back to form and I think Stanford should be in the mix. The others will all get better as well.

Ducks and Cuse move on

*Sigh*

That is the sigh of relief as the Ducks have moved onto the Sweet 16. In Round 1 they were just a tad off, well more like way off, from their Pac-10 Tournament games. Miami (OH) played well and almost got us in that game. We made a couple of moves but never could shake them even at the end. After that game I didn’t feel very good about our match up with Winthrop. I watched the Notre Dame/Winthrop game from round 1 and they have a post player that has some really good moves down in the post. Without a real big man of our own, sorry Maarty but you’re more of a forward then a center, I was worried they would eat us alive down low. However, Maarty and Malik did a fantastic job down low on the defensive end. Tajuan and Brooks both helped out as well I wish we could have seen the look on the guys face as he turned around and realized he had a 5’ 6” defender on him. That had to make him go WTF!! Great job all around by the entire team. Bryce again made baskets when needed and Tajuan and Brooks provided the 3-point daggers to put it away. However, even with Tajuan's 3-point barrage to start the second half I say the game ball should go to Maarty and Malik. Both of them worked hard on both ends of the court to fight for position, rebounds and put back shots.

Well now it’s onto the next round and a surprising, nationally anyway, UNLV team. Man this team looks dangerous. They might have been relatively unknown before the tourney but people sure see them now. This is going to be a tough game to pickas both teams have been shooting lights out in recent games. I didn’t get a chance to see either of UNLV's tournament games but reading the recaps this is a game where if either team has any cooling off at all it will cost them. I’m rooting for my Ducks but I can honestly say I don’t know who should win this game. I think both teams are similar but I’m hoping the off season workouts that the Duck players took upon themselves will allow them to out run the Running Rebels. In either case I think you might just want to strap yourself in because if both teams stay on the streaks they’re on currently this will be a high octane game that just might blow you out of your seats.

On the NIT front Syracuse has moved on again! Oh yeah the walked in that game! Now onto Clemson. This should be a tough game and even though I hate to say it I think Clemson has the edge in this game. But I’m still pulling for the Orange to pull it out with a gritty performance from Nichols. He’s going to want to keep it going into MSG and the finals for his last run!

As I’ve mentioned before many people probably wonder why a person who grew up on the Oregon Coast is a Syracuse fan. Well you have to go back to High School I think it was my Junior year and I was just getting into watching college basketball because I had stopped playing ball in school, which is another story in itself. At this time I had no ties to any of the in state schools other then OSU because my friend was going there. I hadn’t quite started looking at colleges for school yet. Anyways, the tournament was on and I was following it pretty closely as I love basketball more then just about anything in my life. I’ve never been one to really track players or remember when people were on what team. I’ve just always liked watching the games. As I’ve gotten older I have my teams I pull for and have less time to devote to my first love and passion. I’m hoping with the move I may reconnect again with this sport. Anyway back to my point in the tournament Syracuse was in and playing a game when I remembered my Stepfather went there. Now for some reason, looking back on it I think it was because how much my Stepfather has meant to me and what he had done for me yet another story for another time, I just clicked with them and their coach. Since then I’ve been hooked. I hope to never have to pick between the Orange of ‘Cuse and my Alma Mater Ducks because I don’t know who I’d side with. So far I have not had that dilemma and hopefully I never will unless it’s a title game!!

Well good luck to both teams in the next games hopefully both can move on.

A Sad and Happy Day

Well for the sad news first! The Orange just couldn’t recover late in the second half in their game against the Golden Domes of Notre Dame! Ah they were up at half and were keeping ahead during the beginning of the second half. Then the brief meltdown where they couldn’t do anything right and went down 9. They kept it within striking distance all the way through and ended up losing by 6. Well hopefully on Sunday they’re name will be called for the Dance.

As for the good news the Ducks took care of Arizona in dominating form! Holy cow I thought this would be like the two regular season games with a down to the wire finish. Just like the last game at the Pit we got a good size lead but this time instead of wilting we pushed it to a 20+ point lead. In the back of my mind though I still had doubts and they were almost founded as Zona brought it back to 14 again. But the Ducks settled down and played efficient down the stretch to keep the lead. Next up the winner of the UCLA/Cal game. I want UCLA as it would be nice to have another shot at them as a measuring stick.

Luckily the games were both going on during lunch and were even on the TV where I was having lunch. So I got to see about an hour of both games before heading back to work. I was able to keep up on the ‘Cuse game via ESPN.com and got the Duck game on the radio.

So I’m sitting here fingers crossed the ‘Cuse gets into the Dance and I’m hoping Oregon wins the PAC-10 tournament to get some hug momentum going into the Dance.

Welcome Home Fred Jones!!

Well one of my all-time favorite UO Duck men’s basketball players is coming home to Portland to play for the home town team of the Trailblazers. I’m very happy for him that he’ll get to play for his hometown team after an illustrious High School and College campaigns inside the state of Oregon! Now after his years at Indy and the last year up in Toronto he comes home. All the Portland locals and Duck fans will hopefully be rejoicing this new outcome. I don’t necessarily like they traded Dixon to get him but overall they got a better defender and athletic talent. Dixon was the better pure shooter but if Freddie, I just can’t not call him that sometimes, can get that confidence he had his Senior year at UO or during the suspension season for Indy that might not be an issue. Fred can play point if need be or the shooting/post up guard. Get him in space and he can beat just about anyone off the dribble to the hoop. He’s explosive still just known for getting down on himself and doubting his ability. Luke and Luke were able to get him to play to his fullest and when pressed to shine in the absence of the Indy stars he shined as well. Maybe being home and playing in front of a friendly, supportive hometown crowd will get him back up there.

Earlier I said Freddie was one of my all-time favorite. For a little insight into myself my favorite Duck basketball player ever was OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOrlando Williams!!! He had one of the sweetest rainbow, and I mean rainbow, shots I’ve ever seen. The guy just drained shots. I remember he was shooting from outside the three one game and he hit the scoreboard that’s how high of an arc he had. Plus standing in the student section we would always shout out “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” when he had the ball. In no particular order here are some of my all time favorite UO ball players (note: to be considered they had to be someone I saw during my UO timeframe Fall 1991+ sorry to the players from before):

Orlando Williams
Freddie Jones
Clyde “The Glyde Air” Jordan
Luke Jackson
Luke Ridinour
Alex Scales
Kenya Wilkens
Jordan Kent
AD Smith
Bryan Bracey

For the Women’s Basketball team:

Jenny Mowe
Arianne Boyer
Debbie Sporcich (probably the greatest to play at Oregon in my time)
Shaquala Williams
Cathrine Kraayeveld
Jamie Craighead

If you have a favorite that is on or not on these lists let me hear from you. If I’ve misspelled a name of a player my apologies as I’m not the best speller ever and names are hard to spell check!

Ducks Free Falling!

Well my Oregon Ducks Men's basketball team seems to be free falling the second half of the Pac-10 season. After a miserable trip to the Bay Area, my future home, they are looking to right the sinking ship with 3 home games where they should go at least 2-1 to head into the Pac-10 Tournament on a better note. The Cal game seemed identical to the game in Eugene with the exception we couldn't hold onto the lead in the second half after coming back from being down in the first half. That knocked our wind out and then Stanford deflated us completely. Not sure what the issue is other then the big scoring droughts but then again they seem to have happened all year long. It was just that in the first half we did enough to pull out the wins. Maybe it's just the law of averages playing out. But there is still hope and I'll keep holding to it but if we don't get that 2-1 at least over the last 3 games of the Pac-10 regular season I may lose that hope. For Aaron Brooks' sake I hope they get the ship righted in time to make a push in the NCAAs. He deserves some time to shine in the prime time spotlight of the Big Dance!!

Ducks Basketball

Well for a season that started out with such promise on the Men's side it is now starting to show the signs of weakness. After going 6-1 in Pac-10 play the ducks are now 8-5 and just can't seem to put games together again. I'm hoping this is just a slump and not a sign of things to come. Aaron Brooks just scored less then 15 points this last weekend when coming into the weekend he was the Pac-10 leading scorer. Ugh hopefully the team will sweep in the Bay Area, a tough thing to do, and then run the table at home against UW, WSU and OSU. The biggest problem I see is sometimes they just get into a rut offensivly where they don't move well without the ball or put up unwarrented shots. Sometimes those shots go in and it makes me even madder!! I don't care if you make a bad shot it was still a bad shot and making it will only encourage. The team moves the ball well when they want and we have the team speed to move well without the ball to get good wide open looks at the basket from about 10+ feet out or a quick dash to the hoop to take the feed. However for some reason we don't do this on a consistent basis. From a coaching standpoint I'm still not sure why we aren't pressing the whole game. The team worked hard on the offseason to make sure they got in great condition. Our bigs run the floor well and I think if we full court press the whole game we'd probably be winning all these close games by 15 or more. On defense our biggest problem is not blocking people out and not getting any over the back calls. But if the refs aren't calling that you have to make sure you block everyone out and go up strong to get the ball as it's coming down. Against many of the Pac-10 teams we should not be getting out rebounded with Marty, Malik and everyone else in the post position. Teams like Stanford will because of the amount of size they have on the team. But teams like Arizona give me a break we are bigger then they are. Oh well just have a few more weeks before the Pac-10 tournament. We need to go at max of 1 loss until then to get the team confidence back. I think the Pac-10 tournament if we can get to the final game that will bode well for the NCAAs. In the NCAAs we'll at our current rate bow out by the second round. If we can get the swagger back we could push into the elite eight again. Well only time will telll.

As for the Duck women I'm not sure what is going on but I'm thinking many people are wishing that the admin didn't bow to the players wishes and would have done everything in their power to make Jody Runge stay. Bev Smith is a good coach but for whatever reason she just doesn't get as much out of her players as Runge did. Now Bev is definitely more popular with her players then Runge ever was but then again you don't need to like someone to play for them especially when you are a Pac-10 powerhouse. I still have hope that Bev can pull in a great group of talent and get them to play ball as she wants. But I don't think fans nor admin will wait much longer before moving on.