Monday, March 3, 2008

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!

Saturday, December 29, 2007

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

Thursday, November 15, 2007

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.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

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.

Monday, October 29, 2007

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.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Some news I can post finally.....

Well after letting family and close friends in on the news I can finally post that I'm going to be a first time Father around April. This has been a long and tiring process as my wife and I have been trying for quite some time and have had some issues.

For a long time I just wanted to live out my life with my wife and felt no need for a child. After many years of reflecting on this issue one day out of no where I just felt that I was willing to try. I'm still not sure what caused my change of heart maybe just the thought of not having anyone to call my own to pass things along too. Don't get me wrong I love my little guys and gals, children of close friends, and would have loved passing that information on to them but something changed one day. Maybe it was the fact I was no longer being told to make a child by others. Or maybe it was the reflection on the sense of loss I've had in the past finally coming into play. Hmmm guess I could keep on guessing but the final notice is I did change my mind.

After having the talk with my Wife about this change we made a decision to try. Well after a frustrating year of no luck we did have one success that was marred by complications that required surgery. Needless to say my worst fears had come to life and I'm a worrier by nature so that was tough. After that little setback we had to take a short break before trying again. In the meantime we moved down South to the Bay Area, I left my job and boom we've hit the jack pot coming out of the gates when we start trying again. Weird that you try for so long then have a stroke of bad luck and then things just go like clockwork.

Now we're past that initial safety mark that we felt comfortable sharing the news with friends and family. Now we're just on to the rest of the pregnancy which hopefully goes as smooth as the first part has. *knock* on wood!

When my wife first told me she scared the hell out of me, mostly because I was asleep and it was damn early in the morning. Then I freaked out a little bit. We were in temporary housing and it was still unknown what was going to happen with me, still is. Just so many things up in the air and then this it was just a little much. But now we've moved, I wouldn't quite say settled yet but getting there, into our town house and things are getting somewhat back to normal. So now it's just the normal fears: Will the baby be healthy? Will my Wife have any issues? I hope these are all normal and just not me being me.

For me I really don't want to know what the sex of the baby will be and I'm not sure if I can put into words why. Am I afraid of knowing 'til their here because I'm scarred that something might happen still and knowing might make it worse? Or is it just I just want a healthy kid and don't care to know until the happy day? The Psyche sure can play tricks on you can't it. It just seems sometimes I never know the real reason for a decision I make.

But if asked what I hope for and the quick, easy and first thing that comes to mind is a little girl. Now my Aunts on my Mom's side of the family should find that quite hilarious as I used to complain to them that they were 0-x because they had girl(s) and no boys. When my brother came along I would also add that my Mom was 2-0! LOL! Speaking of my Mom when thinking upon why I'd like a girl I think it comes down to her and wanting to give her a girl from her son. I know that sounds weird and probably even stupid but it is the only answer I can seem to find.

On a more where we are note so far we've had 3 ultra-sounds and everything is looking good so far. *knock* *knock* The Wife is still not feeling all that well as food just does not treat her well at all. We're hoping that passes soon as it's making her life very unpleasant right now. I'm also hoping her aversion to Peanut Butter stops soon as it's one of my favorite things! We also heard that she needs to eat some spicy food so that the kid will like it. Ugh that will be hard as my Wife is a wimp when it comes to spicy. I love things hot and spicy can't get enough really.

Well that's it for now will write more as we have more to pass along.

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.