JB89

Alex, thanks for the article. I agree that we do not need or want to have the ex Tennessee QB on our team. I will disagree with your comment that Moore needs to be the starter this year. The QB that needs to be the starter is the player that the coaches decide is the best to lead the team this fall. I think Novosad is in the mix to be the starting QB. I do not see practices but I thought Novosad looked like the best QB on the field in last years spring game. Whichever of the two QB's gets the starting job, I think we need to have the other QB stay with the team and not transfer. If we go into next fall with only Moore or Novosad then we will only be one injury away from not making the playoffs. I have confidence that we can make the playoffs with either player as our starting QB but we need the other player to be available if an unfortunate injury occurs.

I hate to see us drop in the polls this late in the year. I understand why it happened. The loss at home to LMU really hurt. LMU has a losing record 18-22. In early march UCLA beat them 11-1 & 12-0. LMU has been shut out in games versus Oklahoma, Utah, Cal., Long Beach State and San Diego. We also struggled to beat Minnesota in two of the three games this past weekend. Minnesota is 14-26 overall. I hate the SEC but with the addition of Oklahoma and Texas they are the top softball conference. They look like the old PAC12 when looking at the rankings. They are recruiting many of the top California players that used to stay in the PAC12. Maybe NIL is the reason for so much of the talent heading to the SEC. Since the Duck's opportunities to play against top 10 teams are limited a series win against UCLA is extremely important. That along with a strong showing in the conference tournament might be enough to get a coveted top 8 seed.

30Duck, I think you are a long time fan of the softball team as am I. I went back and looked at the 2017 roster just to refresh my aging memory. I would take the 2017 team to win the series against this 2025 team. I am very impressed with the talent that Lombardi has assemble for the 2025 team. The pitching talent has finally gotten the Ducks back to an elite level and the freshman class is unbelievably talented and productive. The 2017 team had Jenna Lilley, Nikki Udria, Shannon Rhodes, Alexis Mack, Gwen Svekis, Haley Cruse and pitcher Miranda Elish just to name a few. Those players are why I would choose the 2017 team. The Mike White era was a great time to be a Duck Softball fan. I hope Oregon can win the series against UCLA this weekend and make the title game of the Big Ten conference tournament. Unfortunately they will probably need to have that type of success to receive a top 8 seed. The non league wins over Tennessee and FSU will help in seeding but the home losses to OSU and LMU hurt just as much as those wins help. We must beat OSU tomorrow. Under Lombardi, I felt we deserved to host a regional a couple of times but we were relegated to a #2 regional seed instead. The year they sent us to Texas just to have a match up with Mike White's Texas team was very frustrating. Given the selection committees past history of over looking Coach Lombardi lead Duck teams they must continue to win because the committee will look for any reason to not give us a top 8 seed.

Ducks get the sweep. 5-4

Minnesota cuts the lead to 5-4.

The Ducks add to their lead in the 5th. 5-0 Ducks.

The Ducks start the scoring in the 3rd inning with a 2 run homerun by Kedre Luschar.

In a very close game today, Elise Sokolsky reenters the game in the 7th inning to close out the victory. Minnesota led the game thru 5 innings on a 2 run homerun in the 3rd inning. The Ducks scored 2 runs in the 6th and 3 runs in the 7th to take a 5-2 lead. Lyndsey Grein struggled with her control in the 7th. This lead to the reentry of Sokolsky. Fortunately, the Ducks held on for the victory. They look for a series sweep tomorrow with the game starting at 10:00 AM.

I do not believe Dana is too old school. My guess is we do not have enough NIL money to attract the top talent in the portal. I think the same thing is happening with our WBB program. It is simply a bidding war now. If you do not spend a ton of money you are not going to get the top transfer players. Also Oregon is probably spending the majority of their NIL money to keep the players currently on our roster

WBB adds multi year starter at Washington State. Former Washington State guard Astera Tuhina commits to transfer to Oregon women’s basketball WWW.OREGONLIVE.COM Oregon has landed its second transfer of the offseason.

WBB adds all Mountain West forward from Freson State. Former Fresno State forward Mia Jacobs commits to transfer to Oregon women’s basketball WWW.OREGONLIVE.COM Jacobs shot 40.8% from the field, including a career-high 38% from three, and 85% from the free throw line this season while starting all 34 games

The Ducks score seven in the 4th and five in the 5th inning to get the easy road victory. Lindsey Grein improves her season record to 20-1. Emma Cox who started the season at catcher but was injured a month ago finally returned to action today. Braiesey Rosa has been fantastic while taking over the starting catcher position. It will be interesting to see who gets the majority of starts now. This was a much needed win after the surprising loss to LMU on Monday. Hopefully the Ducks dominate the rest of the weekend with a series sweep over Minnesota.

Wow, If those numbers are accurate it is not good for the sport that we all love. I'm all for players getting additional compensation above their scholarship but this is getting ridiculous. A college QB holding out of spring practice because $2.4 million a year is not enough. Does he think none of his other teammates deserve any NIL money? I would think this would fracture team chemistry. Negotiate while at practice and leave for the portal if you are unhappy with the results. I hope this does not happen for OBD but unfortunately it is probably inevitable.

Thanks for the update. The softball team is having a fantastic season. The B1G is not as strong of a league from top to bottom as the old PAC12. I do not remember scoring 20+ runs very often in the PAC12. Fortunately, OBD played and won some tough non league games against teams like Tennessee and Florida State. Hopefully they can get a top 8 seed and not only host a regional but a super regional.

This is a great start in transfer portal recruiting for WBB. I hope they can add several more transfer players from power 4 teams.

I agree. Seems more like someone to add depth rather to be a starter. Which is ok as long as we find some players that have been starters on a power 4 team. The WBB team went to the tournament because they upgraded their portal transfers this past year vs their transfers in the previous year.

Count me as another fan that prefers keeping the current spring game format. I think the coaches get to evaluate more players in the current format and more players get significant snaps.

Thanks for the softball update. This could be the year to make a return trip to the College World Series. We appear to have 2 elite pitchers this year. They pitched great against #7 Florida State with both getting shutout victories. The shutout victory over #9 Tennessee is another important win. Being able to win low scoring pitchers duels against top 10 teams is very important in Super Regionals and the World Series.

Champions Week being the 12th game of the season and not the 13th game is interesting. It would not be an automatic lose and you are out of the 14 team playoffs. I think it is better for player health to eliminate any 13th game prior to the playoffs.

Jon, it is fun to have these discussions. I would not compare B1G or SEC MBB league tournaments to a CFB championship week because in MBB it is not win or you are out of the national tournament. Michigan State can lose in the MBB conference tournament and still receive the highest seed for any B1G teams that make March Madness. While in the proposed 1 vs 8 CFB championship week game, if the #1 seed is upset by #8 they will be out of the playoffs. A comparison could be made with the smaller MBB conferences that only receive one March Madness bid. I have always thought those conferences were making a mistake by having a conference tournament. Their conference tournament usually results in their best team not making March Madness. They would be better off sending their top team every year. Get a better seed and possibly some victories that could lead to multiple league teams making the tournament in future years. Thanks for the discussion.

It was mentioned above that the top Big 10 teams get some breather games in conference games. None of those supposed breather teams are as weak as many of the 4th non conference home games being played in November by SEC teams in 2025. The SEC will play these powerhouse teams in November this year: Eastern Illinois, Mercer, Charlotte, Tennessee Tech., Western Kentucky, The Citadel, Coastal Carolina, New Mexico St. and Samford. The SEC plays these teams in November instead of a 9th league game. These SEC November home games are much easier than any 9th conference game played at home or on the road in the Big 10.

I'm not a fan of the proposed Championship Week if it includes forcing the conference champion to be included. Notre Dame would get a direct path to the playoffs just by finishing in the top 14. This proposal would require the regular season champions of the Big 10 and SEC to win an additional game to make the playoffs while Notre Dame gets an easier path to the playoffs. I would give the 1st and 2nd place teams in the Big 10 and SEC automatic berths into the playoffs just like Notre Dame. Let 3rd place play 6th place and 4th place play 5th place to get the final two playoff spots for both the Big 10 and SEC. This would give additional TV games to replace the conference championship games but also reward teams for their regular season success.

Altman is a great coach. I'm glad he is not retiring. It is frustrating that he has to continually address this issue. It seems like he said nearly the exact same thing a few years ago. It is time for reporters to just leave him alone and let him tell us when he is retiring. Coach Altman has earned that right.

Previously, my expectations for this year were similar to the past several years. Top 15-20 team unlikely to make the college world series. If Grein can continue to pitch like she did last weekend then I could see Oregon making the college world series. An elite pitcher or two has been the only thing keeping Oregon out of the world series recently. Hopefully Grein is the pitcher that can get us back to the world series.

Alex, thanks for the article on Evan Stewart. I noticed you did not include Jurrion Dickey in your returning talent list. I hope to see great progress from Jurrion this year. I'm curious if you or other FishDuck members expect significant contributions from him this year?