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Since 1985, there have been 58 times that the #12 seed has defeated the #5 seed. Here are a few examples. 2026 #12 High Point 83 #5 WISCONSIN 82 2024 #12 James Madison 72 #5 WISCONSIN 61 2019 #12 Oregon 72 #5 WISCONSIN 54 2013 #12 Ole Miss 57 #5 WISCONSIN 46 2009 #12 WISCONSIN 61 #5 Florida State 59 (OT) 2013 #12 Oregon 68 #5 Oklahoma State 55

Yes, the Ducks have the lower ERA

Here's a look at the Wildcats head baseball coach, Ben Greenspan. He was an assistant coach at Cal Poly for the 2022 season. He spent seven years as the assistant/associate coach for the Arizona State Sun Devils between 2015-2021. Under his guidance, ASU earned regional berths in 2015, 2016 2019 and 2021. After one year at Northwestern, the team improved from 10-40 (200%) to 18-34 (346%). In 2024, the Wildcats won nine non-conference road games and their fielding percentage improved from .967% (13th in the B1G) to .980% (1st in the B1G). Assistant coach Cody Jefferis attended the University of San Diego, where he played shortstop for the Toreros baseball team from 2018-2022. He was on the 2022 WCC all tournament team. He is a native from Valencia, California. Nine players on the Northwestern roster hail from California, so these guys are familiar with the West Coast. The Wildcats have only one player on their roster hitting above .300%, that's outfielder Jackson Freeman. His current stats are: .371%, 26 hits, 3 doubles, 1 triple, 3 home runs and 7 runs batted in. Last year he hit two grand slam's, one against Illinois and the other against Maryland. Their pitching staff, up to this point, have been mediocre at best. Their team era is .680%, while our Duck pitchers are a remarkable .312%. But the games aren't won on paper. Their won on the field. As always...GO DUCKS!

Two close for comfort! Getting these young kids some game time experience during the mid week games will get them prepared for the stretch drive later on. Bring on the Hoosiers!

The fallout continues. The USC Trojans, depleted like Oregon with injuries, ended their season on an eight game losing streak. Is Coach Eric Musselman on the hot seat?

Justin Joyner is the new Oregon State basketball coach. His wife Tracy is the Oregon Ducks womens soccer coach.

As bad as the Ducks season was, look no further than former PAC-12 member Arizona State. They just got pummeled by Iowa State 91-42!!! And they only scored 16 first half points. Bobby Hurley is on his way out. Who's next?

A fitting end to a disastrous season. How do they score 12 points in the first half and 48 in the second half? Injuries aside, this years team has been a real head scratcher. Shooting 19/52 for 37% and 4/21 for 19% from three. Out rebounded 38-28. Time to flush it and move on. I believe Coach Altman will return but if not for gutting this roster and starting over, we'll witness the same. Will Shelstad and Evans Jr. return, or will a school with NIL lure them away. I believe Altman has one hand tied behind his back and is doing the best with what he's got. The Ducks attendance averaged 6,352 which is 51.4% of capacity. That has to change. But to put butts in the seats, you need a winning team. Difficult maybe but entirely possible. It's eight months until basketball starts again for our Ducks, I'm hoping for some good news to get this program turned around in the right direction.

When I first posted this article, I scratched the surface on the plight of the four west coast schools. Much to my surprise, Jon Wilner wrote an article on the same thing today, although he does a deep dive into the situation facing these schools. It's behind a paywall but well worth reading. I did my own 'deep dive' into the injuries that Oregon has had to deal with these past six seasons, naming the player, year and how many games were lost to injury. 2020-2021 N'Faly Dante 22 Will Richardson 12 2021-2022 Nate Bittle 13 Richardson 5 2022-2023 Jermaine Couisnard 17 Keeshawn Barthelemy 12 Bittle 8 Dante 5 2023-2024 Bittle 31 Jesse Zarzuela 31 Barthelemy 18 Dante 14 2024-2025 This is the only season the Ducks were healthy. Brandon Angel, T.J. Bamba, Barthelemy, Bittle, Kwame Evans Jr., Jackson Shelstad and Jadrian Tracey all played in 35 games. Supreme Cook played in 32 games and Ra'Heim Moss in 30. 2025-2026 Shelstad 19 Devon Pryor 15 Ege Demir 12 Bittle 7 The grand total for all the games missed. Bittle 59 Dante 41 Zarzuela 31 Barthelemy 30 Shelstad 19 Couisnard 17 Richardson 17 Pryor 15 Demir 12 With this many injuries, it doesn't matter if Coach Altman or any other coach could win games with a depleted lineup. They could squeak by with a couple of wins in the old PAC-12, but not a chance in the rugged B1G Ten.

The former PAC-12 schools just finished their second year in their respective conferences, ACC, B1G 10 and BIG 12. Based on conference games only during the last two years, here are the results. Only the Bruins had a respectable record. Bruins 26-14 Ducks 17-23 Trojans 14-26 Huskies 11-29 BIG 12 Just like in the PAC -12 , the Arizona Wildcats have thrived in their new conference. Wildcats 30-8 Sun Devils 11-27 Buffaloes 10-28 Utes 10-28 ACC Cardinal 20-18 Bears 15-23 Besides this forgetful season (5-15) Oregon posted identical conference records the past three years. 2022-2023 12-8 (PAC 12) 2023-2024 12-8 (PAC 12) 2024 -2025 12-8 (B1G 10)

College baseball roster limit: 34, includes both scholarship and walk on players. Teams can offer up to 34 scholarships. Exceptions: Some programs potentially operating under a 40 man roster limit, if they opted out of certain House settlement terms. Designated Student Athletes (DSA). Existing players with a DSA tag may allow teams to exceed the 34 man limit temporarily as they finish their careers. According to the Duck baseball website, they currently have 39 players on their roster. Of this number, 23 players are listed as pitchers. However, three of these players, Naulivou Lauaki Jr., Hudson Carvalho and Cooper Markham are listed as pitchers/infielders. After eight games played, 18 pitchers and 16 infield/outfield players saw the field. That's 34 players. The five players who haven't made an appearance are Tyler Wick, infielder and four players who are pitchers. They are Jonah Barkoff, Blake Crawford, Tyler Jones and Cooper Strawn. It will be interesting to see if these guys play any games this season. If they do, then they will be over the 34 roster limit.

Looking ahead to the Diamond Ducks games in Las Vegas, I was shocked to see the Arizona Wildcats have lost seven of eight games this season. They used to be one of the better teams in the old Pac-12. U.C. Irvine is 5-2, Vanderbilt at 6-2. While an 8-0 record looks impressive, our Ducks will be facing much better competition. These games will give us a better perspective of where they stand. Of the 23 pitchers on the team, Coach Wasikowski got 18 of them in the games these past two weeks. There are four more games on the schedule before B1G Ten games begin, starting with a road trip to West Lafayette to play the Purdue Boilermakers. They are not to be taken lightly. They just beat the Beavers 5-2 yesterday.

So many to choose from. A few that I enjoyed are To Kill A Mockingbird, as Boo Radley. It's a cameo appearance from his first movie. I'm surprised nobody mentioned M*A*S*H* as Major Frank Burns. Also enjoyed Falling down and Open Range.

Taking a quick look at some of the games played this past weekend. The Indiana Hoosiers, who are expected to be a challenge this season, lost all three games to a ranked North Carolina team. The games were played in Chapel Hill. USC won all three and UCLA went 2-1, losing a close one to U.C. San Diego. Although the Michigan Wolverines aren't expected to be much of a threat, they played well, winning against Arizona, Stanford and split a two-game series with the Rodents of Corn Valley. The Ducks play Michigan at Ann Arbor the first week of April. And I have saved the best for last. The Leg Lifters LOST all four games this past weekend in Puerto Rico. Here are the results: North Carolina St. 13 Washington 0 Wake Forest 5 Washington 0 Boston College 10 Washington 0 Houston 8 Washington 7

I was unaware of the PAC-12 recruiting rankings so I looked it up. Here are the results: The rankings are identical with the exception of San Diego St. and Texas St. 247 Sports Boise St Colorado St. Fresno St. San Diego St. Texas St. Utah St. OSU WSU ON3/Rivals 1. Boise St. 2. Colorado St. 3. Fresno St. 4. Texas St. 5. San Diego St. 6. Utah St. 7. OSU 8. WSU