Charles Fischer

The discussion below among Duck fans is superb and I will post the official press release later when it comes out, as it is bound to be TASTY. Some highlights... Never in Oregon Baseball History: The EIGHTH GAME in a row with multiple homers as Colby Shade, Josiah Cromwick and Tanner Smith hit bombs to help bring the Our Beloved Ducks back! The Win went to: Dylan Sabia The Save went to: Kolby Somers Oregon was down 6-1 going into the bottom of the 7th inning, and then added two runs, and then exploded for four runs in the eight as Somers held off the Trojans in the 9th inning. Caleb Sloan was blasted for five runs in the first inning with only one given up by relievers after that. The Ducks got 6 and 2/3rds innings of scoreless hitting against our relievers, and of that Logan Mercado did 3.2 innings of it. His growth is SO SURPRISING considering he was not a very good pitcher last year. Great coaching! My Friends, these Ducks are fun to watch! Never give up!

Great to read about the freshmen who should be still be high school--are joining the team. That and some key transfers... 5 storylines we’re watching as Oregon Ducks spring practice resumes DUCKSWIRE.USATODAY.COM Oregon’s spring practices are set to resume on Tuesday, bringing back some fun storylines to watch.

That is all I know at the moment!

Once Manziel began his misbehaving....it would have made it easy on the coaches to sit him. Then he would have transferred out....

One year later Wayne Tinkle watches Saint Peter's play Cinderella... Wayne Tinkle is facing a rebuild at Oregon State. I caught up with Wayne Tinkle on Saturday. It was just 12 months ago that Oregon State men’s basketball team danced into the Elite Eight as a No. 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament. It was a wonderful story. Now, Tinkle is busy gutting his program. “It’s not as fun when you’re sitting at home and watching from your couch,” he said. On Friday Tinkle informed long-time assistant Kerry Rupp that his contract wouldn’t be renewed. Another assistant, Stephen Thompson, was told he’d be re-assigned to another role in the OSU athletic department. “It was brutal,” Tinkle said. “They’re members of your family. You love each other, you know their spouses and children. We’ve been through so much. It’s a terrible part of the job but it’s the nature of our profession.” After Oregon State was eliminated from the Pac-12 Conference Tournament in Las Vegas a few weeks ago Tinkle’s team checked out of the Delano hotel and headed back to Corvallis. The coach packed up but decided to stay behind. “I changed hotels,” he said. “I got away from all the team hotels. I needed some alone time. I needed some time with the family out by the pool. We had some in-laws there and friends there from college. “I needed that time to decompress.” Oregon State’s 3-28 season was historically disappointing. No Elite Eight participant had ever followed with so few victories in the ensuing season. How did it get so bad at OSU? Ask Tinkle and he’ll tell you that he misfired in recruiting last offseason. Also, that some of the returning players wilted under increased demands and expectations. “We’ve been able to identify what some of the issues were and we’re addressing them,” he said. “Some people may be surprised that some of the guys won’t be back but what we’ve got to do is protect the program. When you’re on the outside looking in, it’s hard to see." “Our culture took a hit — a big hit.” Tinkle would have been a casualty himself had he not been given a long-term contract extension after last season. That deal runs through the 2026-27 season will pay the coach as much as $3 million per season. OSU simply couldn’t afford to make a coaching change and now Tinkle is starting over. He told me on Saturday that he’d like to hire an experienced Division I assistant who can help be a voice in the room during practices and games. Also, he’d like to hire a recruiter who might open some new connections to talent. “I do think we somehow didn’t get the right mix of personalities on the roster this last season,” he said. “It was a grinder of a year. When you add the ride we went on last year — to be totally blindsided is just disappointing and disheartening. Not being able to get the group to come together, it was a disappointment.” I think part of what makes the season so alarming is that it came when we all expected Oregon State might surge. The Beavers played deep in last season’s tournament and we all expected them to parlay that into more success and stability. Instead, the Beavers face planted. “We felt like we weren’t able to coach them,” Tinkle said. Tinkle said he’s watching Saint Peter’s University make their magical NCAA Tournament run. The No. 15 seed Peacocks advanced to the Elite Eight on and will play North Carolina on Sunday with a trip to the Final Four at stake. “It sucks when you’re not involved,” Tinkle said. “It’s cool to see those stories that evolve like Saint Peter’s. Seeing the run they’re going has sparked some memories from our group from a year ago. “That’s what makes it madness.” Saint Peter’s advanced to the Elite Eight. CINDERELLA WATCH: Someone please send Saint Peter’s University a ‘thank you’ card for the work it has done in elevating the men’s NCAA Tournament in the last couple of weeks. My family was circled up in the living room on “National Peacock Day” watching the Peacocks knock out Purdue. I’ll bet yours was, too. The No. 15 seed has now defeated No. 2 Kentucky, No. 7 Murray State and No. 3 Purdue in succession. Up next, No. 9-seed North Carolina on Sunday. This tournament needed Saint Peter’s, didn’t it? A couple of things: The Saint Peter’s players didn’t blink in beating any of those more heralded programs. Not once. The Peacocks may play in a tiny gym in an unheralded conference, but they look and act like they belong. They play unfazed and I don’t expect that to change vs. UNC. Saint Peter's men's basketball coach Shaheen Holloway made a salary of $266,344 in 2019 per university tax filings. Matt Painter at Purdue made more than $3 million in base salary. Seton Hall (Holloway’s alma mater) is currently looking to hire a men’s basketball coach. That’s not tricky math. Just before his post-game interview with CBS’s Jamie Erdahl, Holloway was mobbed by his team. Erdahl asked the coach what he’d said to his players. He told her: “What they gonna say now? Anybody got something to say? We can’t do this, we can’t do that, Cinderella, underdogs. Listen, I got guys that just play basketball. I got a bunch of guys that just play basketball and have fun, that’s all we do.” A No. 15-seed had never made the Elite Eight before the Peacocks did it. Saint Peter’s now has that distinction. No team lower than No. 11 has ever reached the Final Four, in case you’re wondering.

Our pitchers gave up two runs with bases loaded and two hit batters...AARRGH!

That is beyond cool....and yet it is SO HOT...whew!

Yikes. 11-2 Cal, the last time I had the courage to check.

Oregon leads 1-0 after three innings!

The superb hitting of Oregon averaging nearly nine runs a game continues!

EUGENE, Ore. – Oregon head softball coach Melyssa Lombardi announced she has tested positive for COVID-19. In accordance with state and local COVID-19 protocols, and out of an abundance of caution, Lombardi will not coach the Ducks this weekend in their series versus California. Associate head coach Sam Marder (below) will serve as interim head coach.

After five innings...Ducks lead 9-5! Another homer by Brennan Milone makes it SIX games in row of multiple homers in a game. Never been done at Oregon...EVER!

Thanks to everyone for your kind words, as it helps with the time put-in. The Duck-Buddy who provided the information was warmed by the nice thoughts written here as well.

Wow! Whew! And so true...

Oregon up 3-0 after one inning! A three-run homer by Josh Kasevitch got it done!

I was thinking about that as I wrote the article...in fact, BOY what a honeymoon we are in! I assume he will make some rookie mistakes, but I would like to think that the end result will be better than what the status quo was.

New start...maybe a new number fits?

Amen Duck-Brother. My question is....if Oregon was ranked in the top ten going into this season--would the programming be the same? Yep. Oregon State is No. 6, and are they on the Network? Incompetent doesn't do enough justice as a description.

The bottom line is....whatever you can sell. If you can sell no tradition, but something unique about the program...like Oregon did in the past, then that can work. Meanwhile Oregon Track can certainly sell "tradition," and it should.

Eric Musselman and Arkansas celebrates their win over No. 1 Gonzaga. I really like Arkansas’ coach Eric Musselman. He’s a good coach who gets a lot out of his teams. But what I like even more is a good quote. After the Razorbacks’ impressive upset of No. 1-seed Gonzaga on Thursday an excited Musselman told CBS reporter Tracy Wolfson on the court after the game, “We believed, nobody else did. Thank you to everybody who said we had no chance.” The coach added: “…we read it all.” Musselman’s team entered the tournament as a solid and dangerous No. 4 seed. I get why coaches like to paint an “us-against-the-world” picture but I’m struggling to find disrespectful things written about Arkansas in the run-up to the game against Gonzaga. More than 8 percent of the ESPN NCAA Tournament brackets had Arkansas advancing to the Elite Eight. Another 3.7 percent have the Razorbacks in the Final Four. Still, I don’t expect Musselman to drop the underdog role. His team plays No. 2-seed Duke on Saturday night. • Am I nuts for thinking Arkansas will beat Duke? • Gonzaga was the top seed of the entire tournament and was picked to win it all in 22.8 percent of brackets on ESPN. Maybe that’s what Musselman is talking about? Or maybe he’s just fired up and likes the feel of that chip on his shoulder? • 31,901 brackets correctly predicted the first four Elite 8 teams, per ESPN. Last year only five of the nearly 15 million brackets filled out correctly predicted all eight of the Elite 8 teams. How’s your bracket? • Arkansas was a big winner on Thursday. But so were NBA officials, who have the heat off them this month. Not sure what’s happening in this NCAA Tournament but there’s been more focus on poor officiating than I can remember from any previous tournament. There have been some glaring hiccups. • The Pac-12’s best team — Arizona — was one of the least-experienced teams in Division I men’s basketball this season, per KenPom.com. The Wildcats averaged 0.63 years of experience and ranked 355th out of 358 college teams. Notably, Arizona played young on some key second-half possessions in its Sweet 16 loss to Houston. • No. 5-seed Houston is 32-5 this season and will play No. 2 Villanova with a trip to the Final Four at stake on Saturday. Two of those Houston losses (to Wisconsin and Alabama) came by a total of three points. The Cougars are defensively masterful, have a good coach and are playing well. • With Arizona out it’s UCLA-or-bust for the Pac-12 Conference. Bruins’ athletic director Martin Jarmond served as a member of the NCAA Tournament selection committee. He had to leave the room whenever the Bruins or conference were discussed. Jarmond also wasn’t allowed to be present at No. 4-seed UCLA’s opening-round tournament games in Portland because the NCAA viewed it as a conflict of interest. I’m now told that Jarmond has recused himself from the selection committee for this round of games. The NCAA allowed it, adjusted the site administrators and Jarmond is with UCLA’s team in Philadelphia today for their East Regional game vs. No. 8-seed North Carolina. • The Pac-12 is the “host” of the West Regional at Chase Center this week in partnership with the Golden State Warriors. It’s the first NCAA Tournament event in San Francisco since 1939 when the first-ever tournament was held on Treasure Island. • The 1939 men’s NCAA Tournament included only eight teams. The Oregon Ducks won the national title. But did you know that Oregon nearly didn’t play in the event because there were concerns about too many games being played in a short span? • The anti-expansion folks still sing that same “too-many-games” hardship refrain when it comes to College Football Playoff expansion debates. We’re stuck at four teams until the end of the current television contract. The football postseason should be a 12-team playoff with automatic qualifiers for the major conferences. Division II’s football playoff includes 24 teams. The DII student-athletes navigate the format well. Soji on a walk on Friday with her two dogs. I went for a walk with my 5-year old yesterday. Soji is especially chatty when I have her 1-on-1 because there’s no competition from her older sisters. We took our two dogs and she was very proud mid-walk when I gave her command of both leashes. Soji asked me why I more frequently write in the morning vs. evening. I explained to her that unless it was a breaking-news sports event I felt that writing and distributing in the morning helped reach a wider swath of readers. She accepted this as a reasonable answer. Please know you’re free to read me whenever it works for you and also know that if news breaks, I’m on it. On that note… I’m having a lot of fun with this new journalistic endeavor. It’s great to be able to reach you directly and in a more conversational manner. I have big plans for the coming days and weeks. Thank you to all who have supported, subscribed and shared with friends and family. By all means, consider subscribing.

Most sites have him going to Miami.

Hmmm. How DOES he look?

I wanted him to get a new chance, but with a CONTENDER!

To our conference opponents...it is going to get worse for you!