Charles Fischer

Speaking of smiling...

You gotta smile, as he has the receipts...

We hardly ever post anything on them, but just as I am proud of the Oregon Baseball team finishing No. 12 in the nation two years in a row--we should be proud of this team at No. 12 too! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ EUGENE, Ore. — The Oregon volleyball team maintained momentum and provided a milestone win for its head coach Sunday at Matthew Knight Arena. The 12th-ranked Ducks will enter the start of Big Ten Conference play this week on an eight-match win streak after sweeping Oregon State in a nonconference match before a season-high home crowd of 3,207 on Sunday. Oregon's 25-17, 25-15, 25-13 win saw the Ducks hit .351 while holding OSU to .000, providing career win No. 150 for head coach Matt Ulmer. "I thought it was our most complete match of the year," said Ulmer, who is now 150-70 in his eighth season as Oregon's head coach. "I thought we were very consistent throughout." The Ducks (8-1) posted their fifth sweep of this winning streak, and their second of the week after a win Wednesday at Portland State. But Sunday's performance was much more to the liking of Ulmer. "We were really sloppy against Portland State," Ulmer said. "They all knew that it wasn't going to be a fun practice on Friday; they said, 'We are anticipating this not being a fun practice, and we're ready for the challenge,' which was great. And they responded well, and I thought they saw really immediate results today from that." How It Happened: Oregon's balance was on display from the start. Noemie Glover had four kills while Onye Ofoegbu and Michelle Ohwobete had three each in the opening set, which saw the Ducks hit .433. Oregon stormed out of the gates by scoring the first eight points of the match, with Daley McClellan serving throughout. OSU got back within five points at a couple of moments later in the set, but the Ducks won it 25-17 on a kill from Glover. "I think the big thing for us is consistency," Glover said. "I think we did a really good job in all areas, were really well-rounded. We've been working a lot in practice on just kind of feeling ourselves on the court, and knowing that we can do these things. So I think that we did a really good of executing." Set two was more competitive, and the Beavers had a 6-4 lead in the early going. The Ducks captured momentum behind the serve of Maya De Los Reyes, scoring six straight times to lead 10-6. Junior Mimi Colyer, who finished the match with a double-double — a team-high 10 kills with 11 digs — got going in set two with five kills, four of those coming over the course of Oregon's last eight points in the set. The third set saw Oregon hold OSU to negative-.029 hitting. Glover assisted on four blocks and Ofoegbu assisted on three in the set, as the Ducks posted 5.5 total team blocks in the set to reach 15 in the match. Glover finished the match with 10 block assists, Ofoegbu had seven and Colby Neal added five. "We work on blocking a lot in our gym — a lot," Ofoegbu said. "And working on reading and just being smart. So I feel like that helped a lot for tonight. But it's a lot of work and a lot of practice." Oregon led 13-2 in the set, and later 17-4. The comfortable lead allowed Ulmer to get some invaluable rivalry match experience for some younger Ducks, with freshmen Mia Tvrdy and Bella Gamache on the floor with redshirt freshmen Cline and Sophie Gregoire by the end of the match. Redshirt freshman Isabel Patterson also played in the third set. Up Next: The Ducks host Illinois on Friday (7:30 p.m., FS1). For more news and information about Oregon Volleyball, follow @OregonVB on Instagram and Twitter, and @OregonVolleyball on Facebook. ---------------------------------------------------------- Oregon kicking Beavis will never get old...

I still have faith...in his innate abilities.

I really like the “Scrap-12” because that really describes what the current conference is.

So....Boise State is now in the top-25...good!

Or we could just take a letter off and make it the....Crap-12?

Working, working, working....the Scrap-12? So far..

My Duck-Buddies, I cannot stand even hearing the words, "Pac-12" anymore, because the Pig-2 and the other Mountain West teams are an abomination to the name. When I think of all the national championships won in the conference in all sports--and the current six in the new Pac earned how many? Damn few. It is revolting that the name is used with the current group...which is why they kept it and are spending untold millions to buy teams into it, instead of reverse merging with the Mountain West. They are coasting on the name, as they did for decades, while being overpaid for what they brought to the conference. I am drawing a blank, but we need to come up with an alternate name for the new Pac-12, and I appeal to this amazing community to come up with one we can refer to, and perhaps might catch on elsewhere. Something appropriate for this level of competition...

Good gosh Jordan! I could stay up all night and not come up with this! Love it! "...the Broncos’ bell cow back continues to elude defenders and post wackadoo stats that elicit severe bowel discomfort amongst opposing defensive coordinators. (Talk about preparing for the runs!)"

So, we will play late to compete with other west coast programming...such as Pig-2?

IMHO, they have another G-5, now G-6 conference. But perhaps when the Playoffs go to 16 teams? The top seeds need some cannon fodder in the first round...

I have faith...

I got sucked into that too. Bottom line is that networks need late game programming, and the former Pac-4 fit that bill perfectly. It is a good thing that so many of our B1G games will be at decent times, especially when traveling because our game next week STARTS at 11:00 PM Eastern?

Washington looked to have a whole grade level above Northwestern, and after we dominated Oregon State last week--they looked stronger than Purdue? Michigan State losing to Boston College? (And I have not got to Maryland, Rutgers, UCLA, etc.) Perhaps I am just looking at the bottom of the conference because I thought Illinois and Nebraska had good teams, but not great. Obviously there are great teams at the top, and seems like it might top-heavy? Perhaps many of you have seen more B1G games, and can give me perspective?

Actually...on MIchigan's second touchdown, the Trojan corner/safety at the edge was held badly, and it was not seen or called. Had I been a USC fan...I'd be howling too. It was pretty blatant.

So, Washington is up 17-2 at half, and Beavis is 0-0, (naturally) and Florida State leads Cal 7-6 at the half. Good stuff!

Let's switch the discussion of the evening games to the new thread I started on the front page. Utah up by three, has a minute and a half left, the ball, and 3rd and 3. Make this first down and they win the game; Oklahoma State packed nine men in the box, and the Utes still ran through them for the first down. Great blocking gives me the shivers...

Let's discuss the Huskies, Beavis, Cal and anyone else in this thread since the other got so long. (A good thing!)

Since the title of this thread is for Friday games....let's move discussion of today's games in the thread created for it. My thanks!

Thank you, because that is not from a photographer, but a screenshot from the game. To create, I have to convert the game to MP4 digital, and I spent most of last Sunday searching and finding screenshots for FishDuck articles, and for my use here in the forum. Thanks so much for noticing!

It is a real dilemma for the coaches, because on the offensive line you need cohesion, but you also need to build depth....especially with four of five starters gone next year!

Gadfrie...I got distracted that week and forgot to post the results of the OBD Prediction Contest for the Boise State game! Let us congratulate DuckFan93 as his/her prediction was only eight total points off with 42-31 when compared to a 37-34 final score. My Apologies, and Congrats! Nobody else was even close, so this was a pretty good pick!