SmithRiverDuck

Darn!! Forgot about the part where I thought that in this crazy world we live in there has never been a better time to have benefactor such that as Uncle Phil. I might have one more point as well, but as I mentioned before I've been drinking. Basically, since that double OT loss to Creighton. Not only because I thought we would've had a decent chance against Tennessee (Texas bothered me), but who the heck wouldn't want to see Dante against that Purdue guy? Ok, that's it. I'm going to beddy bye........

It's been a hard divorce. Don't remember the movie much but it's been a Kramer v. Kramer. Once all intentions were announced, entrenchments were made and no one has moved. It's WWl all over again. But, whatyougonna do? Fuggetaboutit! Just trying to get all the dialects down amongst our now, nation-length conference brethren......... Seriously, we could've ended up a "trailer trash" custody battle between Fresno and Boise (sorry to use Fresno I actually like them). In the end, everyone involved has done what's best in their own interests. For years, the likes of Florida State were willing to let the Wake Forests of the world ride their coat tails, much like the bark rats and that other one was allowed to in the Pac. Because there was enough money to go around. Now that there's not it's everyone for themselves. Like all divorces we will now mostly co-habitat with our new step-brothers and sisters. At certain "holiday events" (March Madness and other celebrations) we will awkwardly interact with our exes, while maintaining complete decorum. After all, We're amongst the upper crust. We ain't "trailer trash". (disclaimer: This post is made with the utmost cynical humility possible. And even if it ain't, I may have been drinking at the time.)

I was rooting hard for Oakland. Potential Cinderellas dropped like flies today. We'll have to see if anyone wants to wear the glass slipper tomorrow.

Now is not the time for any season or career long evaluation of this team or it's players. To the Ducks credit they played two games very much in the moment and that's exactly what we asked them to do. Unfortunately, you can't beat a team like Creighton with one play and without Shelstead that's what we were down to. Once Creighton started to double team Couisnard and Dante had to handle the ball in the middle of the court things became disrupted. And we just had no counter for it. It's unfortunate that we had no production from others. Evans looked like a freshman. I would have liked to see Grigsby take some shots if only to loosen things up a bit and possibly get Dante some offensive boards. Although Dante did clean up some Couisnard misses. No one can question this team's heart. If couisnard's last shot falls we get some rest and get to do it all over again. I was super unhappy to see overtime and knew we were gassed for the double. And then Creighton attacked. We started to have slumped shoulders and dejected looks. For the most part Dana's plan worked. They're a high tempo, fast, high scoring team. And until overtime it was exactly the mid to lower scoring game that we needed. Unfortunately, we haven't won too many games where they score 80+ It was obvious that the tournament would be taxing for us. Our lack of depth was always going to be a problem. It's what killed us in this game. I'm going to miss N'faly Dante very much. When healthy and able to play he is a legendary Oregon player. The last two seasons he became my favorite big man since Arselan Kazemi (who was only our center because we didn't have a true BIG man. But boy could he play!) Dante was that true center that was our achilles heel for so many years. More than anything in this game I didn't want the Ducks to get blown out. You don't ever want the other team to be able to say, "See, you should have stayed here." Creighton's arena seats 17,000 and it's usually fuller and louder than MKA. I know Dana's been frustrated at times with the lack of crowd in Eugene. But I've really paid attention to crowd size in the non-Oregon games I've watched this season. It's not just a Eugene thing. Sure, there's a few places that have a big, loud crowd no matter what. But for the most part the MKA audience hasn't been an embarrassment in any way.

Oh come on! It's not like all the other games are against Furman..........Oh wait, all the other games are against "Furman".........Crap! But they are willing to play games against, say, Tulsa............You know, as long as the games are in Tuscaloosa...........

On the one hand, it mostly seems like this is basically just what Altman is capable of. And the magic comes when what he is capable of meets what his team is capable of. On the other, I'm just the biggest Dana Altman homer I know. He was my plan A when he was Oregon's plan D or F, or something. Izzo? The guy was born in northern Michigan, played at Northen Michigan and has been the coach at Michigan State since Noah was building a boat. Ok, only since '95. But I'm of an age that I think it was yesterday, instead of almost 30 years ago. But we were willing to give the guy our first born, the sun, the moon? I don't know. I do know that I think Uncle Phil wanted him pretty badly. Who else was on the short list? Kruger? I don't know. I can't remember. I've had a couple of cocktails this evening. But after firing Ernie Kent (who was awsome in his time) the Ducks seemed to need a "big name". As an aside, the best coaching job I've ever seen on the Oregon sideline belongs to Jerry Green against UCLA my first year. The Ducks had no business playing against a team like UCLA, but Green used time outs to strategically stop all Bruin runs and won the game by a point or two as I sat in the second section instead of the student section (I don't know why). Basically, I spent the final minute praying that the Pit didn't implode on top of me. But I digress.......... I just remember seeing Dana at the bottom of the "possibles". But I DEFINITELY knew about Creighton. I had seen them play. I knew they were kind of the Gonzaga of the mid-west. I'd like to expound more, but I need to go to bed. All I'm gonna say before I do is that if Dana Altman isn't inducted to the the next hall of fame ballot is that it's a conspiracy. The NFL is fixed. Rock 'n Roll, hall of fame, all of it is fixed. This man is as good as a basketball coach gets. You heard him last year. If he's not good enough for us he'll go somewhere else. He'll coach JC basketball if he has to. Somewhere out there are the "gym rats" that he needs to put together a winning team. Name me greater coaches in Oregon history............

Over the last two months I've already found myself more interested in B1G games as opposed to Pac games that didn't include OBD.

I said it before on another thread and I'll say it again. The committee seems to like "drama". Or at least, trying to create games that garner extra interest. How else could Dana Altman potentially face his former team, Creighton? Or Rick Barnes (Tennessee) face Texas? I'm not for conspiracy theories. Unlike some people out there, I don't think the NFL is fixed. But, there are too many discrepancies in the seedings to think that committee hasn't given some thought as to what would create the most interesting match-ups. It's also easy to go through the seedings throughout the last several (you decide how many) tournaments and see how the committee has manipulated the pairings to create good match-ups. Th (e beauty of it all, for the committee, is that the metrics give them wide latitude to decide what to do. Metrics (as in football) are so close that a tenth of a percent might mean the difference between being 10th in the country and being 32nd in any given category. Sure, Rick Pitino had a gripe, "We beat so and so". And then you could use metrics (and of course record, meaning bad losses) to shoot him down. Maybe the Ducks "stole" St. John's bid. Or any of the other four teams that weren't "supposed" to win their tournaments. But, the one undeniable thing about this year's March is that it's already had PLENTY of madness. Virginia scored 14 points in the first half of their game tonight. 14 POINTS!! And the committee had them a 10 seed (granted a play-in). WHOOPS!!! As for the Ducks in this tournament I'm hoping for: 1. No games that are total "stinkers". We all know what those look like. 2. No foul trouble for N'faly Dante especially in critical times. His maturity has been evident the last couple of game when he could have go into foul trouble, but managed not to. Also, it's imperative that he stay healthy. 3. Decent shooting percentages. See #1 above. 4. Jackson Shelstead to go off. I think the number one key for the Ducks will be how Shelstead conducts himself during the games. I've been dogging him all year because he has reminded me more of Will Richardson than Peyton Pritchard in the losses. I know people have thought that unfair. But, there are times when the point guard MUST be able to do certain things to ensure a win. Freshman or not, Shelstead certainly has the tools to will his team to a win. I want to see him do it. My dream scenario involves an eventual game against Purdue (provided they make it that far). Gee, wouldn't that announce our arrival to B1G basketball.

I found this extremely interesting as well. Also, Tennessee coach potentially facing his old Texas employer. It says that once the teams are in, it seems that creating drama, or at least interest, is the next paramount criteria. Merit be damned.

The second half featured the Ducks we've been waiting all season to see. Dante's not only a complete beast, he's tough as nails. Good contributions all around. Shelstead, I thought, played his best game because of the pressure of being in a championship type game. Evans has barely scratched the surface of his potential. If the team that showed up for the second half tonight gets to the big dance where might they go? Holy smokes! They sure played elite tonight.

Ok, I'll pretend for a moment that I know anything about anything and I'm the guy in charge of evaluating Bo Nix for "Team X". The stats (especially after he reaches Oregon) check all the boxes. The guy is a winner of games. He's a leader. He's had a green light to change a call which speaks volumes to his understanding of defenses and the game. Let's go to the film: After analyzing pretty much every play he played in college two things stand out to my "expert NFL" eyes. 1. The throw across the body right before half against the Beavers this year. Wow! I want this guy. 2. 4th down throws against Washington and Oregon State for the past two years. Now I have pause. In the biggest moments he seems to be over-amped. The thing that all the talking heads don't say, because they need their jobs, is that it's a freaking crap shoot. One of my comebacks to anyone who maligned the NFL career of Joey Harrington was to say, "Well, let's put him behind Tom Brady's offensive line and see what happens." I spent the first two years of Justin Herbert's career screaming at the television, "SPEND SOME MONEY ON DEFENSE, FOR GOD'S SAKE!" They got Bosa and Mack, but no secondary help and here we are...... After the Ravens destroyed the 49'ers late in this last season I locked them into the big game. Then a guy named Mahomes made a guy named Jackson look absolutely pedestrian. I guess what I'm saying is that my prognosticating powers certainly don't seem any better than the "experts". But I'm not really sure they seem any worse......... Because.........It's a crap shoot. Bo Nix has certainly earned my admiration and hopes that he only rolls sevens and elevens during his NFL career.

If I was a Utah fan attending the game right now, I would get our section to start chanting, "NIT! NIT! NIT!"

I love revisiting UO history from time to time. Certainly the Disney story is as famous as it deserves to be and adds to our uniqueness in sports. My favorite use of our colors came from alumni Bob and Beverly (of course their last name is now escaping me) who met at the UO. Successfully owning a So Cal Anheuser-Busch distributorship allowed them to get into raising thoroughbreds. I'm not sure how many years I tuned into the Kentucky Derby just to see that yellow and green represented. I don't think I've purposely watched it since unless a customer in our establishment requested it.

Best wishes for a timely return to good health. Thank you for the wonderful work you've done for the forum of OBD. It's greatly appreciated.

I get calling for coach Graves' job. The losing is one thing. The player exodus is symptomatic of much deeper problems. This problem, or cancer, whatever you want to call it, is harkening back to the darkest times of Oregon Womens' Basketball. Past Paul Westhead to the Bev Smith era. I'm definitely in favor of a reboot helmed by Mark Campbell. I've also heard the fire Dana Altman calls on these threads. That I just don't get. I'm as frustrated with this team as anyone (Dana probably heads that list). But I don't see that the coach is the problem. I'll admit to being a total Altman homer. He's the guy I wanted during our last search, where we were willing to give our portion of the sun in order to get Tom Izzo (how's his team doing, by the way). It's just a tough basketball year for Oregon. Every time I start to believe in the men's team, they go out and let a Cal beat them and I see what I've been seeing all season. Another NIT quarter-final team. Maybe we can lose to Wisconsin again. With the women I can see a total rebuild is in order. With the men I have to wonder what a healthy Dante and Bittle would have been. Although, injuries would be my biggest question over the last few years. Bol Bol seems to be tearing up the NBA lately, but played all of nine games for us. There's a couple more examples. I do question that. But, we've got the only active coach not in the hall of fame that deserves it. That streak of winning seasons? Every other coach on that list is already in.