WiseKwacker

Another great take, Darren. I thought the same thing as you when I heard the Clowney comment from Thibs. "Why the hell did he pick THAT guy to compare himself to?" Even so, I hope the kid realizes his potential as a pro. To do that, I think he has to prove that he's willing to be coached. Despite his enormous talent, there are a lot of nuances he'll need to add to his "game" to become a great pro.

So, I grew up in Portland in the 50s. I became a sports fanatic despite the fact that my dad--a farm boy--had NO interest in sports. Thankfully, my mom came from a sports family and recognized my passion. For some reason that I can't remember, I was faced with a decision: do I root for the black and orange Beavers or the green and yellow Ducks. Since neither of my parents had any loyalty to either school, the choice was all mine. In 1963, as an 11-year-old kid, I chose the Ducks. I started following college sports in 1963 as an 11-year-old. My first Duck football heroes were Mel Renfro (has there ever been a more talented Duck?), Bob Berry, Ray Palm, Rich Schwab, Dave Wilcox and Dave Tobey. I loved hearing Wendy Ray call the Webfoot games. In basketball, it was Jim "Crazy Horse" Barnett, Steve Jones, Dave Kafoury, Bill Jennings, and Gene Brockmeyer. I would sit in my room at my desk at night supposedly doing my homework while being fully engaged in the Duck basketball game playing on my transistor radio. From that point on, my allegiance to the Ducks NEVER wavered. As a high school kid, I decided I wanted to be a sports reporter. Thus, the place for me as a college student HAD to be the U of O. I eventually veered off the sportswriter/sportscaster path at the U of O, but I never gave up on being a Duck sports fan.

The key element about free throw shooting is that it's NOT primarily about athletic ability, shooting form or physical skills. It's mainly about mental focus. And, when you find guys who have that mental focus--particularly at the end of games--you have guys who ultimately are winners. Frankly, I think it's too simple to just say that teams who have good free throw shooters are apt to win more games. I think it's MORE true that teams who have guys who have strong mental discipline and focus--as evidenced by making foul shots, not throwing weak passes, cutting hard to get open, and generally keeping a cool head as the pressure mounts--are more likely to be winners. The Ducks have had quite a few of those teams in recent years. And, sadly, that makes this year's team stand out in a bad way. Note: I HATE to put any of this on Will Richardson because I think he's done everything he can possibly do to become a leader of this team. Unfortunately, he lacks quickness. He has everything else required of a "go to" player except quickness. I still love the guy. He has some incredibly deceptive moves near the basket and his attitude is absolutely rock solid.

Yeah, it was a bad call. But, the fact that Stanford was in that position to potentially win the game still sickens me. No way that game should've even been close. It was just one of several games this past season, though, that the Ducks managed to make much closer than they should have been. Water under the bridge. Dan's here. Let's joyfully move on.

Bill and I both graduated high school in the Class of 1970. Followed him since he first announced he was following Kareem at UCLA. I basically rooted for him (and the Bruins) every game they played EXCEPT when they played my beloved Ducks. I was in Mac Court during UCLA's "Lost Weekend" trip to Oregon. Then, I rooted for Bill as a Trailblazer. I was crushed when the injuries began, leading to his disillusionment with the Blazer organization's medical staff. At his best, Walton was as dominant as ANY basketball player I've ever seen. (My opinion, so don't bother trying to convince me otherwise.) As an announcer, Bill absolutely cracks me up. As a basketball fan, I pride myself in being a multi-tasker--I can watch a basketball game while, at the same time, listen to Bill ramble on about some obscure site on the Stanford campus. And, I've found that when he talks about some place in my wheelhouse--Portland, Oregon--he generally spouts accurate info. In a nutshell, one of my bucket list items would be to have a glass of beer--or three--with Dollar Bill. I would love to ask him--after the first couple of beers--to recollect about any conversations he had over the years with Brent Musburger, who used to continually refer to the guy as "Mountain Man." (I know Walton hated that nickname.)

Nailed it, Darren.

I doubt it, but I don't think we'll ever know the answer to that one. From my perspective, that theory is kind of in the realm of "conspiracy theories." They're interesting to speculate about, but seldom true. I think the stakes were too high to take a gamble that you'd present an offer to someone so outrageous that you'd force them to turn it down. I've tossed out (what I thought was) a ridiculous idea to a group before, basically as an attempt at humor, only to have a couple of group members respond, "Hey, great idea! Let's do that." Yikes! You just never know...

Yeah, 'Zona sure knows how to do basketball; football, not so much. I don't have any buddies who are Wildcat basketball fans, so I don't know what the chatter was when Tommy Lloyd was hired. I imagine, though, that there were some eyebrows raised at replacing a (formerly) big-name coach in Sean Miller with a longtime assistant coach at a small (albeit successful) basketball school. And, none of the PAC-12 media people saw this Wildcat team success coming, either.

As a former fan of "Seinfeld" and a current fan of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," my favorite Super Bowl commercial was the one starring Larry David. In discussing that commercial with an old buddy who attended the U of O with me many years ago, we agreed that we thought it was hilarious but didn't really know what the hell they were advertising--"...something to do with cryptocurrency, I think..." I like to think of myself as a pretty savvy, up-to-date guy who's rapidly approaching 70. More and more frequently, though, I have to look myself in the mirror and admit that I'm just out of my element in a particular aspect of modern society. This NFT stuff is one of those aspects. My respect and admiration for Phil Knight rose immensely after I read "Shoe Dog." Phil is helping engineer the Ducks' approach to NIL and NFT. So, in this case, I just fall back on a simple motto as a Duck fan: In Phil I Trust.

Wow, Charles, another stellar article. Thank you for piecemealing this great info to us, bit-by-bit. Your strategy allows my old brain to expand slowly without just exploding. The only downside is that none of my hats fit any more. You're creating HAVOC on my hat shelf. I know I'm gonna love me some Dan Lanning.

Yes, loved reading the details of the Lanning capture. While I was initially a big Wilcox supporter during the search process, it was always with the proviso that there needs to be assurances from him that he has a plan to hire a coaching staff that can recruit as effectively as Taggart's and Cristobal's staffs did. Clearly, Mullins had that same thing in mind, tried it, and probably offended/irritated Wilcox, who ultimately rebuffed an offer. My reaction: whew, we dodged a bullet there. My lukewarm excitement about Lanning, frankly, was because I'd never heard of the guy. Now, with each passing day, and each time I hear him talk, my admiration for Rob Mullins grows. I think Lanning--even acknowledging that he's never been a head guy before--is going to elevate OBD beyond what Taggart or Cristobal would have EVER achieved as head coaches. Hell, I wanna grab a helmet and go kick some butt for THIS guy. Oops...gotta go...time to take my daily battery of pills and vitamins.

Wonderful post, Southern Duck. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the informative article, Coach. More involvement from our deep tight end group coming up? Yes, please.

I'm with you; it's a puzzling team. What concerns me most about this particular bunch is that I don't see that killer instinct in them as a group. And, I don't see a particular guy--with maybe the exception of Jacob Young--who will take command of the team at the end of a game when they are protecting a lead. They continue to be very shaky at the end of games when they have a relatively slim lead. That doesn't bode well for PAC-12 tournament time.

Interesting article, David. Thanks for doing the research on that. You left out one name, though: Tua Tagovailoa. As much as anything, I think the way the Tua recruitment was bungled signaled the beginning of the end for Coach Helfrich.

RIGHT ON!! (Pardon me for screaming, but your comments got me excited. I wholeheartedly agree.)

In my view, it's gotta be the quarterback, who is triggerman for the offense. But, as others have said above, selecting the right guy for quarterback is only part of the answer. The way the coaching staff interacts with the qb is equally important. Find the guy who best runs the offense during practices, coach him up as best you can during the week and then release your butt cheeks while standing on the sidelines, offering him encouragement when things don't go well on the field. We've seen what tight-a$$ coaching yields on the field; don't want to go back to that. And, I'm pretty darned confident this coaching staff will NOT be like that.

Yes, Charles, I follow both teams. I don't go to the games in person, but I watch them on the PAC-12 Network when I can. I probably watch about twice as many softball games as I do baseball games. I also follow track and field. Thanks for asking.

Charles, I don't know you personally, but I have a sense of you as a person by the way you run this forum. Sometimes I worry that you are a little too self-critical. The beauty of this forum is that it is a chance for me and others to hear from informed Duck fans--yourself included--in a troll-free environment. Sports is integrally connected to our emotions--at least for most of us--so it's understandable that we sometimes react to another fan's opinion with emotion. This is, after all, a place where passionate Duck fans congregate. If a fellow passionate Duck fan can't back off from a judgmental or demeaning comment when you give them a "tap on the shoulder," and even offer a more non-confrontational alternative phrase, he/she needs to go. It would be my hope that, after a brief "cooling off" period, that same person would contact you and ask to re-join this forum. Note that part of the reason I'm offering these insightful comments is to let others on OBD forum know that I'm not one of the people who are leaving. You know, all the members who eagerly await my typically pithy comments on all things Ducks...

Wait and see. Wait and see. As a former boss once told me, "Withhold judgment until evaluation is complete."

I remember Barnes' bird-flip last year. My recollection is that she made the gesture towards her huddled players as a sort of rallying cry. I think that's much different than a situation where she might've turned outward to the crowd, the other team or the scorer's bench to make that same gesture. I have no doubt that many college coaches use salty language in the locker room and in the huddle. Thus, if that gesture brings her team closer together and rallies them against the perceived naysayers, good for her/them. In my view, the gesture was really overblown in the press at the time with shades of the PC police in action. The whole episode this season at The Matt is different. That seems clearly to be a case of sour grapes followed by some weak rationalizations. It's another in the all-too-common "Yeah, but..." cases.

While I was frustrated--along with almost every other Duck fan--with Mario's offense for his entire tenure as head coach, he nonetheless led the team to some pretty successful results overall. I really don't bear him any ill will now that he's moved on to his dream job. But, what I'm left to wonder now--in hindsight--is how good we COULD have been with those same rosters if his play callers were allowed to call plays that were adapted on the fly to the flow of the games. Certainly, everyone should look back at the Justin Herbert era and know that his junior and senior years could have been SO MUCH MORE. Man, I can't wait for spring to see what Coach Lanning's staff does with this team.

Hopefully, someone on the Ducks' coaching staff has Milton for a middle name. Or, maybe Milton as a mother's maiden name. They could possibly drive him through Milton-Freewater during his recruiting visit to Oregon...errrrr, maybe not. Whatever it takes...legally, of course.

Aaarrrrgh! Don't remind me.

Thanks, Coach, for another enlightening article. As a guy who considers himself a lifelong learner, I really appreciate it when guys in the know--like you--"school me."