spartan2785

While Michigan hasn't seen a QB this year as good as Penix, they did face a great one last year in Stroud, they've matched up against receivers cores as good as UW's, Washington though has not seen a defense as good as Michigan's. Oregon is probably the most talented defense they've face, and Michigan's on another level compared to us right now. I think we'll see some actual pressure on Penix. We've seen that when you can hit Penix he can begin to struggle a bit, we saw it in the second half against Oregon in the first game. Michigan will stifle the run game, and then get just enough pressure to not allow the long shots to materialize. Biggest thing that I've seen from UW is the ability to hold up in protection to allow those long developing pass plays the time to get open. If Michigan can just get enough pressure to speed those throws up, then I think they'll be able to get enough stops to win the game. I'll go Michigan 31-24

It's incredibly early to say this, but I've seen enough to say that I think if Shelsted stay for 3 years he'll become the best point guard in our history, that includes some really good ones in Brandon, Brooks, and Pritchard. He is everything I hoped for and more, just an incredible talent that I hope will stick around for two more years simply because he isn't as big as you typically see leave early for the NBA, he's actually smaller than Peyton so I'm hoping that means he won't hear the draft projections that make him want to go.

Yeah, but I can respect the heck out of his decision, he became a part of something down in Tucson building that program with some other exciting players. Went his own way and has become a great football player.

Jedd Fisch is a really good coach who hopefully will stay there for a bit, they might have something brewing in Tucson going into the Big12, I wouldn't be surprised if they win the league next year as long as they can keep their team together. This is the type of bowl game that is actually fun to watch, not 6-6 teams who also don't have half their team because of the portal.

I'm not really surprised by the play of any of the players, they have talent, Shelsted was going to be good, he might be a bit ahead of schedule, but you saw in high school how he could compete and even dominate some of the best high school teams out there with a team that had heart but not a lot of other high end talent. Evans has improved through the season, he's beginning to hit his shots, I think he's adjusting to the physicality of college basketball, tonight he had his best game, really beginning to flash some talent. Everyone else is right where I thought they would be, Couisnard and Oquendo have their moments but are streaky, Rigsby is solid, Diawara is fine but is now being overplayed since he's a backup, Tracey and Barthelemew are fine for their roles. We just really need Dante to come back along with Cook to fill out the wing/small 4 position. It's a team that I think if they can get those two will probably be a bubble team since they don't really have much of a non-conference resume, and the Pac-12 is pretty weak other than Zona.

They might eventually go to 16, if they do, then I would imagine the first round will be at the higher seeds home ground (seeds 10-7 will be the new huge debate), I'm sure the bowls will try to make teams go to a neutral site in the quarterfinals, personally I think these should also be at home venues, then you have the semis and the final at a neutral venue. I really like the idea of a second tournament that Mike mentioned above. I know in Oregon at the 6A level they've gone away from a 32 team field to two 16 team fields, which I think just means not having some really really bad matchups in the first round. Still gives teams something to play for.

I get the feeling that conference will be absolutely wide open, it will probably be a bit like the current Pac12 where it will eat itself alive. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a conference champ with 2 losses most years in the coming future. I would think Utah will be the favorite going into next year, but most of the programs are in that middle tier where there isn't really a bad team, but there aren't any that you take notice of other than maybe an upset or two.

I just don't see the B1G taking Florida State, it would be an isolated school that seems to not fit the culture at all, Oregon/Washington have more in common with the B1G schools than Florida State. Tallahassee the town and Florida the state are just so different compared to most of the towns/states that are in the B1G. You would also expect the last bit of expansion to come in twos, Notre Dame is of course the B1G's white whale, but I could easily see Virginia, Duke, or NC as the next to come in.

He won't be as good, he's a good player, but his stats are inflated by being in the air raid. Huskies will also see a downturn in their receiver core. I'll be very interested to see who is going to go pro after the playoffs for them. All that said, I think we'll see a decline in the position as well, Gabriel is pretty good, but I don't think we'll see Nix levels of production, I'll still take our roster over theirs next year, though I would take their offensive brain trust over ours, so maybe it evens out.

I have to say it's wild still to think that we're going to playing Ohio St. next year at Autzen in a league game, then going to Michigan and Wisconsin, and finally ending the season at home against Washington. Funny thing is that other than Illinois and Maryland we've played all these teams in the last 20 or so years.

Probably helps a bit that nobody on this roster has played in a New Year's Day bowl, though playing Liberty is not exactly the same as if we were playing......well anyone else that is playing on that day It's nice to see some of these guys buck the trend of skipping the bowl game.

Nice, short jokes mixed with a bit of racism, and dismissive language about concussions, fine folks out there in Oklahoma it seems.

The only difference between the B1G and P12 is that they've had some Ohio St. teams that were really really good, you look at the Michigan St. teams, Michigan, Penn St., not many of those teams were better than the top P12 teams in those seasons in my view. It's simply that B1G schools are huge, with huge alumni bases, bigger states, and also multiple states where they are the only team that matters in those locales. This means a great network that actually got the coverage it deserves. Meanwhile we were stuck with Larry Scott who was 1. an idiot, 2. dishonest, and 3. borderline corrupt. We are moving to a better conference, but it's not necessarily a better conference when it comes to actual sports performance, it's simply better run, with more eyes on it. You look at all the sports where the Pac-12 has been better over the years, (women's basketball, softball, soccer (both men's and women's), baseball, track & field, golf, tennis, gymnastics, water polo, swimming, diving, cross country, etc.) The only sports where I think you wouldn't have any argument from me where they are better are basically sports that aren't played here, (lacrosse, hockey, field hockey, wrestling). Men's Basketball is probably better, but they haven't even had the success in terms of national titles to show for it. Volleyball is probably a sport where there is clear advantage for the B1G, and then you have football which is of course the only sport that matters unfortunately, where because of things like kickoff times and broadcast rights, one conference has a huge advantage on the national perception. I would probably edge it slightly due to the national titles for tOSU, but it's a lot closer than national perception would have you think. Edit: Sorry I might have gone off on a tangent there, I started thinking about how the conferences are closer in football than some (B1G fans) would have you think, then began to extend it to all sports.

Honestly all I want for Christmas is the basketball team finally getting some luck with injuries and stop being cursed to never have a full complement of players. I think this year's team could be pretty dang good if they can get everyone healthy, just doesn't seem like that will ever happen in this program now.

A lot of the arguments that people make against Oregon taking the next step or continuing the momentum into the B10 are pretty valid. I would agree that Lanning needs to prove he can win a big game, I can agree that Oregon has shown flash and then not backed it up in the past, but the argument that the B10 is going to be a step up in physicality is just bogus. Other than the big 3 teams there isn't any sort of step up in physicality, nobody talks about the physicality of Maryland, Indiana, or Purdue. You can't tell me that even WSU was less physical when they beat up on Wisconsin two years straight, or UW destroying MSU for two years, or Oregon beating tOSU in the big house. Michigan, tOSU, and Penn St. play two physical games a year, and then act like the rest of the league is just sooooo tough, when in reality it's been incredibly soft.

Sedona was the one transfer I was pretty okay with, I think she has always had a little me-first attitude, I think her calling out the stuff at the tournament was good, she totally got screwed by the NCAA when it came to the medical stuff while at Texas, but I never felt like she worked very hard or played with any authority. It could be that her injury made her hesitant, but it always seemed like the only thing that she was interested in was shooting 10-15 ft jumpers from the baseline and posting on her tic-tok. Didn't seem very interested in going for rebounds or banging in the middle with what was usually a height advantage. It's why I loved and still love watching Kyei play instead of her. Ugh, I need to stop thinking about this team...it just makes me frustrated to see what's become of it!

Rams would be a good spot, sort of think Seattle might be a good spot as well. I could see the Pats possibly getting him as well if they pass on a QB in the first round.

I mean everyone dealt with Covid, and yes Sabrina was a GOAT, but he's had a ton of talent and just has squandered it with teams that don't seem to play hard and don't seem to really care about winning. The culture has been bad since the Sabrina years, and yes players can dictate a lot about how a culture develops in a program, but ultimately it's the coach that has to establish the expectations of what is acceptable. Just doesn't seem to be a team that understand how to work or compete. If the team has as bad of a conference season as I think they're going to have I wouldn't be surprised to see Graves not survive the season.

I'm not that surprised that the mock drafts don't have him going in the first round, I think he's probably a 2nd rounder, he might creep up into a 1st rounder if a team wants to make a trade for him. Overall he doesn't have that one physical trait that wows you. The arm is good enough, the mobility is kind of standard in today's league, what he does show is great understanding of when to just check the ball down, that is one thing that actually I think is a pretty huge plus since a lot of players either try to force it using elite arm strength or using their wheels to get out of trouble. He is going to immediately be a guy that won't lose you games, his understanding of defenses, and his elite ability to not turn the ball over will serve him well in the early going. The problem with Nix is that I don't know if he has the talent to strap a team on his back and win games, he doesn't have the upside that other guys have in this draft. I think he'll end up anywhere from 35th to 55th overall. The one mock draft rating I don't get is some people having JJ McCarthy as a 1st round pick, I don't get it, I don't see what sets him apart from Nix.

Not really, it's simply a different batch of voters. Penix outplayed him in two games, it's not hard to see how voters could vote him ahead of Bo, I would probably have done the same, I think a lot of Penix' troubles earlier were caused by him playing injured.

My biggest regret when it comes Oregon sports each fall is not going to watch this team (I do a bunch of stuff with high school sports so my evenings are pretty packed in the fall), you can easily make the case that the best program at Oregon right now is Volleyball, super stoked to see them play on Saturday!

Meh, he's guy going back to his alma mater, not much you can do about that, best of luck to him.

Yeah, nothing nefarious has gone down, Liberty has to play someone, it's just how it worked out this time, FSU-Georgia makes sense I would have of course liked tOSU or Missouri, they probably figure that's a fresh matchup and it's Big10/SEC. I just think we got the short end of the straw on this one.

Couldn't watch the game, just looking at the box score did Evans actually have a good game, didn't look like he impacted the game much. Looks like Rigsby and Shelsted had great game, good to see! I think we have a good team, just need to get the bigs back and hopefully Cook provides some length on the wing.

Good hire, a bit predictable, but it's a good hire, he'll at least know what he's getting himself into with his experience there. The job there has just become harder with OU and Texas coming into that league.