spartan2785

One difference between us and the teams out east is that we don't really deal with snow (we had a day of it, but that's it), all of those states deal with snow during this time of the year. Washington is the comparable team to us, and it is interesting to see them playing so many road games compared to us. I really would have wanted to see us play a Big 12 or a SEC opponent at least once. Feels like a cupcake schedule, but maybe it's a way to develop confidence in the pitching staff. Who knows?

I'm going to be incredibly harsh on the ducks, but those losses against MAC type of opponent have to be kept at a minimum if they want a high seed or host a regional. Reality is that we just aren't going to play many high quality opponents, our league is the weakest of the major conferences (by a lot). So we can't afford to be letting a team like Toledo get their first win against a ranked opponent since I think they said 2017? That's incredibly harsh on a team that has a young pitching staff. I'm not putting the team down, just stating facts that if Oregon wants to achieve incredible things they'll need to start getting sweeps against lower level opponents at home. I really want to emphasize that I don't think it really means anything that we lost a game against Toledo, just that if we want to be a top 15 team, those losses will need to be few and far between simply because we might only play 2-3 ranked opponents this season. Didn't cost us this week, but it might over the long haul. Offense looks good, but it will be the pitching that decides if we will have a chance to do something cool this year. Last few seasons we've had no depth to our pitching, need to find multiple guys who can be relied on.

Very meh, Rutgers is a very weird team, they have 2 top 5 picks...but as a team they suck. It's a win, they shot better, hopefully the confidence from these two wins helps, but the same problems are very evident, it's not an efficient offense and the defense is just not at a caliber where the Ducks will be threat. I hope I'm wrong.

yeah, it's always been a wonder how the Lakers seem to always get gifted great players. 3point shot hasn't ruined the game. 90s basketball was awesome, it's the analytics that has ruined the game. It's the same with all sports, the math guys basically say what is the right way to play the game, and if you don't play that way you're stupid and should be fired. NBA would improve if they eliminate the corner 3, allow hand checking, no longer allow zone defense, basically put the rules back to where it was in the 80s/90s. Allow the players to police themselves, yes you'll get some fights, but it will improve the game, players might actually start to hate each other again instead of acting like everyone is best friends. I want to see Knicks/Heat, Bulls/Pistons, Blazers/Lakers type rivalries again. Force teams to play physical. We need more Oakleys and less Wemby's who look like they would be broken in two if they played in the 80s/90s I also severe fines and penalties for resting players, players are soft, they don't play hard, they have a slight boo boo and they sit instead of actually work for their pay, it's ridiculous. I know they changed some of the rules for how many games a players has to play to be eligible for awards. I would make it at least 70 games for the season, if you got actually hurt, tough break, but you shouldn't be allowed to rest simply because it's a back to back, toughen up and act like an adult.

Has the best physical tools since Herbert, just has to put it together with a strong mental game, I have more confidence in him than I've had with most of our younger QBs in the past.

Maybe we need to tell them they'll get a bonus for every win for the rest of the season. I guess they're motivated by money rather than just money. Edit: motivated by money rather than just money🤔...hmmmm I think I wrote this a bit too quickly😂. Obviously I meant rather than just trying to win.

I like Hockey, but I've never had a team to follow, I already follow so many sports I think Hockey just gets left behind. Stanley Cup playoffs is the best postseason in sports, incredibly competitive, incredibly compelling.

I only was able to watch the last 4 minutes or so due to high school basketball commitments, but I saw twice late in the game where a simple pick and roll led led to wide open layups, because Angel couldn't keep up with his defender, the guard did nothing to disrupt the action, and Bittle got sealed off with ease. This is basketball 101, like the most simple play possible, and we looked helpless to defend it. It's such bad basketball, Angel and Bittle are probably the two worst inside defenders of the Altman era. Bittle is okay when he is just matched up on the inside, and he can block some shots, but he is awful at defending anything on the perimeter, same with Angel, but Angel can't rebound or block shots.

While I'm sure our record will improve, I am a bit worried about how ready the team will be once they get to the postseason, B1G success in baseball is pretty non-existent in the last 30 years. Only team I can think of off the top of my head that has made it in the last ten years is Michigan, and that team was pretty unexpected. We're kind of the big team in a small pond.

I think personally one of the things that would help most would be to not have polls until about week 8 or so, and to do away with the stupid committee rankings show. Football is the only sport where you get these committee rankings through the season, you don't see it in basketball or baseball. I think it would be better to simply have something towards the end of the season after we've seen things already play out.

Yes, in softball the former Pac teams should dominate. Baseball we could really use UCLA becoming a power again, USC hasn't been relevant in a while amazingly with their history.

I'm going to write something similar in the baseball thread, but while we may have a better record in softball, the league isn't going to prepare us very well against playing the best teams. If there is one sport where the B1G really does lag behind the rest of the nation it's softball and baseball.

He needs to adjust, we can't keep having a roster entirely made of transfers every season, there has to be a little more continuity. Out of the guys you listed the only ones I think I like are Cousinard (which really was only during his second season his first was bad), Williams, and finally Figueroa was pretty decent, everyone else has been mediocre to straight up bad. If we bring in a guard they have to be a 38% shooter from 3 or better, it just has to be like that. We can't keep bringing in "scorers" who are volume shooters who play for bad teams. I'm talking Oquendo, Moss, Zaruzuela, Estrada, and others. They aren't good, they are simply the best of a bad bunch. Take some freshman and let them develop a bit!

Got completely outplayed by a freshman, nobody wanting to take responsibility on offense, no leaders in the second half, toughness just goes back to being charmin soft. So sad to see.

Partially seeing what a great crowd can do, meanwhile Oregon's fanbase has no interest in anything other than football, kind of sad to be honest.

Doesn't help when MSU has basically their best shooting performance ever, always seems to happen to us. Literally don't think they've missed a single open three, not a single one.

Ugh, Worst....Start.......Possible!

Yeah, it's a game you can't let off the gas for sure, we won't shoot as well, so we'll need our defense to stay tough.

Wow, it's amazing what energy will do for your shooting percentages, probably helps that Bamba doesn't have a 3 attempt. We've had great looks overall, we haven't been stationary, we've moved the ball, haven't settled for early 3s, gone to the rim with aggression, just a great half of basketball. Once again it starts with toughness and energy on the defensive end. MSU didn't have a bad offensive first half, but we made them work for it, which hasn't happened in many of our losses.

Toughness, that's the difference, toughness, I love when Cook gave a forearm shiver to the big earlier in the game, loved Bamba going hard to the rim, love Evans fighting for everything down low, energy and toughness, be tougher than the other team, that's what wins in the B1G. Very few easy buckets for MSU, a few shots from the outside where we should not have gone under the screen, but I can't really think of any easy buckets at the rim.

Well....it felt like the first game of the season😂

Porter's first game was historic, he went off for like 36 or something like that. Probably one of the most outrageous shooters we've ever had, could single handedly shoot you into game or shoot you out of games. Once he didn't have Brooks, Hairston, Taylor, and Leunen his effectiveness dropped off big time. Only saw about the last 3 minutes, but I'll take it as progress since we were competitive.

I feel embarrassed honestly that I was so high on this team after the tournament back in November. When I think back to that, we got incredibly lucky against Bama that Sears had his worst game of the year against us, Key was on such a heater back then that he was instant offense off the bench. I actually said at the time that I was ready for him to cool off. What makes this so incredibly frustrating is that Bamba was a 35-38% 3 point shooter during a 4 year stretch, I mean he's proven he can shoot, Angel was a 40+ percent shooter at Stanford, what has happened for them to just become so bad from out there!

Might be, we have incredibly slow un-athletic bigs this year who cannot switch which is a bad idea when the whole point of Altman's defense is to switch on screens. Shelstad isn't a good defender neither is Key, they're small so they can't switch either. Tracey and Bamba aren't bad but they aren't ++ either. Evans just isn't very smart, and I think he's more of a 3 since he is skinny.

Never have I turned on a team like this one, so freakin soft, Bittle and Angel are such liabilities on defense, no ability to switch, yet we don't fight through screens, so we just end up with mismatches as Bittle and Angel who have NO athleticism on defense just get driven by. Soft mentality, nobody wants to step up, nobody rebounds, nobody has toughness, just an incredibly disappointing team who can NOT get off to a fast start to save their lives, just sleep walk through the first 10 minutes. No urgency, no communication. Our seniors play like freshman, no intelligence at all on defense or offense. Shelstad just does not understand that HE HAS TO START FAST!!!! Just sort of meanders about until the second half, then tries to turn it on. Wouldn't be surprised if we didn't win another game at this point, we look completely lost at this point without a shred of swagger.