March Madness

Well it has been a bit of time since I last posted here. Home life has been great and Evie is really starting to grow and become aware. You can see the changes daily, she is quite mature for only being 10 weeks old. The job has gotten quite a bit busy with some folks moving on some I am trying to survive and thrive in that the best I can. When I last posted Ernie Kent and the Ducks were in a free fall. Nice to see what a home sweep of the Northwest schools can do for a team but even then I think that prior to the Pac 10 tournament Oregon looked liked a likely 7 or 8 seed. Fast forward three games and the Ducks and their hot shooting find themselves a 3 seed in the easiest bracket in the country and have a great line to get to the Elite 8. Oregon’s domination of the rest of the Pac 10 in the tournament was unprecedented though they sure lucked out without having to face UCLA. The Ducks have regained their sea legs and swagger and with a Friday game in Spokane should be quite well rested before they play Miami and then the winner of Notre Dame/Winthrop. I don’t think the Ducks could have asked for a better position than they got. I don’t foresee an issue with Miami and I’d actually rather face Notre Dame than Winthrop who has the better front court. Wisconsin is a vulnerable 2 seed though a better team than Memphis in my opinion. If someone like an Arizona or Maryland can knock off Florida (who I think the Ducks would just not match up to very well) you can’t discount Oregon actually making a Final Four. Had Oregon lost to WSU at home and then to Arizona in the tourney you have to think they would have been sweating out Selection Sunday just like Stanford did. Kudos to the Committee for rewarding dominant play in the tournament, both from Oregon but also for schools like UNC, Kansas and Florida. There is no doubt that UCLA losing to Cal played themselves out of the #1 spot in the West. Thankfully for the Bruins they didn’t get shipped out of California and I still like their chances to get back to the Final Four. I’d be surprised to see any other Pac 10 teams outside of UCLA and Oregon in the Elite 8 and I think that WSU is particularly vulnerable to being the first 3 seed knocked out.

Duck's Slide

After starting the year with quite a bang the Oregon Ducks have taken somewhat of a slide the last two and a half weeks. Some around the country may be suprised about this but I am not. Oregon really isn't that much better of a team this year than they were last year, and last year they were just not as bad as it appeared. College basketball these days is top heavy with about 10 teams having a legit shot to win a national championship. Then there is a second group of teams who are ranked anywhere from in the Top Ten to not even on the map but in terms of skill and talent they are in a vast middling of squads who may either find themselves in the NCAAs, NIT or staying at home. The Oregon Ducks of 2005/2006 finished 9th in the Pac 10 and just short of .500 for the season. They, just as this year, played many close games, in fact they were 0-8 last year in games decided by one basket. Fast forward to 2006/2007 and the Ducks started out fast in their "close games" managed to defeat all but USC in the first half of the season. Each of these games in both years really came down to a final shot, in 05/06 the Ducks had no luck, in 06/07 they seemed to be having all the luck. I think part of what has been shown with Oregon the second half of the season has been what should be the norm. Average high major teams will win about 50% of their games against similar competition and now the Ducks are being pulled back to the pack. My pre-season thoughts on Oregon the last two years has been this is a bubble team that will make or not make the tournament based on the outcome of a few games. They should still make the tournament but they are not the 2 or 3 seed that many saw a few weeks ago. As Dennis Green so eloquently said "They are what we thought they were!"

So the last 6 months I have become a Flickr addict! I think it has helped my photography and it is a great way to kill time!

Things to do in Pullman when you are dead . . .

Well there isn't much to do in Pullman outside of getting blasted at Shakers or The Coug. For those who watched it Oregon - WSU ended up being one of the most exciting games of the year in the Pac 10. It was a pretty remarkable comeback win for Oregon and to acheive it they needed to come back from 8 down quite late in the contest. Aaron Brooks banking in of a three after the Ducks had missed two shot and gotten the o-board both times dropped the defecit from 5 to 2. Oregon then got another stop on defense and ran a pretty ugly set before Maarty Leunen got hacked with all but no time left. Clutch free-throws by Maarty tied and then the Ducks should have run away with in OT but the heroicvs of Derrick Low made it close. The Coogs had three shots to tie it up and take it to a second OT but they didn't fall. Can't wait fot the rematch down in Eugene. This week Oregon gets a chance to put a headlock on the conference championship if they can beat UCLA in Pauley Pavilion. I think UCLA beats the Ducks but the Ducks beat USC keeping Oregon in second. Stanford is clearly improving greatly, after watching them play Oregon tough at Mac Court I had a feeling that Stanford would put up a nice second half of the season run and play thmeselves in to the NCAA's. The sweep of the LA schools puts that as a great possibility and put some pressure on USC to stay in the field. I'd officially drop Cal from the NCAA talk, they will join UW in the NIT.

Oregon Washington

It is has nothing to do with hoops but Lamar Latrell always makes me laugh. How did that guy make it in to Cobra Kai. Has he been in anything else outside of any of the painfully bad Nerds sequels? Might have to check Imdb on that.

Well Oregon had a late run to get the game almost tied but then there was just too mcuch size and Justin Dentmon down the stretch and the Dawgs pulled away. Dentmon choose a great night to have a have a career day. It seems that Oregon had the scoring to win this game but were killed on the defeonsive boards and Tajuan Porter was exposed defensively by Dentmon. The Ducks may have missed Aaron Brooks more on the defensive side of the ball. I thought Ray Schaefer gave Oregon some pretty good minutes and that not having Zahn to spell Maarty hurt the Ducks a bit but had he been out there I don't think it would have meant Oregon would have won.

There has been a lot of crowing from USC fans that they deserve to be in the Top 25 (polls are meaningless I know) but Stanford handled them solidly last night showing that the Trees may be able to play themselves in to the NCAA's. USC needs to salvage their weekend with a win versus Cal who you can pretty much count out of even any NCAA consideration if they lose to USC on saturday. The Trojans have pretty ugly computer numbers but do have wins versus Oregon and Arizona. USC is really being hurt by scheduling 3 +300 RPI teams in the preseason.

Daniel Larussa's Gonna Fight!?!

I am sure many of you read Bill Simmons from Page 2 on ESPN.com, a guy who when he is on really is pretty damn funny and has that smart-ass every man appeal that is endearing to many in my generation. The guy also knows his pro sports but outside of bracket time he seems to all but ignore college sports. That's okay with me, because he definitely is up on his pop culture. I love his write up of the Karate Kid series so I have linked it so everyone can read it too. I recentely purcased the Karate Kid Special Edition Box Set for $12 (war Target!). Quite possible my best purchase ever, Evangeline has already wacthed Part 1 with me.

I'll post something tomorrow after I get a chance to watch the Oregon-Washington game. Ducks will have a tough time particularly if Hawes plays.