Summertime in Oregon

Evie at the Fountain
Originally uploaded by pete4ducks.

Just checking in quickly during the dog day's of August. I've had a busy summer, work's in pretty crazy with some technology changes and I made some time to visit Sun Valley, Idaho with some friends for my buddy Jeremy's bachelor party. This weekend I am going to be in is wedding and that should mark the end of all the weddings I have attended for awhile. Looking forward to the football season and being back in Eugene for games. I think the news from camp has been positive for the most part. I see Oregon winning between 8 and 10 games this year, likely ending up back in the Sun Bowl or perhaps the Holiday Bowl.

Not Much To Say

Scenes Fom the Royal Kahana
Originally uploaded by pete4ducks.

I haven't had a chance to blog in a while and amazingly I haven't watched a single sporting event since Kansas beat Memphis which seemed like eons ago. The little tv I watch is 95% childrens movies and an occasional DVRing of shows Emily and I watch like Three Sheets. Hopefully I will have time to examine the NBA draft before the prep work beings for football season. Life is so busy now the only time that is my own is my lunch break and that is often my errand running time. That isn't to say life isn't good it is just much more busy than I would have ever imagined 3 or 4 years ago. With the awful weather we are having this early June in Oregon I thought I'd post a photo from beautiful Maui where I am sure it is not raining and cold.

And Then There Were Two . . .

Evie
Originally uploaded by pete4ducks.

And Then There Were Two . . .
Saturday’s game came with the results I predicted but they ultimately were huge disappointments for the viewers of everyone who wasn’t a Kansas or Memphis fan or for folks who had those teams in the finals for their office pool (Memphis was of course the #1 seed I thought had the least chance of making it to the Final Four before the thing started). I’ve traditionally thought that UCLA’s Ben Howland was one hell of a game coach but Saturday’s result left me questioning myself. UCLA made a ton of sloppy first half mistakes that you wouldn’t expect from players like Collison, Shipp and Mbah a Boute who had played in 3 previous Final Four games. Howland burned two timeouts right before media timeouts which was horrible because the pace of the game was going way too fast to hope that Love and Westbrook could play without resting. I thought they were really lucky to be only down by 3 points at halftime and really felt the only reason the lead wasn’t 10 was because Memphis, outside of Douglas-Roberts and Rose, through up a ton of questionable shots (Sean Taggart for three!). I figured that UCLA would get the better of the halftime adjustments and take advantage of their lack of foul trouble and possibly steal the game at the end in a free throw shooting contest. When Dorsey and Taggart both picked up quick 3rd fouls I thought that UCLA had a good chance to win the game despite getting down by 7 in the first minute and a half. Instead UCLA abandoned the notion of getting the ball down low to the obviously winded Love and played him mainly on the perimeter where Love’s attempted three’s fell just short. Darren “Stock Dropping Faster Than Bear Stearns” Collison was outmatched on defense trying to guard Rose and offensively he was completely unable to penetrate the long armed defenders of Memphis. Result was a lot of missed mid-range jumpers by a team who lacks anyone who can consistently hit that shot. Westbrook was the only Bruin who could effectively score and almost all his points were on drives to the hoop where he simply outmuscled the entire Tiger defense. Give major credit to Dorsey and Taggart for going so long without picking up more fouls and tiring out Love. UCLA’s best lineup was Westbrook at the point and replacing Aboya or Keefe for Collison who was completely ineffective in this game and committed multiple frustration fouls. Since the Sweet 16 kicked off Memphis has been playing at the level of UNLV 1991 and unless Kansas can get a huge defensive effort from their guards the Tigers are going to become the first non-BCS conference team to win a championship since said Running Rebs of Jerry Tarkanian. Well on to Kansas and UNC – this game started off so badly for Carolina that I DVRed it once the game was 40 to 12 and watched the rest later after Evie went to sleep. As Billy Packer said this was really three games and Huckleberry Hound was asleep at the switch for the first segment of this game because there is no excuse whatsoever for a team as talented as Carolina is to spot any non-NBA team a 40-12 lead. Kansas coming out and playing unreal until they were so tired they started settling for threes every-time down and allowed Carolina back in to the game but the gallant Tar Heel effort was snuffed out because they too were too winded and started putting Kansas on the line where this one was sealed. Congrats to the Jayhawks but now you really have to wonder how much energy they are going to have left after playing the late night game that was played at an unbelievably quick pace. I am hoping for a good game in a tournament that outside of the Friday of the First Round has been lackluster. The Final Four has been a massive disappointment going back the last 4 years so hopefully tonight gives us a classic who’s memories will keep us fans content for the long break from college sports action we are about to undertake.

Monty to Cal

Evie
Originally uploaded by pete4ducks.

Cal filled it's opening today by hiring Mike Montgomery who had been working at FSN and living off his Golden State Warrior money. This really ups the bar in terms of quality coaches in the Pac 10. I always thought Monty was a great game, perhaps the top guy in the country and taking his team back from a 10 point deficit in the last 2 minutes. The fans of Stanford can't be too happy with this occurence. In other news Bill Grier has turned down Oregon State. Could this mean he is off to Gonzaga or even Oregon for the 2009/2010 season (with the prediction that Ernie Kent is done in Eugene after 2008/2009)?

Final Four Week Thoughts

Cannon Beach Weekend
Originally uploaded by pete4ducks.

The Pac 10 is seeing some major turnover in coaches and more dominoes could conceivably fall with the Final Four being a de-facto coaches convention with guys lobbying for jobs . It appears as if Billy Grier will end up in Corvallis if he wants to – if in fact Ernie Kent is replaced after next year by Mark Few this makes for an interesting scenario. Both guys grew up just south of Eugene, both attended the U of O but didn’t play basketball their and both have a long history of working with each-other in Gonzaga. There were whispers over the years that Grier was the man behind the scenes at Gonzaga heading up the amazing recruiting success and had more to do with the Zags success than Few. We shall see but it seems there may be some type of rivalry between the two coaches brewing which would really get heated if they both ended up in the Willamette Valley. I think Ben Braun at Cal is a quality coach but it was his time to go, that’s a very good job but the Bears need to get a big name in there but got a no from Jamie Dixon. Randy Bennett would be a good hire there but his St Mary’s team has a legit Sweet 16 run in them next year. Lute Olson is back and Kevin O’Neil is out in Tucson, I think this makes sense in the short term as people didn’t like O’Neil much and the guys dome resembled an eggplant during games but Olson needs to set a date for his retirement and get out, his style isn’t really meshing with the current defensive minded Pac 10 coaches and the Cats have been living on brand name for the last five years. He might luck out and keep Buddinger and Bayless for a year but then they might leave. Either way this Arizona team will be hurting defensively next year. As for the games in San Antonio I think we have the potential for the best Final Four ever. I am pulling for a Carolina win over UCLA because I will win two bracket pools and $700+ if that happens but my head is telling me we are going to see a Memphis/Kansas final. I like the Jayhawks and Tigers because of their depth. Carolina doesn’t have the depth of KU and if Roy Williams wants to win I think he needs to slow the game down which I don’t think he will do, Kansas has the depth to out run Carolina. Memphis will win as long as they hit free throws and don’t self destruct, UCLA has the better coach and the players at UCLA have a higher basketball IQ but Memphis is loaded, playing dominant ball and have a huge size advantage. The Bruins need a huge game from Shipp and Love and need to hope that the refs keep giving them the benefit of the doubt. UCLA has been playing with fire for over a month now and it is going to catch up with them soon. In the finals I like Kansas over Memphis in a game played in the high 80’s.