Game-Time UGH!

In just about 24 hours there is going to be a collision of Pac-10 basketball heard around the world. Thw two giants of "The Best Basketball Conferance Around" are meeting head to head at Pauley Pavillion for the 981st GAME OF THE CENTURY (The last was technically the Michigan / Ohio State football game because they advertised that way but Boise State / Oklahoma was deemed after the fact)

Anyhow.........I give you





VS.


This game is going to have everything: Suspense, Speed, Shooting, Defense (at least from UCLA), and a butt load of transitions. The fast breaks are going to make the spectator feel like he was at a tennis match (okay..i don't know what I think of that metaphor).

Here's my breakdown.

Defense - UCLA
Offense - In general even
Inside - UCLA
Beyond the Arc - Oregon (If UCLA uses Roll more as an offensive unit than a body on the court. man this would be hard)
Rebounds - UCLA
Free Throws - Oregon
home court advantage - UCLA

Being at Pauley is going ot be a big deal for both teams. It's going to hurt Oregon as it helps UCLA. So here's my prediction. If UCLA get into foul trouble early, Oregon will be unstoppable. +5

If UCLA is able to play defense like it knows how and the officials let them play ball like they do. It's UCLA's game. You've all heard it before. Defense wins games. And when you're in a conferance like the PAC where defense is hard to come by, it's an easy win. +7

Yes I think it will be close...but now that I said that I jinxed it.
Well crap.. Here it is. UCLA by 15

Oh yeah..and there are some other games on tomorrow too.

Welcome Stanford!

Dear Stanford,

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the elite grouping of teams of the Top 25. We know it's a long, incredulous road ahead and we all hope your journey is a succesful one. Because you've earned your right onto this national platform, we expect good things from you. You are following in the footsteps of some storied programs of recent success such as Ohio State, Pitt, The Air Force Academy and more....

While we do hope for your continued success, chances are that this is a short lived dream that ultimately lands you in a low-middle seed in the dance. Due to your schedual ahead, some losses are expected to edge you in the direction of the wilting Arizona and the utter dissapearance of Washington.

We are hoping for you to do us proud Stanford. Our continued tradition is now invested in you. And once again I would like to say..Welcome.

-The Pac-Rat

But seriously folks....

(Q)Do you know the difference between a Berkeley Hippie and a Eugene Hippie?
(A)A Eugene Hippie would gladly sacrifice trees for Oregon Football.


Most of you have been reading up on this fiasco going on with the construction of the new sports facilities for the Cal Bears football program. Apparently some environmentalists are sleeping in trees and got a court to pass an injunction on the construction. The link above will give you more info if you haven't been filled in.

On a similar note I think we need to examine the Hippie migration that has occur ed. While Berkeley definitely used to be THE hot spot for those Birkenstock wearing peace mongers, you talk to the Hippies currently residing in Eugene and it ends up they WERE those same hippies. Is Berkley becoming like Boulder CO? The Yuppie hippie destination. Forcing those against the capitalist regime to migrate north? I don't know. But the movement in Berkley need the support now more than ever.

But personally I'm rooting for the sport complex.


-The Pac-Rat

Rankings Schmankings

Has anybody even LOOKED at Pitts schedual. I would guess not. You ask why? Pitt has played two ranked teams to date. They lost both of them. But at least they put up some good wins against Delaware St., Roger Morris, and Oakland.

okay okay okay.. They beat Georgetown, Syracuse, and a struggling UMass team. But Oregon has beat 4 teams when they were ranked including a #1 UCLA. Pitt has a crap schedual to be placed ahead of Oregon.

Ohio State has only beat ONE ranked team in Tennesee. How do you place unranked losses in front of ranked Wins?

Washington State moved up splitting their games.

With Arizona....we still stand 4 teams strong.

Good practice for when the season starts in March.

The tree creeps me out

All I have to say is....well....this makes the game on thursday (UCLA/Oregon) all that much more important.




Stanford...down by 17 at the half..came back and beat UCLA.

-The plus of all of this is that this will help us get a nor cal team into the tourney and eventually rnaked hopefully.

-The negative is that North Carolina and Ohio State might push past UCAL in the rankings now. The whole thing is crap. Arizona putting on its "suck show" is going to hurt UCLA more than it hurts them.

But we are exactly half way through the PAC-10 season... Oregon v UCLA is on thursday...I just got an HDTV...life is good.


the tree is creepy.

The Pac-Rat

The Craptasm

I'm still not over the Arizona game yesterday. I'd love to talk about it but everything has been said in the 800 billion replays and analyses that occurred yesterday. The Pac was burned on national T.V. yesterday and one of two things can happen.

1. We (the Pac) take that loss and end up kicking major butt in the tourney.*
OR
2. This illustrates that we actually arnt' worth the hype and we'll loose in some rinky dink games and give the underdogs a Cinderella story.

I prefer option number one.

Things we learned this week.

- UCLA is the best team in the Pac-10 - I do mean this in more than just the very obvious fact that UCLA is number 1 in the standings. I mean this in the way that UCLA has the most well rounded team with depth and perform every time their on the court. Even their loss to Oregon, was the result of a last second shot at Mac Court (One of the strongest home court advantages in the country). Their coach takes care of business both in preparing the teams and running the program come game day. Things they can work on...

Clock Management. I can't tell you how many games I've watched when the Bruins should be running the clock out they charge up the court and turn the ball over letting the other team catch up. Even when Coach Ben yells at them during the time out, they can't slow the ball down when they need to.

Playing THEIR Game. Dont get into the black hole of suck that lesser teams tend to do in the PAC.

Teach Matta How To Shoot A Free Throw For Crying Out Loud. <------self explanatory.

-Washington actually IS the team we thought they were - What the hell happened to this team.....I'll never know but apparently that horrid loss to Washington State kicked them in the pants. So far everybody has been saying that Oregon lost due to not having Brooks. My problems with that are that:

Oregon wasn't doing anything right that game, even if Brooks was there they would have lost.

and

Washington was ON FIRE! They were unstoppable.

Okay so the Oregon Game was their only good one this weekend. Washington actually had a sludgy start in their game against Oregon State. But they corrected and kicked butt. I think they're back to where they need to be. And more to them for doing it after getting the asses made into hats.

-Arizona is a bunch of Pansies- I hate them today. I know that everybody has bad games...but this was borderline so horrid that Lute might get removed from the basketball hall of fame. I usually love Lute. But......well......crap


-The Pac-Rat

Arizona should be embarrased!

This was the PAC-10's chance to show the world. Yes we are worth the hype and Yes the ACC got nothing on us.

Arizona honestly looks more like a high school team.

And Lute stole his teams groove in the second half by putting in Limpy Mcgee (Williams) who after twisting his ankle in the first half, made an aprearance by actualy limping back onto the court. Put that with Arizona being 0/16 from beyond the arc Arizona would be better off having Tiny Tim or Oliver playing point guard. At least then the wildcats would inspire some compasion.

The Weekend Wrapup

Okay....So I would liketo start off with letting youall know that I have decided that I want to start podcasting. I actually competed my first one and now am damn glad that I didn't post it.
I had big long rant about why I thought Arizona would with their matchup with UCLA. Obviously they didn't and honestly I'm glad. Why? Because We need UCLA to win.

We (The Pac-10) need a school that stands out. A beacon of superiority. Most of the time our conferance beats the crap out of eachother making us look like a band of mediocrity but UCLA continueing on their streak trumps that assumption.

For all your ney-sayers....we all know the real season doesn't start until the tournament. We already have 5 pretty much locked and I, for one, am rooting for stanford to get thrown in as the 6th.

Could you imagine that???? 6 teams. But these are the lessons learned from the past few games.


1. Arizona needs to get its act together. It's a far better team than how they're playing. We saw that Williams got 34 against Oregon and then decided to be a ball hog against USC. Play your game guys.

2. Underdog oponents are black holes to the good team. If yorue a highly ranked team and you're playing a sub par team, you are going to be sucked into their game.
-Oregon/USC
-Oregon/ Stanford
- Washington State / Cal
- UCLA / ASU

They are literally black holes of suck. shooting percentage goes down. Defense goes down. Pace of play goes down. EVERYTHING. Play youre game..and you'll win it every time. (i.e. second half of UCLA / ASU)

3. Free throws can win games. Oregon shot 23% against stanford but 30 points (only missing 2) gave them the win. This could have made a differance for Arizona but they didn't play their game.

4. Washington State is by far the best Washington team. I hate to state the obvious..but sometimes lessons are like that. I would also say that SI is partially to blame (see previous post)

So thats it. Were just about halfway through the first half of conferance play and we have some outstanding teams. Important games comming up.

Oregon v. Washington State
UCLA v. Stanford
Arizona v. UNC (out of conferance thats a must win for the PAC-10. stay tuned here for all the details. It's a home game and boy do we need it.

p.s...im on soma while typing this and my apathy is allowing me not to use spell check. i beg your pardon.

Thanks for nothing

Oregon is now doomed to loose thanks to Sports Illustrated. Why couldn't you leave well enough alone.

This is how I imagine a writers meeting at SI goes.

Writer #1 : "So who do you think is good for the NCAA basketball championship this year."
Writer #2 : "Well my money is on Florida"
Writer #1 : "Good thinking..we already know it has to be an east coast team and Duke is a little under the weather."
Writer #3 : "Well of course it has to be an east coast team...could you imagine a wast coast basketball powerhouse?
All : (laughing)
Writer #2 : "No...literally....I actually have money on Florida. $1,000 to be exact"
SI Page : (runs in urgently) This just in guys..Oregon beat Stanford to continue their stay at the top of the PAC-10."
Writer #4 : "Crap...Oregon is starting to look like a legitamate threat."
Writer #1 : "Well...what should we do?"
Writer #3: "The only thing we can do.....(dramatic pause...someone gasps) Write that they're a likely canidate to be the national champions....
Writer #2: "But......but...that would ruin them"
Writer #3: "Exactly!"
All: (Evil laughter)
Writer 5: "Imagine if we put them on the cover."
Writer #4: "Oh man...they'd be fucked"
All: (prolonged evil laughter)

-Exeunt-

Pardon the Construction

If you couldn't tell, I'm slowly teaching myself some HTML to make this site a little better. The content will still be up as usual but trial and error is a bitch.

Keeping Our Minds Right

Watching the Air Force game last night, I was struck by a feeling of absolute sickness. This time however, it wasn't being caused by the Shrimp Lo-Mein from the fast food chinese place on the corner. It was my freefall from cloud 9 into the inevitable mortality of PAC-10 teams.

I couldn't believe that Oregon's back to back wins over UCLA and Arizona had made me so blind. I had totally forgotten about their loos at home to USC. Why is this important? Because it's bound to happen to every team in the conferance. Everybody has been talking about how the PAC-10 games have been OT and 2 point finishes. The conferance is riddled with last second heros. Once...for every team...it's going to go the other way. Don't even THINK that our nerves should only be put on notice for Arizona/UCLA this weekend.

I'm not going to make predictions....too much of a gamble in this conferance.

Just look for it and you'll know it when you see it.

On this note I will say that I don't think it will be ASU. Im not a psychological profiler by any means. However, these guys have to be absolutely destroyed. They can't get any fans into their building for any sort of home court advantage (this doesn't even touch the fact that the school these guys are playing for doesn't even care so why should they?). THeir losses have been ABOMIDABLE. They almost beat Oregon....but no matter how close they got they still lost. I can only imagine the frustration. I think this team has reached a point of just waiting for next season.

if sombody thinks Im wrong...please set me straight.

Full Court Press

Apologies for the time it took to finally get a post on the last week but I wanted to wait until the new numbers came out so I could express an opinion. There wern't too many suprises, Due to the outstanding play of the Nor-Cal teams, both Washington teams dropped off the AP top 25 while WSU still hangs on in the ESPN poll at #21. The pac came into the week with 5 teams in the top 25 and left with 3 (4).



North Carolina's loss to V. Tech allwed UCLA to move up to the #2 spot behind Florida while Oregon's last second victory allowed them to crack the top 10 and dropped Arizona to #12. It is this authors opinion that beating two top 10 teams in a week deserves a little more respect but I'm slightly biased.



The Pac is still the strongest conferance in college basketball and thats more than just the opinion of Steve Lavin. The conferance has the highest RPI as a conferance (2 ahead of the ACC) while UCLA and Arizona have the two highest individual team RPI rankings. Oregon and Washington State follow up the list at #21 and #28. (I will also add that #1 ranked Florida has a #31 RPI ranking)





Espn's sports writers are experiancing somthing that many people who write about sports experiance (most recently by the person who put Troy Smith on the cover of SI with the phrase "The Best! Hands Down") and that is the the "foot-in-mouth". I would say that most of them suffered from "Head-up-ass," but that picture wouldn't get passed the censors. Anyways, after Oregon's win against Georgetown, many people pointed out that the Ducks schedual was too light and that any hope placed behind the team would be false. Today Coach Ernie Kent is on the front page of ESPN claiming there's a comeback at Oregon. Usually this isn't a big deal but the ESPN writers went out of their way to claim that Oregon wasn't going to amount to anything. So ESPN writers...this one's for you.

Goin to the Show

And today we have the list of those forgoing their education to make the big bucks in the NFL.

The Pac-10 has 4 fine gentlemen leaving early with only one having experianced the smell of Roses.

Chris Henry - Arizona

Dawane Jarett - USC

Marshawn Lynch - Cal

Zack Miller - ASU

This is a shame. Jarett and Lynch were two of the most exciting players to watch in the conference this year and I could only imagine the growth they would make for next season. Jarett has experienced the top during his play at USC but Lynch has a chance to be a leader and get his team to step it up next season and possibly win the conference.

As for Chris Henry....I don't know why he thinks hes NFL material. He's a sub par RB on a struggling team. Henry didn't do too much except for an extraordinary 191 rushing yards against Oregon.

Miller leaving with be hard on new incoming coach Erickson. But lucky for him we have some good Ju-Co prospects here in the state willing to take his place. I think most would prefer Miller stay because not only was he one of the only REALLY talented people on the Sun Devils this year, but the University will loose money on posting bail for whoever Erickson gets to replace him.

-The Pac-Rat

Please Stay Tuned

I'll be posting a week wrap-up looking at all the games this week and how they will effect the conferance internally and nationally....

stay tuned.

Insights of an Outsider.

SCENE: After the Game, McKale Center, Tucson, Arizona

Arizona Wildcat Fan: "The Ducks Suck" (shouting)

Oregon Duck Fan who wishes to remain nameless: "And you just lost to us, so how great are you?"

And while I understand that the previous script isn't the least bit interesting it pretty much sums up the goings on in the McKale center all night last night. It was a GREAT game by two great teams. And with the night filled with "Ducks Suck", "You Suck", "Refs Suck" etc...I can't even tell you how many "(fill in noun here)-sucks," I heard last night but the real talk was done on the court last night with The #15 Oregon ducks beating the #10 Arizona Wildcats 79-77.

Major differences between going to the ASU and U of A games was definitely the population. The Wildcats packed their arena to the brim with 99.99% of the attendees supporting their home team. I could count probably 10 people in the entire stadium (including myself) supporting the gentlemen from Eugene. ASU had more empty seats than people at the game and it was almost even between ASU and UO fans.

The play in last nights game was truly original. Arizona fields a team in which every starter was taller than all of Oregon's own starting 5. Because of this, Oregon could not get inside for shots so they were forced to attempt 26 3-pointers and draining 13 of them (Arizona only made 3 all night). Also due to the major height/weight discrepancies on the court, just like the ASU game Oregon was forced into multiple off the ball fouls putting Arizona in a position of shooting 2 per foul with 10 minutes left int he game. The wildcats were them literally given points on the board. Arizona would end up attempting 20 free throws and capitalizing on 18 of them.

The man of the night was U of A's Williams who scored a career high 34 points. He was unstoppable. But unfortunately for the town of Tucson, the same can't be said for the Wildcats. The Hero of the night was no other than Aaron Brooks who scored an improbable off-the-glass shot to put Oregon up two with 2 seconds left in the game.

This is about when the big letdown of the weekend happened unbeknownst to me. I got home and watched the game a second time to get some more perspective (and I heard I was on TV a couple of times) and the DVR stopped automatically on the hour. This was when there was 2 seconds left in the game and Arizona had a chance to tie up the game. It literally stopped right before the inbound pass. If I had taped it to watch for the first time I'd be "throwing-stuff-through-windows" mad.

If anything sucks....its my DVR.

point of note.....the T.V. does not give the crowd volume any justice. The crowd was deafening. I have no idea how Oregon was able to communicate plays. It didn't even stop during timeouts. McKale Center is really a home court advantage.

I'm Alright

I got the the Arizona campus alright, but when I got to the ticket counter and told them I had a student ticket....well they wern't very happy. But I can still breathe and theres no way I'm going to miss this game.

Hope youre all watching cause its gonna be a good one. Look for the green shirt amongst all the red. If you don't see one that means that the mob finished the job and sweetheart....I wont be comming home.

Up Next




Versus

Greetings From

So I'm on the road to watch what I think is the Pac-10 game of the weekend starring the #8 Arizona Wildcats as they play host to the #15 Oregon Ducks. I have gone to both of these schools but I will always be a Duck fan I have tickets to sit in the UA student section with my flaming "YELL-O" t shirt amidst all the red. I find that blending in the with natives is important. I will try to get a picture of it tomorrow.

SO...UCLA pulled out a close one against USC in its rivalry weekend. I didn't get to see most of it because I was busy eating chicken feet at a local Chinese establishment (no..I'm not kidding). But in 6 minutes another big game will be happening right here in Phoenix between ASU and Oregon State. Why is this big you ask. Well they're both looking for their first PAC-10 win. Ladies and Gentlemen. A streak is ending tonight.

I predict a Sun Devil victory, but with these two teams it's hard to tell.

The differance between yellow and gold

Arizona State-55

Oregon - 60

ASU failed to fill half the capacity of it's Wells Fargo arena last night as it took on the ducks for what should have been a blow out. My party and I arrived about 30 minutes before tip off to see so very few people in the stands. Being my first experiance at ASU's home cout I figured that it was a cultural differance and the fans just didn't show up until gametime (somthing one would never see in most basketball arenas). A few more meandered in but I came to the realization that this was it, and more suprisingly that there were almost as many UO fans as ASU. Even wth all the yellow one was able to differentiate UO piss yellow and ASU sun devil gold.

By the way, has anybody else noticed that the Sun Devil hand signal for the "pitchfork" is actually somthing most people know as "The Shocker"?

I did find that ASU had an interesting stratagy of play. They definately had a bigger team in size and they used it to out physical the ducks and force off-the-ball fouls consistantly. Everybody on offense who didn't have the ball was involved in a merry-go-round of moving picks, and as a fan it was incredibly frustrating. ASU is looking forward to a first possible conferance win against the Oregon State Beavers this saturday.

Department of Corrections

Oregon State has recently acquired a new member to their basketball program. A certain C.J. Giles, formally a member of the University of Kansas Jayhawks, recently left Kansas because...well..he was kicked out for beating a former girlfriend and dragging her out of her apartment by her feet. Oregon State jumped at the opportunity, desperate to feed off the crumbs dropped by the perennial basketball powerhouse.

The 6 foot 11, 240 pound Giles who averaged 6.2 points per game and 4.8 rebounds also owes $4,097 in child support and should be a valuable addition to the institution.



In related news, Dennis Erickson has recently recanted his decision to coach ASU football to head back to Corvallis and coach the Beavers basketball team. It's been said that Erickson cited the fact that its easier to put together a group of Thugs who already play basketball than to teach a group of thugs how to play football. The later being Erickson's recent recipe for success in college football. We wish Erickson and the Beavers the best of luck in their edeavors.

Lets Hear it For Loose Morals

How Does One Start?

How does one start a blog when one has no readers? The question is moot because when there are no readers, there's nobody to give a crap. I slightly enjoy this because it makes my job a little easier.

I have started this endeavor because there is a need for unification. None of that "let's bang bongos and chant in harmony" kind of unification. Being an Oregon Duck fan I will still wish for the untimely and gruesome end to any Beaver or Husky fan with whom I cross paths. There's a need to unify ourselves as the fans of the greatest conference that NCAA athletics has had the privilege of hosting. We are fans of teams, no matter the sport, that don't allow for one school to take all of the glory. That is too boring. We beat the crap out of eachother and make east coast writers think we’re weak. We are fans of teams that collectively have brought home more national championships than any other conference. We are fans of teams that consider every other team in the conference as a rival.

We are fans.

With football season just ending, we have to remind the world that we are NOT just USC. WE are also the only teams that beat USC in the regular season in the last 4 years (their only loss in coming to Texas last year).

We are the conference with 251 men’s team national championships and 100 women’s team national championships.

Conference of champions baby.

We love our teams.
We hate everybody else.
And we're one hell of a bunch.

Granted this seems a bit "this guy takes himself way too seriously"
But I’m allowed to damnit! This is my first post, I’m sentimental, and nobody's reading it anyways.

-The Pac-Rat

P.S. Go Ducks!