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.