Bad News Beavers

I thought this one was going to be a yawner, but some serious intrigue has been injected into this meaningless game because of the possibility of elbows, body slams, fouls, ejections, and potential brawls. This is WWW meets the Pac Ten at its finest!

One of the more interesting things I heard this week was that the Oregon State basketball team interrupted UW's practice on Friday at Gill Coliseum with plenty of verbal trash talking, and physical threats. The altercation almost evolved into a brawl.

Ralph Miller must be rolling over in his grave. Given the Beavers performance since his retirement, Ralph passed away in 2001, the poor man has probably been on spin cycle ever since! Miller had only two losing seasons in 19 years at OSU. He retired as the second all-time winningest coach in Oregon State history with 359 victories. When he retired at age 70 in 1989, his record was 657-382. The Beavers have been a doormat ever since Ralph left.

Now back to the present. You have to wonder where there interim coach Kevin Mouton was during all this? We have all seen teams get pretty spirited during games, but invading the visitors practice period, and trying to start a rumble? It is pretty evident that Mouton has lost control of the team and isn't the right fit as a potential head coach anywhere.

Mouton of course was the scumbag who gave CJ Giles his walking papers in an extremely vindictive move following the firing of the head coach Jay John after the last UW game. The performance of the Beavers since John left should be enough to bury Mouton's career.

Advantage Washington?

As far as todays game goes it should be an entertaining slug fest as two teams that don't like each other play to avoid the Pac Ten basement. I should give the edge to UW since they have more talent, and are probably fired up pretty good after the moronic episode. Neither of these teams has anything left to play for, so a grudgematch is as good as any reason for UW to repsond in a positive way.

Advantage Oregon State?

On the other hand the ref's are going to call this one close, and since it is on the road that means Brockman will be lucky to get 25 minutes. The Huskies of course are a different team without Brockman which means they suck even more when he is out of the game. In will come Artem Wallace who will be fouled anytime he gets the ball. Artem just happens to be the worst foul shooter in the league despite possesing an improving game as an inforcer. Since they will call it close it means there will plenty of foul shots, and we all know the Huskies can't shoot foul shots.