Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Pac Ten Alley

How many of you watched the UCLA/Washington game last Sunday? If you did you saw Tim Morris blast a ball off the face of a UCLA player that was guarding him while he was trying to inbound the ball. Something tells me that should be against the rules. I'm not buying Romar's, or Morris's explanation either, even though Ben Howland was surely in the way if you watch the video. Things happen in the heat of the moment, but blasting a basketball off someones face isn't cool.

YouTube Video

On the flip side on Thursday ex Husky guard Will Conroy noted it was obvious the Huskies needed to toughen it up if they wanted to compete. They came out on Sunday and bruised the Bruins. So who knows, maybe that is what the program needed to wake up.

Personally I was getting very bored watching this team, and Sunday was a great surprise. Lets see if it carries through to the Willamette Valley this weekend where the Oregon faithful still have it out for Ryan Appleby.

Funny thing, Aaron Brooks smacks Ryan in the face and the Oregon faithful are made he didn't forgive him. I really doubt that I would forgive someone that punched me in the face. Oregon logic, you have to love the absudity.

Brian White

The latest noise coming from the football offices is the hiring of Brian White to handle TE/ST's. That assignment isn't exacty written in stone since he is also an excellent RB coach. For the record White has experience coaching multiple positions. the two positions he has excelled at has been RB, and TE's. He is a good fit in either spot as long as he doesn't convince Lappano to execute any quick kicks in the first quarter.

More Access?

Rumors are floating around that fans and media will have a lot more access to the footbal team this Spring. You can thank AD Scott Woodward for that if it ends up happening. You know that Willingham isn't in favor of it, but Woodward is trying to heal the disconnect between the team, and the fan base. We will see what happens in April.

Pac Ten Alley

Oregon's Ernie Kent has his back against the wall as he tries to save his job. No pun intended but Ernie has been a "Lame Duck" for the past two seasons.

After holding a pre-game "team meeting" (read, Kent trying to save his job) in which all of the staff and players participated, Oregon came out to play last night. This team is frustrating. They can be brilliant at times and then in a blink of an eye, come out like a high school team.

Stanford is in the hunt for a high seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Cardinal has now won seven in a row since the loss at Oregon, with at least two of the wins coming against tournament teams (Arizona and Washington State) and one coming on the road against a tournament team (WSU). As a result, Stanford’s power rating has jumped from the low-40s into the high-teens, and it’s in the hunt for a high seed in the NCAAs.

Arizona may not be in the top 25 but they can beat any team in the country on a given night.

There is one AP voter out there that still feels the love for Arizona. Dan Weber of the Riverside (Calif.) Press-Enterprise puts the Wildcats at No. 15 this week, which accounts for all of UA's 11 points in the poll. None of the other 71 voters -- including the Tucson Citizen's Steve Rivera -- puts Arizona in the Top 25.

Here is a little more information on the Cal recruiting class.

Coach Jeff Tedford announced his 2008 recruiting class Wednesday and it features five wide receivers who all should be in the mix to compete for the playing time left available by the departure of DeSean Jackson, Lavelle Hawkins and Robert Jordan. The Bears have only one returning receiver who has caught a pass in a game, making the competition for snaps wide open.

Forget about Mike Montgomery. Maybe Oregon State should offer the head coaching job to Gary Payton?

It's been a long, long season for the Oregon State Men's Basketball team. In fact, it's been 53 days since the Beavers won a game. 53 days! The Beavers were swept for the fifth time of the season last week. It was the second time the Beavers lost to both of the Bay Area schools this season. Well, if you don't win a single conference game, I guess that means you get swept by everybody.

Former USC player Kenechi Udeze is in the fight of his life.

Vikings starting defensive end, Kenechi Udeze, is fighting leukemia. Udeze’s doctors are still trying to determine what grade of leukemia he is dealing with.

The ASU/UA feud has reached the House of Heat. How long till both teams get slapped with probation?

The following .pdf document was discovered by Devils Digest moderator Big E. It was apparently sent out to all wildcat fans following the Sun Devil basketball sweep that concluded on Sunday. It seems that their fallback rally cry of "wait 'til basketball season!" has grown stale and they don't even have the promise of football recruiting to look forward to any longer.

The UCLA blog is all about Washington this week. You think Tim Morris, and the Seattle Times are popular down there? No!

Now let’s pivot back to our basketball team. While there are thousands of Bruin fans who are disgusted with what happened during the closing mins against the Huskies, our team is quietly working on getting it together. And it was encouraging to see these comments from Love in today’s LAT in which he backtracked from previous ridiculous comments following the game:

The Cougars love the hiring of Jim Mora as future coach of the Seahawks.

Yep, the main target of the Tyee Club to replace Ty "Stale Saltine" Willingham just got all tied up in Paul Allen's steel blue for the next few years.Now, the one energetic, UW alum DREAM coach is 100% unavailable for the near future. Which means that Montlake will be stiffled a bit longer!

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

John, I missed the game on Sunday. Are you aware of any video posted online that shows the Morris incident?

John Berkowitz said...

Sure, I just posted it on the article.

bigdave967 said...

that was a serious toss off his face...i will give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he thought that the guy was going to jump and so it would have hit him in the chest or that he was in a time crunch and just needed to get the ball in...?!?!?! dont really know.

Anonymous said...

No flame here.

Not all Oregon fans have it out for Appleby, at least not for taking a shot to the face. Appleby might have fouled Brooks on the other end of the court but that on no way justified Aaron's response. Appleby seems to be a duck slayer--that is why most reasonable duck fans dislike him.

I understand being a fan but I wouldn't paint with such a broad brush . . . I seem to recall a recent expose and the response of some dawg fans. Given your view on ball-of-the-face gate I doubt you were defending the program against some of those horrific allegations.

People are blinded by allegience everywhere, not just Oregon. So it isn't "Oregon logic." Look no further than the recent expose and your own fan base's response. More likely it is human nature to overlook your own group's transgressions and magnify those of the other.

Good luck on Thursday. I'm hoping for a clean, competitive game (and a Ducks win).

nemoduck said...

"Lame Duck"? I know quite a few teams from the Northwest that would have loved to go to The Elite Eight.

Anonymous said...

We Ducks give Appleby a bad time because he's good. The kid can shoot. And if loud crowd antics can throw him off for a few minutes...rip it up!

AB's elbow was uncalled for and a program embarrassment, and I can understand why Appleby chose to snub the hand shake, thereafter.

Prop's to the Huskies for smacking around the Bruins but now I'm hoping for a post victory let down.

John Berkowitz said...

Lame Duck?

He actually is, the elite eight saved his job last year. I like Kent, I think he is a good coach.

Anonymous said...

About the ball off of the face... I was at the game and one thing that the video doesn't show is Morris extending a hand to Aboya before the second in bounds play and Aboya refusing. You can see Morris mouth the words "thats all right" as Fox cuts from the replay back to live action. I Howland is a punk though, if you watch the video you see Howland standing about four feet away with both of his hands up as a second inbounds defender.

The difference between Brooks and Morris is that Brooks could have been arrested for what he did while Morris was acting within the rules. But I have never been a fan of throwing the ball off the opposing player rule.

Anonymous said...

On further review, Howland is about 10 feet away. My bad.

bigdave967 said...

You duck fans are always "Quacking" me up...a ball throwen off a face to not get a turnover and an elbow throwen to a face for personal reasons are two different circumstances...both are at certain levels poor sportsmanship but only one is actually illegal (on and off the court i might add) and the other was a player trying to make a play. You cant actually compare them, apples and oranges my mother always said.

Anonymous said...

unreal, he could have thrown that ball anywhere else on his body. That is just as bad as hitting someone in the face. It is actually the coward way to go about it. romar should punish him for his actions, because they were obvious. You should get kicked our ot the game for something like that.

Anonymous said...

another duck fan, here... no flames intended -- we're talking about pretty immature kids, both involved in the incidents, and doing the heckling at the games.

I think the reason many ducks don't like Appleby is because Brooks spent his time in the locker room after being dismissed from the game writing letters of apology to both Romar and Appleby. He was contrite about the entire incident. He never complained about his suspension and always expressed sorrow at his very poor decision and representation of the ducks.

The fact that Appleby explicitly said he didn't accept the apology was what angered Duck fans. I can expect a young kid like Appleby to be angry, but I would expect Coach Romar and his parents to perhaps council him that the best way to deal with the situation was to put it in the past.

Anonymous said...

My favorite mistruth esposed by Duck fans is that Appleby incensed the Ducks by not shaking Brooks hand at tipoff at the rematch in Eugene and "accepting his apology".

Interesting that the Pit Crew was taunting Appleby during warmups with signs calling him "AppleBitch" and "Brooks owns you" as well as pictures of his bloody face post-elbow...PRIOR TO TIPOFF. You can't have it both ways Duck fans. You're bad. Ask Stan Love.

Anonymous said...

If you people are basing your opinion of the Oregon Pit Crew on words from Stan Loves mouth, you might be retarded.

Washington in the most physical team in the Pac-10, and that is why they struggle mighlty on the road. Official will not allow hackers and slappers to play basketball at the collegiate level. Too bad for Husky fans that you cant play all your games at home, you might never lose!!!

Appleby is not a great player, but a streaky shooter. And yes, he seems to be a major league Duck killer. Oregon fans dislike Appleeby for a number of reasons, the ones previously mentioned are just a few. He seems like a whiny little kid who would through a tantram everytime he didn't get his way. He can kiss my @$$.

Huck the Fuskies

bigdave967 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
bigdave967 said...

Anonymous poster #6...you Quack me up...Appleby is by no means a "great" player but a very good role player. He does what he is supposed to do...shoot 3 balls all game long. Next time Appleby takes the floor againist Ouckin Fregon (its just as retarded when you did it, trust me) he should bring his boots, crazy water proof suspenders, and his shotgun...because he going duck huntin'!!

John Berkowitz said...

Wow....plenty of reaction on this one, and that is what makes the rivarly great.

On Appleby, I think he is a nice kid, but he had to be the most over rated kid in state history coming out of high school.

He is slow, can't play defense well, and is pretty one dimensionsal. He needs to get set to be accurate which means he needs to shoot off screens. He is also streaky, so even when he is open you don't know what type of night he is going to have.

Anonymous said...

For the record Dawgs: as far as the Appleby thing goes. He is disliked by most Oregon fans for his several reasons. The first is just his appearance. He looks like the last person you would think was a D1 (pac 10) player. Ugly as all sin, thin, with that awful 3XL undershirt making him look like that last guy in the gym during a pick-up game asking everyone if “you want to run with me next.” Husky fans, think for a minute what you would think about him if he played for another team….. And I do not have a double standard, I remember opposing fans chanting “Fro-do Bagg-ins” when Luke Jackson was shooting FT’s (and I could see why people would say that).

Reason #2: Most people don’t know this, but, Brooks bowed him because he uttered a racial slur. You can fill in the blank here. At least fans just give him a hard time instead of having to get Jesse Jackson involved… Besides he tends to play well against the ducks, and is obviously an easy target. Look at the frail lil guy.

John Berkowitz said...

"Most people don’t know this, but, Brooks bowed him because he uttered a racial slur."

I don't know where you heard that, but it is untrue. Maybe Brooks said it off the record, but it never happened.

Brooks simply was frustrated with UW dominating him on a regular basis. The frustration got to him, and he made a mistake, and that mistake resulted in a suspension.

Anonymous said...

I think it's funny that some of you (NOT the poster of this thread) think that what Morris did to Aboya was ok. Clearly Romar is not a good coach and encourages his team to take cheap shots like that to win. The best part: I hate UCLA. I'm a Cal alum. But all of you should be ashamed that your team looks like a bunch of dirty punk kids. If John Wooden is calling out your coach, that is a bad sign.

John Berkowitz said...

Anon - "Clearly Romar is not a good coach and encourages his team to take cheap shots like that to win."

Well that is a mouthful and not a word of that is true. Romar is an excellent coach who deals with these matters in private while supporting his players publically.

"Dirty punk kids?"

One play that the officials didn't even censure, and you are jumping to that conclusion?

I didn't like the decision made on the play, but I am not going to jump to unreasonable conclusions.