Pac Ten Alley

Let's start off with a little golf, how many of you watched the US Open this weekend? I like Tiger, but I usually root against the favorite, or superstar. This past weekend I was rooting for Tiger, and it may stay like that for awhile. He showed us a lot of courage out there, and that is where he starts moving into the Palmer, Nicklaus, Hogan...etc... league. He was always there as a player, but this week he earned some serious stripes with his guts, and that is the one special thing we all admire about the best. When a guy is out there playing on a bum knee against Doctors orders it is totally old school. When he forces an 18 hole playoff on the last hole in regulation that is old school. This was a U.S. Open for the history books, and it ranks as one of the best majors ever.

Dirty Ducks

I have been watching this developing story over the past week in regard to recruiting. Scholarships offers get yanked, just ask Washington's Bradly Roussel.

A high school coach from one of Southern California’s top prep programs expressed frustration with the UO football staff Monday after the Ducks withdrew a scholarship offer that had been accepted by one of his players last week.

Pac Ten Alley

Let's take a walk down the coast to see what the neighbors are up to.

Oregon has no problem showing QB's the back door.

Sophomore QB Cody Kempt will be going home to compete for a starting job with the Montana St. Bobcats.With an uncertain future at Oregon, Kempt felt the timing was right to make the switch. Instead of competing against 6 other potential QB's here in Eugene, Kempt will only have 4 to go against in Bozeman.

The basketball staff fills out at Stanford.

Johnny Dawkins filled out his coaching staff, and he did so in a resounding way: Hiring former Santa Clara coach Dick Davey as his lead assistant.

News from Arizona.

Former signed Arizona men’s basketball recruit Emmanuel Negedu is in Memphis this weekend, making his final recruiting visit after getting his release from UA last month.

You want video of the tree protestors, we got it. The courts decide tomorrow.

One of the activists who have perched in a grove outside UC Berkeley's Memorial Stadium for the past year and a half was hauled out of her tree Tuesday, as the university began removing tree-sitters' gear in advance of a judge's ruling that could lead to a climax in the long-running protest.

More of reliving the dream from OSU.

In what was, is, and probably will forever be the most surreal sporting event I've ever attended, the Beavers surprised the nation with a 12-6 victory over Arizona State on June 18, 2007.

Taylor Mays, USC, safety: Scary.

That is the best way to describe Mays. His combination of size and speed in a safety is freakish. And in the Trojans' spring game, Mays obliterated Patrick Turner, the team's towering 6-foot-5, 230-pound receiver on a play when he came over the middle. I suspect many Pac-10 receivers envision similar scenes before they face the Trojans and their super-fast, super-sized DB.

ASU's Rudy Carpenter trains with Steve Clarkson

Video

Bruin Expectations

So last weeek, we put up not one, but four posts (see here, here, here, and here) discussing and setting our expectations for the next season. From my vantage point, I am expecting UCLA to win somewhere around 6 games in Rick Neuheisel’s first season at UCLA. Following my first post, BruinsRule - someone who I have enormous respect for -questioned whether I was setting the expectations in a way to make it easy for RN to meet our expectations. I responded to his concern with my reasons on how I calibrated my expectations. From our subsequent exchange in the comment thread and BR’s clarification, it seems like we are all on the same page.

WSU blog reviews UA among other things.

Great weather, nice stadium that seats over 56,000, great hoops program.....but a football team that hasn't been to a bowl game since 1998?? What is it with Arizona's football program that they just can't seem to put it together? It's a hard thing to put your finger on. You would think from a distance anyway that they should be successful, but for whatever the reason, it's been a long, dry spell without success.