Monday, February 26, 2007

Oregon's Not Done Yet

I was surprised to see them win after allowing the Cougs to shoot a mere 53% from the field while getting outrebounded. But, when you force twice as many turnovers as you commit and hit twice as many threes, its not as surprising. Aaron Brooks wasn't very sharp, but Tajuan Porter came up big yet again with 21 points and four three-pointers. Oregon needed the win to show their season wasn't over yet, while WSU needed it to show the selection committee they are a 2 seed. And now we know WSU isn't a 2 seed. In less important but still interesting games, Wazzu eventually beat the Beavers and Oregon outlasted the Huskies. Both SoCal teams swept the NorCal teams and the Wildcats barely topped the Sun Devils.

WSU gets a chance to redeem themselves this week with games against USC and UCLA, easily the best games of the week in the Pac-10.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Big games in Eugene and Los Angeles tonight. The Trojans and Cardinal fight for third place in the Pac-10, while the Cougs come to McArthur to see if the Ducks can shake out of their slump. You know, now that I think about it, Oregon's basketball struggles this season seem eerily parallel to their football problems too. Win a few games early (one of which is a close game against one of the best teams in the country), get ranked pretty high and look like a great team, then watch it all crumble as their supposed "leaders" (Dixon and Brooks) play terribly and lose lots of conference games down the stretch. What is in Eugene's water???

Ohio St and Florida both won yesterday, which means the Bruins probably won't get a chance to break into the top 3 this week.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Sad But True

Still smarting over the USC loss to Arizona State. I only caught the last few minutes of the game, but wow what an embarrassing loss for the Trojans. ASU had lost 15 in a row and were 0-14 in conference play and USC was coming off a big win in Tucson. Then USC goes and loses to a team that barely breaks the top-200 in the Sagarin Ratings. Bravo, USC. Bravo. But, since Florida lost on Saturday and Wisconsin followed that up with a loss on Tuesday, it almost doesn't hurt as much. Then again, the Gators and Badgers didn't lose to one of the worst teams in the country. So it looks like USC still has something to prove in the conference tourney.

In other Pac-10 news, the Cougs went cradle robbing and got a verbal commitment from a 14 year old. Now they only have to wait four or five years for that investment to pay off. You would think a top-ten team would be able to at least recruit upperclassmen.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Weekly Recap

Rough week for Arizona, losing to both USC and UCLA at home, after already losing both games they played in LA in January. Hell, it has been a rough 2007 for the Wildcats, who are only 6-8 since the calendar turned. This is a team that was as high as #7 before they began their tumble in the standings. But since beating then #20 Washington to start the new year, Arizona has gone 1-6 against ranked teams with their other two losses coming against the now ranked Cougar and Trojan squads. They have three games left and a chance to hit 20 regular season wins, but they'll have to knock off the suddenly impressive Cardinal on the road in their season finale to do it.

Speaking of Stanford, they are now fourth in the conference, ahead of both Oregon and Arizona, after a nice win against the Ducks. Brook Lopez had another nice game for the Cardinal with 26 points and 9 boards as Oregon continued their collapse. Aaron Brooks finally returned to form with 25 points on 10 of 19 shooting, after making less than 30% of his shots in the last five games. But he didn't get much help as Tajuan Porter was the only other Duck in double figures and the bench didn't contribute a single point. Just like Arizona, Oregon got as high as #7 in the polls, only to go 2-6 in their last eight games and may even fall out of the top 25 in this week's polls.

And finally, congratulations to Vandy for knocking off Florida. Gotta love it when an unranked team takes out the #1 team in all the land, especially when it's an SEC team. Congrats also to the Washington Huskies, who managed to lose to two top-ten teams by exactly the same score this week, 65-61. I am impressed by that consistency, but I would be more impressed if you actually ended this disappointing season with 20 wins. Of course, that means running the table and beating Oregon, USC and UCLA in the next two weeks. Impress me, I dare you.

Friday, February 09, 2007

Looks Like USC Is In A Little Trouble...

So not only is the Reggie Bush house donation saga still continuing, now he may be improperly talking to potential recruits, specifically one Joe McKnight. Thanks, Reggie. Even if the NCAA does hand down a punishment upon USC, it evidently won't be very severe. Add to that the fact that basketball recruit OJ Mayo just got suspended three games for bumping a ref, and USC's recruiting is not looking too good this week. Fight on?

Thursday, February 08, 2007

...............And We're Back

I apologize for the lack of updates, life has been busy lately. Anyways, football came back into the fold for one day, and it was once again important for USC. They signed ESPN's #1, #2 and #3 players in RB Joe McKnight, LB Chris Galippo and RB Marc Tyler and came away with yet another "recruiting title" from ESPN. Plus USC pulled it out without the services of recruiting czar Lane Kiffin, who is keeping himself busy trying to gain Randy Moss' respect, easily my favorite subplot of the offseason. The fine folks over at Rivals nearly agreed, as USC gets second place in their rankings behind the National Champion Florida Gators. Other Pac-10 teams didn't fare so well. The only other team in ESPN's Top 25 was Oregon at #23. Rivals put Oregon at #11 and Cal at #22. The SEC wins the conference recruiting title, as USC, Notre Dame and Texas are the only teams to make Rivals top 10 that are not from the SEC. ESPN only puts five SEC schools in their top 10. Either way you slice it, the SEC puts on a show when it comes to signing day.

Nice to see no 5-star players going to any Pac-10 school besides USC. And while I love seeing USC get great players, I just don't see how all of them figure they are going to play. I mean the Trojans had one of the great RB hauls in recent memory last year with Emmanuel Moody, Stafon Johnson, and CJ Gable and now they add the two best running backs in the country to the mix? I am guessing that means at least two backs have to transfer before the season starts and I'll put my money on Johnson transferring to UNLV, following in the footsteps of Eric Wright and Rocky Hinds. Seriously though, USC now has McKnight, Tyler, Moody, Johnson, Gable, Michael Coleman, Desmond Reed, Chauncey Washington and a few more guys you've never heard of. Plus, there are two other high schoolers (Malcolm Smith and Broderick Green) who accepted scholarships to be running backs this year. Does the rest of the conference combined even have this much RB talent? Which begs another question: how stupid are all the running backs at USC if they all think they're going to start? Good luck with that, Pete.