In a year which the Pac-10 is as bad, if not the worst, that its ever been we are solidifying ourselves at the bottom. Alone in last place after last night's performance, the last chance we have at "rising" out of the cellar is if Washington State can join us there. We got the win at their place, and a half game ahead of us, they look to be the only team we have a chance to catch in the closing weeks of the season.
A win or two from them will set them apart, even if we do manage to beat them head to head, but they've been nearly as bad as us lately, losing 6 of their last 7 games, mostly double digit blowouts.
So, if you're rooting for a 9th place finish, root against the Coogs.
We couldn't do much to beat the 9th place team at home last night, so it might be a futile hope anyway.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Swept by our last three.
The start to the second half of conference play has gone as bad as possible. We are playing worse now than we were to start conference play and the last 3 teams to paste us have now swept the season series against us.
With Stanford and Cal coming to Mac Court this week, it will be interesting to see how much, or how little, this team cares about things anymore. Stanford shares the Pac-10 basement with us and is the "easiest" game left on our schedule. Lose that one and an 0-fer second half is a real possibility.
Tajuan did move into 2nd place on the Pac-10 career 3 point leaders list, for what it's worth. With him needing 18 more and probably only 7 games left, first place is becoming unlikely.
With Stanford and Cal coming to Mac Court this week, it will be interesting to see how much, or how little, this team cares about things anymore. Stanford shares the Pac-10 basement with us and is the "easiest" game left on our schedule. Lose that one and an 0-fer second half is a real possibility.
Tajuan did move into 2nd place on the Pac-10 career 3 point leaders list, for what it's worth. With him needing 18 more and probably only 7 games left, first place is becoming unlikely.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Talk about vastly different expectations.
You've got to love quotes like this one, from the Oregonian, about Oregon and Oregon State.
"The Beavers are a solid, competitive program right now that just swept the Ducks, who are floundering."
OSU is right with us, at 4-6 in the Pac-10, with an even worse overall record at 10-12. OSU's ability to beat Oregon head to head doesn't make them either solid or competitive right now. They've lost 4 of their last 6 games, are just 1 month removed from a 50+ point beating at the hands of Seattle U (in their first season of division 1 basketball), and now half of their Pac-10 win total is over a hapless Oregon team.
The Oregonian article is titled, "There's a clear difference between Oregon State and Oregon", and it goes on to detail why OSU is superior and headed in the right direction.
The title of the article is apt, though not for the "analysis" given inside it. There is a clear difference and that difference is expectations. Because OSU isn't better than Oregon right now, despite the result on the court. Which is not to say that Oregon is any better than them this year either. Oregon isn't better than Washington, Washington State, UCLA or USC either, despite beating those 4 teams. Both Oregon teams are among the most pathetic teams in a pathetic league. OSU has scoreboard.
OSU somehow got worse from last year, despite losing very little from their team, and fans and writers are happy with it. Oregon is likely going to fire the coach after this poor season. The difference between the 2 is that OSU is happy to be among the pathetic, while Oregon won't stand for it long.
So, I hope to continue to see articles lambasting the Ducks for their failure and praising the Beavers for their failure, because that does highlight the difference between the two programs.
"The Beavers are a solid, competitive program right now that just swept the Ducks, who are floundering."
OSU is right with us, at 4-6 in the Pac-10, with an even worse overall record at 10-12. OSU's ability to beat Oregon head to head doesn't make them either solid or competitive right now. They've lost 4 of their last 6 games, are just 1 month removed from a 50+ point beating at the hands of Seattle U (in their first season of division 1 basketball), and now half of their Pac-10 win total is over a hapless Oregon team.
The Oregonian article is titled, "There's a clear difference between Oregon State and Oregon", and it goes on to detail why OSU is superior and headed in the right direction.
The title of the article is apt, though not for the "analysis" given inside it. There is a clear difference and that difference is expectations. Because OSU isn't better than Oregon right now, despite the result on the court. Which is not to say that Oregon is any better than them this year either. Oregon isn't better than Washington, Washington State, UCLA or USC either, despite beating those 4 teams. Both Oregon teams are among the most pathetic teams in a pathetic league. OSU has scoreboard.
OSU somehow got worse from last year, despite losing very little from their team, and fans and writers are happy with it. Oregon is likely going to fire the coach after this poor season. The difference between the 2 is that OSU is happy to be among the pathetic, while Oregon won't stand for it long.
So, I hope to continue to see articles lambasting the Ducks for their failure and praising the Beavers for their failure, because that does highlight the difference between the two programs.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Huge Shot Humphrey
The Rockets, Lakers and Spurs know Robert Horry as "Big Shot Bob". Late in his career he barely played in the regular season, didn't do a lot even when he did play, except make game changing 3 pointers late in games. So, perhaps we ought to call Matt, "Huge Shot Humphrey".
In Matt Humphrey's short career, he's spent a lot of time injured, and had some up and down performances. He hasn't scored all that much, but his ratio of big shots to total points is insanely high. Against UCLA he took over in the final minutes and overtime. And last night, with USC closing the gap in the second half, Matt hit back to back threes to stretch our lead out to 8.
If you remember last season, he also hit game tying, go ahead, and final dagger, shots in both of our 2 conference wins against Oregon State and Stanford.
Its really too bad about his injury, because I think he can become a great player for us. And he's shown the ability to step up in the clutch, which is simply something you often can't teach or develop. You've either got it, or you don't.
Other than some passing issues, we played well yesterday. We were very sloppy passing the ball, which was extremely frustrating. We should have put them away many times, but we just handed them the ball multiple times for wide open break away buckets. One on none fast breaks don't happen usually but once a game, or so. Yesterday, USC got about 5 of them on terrible decisions and lazy passes (from both the pass itself, and the recipient not coming to the ball).
Jacob has quietly been coming on of late, with a peak yesterday of 19 points, leading in scoring. Armstead really looks for Jacob and gets him some easy buckets down low. You can see how comfortable they are together and Jacob's got some ability in the post. He's not the same presence than Dunigan is, especially defensively or on the boards. His post game is different, as he isn't able to go up over defenders, but he can he hit the short jumpers that aren't a part of Mike's arsenal yet.
4-5, after the first half of conference play, is still a big disappointment. The Pac-10 is very down this year. After a 2-0 start, on the road, we should have been no worse than 6-3 with any kind of halfway decent play. That 5 game stretch killed any realistic chance of post season play, short of winning the Pac-10 tournament.
8 Pac-10 teams have 4 or 5 conference wins (and losses), with only Cal and Oregon State bucking the trend, in first and last place respectively. It looks like there's going to be a bunch of teams with 8-10 conference wins. The Pac-10 tournament is going to be brutal, this year, with everybody fighting for a shot at the tournament. And you can't count count, almost, anybody out of winning it.
In Matt Humphrey's short career, he's spent a lot of time injured, and had some up and down performances. He hasn't scored all that much, but his ratio of big shots to total points is insanely high. Against UCLA he took over in the final minutes and overtime. And last night, with USC closing the gap in the second half, Matt hit back to back threes to stretch our lead out to 8.
If you remember last season, he also hit game tying, go ahead, and final dagger, shots in both of our 2 conference wins against Oregon State and Stanford.
Its really too bad about his injury, because I think he can become a great player for us. And he's shown the ability to step up in the clutch, which is simply something you often can't teach or develop. You've either got it, or you don't.
Other than some passing issues, we played well yesterday. We were very sloppy passing the ball, which was extremely frustrating. We should have put them away many times, but we just handed them the ball multiple times for wide open break away buckets. One on none fast breaks don't happen usually but once a game, or so. Yesterday, USC got about 5 of them on terrible decisions and lazy passes (from both the pass itself, and the recipient not coming to the ball).
Jacob has quietly been coming on of late, with a peak yesterday of 19 points, leading in scoring. Armstead really looks for Jacob and gets him some easy buckets down low. You can see how comfortable they are together and Jacob's got some ability in the post. He's not the same presence than Dunigan is, especially defensively or on the boards. His post game is different, as he isn't able to go up over defenders, but he can he hit the short jumpers that aren't a part of Mike's arsenal yet.
4-5, after the first half of conference play, is still a big disappointment. The Pac-10 is very down this year. After a 2-0 start, on the road, we should have been no worse than 6-3 with any kind of halfway decent play. That 5 game stretch killed any realistic chance of post season play, short of winning the Pac-10 tournament.
8 Pac-10 teams have 4 or 5 conference wins (and losses), with only Cal and Oregon State bucking the trend, in first and last place respectively. It looks like there's going to be a bunch of teams with 8-10 conference wins. The Pac-10 tournament is going to be brutal, this year, with everybody fighting for a shot at the tournament. And you can't count count, almost, anybody out of winning it.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Humphrey and Singler take over in overtime.
Its amazing how much better we look when we shoot the ball alright. With nobody being capable of making a shot, we had a horrid 5 game losing streak. A streak in which we weren't even competative. Last night we got our shooting percentage over 40% and, more importantly, our 3 point percentage was over 40% as well.
Porter and Humphrey both had good shooting nights from long range, and Wilson hit some nice jumpers as well. With that effort, Tajuan moves into 3rd place on the All Time 3 Point list for the Pac-10. In early January, he looked like a lock to take the top spot, but the last 5 games have made it difficult for him to get there. He'll take over 2nd place without question. Maybe as soon as tomorrow (he's only 2 3 pointers back of 2nd place), but he needs to average neraly 3 per game to take the lead, unless we make a deep run in the Pac-10 tournament and/or make some other tournament. Those 2 things both look like longshots at this point.
It was great to see Matt Humphrey get back on track. He's had a rough year, with the early injury, he had barely played, but he was the key for us offensively down the stretch. UCLA really keyed in on Tajuan in the closing minutes and overtime. They weren't going to let him beat us, and we needed someone else to step up and knock down shots. Matt hit them all.
Singler, who had been quiet all game, came up with a couple huge plays down the stretch as well. In fact, Humphrey and Singler scored all of our overtime points, which is encouraging for the future, as we need to find people with the confidence to knock down shots when it matters for us.
Jamil Wilson hit the mid range jumper effectively last night, which is a shot he can get off any time he wants, with his size and jumping ability.
Dunigan did well on the boards, and blocked some shots, last night. But he cramped up late, and didn't play down the stretch for us. It really hurt us, as we had almost put the game away, but UCLA was able to clean up on the offensive glass to come back and send it to overtime. Jacob contributed pretty well offensively in his place, though doesn't have the size to give us what Dunigan does, on defense and the boards.
Armstead had an incredible 12 assists, and did well running the team, though his shot was off.
At least one Pac-10 team isn't going to leave with a win on their final trip to Mac Court. It looked like all of them would be, the way we were playing before. Lets hope we send some more home disapointed, starting with the Trojans tomorrow night.
USC slows it down the most of any team in the conference but, unlike UCLA, they are very athletic inside as well. I was shocked that they lost to OSU last night, but that isn't going to make their game with us any easier. Like last night, we'll need some players to knock down outside shots, against their zone. We'll need to step up down the stretch, if its close, and make shots when they matter.
Hopefully Dunigan will be fully recovered from his cramps. Since its a hydration issue, it can sometimes be hard to completely fix in a day. But we'll need him at his best to attack USC down low.
Porter and Humphrey both had good shooting nights from long range, and Wilson hit some nice jumpers as well. With that effort, Tajuan moves into 3rd place on the All Time 3 Point list for the Pac-10. In early January, he looked like a lock to take the top spot, but the last 5 games have made it difficult for him to get there. He'll take over 2nd place without question. Maybe as soon as tomorrow (he's only 2 3 pointers back of 2nd place), but he needs to average neraly 3 per game to take the lead, unless we make a deep run in the Pac-10 tournament and/or make some other tournament. Those 2 things both look like longshots at this point.
It was great to see Matt Humphrey get back on track. He's had a rough year, with the early injury, he had barely played, but he was the key for us offensively down the stretch. UCLA really keyed in on Tajuan in the closing minutes and overtime. They weren't going to let him beat us, and we needed someone else to step up and knock down shots. Matt hit them all.
Singler, who had been quiet all game, came up with a couple huge plays down the stretch as well. In fact, Humphrey and Singler scored all of our overtime points, which is encouraging for the future, as we need to find people with the confidence to knock down shots when it matters for us.
Jamil Wilson hit the mid range jumper effectively last night, which is a shot he can get off any time he wants, with his size and jumping ability.
Dunigan did well on the boards, and blocked some shots, last night. But he cramped up late, and didn't play down the stretch for us. It really hurt us, as we had almost put the game away, but UCLA was able to clean up on the offensive glass to come back and send it to overtime. Jacob contributed pretty well offensively in his place, though doesn't have the size to give us what Dunigan does, on defense and the boards.
Armstead had an incredible 12 assists, and did well running the team, though his shot was off.
At least one Pac-10 team isn't going to leave with a win on their final trip to Mac Court. It looked like all of them would be, the way we were playing before. Lets hope we send some more home disapointed, starting with the Trojans tomorrow night.
USC slows it down the most of any team in the conference but, unlike UCLA, they are very athletic inside as well. I was shocked that they lost to OSU last night, but that isn't going to make their game with us any easier. Like last night, we'll need some players to knock down outside shots, against their zone. We'll need to step up down the stretch, if its close, and make shots when they matter.
Hopefully Dunigan will be fully recovered from his cramps. Since its a hydration issue, it can sometimes be hard to completely fix in a day. But we'll need him at his best to attack USC down low.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Bellotti's recent comments regarding Kent
If you have been following anything other than the, football, theft situation you probably read Bob Clark's interveiew with Mike Bellotti in the Register Guard. He doesn't say a whole lot, but it certainly sounds a bit like he's giving Kent more leeway than the fans(that want him gone) are willing to give.
Some would argue that we've seen enough already that he should be fired mid-season, and most would argue that we've seen enough that he shouldn't be back next year regardless. Bellotti's comments would lead you to believe that Kent can retain his job if the team shows a certain level of improvement from here on out. What that level of improvement is, or how likely that is, is completely unkown.
This situation is on Kilkenny, in my opinion. Bringing Ernie back for one more season was a huge blunder last year on many levels. If Kilkenny gave him an ultimatum, or if he felt that he needed to show a certain amount of improvement, he had no way of enforcing that once he left. And to leave a first year AD in this situation is simply a bad idea.
I've heard some people say Ernie should just resign, but that's nonsense. While the problems on the court all fall on Ernie's head, he has no obligation to remove himself from the position. This is all on the A.D. Ernie has a million dollar buyout in his contract. If we want to get rid of him, we owe him that money. "Saving face" is not worth a million dollars, and the buyout is very reasonable in the coaching world.
If a couple late season wins means that Ernie stays on another year, it would be a big mistake and I will criticize Bellotti for it. However, Kilkenny is still to blame, in my opinion because a first year AD just should not have been left with this siutation. Hopefully Bellotti will get it right.
Some would argue that we've seen enough already that he should be fired mid-season, and most would argue that we've seen enough that he shouldn't be back next year regardless. Bellotti's comments would lead you to believe that Kent can retain his job if the team shows a certain level of improvement from here on out. What that level of improvement is, or how likely that is, is completely unkown.
This situation is on Kilkenny, in my opinion. Bringing Ernie back for one more season was a huge blunder last year on many levels. If Kilkenny gave him an ultimatum, or if he felt that he needed to show a certain amount of improvement, he had no way of enforcing that once he left. And to leave a first year AD in this situation is simply a bad idea.
I've heard some people say Ernie should just resign, but that's nonsense. While the problems on the court all fall on Ernie's head, he has no obligation to remove himself from the position. This is all on the A.D. Ernie has a million dollar buyout in his contract. If we want to get rid of him, we owe him that money. "Saving face" is not worth a million dollars, and the buyout is very reasonable in the coaching world.
If a couple late season wins means that Ernie stays on another year, it would be a big mistake and I will criticize Bellotti for it. However, Kilkenny is still to blame, in my opinion because a first year AD just should not have been left with this siutation. Hopefully Bellotti will get it right.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Atomic Meltdown!
The fall from opening weekend to today has been nothing short of epic. Today we are the worst team, in the worst major conference, in the country.
We can't shoot and can't defend. We miss layups. We miss dunks. We miss open jumpers. There's not much of anything we do well anymore. While today's game was not televised, its hard to imagine we keep getting beaten this badly while giving full effort. Has the team completely quit on the season? You'd have to think so at this point.
Is there still time to correct things? Not really anymore. I'll give it until the halfway mark(which will be reached after our home stand next weekend) before I give them a proper obituary, but this season is dead as can be.
Our shooting has been nothing short of a miracle these last few weeks. Amazing that you can go so long without being able to throw it in the ocean, but nobody can hit an open shot anymore.
Garrett Sim was shooting 48% from 3 heading into Pac-10 play. Since New Year's Day, he's 2-18 from 3.
Teondre Williams is 8-26 since the Washington road trip and has not made a 3. Made worse is the fact that it includes quite a few missed dunks and layups.
I have no idea why Longmire has taken upon himself to so aggressively shoot the ball. That's never been his game. He was 0-9 against Cal. 2-15 for the weekend.
EJ Sinlger hasn't hit a 3 since Washington State.
Armstead was 2-4 from 3 against Arizona. In the other 4 games on this losing steak, he's 0-8.
Porter is 10-32 from 3 during this stretch.
We can barely crack 30% shooting, as a team, and since we allow opponents to shoot 48%, 51%, 49% and 52% over the last 4 games, it's pretty clear what the result is going to be night in and night out. The epic failure we saw this weekend.
Going out on the road certainly wasn't the cure for the dreadful homestand we just went through. 2-0 to 2-5, with the first 2 on the road might be a feat that hasn't been accomplished before.
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