Home Baseball PAC12 Baseball continues; WBB keeps dancing, but for how long? And….A Confession

PAC12 Baseball continues; WBB keeps dancing, but for how long? And….A Confession

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Borrowing from last threads subject line, cause it worked so well!

Gulich and the youngsters are back for final exams in The Best College Town. They’ll head to Lexington on Wednesday to face Baylor on Friday. Here is what Syd Wiese says about a return to the Sweet Sixteen, “Funny how every year there are doubts surrounding the @BeaverWBB program. It’s not exceeding expectations- it’s what the program is. Believe in the Beavs people!”
Corosdale and McWilliams were the only two to play all 40 minutes vs Tenn, anyone else impressed with Taya’s recent games?
BTW: FT’s vs Tenn? 19 of 23!

Baseball returns to Goss, and Casey is with ’em!!
They’ll face a UofW team which brings:
…..1) only one guy batting over .303
…..2) an outfield stocked with newbies
…..3) HC Lindsay “The Snub” Meggs who couldn’t support an RPI 44 Beavs squad, but was happy to take his RPI 55 leg humpers to the 2016 CWS.

The Confession?……….Like many of y’all, I avoid clicking on the big O. Recently though, I looked over the shoulder of a weakling who’d already clicked on a story announcing the start of a new “occasional series”. The topic: to address the impact on youth hoops of money from sneaker makers. Those crack background checkers are on the case! The award winning Moron is staying in the shadows this time.

As ever……..GO BEAVS!

And, if you find yourself returning here often, why not consider funding a small cup of coffee for Angry? The donation link can be found at the bottom of previous threads….but you already knew that!

120 COMMENTS

  1. I trust you are not speaking only of sport.

    There was one former UT player (on twitter) who actually said that Oregon State had a great game plan and played hard. One sports writer said he didn’t know why the Beavs didn’t start with the zone in the first quarter. Otherwise, interviews I saw all behaved as though it was a big mistake and how dare OSU win. Again, UT’s coach mentioned Rueck once, barely. She couldn’t even bring herself to acknowledge the opponent by name. UT had better wake up – Pat Summit was way ahead of the game but her era is past and others are equalizing the field. Tennessee women’s basketball better get over their idea of being entitled.

    • It’s funny, UTs coach is making a big deal about poor fan support. Which happens to be almost word for word what their fired football coach said about the fans. Someone here was at the game, id like to know what the turnout was for the game. ESPNs game cast said 2600 people, which is pretty shitty coming from a program with 56 straight home tournament wins.

      On the other hand, they have been getting beat up by the Zone all year long apparently, and the coaches can’t or won’t fix it.

    • Well put. We lived in Knoxville for a few years in the Pat Summit days and were big Lady Vols fans. I was really disappointed to see Tennessee’s coach at their after-game presser siting there sulking. She didn’t show nearly as much class as, for example, Scott R. would were the situation reversed.

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          1

          Are any of you measuring her situation? Or are we just looking at her actions in a vacuum while we compare them to the imaginary what-would-Scotty-do situation?

          She’s probably going to get canned. So forgive her for being emotional. She has logged a lot of time at Tennessee since she was a teenager. She just completed a pretty good season. But let’s face it… they got a sucky draw with us in it.

          It’s interesting that the same statements that lament her poor behavior after the loss only mention the fan support in passing. 2600 people in one of the biggest arenas in the country? That’s really piss poor attendance. The fans should be called out for that.

          It shouldn’t be Warlick doing it. But what does she have to lose now? She just went 25-8, has three elite eights in six years, has a .741 winning percentage… and she’s getting canned. On top of that, she’s not going to get another job like the one she has, because that’s not the reality of NCAA wbb. She’ll take a spectacular resume and wander off to some school to be an assistant offensive analyst or some shit.

          That’s what she has to look forward to. I would tell everyone to go fuck themselves if I was in her situation. It’s what they’ve been telling her to do despite her team’s success this year. Why is it wrong for her to constrain her response to an emotional whine when what her own fans and admin have been throwing at her for more than a year now have been classless crap?

          How would Scotty react after a game like this? You all think he would be measured, and he probably would. But let’s put it in context to be fair. We all would have to be calling for his head for multiple seasons while his teams march on to the Tourney every year, reaching the 8 but not the Final Four. We would have to abandon the team and not attend games. And we’d have to blast him on twitter for everything that we think is a slight. And then he would have to be given an ultimatum to make it “this far” in the Tourney, or he’s done.

          After a barrage of classless dumb like that, I think Scotty might just do what I would do… give a couple one-fingered salutes to the AD and fans.

          • I was really surprised by the lack of attendance. One of the reasons I went to the game was I thought it would be a great atmosphere, but the average fan was a 55-65 year old female. No student support at all. Fans I sat around were knowledgeable and loved their team, but it wasn’t rowdy or an intimidating crowd.

            The building is a shrine to Pat Summitt. It was interesting to be in an arena were Women’s Basketball received top billing over the men, but when you have 8 national titles I guess that what happens.

            This isn’t a one game reaction from the fans about Warlick,I’ve heard the frustration building on sports radio over the last couple years I’ve lived in Tennessee.

          • Should be worried about them coming for Rueck to replace Warlick? Seems like he would be on the short list of any WBB power program looking for a new coach.

          • I take your point, but don’t think I can I agree. While I’m sure Holly isn’t only one who would sulk in that situation, I have seen over the years, coaches who could rise above it in that situation and show a little class (although they may have kicked the dog when they got home).

          • Tennessee WBB has been on a downward slide under Warlick. Maybe expectations are extraordinarily high after Pat Summitt, but despite top recruiting classes, the program is getting worse. If you look at the message boards, Vol fans knew they were done after OSU switched to zone. The lack of development and in-game coaching has led to underachievement. Granted message boards are message boards, but the fanbase often sees the obvious.

            As for the post-loss presser, attacking the fans is rarely a winning strategy, and especially when you’ve just had a historic loss for your program.

          • I’m not saying how she reacted is right. But given her situation (not being Pat Summitt), it’s a 50/50 call on how a coach is going to react in that situation. She’s not been given a fair shake in terms of support, and in her view that’s not fair to the team. She wouldn’t be attacking the fans (if the fans are so soft that’s what they want to call it their poor attendance and support) if she wasn’t already out the door.

            And the program hasn’t slid since she took over. It’s just facing better competition on a regular basis. It was on this track in Summitt’s later years, after her last two titles. Warlick isn’t as good a coach as Summitt, so there is some slide in terms of the extremely elite status that Auriemma took away from them. But that slide was happening in Summitt’s final four years. And other powers have popped up across the landscape.

            I think Warlick is a good coach, not yet great but with the upside to be so. This isn’t the same as Jimmy taking over for Miller. She can actually recruit and coach. But she’s not going to ever fully get that chance at Tenn. She probably made the wrong decision to be the rebound date, but it is what it is.

          • They didn’t make the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row, third all time. They need to come to grips with the fact that there’s better competition among the schools who aren’t the current dynasty. Maybe they get someone new and become a dynasty again. But I doubt it. SCar is the better program right now and into the near future no matter what Tenn does.

    • Those are big time potential starters/play makers that will see the field this Fall. I’m hopeful for keeping the Ohio State game at least somewhat competitive unlike the Huskers playing them at Home last year. If our offense isn’t predictable, nor we have a lot of screens/check downs and WTF plays coming from the OC; we have a shot of actually looking like a football team this Fall. For now…we have the #1 baseball team in the country, the Ladies BB in the Sweet 16, the men’s Wrestling team is vying for a NC run in their tournament, and the Gymnastics team looks as strong as ever! Come on football and MBB! Get with the program!

    • All have been on the 2018 roster for awhile. @Nicebeaver posted that Ah-Hoy still medically retiring even though he is listed on 2018 roster. I hope he is wrong but he seems to always have reliable sources and accurate info. Sounds like we have ourselves a real journalist on our hands.

      • My source for the Ah-Hoy confirmation is a student who hangs out with membera of the team and he was the one who confirmed Morris had a broken foot before anybody else was talking about it. I trust him since he’s pretty close to the players, but he isn’t technically part of OSU staff, so consider his info “unofficial”
        Either way, Angie said Ah-Hoy is retiring and this guy confirmed it, so not sure why he is on the roster still.
        Sounds like Unutoa-Whitson is also retiring.

    • what I noticed on that roster was the alphabetical listing of the coaches below Smith. This was done, I believe, to avoid having Riley appear in the second or third position as assistant head coach. (I still have not seen a clarification of whether the associate head coach is a higher rank than assistant coach.) Listing the coaches this way is a positive sign because it shows an awareness about how divisive and polarizing the hiring of Riley was. A first step toward mitigating that disastrous decision.

  2. Baylor apparently 33-1 with only loss to UCLA. They basically used only 6 players in win over Michigan. If OSU can get the 3-ball and inside game going with Gulich, I have to think Baylor would have to use more of their bench.

      • Looks like they got something like 19 TOs from Michigan…OSU can’t go back to its old ways of TOs…

        So their gigantic center can (perhaps) keep Gulich under wraps and the others can stay out with OSU’s shooters without having to collapse?

        • This is a pretty tough match up for OSU, particularly in the front court. Gulich will hold her own, but I would imagine Baylor trying to maximize scoring in the paint where OSU can’t really match their size, and to hopefully get Gulich in foul trouble. I’d like it better if Corosdale was a 12/8 player at the 4, and less a perimeter player. The Beavers 3-pt game will have to be on, they won’t survive a poor shooting game like they had with UT. Idk, a real long shot to get past Baylor to the EE. But, I didn’t think they’d beat UT either–or for that matter beat Baylor two seasons ago to get to the FF.

  3. My guy wrote me a few days ago and said it’s now become “common knowledge” in Corvallis Riley 3.0 was planned far in advance, and there wasn’t any true coaching search.

    • To plan it too far in advance they’d have had to know GA was going to walk.

      Unless it was their contingency plan for GA leaving in the off-season, since there’s no way they could have been planning a buy out.

      • The moment GA was out there was a plan to get Riley back in, is what I was told, so that search thing was all a facade. He’s said this over and over, so it’s not new, but now says it’s common knowledge in the AD and around town. It doesn’t really matter except as fans we were lied to that there was this massive Nationwide search when there wasn’t. They had Riley and someone who would work well with him targeted all along. Makes a lot of sense with how things went down with Riley showing up one day on campus and everyone trying to keep it quiet. Saw chatter on Twitter where people who hate AB are now saying Riley is showing up in every recruit photo. Jonathan Riley is real!

        • I would wonder why Barnes would pursue Riley. Doesnt make a lot of sense on it’s face. They dont have any connections and the big donors aren’t that influential.

        • There was indeed very little movement toward hiring a coach after Andersen left; certainly compared to the rate of progress you saw at other schools after the fact. I mean, OSU had a head start on the entire field of Division 1 programs (that is, we were the first to have an opening), but went after the lowest hanging fruit (Smith) who was clearly available in any potential scenario. I believe there was an initial hope that somehow Hall would prove to be a miracle worker. After two or three games that was proved out (negatively) so the focus transitioned in early November to the Smith/Riley scenario, as the losses piled up in Corvallis and Lincoln. The Dennis Erickson flirtation was floated specifically to soften up Beaver Nation to the idea of bringing back a former coach in an “advisory” role; but that was a false flag operation. When the AD at Nebraska was fired in mid November is when the final elements all began to fall into place because Riley was certain to soon be on the market. That is probably the week Dee Riley was seen gloating around town about Grandpa’s return.

          • Re: a Hall miracle- Corvallis is a small town. If this is all true it wouldn’t take long to get back to the team that was playing their guts out to support Hall becoming head coach. Rumor mill says it doesn’t matter, Riley+ is coming back? Fuck it then. Take your pack off and ride the season out.

          • What’s in that for Riley? What’s the angle. It’s common gossip, not knowledge. I’ve asked other coaches their thoughts and they laugh.

          • What’s in it for Riley?

            Why… continued Rileyocrity, of course. He gets to quit on Nebraska mid-season (which he more than obviously did do) and go home for a neat story while making Nebraska his bitch… to the tune of $2.6m per year.

          • I mean… he and his acolytes are lazy. They’re the type of co-workers who always look like they’re abnormally busy, but they’re not really doing anything out of the ordinary. They make a normal job look hard so they’re not asked to do more.

  4. Slightly off topic(but not really)
    I made a post yesterday where I referred Gary Andersen as a “dope”
    Not sure why, I dont really like name calling. But then I realized, Gary Andersen actually resembles Dopey of the Seven Dwarves. Similar ears, red nose. He’s Dopey’s doppleganger. See below…

    https://m.imgur.com/a/bHbRW

  5. Classic Casey on Beaver Sports Talk this evening.

    Re the less than ideal weather expected for this weekend he said he’d ask the PAC12 to allow flexibility of start times to deal with the weather. He said of their refusal,“They say they are all about the student athlete but it’s really about TV” (my paraphrase)

    In discussing players from previous teams who stay in touch he said, “It’s good to see guys doing things the right way; to see what they’ve accomplished in various areas of life. Our society is starving for people willing to stand for what is right, to have principles, to lead” (paraphrased)

    I recently dubbed Rueck: “Scott-you can T me up, but you can’t shut me up-Rueck”. Glad to see his fellow George Fox vet can bear the moniker “Pat-suspension or not, there will be little suspense about my true feelings-Casey”.

    What do you AB’rs think about calling the PAC out for being all about TV? No big deal? Or just another in the list (Luke, 2017 CWS, Mark Buchanan) of reasons we can expect bias against OSU?

    Bias against OSU……….oh yeah, Meggs is coming to Goss.

  6. Angry why isn’t this “common knowledge” being reported by anyone in media? Eggers seems to be pretty dialed in..

    Why would Riley agree to be the secret coach but take title of tight-ends coach at 50,009 a year?

    Why wouldn’t Hall or anyone else go public with it?

  7. If there is/was some effort or conspiracy to bring Riley back again, then the bigger questions for me are how long until OSU’s fanbase and primary donors expect more than Riley? 10, 20 years? And then, will the upcoming generations of OSU alumni care enough to expect more? It seems like OSU is dominated by a fanbase that wrongly sets the infamous losing streak as the standard and younger upcoming fans that are less likely to care about viewing what are currently deemed as the “major” sports (men’s basketball, football). Given the context of the NCAA, its difficult to blame those younger fans.

    I suggest perhaps the best bridge between these divides and a hope for higher, future standards, might be Casey at AD. Hopefully, this is OSU baseball’s grudge fuck year (sorry for the crudeness, but it seems appropriate given last year’s CWS), the get another CWS, and Casey is interested in new challenges. The current AD with his boilerplate strategic plans and cute acronyms isn’t going to get it done. There’s likely another candidate out there besides Casey, but he’s the example that comes to mind right now.

    • Spot on. And why I no longer give a fuck about beaver football. I have better things to spend my time and money on. Until Oregon St can display that football isn’t just a dog and pony show? This dude and his wallet are off limits.

      Got a phone call last week from a student campaigning for donations (we need you now more than ever I was told) and I did not hold back how I feel. Told her I was willing to donate to baseball or women’s hoops but football and men’s hoops won’t see another dime from me until they can prove they are committed to winning instead of lip service and just fielding a team.

      I have been seriously questioning the leadership in the athletic department and have fully supported the dismissal of Ed Ray for quite some time now. Dude is clueless when it comes to collegiate athletics.

      • The complete dismissal of Ed Ray is probably a bad idea. He has been great for the University outside of athletics. He just needs to get a good AD that he can trust and then get his nose out of athletics completely.

        • While I do not disagree with you about Ed Ray on the academic side, his ultimate signing off on things with the athletic side stick in my craw. The Barnes hire is just one example. Leadership from the top down is lacking. You are correct. His failures are on the athletics side and as president, those hirings fall in his lap.

        • Wouldn’t be surprised if Riley was brought back for that specific reason. Personally, I think he’d be a fine AD and that would keep him occupied from being a beaver coach.

          • Riley the OSU AD?

            Talk about an unmitigated disaster. He’d be horrible. He either has zero business sense, which is why he’s oblivious to how extremely unprofessional his actions have been over the years, or he’s intentionally highly unprofessional with poor business decisions. He is vastly underqualified as well as displaying poor intuition and acting in manners antithetical to best practices.

          • Besides… he’d just quit… then stay on the job with that forlorn look of a quitter who gets paid millions of dollars to stand there looking forlorn… you know… like winners do.

          • You don’t save the football program from Riley by giving Riley authority over every program in the entire athletic department.

  8. WBB: Eggers up with a piece worth reading.
    I always enjoy watching the Realtor (II), Eggers presents her good side, recounts the jacket toss, and accounts for the Bears single loss this year.

    Rueck says “…It’s going to take our best game of the year. It needs to be 40 minutes, too. We have to be ready to play from the beginning.” Yes, from the beginning!

    Aside from TO’s, sounds like rebounds may tell the tale this time around. Oh, and 3pt shooting or lack thereof.

    http://portlandtribune.com/pt/12-sports/390165-280372-mulkey-bears-meet-the-beavers-again-

    • BIzarre. Really bizarre. I mean the social media posts for the Beavs puts out a stats vs stats graphic every series. And if there are the same stats available on the pac12 website, it seems really bizarre.

    • The only legitimate reason I can see is that players were obsessive about their stats and Casey wanted them to concentrate on the game. but that seems to be a stretch too.

      Get your head out of the book and play god damn baseball! Coach yells at me.

      • That’s the first thing that crossed my mind too. Agree it is a stretch, seems like Casey would have done it in other years if that was the reason. Maybe as simple as the ideation team figured they’d save money somehow; if so, maybe they’ll use any savings to take down the banner…or buy more plastic bags.

        It is akin, somewhat, to my feeling that the names on backs of the uniforms of FB players could be eliminated to emphasize a “team first” attitude. Golly, now that would be a neat deal! Hip hip.

        • Which publication omitted Heimlich from the list of top era pitchers returning?

          He led the nation last year but not mentioned preseason. That fact is more bizarre than an internal stats policy.

          • It wasn’t a publication (well, one of those might have done the same), it was the official NCAA Baseball Twitter feed that did it, which makes it that more unbelievable.

    • It’s newsworthy because it’s smart. Why does OSU have to publish anything. It’s clear from the responses he’s getting that there are numerous sites who do so. Why do we have to be redundant?

      • I guess that’s my point. It’s not bizarre, and I guess maybe the only newsworthy part about it is that we’re not wasting our time. Breaking news, the OSU baseball program is efficient

        • Didja notice the term “bizarre” was first applied here by Lundeberg in his tweet, then reposted by Kendall Rogers? At least that’s the way it looks to me.

          Oh yeah, and today really is the day for Madrigal’s visit with the Doc.

          • It’s bizarre they chose to use the same adjective, within minutes of each other.

            Anybody going to the games this weekend? Saw somebody on here posted a Q&A with Casey where he mentioned start times couldnt be adjusted for weather because they Pac12 network said no.
            Friday is looking pretty wet but possible clearing up in the evening. Saturday looks mostly dry all day.
            Sunday looks pretty wet around game time.

          • @Niceb:……Yeah, I posted Casey’s remarks (from Tuesday evening radio) about being denied any flexibility on game times by the PAC, that’s when he followed up with his plain talk of TV being more important to the PAC than safety of SA’s.

            I’m not well versed in Twitter; looked to me like Rogers was quoting or referencing Lundeberg when he used the word “bizarre” .

            I’m going to the Sunday game, it is beginning to look like rain could force the 1st game to be moved to Saturday for a double header.

    • An article on Baylor’s Kalani Brown, a bit of a preview for tonights game:

      http://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/22855745/women-ncaa-tournament-kalani-brown-baylor-lady-bears-get-back-final-four

      “They’ll be going against another talented big woman in Oregon State’s 6-5 Marie Gulich in the Sweet 16. Brown was a freshman and Gulich a sophomore in 2016, when Oregon State beat Baylor in the Elite Eight 60-57. Brown had 12 points and six rebounds, while Gulich had four points; both came off the bench in that game.

      Baylor has stumbled in the Elite Eight the past four years, losing to Notre Dame in 2014 and 2015, Oregon State in 2016 and Mississippi State last season. The Lady Bears can’t think about that, though, because they’ll have to get past a tough Beavers squad that upset Tennessee.

      But Brown feels good about what Baylor has accomplished so far, and about how she has grown in her third year with the Lady Bears.

      “It was my goal to be [Big 12] player of the year,” she said. “My coaches were pushing me, saying, ‘Don’t be content with what you did last year.’ I listened to them, and I was rewarded.””

  9. Gotta tip the cap to the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers. In their first NCAA tournament since 1985 they’ve crashed the party and are just one win from the final four. Watching these guys is fun compared to the watered down, NBA look-a-like one on one crap. They play together as a team. Go Ramblers!

    And for the record, I wanted Eric Musselman as head coach 4 years ago. But no one listens to me nor do I get paid to make those decisions. Look it up.

    • I would say that Tinkle was the right man for the job and still is. He dealt with the situation he was given (basically no players) as well as anybody.

      I’d also argue, it’s much harder to build success in the PAC 12 vs the mountain west. Bigger differences in talent between the top and bottom teams in smaller conferences. Can win more with talent than coaching (I think musselmen is a great coach).

      If I’m recalling correctly, the finalists were Tinkle, Howland, Stoudamire, Musselmen and Hopkins. Not really a bad choice among them. All have had some success recently at the schools they currently coach at.

      • I wanted Musselman too, Hopkins second. Howland would have been a terrible choice. Tinkle’s okay, but next year will tell all. Right now he’s just getting CR results with better recruiting.

        And he inherited a good core group plus GP2. He should have had Cam Oliver and Devin Watson also. CR was getting his recruiting together when he did that Radford junk.

        When looking at Musselman, you’re looking t someone with NBA experience who made a conscious choice to be a HC in college instead. He was the best coach at ASU when he was there. He just needed to learn recruiting and administration. He had everything else.

        So… would you build a Pac program with a coach who knows 25 years of NBA/CBA/Pac hoops? Or would you rather go with someone who knows how to win in the Big Sky every now and then?

  10. GAME DAY x 2 !!

    Baseball scheduled for 7pm on PAC12. Forecast is 85%+ for rain. Possible rain out and move to a double header Saturday??
    Big wreck on I-5 southbound around Longview, humper fans (and others, especially anyone planning a stop at the mall in Woodburn) better allow extra time.
    Haven’t been able to find out anything about Madrigals doc visit yet. Even checked with Sidd and Lundeberg!

    WBB: 4pm tip on ESPN2. A site called “sportsadvisors” has Beavs 15.5 underdogs; I’d take that bet! Lady Bears have two bigs and a great record. Also, and I think this could be the difference, an emotional coach and a Fr PG who has only recently been thrust into a starting role. I think that could be a bad combo and bodes well for our gals and their calm, “take a T only when necessary” coach.

    What point spreads and/or reports on Madrigal are you guys/gal(s) seeing?

  11. 5 weeks until the Spring game and there hasn’t been any off the field issues that I have read/seen from anyone on this site. Are players still buying into what the new staff is telling them? Are the practices better now than they were under Riley/GA? I am getting antsy for football season, but am enjoying WBB and the Baseball teams success.

    • For those not on twitter, Gould has given his verbal pledge. Beavs doing well to get 2 of the better in state guys and get them on board early. Ducks will likely get the top 2 in state guys since they have family connections(Johnson and Herbert).

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