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I was looking at National Championships by Pac-12 schools, and OSU has 3, with only WSU having fewer (2). For this reason, I think the women winning it all would be a big deal. Just the prestige of it. Beavs have to start adding trophies to gain respect, even if they are in secondary sports (it’s how UCLA ran up their total). From what I gathered, the wrestling team has a shot at a National Title, too. Is this correct? I have, no exaggeration, never watched a second of wrestling in my life, so definitely clueless on how the scoring and championship is decided.

Also, I am still looking for those Villamin and Songy quotes if anyone has them. Through the Beavrecruiting twitter handle, maybe we can setup some interviews with some of the outspoken players.

179 COMMENTS

    • From what I can gather about the wrestling team – there are 7 Beaver wrestlers going to the NCAA tournament 2 seeds and 5 at-large. For the team to win the title would be a huge undertaking. Everyone might need to win all their matches for that to happen. I think this is a win or go home tournament also. Beavs are currently #19 and the only ranked team in the Pac-12.

      We will know Thurs-Sat this week.

          • Angry, the wrestling team has no shot at a title. They do have a chance at a top ten finish if things fall right. The scoring is very confusing and I am a wrestling fan. Iowa is the favorite, with Minnesota, Mizzu, and Ohio State in the mix. BTW, you would love the wrestling coach here at the U of M.

          • Both. There are two paths to the title. One is having a few dominant wrestlers that are almost certain to win or get to the final in addition to a bunch of qualifiers. That was Penn State the last couple years. The other is to get high placements from top to bottom in all the weight classes, ie win with depth. Gophers did that in 2001 by having all ten wrestlers achieve All American status, which means finishing in the top eight of your weight class. Realistically you have to get eight guys in, have no upsets the first couple sessions, then have one or two guys over place relative to their seeding.

          • I appreciate BG stepping in and adding some substance to this whether or not there is mathematical, or any another, reason to think the Beavs might not garner a national title. The big thing for me is learning a little more about the sport. I wrestled a year in high school, took it as a PE credit in college and still don’t know much about it.

          • Would have helped the wrestling teams cause if the 141 and 149 pound seeds were given the at large bids they earned (in my opinion). To much bias in wresting to the east, it is frustrating to me. Of course the 141 and 149 wrestlers both had opportunities at the Pac-12 championships to win qualifiers at there weights. Unfortunately RPIs usually show Oregon State wrestlers should be ranked about 5 to 10 spots higher than they are in the rankings.

            I agree that Oregon states chances for a championship in wrestling are very slim. But, I think they have as much chance as any team ranked 8 and above. Wrestling is a little different though. In other sports 1 team can get hot and and pull some upsets and win it all. In wrestling several wrestlers have to get hot to pull an upset. I always like to think there is a chance though.

            To have a chance 5 of the 7 need finish not only in the top 8, but top 5 or better. The odds of this are not very good at all.

          • The formula for a championship is to place at least seven in the top 8 with four of them placing in the top 3 and the three who don’t make AA score some points for you in the early rounds or wrestle backs.

            If all our guys end up AA, we’re pretty sure to end up in the top 3. If three or four end up AA, that’s a decent marker for a top ten finish.

            I agree, these are about as likely as a B1G hockey team winning it all at the Frozen Four. But there is still a mathematical chance at this point.

          • The most likely “good” scenario would be that Rios and Meeks wrestle a little better than their seeds and end up AA at about 7 and 3 respectively. That puts us at about 12-15. If someone else finds a groove and wins into the quarters, we’re looking at a possible top ten.

          • I don’t care who you love or what sport you like. If you watched that play, it was one of the top 50 there have ever been.

            And then Union wins.

          • And I’m assuming if you watched that play you also watched the whole lead-up to that play. That was just an amazing game. I hail it as one of the best hockey games I’ve ever watched. The best was the 1983 semi between Wiscy and UND that went triple overtime. I saw that one live.

            And now Wiscy sucks century eggs. I would be embarrassed to show games against them as a win.

          • Yes I watched it. It was a great game. Thought the Gophers would have lost if it went to overtime.
            I am convinced they thought they won the championship that night, which explains the epic bed crapping against Union.

          • Yup.

            The who were the better team and would have won if not for that one play. It was amazing watching UM hold on by their teeth for so long, then win. They played above themselves.

            I wonder how UND will do without big Mac this year. They did okay against Miami. But he is the heart of that team. They’re still a great team… and the keeper is beyond awesome. But how far does the Hank Gathers Effect take your team?

          • A little more info from the Beav wrestling site:

            “The championship matches are set for Saturday night and will be televised by ESPN. The tournament is double-elimination, but wrestlers with a loss can finish no higher than third place.”

          • I’m excited about our 197 pounder, Crawford. He has an attacking style that is fun to watch.
            The problem at nationals is that can get you into trouble against really good wrestlers. He could either place well above his seeding or flame out fast. Beav’s really had a bad tourney last year so hopefully the can get back the upward trend coach Z has them on. The squad is pretty young, so they should be really good next year.

          • Crawford would be better with some patience. Every move with him looks like he’s in scramble mode with 10 seconds left in the third. He does have surprisingly good endurance. So if he gets past the first period he has an advantage.

          • And agreed… Z has a young team this year which looks pretty talented. Next year should be good. But two years from now should be better.

        • Maryland is good. I saw them play in person this year. They have the athletic ability that tends to give the Lady Beav’s trouble. As Angry has said, if they shoot threes well they can hang with anybody.

          • Not to get ahead of ourselves here, but if we make that match-up, Maryland’s strength is their interior offense, going straight at Hamblin. It would be a great match-up.

  1. Women’s and minor team sports are sort of indicative of the area you’re in though; the leaders in total team championships are Ohio State, Florida, Texas, Michigan, USC, UCLA, Stanford. All are in densely populated areas and don’t share the turf with many schools of the same caliber. USC and UCLA share pretty much all of Southern California, which would be a decently sized country by itself. The Northwest schools in the Pac-12 share about half that amount of people to be split among twice as many schools. Recruiting for those areas is just “pick who is really good in that area”.

    Also, UCLA definitely benefits from that string of 10 men’s hoops titles. They look a lot less prestigious without that insane run that Paul Valenti thankfully stepped in and stopped for a year. Plus they have a ton of titles in sports that they only play in…men’s volleyball, water polo, swimming…they definitely gamed it a bit.

      • OSU has 1 swimmer (Sammy Harrison) in the NCAA women’s championships, starting Thursday, and that is a rarity. The swim championships will be right up there with March Madness! Swimming at OSU appears to be a hobby sport that functions only to achieve Title IX balance. Not sure it has to be. The world is full of swimming programs and kids are in them from age 5. OSU should be able to muster more than one swimmer who can achieve NCAA cut-off times.

  2. Villamin looked great at practice Thursday and Sat. He was making nice catches on the deep ball Thursday- think Utah game. He looks faster and said he lost a little “fat” weight . Will be a special player if the Qb’s can get him the ball this year.

  3. Had to spend some time in Eugene yesterday on the way home from a short road trip, so my wife could see how the area has changed since she used to live there. It was my first time in about 5 years, so there were several new buildings I hadn’t seen before. The new Jaqua center, the Matt Knight arena and the football facility near Autzen were all new to me. Sure makes the campus look disjointed.

    The Matt Knight arena is huge and one of the first things you see coming into town from I-5 south. Not a terrible looking building, but just doesn’t fit within the architecture already on that campus. Same with the Jaqua. It’s on the outer edge of campus just up from the basketball arena. It’s a pretty building, but it must really be irritating to students that it’s only available to athletes. Lastly, the football facility is just ugly from the outside. I know the inside is supposed to be grand, but on the outside it’s just a funky shaped black box.
    Also, something that stands out around the campus is the students have almost all become little “O” minnions. EVERYBODY has an “O” bumper sticker on their car/bike/skateboard. And half of the students had some type of Duck clothing on.

    Best part of the day? I took a picture of my daughter in front of Autzen to send to her grandma (a duck alum) and as soon as the picture was snapped, she took a giant dump in her diaper. Was really tempted to just leave it on the Autzen grounds.

    • You must have driven over to the Leo Harris side of Autzen for that pic. That’s the only angle where you can see the actual stadium anymore.

      It’s also interesting that no Duck will say anything about their athletic spending drawing grants in the millions on the general fund, but they are so willing to bring up the loans from the Beaver Fund (not subsidies from the General Fund) whenever they want to talk about how self-sufficient their AD is.

      The Jaqua center alone takes a couple million per year in maintenance subsidies from the general student population. I can only imagine what the rest of the AD infrastructure sucks out of the academic side. Well, that’s all anyone can really do since transparency is a four letter word on that campus.

      • Ahhh… not just maintenance. Everything academic that occurs within Jaqua is charged to the general fund. Maintenaince is only about half a mil.

      • is Leo Harris the public park next to the stadium? that’s where we went to let our kid run around. then i drove around the stadium to see the PK park facility. Ended up driving on what looked like it turned into a maintenance road, only to discover i was driving on a sidewalk to the front of the stadium that put me in front of the ticket booth. Cars driving by were wondering wth i was doing up on the sidewalks…

        • That section is designed to be both a walkway and a service road for all three stadiums right there. They should put up barriers or at least signs telling cars not to drive there.

          Leo Harris Pkwy is the road that runs around the stadium on the Alton Baker Park side.

  4. is it just me, or the visibility of the recruiting twitter feed on this site, or is OSU offering more and higher ranked football prospects than ever before? Remember a couple years back when Angry reported in what seemed like July or August that Riley hadn’t lined up a single commitment for the ensuing year?

  5. Chris DiSano @CDiSano44 · 40m 40 minutes ago

    Hearing that former Oregon State HC Craig Robinson is the leader for the Holy Cross job.

    • Question. If CR lands another job, is OSU still responsible for the remainder of his contract? Or is it pro rated minus what he’s making at his new job?

    • If it saves OSU some money then that’s a good thing. Five years from now Holy Cross will be saying “Holy Crap” this guy can’t coach.

      • If he sticks with his Princeton and 1-3-1 I think he could do okay in a lower basketball division. Not a big fan of the Princeton or 1-3-1 but that is all CR knows.

    • If TV timing allows attending the baseball game before/after the gals play I’ll try to be there for both games. Not taking the first game as a given, hope the hard practices Mandy mentioned yesterday on JoeBeav have the desired result.

      The Grambling DH didn’t mesh perfectly with the gals win vs Cal, I caught the entire WBB victory and parts of both games at Goss. A long, good day.

  6. OT: PSU Professor responds after arrest: Listen, the point is, I am a sociologist, and I live in an intellectual world. A sociologist always thinks in terms of symbols. And every revolutionary I know smokes. It was identifying with the revolutionary cause. And then, beyond that, it is a symbol that the United States is a smoking gun. The action was necessary. They are going to kill many more people.

  7. Askia Booker did not approve of the non call on Dayton to end the game against Boise St. Anyone else see the Dayton players shorts fall down on a defensive rebound? That was a new one

    • ”They have to see it quicker and get the ball out faster. Otherwise, we’re going to get sacked a lot.”

      That sounds familiar.

    • I love reading Riley quotes. He’s the master at using generic nouns like “things” and “stuff” and making it sound like he’s actually saying something. Gotta give the Nebraska fans a few seasons to catch on to his game, and by then, he’ll be retiring.

      • He should have been a politician. He’s already (gently) laying the foundation of low expectations and excuses. If I’m a Nebraska fan and read that, what am I thinking? “Gotta give this coach a chance to get his guys so can’t expect much year 1.”

        As a Beaver fan, what am I thinking? “Andersen can win with Riley recruits b/c he is a man with a plan who knows how to maximize talent.” I wish OSU played Nebraska next year. That is the only way the upcoming season could get more interesting.

        • Need to be careful here… you are correct they don’t play any OSU this year, but remember they are in the same conference as OSU Buckeyes so I would be clear in the future as to which OSU you are referring to : Buckeyes, Beavers or Cowboys.

    • This comment nailed it.

      There are a lot of mistakes a coach can make, most are one time decisions and they pass. However a coach who forces a certain type of offense on a team that doesn’t have the personnel to execute it is going to fare poorly

      • I wonder about another factor, as well. What if the players don’t want to or like that offense. It’s not up to them to decide, but . . . I thought the foto was amusing – Nebraska’s #4 is looking at Riley as if he can’t quite believe what he hears.

    • Is Taysom Hill back for BYU? If he is healthy, he’s one of the best running QB’s in the nation. This is already starting to smell like bad defeat #1 for Riley. Definitely a game I’ll watch or at least record to start the season.

      • It was still over the can. You just can’t touch it until it’s all the way out. It doesn’t matter if it’s a sure miss or going in. It was a very dumb play.

        • Wow. Not even close. That ball would’ve barely grazed the rim. I watched it several times. I know it’s a judgment call

          • Not a judgment call at all. It’s easy as breathing and was seen by pretty much everyone in the arena as it happened.

            If it is above the rim and has a chance to hit the top of the rim, you just can’t touch the ball. At the very least, the defender altered the way the rebound would come off the rim, making it a matter of him controlling the ball before it hit the rim… and expressly for that purpose. You can’t do that from either side. If UCLA would have had someone on the rim with an alley-oop, you wouldn’t even pretend to argue it wasn’t offensive interference.

          • Wrong. AGAIN. WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG! The ball never even hit the fucking rim! You’re either completely blind or don’t understand the rules of goal tending, Jack. It WAS NOT goal tending, nor was it ever. UCLA was gifted a win by the refs.

            “Violations- Goaltending. (Rule 9-17.5). When the ball contacts the backboard and any part of the ball is above the rim on a field goal attempt, it is considered to be on its downward flight. In such case, it is goaltending when the ball is touched by a player as long as it has a possibility of entering the basket.”

            That ball had ZERO chance of “entering the basket”. It never even hit the rim. Therefore, it was a judgment call by the ref. And they got it wrong. SMU got jobbed

            https://vine.co/v/OYz6FvUz2Qj/embed

          • The ball didn’t hit the rim because the SMU player kept it from hitting the rim. That’s why the correct goal tending call was made.

            Are you seriously that dense?

            Note the bold and italics:

            “Violations- Goaltending. (Rule 9-17.5). When the ball contacts the backboard and any part of the ball is above the rim on a field goal attempt, it is considered to be on its downward flight. In such case, it is goaltending when the ball is touched by a player as long as it has a possibility of entering the basket.”

            It is considered as having a possibility of entering the basket as long as it’s above the rim. No other factor is considered. There is ZERO judgement involved. Refs are not physicists asked to calculate precise angles and conclude how every bounce of every shot will fall. They are told to call goal tending if the ball is above the rim. It has been that way forever and ever… and maybe before that. It’s just like when it bounces off the backboard on a lay-up but then gets swatted. It doesn’t matter if it’s even above the rim or on its downward flight. IT’S JUST GOAL TENDING… INSTANTLY AND DEFINITIVELY.

            Although, I guess there have never ever been any crazy bounces that just couldn’t have happened in the history of hoops. So you may be right.

            Sheesh!

          • wow. I’m the dense one?

            “Goaltending occurs when a defensive player touches the ball during a field-goal try and EACH of the following conditions IS met:

            1. The ball is on its downward flight; and

            2. The ball is above the level of the ring AND has the possibility, while in flight, of entering the basket and is not touching the cylinder.

            1. Yes, the ball was on it’s downward flight.

            2. Yes, it was above the ring, now here’s the key word……………….AND. Did that ball have the possibility of entering the basket? No, Not even close. Was it touching the cylinder? No it was not. Therefore, it was not goal tending. I’ve looked at 3 different angles. I’m not even sure the ball would’ve hit the rim if the SMU player hadn’t touched it. The ref who called it was out of bounds under the basket. The ref that made the call was halfway between the 3 point line and half court. We’re just gonna disagree on this one

            http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2015/03/19/were-the-refs-correct-to-call-goaltending-in-the-ucla-smu-game/

          • NO!!!!!!!!

            Your understanding of the rule is incorrect. IF the ball is above the rim, it has a chance to go in… period… end… no judgment whatsoever… none. There is no “each” test for this call. Until it’s all the way out of the cylinder, nobody in the American game can touch it.

            Until it hits the rim, nobody on D in any hoops league in the world can touch it.

            Density is relative.

          • Of course not. But that’s not in dispute. That it was above the rim is the only metric involved. If any part of the ball is above the rim, then the refs have to assume that there’s one-trillionth of a billionth of a chance for the shot to go in. And even that’s giving the refs too much wiggle room. This rule has always been called this way forever and ever… well, since Mikan… and will continue to be called such in the future. If it isn’t, it changes hoops for the worse forever.

            You’re actually asking the refs to stop making one of the easiest calls there is to make and start passing judgment… in their collective infinite wisdom.

            Like I said, on the flip side, if the offense would have tipped it in it would have been basket interference. Hell, that would have been called goal tending in international play as well since it was never allowed to touch the rim. That’s how fundamental that call is.

          • I didn’t watch the game. Where was the ref standing when he made the call? I could see how the view from the opposite side of the rim could be mistaken for a shot that has a chance to fall. Especially in live action. The view in your video makes it an easier call, but the refs aren’t watching from that angle.

          • see the link in my above post. The ref that called it was standing halfway between the 3 point line and half court

          • Yeah, gotta file it under “tough call”. I remember a couple of years ago, I was at a pivotal Blazers/Thunder game and Aldridge had his game winner goal tended by Durant in the closing seconds, and it wasn’t called. Should have counted as 2 points and a win, and the NBA even said as much then next day. After that play, the NBA added a replay rule for goal tending calls in the closing minute of a game. Probably will end up with something similar coming out of this.

            Too bad the SMU player didn’t just let it fall into his hands. Sounds like he’s a senior and that was the final play of his basketball playing career.

          • So?

            That doesn’t make it any less obvious. Everyone knew what the call was immediately except the guy who made the dumb play. And he was probably just acting that way because he knew he did something stupid.

          • It wouldn’t have fallen in his hands. It would have hit the rim. It was still over the rim when he stopped it from actually landing on it. It was an obvious call from any angle on the floor. It’s obvious from the video above. If there was a replay, they would have looked at the angle directly above the rim. That angle showed it was above the rim.

            What is so hard to understand about this? The only time it matters when making a judgment call is if it is so far away from the rim that it just obviously would never have gone in.

            The same judgment comes up when deciding whether or not to call an and-one or a foul on the floor because it looked like a pass instead. If it’s obvious the guy is shooting the ball… then he gets racked so the ball flies out of bounds behind him… are you gonna scream that it’s not a shot because the ball went the wrong way?

          • That video, btw, clearly shows goal tending. Nobody on SMU would even try to dispute it after seeing that. I’m not sure why you’re hung up on it.

  8. Anyone else notice the toilet seat logo at the Moda Center? And a sign saying hosted by the University of Oregon? Why? Ducks aren’t even playing in Portland. Haven’t seen that at any of the other host sites.

    • I know there are reasons, but everything the NCAA ever does with the incidental elements of scheduling postseason tournaments seems insane to me. Oregon is “hosting” a regional pod that the team isn’t even playing at. The First Four have to play in Dayton, and then travel to their first-round game. I think they’re even required to send themselves USPS first-class mail.

      It’s all about the $$$ so they want to hold first-week games at 20,000-seat arenas. But it still seems like in the first two rounds, games should be hosted at the #1 through #4 seeds’ home arenas. It’s not like those NBA venues get filled up anyway.

      And on the women’s side, the #1 seed in OSU’s regional (Maryland) has to travel to Spokane if they make it to the Sweet Sixteen. Good heavens. Also, the semifinals will be held on Easter.

      In baseball, the top seed in a regional isn’t always the designated home team, nullifying the advantage of batting in the bottom of the ninth. What?

      • Baseball is an anamoly. Some teams that get a regional number 1 seed don’t have facilities capable of hosting a regional. Poor comparison

        • I was aware of that. I understood why a #1 regional team might not host a regional. They should still give the #1 seed the advantage of batting last.

          And I’m not sure what comparison I made anywhere. It was just a list of complaints, delivered with little thought for fallacy or importance.

          Hell, I even made those complaints as someone who’s skeptical that there should be non-club sports at institutions of higher education anyway. “Do I contradict myself? / Very well then, I contradict myself, / (I am large, I contain multitudes.)” Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”

  9. Have seen several of these mock magazine covers the Beavs have been sending to their 2016 recruits. Pretty clever way to promote the program by capturing their attention so they’ll hopefully read the other headlines. Noticed one was about bodypainted jerseys. Know your audience i guess….

    http://t.co/LWu46CxyxG

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