Home Athletics Baseball UCSB and Spring Practice

Baseball UCSB and Spring Practice

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Smith commented on Twitter he was excited about the energy the team brought today. Coach speak, of course. I’m just excited (and amazed how quickly) it’s football season. Football very well might be our best of the three major sports this year (go Gebbia).

OldBeav, feel free to edit the post and add anything you would like to add.

130 COMMENTS

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        The Bradford video is promising…they mention the D having more depth, and the team looks crisper day 1.

        Edit: Gebbia interview great, too. Those intangibles I could see are evident in listening to him. Attention to detail. Love players who list that as a priority. Almost always have huge success.

        Edit: First time I heard Nolan speak. Not as polished a speaker as Gebbia and talks kind of “ghetto”… I don’t get the attention to detail vibe. Probably a guy who relies more on pure ability than the mental part. Good backup once he gets up to speed, but no way he beats out Gebbia.

        • I noticed that before and pointed out Gebbia seems like a student of the game, a future O coordinator; for example he doesn’t think about just what the route is or where, but “why.” Nolan seems like he gives the canned answers he thinks are expected. But, he’s younger, maybe nervous. We’ll see. If he’s spending film time with Gebbia his thinking and the way he presents himself will likely change.

          Also, the PWO full back that just signed has great academics and is a student of the fullback game; apparently studying FB and college FB players and habits. When FB packages are installed, the offense will be more diverse, and with he and Gebbia on the field at the same time, the Beavers will definitely have great play packages and a well prepared QB and FB.

          Now these smallish OSU receivers need to go study Bruce, Irvin from the LA Rams greatest show on turf.

          • When Gebbia walks on water I’ll believe it Angry. I like how you are judging Nolan calling him ghetto, explains a lot… Regardless, I didn’t hear anything eye popping from either of them. That being said nothing real negative either. Mostly meh… neither are on an OC’s level, that’s ridiculous… I just hope they play good, could care less if they can say a sentence eloquently… in fact, I bet ghetto guy can yell louder, that will be huge in loud environments

    • Is low a RB or WR or a mix?
      This is the first year the team has talked a big game and had the ability to back it since ’12 or so. I’m pretty excited about Gebbia with all these weapons. If they D can play the same style of bend but don’t break, or even improve, we should be really good. Bowl game is the absolute floor.

      Going to check out the Sedge videos now.

      • Sounds like a little of both for Lowe. He’s pretty small at 5’8, 180lbs, if that’s accurate.
        I din’t think he’s been cleared to play this season yet by the NCAA, so he’s still a question mark in terms of availability.
        Same with Harrison.

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        Lowe looks to be a wild card type. Able to line up in the backfield and then motion to be a wr or vice versa. He was a RB in high school. Very athletic.

        Potential to create mismatches and home run ability when in space. Will need to be creative to get the ball in his hands. Sweeps, misdirection, screens. Wasn’t able to find a role at UW.

        Very interesting that he walked on vs going somewhere with a scholarship. Must have some kind of deal with Smith to be put on scholarship when guys leave.

        • Most likely scenario is Smith is taking the scholarship money left open by guys who medically retired or transferred out and is using it to cover tuition costs, etc for some of the walkons. Then next term when the scholarships are available, he can re-assign them.

          I don’t think Lowe or Harrison are truly walkons in the sense that they aren’t paying for school.

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    Might as well add in spring training observations too.

    Madrigal will start in AAA or AA. Hasn’t hit much and that’s supposed to be his strength. If he plays well in minors, looking like a late season call up.

    Rutschman – in big league camp. A few appearances but no hits yet. Starts in AA. Prob needs one full year in the minors before getting the call.

    Larnach – good spring so far. Starts in the minors but could be called up mid season if he can continue his growth. Scouts say he could be an above average RF which is surprising because he was never regarded as a plus defender at OSU.

    Hamilton – making the most of a surprise invite to big league camp. No chance of MLB this year but looking like he could make it as a utility guy in a couple years.

    Rasmussen – getting some media love but will start in the minors. Good chance to make an appearance this year.

    Haven’t seen any others in big league camp who haven’t made it to the show yet. Don’t think anyone else is close.

    So could have 3 guys make their MLB debut this year.

  2. The best of times?…….the worst of times?…………..or, simply, more of the same?

    Baseball, worst start since 2002.
    WBB, no bye in PAC tourney since whenever, on the bubble for the big dance.
    MBB, papa Tinks.
    FB, the bright spot?

    Andrew Checketts brings in UCSB directly from delivering the first loss of the season to UCLA, and he didn’t even use the ace I mentioned in the last thread. Beavs sporting an ERA of 4.83, nearly 2 runs worse than last season. More in Eggers piece linked below. One positive….BIG Jim set to join JW on radio broadcast.

    WBB with an uphill climb this weekend, short squad gonna be exhausted if they make it to Sunday. Can they make it past WSU back to back and then make it 1 of 3 vs Stanford? If so, all they gotta do (probably) is face UCLA for only the second time this year.

    FB excitement tempered by the number of players who will not be full go for Spring, especially among Tibs charges.

    So, yeah, more of the same.

    https://pamplinmedia.com/pt/12-sports/454538-370757-beavers-a-mixed-bag-as-they-preapre-for-fridays-home-debut

    • Outside of Christian Chamberlain, the rest of the team has a 7.65 ERA. whoa Nellie.

      Nothing about Verburg. We’ll need him back in the mix this weekend.

    • WBB is not ” on the bubble” for the NCAA tournament. They are solidly in no matter what happens in the Pac-12 tournament.

      • Yes, of course. My mistake. Should have said on the bubble for hosting the first two rounds.

        Not that hosting is a “must”, see 17-18 NCAA where the Good Gals whipped both Tennessee and Baylor away from Gill.

        • Actually, if the Beavers win first two games in the Pac 12 Tourney, they are a lock to host first two rounds and that’s according to the selection committee. If they lose WSU game, they definitely will not host. If they beat WSU and lose to Stanford, it’s anyone’s guess but most likely won’t host. I have a feeling they’re going to beat WSU and then finally beat Stanford. Lost twice to Stanford in tight games and it’s pretty difficult beating the same team three times in a season especially given how close those first two games were. First things first…..beat WSU.

        • @Swammi
          So, yeah, they aren’t yet a lock but they do have a good chance to host. To this old beav, that is the definition of “on the bubble”.

          As to Stanford, the difficulty of beating a team three times in a season was on my mind when I mentioned “making it 1 of 3 vs Stanford”.

          Noticed that WSU is expected to have their star back after missing the last game vs Beavs, do you think that matters?

  3. Last stuff from SDSU….
    Verberg was supposed to pitch, but had arm soreness after his last bullpen session. They are holding him out till PAC play.
    Jake M has lost his edge. Like Cougar in Top Gun? A parent said he had been getting hit hard in squad scrimmages. Who knows what’s going on, but he has gone from a lockdown guy to a liability.
    Hamilton had some rough moments at catcher. Couple of passed balls that our previous string of great catchers would have caught and then the huge throwing error in game four. I noticed that he tends to sail his throws to second consistently. Claunch plays and perhaps we win game four.
    Burns, I think, is going to be the new version of Jake Thompson( Angry’s fav Beav). Looks great for a few batters and then melts down.
    It sounds like they had some misses in recruiting a couple years back because kids did want to sit behind our stars. This year will be a take our lumps season and play young guys for the payoff in the future. Too bad Pat Casey never had a hobby. Luck O da Beavs.

    • I’ve been trying to figure this out for awhile now. He has used that word a lot in several articles of his that I have read about the beavers. I’ve been trying to figure out if it’s completely innocent or not. There was one article a few weeks back where the exact wording was something along the lines of Coach Tinkle “fingered the beavers”, and then later in the article it said he also “fingered himself”. I don’t know how this is an accident. . .or how it makes it past editing. Who uses that word like that anymore? LOL!

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    Trent Bray needs to wear sunscreen or he’s going to look older than Gary Andersen soon. Amazing how these coaches run around with a little ball cap on not realizing the sides of their faces are getting radiated every day.

  5. Beaver mbb game is under way. Tres will become the all time scoring leader at OSU tonight with 6 more pts.
    It’s a pretty big achievement, but does anybody care?
    I’m just not interested enough to tune in.

    • A healthy Morris would be a big boost for the D; so instinctual, fast.

      Says Nolan needs to work on arm strength, but great first practice stepping up to DI. Gebbia threw “beautiful deep balls.” WRs look good, fast if not tall.

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      Eggers is a good writer, but he has an awful track record with scouting talent. Still, I’ll give it a listen this morning.

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      Gave it a listen. Agree the defense will be better, but I’m not sure best in the Pac-12. That seems a bit absurd. Should be disruptive on D and bend but don’t break — basically last year but better all around. I don’t think that makes us the best. CBs aren’t great. Alton and Dunn are the two who seem competent to me. Depth is thin and it’s a passing league. Maybe Hayes is a guy who can step up. Wright made some plays last year, but he was pretty bad most of the year. Possible he improves.

      QB, WRs, RB, and TE should all be awesome if they have time to run routes.

      • When I hear them talking about our DL dominating and getting to the QB or hitting RBs in the backfield repeatedly, it doesn’t make me think our DL is doing great. Instead I tend to think our OL must look horrible right now.

        If we think about how many key DLineman our out this spring(Reichner/Whitley/Moore) plus no Gumbs and a limited Hamilcar because of various injuries, I wouldn’t expect our DL to be any better than it was at year end. In fact it should be worse, unless Tavis Shippen is that much of a difference maker.

        My concern after hearing this podcast is our OL is worse than people are anticipating. Which makes sense, we lost several key seniors in Brandel/Lavaka/Cordasco)

        • I think as an alumni Greave had on the orange-colored glasses. The D will make good plays and be entertaining,but it doesn’t have the proven line or CB depth to be great. It will be effective in most games.

          I think while its generally good and the norm to see the D ahead of the O in practice, the OLine is going cause for concern. Not just the lack of experience, but how they handle, or don’t handle, physical teams. They don’t look like a physical Oline at this point, that may be a year or two away. As you point out, some of the Beavers best D players aren’t really practicing right now.

          I wonder if the Oline appears sketchy mid-fall if it becomes a bigger factor into the Gebbia/Nolan decision.

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        I don’t think Eggers even bothers actually evaluating. He seems more of a “coach says xyz, so…” type of guy. I like his writing overall, but he was a Simple Jack nut swinger/apologist til the bitter end so I take his “evaluation” with a grain of salt.

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          Exactly. I’d speak with him on email, and he’d always just parrot the popular opinion. e.g. he said McMaryion was bad for all the reasons the coaches insinuated and media ran with…

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            Thumbing me down won’t change the fact that’s what Eggers is. A very good writer, an awful talent scout. Reality apparently butthurt someone.

      • The D was still bad last year, ranked in the bottom quartile. There’s no way they go from that to best in the conference in one year. More steady improvement is the best we should expect.

        With an average D and a good offense (which is highly dependent on the OL) we will be solidly in bowl game territory.

  6. Glad they got the win. Stanford games at Gill are always nail-biters. And happy for Tinkle. Nobody’s ever said the team didn’t play hard. And if he’s not leaving with the NCAA tourney experience, at least Tres will leave with the record.

    • Dan, honestly that’s my biggest gripe. From my point of view they don’t play hard unless their back is against the wall. This is different from year one and two of Wayne Tinkle. It’s cost them so many wins along the way. Consistent effort hasn’t been there in a long long time… you caught a good game today. Expecting a first round exit next week.

  7. WBB: Looks a lot like the intensity on D that marked the second half last time the Good Gals took on the Cougs. 25pt lead at the half.
    Tudor 5 for 5 3pt!
    5 TO’s
    Minutes?…….Jones and Slocum <12, Simmons 8, Morris 4………..more rest coming up for regulars, need to be as fresh as possible going forward.

    Yeah, Tudor 5/5………..that'll cover for a few TO's!

    • Rueck tends to leave starters in for a while. Slocum finished the game but I think that’s because he has a short bench right now. The walk on can’t run the point for 10min.

      Next year, Rueck needs to recruit a couple point guards.

      If they beat Stanford, they’ll have to shoot 50%+ from deep.

      • Seems to me Rueck wants either Slocum or Pivec on the floor at (nearly) all times. Slocum got some rest in the first half and, thus, was in at the end of the game; Pivec wasn’t rested much at all till the second half.

        Agree, deep shooting from Tudor or Goodman or BOTH likely to be the difference vs Stanford.

        With the step up in competition it will be fun to see if TO’s stay below 10 and, hopefully, steals stay around 6plus.

        And, how ’bout Morris doing so well shooting FT’s, impressive to me since she sees so little floor time.

  8. Voted for Pivec again – she’s over 60 pct on the SeniorClass award thing. Didn’t realize fan voting is only 1/3 of the vote – coaches and media members make up the other two thirds. There might be better players nominated, but none who is a better player, student and community member. Voting closes soon.

    • Check the “community service” of some of her competitors. Some actually claim “hanging around signing autographs” in the same category where she has started community focused charitable organizations!

      • Oh I did. Granted, I doubt the players submit the nomination and it all depends on how good your SID staff is at knowing what the player is up to away from the court.
        On the other hand, one of the others (2nd place I think) is an actual working nurse, which I think is amazing.

        Good win tonight for the Beavs – hoping the starters got some decent rest in the second half. Four games in four nights is a lot to ask.

        • I’m sure lot of factors go into Scott’s decisions about rest, I’d have thought there would have been just a little more rest given.
          28 mins for Pivec, Tudor, and Slocum, next 23 and 24 for Washington and Goodman.

          10 TO’s, that makes it 44 over the last 5 games, same total as in the two games in lala land mid-Feb.
          Once again, steals improves…….had 8 tonight vs season avg of just over 4.

  9. Pitching battle? Anemic offense?
    No hits for either side through 3 at Goss. Total 11 K’s out of 18 outs so far.
    School Live Stream sound has returned, listen to BIG Jim educate (an improving) Jon Warren.

    https://pac-12.com/live/oregon-state-university-2

    ADD: Chamberlain doesn’t hesitate to step on the baseline heading to the dugout after notching 9th K to end the t4.

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    Time to panic!
    Errors, HBP, bb’s…….AND missed defensive opportunities (not scored as E’s) lead to being behind 6-0 going to the b8.

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      The time to panic was after week 1, losing to Gonzaga and BYU. But you guys are always a little behind the obvious.

      ;) ;D

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        Remember when we could always say “at least we have baseball”? Kiss that effing goodbye. It’s hard loving the Beavs.

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        What is the point you are trying to make? I equate success in athletics with being competitive at a high level. Besides baseball and occasional women’s basketball seasons, which sports has OSU been competitive at a high level in the past decade?

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          “Occasional women’s basketball seasons” as in Final Four, Elite 8s, Sweet 16s, Back-to-back-to back Pac-12 Regular season champs and, Pac 12 Tourney Champs and that’s “occasional”? WBB has won 20+ games or more in the past 8 consecutive seasons and that’s “occasional”. You’re either an “occasional” fan or not really a fan at all to not know the difference between “occasional” and consistently highly competitive. UnBeaverable and Totally RiDuckulous comment you made.

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            A boss I had back in the ’90s told me three years of strong performance in a row is a well-established trend. Women’s hoops is an established trend. Unfortunately, I’m a little concerned that baseball is going to lose that trend.

        • Not trying to make any profound point; merely pointing out the similarity to comments in the now defunct Oregonian comments section. Comments which contributed little and, often, weren’t worth a reply.

        • Anybody can get competitive with the right amount of $$$$$. Go look at UO, they were nothing until Uncle Phil started giving them handouts.

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    It’s a weird time for OSU baseball – third coach in three years. Won a title with a loaded team two years ago, had a good season last year – they haven’t won fewer than 30 games since 2008. The key will be improvement as the season goes along. Pitching is the biggest concern. Need a 2nd and 3rd starter and some relievers you can count on.

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      This is a transition year and will be a difficult one. They didn’t exactly have a great recruiting class coming in and losing their top pitcher to an injury as well as Mitchell Verburg certainly hasn’t helped. Hopefully, it only takes a few seasons to get things back on track but this year looks to be a tough one as they also have lots of new faces on the roster and the talent just isn’t even close to what it was two years ago. For all of their success over the past 15+ years, it’s not unreasonable to think they’ll have a down year or two without Casey running the team. I think MC will be great but it will take him some time to build it back up again. No guarantees that”ll happen but there’s no guarantees that it won’t.

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        It’s a transition from a dynasty to crap, ala Ralph Miller era. You can’t replace historic coaches with Joe Blows and expect greatness just because the last guy was great. I’m not sure it will get that bad, but we’re definitely going to be trending down a long time before up (unless Casey comes back). I don’t think we ever see baseball like that era again. At leat we went out with a National Title. It’s a vicious cycle where when you lose the figurehead who built it you don’t get as good recruits. Nobody can match Casey’s intensity and demanding nature while still being a player’s coach. Hard line to toe, and it won’t happen again.

    • What I don’t get is why it seems like we haven’t gotten a single new good player in the last two years. It’s like we’ve watched all of these super stars leave the team and we haven’t replaced any of them.

      • They wanted to play for Casey, not these guys.

        People want to listen to Led Zeppelin with John Bonham, not his son. You know?

  12. Nice to see the Beavs win on Senior Day and especially that Kelley and Tinkle had good games. But man, there really needs to be a discussion about where the program goes from here.

    • Best case scenario, we finish 8th in conference. It would require WSU losing today to ASU.
      If WSU wins, we finish 11th.

      All right! We suck again!

        • Still Rueck. Don’t look at one season with injuries, best the conference has ever been and deaths close to the program, but the body of work. Rueck and Casey are the best OSU coached in 50 years.

      • ASU going to win. Beavs will face Utah in the 8/9 matchup. Probably the best case scenario. Very winnable game. Winner will face the Ducks.

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    I’ve read some stuff that somehow if the Beavs win at least one P-12 tourney game they have a decent shot at the NIT. I guess that’s progress?

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    Are we still considered as a baseball school? Goss got em? Not this season, dropped the home opening series!!! I’m hoping to see a huge improvement by the end of the season, but at this point it’s looking bleak.

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        How many regular conference championships does the OSU women’s basketball team have? Three. How many conference tournament championships do they have? One. The women’s basketball team is going to be the best team OSU has this year. “Occasionally” they win the conference, although they did win three consecutive conference championships. So yes I stand by my occasional comment.

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          And I still stand by my comment that you don’t know squat about consistently being competitive. Rueck took over the program in 2010 after LaVonda Wagner absolutely destroyed it. All Rueck has done since was produce 8 consecutive 20+ winning seasons, put OSU in the national spotlight with consistently top 20 rankings and top 10 nationally ranked teams since the 2013-14 season. This was accomplished during a period when programs like Stanford dominated the league for years. In today’s game, there is no one dominant team like there was 10-15 or even 20 years ago. So programs like ASU, AZ, Oregon, UCLA, etc. have all dramatically improved which makes Rueck’s 8 years even that much more impressive and consistently competitive. And let’s not forget consistently making the NCAA Tournament year after year after year with runs to the Sweet 16, Elite 8s and a Final Four. Check out his overall record of 228-105 while at OSU winning of 68% and only two losing seasons out of 10 and those 2 seasons happened in his 1st and 3rd years at OSU. All of this accomplished in what has been considered the best conference in the country.

          You can stand by your “occasional” comment all you want and the facts clearly show that you’re clueless about what it means to be consistently competitive. In other words, you’re talking out of your rear end.

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    The NIT is a tough tournament to get into, but an easy tournament to fall into. With all the mid-major regular season champions getting in if they lose in their tourneys and don’t get an NCAA bid automatically in, it all depends on how much room there is for an 18-13 team (there wasn’t room last year). 19-14 with another win over the Ducks? Maybe.

    Baseball. Shoot. Anyone know the last time Oregon State entered the Pac-12 with a losing record?

  16. Kaleb hayes did really well in the combine. Hopefully that can translate to the field and he can keep his emotions in check. Is he a RS jr?

    • It hasn’t changed my behavior and I have two plane trips coming, one to Europe, that I hope don’t get cancelled.
      Everyone make sure you wash you hands before picking your nose.

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        Haha (nose).
        Italy has a 5% fatality rate now. Good luck, buddy.

        At the very least you’re likely to get sick engaging in that type of risky behavior when we’re dealing with a log base 2 spread rate. Hope you’re healthy/young and don’t die.

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          The only country so far to administer ten of thousands of test is South Korea and the mortality rate in Korea is at 0.7%. As more people are tested we are going to quickly see tens of thousands are infected in the states and will continue to grow exponentially over the next few months into the summer. The good news is most people will fully recover with few issues. The elderly (especially those with underlying heath conditions) are very much as risk.

          The underlying issues are our healthcare system is going to be under tremendous stress and if it fails on any level the calls for universal healthcare will grow much louder. Also as Angry has discussed this could end up being an economic disaster. In my opinion the healthcare and economic crisis are going to cause much more pain than the actual virus.

          • The fatality rate is dropping most in countries that have young demographics (except for Iran for some reason). The errors of small sample sizes…I believe SK has young demographics, but would have to double check.

            There is also incentive for these governments to under-report the numbers. Google “Don’t test, don’t tell.”

            I don’t believe the statistics — too much economic incentive to lie, though that is obviously short-sighted, but people are wired that way.

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    A few months ago I said stocks were looking like blow off top/bubble behavior (fear and greed index was in the 90s for months, leverage, euphoria, people talking about stocks around the water cooler, Tesla, etc). Stocks kept going up. Always signs of blow off top/bubble. Corona is just the pinhead the bubble was searching for. This is a credit/crack up boom bubble, if anyone wants to research that further. Said gold was only thing not in a bubble and a good buy in the low 1300s. Was laughed at. 1700 today.

    What I think now: FED (Federal Reserve) steps in with QE4 at some point in April or so and likely has to buy corporate bonds and maybe even stocks, which destroys the dollar further, lift assets in the short-term, and calms markets. The poor and lower middle class get annihilated (i.e. amoral/End the FED/fuck Jack and his FED loving bullshit). Govt then steps in with fiscal stimulus on top of it (don’t buy CAT yet, OldBeav…they will have close ports in April unless the virus magically disappears). Dollar is the ultimate bubble. Gold wins. Bonds win (on capital gains, not yield) until the FED can’t buy anymore; then bonds get destroyed as they’re just IOU dollars. Stocks do okay in nominal terms, but the dividends buy nothing when you get them months later. In short you’re a loser but less of a loser. Real pockets of growth in some tech (renewables, crypto, AI, fintech, cloud, etc), which is the best place to be long-term. Real estate does poorly as it’s credit based so prices plummet, but if you can lock in a low rate 30 year fixed (i.e. essentially shorting the dollar) you will do better than someone purely holding dollars. Crypto interesting but unproven and no intrinsic value…neutral on it. Probably better than dollars. The idea is to be the smallest loser. Anyone holding dollars is totally screwed except for brief bouts of collapse, as we have right now (I’m not buying stocks, but would nibble 10% lower).

    High dividend oil stocks worth a gamble if oil hits $25 or less and you have a 2 year horizon.

    Student loan bubble is doomed. Either pops or gets bailed out. My guess is the latter.

    Time-frame: next five years for everything listed to all play out.

    None of this is investment advice.

    Good luck, Beavs.

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    Dratings.com currently has the Beavs as a 5 seed in the NIT.

    Depending on how conference tournaments shake out, beat Utah and they’re probably in.

    Make the NIT and Barnes probably gives Tinkle a fucking lifetime contract extension.

  19. Baseball gets swept at home by UCSB. Scored 2 fucking runs in 27 innings of baseball. Its officially panic time.

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