MicroBurst61

Nice read on the effects of "transplanted" PAC12 teams and the unintended consequences of years of the PAC having been taken lightly. With 3-5 top 25 matchups for most playoff contenders in both the top heavy SEC and B1G, I would find it hilarious if they "cannibalized wins" from each other (like what would happen annually in the PAC) and a few of the ex'pac' members slip into the playoffs ahead of the top heavies. (NO!...not talking about OBD's in this scenario). Maybe, just maybe, the defunct PAC (Sorry OSU/WSU - just don't see a path back to conference relevance...well maybe NOT too sorry!) will Finally get the respect they should have earned, posthumously, and for whatever that recognition will be worth to the fans and alumni of that once majestic conference. At the very least it will give the talking heads more data points to fill the never ending sports news cycle with. Go Quackers!

THIS needs to be addressed above all else. Having half of the B1G take on another loss against other B1G schools, when 95% of the SEC are guaranteed one more "in the Win column" against clearly inferior opponents has, for years, artificially boosted the perceived strength of the SEC. And they KNOW that. If SEC continues to only play 8 conference games then they need to be Punished by the selection committee when deciding between two teams from different conferences with the same win/loss record. The one with 9 conference games, regardless of SOS, needs to be placed above ANY other team that only plays 8. Hopefully that this is going to change soon, like NLT 2025 schedule, but not holding my breathe. But we shall see.

Hmmm...almost like our head coach knows what the heck he is doing. Surround yourself with good people and absorb what you can while applying your mindset to the collective. I'm glad OBD Is DL's. "Dream Job". It can only get better from here.

And to quote one of my favorite psychopath characters in literature: "I'm Not stuck in here with You!" "You're ALL Stuck in here With ME!!!! Careful for what you asked for B1G! (ANNNDD..at Half Price!) 🤪😆😁

Huh. Interesting. Guess he was just waiting for the "right" defensive minded coach to come along. I think DL and TL both compliment each other with their defensive mind sets. I hope they will continue to work together through OBD first TWO national championships in the B1G. 🦆🏈😎

Poor start to the game. Great comeback from 18 down to close out the first half. Solid back and forth at the start of the second half. Went cold shooting and stopped defending the last part of the game. This team doesn't give up when things go wrong, but there seems to Always be something that has gone wrong each game. Chemistry and flow seem to still be the major roadblock from being just a good team to becoming a great one. PAC12 basketball this year is still competitive, within the league, but with some bad losses, just not enough Q1 and Q2 games left for the Ducks to impress outside of the league. Three PAC teams within a game of Arizona and three more one game further back, but I don't believe the regular season champion will necessarily get an autobid this year. Can this team close out February with no more losses? Road heavy against some "motivated" teams will definitely challenge them. Need to stay focused and gel as a team more than they have to date. Regular season championship is still within their grasp but no more lapses during games, or that will fail to come to fruition. Most important for this team to secure a top four position in the PAC12 tourney and then make some noise when seeded. This is becoming more and more of the path the Ducks will have to follow to "go dancin'" unless they can darn near "run the table" for the rest of the regular season. Not going to give up on this team, yet, for they are playing more cohesive and more to task than Duck basketball the past few seasons, but they got to "get it together" NOW to make that run to the dance. Would hate to see this team who definitely are trying hard and have worked through a "rotating M*A*S*H unit", to not be rewarded by at least the first weekend of dancing. Let us all hope our roundball ducks will succeed. Go Ducks!

What?! NFL "capitalizing" on a pop culture phenom that just happens to be in that sports spotlight? Nah...say it isn't so! What do you think we operate under? A "capitalist" society...yeesh! Next thing you know we will have to watch 45 minutes of pop culture halftime shows. (Wardrobe malfunctions anyone?) Oh wait! Yeah we do. Never mind, carry on. Make that money while the iron is hot! Go Super"bowlies"... 🤪!

Wasn't ugly. But wasn't pretty. Shot well and played good defense for 3/4 of the game but let both lapse in the last 7-8 minutes. Went from shooting mid 40, both FG and 3pt'ers, to high 30's by the end of the game. Meanwhile USuCk did the opposite and finished strong. Thank goodness our FREEthrows have been holding up much better or this could have turned into a BAD loss. Love the fact that Shelstad seemed to get his "groove" back and had 4 other players score double digits. Really was impressed with Oquendo who had solid stats all around AND managed to hang onto the ball. Definitely help make up for a subpar game from Cousnard. Even with dealing with a rotating M*A*S*H unit this team (and they seem to be solidifying that term as the season progresses) as a group can play Elite basketball. They genuinely seem to Enjoy playing with/for each other. They just need to do it for a full game, every game. No more sluggish starts and no more lapses, especially in the last 8 minutes of any game. Onto UCLaLaLand with another must win road game. Again on paper we OBD should win by double digits, but UCLaLaLand is a much more rounded team than the one we just beat. See ya all on Saturday! Go Ducks 🏀! (PS: NJDuck attempted a live game thread last night. If NJDuck set up another "live thread" for UCLaLaLand let's see if we can all jump in and "cuss and discuss" as the game unfolds.). Later fellow Ducksters. 👍

Well wrong team finished strong...but still got the win. Thanks for the attempt at establishing the thread, NJDuck. Try again on Saturday. Maybe have more participation. And hopefully Bittle also. Go Ducks! 🦆🏀👍

Seven minutes and up by 15. Need to close out strong!

Yeah. Was wondering the same. Please don't be a setback on his wrist. 🙄

And yes. Shelstad had a solid first half. Hope he keeps it up and get a little more help. (Especially off the bench).

What?! Bill Walton...Spewing??? Wouldn't have it any other way. 😁

The universe has spoken....Everything is turning up "ducky". 🦆💯

Fantastic article with just the "tip of the problematic iceberg" being exposed. This and many other issues were always going to crop up, moving from a (supposedly) pure amateur athlete status, to the quasi-worker/employee that these high profile athletes are becoming. Going to get even more complex if the push by a certain football conference to not even have to have your "employees" enrolled to participate in said programs. (Kinda like ignoring / manipulating admission standards back in the late 90's, early 2000's) with the reasoning that these young men are going to school to play Football and shouldn't be hampered by all that...education stuff. Same playbook will be applied here. I could write about all the billions of public funds (again, average layman has no real concept of that amount of money) that were used over the decades to create the venues and facilities of all these college athletics and they now "believe" those same departments "deserve" what was built for them at universities across the land. It can be frustrating and disheartening at times but the great equalizer is most likely positioning themselves, legally, to take on this new free-for-all college competition (threat?). That being the National Football League. NFL has far more resources and uses law firms containing hundreds of lawyers to protect their interests. And there are law firms attached to each owner and NFL team. There is NO WAY IN HELL that the NFL will allow college/NFL-lite football to challenge it for viewership numbers, quality players and coaches, or popularity. Believe me when I say that they will dig out EVERY obscure law or practice to ensure that NFL remains top dog. As college football crashes headlong into the "let's make as much money as possible" before saner heads prevail and start reapplying some sort of guardrails to the process; the true legal battles are just beginning. And many of those legal battles may actually end up being as entertaining as the product being litigated in those battles. Again, as fans, we are only along for the ride...whatever that ride may end up being is still to be determined. My advise...enjoy the ride as you can. Let the rest roll of your "Duck" back and continue to cheer on OBD! Ducks Rock! Rock.

I know it's niave and a minority position, but the two sayings/mantras that I Absolutely have despised most of my life: "If you ain't cheatin, you ain't tryin'." "It's just business." Normalizes leaning into our most negative basal instincts and, for me, is not how you "evolve" into a better person/species. Ok. (Stepping off of my high horse). Back to athletics done RIGHT. Oregon Duck Athletics! Go Ducks! 🦆👍

Yes. This. Dante is great down low and is the reason his FG% is so high. Inside bankshots and dunks tend to trend to a higher percentage. His hands have been questionable before and hoping it's just shaking off the rust, but we will see during these next eight games. Dante and Bittle Do Not compliment each other when on the floor together and seem to actually get in the way of each other. A rotation between the two of them, with the other talent off of the bench, seems like a better option at this point. Better figure it out because...Roadtrip! And Ducks BB has already blown their road split in the mountains, so need both these to get back to even. Go Ducks!

Well it's hard to keep a good "bad" dog down....NOT!!!!! 🤪🤣😁

Nice! With one of the worlds BEST track and field facilities (and a fanbase that fills it!) I look forward to Oregon ascending back into the top of the sport, where they Rightfully belong. We ain't called TrackTown USA for nuthin! GO 🦆's!

Welcome to NFL-Lite. In the current format a non-bye team will play 16-17 games (depending upon number of regular season games scheduled...yeah let's drop Hawaii next year!) to be playing in the championship game. Only teams that are DEEP in their rosters will be able to get there. Also prepare yourself for "roster management" with top players being "rested" for a week or two based on minor injuries. Gotta have your "studs" ready to go by "rivalry week" and into the conference championship games and playoffs. Oregon football is ahead of the curve regarding this and I see nothing but "stacking" quality players, who Will see playing time behind the starters, to help weather the grind that each college/NFL-lite season will present to the teams. A good example of this will be the Ducks inaugural season in the B1G. That stretch of 8 games between bye weeks IS going to be brutal and we should get a glimpse of how the coaching staff will adapt to it. Hopefully adapt to the point of a National Championship Game appearance (and first football Natty?). Go Ducksters!

Holy Moly the (blue)chips keep falling our way. I really, really hope this is All because of what our program has to offer, the new NIL opportunities, and the Lanning staff recruiting "chops". Just don't want to find out years from now that it was done, via SEC style, through shady backdoor deals or practices. After all, that is what NIL and transfer portal was suppose to help eliminate, right? So until proven otherwise...GO DUCKS!

February "Ducks" basketball is upon us. Every year that OBD Basketball has made their move to solidify themselves as a conference contender and a tourney team, has always become apparent with Altman teams, in February. OBD's basketball currently has played itself into second place in the PAC by half a game behind Arizona. Arizona who BTW, Earned that win at Matt Knight shooting 50% from both the field and three point line and did what they HAD to do to keep their conference championship alive. No shame in a loss like that. Good news is we weathered a significant part of our conference schedule (part 1) with only 3 conference losses. With 6 of the games in February against teams currently in the bottom half of the conference (two against ORST). Five of those on the road with only Stanford as a possible road loss, and getting a surprising Washington St. here at Matt Knight, I can honestly see this team going 7-1 or 6-2 but entirely possible that the team could also go 8-0. Do this and we have twenty wins and single digit losses for the season. A damn near prerequisite for NCAA bidding conciderations. More than 3 losses and the season just might slip away for a Third year. But I doubt it. The loss of Bartholomew off the bench Will hurt a bit, but this team has worked around injuries all year and I don't expect too much of a drop off (with maybe the exception of 3pters), especially with the team beginning to work well together with our "bigs" being reincorporated into our "flow". If this team can continue to "gel", then by the end of February we could be at a place we need to be to claim a conference championship. This is still a young team and there is a whole lot of basketball left to be played and obviously I am somewhat optimistic about OBD's chances. Would love to hear how others are feeling about the traditional "February" shift into another gear for Oregon Ducks Basketball. As always going to love watching it unfold. Go Quackers!!!! 🦆🏀👍

Football is King. Not only with OBD, but with the sports enthusiast in the Grand Ole USA, at large. It is truly our "National Game" (sorry baseball, you had a nice run!), and thats not changing anytime soon. So that being said. I do enjoy Oregon Athletics and find myself fortunate to have the plethora of sporting events to attend/follow through our outstanding Athletic Department. Definitely Not an afterthought at the University of Oregon. I am, and always will be primarily a football/basketball guy first but enjoy following and reading about the other successes by other sports at the UofO. Unfortunately college football and college basketball seem to be going in opposite directions. Football is "creating" a second NFL-lite, while college basketball has become more of a minor league to the "G-league" and NBA. Not only a problem for the overall quality of the college game but has been a problem for Coaches in college, with so much less continuity in teams that it's hard to create a "winner". Maybe with NIL, that's beginning to swing back, but there are a LOT of financial forces that want to keep it swinging the way it has the past ten years, or so. Main point is. PLEASE keep posting all there is about OBD. I know it will always be slanted towards football but I appreciate the other insights that are posted about the "secondary sports", and enjoy the forum readers observations and speculations on those topics. Not to "task" our host "Mr FishDuck" anymore than he already has on his plate but maybe there is a way to set up the forum, to not only reflect posts as they currently are, but to have a "search" or "sport specific" feature that can group post also by sports subject? Maybe then it would be easier for us casual reader/posters to follow up on information regarding the less followed sports at the UofO. Just a few rambling thoughts. Just happy to have a place to be able to discuss all things "Ducky"! Let's Go Ducks!

As noted in the AFC championship game thread I am hoping for a SF/BALT rematch. I am loving the Dan "bite em on the knees on the way up" Campbell and the rejuvenated Detroit Lions team and do believe they are a Superbowl caliber team. And Detroit definitely has the more experienced quarterback who has Actually played in a Superbowl. However, Christian McCaffrey, probably more than any other player on the field in this game, wants/Needs this win and he will put any and all of his SF teammates on his back (why not, he does it regularly with opposing defenders) and will Refuse to let SF lose this game. At least I hope so, cause he is my primary back in my playoff fantasy football league! 🤪 San Fransisco VS Baltimore Super Duper Bowl!

I whole heartedly agree. Not going to repeat my comments here from the post I made in MBB Thread by Penn Duck, but yeah, a tale of two halves and DEEP bench contributions. Developing into a very good team. Just need the consistency in all aspects of the game and we will be a tough out, regardless of who we are playing. Go Ducks!