Charles Fischer

Boy Jack, your knowledge of the team is extensive and you are very, very welcome here. I do not have many to discuss Oregon Softball with, and I would hope you check on us often during the season and give us your insights. A fun and informative read and I thank you! I learned a ton about our pitchers and will be looking for this on the live-stream games.

I am happy to win, but boy....there sure were a lot of shots up close missed. Three in one possession alone under the basket, but I assume that is part of the "knocking off the rust" that must happen.

Requires a subscription to me, but elsewhere it sounds like he was quite forthcoming. (Former Utah AD Chris Hill)

I love how this national article at Rivals has you-know-who featured, and rightly so! Does Washington deserve to even be mentioned? Pac-12 Spotlight: Winners and Losers from 2021 Recruiting Cycle by Rivals.com Guess who takes recruiting seriously?

That is a great-great article, where you learn so many interesting things about him. Makes me want to root for him as a person and his growth as his basketball!

I bring this up because Oregon not only has incredible pitching depth, but superb quality to boot. Add to it how Lombardi has several different types of pitchers....it begins to make you wonder about this. I am a novice when it comes to softball/baseball and would love the opinion of others. (Season begins tomorrow!) Oregon Softball Pitchers: Samaria Diaz, right-handed, Senior, 1.0 ERA, 8-0 last year. Brooke Yanez, left-handed, Junior, 1.56 ERA, 9-1 Jordan Dail, right-handed, Junior, 2.39 ERA, 5-1 Makenna Kliethermes, right-handed, Freshman, 1.05 ERA, (no hits allowed in five appearances last year) Raegan Breedlove, right-handed, Freshman, 0.39 ERA in high school, No. 15 best HS player in US last year according to FloSoftball. With five pitchers....would you have a starter, reliever and closer? Two of the three? So many variables to ponder, but Coach Melyssa Lombardi has recruited herself into some nice choices...

Great. So we make certain we play nearly every team THREE times in a season? I vote no...

Note the key line I bolded and underlined....and we have nearly all our pitchers back AND a couple of hot-shot freshmen who can help. All the starters back? That never happens!

Eugene morning paper said that even if Eric Williams is OK from COVID protocol...he still may not play due to his knee flaring up!

We don't do that here, because we all are wrong at one time or another. So you can express a controversial view, and people are not allowed to taunt or be snarky if you are wrong. Which is a good thing, since I am wrong more often than I wish! It is good to get your opinion--and everyone's as it makes it all that much more interesting.

This is the second part of a detailed breakdown of the Tim DeRuyter defense, only this time it focuses on how his teams create so many turnovers. It is worth the extra time taken to read and consider, and will give us great discussion in the future! Duck Tape: Film Review of DC Tim DeRuyter, Part 2 - Generating Turnovers by hythloday1

The coaches don't think much of Oregon's improvement or roster this year as they have selected Oregon to finish in fifth place in the conference; the article below details the others projected ahead of the Ducks. Where do you see the Women ending up in the conference? Oregon Softball Picked 5th in Preseason Pac-12 Coaches Poll by OregonLive

OREGON ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | BASEBALL Eugene, Ore. – The Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award (BBCSA) presented by SR Bats named Gabe Matthews, Kenyon Yovan and Aaron Zavala to its preseason watch list today. Yovan, a redshirt junior, is coming off a season where he earned Collegiate Baseball first-team All-America honors as a designated hitter after leading Oregon in hitting (.429), hits (24), home runs (4), runs scored (22) and walks (15). He also topped the team in on-base percentage (.556) and slugging percentage (.714), while finishing with nine RBI, two doubles and a triple. Yovan finished the season with six multi-hit games including five 3-hit games. In the Pac-12 Conference, he finished in the top three in seven offensive categories while ranking in the top six in two more. Yovan was second in the league in slugging percentage and runs scored, third in batting average, OBP, hits, home runs (tied) and total bases and sixth in the conference in walks and hit by pitches. The BBCSA honor is the third of the preseason for Yovan, who also earned preseason All-American by both Collegiate Baseball and D1Baseball. Zavala, a sophomore, earned his first career All-America honor after batting .418 with a home run and a team-high 22 RBI. The Salem, Ore., native led the Ducks in both multi-hit (8) and multi-RBI (9) games while finishing with four 2-hit and four 3-hit games. Zavala led the Pac-12 Conference in RBI, while finishing fourth in batting average and hits (23) and 11th in on-base percentage (.493). Nationally, he ranked 11th in RBI per game, 16th in RBI and 18th in toughest to strikeout (three strikeouts in 67 plate appearances). Zavala claimed third-team Collegiate Baseball All-America honors following the 2020 season. Matthews, a senior, heads into the 2020 season ranked in Oregon’s career top 10 in 12 separate career categories -- on-base percentage, walks, doubles), at-bats, games started, hits, RBI, hit by pitches, multi-RBI games, slugging percentage and multi-hit games. A four-year starter, Matthews ended the 2020 season batting .339 with a home run, 15 RBI and 13 runs scored. He ranked among the Pac-12 leaders in hit by pitches (3rd), on-base percentage (7th), walks (7th) and RBI (10th). Matthews, Yovan and Zavala will lead an Oregon team that returns all nine starters and all but one of its pitchers into the 2021 season that starts on Feb. 19 when the Ducks host Omaha. Oregon will play its first eight games at home before hitting the road for the first time.

I completely agree; we need to earn it.

Agreed on both your comments there....

Stuff to ponder....now it does not change my views any, but it does offer some hope?

Some interesting stories there, I'm sure. Reactions? Oregon Announces Several Personnel Hires by ScoopDuck

So many great players in this conference and I am surprised and delighted at what this site thought would be the Pac-12 Player of the Year for the 2021 season. Think this will happen? Predicting Every CFB Conference's Player of the Year in 2021 by Bleacher Report

That is what this site is showing with their collection of stats. Agree or not--it is interesting, and food for thought. 2020 Pac 12 Quarterback Leaderboard by CFB Saturdays

Some may love this, but to me--Belichick will not utilize Marcus to his potential and I don't think it is a good match-up at all. Pass please! Marcus Mariota Drawing 'Legitimate and Real' Trade Interest per Reports by 247 Sports

I remember when I was just 27 years old and beginning in the Investment/Money Management business, and I was fortunate to have a long-term veteran give me advice. It was gold, and I once asked him, "Martin...why are you just giving me this great insight and not the others?" He answered, "because you are the only one who asks." Justin makes me so proud to be going to his "Martins" to learn his craft better...such wisdom! Justin Herbert to Reach out to Drew Brees, Other Top QBs this Offseason by 247Sports

Look Oregon fans....we cannot claim lack of respect or being passed over by national media. While this is nice--I do not want players to get a big head going into the season as I think our defense did this last season. Is this ranking a good thing? (Imagine you are an Iowa State fan with most of your team returning and looking at this poll?) Oregon Ducks football ranked No. 5 nationally in ESPN projections for 2021 by NBC Sports Northwest

OREGON ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2021 EUGENE, Ore. — The University of Oregon women’s basketball team will not play its scheduled game vs. California this Friday (Feb. 12) in Matthew Knight Arena due to injury concerns within the Golden Bears’ program. The rescheduled date for this game will be announced when finalized. The No. 11 Ducks are scheduled to face No. 5 Stanford in MKA on Monday (Feb. 14) at 4 p.m. PT on ESPN2. Another postponement?

Something I wish to give Coach Nordy kudos for and to alert everyone to? How many articles about Womens Basketball have you seen where the writer states the problem (or what is going well) and then gives and opinion about how to proceed from here from an analysis standpoint? Answer: None. Most articles are simply reporting the game or what Coach Graves is stating in his interviews, but you do not see what Coach Nordy provided in his article. Then to add to it--he makes it real easy to understand, and for a basketball novice like me--I now know what to look for. Wonderfully done Alex, and I hope you keep giving us your highly informed opinions like these! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ In the morning paper in Eugene....Coach Graves acknowledged the "leader-less" problem, and felt that it had to be a natural-organic process where the women decide among themselves who the team leader is. Between freshmen reluctant to step forward, or veterans not shooting well, or injuries or simply personalities....(Boley is naturally a quiet person)....a leader has not emerged. Graves stated that "great some games, and not so in others" would continue to be the team performance until more leadership is established. My own thoughts are that it is doubtful that this will be solved this year, but next year--some confident freshmen will no longer feel like newbies and establish their will. In fact we might have several current freshmen vying for that role....

I think this analysis is extremely well-done for the conclusions he comes to, and I admire the extensive time taken. The item that surprises me the most is how the Inside Linebackers in this system are key people for both blitzing and for coverage--which I would think usually would be a lower-success probability result over using DBs for such coverage. Yet the other components of the blitzing make the risk/reward ratio much better, and I salute DeRuyter for his schemes. And as it turns out....Oregon is loaded with stud ILBs unlike other years in the past!