Bracket Blogger
Game Day!
March 21, 2008
Welcome to GameDay! I often wonder if Oregon fans appreciate the rarity of today’s occurrence. Back to back tourney appearances in 2002 & 2003, and now back to back in 2007 & 2008. Under Ernie Kent, Oregon has made more NCAA appearances than they had made in their entire history up until his tenure.
Certainly expectations change, and the standard is different than in the old days when a fifth place finish wouldn’t even garner a sniff from the NIT. However if you judge football by getting to a bowl game, that’s what this is.
Now, the game; Mississippi State is thought to be the second best team in the SEC behind Tennessee. They won the SEC West. How in the world they are a number 8 seed instead of a number 5 or 6 seed is beyond me. They really only have two semi-bad losses this season...one early to Miami of Ohio, and then to Georgia in the windswept SEC tournament when the Bulldogs were on a mission.
For Oregon to win, they’ll need to shoot the lights out, which they are more than capable of doing. I do think the Ducks will get the open shots that avoided them during the Pac-10 season. In the conference, teams are so well scouted and play each other twice...and sometimes three times a season so there are no secrets. Because of this, Tajuan Porter is going to get more open shots than he has since maybe the Nebraska game.
Little Rock will root for the Ducks, mostly because they view Mississippi State as an SEC rival, however...Little Rock has very few tickets. The 18,000 sold for the session later today have been gobbled up by Memphis fans...a two hour drive, and the folks from Mississippi who are right next door.
There is one fan that will be screaming for the Ducks. His name is Jon Lazarich, who played baseball for Oregon in the late 70’s. He owns and operates four McDonalds in Little Rock, including one right next to the arena. Under a giant American Flag about 80 feet up, flies a bright green “Oregon” flag. I hope the players see that as they turn into the arena tonight. Lazarich has been involved in our new baseball project as a donor, and will have the clubhouse in our new park named after him. He says moving to Little Rock from Oregon is like moving to Egypt.
He organized a tour for us through the new baseball park here. Pat Kilkenny, Renee Baumgartner and myself toured the $33 million dollar facility yesterday and there are definite touches that we can bring to our new park. They have an old facility almost exactly like Civic Stadium in Eugene. I would love to be able to show people in Eugene the difference. Suffice to say, while they had people who wanted to save the old ballpark, nobody misses it now that the new one has been built.
Ok...some bracket thoughts...No upsets? I must say that was the least interesting first day of an NCAA tournament I can ever remember. The higher seed won most every game, and there was nothing close to a big upset outside of Belmont’s scare of Duke. That usually means fasten your seatbelts for today for a wild ride. A 16 has never beaten a 1...someday it has to happen right?
Alright, since I come from broadcasting here are some thoughts: Bill Raftery in my mind is the best analyst on CBS. His call of “Onions” when Luke Ridnour hit a big three in the final minutes of the win over Texas back in 2002 is one of my favorite calls of all time. I’m not a big fan of the pomposity of Billy Packer. If you are on the west coast and you’re not UCLA...you might as well be in China as far as Billy Packer is concerned. I like having all the scores up on the top of the screen to keep updated, although it seems too big and gets in the way of the basket from time to time. No graphic bug should ever cover the basket. Certainly, CBS knows how to maximize the revenue in the tournament, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t drive fans crazy to have CBS drop to a :30 commercial at every timeout in the final minute. I miss the chance to have the drama build by watching the coaching huddles, assessing strategy, etc. when the game is in doubt under a minute. Aren’t 18 timeouts in a game enough to get all the commercials in? Shoot...the game is only 40 minutes long! I do think that 5 timeouts per team is too many. It takes the natural flow of the game out, and puts the game into the hands of the coaches in the final minutes rather than the players. Some of the most exciting moments in NCAA tournament history have come when both teams were out of timeouts in the final moments.
I’d certainly be interested in any comments you may have about the coverage you see on CBS, or any questions you have about the Ducks’ stay in Arkansas. Looking forward to being here for two more days and giving you all a feel for what the atmosphere is like in Alltel Arena. Remember to check out Greg Walker’s blog at tournament central, and also Jerry Allen’s. Also, happy to respond to any comments via email at joegiansante@yahoo.com.
Red Carpet Treatment
March 19, 2008
The Red Carpet has been rolled out... literally.. for the Ducks in Little Rock. A tremendous welcome for the Ducks was nearly perfect, other than the fact that St. Mary's, a team that dealt the Ducks a big loss earlier in the year, is staying at the same hotel.
DJ Augustin, to Derrick Rose of Memphis, Jamont Gordon of Mississippi State and Tajuan Porter. The feeling here is that for Oregon to win against an excellent MSU team, they'll have to bombs away on the outside shooting, much like they did in the second half at Cal and at home vs. Arizona.
As part of the welcome mat, the folks here have even heard about our reinstatement of Baseball and we're going to get a first class tour of the new Arkansas Travelers Baseball Park, which won the award as the best class AA ballpark in the nation last year. I'm sure we'll pick up some ideas we can use in our new park from the owner and builder of the stadium, Bill Valentine, who is a former major league umpire and a good friend of the Eugene Emeralds General Manager Bob Beban.
So far, the team has practiced in private and will later practice in public at the arena. I like how Oregon is approaching this. They know the drill because of the deep run last year, and that can only help them deal with all of the media requirements in the tournament, which are significant.
I'll be back soon with a review of the first day of the tournament, make sure to check out Greg Walker's blog, as he goes with the team everywhere and has great insight into what is happening behind the scenes.
If you have any questions, or want to respond to this blog, please just send a quick email. I'll post your question for others to see and do my best to respond!
