Morning Oatmeal: Triumphant Return Edition

Morning Oatmeal makes its triumphant return!  Hopefully, this will go back to being a daily feature.  Here is the news of the day:

Duck News:

•  Maarty Leunen is spending his spring break in Redmond playing golf and looking for an agent.  While Maarty wants to play in the NBA, he'll pursue playing overseas if he's not drafted.  I think that his toughness and shooting ability could allow him to stick in the NBA as a perimeter player, but he's really going to have to land on the right team.  I could see a running team like Golden State being a good fit.

•  Center recruit Michael Dunigan played in the McDonald's All-American game yesterday, and Bob Clark was less than impressed.  I won't put too much stock into it, these games are usually up and down dunkfests.  Clark also talks about next years schedule, which will include an appearance in the Maui Invitational (which could mean potential matchups with UNC and Texas), a return game against Utah, and a home game against Portland State.  Other games, such as the opponents in the Pape Jam and the Big 12/Pac 10 Hardwood Series are still to be determined.  But it'll be a tough schedule for a young crew.

•  Don Smalley believes that the only way Kent's tenure at Oregon ends is with his firing.  However, I believe that if he takes this team to the tournament in both of the next two years, the pressure on him will ease considerably.

•  Coach Kent talks about how spring workouts will be critical for the eight returning scholarship players.  He goes into the most detail on Frantz Dorsainvil.  Basically, if Frantz wants to be a contributor as a senior next year, his work ethic needs to improve.

•  Softball starts Pac-10 play this weekend, with a crazy road swing that will see them in Seattle and Los Angeles in back to back days.

•  Finally, the Baltimore Sun has a nice little draft profile on Jonathan Stewart.  There is speculation that the turf toe surgery could drop him into the second round.  If you get Jonathan Stewart in the second round, it could be one of the biggest steals in the history of the draft.

Pac-10 News

•  As was noted in the diaries, Ben Braun was fired at Cal.  While he took the Bears to 5 NCAAs in 12 years, "the bottom line is he didn't win enough games" (having only one NCAA appearance in the last six years didn't help, either).  So at least two Pac-10 teams will have new coaches next season (Cal and OSU).  I can't imagine any of the other schools wanting to get rid of their coaches, but I could see Tony Bennett leaving WSU for a more lucrative job.

•  The folks over at TBIOOTF have their say on why the Cal job would be so appealing to coaches.  No doubt that everything is in place for Cal to be a major player in the Pac-10 (although we'll soon be putting an end to their "nicest facility" claim).

•  George Schroeder wonders how the Cal job will affect the Beavers' search..  St. Mary's Randy Bennett is seen as a top OSU candidate, but Cal may be interested as well.  Personally, I think Cal should go after Mike Montgomery (who is not likely to touch OSU with a ten foot pole).

•  Over at Conquest Chronicles, Paragon has some notes about Trojan Spring ball, including a potential QB battle.

GO DUCKS!!!

--Dave

PS--H/T to Duck Sports News, where I find a lot of links.