First, I'll say a bit about the Civil War game for those who didn't see it. Sorry for not posting that sooner, but I just watched the tape today.
Oregon didn't play a great game offensively. With about seven minutes to go, Aaron, Maarty, and Bryce had all of our points save one. The game basically consisted of Maarty and Aaron draining threes. Bryce was the only one making any attempt to get to the rim, which he did with much success. The buckets by Platt, Porter, etc. were garbage time buckets that had no impact on the game. Oregon lived by the three today, but they need to take a cue from Bryce and drive to the hole more. Especially against a team like OSU who is not terribly big. Defensively, the Ducks didn't play great, but didn't play poorly, either. It was an average defensive effort, but OSU is just a bad shooting team.
As Nick said, Arron Afflalo was named Pac-10 player of the year. Afflalo is a great player, but if you are talking about the most valuable player in the conference, how could it not be Aaron Brooks? What he did for this team consistently in the clutch, leading the Pac-10 in scoring, and being the senior leader on this team apparently was not enough.
As for the Pac-10 tournament, the Ducks are in the nice position of not needing a win here to make the NCAA's, but a win or two would sure be nice. There are two schools of thought on conference tournaments: win whatever you can, because success in the NCAAs are not assured, or lose early because the rest for the NCAAs will do you well. Personally, I believe we should try to win the Pac-10 tournament. Future success is not guaranteed, so try to make as many memories as you can now. Plus, it would be great for our seeding to beat Arizona, UCLA, and Washington State back to back to back.
Arizona is our first draw. Great matchup for us. We beat them once, and should have beaten them at Mac if we didn't choke it away. They're not too big and will run with us. They will be the next victim.
GO DUCKS!!!
--Dave