Man, I head to Memphis for the weekend and I feel like I missed a week's worth of Duck news. We got a basketball coach finally? LGB didn't get drafted? T.J. Ward was the first Duck selected? And, the baseball team keeps winning. Time for me to catch up -- here's your Monday quack fix.
- The big news over the weekend, of course, is the Ducks finally getting a replacement for Ernie Kent. Dana Altman reportedly arrived in Eugene yesterday and will be formally announced as the head coach today. While some fans may be disappointed by the fact that both Altman and Creighton may fail the name-recognition test it sounds like a solid hire. I freely admit that when I heard the news I had to go and research Altman and his Creighton teams -- but, by many accounts he is regarded as a great tactician whose teams play fundamental basketball (and defense!).
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The athletic department has hired Jamie Moffitt to serve as the executive senior associate athletic director for finance and administration. The article's author, Winston Ross, implies that the creation of the new position may be a result of the habit of high-level AD employees working without a signed contract.
- After going undrafted this weekend, it looks like LeGarrette Blount has decided to sign with the Tennessee Titans rather than San Francisco, which had been reported earlier. Given that the Titans traded LenDale White, it appears to be a good fit for Blount and his abilities to play behind Chris Johnson.
- And, if you're like me and spent almost all of Friday through Sunday offline, Ted Miller runs down where players from the Pac-10 landed during and after the draft. By my count, Oregon was one of six Pac-10 teams with three players drafted, with only USC (7) and ASU (4) having more. And, congrats to Wazzu's Kenny Alfred who signed as an undrafted free agent with the Titans, suggesting that there may, in fact, be some NFL talent in Pullman.
- On Sunday, the baseball team beat USC at PK Park 8-4 behind a grand slam by J.J. Altobelli. The grand slam was the first at PK Park and helped the Ducks move into a three-way tie for fourth place in the conference. As the season continues, it is remarkable how much and how quickly the team has improved from last year.
That's all I could find early this morning, so feel free to contribute more links as they become available.
Go Ducks!