It's a big weekend for Oregon sports. Basketball has two huge games tonight and Sunday, while baseball begins tomorrow in Hawaii. It should be fun, so let's get to the quack:
- Oregon has a tough task tonight when they head to Cal to take on the 2nd place Golden Bears. When the Ducks faced the bears rarlier this season, the Ducks were competitive in the first half, before getting dominated in the second half on the way to their worst defeat of the season. The Ducks know they must play much better, and they must stop Cal's Allen Crabbe, who hit 5 three pointers in the second half to put the game out of reach. Cal is 15-1 at home this season, so the Ducks have no room for error.
- Cal Golden Blogs has a preview of the game up. They are concerned with Oregon's ability to draw fouls and hit threes, but not so much with Oregon's inside offensive game.
- Oregon baseball has a new hitting coach, and he's drawing lots of praise so far. Mark Wasikowski was at Arizona as hitting coach for 10 years before coming to Oregon, and he's got a big task in Eugene. Oregon has been at or near the bottom of the conference in just about every significant category. At Arizona, Wasikowski's hitters batted over .300 for 9 straight years. Last year, they led the league with a batting average of .320. The players are embracing his new philosophy, and are expecting big improvements this season. And that will be very necessary, as Oregon's pitching will not likely be at the level it was the last few years.
- In some more recruiting round-up, Rivals has a breakdown of Pac-12 recruiting by position, and Arik Armstead is going to be wearing number 9.
- Kurt has another FishDuck one-on-one, this one with former Duck great, TE Jed Weaver.
- Ken Goe has a couple of track articles. First, he has a piece on Galen Rupp's indoor two mile record. This didn't come easy, as Rupp had to run the last 1200m without anyone pushing him in the race. He had to set and keep the pace himself. Goe also notes that Oregon's English Gardner is now tied for the collegiate lead in the 60m.
GO DUCKS!