Friday, March 5, 2010

ST THEORY OF MICROCOSM by ST

As a rule if you use the term, "in a nutshell", it's not good. 2 different sequences from last night's loss to Washington at Mac Court fall into that category and it's all you need to know about the Duck basketball season. Time winding down in the 1st half, UO ball, up 3 points. You figure they head to the break up at least by the three, perhaps 5 with a deuce or 6 if they drain one from downtown. Tajuan Porter gets his pocket picked by Isaiah Thomas who lays it in at the gun, slicing the advantage to a point. Fast forward to the 2nd half. Dawgs by 9, about 11 1/2 remaining, Oregon ball. Malcolm Armstead takes it to the rack, highlight reel attempt, just off. At the other end, Quincy Pondexter makes a move to the hole and slams home a perfect alley oop pass. Ducks race downcourt and Teondre Williams tries a one handed tomahawk jam, blows it but gets fouled. Misses both and in transition, the Huskies zip the ball around perfectly, culminating in another Pondexter slam. Game, set, match! No need to waste time looking at 20+ games of film, that's how this season has gone. Oregon ALMOST does something good, but get it emphatically rubbed in their faces by the opponent who does it better. For anyone who was in attendance, are you as astonished this UW team hasn't won more games? For pure talent, speed and athleticism there are maybe a dozen teams I've seen who are in their league. They just don't have a really high basketball I.Q. Ton of mistakes, not a whole lot of discipline and some really shaky decision making. At 20 & 9 with a winnable game in Corvallis tomorrow, they grab their 1st round game in the Pac-10 tournament and I think they'll be rewarded with an at large bid.
Quick thought on the NFL as the free agent period is underway and teams are making those harsh veteran cuts to make room financially and roster-wise. Carolina has flat out dumped QB Jake Delhomme. The guy who took them to their only Super Bowl following the 2003 season. He was so horrifying last year he got benched despite signing a ridiculously large contract. The Panthers, in essence, are paying him 12.5 million in guaranteed dollars to NOT play. Ouch! We will cover the whole gamut of insane bucks being tossed about when we rally the troops for SportsTalk at 3pm.

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