Ducks Attack Message Board Forum

Lost to Utah Valley at home? That's simply inexcusable. No way we finish last in the pac with this team around.

The beavers are awful. USC isn't much better

Last year OSU lost to Texas A&M Corpus-Christi, Sacramento State, Illinois-Chicago, and Seattle (99-48!), and rebounded by going 8-10 in the Pac. The year before that they lost to Howard, Yale, and Montana State, but finished 7-11 in the Pac. I don't think this year will be much different, they'll finish out of the cellar... and I guarantee Oregon finishes 10th. We're that untalented.

Granted, I know little about the large scope of Pac10 basketball, but it seems to me that the conference is most definitely down again. OSU finished with a "respectable" Pac10 record last year because the conference was terrible; their OOC results indicated as much. I can't argue that Oregon won't finish last because of all of the defections that occurred and a new system having to be installed, but most of the Pac10 isn't exactly showing that they will blow Oregon out every game.

USC lost to Bradley (who has lost to very suspect teams), Nebraska (after having a 20 point lead against a team that can barely score), and Rider. Oregon State has lost multiple games to teams just as suspect as SJSU. Cal scored 5 points in a half and was blown out by Boston College by nearly the same amount that Oregon lost to Duke. Stanford lost to Murray State (who admittedly might not be terrible, but that doesn't help my point).

Oregon being picked to finish last is logical and on paper the other teams in the Pac10 should beat them, but I have not been thoroughly impressed with a lot of them this far into the season.

Oh, the Pac-10 certainly blows chunks, no question about it. We're a distant, distant 6th place among the "Big Six" conferences. Washington looks pretty good and should blow through the Pac; Arizona looks decent enough. If I had to lay money on it right now, I'd say this is another 2-bid year. Wazzu and ASU may turn out to be okay; the Devil's zone often gives Pac-10 teams fits. I thought UCLA would be better than they are. That VCU loss was all kinds of ugly.

From what I have seen so far, the health of Catron will be critical to the success of the team. If they can consistently play with the energy they showed (at times) against Duke, I think the Ducks will represent themselves better than their preseason expectations.

Wayne Pesek wrote:From what I have seen so far, the health of Catron will be critical to the success of the team. If they can consistently play with the energy they showed (at times) against Duke, I think the Ducks will represent themselves better than their preseason expectations.

That kind of effort in the Pac 10 could get them to 5 wins and out of the cellar in the standings.