Ducks Sports Round-up

Well, ever since the impressive basketball season ended, there's been a lot going on as far as Ducks sports go. First of all, huge congratulations to the basketball team for getting to the Elite 8 and having their only loss come at the hands of the eventual champions. It's always a tiny bit satisfying after you get knocked out of a tournament to know you were beat by the best team. So congratulations to them.

So after that, spring football practice has started (April 2), so my job has gotten a lot busier. Aside from the players all being around and everything going on around Autzen, now is the time when recruiting starts up again. Also, the spring season in when all the events start happening. We have Coach Bellotti's 3-day fundraising extravaganza which is an auction, dinner, and a golf tournament, among other things. Then there's Junior Day/Faculty Appreciation/Spring Game which is a really big deal because that's when all the important people are around. I'm in charge of the Faculty Reception piece of that this year, and just finding the e-mail addresses of faculty is a chore. But anyways, you get it, busy spring.

On the sports side of things, a lot is going on. First, if you haven't heard, Chamberlain Oguchi is transferring, so he won't be back next season. Rumor is we already have a "replacement" which is a 6'5" JC transfer Brad Garrett. Best of luck to Champ, but honestly, I was happy to hear the news. That's really all I have to say about it. In other transfer news, Jackie Bates is also transferring. That's probably a good choice, even though we would have loved him in our defense, but he's had a string of "bad luck" here. Best of luck to him as well.

Our first football scrimmage was yesterday, and aside from Ryan DePalo going down, we looked damn good. Costa is already getting a lot of hype, as well as Stewart, who SI actually named the 6th best running backs in college football. Lets just hope he can stay healthy. Boyd also looked good yesterday.

Lastly, as footnotes kind of, Aaron Brooks was named a Wooden Award All-American, and also won the men's college 3-point contest, so good for him, a great way to end his college career. Also, as much as I think he's overrated as a football player, Jordan Kent is in the middle of talks with NFL teams (the Bucs last week, the Falcons this week, and the Seahawks next week), and looks like he might have a shot on day 2 of the draft. I wish him luck with that.

I'm looking forward to an exciting spring, and an even better fall. GO DUCKS!