Tag: Oregon Ducks

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary with Barbara Mason: Canseco takes A-Rod up on boxing match over cheating accusations; plus more

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Photo credit: @TheLedgeSports

Barbara Mason is filling in for Amaury Pi Gonzalez:

#1 Former New York Yankee Jose Canseco said in a tweet that former New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez was cheating on his girlfriend , actress Jennifer Lopez. A-Rod then challenged Canseco to a boxing match via tweet and Canseco then challenged A-Rod to boxing match via Twitter. Canseco also said he would take a polygraph test and pass.

#2 US Olympic cyclist Kelly Catlin had it all–a gold medal, member of the US bicycle team, winner of three straight bicycle championships at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Catlin died by suicide at age 23. This was a shock to her family and the Olympic community.

#3 The Stanford Cardinal Women (28-4) look prepared for March Madness. They’re coming off a 64-57 win over the Oregon Ducks Sunday. The Cardinal celebrated in the Pac-12 Tournament Title Game.

#4 Antonio Brown joins the Oakland Raiders over the weekend. The past six seasons for Brown, he has averaged 114 catches, 1524 receiving, and has had 15 touchdown catches in 2018 which is a career-high.

#5 Jesus Luzardo looks like he could get a shot in the rotation for the Oakland A’s. In just Sunday’s game, he gave up four hits, a walk, and one run against the San Francisco Giants in Mesa’s Hohokam Stadium against the Giants. He will not be going to Japan for the opening series against the Seattle Mariners.

Barbara Mason is doing That’s Amaury’s podcasts for Amaury Pi Gonzalez at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Ducks shut down struggling Cardinal 69-46

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By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Sunday, February 10, 2019

Leading from wire-to-wire, Oregon cruised to a 69-46 Pac-12 men’s basketball victory over visiting Stanford Sunday in Eugene, Ore., as the Ducks have won four of their last five games.

Payton Pritchard’s 20 points led the Ducks (15-9 overall, 6-5 Pac-12), along with 16 points from Louis King and Victor Bailey’s 11 points off the bench. Defensively, Kenny Wooten matched his career high with seven blocks. King also had seven rebounds.

Bryce Wills, a freshman who is the Pac-12’s youngest player, paced the Cardinal (12-11, 5-6) with 13 points. KZ Okpala was held to 10 points – nearly eight below his average. Josh Sharma scored eight points and grabbed 10 rebounds.

In an overall miserable night for the Cardinal, Stanford was held to 46 points for the second time this season, making 15 of 55 field goal attempts (27 percent), its second-worst shooting night of the season.

Meanwhile, Oregon hit 44 percent from the field (26 of 59) and held a 41-37 rebounding edge.

The Cardinal opened the game by missing 21 of their first 22 shots – five of them blocked by Wooten – and Oregon led 16-2 13 minutes into the game. Oregon led 30-20 at halftime.

The Cardinal were without the services of point guard Daejon Davis, who sat out Sunday’s game after suffering a head-to-head injury on Thursday against Oregon State. A Stanford official would only comment that Davis was unavailable due to an unspecified injury.

Stanford returns home on Wednesday night to host Southern California. Tipoff set for 8:00 pm PT.

Stanford wraps up road trip in Oregon on Sunday

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Photo credit: gostanford.com

By: Ana Kieu

In case you missed it, Stanford Cardinal men’s basketball throttled the Oregon State Beavers 83-60 for its third win in a row. Oscar da Silva matched his career-high with 23 points in the throttle. da Silva also recorded nine rebounds and a career-high seven assists.

da Silva told the media: “I tried to be aggressive right from the get-go. I tried to take it at their bigs, get into their zone from the high post, and that worked really well.”

Aside from da Silva, the Cardinal’s leading scorers featured the likes of Josh Sharma, who had 20 points and eight rebounds, and Daejon Davis, who added 11 points on three three-pointers. The Cardinal (12-10, 5-5 Pac-12) have won four of their last five games. The Ducks (14-9, 5-5 Pac-12) are just one step ahead of the Cardinal in the Pac-12 conference, but they’re carrying one win to the home court inside the Matthew Knight Arena, so the Cardinal should prepare for the conference matchup if they haven’t already done so.

The Ducks’ last win came at home versus the California Golden Bears, a rival of the Cardinal, on Wednesday, February 6 by a final score of 73-62.

As you can see from the two tweets above, da Silva’s a crucial part of the Cardinal roster. The 6’9″ German sophomore forward has room for growth, but he has been destroying it on the hardwood, like, say, at Oregon State, where he shamelessly attacked the Beavers defense along with the nation’s leading shot blocker, Kylor Kelly. Kelly had 17 points before the break.

I’d also like to note that the Cardinal went on a whopping 11-2 run that put them in the driver’s seat with a far-fetched lead 71-52 with 4:28 left in the game. That run, my friends, was capped off by a three-pointer from Marcus Sheffield, a junior guard and forward from Alpharetta, Ga.

“We’re growing up. Slowly but surely,” said Stanford head coach Jerod Haase. “Overall, we’re trending the right way. The guys are playing hard, they’re playing together, and they believe in what we’re doing.”

With that said, Stanford will stick around the Beaver State for a few more days before they travel to Eugene, Ore. to take on the Ducks, who will likely be a tough customer. But we’ll see what happens next, okay?

After that, Stanford returns home on Wednesday, February 13 to host the USC Trojans at Maples Pavilion. Tipoff set for 8:00 pm PT on ESPNU.

Not Much Difference: Cal competitive early then wilts at Oregon in 73-62 loss

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By Morris Phillips

Cal’s high point was also the beginning of the end for the Bears on Wednesday at Oregon’s Matthew Knight Arena.

A 7-0 run capped by Justice Sueing’s three-point play gave the Bears a 15-13 lead with 9:32 remaining in the first half.  It would be the final lead for the Bears on the evening, one they would have two opportunities to extend. But like Cal’s two previous, early leads, the Duck responded with a 3-pointer to regain an advantage.

This time–after Payton Pritchard’s 3-pointer– the Ducks took off.

A 17-2 Oregon run put Cal in a double-digit hole at the half. And Oregon methodically maintained their advantage after the break in a 73-62 win.

The Ducks shot 65 percent from the floor after the break, on their way to becoming the 14th Cal opponent to shoot better than 50 percent from the floor. And while lack of defense was Cal’s biggest issue, it wasn’t their only one.

The Bears got outrebounded 33-23, and while they got to the foul line, and converted (16 of 19), that wasn’t nearly enough to overcome horrid 39 percent shooting from the floor.

The result? Another loss, just not one stuffed with embarrassment. The Bears never let the Ducks run away, but they never caught up either, trailing for the game’s final 30 minutes. Now with an 0-10 record in conference play, the Bears must remain vigilant or confront being the first Pac-12 team to go winless in league play since Oregon State in 2008, a year before Utah and Colorado joined the conference.

Without looking ahead, the Bears don’t want to look back either: they’ve dropped 13 consecutive, conference road games and 18 overall dating back to last season.

Pritchard paced Oregon with 20 points, 10 rebounds, and three other starters scored in double figures led by Louis King with 12.

“I liked our pace in this game,” Pritchard said. “Defensively, we got some steals to easy looks. We were running it up. Guys were attacking in the seams and it allowed everyone else to get open.”

Justice Sueing led Cal with 17 points, and Paris Austin and Connor Vanover added 12 each.

The Bears continue their Northwest swing on Saturday at Oregon State with the tipoff at 2:30 pm.

Cal Bears basketball podcast with Michael Duca and Morris Phillips: Bears came close, but Okpala and Cardinal turn it up a notch

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californiagoldenblogs.com photo: The Stanford Cardinal and Cal Bears do battle last  Sunday  at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley

On the Cal Bears podcast with Michael and Morris:

#1 Another tough loss for the Cal Bears (5-16) on Sunday afternoon at Haas Pavilion as the Bears lost to the visiting Stanford Cardinal (11-10) 84-81.

#2 The Cardinal’s KZ Okpala led with 30 points and eight rebounds. He was hard to contain for the Bears all afternoon.

#3 Okpala had his 12th game scoring 20 or more points last season. He scored 20 or more points eight times. He’s been a force and had given the Bears fits to contain him.

#4 According to Stanford coach Jerod Haase, Okpala has some more developing to go. He’s working out just fine and provided the nine of the last 19 points of the game that really put a crimp in Cal’s game.

#5 The Bears are in Oregon (13-9) for Wednesday, Feb. 6th. Morris sets up that game.

Morris and Michael do the Cal Bears podcasts each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Herbert’s touchdown pass leads the Ducks to 7-6 victory over the Spartans

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Photo credit: @oregonfootball

By Jeremy Kahn

SANTA CLARA — Justin Herbert changed the Redbox Bowl with just one toss to Dillion Mitchell and the Oregon Ducks.

Herbert threw a 28-yard touchdown pass to Mitchell early in the fourth quarter, as the Ducks defeated the Michigan State Spartans 7-6 at Levi’s Stadium.

The Spartans dropped a chance to possibly win the game, as Brian Lewerke was unable to hold onto the ball on a potential game-winning field goal late in the fourth quarter.

Herbert, who announced last week that he was returning to Eugene for another year, threw for 166 yards and stretched his streak to 28 games for touchdown passes.

“We felt like it was going to be that kind of game just watching them on defense,” said Ducks head Mario Cristobal. “We kept battling and battling. You take a victory whether it be one point, two points or 50 points. These guys found a way to get it done.”

The Ducks crossed midfield only three times and were not able to get on the scoreboard until Herbert found Mitchell for the only touchdown of the game.

Late in the game, the Spartans were getting ready for a potential game-winning 50-yard field goal; however, Lewerke, who is also the holder, was unable to hold to the ball, then tried to run, but then threw an incomplete pass near the Ducks sideline.

“It’s one that I have to come up with,” Lewerke said. “The ball kind of hit my hand on top of the ball. I tried to make something happen. That’s what happens.”

Following a three-and-out by the Ducks, the Spartans got the ball back, as they got the ball back at their own 42; however, Lewerke’s pass on 4th-and-12 was knocked down by Ducks cornerback Thomas Graham to secure the victory for the Ducks.

On the afternoon, Lewerke went 22-for-40 for 172 yards with an interception, as the Spartans were unable to get into the end zone for the third time in their past four games.

LJ Scott carried the ball 24 times for 84 yards, as he ended his Spartans career with a one-point defeat. Scott, who played in just five games decided against redshirting and is leaving East Lansing, as he declared for the NFL draft earlier this month.

Matt Coghlin kicked two 34-yard field goals to give the Spartans a 6-0 lead until Herbert found Mitchell for the game-winning touchdown. Coghlin missed a 50-yard field goal.

“We never got that bust-out play,” Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio said. “You’re not going to win many games scoring six points.”

Mitchell ended the day with six catches for 70 yards, as he set the single season school record with 1,184 yards, breaking the record set by Josh Huff in 2013, as he gained 1,140 yards.

NOTES: Defensive end Kenny Willekes left the game in the third quarter on a cart, as he broke his left fibula. On the season, Willekes led the Spartans in sacks with 8.5.

UP NEXT: The Spartans will open the season at Spartan Stadium on August 31 against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane.

Duck Soup: Oregon poised to use Redbox Bowl as a springboard for a national title run in 2019

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By Morris Phillips

SAN FRANCISCO — All college football bowl participants want to put their best foot forward, making a statement that caps a successful, winning season and serves as a springboard into the next.

The Oregon Ducks might be best positioned to capitalize on that formula.

With the announcement that prolific passing quarterback Justin Herbert will return for his senior year, along with the highest rated recruiting class in the history of the program, the Ducks are positioned to be the Pac-12 favorite and a national title contender in 2019.

For Oregon, the road to the top of the 2019 college football mountain starts Monday in Santa Clara where the Ducks face Michigan State in the Redbox Bowl.

Herbert, who passed for 2,985 yards and 28 touchdowns, was poised to be a top five pick in this spring’s NFL Draft. Instead he’s staying in Eugene in the hopes he can lead the Ducks to rarified air.

“We couldn’t be more excited for Justin to return for his senior season,” Coach Mario Cristobal said. “He is a special talent on the field, but, more importantly, a special person and leader off the field.”

“I have come to realize, is that nothing could pull me away from the opportunities that we have in front of us,” Herbert said. “As we prepare for our bowl game, I would like to ensure that there are no distractions outside of this game. My commitment to my teammates, our coaches, Duck fans, and the University of Oregon has never been stronger.”

To say Herbert’s decision to remain in school bucks current convention would be an understatement.  The 6’6″, 233-pound junior is rated as the No. 1 quarterback on ESPN’s draft board and a surefire top five pick in several other mock draft scenarios. That type of positioning along with the fact that Oregon is coming off an 8-4 season following a 7-6 campaign in 2017 under previous coach Willie Taggart, who bolted from Eugene after one year to coach Florida State, would suggest Herbert to be the next guy to leave town, in his case for millions of dollars courtesy of the NFL.

But that decision would discount the influence of first-year coach Cristobal on Herbert, his classmates, several of whom have also decided to return, and the highly-rated recruiting class. Simply put, something’s brewing with the Ducks, and it’s not just the opportunity to make a third trip to the BCS National Championship game like they did in 2011 and 2015.

It’s the opportunity to potentially win it this time.

Herbert’s return along with that of offensive  linemen Shane Lemieux, Calvin Throckmorton and Jake Hansen–all highly regarded prospects with a remaining year of eligibility–means the Ducks could return all 11 starters on offense, pending the decision of wide receiver Dillon Mitchell. Rarely does the unsettled landscape of college football yield 11 returning starters, but Lemieux made it clear that Cristobal has his entire roster thinking and dreaming.

“We talked this year about laying the foundation where we want our program to go,” Lemieux said. “I want to come back in ten years or so when we’re winning national championships every year and we turn into this dynasty like Alabama or these other schools, and really say, ‘We started that.’ A lot of these seniors right here are going to look back at the foundation that we started.”

Ducks and Spartans to meet in the Redbox Bowl at Levi’s Stadium

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By Jeremy Kahn

With the College Football Season turning into bowl season, there will be a great matchup between teams from the Big Ten and Pac-12 Conferences, respectively.

This is the first playing of what is now called the Redbox Bowl, but it is 17th overall bowl game in the Bay Area and it will feature the Michigan State Spartans of the Big 10 Conference versus the Oregon Ducks of the Pac-12 Conference.

In the previous six meetings between the Spartans and Ducks, the series is tied at three wins apiece. This past August, the two perennial powerhouses of their respective conferences agreed to a home-and-home series that will take place in 2029 and 2030.

“The Redbox Bowl is thrilled to welcome two storied college football brands with shared history like Oregon and Michigan State to play in front of a primetime national audience at Levi’s Stadium,” said Ryan Oppelt, executive director of the Redbox Bowl. “The Ducks and Spartans have large alumni contingents in the Bay Area so we couldn’t ask for a better way to kick off an incredible week of post-season football in the Bay Area that will culminate with the CFP National Championship on January 7th.”

The Spartans won the last meeting between the teams, as they defeated the Ducks 31-28 at Spartan Stadium on September 12, 2015.

This will be the 28th bowl game appearance for the Spartans, and the 11th under current head coach Mark Dantonio, the most by any coach in school history. The Spartans set a school record by playing in nine consecutive bowl games from 2009-2017.

During the streak, the Spartans won a school record four consecutive bowl games, including a win over the Georgia Bulldogs in the 2011 Outback Bowl, the 2012 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl over the Texas Christian Horned Frogs, the 2014 Rose Bowl over the Stanford Cardinal and the 2015 Cotton Bowl over the Baylor Bears.

All-time, the Spartans are 12-15 entering the Redbox Bowl and 5-5 under Dantonio, including a win over the Washington State Cougars in the 2017 Holiday Bowl.

This is the first full season in Eugene for current Head Coach Mario Cristobal, but bowl games are nothing new for the Ducks, as this is the 13th bowl game for the Ducks in the past 14 seasons. Cristobal was the interim coach for the Ducks in the 2017 Las Vegas Bowl after the firing of former Head Coach Mark Helfrich.

Overall, this is the 32nd appearance for the Ducks and 13-18 overall and this is the 12th appearance for the Ducks in bowl games played in the State of California.

Cardinal pull off come-from-behind win 38-31 to knock off Oregon

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By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Saturday, September 22, 2018

The No. 7 Stanford Cardinal used a dramatic, late comeback Saturday to upend the No. 20 Oregon Ducks 38-31 at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Ore. The Cardinal overcame a 17-point deficit in the second half.

Colby Parkinson hauled in what became the game-winning touchdown pass in overtime, beating numerous Duck defenders to tip a 23-yard scoring pass to himself from K.J. Costello at the goal line.

On fourth-and-goal to send the game into a second overtime, a pass by Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert was tipped and intercepted by Lameen Murphy in the end zone to wrap up the Cardinal’s victory.

After Stanford recovered a fumble on its own 43-yard line with 51 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Jet Toner connected on a 32-yard field goal as time expired in regulation play, sending the game into overtime.

Costello threw for 327 yards and three touchdowns for the Cardinal (4-0).

It was Oregon’s first loss after three victories.

Oregon jumped to a 24-7 lead, but the momentum shifted when the Cardinal’s Joey Alfieri returned a fumble 80 yards for a touchdown late in the third quarter.

Bryce Love, who sat out last week’s game against UC-Davis to convalesce, ran for 89 yards and a 22-yard touchdown late in the third quarter that cut the Ducks’ lead to 24-21.

Cyrus Habibi-Likio’s 1-yard touchdown run extended the Ducks’ lead to 31-21 with 4:39 to play. Stanford then answered with a 15-yard TD pass from Costello to JJ Arcega-Whiteside making it 31-28 before Sean Barton’s fumble recovery set up the game-tying field goal.

No. 7 Stanford visits No. 8 Notre Dame next Saturday at 4:30 pm PDT.

Three takeaways from SJSU at Oregon

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Photo credit: @SJSUSpartanFB

By: Ana Kieu

After thousands of folks predicted that the San Jose State Spartans would suffer a blowout from the No. 20 Oregon Ducks, SJSU proved those folks wrong. No, SJSU didn’t pull off an upset over Oregon (though, that would’ve been one of the biggest storylines in the college football world), but they lost by just 13 points, 35-22, at Autzen Stadium.

Here are three takeaways from SJSU at Oregon. As always, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.

3. Underdogs, maybe? 
The Spartans came into Autzen Stadium as 41.5-point underdogs. Not even the Spartan fans were confident in the Spartans coming close to the Ducks, but the Spartans managed to beat the spread, which was a step in the right direction.

The Spartans shook off a slow start after trailing the Ducks 14-0 at the end of the first quarter. SJSU scored six points in the second and third quarters and 10 in the fourth quarter. Oregon held on for a 35-22 win for a 3-0 record. Yes, SJSU’s record fell to 0-3, but the hapless Spartans put up a gutsy show against a talented Ducks team. The Spartans just need to refresh themselves during the bye week and build momentum for the SJSU Homecoming game vs. Hawaii on September 29th.

2. Solid Spartan defense
The solid Spartan defense looked good–if not, great–against the high-octane Duck offense. Also, the Spartans’ kicking game looked spectacular. Bryce Crawford went 3-for-3 on field goals. Two of Crawford’s field goals came in the second quarter–a 31-yarder and 28-yarder–and the latter came in the fourth quarter–a 25-yarder.

Also, the Spartans’ special teams caught the eyes of Spartan fans everywhere. Of course, there was the blocked field goal; but there was also Thai Cotrell’s amazing return game. Cotrell had two kick returns for 121 yards, However, one of Cotrell’s stood out and that was his 96-yard kickoff return in the fourth quarter. Cotrell’s kickoff return was a career-long (and the longest kickoff return) by a Spartan player without scoring a touchdown in school history.

1. Struggling Spartan offense
The struggling Spartan offense needs a tune up in the bye week. So the bye week couldn’t have come at a better team for the Spartans, whose wide receivers were tormented by the Ducks’ substantial secondary.

Sure, Josh Oliver and Bailey Gaither were the bright spots when it came to Spartans’ wide receivers, but this past Saturday proved to be too much for the Spartan offense. The Ducks’ aggressive pass rush was another factor that stifled the Spartan offense.

Although the Spartans had offensive struggles, they still had a lot to be happy about their most recent road performance. There’s nowhere to look, but up.

Before I hit the publish button, I’d just like to wish Jeremy Kelly and Duane Tuitasi their respective belated birthdays. Have a great bye week, guys.