| Oregon Magazine |
| Sports Scene Survey As Off-seasons Begin
By Pigskin Pete Unless you're a baseball addict or incurable track & field fan, regional athletics are going into a slumber until fall. We take this opportunity to comment on the scene prior to the summer sports siesta. Yes, we know the National Basketball Association still plans to run playoffs this spring, but the distintegration of the Portland Trailblazers has left us more convinced than ever that the NBA is the primest example of how money can utterly corrupt a sport. We doubt that owner Paul Allen's league-leading dollar resources will resurrect a once great franchise that he has utterly ruined. Allen can afford a proven coaching choice to take over, but who wants into this mess? We fondly remember the decades of success this team has known...and the many years of championship play that graced ol' Memorial Coliseum as the stage for prep, college and pro events. Then Allen financed that architectural abomination named the Rose Quarter and the decline began. To return to the NBA stature the Portland franchise earned will not be a quick trip and we doubt the current team owner will ever make that journey. Let's leave Allen in Seattle and find a resident owner, then have the patience to suffer through a rebuilding. We also need a well financed developer that can create a silk purse on the site of what is now a sow's ear. Spring grid drills underway Oregon's two major college football programs are staging spring practice, but if history is a guide, we won't really know how things will be in September. Oregon State is reeling from an unprecedented spate of team members running afoul of the law, thanks to the undisciplined approach of head coach Mike Riley. The latter is looking for a new answer at quarterback, with three-year starter Derek Anderson departed. Contenders for signal-caller are last year's backup Ryan Gunderson and Matt Moore, a transfer from UCLA, who has our vote. Riley will also be assimilating a host of new assistant coaches. The University of Oregon has a promising number of veterans returning, led by QB Kellen Clemens. The Ducks eagerly await the fall introduction of the nation's leading prep running back. The Duck offense also figures to improve markedly with the debut of new offensive coordinator Erik Crowton, former head man at Brigham Young, where he created record-establishing offenses as a coordinator.. Track tradition on a comeback? Can anyone doubt that Duck athletics are subservient to the wants of Webfoot alum Phil Knight, Nike CEO? Knight's influence was underlined in red just weeks ago when Oregon released head track & field coach Martin Smith, who was ignoring Knight's input and strengthening his team in sprints and field events, though Knight, as a former Duck distance performer, sought a return to the distance running events epitomized by the legendary Steve Prefontaine. Now Smith has been forced out, ex-Duck distance runner Pat Tyson is back as a "volunteer" coaching assistant and the prep stars trained by Nike's Alberto Salazar (former Duck distance great) are opting to enroll at Oregon. We thoroughly enjoyed the just concluded bout of March Madness, with the nation's top 64 college cage teams putting on perhaps the best tourney yet seen. How about the finals featuring the teams ranked one and two in the regular season polls...a nice contrast to the computerized confusion of Division I football's Bowl Championship Series that ignores the playoff system of lower divisions. © 2005 Oregon Magazine |