Ex-Beaver greats weigh in on Tinkle, 2020-21 Beavers …
We asked a collection of names familiar to Beaver Nation — most of them former players — for their opinion of this year’s Oregon State team, which faces Loyola of Chicago at 11:40 a.m. PDT in a Sweet Sixteen showdown of underdogs. Their responses, in alphabetical order:
JIMMY ANDERSON (player from 1957-59, assistant coach from 1961-90, head coach from 1990-95):
“I haven’t missed a practice all year, so I have a pretty good handle on why the season has gone like it has. They brought in five new and (coach Wayne Tinkle’s) defensive system is a little complicated.
Hot meets hot As Beavers, Ramblers collide in Sweet Sixteen
Oregon State has reached the NCAA Tournament’s “Sweet Sixteen” for the first time since 1982, when Lester Conner led a young crew of post-“Orange Express” Beavers to an “Elite Eight” appearance.
That team featured Conner, juniors William Brew and Danny Evans, sophomore Charlie Sitton and a freshman named A.C. Green. The Elite Eight matchup with Georgetown ended badly, with the Hoyas, led by center Patrick Ewing, administering a 69-45 whipping. Georgetown would go on to lose to North Carolina 63-62 in the NCAA finals.
Fronk was one of Oregon’s great athletes, ‘and the kind of person to match’
Bob Fronk was easy-going, smart, inquisitive, competitive and, among other things, one heck of an athlete.
Most of those traits are indisputable, especially the last one, as those who watched Fronk — who died in Portland Thursday at age 62 — play sports in the late 1970s and early ‘80s.
Fronk, however, was not lucky.
Rueck: ‘We’re confident, we’re gritty. That’s what it takes this time of year’
Patience, a poet once wrote, “is a companion of wisdom.”
I’ve grown to appreciate Scott Rueck’s wisdom since our paths first crossed more than a decade ago.
It has taken me until this year to understand his patience.
In late January, the Oregon State women’s basketball team was 3-5 and had lost more games to COVID-19 than it had played. Having lost three top players from the previous season to graduation (Mikayla Pivec), transfer (Destiny Slocum) and injury (Kennedy Brown) and dealing with an almost entirely new lineup, it would have been easy for a coach to write this off as a building year and starting thinking about next season.
Cool Hand Luke, the ultimate underdog: ‘We like shocking people’
If anyone on Oregon State’s basketball roster can identify with the underdog, it’s Jared Lucas.
After scoring points at a prodigious rate — almost beyond comprehension — in four years at Los Altos High in Hacienda Heights, Calif., the sharpshooting guard was largely overlooked by Pac-12 schools.
When the media forecast OSU to finish 12th in the Pac-12 before the season, Lucas developed a chip on his shoulder the size of the Rock of Gibraltar.
“Cool Hand Luke” was as big a reason as any why the Beavers came from nowhere to claim the Pac-12 Tournament
Tinkle: ‘It’s the most rewarding season I’ve had, for sure’
I believe it was Cinderella who once famously observed, “A dream is a wish your heart makes.”
That and, I would add, hard work. And perseverance. And dedication in working toward a common goal.
Oregon State wound up wearing the glass slipper for all of those reasons Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena.
Talking Jail Blazers, Jerome Kersey and the NBA with the 3&D Love Podcast crew …
I had fun spending an hour with these Portland natives and obviously diehard Blazer fans. We covered a lot of ground and a lot of NBA history. Give it a listen!
Pondering what’s happening with Damian Lillard, Ethan Thompson, Chris Duarte and Terry Porter …
Ruminations on roundball heading into the weekend …
• There is plenty of consternation in Rip City over the NBA’s “snub” of Damian Lillard as a starter in the upcoming All-Star Game. You fans who are up in arms: Sit down right now. You still have a chance to win the “Biofreeze Hoop With Dame” contest, where you can shoot it out with Lillard and win up to $100,000. (Personally, I’d rather have it out with Brooke Olzendam in ping pong.).
Thoughts on Tyler Shough, Ryan Crouser, Paul Castro, the Hops and Volcanoes, NBA-All-Star Weekend and the real G.O.A.T
A wintry weekend? Snow way!
Thoughts on some sporting subjects:
• Item: Oregon quarterback Tyler Shough enters the NCAA transfer portal.
With Scott Barnes and Bob de Carolis, talking everything Reser Stadium
On Tuesday, five days after the seismic announcement that Oregon State will “complete” Reser Stadium, I spoke for a half-hour with Scott Barnes via telephone.
The Beavers’ athletic director seemed flush with emotion over reaction to plans for a $153-million project that will upgrade the west side of Reser and augment the $80-million renovation to the east side that was completed in 2005.
A fond farewell to Herb Brown, the octogenarian Oregonian who has coached the world
Put Herb Brown in among the famous Oregonians who flies under the radar in the world of sports.
The older brother (by 4 1/2 years) of Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Larry Brown is an accomplished casaba coach in his own right.
Brown, who turns 85 in March, is most well-known for his time spent as head coach of the Detroit Pistons from 1975-77.
But Brown’s resume is replete with stops throughout the world. The native New Yorker has had assistant coaching jobs with eight franchises, including the Trail Blazers. He was a member of Maurice Cheeks’ Portland staff from 2001-03.
Cinderella’s slippers come in size 14 for ex-Beaver tackle Mike Remmers
There will be dozens, maybe hundreds or personal stories that come out of the lead-up to Super Bowl LV. I’m not sure any are more Walter Mitty-ish of nature than that of Mike Remmers.
The Beaverton resident and Jesuit High and Oregon State grad will be starting at left tackle for the Kansas City Chiefs as they face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla.
An oldie but goody About a lot of oldies but goodies
“Voices of the Game”
By Curt Smith
Diamond Communications
This book, loaned to me to read by Bill Schonely, is quite likely the Bible of baseball broadcasting.
It offers historical perspective on baseball broadcasters and broadcasting from its beginning in 1921. Through 500-plus pages, it covers legends such as Bill Stern, Graham McNamee, Byrum Saum, Red Barber, Ernie Harwell, Vin Scully, Bob Prince, Curt Gowdy, Dick Enberg, Harry Caray, Joe Garagiola and even Jimmy Dudley, the latter Schonely’s partner during his one season with the American League Seattle Pilots.
I’m no fan of no fans at Moda, and neither is Damian Lillard
Having left the newspaper business in April after 45 years, I’d not been to a Trail Blazer game at Moda Center until Sunday’s date with the New York Knicks.
Portland PR honchos Jim Taylor and Jake Gifford were good enough to credential me and allow me to experience first-hand what it’s like to be in an NBA arena without fans due to COVID-19.
Hank Aaron has passed, but in my heart, he’ll never be gone
Boyhood heroes never really die, do they?
They live forever, even when the boy himself grows old.
Henry “Hank” Aaron will live forever in my heart, the slugger with the sweet swing and the temperament to match.
‘The Hooker’ wasn’t well-known, but those around him were (Fifth in a series of reviews of sports books)
“Jim Hock: Father on the Line”
By Jim Hock
Rare Bird Books
No fans allowed, but Hawks will soon return to ice for shortened campaign
Plenty is happening on the hockey scene this week — finally.
The NHL began its 56-game regular-season schedule Wednesday night, a welcome addition to the television sports calendar that features the NFL playoffs, the NBA and college basketball these days.
On Billy Martin’s short, steamy stint in the Bay Area
(Fourth in a series of reviews of sports books)
Old-time baseball fans will recall Martin — a middling infielder during his playing days — as a feisty, controversial manager who was hired and fired five times by owner George Steinbrenner with the New York Yankees.
One man’s suggestion for realignment in the FBS ranks …
By Gary Beck
(Editor’s note: Beck is a Corvallis native who played both football and baseball at Oregon State in the 1970s. He was a safety in football and a slugging third baseman in baseball, leading the Northern Division with a .381 average in league games as a junior. He coached football for 29 years, including two as running backs coach at OSU (2006 and ’07) and 23 as a high school head coach. He coached Corvallis High to the state championship game three times, winning titles in 1979 and ’83. Beck currently lives in Marysville, Wash., and is an astute observer of college athletics.)
I’m not satisfied with the haphazard way the FBS conferences are set up, nor their schedules.
There needs to be some uniformity in order to level the playing field for all the schools in terms of qualifying for championships and bowl eligibility.