SB Nation User Blog: ArbyOSU

Cougin' The Summer Away

ArbyOSU — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:33:45 -0000

Cougin' The Summer Away

Here's a nice summer article that appeared in the WSU student newspaper for the summer. Pretty funny but also pretty sad. And to think, these guys went to a Rose Bowl not long ago. Talk about a free fall.

Poll: Favorite New Blazer?

ArbyOSU — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:59:31 -0000

So in my humble opinion, I feel the Blazers did OK last night. It's been said several times over that this draft was a little weak and truth be told, do we really want the next major piece of the puzzle to be an 18-22 year old kid? We drafted for the future and stayed away from making any big money commitments, which in my eyes is OK.

Sure, it was boring. And yes, it was pretty uneventful. But still, there has got to be at least one of these new dudes that you kind of like and will be rooting for next year. For me it's Patty Mills, the most accomplished Indigenous Aussie in the sport of basketball ever. Watching him the past few seasons--especially when he torched a certain PAC 10 school--has been entertaining and I'd love to see him add depth as a legit third or maybe even second option at the 1.

But that's me. How about you?

Poll

My most favoritest newest Blazer is...

FREAKIN' GIOVANNI BERNARD.

ArbyOSU — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:13:36 -0000

If you haven't watched this video right here it's mandatory off-season viewing.

Not only is this kid a GREAT runner like his brother he has the speed dimension that Yve always had trouble with. IF he comes to OSU he'd have a year to team up with Quizz or observe--whatever works best. He'd come into a great situation. A Katz/Bernard backfield makes me smile.

If you watch even a second of it, get to the 2:09 mark. Bernard talks about what's important to him (relationship with coaching staff) and what's not (flashy weight rooms, giant SEC stadiums, etc.). He mentions OSU as an early leader as well. Sure, the link is from April but I've been freaking busy, OK?!

Giovanni... if you Googled yourself and found this entry, just know that you GOTTA be a Beaver.

Yao Ming hates to lose. Here's to making him angry. Two more times.

ArbyOSU — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:17:10 -0000

Yao Ming hates to lose.

Here's to making him angry. Two more times.

Thank You!: Dikembe Mutombo (No, seriously.)

ArbyOSU — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:10:43 -0000

So after reading some conversations on The Dream Shake and of course all of the conversations here on BE I thought I'd hit up the Mutombo Foundation website. I'd heard him talk about it on Rome once before, further cementing in my mind that he was quietly one of the most generous and caring professional athletes ever. Not to belittle anyone's efforts--when an athlete decides to give I say great, no matter what the amount. While some guys donate t-shirts and shoes to local basketball teams Mutombo builds hospitals, sponsors clean water projects and picks up the tab on vaccinations for entire villages.

Needless to say, the man's done a lot.

Watching him go down was a huge bummer. All I could think is that without basketball, his foundation would lose a lot of the funding he has personally provided over the years.

I feel for Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo (full name according to Wikipedia) and thought what better way than to float his foundation $10 today. It's not a bad way to say, "Sorry about your knee, man." and "Thanks for the memories and all of your humanitarian efforts." all at once. Just an idea.

Check it out or even donate here.

And if you're in the mood to help people here in the US, here's a way to help people right here in Portland. I'm not rich, but for the price of one Rose Garden beer you can help people out which is pretty cool.

My apologies for straying off topic. I was going to throw in some stat-heavy draft predictions or trade possibilities to make this post a legit FanPost but couldn't muster anything up...

GO BLAZERS.

BEAT THE ROCKETS.

Two Incoming Football Recruits Picked for National Team (Yes, apparently the world wants to play us in REAL football now. Go figure.)

ArbyOSU — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:22:59 -0000

Two Incoming Football Recruits Picked for National Team (Yes, apparently the world wants to play us in REAL football now. Go figure.)

Check it out--Astoria, Oregon's Jordan Poyer and Kevin Cummings from California were both picked to the field of 36 graduating HS seniors.

Sweden, Germany, Mexico, France, Canada and Japan are among the qualifiers.

All I have to say is Sweden, you're going DOWN.

And by the way, if we don't ABSOLUTELY DOMINATE this competition I'm going to be pissed and sad. We can lose the World Baseball Classic, I'm cool with that. The world is catching up in basketball too, so I can almost deal with some of the increased competition in that area, however I think we should still win most of the time. But in FOOTBALL--our football--we need to put on a freaking clinic. Period.

Corvallis GT: Future at QB... Katz v. Lalich?

ArbyOSU — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:09:02 -0000

Corvallis GT: Future at QB... Katz v. Lalich?

Ted Miller's Top 30 PAC 10 Players: Quizz in at No. 4

ArbyOSU — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:06:56 -0000

Ted Miller's Top 30 PAC 10 Players: Quizz in at No. 4

UTEP Fans Hate for Schaftenaar Spreads Online

ArbyOSU — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:20:39 -0000

"Hi, my name is Roeland and I just wanna be friends... but first I want to flood the streets of El Paso with Miner blood!"

Anyway, just thought I'd pass along some of the gems I read about Schaftenaar on UTEP fan boards. There's not much for internet activity related to the Miners, except when you do a Google search for "Rejected from PAC 10 school + second tier options + loud mouth basketball coach that's on his way to Memphis + horrible remote locations"...

Sorry, that was harsh. El Paso is gorgeous, right?

Mmm... drink it in people. Did you know that "El Paso" means "The Paso" in English? Actually, I think it's Spanish for "No thanks, YOU guys can have it"... thanks a lot, Mexico.

via rangelife.typepad.com

I will give credit where credit is due--not a lot of outlandish smack talk (like the stuff I've posted here today) and everyone seems to respect Coach Robinson as a class act and first class coach. Now to the meat of the post... First I'll start off with some quotes from this site which is apparently run by people who are "professional" journalists. It appears this particular blogger/journalist was attending his or her first basketball game:

In the first half, I thought Oregon State's center Roeland Schaftenaar was the dirtiest player I had ever watched play. The crowd certainly did, as well, and started to boo him mercilessly everytime he touched the ball.

But what was more frustrating was watching him throw elbows the entire crowd could see, hearing a whistle blow, only to find the ref had called a foul on the UTEP player for having the temerity to have his face hit one of Schaftenaar's elbows.

I guarantee you that within moments of the El Paso Times' Victor Calzada snapping the above photo, UTEP's Wayne Portalatin was called for a foul.

But I give Oregon State's coach Craig Robinson a lot of credit. With a couple of minutes left in the first half, Schaftenaar threw a couple of flagrant, dangerous elbows after a rebound, prompting the refs to call a foul on UTEP (of course). But Robinson, like the crowd, saw what really had gone down and pulled Schaftenaar from the game for the rest of the half.

Schaftenaar, to his credit, came back in the second half and played some clean, good basketball, despite all the boos.

And now, the fans from their seldom used Rivals chat board blog thing (they seem to be a lot classier than the VT honks but why they hate on Schaftenaar so much confuses me):

Way to show up UTEP fans! It was hilarious to hear all of the boos whenever Schaftenaar got the ball. I bet he hears boos in his sleep. Get your throats healed up for Friday night's game. Tea, lemon, and honey for the next 44 hours.

...that is EXACTLY what my grandfather and I were joking about. That #10 was so dramatic and unlikeable! My grandpa says, damn, son, doesnt this guy remind you of every player from BYU we cheered against in the 80's?
-got my tickets. gonna make #10 hear us again!

BYU would have loved to have #10 back in the day. It was easy not to like his European, soccer style acting & flinging of his body. Looking forward to making his night uncomfortable again in Friday.

GO BEAVERS. LET'S DO THIS.

AND REMEMBER, WINNING IN EL PASO IS AN OREGON STATE TRADITION! LET'S DO THIS!

(You owe us El Paso--we've provided you the best and worst games in Sun Bowl history!)

Check out Joe Burton at the 1:25 mark of this video. Cunningham's dunk is awesome but I already...

ArbyOSU — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:20:56 -0000

Check out Joe Burton at the 1:25 mark of this video. Cunningham's dunk is awesome but I already knew that kid could jump out of the gym and throw down. The Burton play here firms up all the talk of him being a passing big man.

All I gotta say is when does next season start again?