SB Nation User Blog: gribbit1

Portland-area College Hoops fans:

gribbit1 — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:41:42 -0000

Hi All,

I wanted to let you know about something I'm involved in that could win you an Ipod Touch. If you're in the Portland television market (i.e. you get Portland TV stations), please sign up for the KOIN College Hoops Challenge presented by McDonald's. I work for KOIN Local 6 in Portland and I am the organizer of the tournament.

The challenge is a simple bracket-pool type affair, and I'd like to get as many people as possible to join.

Grand Prize is a 32GB Ipod Touch. There aren't a ton of people playing in this, as it's a local tournament, so your chances of winning are pretty good!

To join, just go to hoops.koin.com, sign up, and make your picks. It should be fun, and I wish you all good luck with all your brackets!

The annual fire-Ernie columns are coming out...

gribbit1 — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 23:14:26 -0000

Just like the annual fire-Bellotti, and fire-Alliotti columns. Just wait until football loses a couple games under Kelly. All of a sudden we'll find out from Canzano et al. that he was never suited to be a head coach and we should cut our losses and hire Rich Rodriguez away from Michigan.

Comparisons have been made of Ernie's team to a high school team. Hasn't anyone noticed that it basically IS a high school team?

19 years old is not that different than 18 (and I bet some of them are still 18). Considering that TP has the stature of a 7th grader, I would say that makes up for the fact that Catron and Odia are reasonably well-developed basketball players, though not stars by any means.

This has always been a team with VERY RAW potential and no real veteran leadership. I'm not a total Ernie apologist, but let's remember that this team is performing exactly one spot away from where we (or at least where I) thought they would in the preseason-- 10th instead of 9th. And the only reason they're not tied for 9th is the Beavs played one good game.

They are going to suck. They are going to suck all year, and possibly next year too. That's what we've got when six of our top eight players are true freshmen (I'm thinking Longmire and Catron are probably at the same talent level as the frosh). And they're not just true freshmen, but four of them would probably use a redshirt year under normal circumstances.

There's no question that some of this is on Ernie, but also look back at Bob Clark's blog entry on how we got here in the first place. Ernie made good decisions at the times he made them, but still found himself in this position. It's his mess to clean up now. Should he be fired? I don't think so, not right now.

He should start fixing some of his other mistakes, though, like playing TP as a go-to scorer, (props for not starting him today, even though that didn't work out well either). He has proven that the only thing he knows how to do is hit an open 3 when the defense collapses on a driving player. Guess what? None of our players can drive like AB, Bryce, Maarty, or Malik could.

Who would we hire, anyway? Few is not coming back to Eugene, just like Pinkel didn't go back to Washington. He's a hero in Spokane. We're stuck in a conference that has the best top-to-bottom coaching in the nation. Who is going to come in and compete? We would have to gamble on an up-and-coming assistant, and we can't gamble when we have $200 million in state bonds to pay off.

an open letter just for my buddy CV

gribbit1 — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 04:38:16 -0000

Dear CV3000, Ruler Supreme and Fun Czar of Beaver Nation,

I know you like to talk smack. I don't. Sometimes, coming from you, it all seems like it's in good fun, and others, you just seem like a mean-spirited ass who tries to suck the fun out of a good football season for Oregon and Oregon State fans alike.

Your post, here, really pissed me off though. The whole thing was immature, really, and after I read it and commented on it, I realized how much of a waste of time it is to even acknowledge you.

But, drunk on the ambrosia of victory, I decided to think of you just one more time tonight, while you sulk for a while (I hope).

Like I said, I don't like smack talk, but I'm stooping to your level, just once. Maybe that's even a victory for you.

I just have one question: how did that whole laughing thing go?

gribbit1

something for our beaver friends

gribbit1 — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:16:03 -0000

something for our beaver friends

I would like to thank Ryan White for posting this so early. We have a full extra week to taunt and have fun with our beaver friends, and I plan to take full advantage of it within my own social circle.

I just thought I would point out the above link for those of you who wouldn't otherwise have stumbled upon it and emailed it to all your beaver friends. No doubt there will be plenty more things like this, along with plenty coming back our way in the coming weeks.

random basketball first game musings

gribbit1 — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 05:32:02 -0000

No comcast, so I couldn't see this one. But this seems to have kinda sucked, judging by the radio broadcast.

Don't get me wrong. I have Oregon pegged for 9th in the conference, ahead of only OSU. We've got a lot of growing to do. But Northern Colorado? Really? Winning by a couple missed free throws? I hope NC turns out to be a much better team than I think they should be.

I have great hope for the future, but we can't seem to stop peneration, according to Jerry Allen. Maybe that's an easy fix with some scheming and teaching.

Looks Sounds like LeKendric Longmire had a great game overall. I had really been hoping that he would be this player last year. It sounds almost like he's playing the "Jordan Kent Memorial Hustle Player" role, only with scoring.

Still, the fact that (I think-- can't tell from the horrible stats on the internet) we were outrebounded by the Northern Colorado Bears does not bode well. Maarty and Malik were great rebounders, despite their size, and we're definitely missing them now.

TP had a terrible game. I'm glad that won't happen every game. As frustrating as he can be at times, we need him to play better than this. He's a junior now. Ernie loves the guy, and it's time for him to show us why he deserves to carry this team.

Most of all, I can't wait to see a game. Comcast sucks, and so does IMG for entering into such a crappy media contract. Who's running the tv negotiations for the ducks, Tom Hansen? I WANT TO SEE SOME DUCKS BASKETBALL. And it's not Dish Network's fault, or Charter's, or DirecTV. It was a bad idea to begin with.

I would just like to add that the postgame report on 95.5 just got preempted by the "Ducks Gridiron Report." Now, I love football too, I'm headed for the Arizona game tomorrow, and that's all well and good. But I WANTED TO HEAR THE BASKETBALL POSTGAME instead of people talking about what might happen tomorrow. What is up with media coverage these days?

Zoomer is Awesome.

gribbit1 — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:22:40 -0000

Zoomer is Awesome.

It's about time someone said something. I can't wait to see what happens around the conference when the backlash comes.

Dear Coach Bellotti,

gribbit1 — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 04:36:43 -0000

I would just like to say that no matter which quarterback starts next week, I hope you were taking notes as OSU knocked off USC. While I would prefer Darron Thomas, I'll take anyone who helps us win, even if it's short-passing Justin Roper.

It looked to me, though, like JJ and LB could do a damn good job running between the tackles. If you need a smaller guy, Remene Alston fits the bill. Apparently USC can't tackle short people.

Thanks,

Kevin

frustrated and encouraged

gribbit1 — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 22:58:16 -0000

well, that was a poor showing.

I had the opportunity to view my first CSN game today, as my beaver friends who have Comcast were out of town, and and allowed me to use their 16-foot projection screen.

I did not need to see this one in life-size HD.

The first reason we lost was because of a cheap, illegal, dangerous hit by the Boise State safety against Masoli. But it didn't end there.

The second reason we lost was because after Masoli went down, Chip Kelly and/or Mike Bellotti were every bit as stubborn running the ball as Andy Ludwig was in calling the bubble screen. It's clear that Harper has a long way to go to be a real QB. He's a running back in a direct snap formation right now. What surprised me was we never saw a conventional option from Harper. I can only guess that he hasn't been doing well with the lateral option play in practice. And speaking of bubble screens, they're the only pass play Harper should run for a while.

I was about to turn off the tv and leave when I heard Giansante say Thomas was on the field. "Well, let's see what he can do" I thought, and sat back down on the couch.

What he can do is a pretty damn good impression of Dennis Dixon. I can't remember who has the signature "d thomas=d dixon" but dude, you've got it right.

Thomas will make mistakes. He's going to throw a bunch of interceptions once defensive coordinators learn his tendencies. We ran pretty much the same play for him every down, too, and that won't work against pac 10 DBs, but if he can make an option pitch or a read-option mesh reasonably well, we're in pretty good shape.

But hey, he's a freshman. Don't get too comfortable. I see interceptions and fumbles in his future, and missed reads, some ill-advised sacks. But you know what? He looked better running this offense than Masoli, Harper, and Roper put together. Chip Kelly has proven that he can instill confidence, so I'm not worried that he'll let mistakes go to his head.

Thomas for QB. We'll lose some games, but we'll lose playing OREGON FOOTBALL again. At least, the kind that we played last year. Wouldn't that be awesome?

UO, Comcast SportsNet, and You. (Caution: long post ahead!)

gribbit1 — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:41:22 -0000

I've seen very little interpretation out there on the intertubz regarding the carriage issues of Comcast and OSN's agreement, so I thought I would offer mine.

A little background, first: I am a media professional with extensive experience planning advertising campaigns for several regional advertisers in the Northwest. I can virtually guarantee that if you live in Western Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, or Northern California, you've seen ads that I have helped to create and/or purchase. I keep close tabs on the media, especially television, as it's my job to know what is going on in the industry. I'm no expert, and I offer no inside information, but I consider myself an informed observer. If anyone out there knows the facts better than I do, PLEASE feel free to correct me in the comments. I'll endeavor to correct the original post to maintain its validity.

Most of what we know regarding the status of Comcast/IMG/OSN/Dish/Charter/DirecTV/etc. comes to us from goducks.com press releases or Joe Giansante's blog post with DSN here. There is not much to go on.

The root of this came when UO/OSN signed a pact with IMG a while back to be the promoter of the Oregon Athletics brand in just about all facets. After looking at the details of the deal when it occurred, I believe it's probably a good deal, business-wise for the athletics department, especially with the financial committments they have for basketball and baseball venues. If they didn't sign a deal like this, we never could have brought back baseball, and Uncle Phil never would have put down so much money for the hoops arena.

However, when UO signed their deal, they knew there would be problems and setbacks, too, and we're dealing with one of them here: The fact that UO shunned a longtime TV partner for a big, corporate entity that is a huge part of the sports marketing industry. The money for UO Athletics is better, no doubt. However, by changing the framework of the marketing arrangement, UO essentially shoved Chambers out of the picture, and I believe they knew this long before they signed the deal.

OSN/IMG will tell you that Chambers backed out at the last minute and it's all their fault, but that eventuality was a foregone conclusion the minute the IMG contract was signed. IMG changed the game, and Chambers simply would not be able to live up to new contract conditions that would cause them to lose significant amounts of money if they aired the Ducks.

UO/OSN knew this sort of thing could happen. If they didn't, then Pat Kilkenny and Joe Giansante were certainly not doing their jobs when negotiating the IMG deal. Mr. Giansante, especially, should have known that Chambers needed significant revenue from advertising to support the rights fee they paid the Ducks in previous years. After all, he worked for KEZI for years prior to becoming a UO employee.

So that's how we got into this situation. What's keeping it from being resolved?

When Chambers backed out, the UO Athletics department scrambled for a new vendor for programming. UO has always had a terrible relationship with Fox Sports Northwest, so that option was out immediately. I can't really say I blame them, given their coverage of any team from Oregon sucks. There are no statewide networks of broadcast stations to turn to, as Chambers was the only Oregon-based channel owner. Fisher Broadcasting owns KATU and KVAL, but they're based in Seattle and are in serious financial trouble as a company

Comcast SportsNet was the obvious choice, and here's why: they have the money. Comcast is a huge corporation based in Philadelphia, and they own most of the metropolitan cable systems in the United States, with the exception of the biggest markets, like New York and LA. They have more subscribers than any other cable company.

Comcast has multiple revenue streams, and this helps them greatly. They are able to sell cable subscriptions to people in their coverage areas, and they are able to sell local and quasi-national advertising to businesses who want to advertise on the cable networks.

Years ago, they got another idea: why not control the content as well? As the industry is set up, a cable company pays, say $3.26 per subscriber, per month to a third-party network like ESPN for rights to carry the network. This is where much of our cable/sattelite bills go-- straight to the networks. Comcast decided to do an end-run around the Fox Sports, YES Networks, and Raycom Sports of the world and start creating its own for-profit sports networks. Not only would they get the content without rights fees and own all of the advertising inventory, but they could SELL THE CONTENT TO OTHER PROGRAMMING PROVIDERS for yet another revenue stream.

This has worked well. Comcast continues to expand its sports presence, and now has ten different networks across the country. Their typical MO is to become the official carrier of several local sports teams, and muscle the other content providers into carrying them because of the public outcry from disgruntled fans.

And this is where we lose. Comcast is actively trying to get carriage on Charter, Dish, DirecTV, and all the others, just as OSN/IMG/CSN say. But they want to get carriage at THEIR PRICE. I don't know what they're charging, but it's too much at this point in time for any of the other providers to pay. They have to consider thier own costs, too. Do they drop another network to make room in the budget? Do they raise rates in order to pay the rights fee? They're negotiating. CSN wants as much money as possible, and your provider wants to bring you content for the lowest price possible.

That's why UO wants us to call our providers and tell them we want Comcast SportsNet. Well, it's not our responsibility. We're the victims here, in a game where IMG and Comcast are making all the money.

Bottom line for me: I can't watch my team play. It's frustrating and the situation is incredibly opaque. I think Oregon fans are the losers here, at least in the short term. UO and IMG have shown a pretty healthy disregard for the short-term well being of the fan base, mortgaging it for long-term profits. It may all work out, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. I would love to see some healthy communication from all parties, especially the UO Athletic Department, but we all know how much info the UO likes to give to the public.

Mostly, I resent being a pawn for all these big businesses.

Tupou's suspension

gribbit1 — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 04:23:28 -0000

So WTF's up with the NCAA suspending Tupou for accepting money from an agent?

These laws are terrible! if the link is to be believed, he should be getting an medal for his efforts to return the money and to self-report. If they're going to permit athletes to have contact with agents, the NCAA should be prepared for the eventuality that they will likely try to "force" benefits upon a potential client.

So Tupou tries to give the money back, and then probably comes in to the Assistant AD's office in a panic, saying that he didn't mean to, that he doesn't want the money, just get rid of it so it doesn't cause trouble. What do they do? Suspend him for the opener. Shows a lot of understanding on the NCAA's part.

But what am I complaining about? We've always known the NCAA is totally exploitative, tyrannical, and bureaucratic. I guess it's just another lost cause.