Great Day for Duck Athletics!

Trafton B.

February 5, 2011 - 9:33 PM

Once upon a time Saturday's were devoted to one thing and one thing alone, Oregon Duck's Football. Now that football season is over, and we all remember how that ended, I've had to find other collegiate sports to fill the void. Well, it's wasn't too hard to find something to watch today, and moreover it's wasn't too difficult to find an Oregon victory today either.

First, Oregon's Men's Basketball is back on the rise! Ever since we moved to Matthew Knight Arena, the team has been on a tear, going 5-2 and knocking off our biggest rivals like Washington, Washington State and Oregon State. Sadly, I had to settle for watching the game at home because student tickets were sold out. That gives you an idea of how many people want to see the Ducks play in the new arena. I can't remember the last time I wasn't able to log onto GoDucks.com the morning of a basketball game and still snag a ticket. Our next home game is Civil War on February 19th. I'll have to actually pay attention to ticket distribution this time around.

The Ducks pulled off the upset of the 19th ranked Washington Huskies. Oregon Forward Joevan Catron led the team with 20 points and 9 rebounds, followed closely by EJ Singler with 16 points and Tyrone Nared with 14 points. I like to point out those last two players specifically because they were both in my Billiard class last quarter. I ran into Tyrone in the Jaqua Academic Center last month. I was a little surprised he remembered me to be honest. It was right after the team's first game in Knight Arena when Tyrone threw down a massive dunk to end the first half. Check out the clip at the bottom of this post. If I remember correctly it landed him on SportsCenter's Top 10 plays that night.

After basketball it was off to the turf fields next to the Student Rec Center for the Civil War in Men's Club Lacrosse. Cam's little brother, Trey, and our old neighbor, Matt Johnson, are both on the team, which is the main reason we go to the games. Ross, Kevin, and I showed up literally as the time expired, so I can't tell you much about the game itself, but I do know that Johnson scored the first five goals for the Ducks, which was made even funnier when we found out what he'd been doing the night before. Let's just say he woke up with a little bit of a headache and he was still the game's MVP. We still caught the best part of the game, which was the 15-2 final score. Ducks trounced the Beavers...once again.

Finally, Oregon's Club Ultimate Frisbee team played an exhibition game against Rhino, a club team from Portland, who's apparently the best team in the state of Oregon. Except our guy's team, Ego as they call themselves, came out victorious 20-18 under the lights of South Eugene High. I watched the game from my roof actually, which was pretty sweet; great view and saved me a $3 admission fee. Didn't quite have the same atmosphere as being in the stands, but I could still see just how ridiculously good both teams were. I went out for one of the Ultimate practices in the fall with my roommate, Bob, who plays on the club's B-team. I like to think that I'm a fair disc player, but I didn't hold a candle to these guys. They threw better, ran faster, dove harder than anyone I've ever seen play ultimate. Needless to say that was my first and only practice with the team.

As promised here's the clip of Tyrone's vicious slam-dunk. Gotta love seeing Duck's basketball playing well again. As always, good night and Go Ducks!