Happy Super Sunday everyone. We know gbruin is fired up for the game. We are guessing the BNers in Seattle (we have few of them) and Denver are going to be pumped up all day. For the rest of the us it's the Sunday before National Signing Day. I guess we have a basketball game during which some of us will have the TV on for background noise while we do our weekend chores.
That's right. Steve Alford's Bruins have a scintillating pre-Super Bowl matchup against a Pac-12 powerhouse coached by the brother-in-law of the current President. Those Oregon Beavers (12-8, 4-4) are off to their best conference start since 1999 (lolz) and they are fired up for their biggest game against the Alfords' Bruins (17-4, 6-2) this morning (11:30 am tipoff on ESPNU) at the Gill Coliseum. Maybe there is some interest in this game now that the Bruins are just one game behind overhyped Arizona. Sean Miller (lolz)'s overhyped Mildcats lost to a mediocre Bears team last night in Berkeley. So the Bruins are just 1 game behind the Mildcats (21-1, 8-1) in the loss column in a truly PAthetiC-12 conference. Meh.
Bruins have owned the Beavers. Since the start of the 2005-06 season, we have gone 14-1 against the Beavers, including a 6-1 record at Gill Coliseum. The Beavers won at Gill Coliseum two years ago, 87-84, to snap a 13-game losing streak in the series. We lead the overall series by a margin of 89-35. So losing this game will not only be a missed opportunity but flat out embarrassing.
Some quick reads if you actually care about the clips around this game. Chris Foster notes on the overall sorry state of affairs of Craig Robinson's Beavers:
UCLA has owned this series the last 20 years, winning 34 of 40 games. Oregon State has not had a team in the NCAA tournament since 1990. People are wondering whether Coach Craig Robinson will last through his brother-in-law's administration; Barack Obama leaves office in two years.
And some additional pointers from Jack Wang:
The Beavers are mediocre on defense and somewhat prone to turnovers, but through eight Pac-12 games, they are shooting a league-best 47.5 percent from the field. Leading the effort is guard Roberto Nelson, who balances an impressive offensive load with remarkable efficiency. The 6-foot-4 senior leads the conference with 22.3 points per game on the season, and does it while averaging 48.5 percent from the field, 40.4 percent from beyond the arc, and 85.5 percent from the line. He also takes 34.1 percent of his team's shots and draws 7.5 fouls every 40 minutes - numbers that also best anyone else in the Pac-12.
I really don't care enough to read up more on this game. I guess I will turn the TV or on something around tipoff (as mentioned above around 11:30 am PST on ESPNU).
Enjoy your Super Bowl Sunday. Oh and BTW we will have an open thread going today to watch the Super Bowl because ... Go Broncos.
GO BRUINS.