Rudy Currently Ranked #1 Rookie in NBA

Here are the stats to prove it...

45.5 % from the field

46.2% from down town

91% from the charity strike

1.1 steals/game

2 assists/game

3 boards/game

15.4 points/game

and all that in an efficient 28 minutes of P.T.

(that just over one half for you math wiz kids out there)

But most importantly he brings ENERGY. The rose garden loves him, and he even plays well on the road as he showed yesterday dropping 16 points in Orlando. He has great court vision. We all know he has range from deep but he can also create a shot. He is a DIFFERENCE-MAKER. ANyone who saw his one legged jumper, or his dunk on Dwight Howard in the olympics knows exactly what I am talking about.

Well we are off on a long road trip but until next time; RUDY! RUDY! RUDY! RUDY!....

ps- watch out for Nicolas Batum creeping up that list as well, currently at #16

Read the full article from David Thorpe at ESPN

Roy Refuses to Lose

Though we lost a game we gave away in Utah two nights ago (thanks Adam for rubbing it in) revenge was ours vs Clyde's current place of residence, Houston.

If you didn't stay up until mid-night to watch the end of overtime you missed an instant classic. The Rockets are really quite the team I will give it to them (yes Greg Rose that shout out was for you). Of course they have T-Mac the only player who is hurt more than Yao. Artest was a great pick up for them, Aaron Brooks and skip-to-my-lou are tough in the back court. Then you have Battier and Barry who are automatic from deep. This could be the year they get out of the first round. And of course the second my winning coach in Blazer history, Rick Adelman.

The game: Basically the Blazers had a 3 point lead throughout the entire game. Then in the 4th quarter we got it up to a 10 point lead. Then we stunk it up from everywhere and turned the ball over. You could say our youth showed a bit.

"Call it divine intervention. On a night the Blazers honored the late Kevin Duckworth, Brandon Roy's prayer of a shot with 0.8 seconds remaining handed Portland a 101-99 overtime win that capped off one of the best finishes you'll ever see.

"Big Duck was looking down on us," said Blazers coach Nate McMillan. "He didn't want us to lose on his night."

"I was so disappointed that I fouled [Yao] on the last play," said Roy. "I told the group whatever you do, give me the ball and I'm gonna try to make the shot. We always talk in practice that with 0.8 you can catch and shoot. You still can get a shot."

The game-winner was perhaps even more impressive. Roy caught the ball out high near the left sideline, with his back to the basket and sprinting away from the goal. He stopped all his momentum with a jump stop, rose straight up vertically, and cleanly launched the victorious shot; somehow, a mix-up between Artest and Tracy McGrady had left him open without the benefit of a screen.

"It was just a hell of a shot." said McGrady about Roy's GW.

The Blazers can't breathe easy quite yet -- not with six of their next eight games on the road -- but they're feeling a lot better about their situation now than they were with 0.8 seconds left.

Only 16 points is unacceptable in the 4th quarter, especially considering we scored over 30 in every other quarter and almost 16 in overtime!

Go Rip City!

Kevin Johnson New Mayor of Sacramento

Many of you may remember KJ and his ability to posterize the big boys. I must also mention I have his autograph. Just thought this was interesting.

Former NBA star Kevin Johnson was elected mayor of Sacramento, California, on a day when more than a dozen U.S. sports figures ran for political office.

Johnson, a former All-Star point guard for the Phoenix Suns, is the first black mayor of Sacramento. The 42-year-old Democrat defeated two-term incumbent Heather Fargo in a run-off election. He compared himself to Barack Obama, who was elected America's first black president on Tuesday night.

"Sacramento also made history today in electing its first black mayor," Johnson said. "Both Obama and myself, we ran on a promise and the theme of change. No more business as usual."

Johnson had the backing of basketball greats Shaquille O'Neal, Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley. He wants to raise the profile of his hometown and bemoans his city's image beside that of Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Read full article from the AP here.

Riley proving he is the best coach in the state

Once again, as has happened the last 4-5 years, the Ducks start out hot then fall apart and the Beavs have awaken from the early season slumber and are currently on 3 a game win streak.

There was just some conference stats that I just couldn't ignore.

#3 QB in the conference (L. Moevao) with a 140 rating (day to day with his shoulder injury)
#1 Rusher in conference (Quiz Rodgers) is just under 1000 yards on the season already after only 8 games. He is the only freshman RB to ever lead the Pac-10 in rush yards.
#2 Receiver (Sammy Stroughter) with just under 600 yards
#5 Receiver (Shane Morales) with 529 yards
#3 QB yards with 1,822
#5 in scoring, just a fraction away from number 3
#1 in passing yards/game with 260
#2 in first downs/game at 23

Lastly, did I mention the Beavs control their own destiny and are in first place in the Pac-10.

B-E-A-V-E-R-S!!!

Rough Start

Well if you missed the game let me wrap it up for you quickly.

We are young, and we showed it tonight. We were intimated to open our season in the house of the defending western conference champions. I will make no excuses, we got it handed to us tonight. Offensively we played bad. We need more "easy" baskets, ie- fast break, points in the paint, free throws, etc. We rely too much on the outside. Defensively wasn't bad, but not great either. The Lakers shot well (70% from 3-point, compared to our 41%).

Personal thoughts.
B-Roy cannot be our point guard, really he is comparable to Isaac. He could score from about anywhere on the floor at anytime, but he passes the ball way too much. Still he is the man and my favorite player, no bias on this blog.
Rudy played well minus a few dumb turnovers.
G.O. just did not look ready. I didn't expect him to do too much offensively, so not shocker there.
Lamarcus you need to man up, I am a big fan of yours, but come on, get tough and get in the paint. I want you to be Rasheed but you just aren't.
Channing Fry, why, why, why, and did you really pull up from 3 point land? Please stop.
We are so athletic, we need to run.
We missed Martell tonight.
Travis you force it too much.
Coach Nate be patient with these young guys.
K.P don't worry, yes you made the right decisions with these guys so far. Although we will need to ship a few out before the trade deadline, including Raef and his 12-13 mil.
This is only one game.

Friday on ESPN we have the spurs. The only team that has worse fans than LA (yes Bjork and Farnsworth, thats you). Let us come back against the Alamo Friday with some Spanish fire!

Don't give up yet Cougs...

Well Triz did a pretty good job of wrapping up the TCU/BYU game last night on Cougar Crazies. After a disappointing night I have decided to look for optimism.

1. The Cougs can still win the MWC. It is going to take some help but possible. Which continues to prove to be better than a number of BCS conferences including the Pac-10.

This is how, November 6th the Horned Frogs travel Salt Lake. This will likely be one of those few nights Cougar fans will cheer for the dreaded Utes. Utah obviously gets calls at home as we saw against Oregon State, and there kicker could make the difference. Then November 22nd the Cougs drive north to play the Utes in the big game. I objectively think the Cougs will beat Utah. Even after last nights ugly, slow looking, predictable, beat down. The Horned Frogs will also need to be upset by another in conference school, Air Force probably has the best chance, the same day BYU/Utah play.

The bad news, looks like they will be headed to Vegas for the 39th straight year to play UCLA/Oregon for the 24th straight year.

2. The Beavs can win the Pac-10. Who would have thought after a season opening loss to Stanford the Beavs could still win the conference. It was too bad we didn't start playing until the 4th quarter that game and still had a chance to win.

Anyway, here is how the Beavs can pull it off...
- Stanford still has to play Cal, Oregon, and USC. They will loose two of those games.
- USC still has to play Arizona (Who usually plays well at home vs the Trojans), Cal, and of course the season ender at UCLA (anyone remember what happen last time 2006 USC went to UCLA).
- Oregon is bad.
- ASU was probably the most overrated team in the nation going into this season.
- Everything from Washington is horrible.
- Arizona could throw some pac-10 teams off there horse.
- And of course, the Beavs will win out.

Here is how the Pac-10 will finish (in conference records)...
1. Beavers 8-1 (I hope this post doesn't curse them)
2. Trojans 7-2 (losses to OSU and Cal/UCLA/Zona)
3. Bears 7-2 (losses to OSU and USC/Stan/Zona)
4. Cardinal 6-3 (losses to ASU, OSU, and USC/Oregon/Cal)
5. Wildcats 5-4 (losses to Stan, OSU, USC, and Cal)
6. Ducks 4-5 (wins against Wash, Wash St, UCLA, & ASU although I will not be surprised if they lose out and fire Bilotti)
7. Devils 4-5 (wins against Stan, Wash, Wash St, and UCLA)
8. Huskies 2-7 (wins against UCLA and Wash St, another coaching change coming)
9. Bruins 1-8 (a lonely win against Wash St, it never pays to hire a cheater)
10. Cougars 0-9 (I think we all see this coming, you never know what can happen at the apple cup though)

And my last point...

3. I am so pumped for October 28 our season opener against the Lakers! Go Blazers

How can you not be excited?

Yes. I know it was one (the first) pre-season game. But GO scored 13 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Did I mention he did that in a casual 20 minutes?

Final score 110-81 Portland over Sacramento. I copied ESPN's article (summarized) below. B-Roy's knee looks fine. He also added 14 points and 7 assists in very limited playing time.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=281007022

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Greg Oden announced his delayed arrival to the NBA with a dunk two minutes into the preseason.

Oden debuted to a standing ovation, as did the rest of the young Portland Trail Blazers, in a 110-81 exhibition victory over the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night. Oden finished with 13 points in just under 20 minutes." The big fella is a beast, man," teammate Brandon Roy said.

Oden won the opening jump over Sacramento's Mikki Moore. His dunk, two minutes into the game, was Portland's first basket. Oden wowed the near-sellout crowd with another couple of dunks in the second quarter. One young fan held a sign that read: "Welcome to the show No. 52."

"This team tonight was already showing him some respect," Blazers coach Nate McMillan said about the 7-foot rookie, "sending double-teams and trying to front him.

Roy, who had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in August, played a little more than 23 minutes and had 14 points and seven assists for the Blazers. Martell Webster led Portland with 15 points. Besides Oden, Blazers fans also got their first look at Spanish guard Rudy Fernandez, who played the past seven seasons for DKV Joventut Badelona of the Spanish ACB League. Fernandez, who played on the Spanish Olympic team that lost to the United States in the gold medal game in Beijing, was flashy offensively and effective defensively in his first NBA game. "I thought Rudy played great," Roy said. "People think he's a scorer, but tonight he showed he can pass." Fernandez made three particular passes to Webster late in the game that resulted in dunks, and brought cheers of "Rudy!" from the crowd."I'm not surprised at what Rudy did," McMillan said. "I've said all along his feel for the game is the best part of his game. He makes the right pass at the right time. I think that's the strength of his game."

ps- Does anyone else think the new Oklahoma City Thunder picked a lame mascot?

RIP CITY IS BACK. Watch out Utah and Kobe.