Saturday, March 13, 2004

Today brings perhaps the ultimate challenge of this trip, even if it is only day two.  We will play the best MDIA team we have faced all year in the #4 Seawolves from Sonoma State.  We are a little beat up.  We certainly didn't just waddle over the Ducks last night, even if we did lead 8-1 in the first quarter.  We didn't play particularly well, and that is always a bit more stressful and tiring than playing great is.

Our opponent today was there filming the game. I found out later.  It's not like we didn't show them everything, and it's not like I wouldn't have used a play or whatever had I been aware of their (Sonoma State) presence.  All I know about them is what I know from the past.  They are good as a team, and they have some great individuals back from 2 years ago that weren't there last year to go with what they already had. They have a great coach and program.  It will be an ultimate type of challenge for us. Having not played last night they (SSU) will likely have a bit more spring in their step than we. We shall see. We need to fight through it and get up to speed quickly.

As much as I try to live one game at a time, I cannot tell a lie.  I was thinking a lot about today's game last night at times when I normally would have been only alive in and for the moment.  This made it difficult for me to have what I would term a good coaching game.  I wanted us to "bring it" today.  I knew what would happen yesterday.  I'm not that great at "pacing" the team for something in the future, and unfortunatley the future was already on my mind.

The final score last night is not important.  Every player got in the game.  That likely will not happen today.  Yes, it might have been nice for the "starters" to just play a half last night and then chill, but that wasn't what was happening.

WE SAW  LOTS OF THE ZEBRAS WHEN WE WENT ON VACATION

I hated the way the game was officiated.  It was fair, etc., but it was like going back to the old days when you couldn't play for 45 seconds without some kind of whistle.  These kids can play lacrosse.  I say let them. 

Each face-off felt a little like a striped Broadway production, as if letting the face-off players get into a rhythm were a bad thing.  The face-off is a beautiful part of the game, but not when they blow the whistle for some kind of illegal procedure and award the ball to one team or the other every other time. It is not like a football snap count.  You want them to get in a groove.  I mentioned to the refs that I felt they called it like a girl's game.  They wanted to flag me, this I know, but I don't think they can flag me for stating my opinion as long as I omit the 4-letter words.

The crowd was pretty good last night, and each time something went well for Oregon, the fans made a unified, loud, and appropriate crowd reaction.  All I could see across the field was people.  It was cool.  Little old us drew a crowd.  The sound was further amplified as it echoed, bouncing off the back side of the very grandstand where track fans once upon a time watched the great Steve Prefontaine run.  We were probably footsteps away from the original ground zero for Nike.  I know, big deal.  The thing is that one of the first parts I loved about coaching club way back when and still do is traveling around seeing all the different colleges and universities.

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