Beat Journal #3

The Beavers have only played one game since my last post. That one game, though, was a big one around here – the hoops version of the “Civil War.”
With the 57-54 win, the Beavers reached the .500 mark at 10-10 overall and are now 4-5 in the Pac-10.
The Register-Guard’s story about the game was surprisingly straight forward. No “homer” stuff, just straight reporting.
I have to say that I expected to see some real rah, rah stuff. It was written as if the game was any other game and not the Civil War – not that two under .500 teams should make it bigger than it is. I just thought that, in true Duck style, there would more “we are still better than them” attitude. It wasn’t there – a credit to the author, Bob Clark.
ESPN.com was certainly on top of the fact that it wasn’t a big game on the national level. Just one week after having the Beavers on their front page as the “National Team of the Week”, the story about a very competitive and close game was a mere 113 words. This just proves that Andy Katz got caught up in the whirlwind surrounding coach Robinson last week and that they really aren’t paying attention to the Beavers the way they presented last week.
Paul Buker of the Oregonian wrote today that coach Robinson may be working with Andy Katz on a book entitled, “A Game of Character.” It’s a title that coach Robinson says he didn’t come up with. Buker’s blog goes on to talk about how the coach doesn’t have access to the President’s blackberry, for fear that he would end up sending text messages like, ”Holy cripe! We just beat UCLA!”
I think that is hilarious. It’s refreshing to see a blog, in the heart of college basketball season, that isn’t completely just bogged down with stats about the games past and near-future opponents. It’s geared towards keeping fans informed, while letting them in on some of the stuff that makes sports great, the personalities involved.