I have come to terms with something: regardless of what I say, people will take it as negative, and they will disagree and hate me. The column last week rhymed, and people still found something to hate. That’s just the way it is. If I am for something, people are against it. If I like a player, people hate that player. If I say something nice, people say something mean.
People are the yin to my yang, the zig to my zag, the Rosie to my Donald or the ring to my Peyton Manning – well, scratch that last one. Oh, and props to my fifth cousin, twice removed, Ryan Lilja – nice trophy.
Does it make me wrong because people hate me? People would say yes – in fact, a resounding yes, followed by pleads for me to shut up, quit my job and hang myself (no exaggeration). But I am here to help. No, I’m not committing suicide. I’ll just name a few teams that I am watching closely right now with some insight for everyone to automatically dispute, hate and mock.
How about the men’s wrestling team? After a tough team loss on Friday, the 17th-ranked men bounced back to win Sunday afternoon. Props to nationally seventh-ranked Ty Watterson for beating up on Cody Parker. Watterson won the battle like gravity versus Napoleon. He beat Cody Parker, the top-ranked Pac-10 wrestler, 7-4. With Watterson, I haven’t seen guys hit the floor so hard since the time I watched two guys play beer pong with 100-proof Southern Comfort.
The wrestlers are now 14-2 overall and back on track. The men face Oregon this next week in a Civil War on the mats, and after that it’s Stanford and North Dakota State. If the chips fall the right way and the men continue to wrestle as well as they have, they could finish the season in the top 15 and have an outside shot at the national championship.
Then there is gymnastics, a horrible conflict of interest for me because I love that movie “Stick It.” The 16th-ranked lady Beavers are looking poised for another run at the Pac-10 title and a national championship bid after slapping No. 17 ASU repeatedly all over Gill last Friday during their aptly named Pink Meet. (Get it? Slapped? Pink? Bad joke, I know.) The team also managed to come away with a season high score of 195.825 in the win.
All-American Tasha Smith has returned to the lineup, which doesn’t hurt. Add Claire Peirce on the beam, Keegan Fitzgerald on the bars, Jami Lanz on the floor and Mandi Rodriguez on the vault, and this team is going to be annihilating the opposition like Randy Johnson versus that dove. If you thought this team was great last year, I recommend heading over to Gill for the remainder of the season.
Women’s basketball is also making news. I don’t know if this is okay to say, but I think I’m coach LaVonda Wagner’s biggest fan. She is what a coach should be. She is hard on her players and expects the best, no exception. I’m pretty sure she is my idol. She knows basketball like I know analogies.
So, you don’t think women’s basketball is exciting? Wrong.
The team might be sitting at 8-13 overall and 3-9 in the Pac-10, but this is a team on the rise, and they are exciting to watch. Coach Wagner has this team playing with intensity, poise and determination. Last weekend was no exception as both games came down to the wire, and in the case of the game against UCLA, down to the last shot.
Casey Nash is averaging 20 points per game and is in great form as the season begins to wind down. The team is led by point guard Mercedes Fox-Griffin, who, in her second year, looks and plays like a fifth-year senior and has her team averaging 61.4 points per game – about 30 more points than the men scored on Saturday.
On top of those three, sixth-ranked Beaver softball begins Thursday with a five-game weekend down in San Diego. I look for them to return to Corvallis 5-0 because I warned utility player Mia Longfellow that if they didn’t run the table, I would write a nasty column about the team next week. (Just kidding, Coach Walker.)
So now that you know which teams I will be following for the next month, feel free to boycott games, mock me on the Internet and show all your friends all the flaws in my material. You know I deserve it.
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