Tom Penn

Well, it has been a few weeks since the Blazers "relieved" Tom Penn of his duties as the Vice President of the Portland Trail Blazers. Rumors continue to circulate that Kevin Pritchard (KP), the Blazers current GM, may be on the hot seat and could potentially be fired after the season. I think KP has done a good job of removing the "Jail Blazer" culture from the Portland Trail Blazers. He has drafted some good young talent and generally had done a fine job of bringing back the Portland fan base. However, with the Blazers being the only professional sports team in town, it really shouldn't be that difficult to have fans come back. If Portland had a pro baseball team and a pro hockey team, then maybe the fans would not have been so quick to return to the Blazers. Its hard to say. But what is not hard to say is that so far, KP has not shown that he can make the Blazers a championship contender. He has been the Blazers GM since 2006 and has only won two playoff games. That's just not good enough. The Blazers have key talent such as Roy, Alridge, Miller, Camby, Webster, Oden, Pryzbilla, Bayless, Batum, and Rudy. I would have to say the Blazers are 10 deep. Yes, they have had injuries this year. But it seems with the Blazers it is some sort of excuse every year. The Lakers have had Bynum and Walton out a bunch this season and yet have retained the number 1 seed in the Western Conference. All teams deal with injuries. The problem is that Oden is always injured. 2007 was his "rookie year" and he never played. 2008 he played parts of the season and truly struggled in a bunch of games. he had 2 point games and games where he fouled out and the like. In 2009, he once again missed the majority of the season with an injury. So, to date, Greg Oden has really done nothing for the Portland Trail Blazers. Kevin Durant was the right pick. Why? Because he can score 30 a night and will be a star in 2-3 years. The one two punch of Durant and Roy would have been 55 points a night. But regardless, the Blazers really should be better than the 8 seed this year. I mean, Oklahoma City doesn't have much of a team at all and yet they are about to lock up the 6th seed. The Spurs are a dead team with old tired players and are still ahead of the Blazers. And the Jazz and Suns? Same old teams, just avoided the heavy injuries this year. I want to believe that the Blazers get healthy next year and finally lock down a 2 or 3 seed and make a playoff run, but the chances of Oden playing the whole season are slim. And what if next year it is Roy or Aldridge doing down for a bunch of the season. Not sure what the answer is, but it just seems the Blazers never can quite get over that "average" hump year after year. They start with alot of promise and potential, but in the end, they fizzle. If they meet the Lakers in the playoffs here in a few weeks, it will likely be 4-1 or 4-2 with the Lakers winning. Roy is coming up on 26 and he needs to start experiencing some playoff series wins and getting to the Western Conference finals and the like. As of now, that seems years away. Especially with Kobe and Gasol just signing three year extensions with the Lakers.

Blazers Lose to Utah Jazz...Again.

The Utah Jazz will not win the NBA championship. You can bank on that. They will certainly make the playoffs and will likely win 50 games, but they will falter in the first or second round of the playoffs. However, they are simply tougher, smarter, and better coached than the Blazers. I'm starting to wonder if the Blazers are simply being mismanaged. Aldridge was signed to a 5 year deal worth close to 70 million. Yet, he disappears in the 4th quarter. Oden was picked over Durant, yet Durant is turning into the true allstar scoring machine and Oden is always home nursing some new ailment (or taking pictures of himself). It's sad because the Blazers have the NBA's best fans, the richest owner, are the only professional sport in the state, yet haven't been out of the first round in a decade. It doesn't appear that will change this year.

Oregon State Men's Basketball

The Oregon State Beavers Men's Basketball beat the PAC 10 leading California Bears yesterday at Gill Coliseum. The Beavers have moved into 7th place in the tight PAC 10 standings and will face Stanford tomorrow at Gill at 12:00 noon. The Beavers have swept the Oregon Ducks this season and also have key wins at Arizona and against USC at home. The PAC 10 will likely only get one team into the NCAA tournament and that team will be the winner of the PAC 10 tournament. The USC Trojans are not eligible for postseason play this year as they self-imposed sanctions from the O.J. Mayo situation.

USC meets with NCAA Infractions Committee

It has been reported that former USC head football coach Pete Carroll and USC's Athletic Director, Mike Garrett, met with the NCAA Infractions Committee yesterday, today, and will likely again meet tomorrow. The meetings are taking place in Tempe, Arizona. It may take several months for sanctions, if any, to be levied against USC. The PAC 10 Commissioner stated that he did not believe major sanctions would fall upon USC. The NCAA is looking into alleged extra benefits possibly received by Reggie Bush and O.J. Mayo while they were both student-athletes at USC. However, it has been reported that the NCAA is looking into whether USC knew, or should have known, about these alleged extra benefits. If so, the sanctions would likely be much more severe for USC. However, USC will likely appeal any major sanction brought by the NCAA and a final resolution of this matter could be quite some time from now.