Building The Dam

Cougs Conquer Cunningham

2012-02-10T07:11:37Z

Final Score: Washington St. 83 Oregon St. 73

Washington St. used a 17-3 run in 5 minutes right before halftime to blow open what had been a close game for the first 15 minutes of the game, taking a 46-31 lead to the locker room. The Cougars gradually built the lead out to as many as 19 points on 2 different occasions in the second half. Oregon St. rallied with an 18-9 run, but the Beavers had dug themselves into such a deep hole they never got closer than 9 points, and Washington St. hit 8 of 10 free throws in the last 1:19 to take a 10 point win, their first Pac-12 road win of the season.

The primary problem for Oregon St. was once again their moths to the light defense, where collapsing and congregating defense around the ball left Washington St. with someone one or two passes away wide open for an uncontested shot. And it happened on both the perimeter and the baseline.

"We have to resign ourselves to the fact that we have got to get better on defense," Oregon St. coach Craig Robinson said.

Compounding the problem was Oregon St.'s inability to figure out how to get their front court working effectively offensively. Though Devon Collier finished with 11 points, the quartet of Angus Brandt, Joe Burton, Kevin McShane, and Eric Moreland combined for only 7 points. Burton and Moreland were shut out.

"Unfortunately, you can't play this game with 5 guards," Robinson said.

The Beavers' struggles squandered a spectacular effort by Jared Cunningham, the Pac-12's leading scorer, who hit a career high 5 three pointers, on his way to a game high 33 points.

In addition to his third 30+ game of the season, Cunningham also co-led Oregon St. (with Collier) with 6 rebounds, snagged 3 steals, and had a pair of assists and a pair of blocked shots.

"It was a shame to not get the W given the great effort Jared gave," Robinson felt. "He was one of the few who seemed ready to play tonight."

Devon Collier, above, throws down 2 of his 11 points.

Roberto Nelson, above, came off the bench with 14 points, and was the only other Beaver in double figures.

Meanwhile, the Cougars were going wild. Brock Motum, above, led 5 Washington St. players in double figures, with 24 points. D.J. Shelton, the nephew of former Oregon St. great Lonnie Shelton, hit every shot he put up, from both the field and the free throw line, and finished with 14 points. Shelton and Motum also grabbed 9 rebounds apiece, with Shelton snagging 6 on the offensive boards.

Reggie Moore, above, chipped in a double double, with 10 points and 11 assists, while Marcus Capers had 12 points, including the lob dunk below.

DaVonte Lacy, below, added 10 more for the Cougs.

The Cougars shot 52%, and 50% on 3 pointers, while the Beavers shot only 37%, and 36% on 3 pointers. However, those numbers are misleading, considering Nelson shot 50% on 3s and overall, and Cunningham also shot 50%, and 56% from beyond the arc. The rest of the team shot 26%.

Ahmad Starks appeared to be off to a good start, hitting 2 of his first 3 3 pointers, but then missed his last 10 from beyond the arc.

"It was our best performance on the road this season," Washington St. coach Ken Bone said. "I don't know if it was as much our defense as it was it didn't seem like Oregon State played as well as they are capable of playing, though.''

It was surprising that Oregon St.'s offense struggled so much against Washington St. after doing well in the front-court in the teams first meeting. It was almost infuriating that their defense was again unable to even slow down Motum, who should have had an Oregon St. defender within arms length of him all evening, even while he was sitting on the bench.

And until the concept of weak side defense sinks in, opponents willing to make the extra pass will continue to get copious amounts of uncontested shots, most of which will go in.

The performance disappointed a surprisingly large crowd of 5,782 for a week night second-division game, a significant number of whom quit on the team well before the game was finally put away by the Cougars' late free throw shooting.

The mental toughness to win tough games is something more than just the Oregon St. players have yet to learn.

Oregon St. (15-9, 5-7) fell into a tie with Washington St. (13-11, 5-7) for 8th. place in the Pac-12, but the Beavers are really in 9th. place, as the Cougars' season sweep of the series with Oregon St. gives them the tie-breaker. Washington St. has now beaten the Beavers 4 straight games.

The Beavers will host Washington (16-8, 9-3) Sunday afternoon at 2:30, in a game to be nationally televised by Fox Sports Network and ROOT Sports. The Huskies will be in a bad mood, as they lost 82-57 to Oregon (17-7, 8-4) tonight in Eugene. The defeat dropped Washington out of the lead in the Pac-12 race, as though they are tied with California (19-6, 9-3) after the Golden Bears mauled USC (6-19, 1-11) 75-49, Cal has the tie-breaker over the Huskies.

Oregon will host Washington St. Saturday. The Ducks are tied with Arizona (17-8, 8-4) and Colorado (16-8, 8-4) for third place in the conference race, one game behind California and Washington, after the Wildcats beat the Buffs 71-57 tonight in Tucson.

(Photos by Andy Wooldridge)

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com

Washington St. at Oregon St. Game Thread

2012-02-10T01:00:04Z

Washington St. (12-11, 4-7) at Oregon St. (15-8, 5-6) at Gill Coliseum at 7:00 PM PST / No TV (Again) / KEJO 1240 AM / KPAM 860 AM (Streamed - Enjoy it while you can)

Oregon St. returns home after 3 games in 7 days on the road, having won 2 of them.

The Cougars come into Corvallis after what would be a heart-breaking 63-60 loss to UCLA, except they are so used to being beaten by the Bruins. Saturday's loss was Washington St.'s 19th straight at home against the Bruins. That's a mind numbing number.

UCLA didn't score from the field in the last 5 1/2 minutes in Pullman, but the Bruins made 7 free throws to thwart the Cougars, and negate Brock Motum's 25 point, 11 rebound double double, both game highs.

The Beavers bounced back from a bad outing in Boulder to beat Utah 76-58 in Salt Lake City last Saturday. Jared Cunningham had a game high 20 points, but Joe Burton's overall effort, 11 rebounds, 8 points, 5 assists, and a game high 6 steals, drove the win over the Utes.

The 18 point win was Oregon St.'s largest margin of victory in a conference game since a 20 point win in 1990, ironically over Washington St..

Oregon St.'s win over Utah means coach Craig Robinson has now matched Ralph Miller for most wins in their first 4 years as coach of the Beavers. Both have 58 victories, one more than Slats Gill got in his first 4 seasons.

After upsetting both Stanford and California, Washington St. appeared to be on a roll. But their season's prospects took an unplanned turn off course when Faisal Aidn tore his ACL against Arizona, and the Cougs have dropped 3 of 4 games starting that night, with only the near-automatic win that comes with playing USC brightening an otherwise unpleasant most recent 2 weeks.

The first meeting this season was back on New Year's Eve, and it was in the Spokane Arena. It was a close game, but Motum was too much for Oregon St., scoring the first 9 points for Washington St., and finishing with 26, enough for the Cougs to claw out an 81-76 win.

Washington St. coach Ken Bone surprised Oregon St. with a liberal dose of zone defense, and as a result, the Beavers, slow to adjust, got off to a slow start, and it was too much to overcome.

The Cougars have played well in Palouse, and not just in Pullman, where they have only lost once, with wins in Moscow and Spokane as well, but Bone ball hasn't traveled well. Washington St. is 0-5 on the road in conference, and their only wins outside the Palouse are over Portland, and Pepperdine, in Seattle, where the Cougars were the home team.

Once again, there is no TV coverage of this game, so unless you subscribe to Beaver Nation Online, if you can't get to Gill, you aren't going to get to see it. Here's hoping the Pac-12 gets a deal signed for carriage of the Pac-12 network on satellite and cable carriers other than Comcast.

And speaking of BNO, if you are in an area not well served by area AM radio (and there are lots of those areas), and count on the KPAM streamed radio, enjoy it while you can. Come baseball season, and for all of next year's football and basketball games, BNO is where you will have to get an audio stream as well, as though KEX, the new Portland area radio host streams their signal, they won't be including their game audio.

Here's the place to discuss what you imagine is happening in this contest, one crucial for both the Beavers and the Cougars.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com

Help Pick The Winner of the Ultimate Sports Social Media Contest

2012-02-09T23:16:10Z

Have you ever watched one of those TV shows where from thousands of hopefuls, one star is born? Well, Buildingthedam.com readers, here's your chance to play "starmaker", and help pick the new voice of sports in social media!

XFINITY is looking for the next renowned sports social media star through its Ultimate Sports Social Media Job contest. The winning candidate will serve as the new voice of XFINITY in the sports social media space and go behind-the-scenes at some of the biggest sporting events in 2012, sharing exclusive insights and updates with fans.

Last month, readers like you entered the contest in droves, and now its time to help pick the finalists.

From February 9-19, you can review qualified entry videos and vote for the contestant you'd like to see advance to the finals of the XFINITY Ultimate Sports Social Media Job contest. The five entrants with the most votes will advance to the final round of the contest where they will cover one of five premier sporting events the weekend of March 8-11. Fans can head today to Facebook.com/XFINITY and click on the Ultimate Sports Social Media Job contest tab to vote for your favorite personality (once per day)!

Will you choose the brainiac with the encyclopedia of stats, the former jock who knows the game inside out, or the corporate type who gets the marketing side of the business? You decide. Vote today at Facebook.com/XFINITY!

Q&A With Coug Center

2012-02-09T18:00:44Z

New Year's Eve in Spokane seems a lot longer ago than just over a month ago, and a lot has happened, basketball and otherwise, since we last caught up with the guys up in the Palouse. So it we got together with Jeff Nusser, the authority on all things Cougars, at least the crimson ones, up at CougCenter.com to exchange questions, and get an update before the Cougs and Beavs hook up again tonight.

Here's our answers to the Coug's questions.

Did the season go south when Faisal Aden tore his ACL? Or can the Cougs pull things back together? How will Washington St. finish the Pac-12 season?

Well, the season was already heading south with Aden -- that is, until, he went off for 57 points on 29 shots to fuel a home sweep of Stanford and Cal. That was uncharacteristically efficient of him, as Aden could previously have been characterized as a high-usage chucker. But in those games, he was aggressive to the basket, and fans wondered if he might be turning over a new leaf -- an efficient scorer from the perimeter is something this team was sorely lacking, and surely would have made a difference. But then the injury happen, and it all became moot.

I think we believe there's still enough talent on the perimeter to replace Aden -- Reggie Moore is capable of more than he shows most nights, and Mike Ladd has shown flashes of being pretty good as he returns from injury -- but it's a guessing game at this point. As for how they'll finish? Honestly, I expect something along the lines of 2-5 the rest of the way in conference.

Who can help Brock Motum with the scoring?

Can DaVonte Lacy become a reliable scorer?As I intimated in the previous response, there probably isn't a singular guy on the roster who can compliment Motum, so it's probably going to have to come from a committee. Lacy will be a part of that, but Moore would actually seem to be the best candidate to complement Motum. Unfortunately, he has chosen to become a facilitator, despite a demonstrated ability to get into the lane and to the line.

Honestly, this team's best chance of winning on any given night is Motum scoring 35.

Speaking of Lacy, assess his progress as a freshman, and what his future looks like.

I think Lacy has hit a little bit of a freshman wall -- many of the three pointers that were going down early in the year have been falling short lately. The problem with that is that he shoots a ton of threes -- about 2/3 of his field goal attempts. From my vantage point, that's way too many for a guy who possesses his first step and strength. He seems to often settle for a perimeter shot when he could put his head down and go to the basket.

That will be the next evolution in his game at the college level, and I have no doubt he's going to make it happen, as he's already displayed a better shooting touch this year than he did in high school. I'll be disappointed if he's not an all-Pac-12 first teamer at some point in his career.

Another thing we noticed, and were surprised by, is that Reggie Moore's assists are up this season overall, but nothing else has changed. Has he actually been at his career ceiling for some time now?

I sort of addressed this earlier, but here's Moore's deal: He was amazing as a freshman, built largely on fearless forays into the lane that often resulted in free throws. But then he hurt his wrist before last season and spent the year trying to protect it.

We thought we might get the Reggie Moore of old back this season, but he's appeared content to simply be a facilitator. And when he does shoot, he typically shoots jumpers. I think the ability to be a dynamic scorer is still in there, but for whatever reason, it doesn't come out much. His ceiling is higher than what he's showing, but who knows if we'll ever see him approach it again?

Is coach Ken Bone on the hot seat? Or does he get a pass due to the injury? He was only 11-8, and 3-4 in conference, before Aden got hurt.

Not on the hot seat, if only because he's in year three of a seven-year guaranteed contract that pays him $850,000 a year. WSU isn't taking that kind of hit to make the basketball coach go away, especially not with what they're paying Mike Leach and his staff. Bone has at least two more years after this one, I figure.

Is their a solution to the lack of a post game in the recruiting pipeline?

Well, they do get plenty on offense in the post from Motum, who can beat most anyone in the conference both inside and out. But in terms of post defense, yeah - it's a mess, and they're hoping 6-foot-10 Richard Peters and 6-7 Richard Longrus will help next year. They'll also be counting on the continued development of sophomore transfer D.J. Shelton, who is athletic, but generally looks like he doesn't understand where to be on the floor.

Even when DeAnglo Casto was there, there was no backup. Why can't Bone seem to recruit big men very effectively?

I think it's twofold. First, it's hard to recruit big men. Bone has tried, but he's had some spectacular bad luck -- career-ending injuries, academic casualties, etc.

But I think there's also some validity to the idea that Bone's emphasis will always be on the perimeter. His offense revolves around those guys, and that's where he places his talent premium. That said, three of the four guys in next year's class play the 3, 4 or 5, so it's being addressed.

Moving over to football, now that signing day is over, can you assess how new coach Mike Leach did recruiting? Did he get enough help to make a major move in the Pac-12 North, or will it take a second class to be able to adequately implement what he wants to do?

As well as could be expected. Tough to say if he got any big-time impact players outside of the wide receivers, but he was able to flip some guys to WSU and also able to get his foot in the door with some bigger-name prospects -- the Cougs had wedged their way into the conversation of OSU recruit Kenny Lawler. It's exciting to consider what he'll be able to do with 12 months to put a class together, rather than six weeks.

It's going to take another class to really get the program going in the direction Leach wants, but we do expect a pretty significant step forward under Leach next year -- most are assuming six wins and a bowl game as the minimum. I'm cautiously optimistic that that's the floor.

From a distance, it looks like the Cougars got a decent group, yet by most accounts, Washington St.'s class was still rated last in the Pac-12. Not that Oregon St.'s was much better, even given that the average number of stars and quantity is one of the better classes here too. Are you concerned that even with program improvements and Pac-12 money, the traditional "have nots", like WSU and OSU, will just become "have lesses" because the "haves" now have even more money too?

Not really. An extra $10 million means a lot more to WSU than it does to UW, Oregon, USC, etc. I mean, what's it going to allow Oregon to do that it couldn't do before? But at WSU, it funded the hiring of Mike Leach, the renovation of Martin Stadium and the construction of a sparkling football operations building. I will be absolutely shocked if those things don't pay dividends soon, especially as recruits see what their brand spanking new training space will be.

Recruiting won't be nearly the uphill battle that it once was, as Leach will be able to convince kids to come on the merits of his coaching and the institution, since the facilities will no longer be incomparable. WSU will never be able to match up with certain programs, but they're making significant facility improvements that should at least somewhat level the playing field.

Thanks Jeff!

Should be interesting tonight.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com

Sagarin Conference Predictions 2/9

2012-02-09T06:20:31Z

Let me say finally, this just flat out is not working well. Sagarins calculations had OSU as high as finishing 3rd in the conference. That has fallen apart and OSU has fallen to 7th. There are 7 games left in conference and Sagarin predicts they will win all 5 of the home games. They have lost only one game this year that they should not have lost and that was to ASU. They were predicted early on to beat CU and didn't. But leading up to that game Sagarin's number predicted a loss. OSU beat the ducks in Eugene but Sagarin predicted they would. They upset Cal but lost to Stanford in a game Sagarin thought OSU should have won. In the end they are pretty much doing what they were predicted to do. They are on pace to win 20 games. The real problem is with Oregon, CU, and Washington. Sagarin did not see them coming. This is now the home stretch, literally.

If UW can beat the ducks this weekend then they drop into a tie with OSU and our tie breaker kicks in. Colorado is predicted to split. Maybe ASU can change that. If Cal loses to UCLA it will get AZ's attention unless AZ finds a way to choke against CU. I swear, if CU beats AZ then I quit.

				Conference			Overall
Rank	Predictor		Team	W	-	L	W	-	L
22	85.89	1	California	15	-	3	25	-	6
39	83.28	2	Arizona	13	-	5	22	-	9
102	77.7	3	Oregon	11	-	7	20	-	10
87	79.32	4	Colorado	11	-	7	19	-	11
46	82.1	5	Stanford	10	-	8	20	-	10
62	81.02	6	Washington	10	-	8	20	-	10
64	80.83	7	Oregon State	10	-	8	20	-	10
116	76.29	8	Washington State	6	-	12	14	-	16
54	81.26	9	UCLA	5	-	13	19	-	12
206	70.02	10	Arizona State	5	-	13	9	-	21
306	61.07	11	Utah	2	-	16	5	-	25
184	71.59	12	Southern California	1	-	17	6	-	25

Again, a negative number means the home team is favored by that many points. Thus, a positive number means the road team is favored.

		Home Team Point Spread
Thursday

Washington State	@	Oregon State	-7.91
Washington	@	Oregon	-0.05
California	@	Southern California	10.93
Stanford	@	UCLA	-2.53
Colorado	@	Arizona	-7.33
Utah	@	Arizona State	-12.32

Saturday
Washington	@	Oregon State	-3.18
Washington State	@	Oregon	-4.78
California	@	UCLA	1.26
Stanford	@	Southern California	7.14
Colorado	@	Arizona State	5.93
Utah	@	Arizona	-25.58

Can AZ win the tournament? Yes.



			85.89	California	1
81.26	UCLA	9		-4.63		85.89	California	1
	4.97		81.26	UCLA	9		-3.79
76.29	Washington State	8							85.89	California	1
			79.32	Colorado	4					-2.61
71.59	Southern California	12		2.78		82.1	Stanford	5
	-10.51		82.1	Stanford	5
82.1	Stanford	5


			83.28	Arizona	2
70.02	Arizona State	10		-2.45		83.28	Arizona	2
	-10.81		80.83	Oregon State	7		-2.26
80.83	Oregon State	7							83.28	Arizona	2
			77.7	Oregon	3
61.07	Utah	11		3.32		81.02	Washington	6
	-19.95		81.02	Washington	6
81.02	Washington	6

Media Moves That Will Matter To Beaver Fans

2012-02-09T03:40:04Z

There have been some moves made recently on media matters that will matter to Beaver fans, both by the Pac-12 Conference and Oregon St.

No More Made For ESPN Spectaculars

The Pac-12 announced this week a policy change that effectively eliminates the made for ESPN neutral site games that were "neutral" in quotes only that Oregon sports fans have experienced in recent seasons in Dallas, first with Oregon St.'s game against TCU, and then last season when Oregon visited Cowboy Stadium to take on LSU.

Per the Pac-12's release:

No member institution shall enter into an agreement to play a neutral-site football game (except in circumstances where such neutral-site game is the away leg of a home-and-home series) unless such agreement provides the Conference with the exclusive broadcast rights and digital rights in all media, and copyright to such neutral-site game.

The conference's retaining control of the television rights doesn't strictly mean no such games will happen, but they would have to be conference produced events, as the benefits won't exist for third party promoters such as Jerry Jones without television rights to resell. Instead, it will be the conference, and by implication of the conference's equal sharing of television revenue, all of the universities, that get the full benefit of their television rights.

Some such events will still occur, like this season's USC-Syracuse game at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey, because that is actually a Syracuse home game the Orangemen have chosen to move for alumni and recruit relations reasons, akin to what Washington St. does when it plays a game annually in Seattle.

And it won't interfere with some possibly neutral site games that come out of the Pac-12/Big 10 scheduling agreement, as such neutral site football games in midwest major markets will probably be paired with another similar game in a major west coast market.

But it will save some schools from themselves, as happened with the Dallas games, where the Beavers' and Ducks' opponents were within driving distance, while air fare from Oregon coupled with premium ticket prices made the games more expensive than a bowl trip for fans. Travel costs holds down attendance at most such events, at least for Pac-12 teams, putting them at a distinct disadvantage.

Penny wise, pound foolish commitments to such games that promised a payoff, but were false economy once costs and lost revenue from having a home game were subtracted are now even more undesirable, now that they also cost the conference network content.

Beaver Radio Moving To Clear Channel Stations

Oregon St. announced that with the start of baseball season, and come fall and winter for football and basketball, Beaver games will no longer be on KPAM 860 AM in the Portland market. After 5 years with the Pamplin Media Group stations, Oregon St. is returning to Clear Channel stations, with football and mens' basketball returning to KEX 1190 AM, which carried the Beavers for literally generations. Baseball will be covered starting this spring on KPOJ 620 AM, which will also serve as the "overflow" station for non-conference basketball that conflicts with football games.

The remainder of the basketball season, including any postseason the Beavers may qualify for, will still be aired on KPAM.

The move does not affect mid valley broadcasts, carried on KEJO 1240 AM, and Mike Parker will remain the voice of the Beavers. Other affiliate radio station coverage is also unaffected.

For fans in many areas of the valley, the change will be a good thing, as the KPAM signal does not reach many areas that are also outside the low-power coverage of KEJO, especially at night. As a result, substantial segments of western Oregon had no radio access to Beaver games over the air, which was a major problem, given the embarrassing number of basketball and even football games not televised in recent years. A problem the Pac-12 network will only resolve once carriage agreements are signed with the satellite and secondary cable carriers the majority of the Pac-12 footprint, and all other areas, depend on. (An issue not yet addressed by the conference.)

KEX has a much stronger, and more far-reaching signal, and initial tests indicate KPOJ's reach may even be better.

The news isn't so good for fans outside the area, however. KPAM streams their radio signal on the internet, allowing fans to listen to Parker's call on their computer or smart phone world-wide. KEX and KPOJ stream their signal as well, but they will NOT be streaming game broadcasts.

Those needing or desiring an audio stream will need to go to Oregon St.'s subscription Beaver Nation Online service at osubeavers.com. So while a stream will be available, it will only be available to those who can budget for a BNO subscription, a most unfortunate step backwards for the sake of extracting additional revenue.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com

Oregon St. Assistant Coach Rumors And Negotiations

2012-02-08T18:20:06Z

The name floating around as the person to become the new Defensive Backs coach for Oregon St. is former Indianapolis Colts assistant Rod Perry. The official word from Oregon St. is that there will be no official word until late in the week, doubtless because negotiations and paperwork take time, and more so at OSU.

However, even though things could change, or collapse altogether, the statement that there will be some official word means something is in process, and its worth taking a look at who Perry is, especially since the initial reaction to his somewhat unfamiliar name is "Who?"

Perry, 58, is a former assistant under head coach Mike Riley at San Diego in the NFL, which is doubtless the initial and primary reason Riley, who is big on connections, is looking at him as the replacement for Keith Heyward, who left for the University of Washington last month.

Perry is originally from Fresno, CA, but played defensive back for now Pac-12 rival Colorado from 1972-74. A 4th. round pick in the NFL draft by the then Los Angeles Rams, Perry twice made the Pro Bowl while playing for the Rams from 1975 thru '82. Perry concluded his pro playing days with the Cleveland Brown in '83 and '84.

Perry's only college coaching experience came the next 4 years, the first at Columbia, then at Fresno City college, and finally for 2 years at Fresno St.

Since then, Perry has been a career NFL assistant, with the Seattle Seahawks in 1989-91, the L.A. Rams in 1992-94, the Houston Oilers in 1995 and 1996, the San Diego Chargers from 1997 thru 2001 (Riley retained him when he took over the Chargers before the 1999 season), all with the title "Defensive Backs Coach", and then the Carolina Panthers in 2002-06, as the "Secondary Coach", and finally with the Colts from 2008 thru 2011, as a "Special Assistant to the Defense".

The secondaries, and the defenses in general, Perry has coached have had mixed success, but its worth noting that he has never had a season when he wasn't coaching since his playing days ended. Every time a stay somewhere has ended (and in the assistant coaching business, that can happen having nothing to do with how you particular position group performed), someone else at a high level immediately found Perry to be an addition they wanted to make.

In the wake of the recent heated recruiting battles in the conference, which had as much to do with many of the coaching changes as on field performance did, the addition of any coach whose' college recruiting experience is limited or not recent, and Perry's certainly is, is an obvious reason for concern.

On the other hand, an understanding of what it takes to get to the next level is one of the primary factors top recruits are interested in. While the currently popular collegiate spread offenses aren't something Perry is experienced in dealing with, he has been looking at the best offensive talent in the world for most of the last 40 years.

Rumors about pay have hovered around the $200,000/year level, which if true would be a considerable step up from what Oregon St. paid Heyward, and more than what constituted a substantial raise that Washington is paying him.

We'll keep an eye on whether the Perry deal comes together in the days to come.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com

Poll

Are you as an Oregon St. fan comfortable with Rod Perry as the next Defensive Backs coach for the Beavers?

Pac-12 Extends Larry Scott's Contract

2012-02-07T04:22:32Z

The Pac-12 Conference today extended Commissioner Larry Scott's contract through the year 2016, and added options for further years.

"My fellow board members and I are delighted to have reached a long term agreement with the commissioner to continue his excellent work on behalf of the Pac-12," said Ed Ray, President of Oregon State University, and the Chairman of the Pac-12 Board.

"We are on the brink of a period of extraordinary accomplishment and excellence throughout the Pac-12 and Larry's continued leadership and vision for the conference are critical elements in realizing that potential."

Since Scott, 47, took over as Commissioner in July, 2009, he has guided the conference through their first expansion since 1978, which added Colorado and Utah, which facilitated the lucrative addition of a football conference championship game.

Scott has also orchestrated the rebranding of the Conference with messages of innovation, excellence, and the advantages of West Coast location at its core. He got equal revenue sharing of television revenue implemented, a first in Conference history, and secured the landmark media rights agreement with FOX and ESPN.

Scott also created the Pac-12 Network and Pac-12 Digital Network, and is developing a globalization strategy that will allow the Conference to pursue new frontiers for athletic, academic and cultural exchanges in China, and eventually elsewhere in the Pacific Rim.

The move will at least ensure that when other corporate media entities come calling, they will have to be prepared to pay a larger price to pry Scott away from the conference.

Scott's moves have put all members of the conference in position to be more competitive in both revenue and non-revenue sports.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com