A new feature! Every weekend, I’ll run down the big news in Oregon sports. Since I’m out of town this weekend, I thought I’d get an early jump on it. This week:

- Will the U of O curse infect the basketball squad?
- OSU, prepping for a drubbing…
- Blazers settling in to mediocrity in convincing fashion.

Stories after the jump.

THE U of O CURSE
They’re undefeated. They just took down ^[1] a highly-ranked school from back east somewhere. They’re poised for their best season in years. Sound familiar? That’s because U of O is becoming a constant heart-breaker to their faithful fans. Just a few months ago the Ducks knocked out Oklahoma (with a little help from fate and a bad replay call) and were looking unstoppable. And they’ve managed, at this point, to become a train-wreck who’ll lose their bowl game and thankfully put a pathetic season behind them. Their major star, Jonathan Stewart, underachieved all season. And, in the end, we were left to wonder what happened.

Now the hoop squad is setting us up for another round of Duck-fan tragedy, as they are showing signs of having a darn good season, until you consider what’s ahead. I mean, sure, they’re 6-0 (8-0 if you count lame blow-out exhibitions), but Georgetown has been the only test in what has been an otherwise lame schedule. Portland State? Lehigh? UC Irvine? Coming up ^[2], they have Nebraska on December 9, and then a light schedule until Pac-10 season hits on December 30. At that point, expect them to start slipping quickly. And I’m calling my shot now, with the full expectation that Makil Hairston will implode and under-impress again, which (if memory serves) would be consistent with last season. In fact, I’m calling my shot now. When the regular season is over, I predict the Ducks record will be 18-12 (and I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt on two games here) and they’ll maybe get to the NIT. I think OSU will have a better season.

OSU about to get trounced
The Beavers are riding high, fresh off a Civil War victory over a worse-than-advertised Oregon team and thinking ahead to their 2nd 10-win season of all-time. The only sticking point is that they’re going to face a Hawaii squad that is 24th-ranked in the country and ready to kick in OSU’s teeth.

It’s a mystery to me how OSU got to 8-4 for the season. The fact that only 3 Pac-10 teams only beat them is also a surprise. Certainly they got lucky to face a Washington team that had just lost their key player when their quarterback went down for the season. USC was schocked by them, and in 100 games between the teams, the Beavers would win maybe 5. And, really, UCLA and Arizona should’ve beaten them as well. They were on pace to be a 5-7 team at this point of the season when it started.

Their record is a testimony to the strange talents of Mike Reilly, who appears to be under-achieving but is actually doing quite the opposite. And, just as much, it is a testimony to how poorly the rest of the Pac-10 has fared for various reasons. Oregon can’t seem to get any consistency out of its offense, USC is merely human after all, Washington’s been stunted by one player’s loss, and OSU has just managed to capitalize in moments of weakness by being consistently mediocre while other teams have imploded.

Anyway, don’t expect Hawaii to implode this weekend. And don’t expect OSU to be ready to play. They’re in Hawaii, looking past a top 25 team, and they’re going to get punched in the face early by an aggressive offense that won’t allow them to recover. I expect OSU to lose by at least two touchdowns, and the headache may follow them into their bowl game…

Blazers Losing, But Looking Good While Doing So
As everyone’s told you so far, it’s going to be a looooong NBA season here in Stumptown. The Trailblazers are on a three-game losing streak (and have lost 8 of their last 10), and I’d expect we’ll see more where this one came from.

But chin up, Portland Fan. So far, the home team is scoring 93.6 games per game, where last season they were scoring only 88.8 points a game. Z-Bo, despite his off-court shenanigans, is a 25/10 guy instead of an 18/8 guy. DMiles is nearly a memory. And we have a couple of exciting rooks and a couple of good sophomores to follow instead of the NannyStopper, Sebastian “Gun-in-a-pillow-case” Telfair, and the uninspiring likes of Khryapa, Ratliff (likeable, but a stiff) and Skinner. Things are looking up. Just not in the next few days, with games coming up against Detroit, Indiana, Toronto and Phillie.

Anyway, it’s a big weekend. Call your shots here and let us know how you see the sports scene shaping up…