Home again, home again, road trips are done

After a rigorous road trip in L.A., Cardinal fans can look forward to the comfort of home games in Maples this weekend as the Cardinal play:

• The Oregon State Beavers on Thursday, Feb 24 at 7:00 pm. The game will be webcast by Stanford All*Access and broadcast by KZSU.


• The Oregon Ducks on Saturday, Feb 26 at 2:00 pm. The game will be webcast by Stanford All*Access and broadcast by KZSU.

Although you should never take any basketball game for granted, I really think that the Cardinal have nothing to fear from the Beavers and Ducks. To paraphrase something Kayla said after the UCLA game last week, "Every single person is ready to do what she needs to do."

  Oregon State Beavers

As was expected, OSU is ranked last in the Pac-10. What few (perhaps no one) expected is that they have won nine games so far.

The Beavers had a thrilling victory last weekend in the Oregon Civll War. They rallied from a 20-point deficit at halftime to defeat the Ducks by two points for their second conference win.

I so admire what coach Scott Rueck and his team have accomplished this season. If you feel the same, get on your feet and applaud when the Beavers are introduced at Maples on Thursday night.

  Oregon Ducks

Oregon has had a dismal conference season that keeps getting worse. They've lost their last seven games and have played the last four games without Nia Jackson, their leader in scoring and assists, who injured both knees early in February.

Oregon’s most glaring weakness is the lack of defensive rebounding (they make the fewest in the Pac-10), which has kept the Ducks from being able to consistently run their fastbreak offense.

Oregon is currently ranked ninth in the Pac-10, with Oregon State just one game back. They are in danger of dropping to the bottom if they can't pull themselves out of the doldrums for the remaining four games of the season (against Cal, Stanford and the Arizona schools).