Category: Pro Ducks

WATCH: Dillon Brooks throws down massive dunk against Spurs in NBA play-in game

Dillon Brooks had no mercy for Dejounte Murray on Wednesday night, throwing down a massive dunk in his face on the fast break

You think Dillon Brooks is happy to be playing on the big stage in the NBA play-in game? Look no further than his massive tomahawk dunk in the first quarter against the San Antonio Spurs as proof.

On a fast break, Brooks took the ball down the lane and rose up with a defender in his way, cocking his arm back and throwing it down with authority to give the Memphis Grizzlies an 18-4 lead early on. He celebrated with all of the enthusiasm and confidence that any Oregon fan is used to.

The Spurs eventually came back from a big deficit to make it a close game at half, but the lasting highlight will undoubtedly be Brooks’ slam early on. The playoff certainly suit a player of his stature.

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Penei Sewell signs rookie deal worth $24 million guaranteed with Detroit Lions

The former Duck will now get over $24 million guaranteed as part of his rookie contract, securing Sewell’s massive pay-day.

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We’ve known for the better part of a month which NFL team former Oregon Ducks left tackle Penei Sewell would be playing with to start his professional career, but it was made official this week as the first-round pick finally signed his rookie contract and assured his major pay-day.

As the No. 7 overall pick, Sewell guaranteed himself a massive contract thanks to the rookie wage scale, and his four-year contract comes with over $24 million guaranteed.

While the Lions already have left tackle Taylor Decker signed for the next few years, there are some questions about where Sewell will play at the start of the season, but it’s hard to believe that he will even sniff the bench, especially with that number next to his name.

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Sabrina Ionescu records her first professional triple-double

This is the Sabrina the New York Liberty were counting on as the GOAT records her first pro triple-double.

New York Liberty fans and just general WNBA fans better get used to this.

Sabrina Ionescu collected her first professional triple-double for the Liberty with 26 points, 10 rebounds, and 12 assists to help New York defeat Minnesota 86-75. New York is 3-0 for the first time in 14 years.

She also became the youngest player to complete the feat as no other player did it before their third season. Ionescu has six games under her belt.

Watching the former Duck rack up such a stat line is nothing new for those who witnessed her brilliance in Eugene. In Ionescu’s four seasons for Oregon, she managed to collect 26 triple-doubles in her career and that number most likely would have been higher if the 2020 NCAA tournament had occurred.

Ionescu made triple-doubles a regular event at Oregon, but they don’t happen all that often in actuality. She became the 10th player in league history to have a triple-double, and the first since Chelsea Gray did it in 2019 for the Los Angeles Sparks.

New York will attempt to go 4-0 on Friday with a trip to Washington to take on the Mystics.

 

 

WATCH: Sabrina Ionescu drills game-winner in WNBA season opener

Sabrina Ionescu came back where she left off after last year’s ankle injury with a three-pointer to win the game for the NY Liberty.

The GOAT has returned!

If anybody thought Sabrina Ionescu would be slowed down by last year’s ankle injury, better think again.

Always eager to make the big play, Ionescu made the biggest play of them all as she hit a three-pointer with 0.4 seconds remaining to give her New York Liberty the 90-87 win over the Indianapolis Fever.

Ionescu isn’t a stranger to hitting game-winners as she made a name for herself as a freshman at Oregon when she hit a similar shot to stun California.

Liberty fans are hoping this is just the start of what should be a very special career in the Big Apple. Ionescu’s rookie season was cut short just three games into the 2020 season due to an ankle injury that required surgery.

Now fully healthy, it was complete Sabrina Mode and the Fever were the unfortunate recipients. Ionescu finished the game with 25 points and 11 assists to go with six rebounds.

Pro Duck Spotlight: Cole Irvin is finally coming into his own with the A’s

Former Oregon Duck starter Cole Irvin is flourishing in Oakland and is a big part of the A’s rotation.

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All it took to find success was to get Cole Irvin back in green and yellow.

Irvin threw the best game of his young Major League career Tuesday night as he went eight innings, giving up just one run and striking out nine for the Oakland A’s in the 4-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays. It was his sixth start for Oakland and Irvin lowered his earned run average to 3.08.

But his journey to the Bay Area wasn’t an easy one.

The tall left-handed started for the Oregon Ducks was drafted in the fifth round of the 2016 MLB draft, and it took Irvin less than three seasons to make it all the way up to the big league club in 2019.

But Irvin could never find a foothold on the Phillies’ pitching staff as he was bounced around, going up and down from Triple-A and going from starter to reliever and back again.

Understandably, his numbers suffered.

In 16 games in 2019, Irvin wound up with an earned run average of 5.83 and a 2-1 record. The next year didn’t get any better with the pandemic and just the whole uncertainty that was the 2020 season. Irvin appeared in just three games with an ERA of over 17.00

It may have been a blessing in disguise, however.

Irvin was traded to Oakland on January 30 of this year and he has flourished since. He was able to win a spot in the rotation with a great Spring Training where Irvin threw 18 innings and gave up just two runs. His success in Arizona translated into the regular season.

After dominating the Blue Jays, Irvin is now 3-3 on the season in six starts. He already has more starts and wins for the A’s than he did in two seasons for the Phillies. Oakland is currently in first place of the American Least West with a 19-12 record.

If Irvin can keep on having outings like his most recent one, the A’s will be in the pennant race all summer long.

Former Ducks’ star Dillon Brooks has entertaining trip to Oregon, gets best of Trail Blazers

Dillon Brooks got into it with several Blazers players in their pair of games this weekend, but the former Duck got the last laugh in the end.

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Before we get too far ahead of ourselves and declare that Memphis Grizzlies’ forward Dillon Brooks, a former Oregon Ducks’ standout, owns the Portland Trailblazers, let’s make it clear that we aren’t arguing that point. However, it is impossible to ignore the success that Brooks has found in the great state, even after moving away.

After his incredibly successful career as a Duck, Brooks moved away to Memphis after being drafted and traded in the NBA, and now he seems to get up a little bit extra any time he comes back to his collegiate state.

The most recent example of this took place over the weekend when the Portland Trail Blazers hosted the Grizzles for two games, both of which ended in losses for the home team. In those games, Brooks was stellar, going for 25 points, 3 assists and two rebounds in 34 minutes during the first game, and adding 18 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 blocks in the second.

At one point during the second game, things got a bit chippy between Brooks and the Blazes, with the former Duck taking exception to a foul from CJ McCollum and later being assessed a technical foul after getting into a verbal argument with Carmelo Anthony.

For any fan of the Oregon Ducks, watching Brooks get under the skin of another team is nothing new. We saw this a number of times in college as the precocious scorer is quick to let his feelings be known.

Brooks got the last laugh against Portland, with his team winning the second straight game over the Blazers and moving even closer in the western conference standings in the midst of a race for the final playoff spots.

The two teams will face off once again on Wednesday night, this time in Memphis, so we may see if the Oregon theory has any legs.

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Fresh off of a Rookie of the Year season, Justin Herbert is hungry for more success

Former Oregon QB Justin Herbert was a revelation in the NFL last season, and with a full offseason to work, his future is looking even brighter.

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Expectations were surprisingly low for Justin Herbert as he entered the first year of his NFL career. Though he was drafted by the Los Angeles Chargers with the 6th overall pick, many people thought he would be a bust and were not certain of the leadership ability he would have in the NFL, nor how his game from Oregon would translate.

He proved all of the doubters wrong in an instant. going toe-to-toe with reigning Super Bowl-winning quarterback Patrick Mahomes in his first career game — a game in which he learned he was starting just minutes before the first kick — and later continuing that torrid pace and running away with the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award.

With so much success already realized at the professional level, Herbert enters his first real training camp in the NFL with a hunger for more, though.

“There’s a lot to improve on,” Herbert said, via NFL.com. “I think if I could master the offense, if I could go to the line of scrimmage and have a plan of exactly what we’re going to do. I think I can always work on footwork as well, stepping up in the pocket, getting the ball out quickly. There’s a lot of stuff to cover.”

Ever the gym-rat, Herbert continually got better each and every year at Oregon, ultimately capping his career off with a mega-performance against the Wisconsin Badgers in the 2020 Rose Bowl victory, rushing for three touchdowns in a 28-27 victory.

Though he was riding high while leaving college, Herbert definitely took some hits in the draft evaluation process. In true Justin fashion, though, none of that effected the stoic QB, who went on to shame the rest of the 2020 rookie class and make fools of any team who passed on him in the first round.

Now, with a full NFL offseason to hone his craft and work on becoming better, there is no telling what can be accomplished in 2021 and beyond. We know the hard worker and dedicated learner that Herbert is, and the rest of the NFL is about to find out as well.

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Justin Herbert is trying to convince LA Chargers to draft Penei Sewell

Herbert and Sewell had a long and successful career together at Oregon, and now the Chargers’ QB is vying for his team to draft the LT.

There’s something special about a bond between quarterbacks and their left tackles. Always there to protect your blind side, a QB has to have complete and utter trust in the man flanking his left side, knowing that he isn’t going to be put into harm’s way while letting the play develop.

For former Oregon Ducks superstar Justin Herbert, there was a serious bond with Penei Sewell, arguably the top LT prospect in Thursday’s NFL draft. While Herbert has already found instant success in the pros, he is now doing his best to convince his team to grab his former college teammate, bringing Sewell to Los Angeles to play with the Chargers and be his new running mate.

“I’m doing my best. He’s an incredible player,” Herbert said, via NFL.com. “Whenever you get a tackle like that in the draft, he can change your program. Always a big fan and I’m an even bigger fan of the way he is off the field.”

The Chargers have the No. 13 pick in the draft, so it seems pretty unlikely that Sewell will fall to them naturally, as he is projected to be taken somewhere in the top 10, with the most anticipated suitor being the Cincinnati Bengals. There are other LT prospects on the board, like Northwestern’s Rashawn Slater, or USC’s Alijah Vera-Tucker who could end up going before Sewell, but to see him drop all the way to No. 13 is hard to imagine.

Of course, LA could end up trading up a few spots to get Sewell, but we don’t know how much they like him as a prospect, or what they are willing to give up to get him.

Regardless, left tackle is a position of need for the Chargers, who are trying to fortify their front line in front of what looks to be a franchise player in Herbert. If they were able to grab Sewell and lock down the left side of their offensive front for years to come, it could do wonders for the development of Herbert’s career. We saw just how good those two were together at Oregon, so pairing them up for a handful of years in the NFL seems like a good idea as well.

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Penei Sewell says pre-draft slander aimed at Justin Herbert was taken personally

Penei Sewell took exception to all of the criticism aimed at Justin Herbert ahead of the 2020 draft, but wasn’t surprised by QB’s success.

When you look at the narratives entering the 2021 NFL draft, skepticism surrounding the profile of former Oregon Ducks left tackle Penei Sewell is not very prevalent.

There of course are your one-off draft analysts who think that Sewell may not be the best left tackle prospect in this draft class, listing guys like USC’s Alijah Vera-Tucker, or Northwestern’s Rashawn Slater higher than him on their big-boards, but by almost any account, it’s practically consensus that Sewell will be drafted in the top-10 come draft day.

The same couldn’t be said about former Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert a year ago, however. The dynamite QB was thought to be among the top at his position entering the draft, but there were a lot of questions about his leadership abilities, and lack of a strong voice in the locker room. The arm talent and physical attributes were there, but a majority of analysts were crying bust before the draft even started, and the Los Angeles Chargers selected Herbert with the sixth overall pick.

He sure proved everyone wrong.

Herbert quickly established himself as the heavy favorite to win the Offensive Rooke of the Year award, and he finished his debut season with 31 touchdowns and 4,336 yards with 10 interceptions. However, despite the recent success from Herbert, some of the things that were said about him still stick in the minds of his former teammates. In particular, Sewell has taken some umbrage with the past comments.

“To see the slander Justin Herbert was getting, I even hurt,” Sewell told USA TODAY Sports over Zoom on Thursday. “I was even hurting. I took it personal, too, like, ‘Why y’all even think this and that?’ Then I was like – just wait. Just wait ’til he has his opportunity. Justin Herbert will do Justin Herbert things.”

As a left tackle who played alongside Herbert for his career at Oregon, it comes as no surprise for Sewell to stand up for his QB, who he has made a career out of protecting. As Sewell enters the NFL and finds a new QB to protect, you can bet that the same brotherhood will still live on between these Men of Oregon.

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Travis Dye says he and CJ Verdell are ‘best 1-2 punch’ in the Pac-12, if not the nation

The experience and explosiveness brought by Verdell and Dye have a chance to put Oregon’s running game among the best in the NCAA.

The last couple of decades of Ducks football has been buoyed by the presence and performances from Oregon running backs. You have Maurice Morris, Onterrio Smith, Jonathan Stewart, Jeremiah Johnson, LaMichael James, and Kenjon Barner, Want to keep going? Throw in De’Anthony Thomas, Royce Freeman, Byron Marshall, LeGarrette Blount, and Thomas Tyner.

No matter what year we are focusing on, Oregon has had at least one proficient or dominant runner in the backfield, and the 2021-22 season looks to be no different with the return of C.J. Verdell and Travis Dye.

With years of experience and lofty goals, the duo plans to be among the best tandem in the NCAA this season.

“I believe that we are the best 1-2 punch in the Pac-12, if not the nation,” Dye said, via Duck Territory’s Erik Skopil. “Of course we’re going to say that, but we’re going to show that this year for sure.”

So far, both backs have proven that they can be dangerous with the ball. Verdell currently ranks 9th on Oregon’s all-time rushing list, with 2,523 total yards, and 23 total touchdowns. His time with the Ducks has been cut short by injury as well, missing the final two games of the 2020 season with a broken wrist.

Dye is lower on the all-time list, sitting at No. 21 with 1,840 total yards and 11 touchdowns. However, Oregon has been formidable and reliable in the running game since those two have taken over, and that trend could very well continue this season. There are other young players like Sean Dollars or Trey Benson that might get some run early in the season, but when crunch time comes around, you can expect to see No. 7 or No. 26 line up in the backfield.

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