Tag: Oregon

Oregon’s Jermaine Couisnard had predraft workout with Thunder

Oregon’s Jermaine Couisnard had predraft workout with Thunder.

The calendar has flipped to June, which means NBA teams are intensifying their predraft process and hosting players for workouts and visits. The 2024 NBA draft will take place from June 26-27.

The Oklahoma City Thunder enter this year’s class with a sole draft pick of the No. 12 selection. OKC was gifted the free lottery pick via the Houston Rockets.

The Thunder will host several meetings with draft prospects in the coming weeks. This includes players outside the lottery range as OKC will likely seek to add undrafted free agents or even buy back into the second round if it likes someone enough.

One possibility is Oregon’s Jermaine Couisnard. He posted on social media he had a predraft workout with the Thunder.

The 25-year-old played in five college seasons from 2019-24. He spent his first three seasons in South Carolina before transferring and his last two years at Oregon.

In 36 games last season, Couisnard averaged 16.6 points on 40% shooting, 4.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists. He shot 34.6% from 3 on 5.9 attempts. At 6-foot-4, 215 pounds, he has good size for a guard.

Couisnard is a potential undrafted free agent target. He has a shot to join the Thunder’s summer league squad and possibly be added to the G League’s OKC Blue for next season if he impresses enough.

A full list of 2024 NBA draft prospects that have worked out or visited the Thunder in the predraft process can be viewed here.

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Epic meltdown brought the last Pac-12 baseball season to an end

Oregon’s implosion against Texas A&M was one for the record books.

The last Pac-12 baseball season — the last Pac-12 sports pursuit of a championship — ended on Sunday. It ended in part because of a remarkable collapse the Oregon Ducks will spend all offseason trying to forget. One doubts they will succeed in the attempt.

Ducks Wire has more on a remarkable turn of events which ushered the Ducks out of the NCAA baseball super regionals, stopping their season short of Omaha and the College World Series. It’s not that they lost a lead to Texas A&M which hurts; it’s how they lost that lead and why their coach didn’t have a relief pitcher ready in the bullpen to stop the implosion:

“Once up 8-4 in the seventh inning in Game 2 of the Bryan-College Station Super Regional against Texas A&M, the Ducks’ pitching absolutely imploded as they saw the Aggies score nine runs on just two hits to take the 13-8 lead and the eventual 15-9 win.

“Brock Moore, who threw two innings beforehand, walked in three runs and forced another in before finally being relieved by Jaxson Jordan. It got worse after that as Jordan walked in a run and allowed a Kaeden Kent grand slam to account for the nine-run frame.”

Nine runs allowed on two hits? That’s hard to believe. As a result, Pac-12 baseball’s dream died on Sunday, as did the conference’s final push for a championship in college sports. There is no more Pac-12 sports to be played. The conference’s 10 fleeing members will now scatter and officially join other conferences, while Washington State and Oregon State will play Mountain West schools in football and West Coast Conference schools in basketball.

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Oregon, Oregon State lose as Pac-12 gets bullied in NCAA baseball

The Pac-12 took a hit on Saturday in the NCAA baseball super regionals.

It was not a good day for the Pac-12 in the NCAA baseball super regionals on Saturday. Oregon State got blasted by Kentucky, and Oregon fell to Texas A&M. The Beavers and Ducks both allowed 10 runs. That will almost always lead to a loss.

Ducks Wire had more on Oregon’s loss to Texas A&M:

“The Oregon Ducks baseball team won the Santa Barbara Regional with pitching and defense and they were hoping for much of the same this weekend in the Bryan-College Station Super Regional. Neither was present in Game 1 Saturday afternoon as the Ducks dropped the opener to Texas A&M 10-6.

“Starting pitcher RJ Gordon, who was brilliant last week against San Diego, didn’t have his best stuff on the mound and he struggled to get through four innings. The Aggies hit him around for seven runs, six earned, nine hits and most importantly, four walks that all came around to score.”

There’s more coverage of these super regionals from Aggies Wire and Wildcats Wire. Oregon and Oregon State try to stay alive in Game 2 of the supers on Sunday.

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Georgia adds defensive back from top Big Ten program out of transfer portal

The former Oregon Ducks defensive back flips from the Temple Owls to the Georgia Bulldogs

The Georgia Bulldogs have made yet another addition to their secondary by way of the transfer portal. Former Oregon Ducks defensive back Collin Gill, who had previously committed to the Temple Owls in May of this offseason, committed to the Bulldogs Thursday afternoon.

Gill is a former three-star recruit who redshirted his lone season with the Ducks. Listed at 6-foot, 215 pounds, he was recruited as a cornerback but played safety at Oregon, giving Georgia a versatile asset who can provide depth at either position. This depth is especially important as Georgia seeks to replace three starters from last season’s secondary in Javon Bullard, Kamari Lassiter, and Tykee Smith, all of whom were drafted in the first three rounds of this year’s NFL draft.

Gill played high school football at St. John’s in Washington, D.C. He chose the Ducks originally over Ole Miss, Missouri, Washington State, and a host of other teams.

With the addition of Gill, Georgia has now added nine transfers this offseason, including another addition to the secondary in former Alabama safety Jake Pope.

Report: NBC wants two Wisconsin football games in its primetime slot in 2024

NBC wants two Wisconsin games in its primetime slot in 2024

NBC wants two Wisconsin football games in its 7:30 p.m. primetime slot this season, according to the Action Network’s Brett McMurphy.

Those two games are Oct. 26 vs. Penn State and Nov. 16 vs. Oregon.

Related: Wisconsin full 2024 football schedule with locations, kick times and TV channels

The note comes as McMurphy released NBC’s ‘preferred primetime lineup’ for the entire 2024 season. Other notable contests include Ohio State at Oregon, Michigan at Washington and USC at UCLA.

The list is what NBC wants its primetime broadcast lineup to be, not which games will definitely be in it. More so, this release is a peak under the hood at the negotiations between Fox, CBS and NBC — the three networks that own the Big Ten’s television rights.

The timing aligns with the three networks taking turns publicly releasing some of their top games of the season.

Wisconsin has four game dates and broadcast information thus far — the three out-of-conference matchups and rivalry weekend vs. Minnesota. The marquee out-of-conference matchup vs. Alabama will be Fox Big Noon Kickoff. Badgers fans would welcome seeing both the Penn State and Oregon moved to primetime.

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Chip Kelly, Pete Carroll never got to develop a rivalry at Oregon, USC

The Pac-12 would have been so much more fun if Pete Carroll faced Chip Kelly for five years.

One of the great regrets of Pac-12 football is that Chip Kelly and Pete Carroll were never able to settle into a five- or six-year period in which they were matching wits with each other at Oregon and USC. Just imagine what it would have been like to have Kelly as the ultimate offensive guru versus Carroll’s defensive mind in a series of high-stakes showdowns.

As we all know, Carroll left USC after the 2009 college football season to go to the Seattle Seahawks of the NFL with the NCAA bearing down on the Trojans in a witch hunt. Kelly took over at Oregon in 2009 and began to catapult Oregon to top-tier status in the Pac-12 and in college football. Oregon played in the 2010 season’s BCS National Championship Game and was a factor in subsequent national title races. USC declined immediately after Carroll’s departure, hit by those unfair NCAA sanctions.

We discuss the late 2000s and early 2010s as they relate to USC and Oregon football history in our recent show with Ducks Wire editor Zac Neel and staff writer Don Smalley. Here’s the show:

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Michigan State football lands commitment from Oregon transfer DT Ben ‘Big Worm’ Roberts

Michigan State football lands commitment from Oregon transfer DT Ben ‘Big Worm’ Roberts

Michigan State football successfully finished complete a trade with Oregon on Wednesday. Just kidding, kind of.

Two weeks ago, Oregon landed the commitment of Michigan State transfer defensive tackle Derrick Harmon. Today, the Spartans got a defensive tackle back from Oregon by way of the transfer portal, when Ben ‘Big Worm’ Roberts committed to MSU.

Roberts was a 4-star recruit in the 2022 class and will have three years of eligibility remaining.

https://twitter.com/RobertsBen8/status/1790861554646167790

LOOK: MSU FOOTBALL SPRING TRANSFER TRACKER

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Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel could crash the Heisman party and the 2025 NFL draft

Dillon Gabriel is starting for his third team this season and has a shot to win the Heisman Trophy.

Few college football players are as well-traveled as new Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel. Gabriel arrives in Eugene after three seasons at UCF and two more at Oklahoma thanks to the wacky transfer portal rules.

Had Gabriel stayed at Oklahoma, there’s no guarantee he would have started over Jackson Arnold but in Oregon he is assured the starting job. Gabriel will also have an absolutely loaded offense led by three more transfers. Wide receivers Tez Arnold, Traeshon Holden and Evan Stewart are all newcomers to the Ducks and will need to get on the same page as Gabriel.

With Gabriel’s new home, he has a real shot to replace Bo Nix in the starting lineup and put up record-breaking stats. Gabriel should be firmly in the mix to win the Heisman in 2024 and if he can do all that, teams are going to have to figure out if Gabriel can overcome his size issues and be the next Kyler Murray or Russell Wilson.

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We can be honest about Oregon’s victories over USC

Money might truly be the main driver of Oregon’s transfer portal wins over USC. It isn’t the only factor, though.

The Oregon Ducks defeated the USC Trojans in the battle to land elite defensive tackle Derrick Harmon. Many USC fans will tell you that Phil Knight and his Nike money made the difference. Are they wrong? Let’s think about that question before answering it.

Ducks Wire wrote that “In the early transfer window, Harmon entered the portal and looked around for a new team, ultimately taking a visit to Oregon before deciding to return to East Lansing with Jonathan Smith. After a few offseason months, though, Harmon re-entered the portal and decided to fly west to Eugene.”

It’s clear that Harmon thought long and hard about his decision. Some might speculate that Oregon increased the value of the bag at the last moment, and that USC wasn’t willing to pay as much. Maybe that’s true, but we don’t know that. We can say that Harmon weighed his choice and didn’t make it quickly or easily. This obviously means Eric Henderson and USC offered something compelling, something worth considering. NFL-level development mattered in all of this. It might simply not have been the first — or only — factor.

When USC fans say that Phil Knight and his money were the difference for Oregon, they aren’t fundamentally wrong. That money is a powerful lure and a consistent advantage the Ducks have. However, while USC fans are basically right, they need to be careful and avoid saying that money is the only reason for Oregon’s player-acquisition wins. Is it the main reason? Very possibly, maybe even likely. It’s not the only reason, however.

Let’s be honest: If Mark Helfrich or Willie Taggart coached Oregon, and the Ducks were coming off the kind of season USC (8-5) just had, do you still think Harmon would be in Eugene right now? Money might be the main driver of this — we’re not arguing that point — but it’s not the only element and the sole reason for Harmon’s (or other recruits’) decisions. Dan Lanning has needed to display enough competence to pull in these portal and recruiting prospects. If he went 8-5 last season, he wouldn’t be winning nearly as many battles. We feel confident in saying that.

Money matters. Phil Knight matters. On those points, there is zero debate. We’re not fighting against those claims. We’re only saying money is not the only driver or the whole ballgame. The coaches have to be good enough. The program has to be good enough. Oregon is, and USC is coming off a five-loss season in which it didn’t look great. That matters, too.

We just want to make sure people realize that.

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