Text message to Vin L. this afternoon: Be in my office at 8am Monday morning to explain blowing 2 NCAA titles

ronner wrote:

They did win two titles.

No, they LOST the two titles.

The loss of this title could have been avoided with a couple of breaks. Centro and Acosta were injured, Cyrus underperformed and Winter had a brain freeze.

The real problem will come next fall, when the XC team doesn't win it. Losing Rupp and Kiptoo and replacing them with 800/1500 runners will not bring back to back titles to Eugene.

Who will man the top seven next year for the Ducks?

The chances are that the Crouser cousins will be coming to Eugene and will help with some field points in coming years. However, the homegrown talent will not be enough to survive the loss of Galen. Next year is very likely a barren one for first place trophies for the Hayward Field crowd.

If Schaaf is lost this year, the Lady Ducks with the addition of Hasay may actually be able to compete with the Huskies at XC.

Please correct me if I'm wrong:

Men: 1st, 1st, 2nd

Women: 2nd, 2nd, 2nd

Any other team that touches that this year?

Arroyo Small wrote:

The real problem will come next fall, when the XC team doesn't win it. Losing Rupp and Kiptoo and replacing them with 800/1500 runners will not bring back to back titles to Eugene.

Didn't stop me from placing many many milers in the top 25 slots. Hell, I even got one to win the individual title! Maybe Vin should bow down and ask me how I did it.

-John McDonnell

----------------------------------------------------------

I love how you pretend to have in depth knowledge of the goings on regarding Smiths departure and yet you refer to The Universty of Oregon as OU. Anytime someone does that, all credibility is shot.

Smith was a complete screaming baby control freak AND had quit qualifying cross teams to nationals because he basically quit on distance runners. Post collegiate elite runners had to wait until Smiths guys were done working out before they could use the track(including Oregon alumn runners). Now normally that wouldn't be a problem unless you know how Smith worked out his guys. He'd spend hours with one single athlete on the track. A lot of walking, standing and talking between reps, a lot of yelling and screaming during reps haha. The point is it was all unnecessary and it was all about a bipolar control freak. Despite his best efforts to control himself outside of closed doors he couldn't contain himself in a remotely professional manner and the community and alumni wanted nothing to do with his program. How he thought he could cut distance running out and act like a spoiled control freak brat is way beyond me. The old don't bite the hand that feeds you was a lesson never learned as Martin continued to idolize leaders like Bobby Knight. Due to the 7 (and counting) coaches who have left Oklahoma it is apparant that nothing has changed.

[quote]p wrote:

A lot of walking, standing and talking between reps, a lot of yelling and screaming during reps haha. The point is it was all unnecessary and it was all about a bipolar control freak.

didn't he win the Pac 10 title at least once?

the point is the while smith did not do a horrible job at oregon, he did not build the program that the people the athletic epartment depend upon wanted, and based on the success vin has had, oregon did not perform to its potential under smith

in his short time at oregon, vin has collected 2 cross country titles, and an indoor title, an come within 2 points of an outdoor title and a triple crown

whatever success smith had or looked likely to have was nowhere near this level

people can reveal themselves as the idiots they are by calling the title "lost" but the fact is that aTm is a damn good team an competed well, on another day oregon could have taken the title but it s by no means a failing of vin to lose to a team like that

oregon alumni and boosters want several things out of the program:

they want to consistently be in the running for the national title in cross country, indoor, an outdoor track

they want to do this with the primary event area being distance/middle distance

they want inividual standouts to be able to qualify for international teams wearing the oregon uniform

Smith was not providing this and vin has done a great job

vin if anything gets a pay raise after this year as reward for a great year

Vin has been moved from his executive-style-spacious office, to an 8 x 8 cubicle..like Dilbert. Phil's punishment I guess.

fly on the wall...update wrote:

Vin has been moved from his executive-style-spacious office, to an 8 x 8 cubicle..like Dilbert. Phil's punishment I guess.

And as they escorted him down the hall, his "friends" serenaded him with:

"La na na na....La na na na....HEY HEY HEY....GOOD-BYE!!!!! "

Yes I am sure you were the one who cried "Racism"

They should have won the track title. There was no dominant sprint program and Oregon had the double champion in the 5k/10k, the decathlon champ, and the 800m champ. That's 40 points from three athletes. He got very little from the rest of the team. He had a huge blow from Centro's injury, but all he had to have done, even if Acosta was legitimately out for the season, was to put Wheating in the 1500m. Vin's building a juggernaut in the distances, even better than his Stanford teams, and he's got a tremendous incoming class, even if Rupp is out. But this was a golden opportunity with Arkansas and others down.

Not so much. The titles they won are worth less, combined, than the titles that Texas A&M just won. Outdoors is a man's game, bitch.

ronner wrote:

sobig u wrote:

wow..all the $$$ they spent on that program..and no title. shame!

They did win two titles. I'm no duck fan, but I'm pretty sure they had a better year than any other xc/track program in the NCAA.

i would definitely say there were dominant sprint programs. texas a & m? UT?

come back with a real argument, you are just trolling and get 1/10.

You replied.

My buddy who works security in Knight's buildng said that when Vin entered Phil's office for the 8am meeting, Knight, Hollister and Salazar jumped him, threw a blanket over him, then kicked and beat the hell out of him; then threw him out.

OK, the program has improved under Vin, but he was handed the defending pac-ten champs in track that hadn't finished worse than second in the last four years. Hardly something that needed to be "built". Martin could be a prick from time to time, but Vin is just as much of a prick, control freak, or whatever you want to him. Bye the way, so were Dellinger and Bowerman. All were great coaches. The bottom line was that Martin stood up to Alberto. That's why all the alum lined up against him, because Alberto told them to. Martin did not abandon distance running, he failed in recruiting. Part of this was the hard time he had with local people due to Alberto poisoning the well, and part was just a failure to recruit. Also, while "giving up of distances" he did qualify 3+ individuals for the NCAA outdoor meet every year, not a lot of programs do that.

Back to the topic at hand, Oregon had a disappointing outdoor meet. Some of it was injuries that were out of control, things happen, some people underperformed a little. However I'm sure Oregon and Phil are very happy with the state of the program.

Arroyo Small wrote:

If Schaaf is lost this year, the Lady Ducks with the addition of Hasay may actually be able to compete with the Huskies at XC.

Update me, please: Where is Schaaf? Has she left the UW and if so, why?

I observed the exact same behavior you describe at Wisconsin,and have it on inside info from coaches, that it is happening at Ok. now. Some cats do not change their stripes.