With conference play now in full swing, the Emerald baseball crew ranks the Pac-12 baseball teams.

Leaders

1. OSU (25-5, 7-2 Pac-12)

2. Oregon (23-8, 9-3)

3. Arizona State (19-9-1, 6-6)

A lot of time has passed since the Beaver’s College World Series successes – they’re not the only team in the state anymore – but the Beavers are playing as well as anybody in the country this year. While Tuesday’s Civil War won’t count toward the Pac-12 standings, it will at least temporarily establish some bragging rights. Arizona State had a shaky start to its Pac-12 campaign but made a big statement by taking two of three from Oregon this weekend – even if that statement was weakened by the 16-spot the Ducks put up on Sunday. http://www.thesundevils.com/sports/m-basebl/sched/asu-m-basebl-sched.htmlhttp://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=11401&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=207103167@@

Dark horses

4. Arizona (21-11, 6-6)

5. UCLA (19-9, 7-5)

6. Stanford (16-10, 5-4)

The Cardinal may not be a national title contender this year, but it has what many are calling the nation’s top pitching prospect in Mark Appel. The Bruins are treading water in the middle of the conference standings but managed to steal one of three games from Oregon State this weekend. It was the second-straight series loss for the men from Westwood but it was also the second-straight tough series, with the Bruins also dropping two of three in the desert to Arizona State. Arizona hit a roadblock with back-to-back series against Oregon and Oregon State, both ending in sweeps for the Oregon schools.

Middle of the Pac

7. California (16-15, 5-6)

8. Utah (14-13, 4-7)

9. Washington State (16-13, 3-5)

At least they’re all above the .500 mark overall, but there’s not much going on in the lower half of the league. Realistically though, even the relative bottom feeders can make up a lot of ground with one solid weekend. Realistically though, all three of these teams have the more challenging half of their schedule in front of them. The Utes picked up one of the more notable upsets of the Pac-12 season when they took two of three from Stanford in the Bay Area, but outside of that they haven’t turned many heads.

Doormats

10. USC (12-19, 5-7)

11. Washington (8-21, 2-7)

The Trojans have a proud baseball tradition – and this is unfamiliar territory to be sure – but when Athletic Director Pat Haden fired head coach Frank Cruz in February it was a sign of things to come for Trojan baseball. Washington has had an equally nightmarish season with nothing positive to write home about outside of a series win against USC. To be fair, the Huskies have faced a challenging schedule including road series against the likes of LSU and Oregon.

The weather didn’t cooperate at the Pepsi Team Invitational, but the results made up for it.  Texas A&M’s Henry Lelei got the day off to a fast start in just the second track event of the day, smashing the Aggies school record in the 3000m steeplechase, finishing in 8:32.94, the fastest time in the world this year.

Oregon’s Jillian Weir also had a career day, turning in a personal best finish in the discus and winning the women’s hammer throw.  Multisport athlete Liz Brenner finished third in the women’s javelin, just over a foot behind second place.

From the start the team titles came down to perennial track powers Oregon and Texas A&M with both the mens and the women’s points races coming down to the last few events of the afternoon.

Brenner wasn’t the only multi-sport athlete on the track for the Ducks. Football players De’Anthony Thomas, BJ Kelley and Dior Mathis also competed–just hours after finishing their first week of spring practice at the Moshofsky Center. Thomas acknowledged it can be physically hard to balance football and track, but said it at the end of the day it’s a matter of heart.

Thomas anchored the Ducks second place 4×100 meter relay team and finished third in the 100 meters. Much of the sprinting events, however, were dominated by Texas A&M,  with the Aggies finishing 1-2 in both the mens 100 and 200 meter races. The Ducks had sweeps of their own, however, taking the maximum points in both the men’s and women’s 800 meters, as well as the women’s 1500 meters.

With just two events left both the men’s team races were tied with the Ducks and Aggies battling for first entering the 5000 meters.

The Texas A&M women added another 1-2 finish in the 5000 meters, good enough to lock up first place in the team rankings, but on the men’s side it was the Ducks locking up both first and second to clinch the men’s team title with both the mens and women’s 4×400 meter relays still to be contested.

The Aggies won both the men’s and the women’s 4×400 meter relays but the team rankings were already decided.

In the women’s competition Washington edged out Washington State for third with the Cougars taking third in the final women’s team rankings.

We won’t get to see any of this until the Spring Game, but here are three storylines from the training camp:

1.) De’Anthony Thomas becomes a first option

De’Anthony Thomas had an explosive first two seasons with the Ducks but he’s always been a second or third option behind LaMichael James and friends. It’s not that anyone doubts Thomas’ ability, but the new role raises questions for some. Thomas isn’t exactly the biggest back in the world, and he doesn’t seem to be built to take the 20-30 carry a game beating that Barner took last year. Thomas will be joined in the backfield by Byron Marshall and Thomas Tyner once fall camp starts.

2.) Helfrich makes the offense his own

Oregon rushed for more than 300 yards per game last season, but if one thing has been clear since the Helfrich era began it’s been the importance of the pass game. Former wide receivers coach Scott Frost is now the offensive coordinator and Helfrich’s first hire was a hot coaching prospect in Duke’s Matt Lubbick, now the Ducks passing game coordinator. With Marcus Mariota no longer going through his first college football season, the Hawaiian is in the right place at the right time to turn the Ducks into more of a passing threat.

3.) Defensive growth

The hardest Duck from last season to replace may be Dion Jordan. The projected first rounder was a force on the Ducks defensive line and he’s not the only starter on defense the Ducks will lose. Linebacker Kiko Alonso also leaves big shoes to fill, as does Michael Clay, but with the way the Ducks rotate on defense, nobody is totally untested. The new spot on the front line should mean an increased role for Arik Armstead. The Ducks secondary figures — which were a strength a season ago — will get even more solid in 2013 with all of the team’s starters returning.

DuckTerritory is reporting that freshman point guard Willie Moore will leave the Oregon basketball program.

The freshman from Cincinnati saw limited minutes this year, appearing in 26 games and starting two, but he played just two minutes in the Ducks’ last nine games of the season. Moore was third on the depth chart at point guard behind Dominic Artis and Johnathan Loyd, but even when Artis was injured, Moore rarely saw more than 10 minutes in a game.

Moore’s season high was a nine-point effort in the Ducks’ home win against Washington.

The Ducks return to the football field for the first time since their Fiesta Bowl win April 27, and many things will be different. There will be no Kenjon Barner, no Dion Jordan and no Chip Kelly. One thing that will remain the same, however, is the access to Duck practices — or rather lack thereof — for fans and media.

In his introductory press conference in January, new Ducks head coach Mark Helfrich didn’t immediately shoot down a question about open practices, but he did tell the media on Monday that practices would remain closed, citing a number of reasons, first and foremost because the players actually prefer the privacy of a closed practice.

Some Pac-12 schools have limited portions of practice open to the media, but Helfrich said this wasn’t possible for the Ducks because their practices are structured in an entirely different way.

The Ducks’ spring camp will consist of 15 practices, including the annual spring showcase and will last four weeks and will conclude with the spring game at Autzen Stadium.

In Louisville’s Elite Eight win over Duke, guard Kevin Ware suffered arguably the most gruesome injury in the history of televised sports. We won’t link to it, and if you insist on seeing it, google it at your own risk. What we will share is this photo of Ware holding the team’s Regional championship trophy after his teammates visited him in the hospital. His teammates also paid tribute to him by sitting on the floor and leaving an empty chair on the bench for him and wearing his jersey postgame.

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Their Cinderella-to-the-extreme run may be over, but Florida Gulf Coast University (which we have confirmed is indeed a real school) will not soon be forgotten. Here are all 25 of their dunks from the NCAA tournament.

In honor of baseball’s Opening Day, here are two classic speeches about America’s pastime from Field of Dreams and Bull Durham.

The odds were not in Oregon’s favor. Louisville, after all, was the tournament’s number one overall seed, led it’s first two tournament games wire-to-wire and runs a pressure defense that has given coaches across the country night terrors.

But it wasn’t the press that doomed Oregon in the Ducks Sweet 16 loss to Louisville. Oregon was able to solve the press consistently get the ball across half court and — at least by this team’s standards — limited the turnovers, but once the Ducks got the ball across halfcourt Louisville forced them to play a more up-tempo game than the Ducks were accustomed to.

In the first half, the Ducks missed shots, blew opportunities at the free throw line and couldn’t get an offensive rebound to save their tournament lives. At the other end of the court too, Oregon was overpowered on the glass — and that’s not something the Ducks were used to.

The result was a confident group of bigs for Louisville, who dominated the paint in the first half, scoring all but one of the Cardinals field goals inside the painted area. Even with the Cardinals Peyton Siva sitting on the bench with two fouls, Louisville jumped out of the gates and opened up a 16 point lead early in the first half.

“I didn’t feel like we put our best foot forward in the first half,” head coach Dana Altman said. “We dug ourselves a hole and weren’t able to come back.”

It didn’t help matters that both Johnathan Loyd and Dominic Artis were in foul trouble early — Artis had two first half fouls and Loyd had three — but Oregon cut back into the lead  and looked to be on pace to go into the half down only ten, but another late run by the Cardinals gave Rick Pitino’s team a 14 point lead at the intermission.

The Ducks found some momentum midway through the second half, sparked by Damyean Dotson finally finding the score sheet, but the Cardinals were consistently able to turn missed Duck shots into baskets of their own and opened up an 18 point lead prompting Altman to call a timeout.

Oregon caught fire out of the timeout and cut the deficit to just six points, but just as they did every time Oregon went on a run, the Cardinals went on one of their own and pushed their lead back out to double digits while Oregon stopped making shots at their end.

Led by gritty performances from Arsalan Kazemi and E.J. Singler, Oregon outscored the Cardinals in the second half and came closer to beating a Pitino-coached team in the Sweet 16 than any other of the 10 teams to try, but ultimately the Ducks first half missteps were too much to overcome.

The Emerald asked the sports desk at the Saint Louis University News. Here’s what Chris Ackels and Tony Traina had to say…

In the spirit of this year’s, “Defend, Rebound” motto, these should be the only two words written about how SLU will win. Against Oregon, the defense will focus largely on contesting all shots. The Ducks have spot up shooters than can knock it down from seven feet or 27 feet, so the Billikens’ defense will need to have a hand in everyone’s face Saturday. Oregon guards Dominic Artis and Johnathon Loyd can penetrate and create opportunities inside for Arsalan Kazemi and outside for E.J. Singler, a brilliant spot-up shooter. However, the Billikens’ bigger, stronger and older guards, led by Mike McCall Jr., Kwamain Mitchell, and Jordair Jett will blanket the Ducks’ backcourt on the defensive end and may prove too much to handle.

The pace game is usually one SLU can win, and they’ll want to control the pace against Oregon as well. Oregon will want to stretch the floor and run, so the Billikens will have to be careful to slow down the game. On the boards, SLU will need to force Kazemi out of the paint if possible to counteract his rebounding abilities. Cody Ellis, Grandy Glaze, and Rob Loe will have to help Dwayne Evans crash the boards. In addition, Loe’s outside shooting and Dwayne Evans’ new found midrange jumper should help prove difficult matchups for the Ducks and help pull the Ducks’ trees out of the paint. All in all, if SLU plays their usual style of game, defined by a stingy defense and paint presence, they should be the favorites in this matchup. It will be important not to let the Ducks’ athleticism and speed take over the game, but more often than not, it has been the Billikens’ hounding defense that has overwhelmed opponents.

Jake Reed gave up a few basehits early, but was able to pitch his way out of trouble every time as Oregon took down Arizona 2-1.  Reed scattered six hits in as many innings but was able to settle down and produce ground balls when Arizona threatened.  No ground ball was bigger than the bases-loaded double play that Trent Gilbert hit into. The run still came home to tie the game at one, but Oregon was able to avoid the monster inning.

It was a moral victory for Reed, who has been victimized by the big inning several times in his career. Reed said it was simply a matter of settling down and trusting his defense.

“It’s that easy with JJ Altobelli at short,” he said.

Oregon re-took the lead in the next inning on a RBI double by Tyler Baumgartner before George Horton turned things over to the bullpen. Christian Jones struck out the side in the seventh inning prompting Horton to leave him in the game for the eighth. The original plan was to give Jones—still easing himself back into play after rehabbing from Tommy John surgery—an inning tonight an an inning later in the series, but Horton opted to leave him out there for the extended outing on Friday.

Jimmie Sherfy then slammed the door in the ninth for his seventh save of the year.

The Ducks could have had a little more wiggle room but a baserunning blunder in the fourth inning kept the Ducks off the scoreboard. With runners at first and second and two outs, Scott Heineman and Baumgartner misread the steal signal from the Ducks third base coach leading to Heineman being tagged out at the plate after a long rundown.

Oregon moves to 16-8 with the win, including a 3-1 mark to open conference play.

“It’s a typical Friday Pac-12 conference game,” Horton said. “One or two situations here or there or a couple opportunities cashed in on, it feels good to be on top.”

Arsalan Kazemi had double-digit rebounds, but that’s pretty much to be expected at this point.

What wasn’t as expected was Oregon’s complete dominance of Oklahoma State. The Ducks out-rebounded the Cowboys 44-30 with an even more one-sided 14-4 edge on the offensive glass. Kazemi was such a force down low that he had more offensive rebounds — six — than all but one Oklahoma State player had total rebounds. He would finish the night with 17 rebounds, one short of his season and career high.

The senior from Iran had a double-double at halftime, picking up his 10th rebound and laying it in for a putback as time expired. The bucket gave Oregon an 11-point lead after 20 minutes of play. He also had a handful of the team’s 11 offensive rebounds in the first half, and even more so than usual, it seemed he was intent on pulling down every single rebound.

“Sometimes my teammates tell me I grab their rebounds,” Kazemi said. “When I jump I don’t look who gets the ball, I jump to get the ball. I apologize if I get their rebound, but I just jump to get it.”

It was one area where the Ducks felt they matched up well, and the Ducks’ coaching staff let their team know.

“We hammered that for the last three days,” Oregon head coach Dana Altman said.

Oregon won’t have quite the same advantage when they play St. Louis with a Sweet 16 berth on the line since the Billikens don’t play the same type of small lineup as the Oklahoma State — but St. Louis was badly out-rebounded in their opening round win over New Mexico State. The Billikens only average a hair over 30 rebounds per game, but they shoot so well they haven’t been hurt.

The good news for the Ducks, though, is that they played very active defense and came up with eight steals as a team. With a team shooting as well as St. Louis, minimizing the possessions that end in shots will be a key for Oregon.