Scott Rueck got inspired how to coach OSU watching ND in

the championship finals in Indianapolis in 2011. The linked article by John Canzano is worth a read to learn about Scott's background and start at OSU. I don't think this article is firewalled, but I am a subscriber to JC who does a great job doing independent Oregon, PAC12, & WCC sports reporting.

I'll be rooting for the Irish as I've done everytime either Oregon or OSU has played Notre Dame and ND is 4-0 playing in the Northwest against both Oregon schools, all games I attended wearing Irish colors. The Beavers are 0-5 against ND, but their closest 2 games were in the Eastern time zones when they lost 62-61 in South Bend in 2016 and in a Daytona Fla Thxgiving tourney 64-62 in 2022.

Still it's hard not to like Scott and his scrappy teams. He is one of the shortest CWBB coaches and that includes lots of the women coaches as it's funny watching him coach these players so much taller than him. He's a clever coach and has coached lot's of upsets. Hopefully for ND's sake the Beavs don't get hot shooting or the refs call it close.

Click here for link at https://www.johncanzano.com/p/canzano-stars-fall-from-the-ra

That’s a really good article. D3 to the PAC 12 is quite a

jump. But it sounds like OSU made a great hire.

OSU's two greatest coaches last 20 years came from D3 and

from the same Oregon school, George Fox University. The other coach was Pat Casey, who was the baseball coach who won 3 National Championships (2006, 2007, 2018) and did it in a northern school. Since Pat is a devout Catholic after ND lost Mainieri to LSU in 2006, ND went hard after Pat but Phil Knight stepped in and helped OSU match ND's offer. He stayed, winning it all again in 2007 and became the 1st unranked team to accomplish that feat. He retired pretty young after he won it again in 2018, but still lives in Corvallis as I see him at church often.

Both Pat and Scott are lifetime Oregonians. Scott hasn't had Pat's success with no NCs but he is a great guy in a very competitive business. The players he gets are all loved by the community which tells you a lot. He will have a more interesting challenge trying to keep winning in the WCC.

Oregon St has had a lot of success in baseball. I’m not a

huge baseball guy, but I do enjoy watching the College World Series. Oregon St seems to be in there more times than not. Do you live in Corvallis or Eugene, if you don’t mind my asking?

Corvallis for 44 yrs but U of-O Eugene got me here for grad

school in 1978 with my new wife a year after I graduated from ND. So I lived in Eugene for two years then which is only 40 miles from Corvallis. I have season tix in football and wbb for both the Ducks and Beavers as I like to support both schools. I also go down to several Eugene Hayward field track meets as it is a World Class facility (best in the USA) which Phil Knight's money certainly was very much involved. Eugene has hosted many international meets including the World Athletics Championships (2022) and the Diamond League championship (2023), many US OLympic trials including this June, and NCAA T&F championships also this Junen Track so I often find the time to take the trip. Hopefully we will see a few ND athletes in Eugene again this year in both the Olympic Trials and NCAA NC.

That’s awesome. I’ve always imagined that’s a beautiful part

of the US.