Great 2009, Can 2010 Get Better?

2009 was a great year for Beavers Sports. Lets take stock of some of the achievements:

* Men's Basketball: a CBI tournament trophy and a .500 record for the first time in 4 years.

* Women's Hoops: make the WNIT and advance to the 3rd round, finish 20-12.

* Baseball: returned to the NCAA tournament.

* Gill Coliseum gets a face lift.



* Women's Soccer makes the NCAA tournament and beats Ohio St. and nationally seeded Florida to make the sweet 16.

* Men's Soccer: A return to winning and narrowly missed the NCAA tournament. Danny Mwanga likely 1st pick in MLS draft

* Gymnastics: Make the NCAA finals again

* Football: Another run at a Rose Bowl and another bowl game.


Overall, a pretty good year. Many sports on the rise. And anytime you can make a Rose Bowl run, its a good year. It took me a while to get over that loss though. And the bowl game sure didn't help anything.


So 2010...

Basketball is starting to look up after beating Oregon. But, wow have we lost a lot of non-conference games. I have a feeling we could have used Roberto Nelson.

But, the Pac-10 is way down this year. Anything is possible in this league. We may be able to make a Pac-10 tourney run and make the tournament. Or maybe the NIT. I'm still hopeful. What is it with OSU and slow starts?


Football is going to be VERY interesting this spring. Seems like everyone is coming back next year...except Canfield. We have a lot of talented young QBs, but they are untested. And it seems that new QBs struggle the first season they become starters. Katz has the early lead, but Lalich and Vaz will get plenty of looks.

Now that USC is in flux (although Lane Kiffen scares me because he'll do anything to win. But the program could be in major trouble in 3 years.) and many other teams are not exactly looking super strong, could the Beavs be battling Oregon again for a Rose Bowl berth in December? Oregon has to be considered the favorite right now. USC is a bit of an unknown, but they are probably #2. OSU has to be #3 pre-season, right?


Here's to an even better 2010!

Go Beavs!