BEACH BOYS TRY TO UNWRAP THE BOWS BEFORE BATTLING THE BEAVERS

LBSU baseball (9-9) bussed back to town with another series win and a slight boost to their RPI Sunday night, did laundry and studied the campus map to rediscover their classrooms. But look fast because after tonight’s contest with 11-9 Hawaii, the gang goes on the road again. This weekend is a major challenge in the form of #9 Oregon State, 14-3 this season and back-to-back College World Series champions in 2006, and 2007. The new-look Niners have an improving offense (team batting average of .278), now getting significant run scoring support from slugger Joey Terdoslavich (17 RBIs and a batting average up from .120 to .294), and a .467 on base percentage from the human bruise, Brennan Metzger, (11 hit by pitches this season). Oh yes there is now some solid starting pitching (all three starters went at least seven in Vegas) but if we don’t start laying on kind words about Hawaii we might make the Bows mad.

Hawai‘i is playing five games in six days including three at Fullerton and Monday with San Diego…UH swept Air Force with, in their words, an “offensive explosion, batting .380 as a team, highlighted by a 20-hit game on Monday.” Hawaii is led by Kolten Wong at .361…Hawaii also beat Oregon State who took a series from Tennessee who…OSU has a 2.73 team ERA and a genuine ace, Tanner Robles, 1.72 ERA and 34 Ks in 31 innings.

DUST PARTICLES—Starters tonight are Nate Underwood for the home boys checking in a 0-1, 3.38 ERA vs. Zach Gallagher, 0-1, 6.75….the mid weekers have been miserable for the Bags, losses to UCLA 10-1, USC 10-5 and LMU 6-4…the lone win was a come from behind 4-3 W over SDSU…If you are a student athlete aiming for a sporting life at Long Beach State your reasons might be several. You never liked brown and gold but love black and gold. Mom and or Dad might have strolled Seventh and Bellflower sometime in the sixties. They would really like you to get a scholarship, even a partial would be swell, check, playing time, check and facilities, fine but perhaps a bit quaint and quirky, half check…All that aside, there is nothing finer than to be a Niner on a road trip. The opposition circles a contest with any California school, especially one with a national rep like Long Beach State...This weekend softball, who swept Illinois Chicago yesterday, travels to UCLA while men’s volleyball has home matches Thursday and Saturday with Pacific and Stanford…tennis got ranked #36 and then tumbled to Ohio State yesterday 6-1…women’s water polo hosts powerful Stanford Sunday noon and men’s golf is road tripping to a tourney in Bulls Bay, South Carolina….remembering the Shockers (losers to ORU 7-1 yesterday) more cold hard facts, “the two baseball games between Wichita State and Washington State have been canceled due to snow and will not be rescheduled.”… So you would like to sign the offspring between Jason Flowers, x-LB basketball coach and UCLA player and his wife, Olympic softballer Tairia? Okay, then get ready for a little boy with great bloodlines. Jason is at UCR these days and the Mrs. Is assisting Kim Sowder with Beach softball…last add love and marriage…you can’t call him Mr. Misty May but now you can call him Matt Treanor, Texas Ranger…making more moves than Misty on Dancing with the Stars, Matt has gone from Florida to Detroit to Milwaukee and now to catching poor Texas...baseball RPIs: 25 – Fullerton; 37 - Riverside; 51 - Long Beach; 62 – Irvine; 65 – Northridge; 121 - Santa Barbara; 136 – Pacific; 145 – Davis and 178 - Cal Poly.

Our closing quote is about Dirtbag Baseball from Evan Longoria’s fiery Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon. Evan invited Joe to visit Blair Field and speak to the team in the offseason. Encouraging his millionaire third baseman to make a nice gift, Joe jokingly said "I went into their clubhouse and this thing is an absolute dirtbag clubhouse. Rubber floor. This 1993 big screen TV elevated up into the wall. I asked them what's up with Longoria and Tulowitzki and the Weaver. C'mon, let's go! Let's pick this place up.” Okay Rays stay tuned, Mssrs. W. Brady and V. Cegles will contact you soon.—DR. DAN

FASHION AND FOOD AND FAMILY IN THE FORTY-NINER NATION

Conventional wisdom says that the sporting appetite of the home-based 49er fandom should be a measured sampling of the basic athletic groups, you know, games of basketball, tennis, volleyball, softball, baseball, etc. Last week the Niners offered extra portions of all of that stuff and wouldn’t you know this weekend the faithful will starve for local action.

Baseball is feeling a bit chipper after winning a series over Wichita State but travels to the land of chips, Las Vegas, for a three game set with the UNLV Rebels. Softball, successful hosts for their own tourney, visits San Diego again. Men’s volleyball struggles with paradise on a trip to Hawaii and women’s’ water polo goes out to non-paradise, also known as Riverside. The lone local contest is Friday’s 2 p.m. tennis match between the red hot Niners and Nebraska.

By now the basketballs have been returned to the cages and coaches Monson and Wynn have to recruit without their teams bracketed in any of those office pools. Such is life in the Big West. Both sides made serious improvement over the past year. The men have young guns Casper Ware, TJ Robinson and Larry Anderson and the women have, well … 6, 7 or 8 scholarships to lure tall people.

The coming of age for baseball has been the re-discovery of the pitching game; all three starters had bright moments beating the Shockers twice, and the slugging of Joey Terdoslavich who raised his batting average from last on the team at .140 to fifth at .275. The Dirtbags reappear briefly on Wednesday for a non-conference visit with Hawaii at Blair then off to Oregon State for a series the following weekend.

DUST ON MY PARKING PASS- The Big West brass has a new place and a new plan for their post season hoop tourney next year. It will be the Honda Center, lots of parking and no trade show competition. The format will also change, no longer will a team get a two game bye as UCSB did, each of the eight entrants will have to play three times in three days. That might have made a difference in the final results after the Niner men had inspired wins over Cal Poly and Pacific then wobbled at the end of the Gaucho game.

All the TV faces of the 49ers looked good and the fans and band, including cow bells, were perfect. On the court Coach Monson had the Smith Brothers—bearded boys Andrew Fleming and Arturas Lazdauskas and in time outs two his four kids, son McGuire (9) in a snappy suit and, daughter, Mollie (7), with a bright gold whirly skirt. Everybody had some tears when it was over but what a great moment for all concerned.

Wrapping up that NCAA stuff, the tournament selection chair is UCLA AD Dan Guerrero who cut his teeth in athletic admin at UC Irvine. However Dan G couldn’t play any favors for his old Anteaters who released Coach Pat Douglass. Ironically Pat was the man who would be king of the Beach before being passed over in favor of Wayne Morgan. Not a great recruiting class, both are now out of work and ready to share the porch swing at the old coaches home.

And what about the much discussed former 49er coach Seth Greenberg? Now of Va Tech, Seth missed yet another NCAA invite over the weekend and has one eye on his NIT bid and the other on a job opening at St. Johns. St. John's is prepared to give its next coach $1.5 million a year while the Hokies paid a mere $850,000 this season.—DR. DAN

MY INITIAL IMPRESSION WAS SHOCKING BUT UPON FURTHER REVIEW LET’S PLAY THREE

If playing big boys from the PAC 10--USC, UCLA and Arizona, and nasty neighbors like Pepperdine and San Diego State wasn’t enough, the 49ers (5-6) now have to welcome the 9-1, 21st ranked Wichita State for their first games outside of Kansas. The Shocker log has some familiar initials on their schedule but look closely. Two teams from Florida made their way to WSU but they were North Florida and Florida Gulf Coast. Gene Stephenson also scheduled USA, that would not be the Olympic team but the University of South Alabama. WSU had a pair of contests with ND but not the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame but the Fighting Sioux of North Dakota. And CA, well not Cal but Central Arkansas.


All of that is seen by Stephenson as the necessary tune-up for clubs like his that are planted amid the corn and soy fields of middle America. In his post game video Wednesday the Shocker skipper used platitudes like “formidable opponent…annual foe…great rivalry etc.” to describe the Dirtbags. Wichita State swept LB last season. Cody Lassley has been the star so far, hitting .643 but the team batting average is a whopping .352. The Niner pitching rotation has been tweaked with Gagnon going Friday; Thompson slipping to Saturday and on Sunday possibly Pinder, but the skipper is still mulling that one over. The WSU rotation is expected to be righty Tim Kelly 1-0, 3.0; righty Jordan Cooper 2-0, 1.93 and lefty Charlie Lowell, 2-0 3.72. Shocks had 13 strikeouts in the 14-2 Tuesday romp over Central Arkansas but on Wednesday, under cloudy and moist Kansas skies, WSU pitchers were generous with ten walks and a mere six Ks. WS still locked up an 8-2 get away day win and Central A left town at 4-8 but with their bank balance beefed up.

OOC DUSTING--Back to the homeboys, that was a critical 9th inning spin move pickoff at second base Tuesday night on what Weathers called a “daylight” play. “When the shortstop (Lohman) and pitcher (Brown) see some daylight between the runner and the base they make the play. I am just glad that despite all the things going on those guys didn’t think that much and just reacted like good baseball players.” Mike also some nice words for freshmen Nate Underwood, the lanky San Jose area pitcher who Buck and the Beach swiped from under the nose of Cal. The Bears felt Nate was locked up but this honor roll student had all the choices and took LB…interesting press box chatter with SDSU radio guys who took emails from listeners and then giggled when a young Aztec fan googled the word Dirtbag and came up with that unflattering definition…the announcer laughed forgetting perhaps that the Aztec mascot Monty Montezuma was seen as politically incorrect by the indigenous people of that region…”where are theys” how about Abe Alvarez who won 23 games in the 2002-2003 seasons…this season he is on the bench as a student assistant coach for the Dirtbags…at age 22, the crooked cap kid became the youngest member of the 2004 Red Sox to receive a World Series Championship ring…good news LB’s RPI is now 103 but facing the Shockers, ranked #21, will move that number upwards…bad news in the end none of that matters unless you finish five or so games above .500…possible news flash, insiders say that the big man may retire after this year, Elvis Joe may become video Joe next year…he doesn’t give his age but Niner marketing wizards figure they could retire the guitar and sombrero and still use the “greatest act in college baseball” on that spiffy video board…and cut performance costs by eliminating that requisite hot dog…the other big Joe, Joey Terdoslavich, caught a break when Tony Gwynn looked at the message board and saw his .148 average and ,with first base open, let him pinch-hit in the eighth inning…whoops Tony, Joey got the GW RBI and is beginning to get his offensive feel going again…enjoy Joe T this season because I suspect he will sign and go during the upcoming MLB draft…his late inning heroics prevented a lot of second guessing about failed double steals and runners getting picked at first and third…the rest of the Big West is staying busy… Cal State Northridge at LMU; UC Irvine at Sac State; Northern Illinois at Santa Barbara; Notre Dame at Pacific, Southern Utah at UC Davis, CSUF (shut out losers last night) at SDSU and Houston at Cal Poly...last add rumor control...expect some of the 49er faithful to be missing tonight due to a basketball contest at the ACC, not the Atlantic Coast Conference, where Miami has upset both Wake Forest and Va Tech, but the Anahiem Convention Center...semi final vs. Pacific with a 9 p.m. tip on ESPN U...watch the Bags and set your VCRs—DR. DAN

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS SAN DIEGO TONY AS NINERS TRY TO REMEMBER WINNING

For the many years that the San Diego State Aztecs have brought their baseball team to Blair Field the game in the stands has often been as intriguing as the game on the field. That would be the “where’s Tony Gwynn” game. You should know that tonight, as in the past, Hall of Famer and LB Poly alum Tony is, er ah low key. He is a full sized man who will be wrapped in warm-ups and team jackets and a cap and more outside garments than the guys in Hurt Locker. His former volunteer assistant Anthony Johnson, with a similar stocky profile, was often selected by 49er fandom as Gwynn when he trotted out to the first base coaching box. Anthony still helps out but just for home games but you win a prize for being the first in your row to find Tony.

Now to the game, oh yes, Steven Moranda, a two-year junior college all-league selection at Fresno City comes in at 1-0 with a 4.91 ERA gets the start for SDSU and unless Mike Weathers really did have open auditions this afternoon it will be Eddie Magallon the freshman from Paramount for the first mound worker for the Beach. Troy Watson from Sac City is next in line and then it is staff TBA... The Niners come in a 4-6, yes, same as Fullerton, with a team batting average .260 and ERA of a un-Buckley-like 4.25. The Aztecs are 5-6 aga9nst a more modest schedule hitting at .270 with a 3.90 ERA.

NOTES ON MY NAPKIN--Uncle Ben Goldberg of the Beach Club sports bar had a crowd of Dirtbags including wining pitcher Andrew Gagnon (“I pitch better when I breathe”) and family in his establishment Saturday evening. Gagnon is now the staff ace while the Beach offense struggles to find some consistency. Skipper Mike Weathers is blunt. “We simply can not defend our house and…we haven’t been on the road yet.”…This weekend visitors for the RPI-conscious Cal Staters is perennial top 20 power Wichita State. The Shockers will make their first trip out of Kansas this season as part of a five game road trip. It all starts at Blair Friday to Sunday and then WSU plays two in Tucson against improving Arizona…Back at home Niner softball is sleeping in their own beds after opening the season in road tourneys. They are hosting their annual Long Beach Invitational at nearby Mayfair Park with a invite list that includes Purdue, Notre Dame, Buffalo, Idaho State and San Diego. A mound feature is the recovering Brooke Turner who earned BWC Pitcher of the Week by throwing gas in a 1-0 setback to Pac-10 foe Oregon and was dominant leading The Beach to a 6-2 victory over Buffalo…want another view of the Washington series? Let’s drop in on the Huskies campus newspaper, the Daily News... “Washington 11, Long Beach State 9…For most of this game, it was not as close as it looks. LBSU led 6-0 after three innings and 9-4 after five, but the Huskies had a seven-run seventh inning to gain the permanent lead. And it wasn’t even that the Huskies displayed any power that inning. They just took advantage of two critical 49er mistakes ¬— an error and a passed ball — and had a barrage of singles, doubles and walks.” Ouch…

"Where are theys"... it was a Redwood City contingent at Blair on Sunday that would be Mr. and Mrs. Mark Knupfer and shortstop son of years gone by (1995-96) Jason. Still in playing shape and with funny stories about his fellow ex-Bag Jason Hodges, Knups is now in the insurance business in NorCal and has indeed provided grandchildren to his parents…other Tuesday BW tilts, UC Riverside at UCLA, Northern Illinois at Cal Poly, and USD at Irvine…After months of math, the numbers finally lined up for the 49er basketball teams who will begin their quest to reach the NCAA Tournament Thursday at the Anaheim Convention Center next door to Disneyland…the ladies team are really Cinderella’s moving into a top four seed after missing out in 2009…the men playing brilliant some times and inconsistent other times, will be in the hunt…at least the calendar is kind to the 49er faithful...drive and park once and get Jody Wynn’s women playing at 2:30 and Dan Monson’s men at 6:00 p.m., opponents TBA. Just win on Thursday and stay warm tonight—DR.DAN

HOW TO LIE WITH STATISTICS AND OTHER EARLY SEASON 49ER FACTS AND FIGURES

Baseball fans, more than most other folks, are obsessed with stats. The seasons are long, the players are many and the trigonometry of trends, tendencies and talent will intersect in whatever way you want. This weekend the numbers are all about the student athletes from Washington (4-4) and Long Beach (3-4) who still have high hopes for restoring past glory.

The visiting Huskies, under new field boss Lindsay Meggs, are in the midst of a stretch of eight straight road games after a two-game split at Oregon Tuesday and Wednesday. The Ducks won the first game 6-2, and the Dawgs countered with a 5-3 victory on Wednesday. Last season Washington, who wearied of the leadership of Ken Knutson, head coach from 1993 through 2009, pulled the skipper switch. . Knudson concluded his UW career with the most coaching wins in UW baseball history, and 15th-most in Pac-10 history, a career overall record of 584-399-2. In came Meggs, just 46 years of age, who has been busy building the Indiana State baseball team, a conference partner of next weekend’s visitors, Wichita State. In 2009, Meggs beat out Gene Stephenson as the Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Yea. His pitching selections are Forrest Snow, a junior righty who does a bit of everything, a scoreless inning in relief Tue. at Oregon ... worked a scoreless 9th inning for the win Feb. 26 vs. Fresno State ... also threw 0.2 scoreless IP Feb. 27 vs. Bulldogs and started Feb. 21 vs. Missouri (4.1 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, with Saturday’s selection sophomore lefty Brandon Rohde who worked 0.1 IP in relief (no runs) Wed. at Oregon, picking up first college win ... first college start Feb. 27 vs. Fresno State (no decision: 3.2 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 1 K). the Sunday punch will be Andrew Kittredge, a soph righty who their media guy says “Suffered the loss despite good outing Feb. 28 vs. Fresno State (8.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 8 K) ... started and picked up the win opening day vs. New Mexico State (6.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K)

The Niner trio is the usual Friday to Sunday lineup of Thompson, Gagnon and Pinder but two other guys have caught the coaches eyes. They are freshman Nate Underwood who struck out five in four innings during his first collegiate start against the wood bat swinging Japanese travelers and Eddie Magallon who strung together some good innings as the “Tuesday” starter. Steve Tinoco has been the offensive inspiration (13-for-18, improving his season average to .500 and leading the team in hits and RBI) but Miami transfer Joey Terdoslavich has doubled and homered in his last two games.

SCATTERED DUST--The Huskies began the year in Tucson playing three games in a tournament, picking up wins over New Mexico State and Gonzaga. The Huskies followed with a Friday night victory over the Bulldogs at home against Fresno State, but have since lost three of their last four games. Caleb Brown leads the regulars with a .452 average in the early part of the year, having started all eight games and leading the team with 14 hits. Pierce Rankin leads the Huskies in RBI with 10 and has one of the team's three home runs this season. Recap of the USC game was all about the “five big flies.”… and when you note that the Trojans had runners on, and the Dirtbags didn't you understood why Coach Weathers said that "Blair Field looked pretty small tonight,”...Long Beach State returned to Blair Field Wednesday but the mental and physical mistakes from Tuesday were unpacked along with the wood bats. It was close for a while then the Bags got the yips and the white suited Japanese kids, their Rising Sun flag fluttering in the evening breeze…The Big West, 34–31 vs. OOC, has been less than spectacular thus far and the line up this weekend won’t exactly impress the pollsters: In mostly afternoon games it will be Cal Poly vs. Utah Valley; Fullerton at Arizona; Connecticut at Northridge; Seattle at Pacific; St.Mary's at UC Irvine; UC Davis at Sacramento State; Santa Barbara at Stanford and Riverside vs. Florida International…last stat, 2609 Oregon fans, without butane, still made a nice racket in their new yard last weekend and seem to be the Cinderella of the Northwest this season.—DR. DAN

STADIUM DUST: SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW AND WOOD BATS AND CHOPSTICKS FOR ME AND YOU

Last weekend the win-hungry Trojans of USC and the success- shorted Dirtbags of Long Beach State headed off for diamond work. USC was playing twice at home and one just up the freeway at Dodger Stadium while the Beach boarded the big grey dog for a ride into the desert and a three game Tucson test at Arizona. Results—well the bus leaguers from the Beach won twice over the Wildcats with a third game rained out. The Boys of Troy lost all three outings, 6-4 to Oklahoma State, 10-1 to Vanderbilt and 6-1 to their Westwood cousins UCLA... Tonight somebody’s going to put on the happy face again.

No video evidence of the Niners twin killings of the Cats but lots of video, and repeated incessantly on Prime Ticket, of how the UCLA Bruins beat SC 6-1 and knocked out ace Kevin Couture in the second inning after taking a line drive off his throwing hand. Good news for the Cardinal and Gold is Kevin suffered only a minor sprain and either he or Jodan Hershiser, a man mountain at 6-8-245 (son of…) will get the start. Meanwhile LB has their Sunday starter Brandon Pinder rested and ready but Chad’s lads are a little tired in the bull pen and have New Mexico in this weekend.

The curiosity for the Beach boosters will be the hitting, dismal out of the shoot a 1-3 and chipper now at 3-3. The resurgent offense was lead by senior first baseman Steve Tinoco who picked the Big West Co-Player of the Week slugging 8-for-10 with five RBI and three walks when UA dared to face him. His double was the game-winner against the Wildcats on Friday, capping a ninth-inning comeback in an 8-7 win. His prize was the first such honor for the Bag offense since 2008. Meanwhile down south both of the Big West bad guys, Fullerton and Irvine struggled. Fullerton went 1-2 for the second straight weekend (both at home), losing a home series to TCU for the second straight season and UCI losing 3 of 4 in a tourney down South.

BEST OF THE DUST-- the Dirtbags are in a nine game home stand if you include the exhibition with Waseda University of Japan tomorrow. After that almost shocking two game sweep of Arizona (8-7 and 10-3) , this weekend brings more of PAC 10 play against visiting Washington Friday through Sunday and then a Tuesday visit from San Diego State… a huge turnout for the funeral of CSULB Admissions and Records whiz Sharon Clark included a tip of his cap from the Snowman, “That woman was the original Dirtbag in her office and at the ball park…when I took the job in 1989 we came in practically empty and had to build a whole team…and we must have sent her a hundred transcripts to look at”…both she and my dear friend Dr. John Kashiwabara sat midway on the right side and surely the good guys leave us too soon…For both box office and booster pride LB needs a big turnout in the stands and on the court when Dan Monson’s team hosts Riverside Friday night. Four thousand free tee shirts for the last, and most important, basketball game of the year...international notes…insiders say that if women’s coach Jody Wynn is able to land a very promising British basketball talent who visited the campus last weekend, an assist should go to Ms. Hannah Grady, the academic and athletic all star, who is bigger than life on her banner at the tennis center, and a couple of current team members who shared a cup of something with the talented prospect…The mad scientist that is interim men’s volleyball coach Andy Read came up with this magic last weekend…he starting Bruin Beaters for the Beach consisted of Conor Eaton setting, Kirk Francis at libero, Dean Bittner at opposite, Dan Alexander and Antwain Aguillard in the middles and Jimmy Baughman and Tommy Pesotlesi on the outsides. Coach Read picked his spots with the “double-sub” move, sometimes inserting Srdjan Nadazdin for Conor and Mike Klipsch for Dean for three rotations and sometimes utilizing only Serge for blocking purposes…the wizard keeps working…tomorrow’s visitors from Waseda University have a history that exceeds even USC…the Japanese collegians started playing in 1901 and are on another exhibition tour along with other members of the Tokyo Big Six University League…their primary rival is the Meiji University club but another Japanese college team in that league, Rikkyo, two hit the Troys in a 9-0 loss last Wednesday and the visitors used wood bats.—DR. DAN

NEW MATH, OLD FRIENDS, TOURNEY TALK, ANDY THE WIZARD AND NOTES ON MY YOU KNOW WHAT

Vic Cegles is the Athletics Director of Long Beach State and this is the time in the LBSU sports schedule that just staying connected to his Niner sporting nation is a major challenge. Attached to his right arm is one of those high end electronics that reads email, chases scores, and does more texting than a teenager.

This week he has entries all over the athletic landscape but most of his attention is on the prize cash cow in his herd, men’s basketball. For both box office and booster pride he needs a big turnout in the stands and on the court when Dan Monson’s team hosts UC Riverside Friday night. Four thousand free tee shirts for the last, and most important, basketball game of the year. UCSB, who lost to LBSU by 20 earlier this year, will still clinch the Big West tournament top seed with Pacific and Fullerton likely finish second and third.

Now to the homeboys from the Beach. Fourth gets you one fewer game and slightly fresher players for the trophy dash. I expect Cal Poly to knock Irvine out of the tourney this weekend and tie LB at 8-8 for fourth. Then the tie-breakers would kick into effect since the Mustangs and the 49ers both split with UCSB and both were swept by UOP. The next tie-breaker is the record against the teams below, Davis and Northridge. The Niners swept both opponents and the Mustangs split with both. Win Friday night and earn that extra day off.

The BWC little dance party starts next Wednesday with the bottom four men’s and women’s teams playing a knock-out round. The LBSU women flirted with the top four but now are likely a first round combatant after not holding home court against lowly Pacific Saturday night and having to travel to top ranked Riverside this weekend.

All of this math before March madness has brought mixed reviews on the post season prospects for both teams. One fan loves the “new season” in a tourney and if each player has a personal best the Beach men would fulfill that media day projection of winning the lone NCAA automatic bid. Others, color them more cynical, quipped that unless the Beach got a bye to the second half of the championship game the season would be over soon. Film at 11.

ACTUAL DIAMOND DUST--The Dirtbags are in a nine game home stand if you include games earlier this week against USC and the exhibition with Waseda University of Japan. After an almost shocking two game sweep of Arizona (8-7 and 10-3) , this weekend brings more of PAC 10 play against visiting Washington Friday through Sunday and then a Tuesday visit from San Diego State.

Mr. Cegles was on the scene on a rainy Saturday for the dedication of the Hannah Grady tennis court and, somewhere in between showers, followed the progress of softball, water polo, golf and men’s volleyball. Some complained that she isn’t a tour prospect Grady, a mighty mite from Coventry, England who earned BWC Player of the year all four years, deserved the recognition for being a true tennis pioneer for the U.

Last add, merry olde England. Insiders say that if women’s coach Jody Wynn is able to land a very promising British basketball talent who visited the campus last weekend, an assist should go to Ms. Grady, the academic and athletic all star, and a couple of current team members who shared a cup of something with the talented prospect.

The mad scientist that is interim men’s volleyball coach Andy Read came up with this magic last weekend…he starting Bruin Beaters for the Beach consisted of Conor Eaton setting, Kirk Francis at libero, Dean Bittner at opposite, Dan Alexander and Antwain Aguillard in the middles and Jimmy Baughman and Tommy Pesotlesi on the outsides. Coach Read picked his spots with the “double-sub” move, sometimes inserting Srdjan Nadazdin for Conor and Mike Klipsch for Dean for three rotations and sometimes utilizing only Serge for blocking purposes…the wizard keeps working…

This from outside sources ...The nicknames are already flying and Eastern Washington University hasn't even begun installing its new artificial turf. The Slaughterhouse. The Blood Rug. The Bordello Bowl..

Athletic director Bill Chaves was seeking attention last month and sure got it when he announced that the turf would be red. “The uniqueness of the red field was able to generate an amazing amount of publicity. “ It also has generated donations. Michael Roos, an Eastern Washington alumnus who is a lineman for the NFL's Tennessee Titans, kicked the drive off with a $500,000 donation. ESPN broadcaster Colin Cowherd, also an EWU graduate, threw in $50,000. Note to EWU fans...red does fade, see the seats at the LBCC football stadium

Sharon Clark funeral and a tip of his cap from the Snowman, “That woman was the original Dirtbag in her office and at the ball park…that first year 1989 when we came in we had to build a whole team and we must have sent her a hundred transcripts to look at” It was both a sad and glad occasion…which reminds me that so many places I go these days I miss seeing my dear friend Dr. John Kashiwabara. The good guys leave us too soon.

Closing with ladies hoops. The coach is pulling her hair and the star has that bad foot again but I still may vote Figgy and Wynn as Big West POY and COY this season.

Blast from the past on good guard. via the all time Pyramid team...Crystal McCutcheon was one of the most successful women's basketball players in recent memory for the 9th-winningest program in the NCAA. She was tabbed as the 2006 Big West Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Year after leading Long Beach State to a share of the regular season title. McCutcheon also earned first-team All-Big West Conference honors as a senior and second-team recognition as a junior.

She was one of 21 players in program history to surpass the 1,000-point barrier, accumulating 1,140 career points in her three years at The Beach. She averaged 13.6 points per game, while shooting a school-record 39.8 percent from beyond the arc...bring her back or at least sign her children--DR. DAN