Oregon - 11/13/10

EUGENE, Ore. - Tough loss last night, but the guys are ready and back at Mac Court for shootaround, which is later than usual today because the Oregon women's team had an afternoon game.

After the game last night, the team took in about ¾ of the Ducks game against North Dakota State (the Bison took Oregon to overtime, but the Ducks ultimately won by five points in the waning moments.)

The players had a nice dinner at the hotel before calling it a night. This morning, the team gathered for breakfast around 10 a.m., followed by a brief team meeting to discuss tonight's game.

Tonight's game has a late start (8:30 p.m., local time - 9:30 p.m. MT), which conveniently will allow Oregon fans to watch their football team take on Cal before coming down to The Pit.

Did you know?: Two college mascots were created by Walt Disney (the man, not the company): Oregon's Duck and Denver's former mascot Boone. In 1947, the Oregon athletic director struck a deal with Disney to use Donald Duck as the school's mascot, adopting the cartoon character originally created in 1934. Disney actually created Boone for the University of Denver in 1968.

About Oregon: This school may best be known for a company that spawned from a head coach who made running shoes with the help of a waffle iron and one of his former runners.

That coach was Bill Bowerman, the Oregon legend who played basketball, football and ran track for the Ducks prior to taking over as the track coach and leading the team to four national championships.

The runner was Phil Knight. Bowerman invented waffle soled running shoes and with the marketing prowess of Knight helped found Nike. In fact, Oregon is sometimes called Nike University.

Another one of Bowerman's runners at Oregon also worked briefly for Nike. However, Steve Prefontaine is better known as arguably the best American distance runner of all time. Prior to his tragic death at the age of 24 in 1975, Pre set 15 American records at every race distance between two miles and 10,000 meters. You can't go anywhere in Eugene without seeing references to Pre.

Anyone interested in learning more about running in Eugene can check out "Track Town USA," a coffee table book filled with photographs and essays that was published by our friends over at Rich Clarkson and Associates, the official photographers of University of Denver Athletics. The book hits the shelves this Monday.

Today, fans know the Ducks as the top rated football team in the nation. But Oregon has a rich tradition on the basketball court. In fact, the team won the very first NCAA men's basketball championship in 1939. The gigantic banner is hard to miss, hanging high above one of the baskets. It may be bigger than the American flag on the opposite end of the arena.

Like many colleges, including Denver, Oregon celebrates all its teams with display cases filled with pictures and memorabilia. As we walked by the basketball display, we had to take a second look. One of the photos was taken the last time Denver played here in 1999.

Welcome Pioneer Fans: A good number of Denver supporters made the trip to Eugene, including the families of Alex Pickert, Chase and Travis Hallam, Brian Stafford and assistant coach A.J. Kuhle, as well as Joe Scott's father, Bob, and avid DU fan John Kirby, who also is a favorite caller to the Joe Scott Radio Show every Monday night.