Portions of this show are recorded. Strap in
and be prepared. Room for error is much slimmer
in basketball. You lose one player and it changes
your entire team. It's not like that in football.
It's just not. It's not. Interesting guests.
Kelly Graves, Mike Parker, Coach Mark Waskowski,
Noah Eagle, Melissa Lombardi, Kenyon Barnard,
Jonathan Stewart. Sharp opinions. Dana Altman
probably earned a pass for a down year after
almost 20 years. of what he's done for Oregon
basketball. And some smiles. Guys, I was stuck
in a car wash. Sounds like an R. Kelly song.
It's not an R. Kelly song. It's Danny Havel.
I can't remember, and I've been doing this for
longer than you've been alive. which is really
horrible that I have to say that, but it's the
truth. Justin Grossweiner. It's like the saying
in Alaska that you don't have to be faster than
the bear. You just have to be faster than your
friend. Danny and Justin starts now on Fox Sports
Eugene and Fox Sports Newport. Hello. And welcome
high atop the Delta Tri and the Crystal Palace,
the Bigfoot Beverages Studios, Fox Sports Eugene,
Fox Sports Newport, the number one sports station
in the Valley. This is the fastest 60 minutes
in sports. The Danny and Justin radio program
rockets out for a hump day. It is an e -ticket
ride today, folks. As we traverse through the
fastest 60 minutes, we'll have the voice of Oregon
softball. Saul Galvin -Silk will join us right
around 20 after the hour. We're going to talk
Olympics. We have our word of the week from Baby
J. And we'll talk Oregon, Oregon State baseball,
and a sighting of a panda this week in Eugene.
Ooh, boy, what could that be? We'll talk about
that as well this hour. So hang on. Wherever
you pod, you can find us, Danny and Justin, the
fastest 60 minutes. You can also on all the socials,
Blue Sky and Twitter, Danny and Justin as well.
Intern Blaze is at the controls producing the
broadcast today. Right over to my right is my
tag team partner. I'm Doc. We call him Baby J,
Justin Grossweiner. What a boy! Well, speaking
of socials, Danny, I saved this for the show.
I had a little notification come across my dial.
I don't know if you call it a dial anymore. Last
night. See, my oldness is rubbing off on you.
Exactly. You added me on Instagram last night.
What? You added me on Instagram last night. Look
at me go, huh? How did that happen? Well, so
here's the thing. I didn't know it was you a
couple of times. So all those... You know, meta,
and they suggest people to you. They do it on
Twitter, and Instagram's the same thing. You've
come up in my feed a couple of times, but your
profile photo threw me off. It is from about
10 years ago. Okay, so that— That's what threw
me. It was just like, do I do this or not? So
I was just like, I looked into it a little bit.
I said, yeah, that's actually you. So click.
Absolutely. I mean, there's not a lot of Justin
Grossweiners out there, first of all. No, there
aren't, but still. But for the context, it's
a photo of my friend Juliana, who is my good
friend from Alaska. But she had moved to Arizona
at the time, and she had this white Mustang that
she loved and does not have anymore. It's a sweet
ride, by the way. Sweet ride. And so it's us
posing in front of the ride. And I'm probably
like 20 years old at that time. So it was a while
ago. My wife's favorite car is an old classic
60s Mustang. Loves them. Very nice. And you know
the funny thing about the profile picture is
I've had it, obviously, for so long that there's
part of me that wants to change it. At times
I've thought about this. It's like, yeah, if
someone comes across my page, they're not going
to necessarily know it's me. But I've had it
for so long, it's difficult for me to make that
switch. I don't know if anybody else has things
like that. But I'm so used to it. I'm trying
to get better at the social media thing, but
I'm not the kind of guy that's like taking selfies
of himself at all these events. It's like, to
me, that's kind of like, ooh, look at me, look
at me. You don't have to make it about you, though.
So if you will follow me, what I normally post
is like when I was at the women's basketball
game. I will take a clip of about 20 seconds
of the game from my seat. And I'll throw that
up there. Obviously, it'll be a good play for
Oregon that I'm posting up there, not like a
horrific play or whatever. But that's kind of
this. Or I am great for taking pictures of food.
There you go. Love pictures of food. I will post
pictures of food all day long. Did you get to
look through my page at all? I did a little bit.
Okay. What did you think? Well, see, but you've
got that lens. You've got that eye. You've got
that photographer's mentality. Okay. So I like
your page. I'll use it as entertainment, like
I'm winding down for the day. You're just going
to go swipe through my Instagram? Other people's,
too. It's not like I'm stalking people on Instagram.
What would JBJ's Instagram from 2014 look like
today? Oh, no. Well, now you've got me thinking.
Is there something in 2014 that I should look
at? There's nothing embarrassing. No, I'm very
careful about posting things because I don't
want to post anything that someone's not going
to like. So I'm not relatively new to IG, but...
Look how hip he sounds. Hot. Are you making fun
of my maturity? I am a little bit. No, not maturity.
The lingo was good, though. Blaze is having a
good time. Blaze, try and keep a straight face
during this program, if you can. He's over there,
by the way, just smiling away. Isn't part of
IG, do they duplicate? Like, when I do something
on Twitter, it'll go to IG as well, won't it?
Probably not because Instagram is connected with
threads. What you're probably noticing is the
Facebook and Instagram connection. There you
go. That's the one. Facebook, Instagram. I knew
there was one that was connected. Like if I do
one, it's going to go to the other one. If you
post on Instagram, it's going to post on Facebook
as well. There you go. So it makes it easier
for me. So I don't have to keep going to all
the different social apps. I'm still getting
it. And the thing is, is that, you know, if you
listen to this program, we've been on here, what,
a year and eight months now? A year and six months?
Something like that. We started in September
of 2024. God, I've known you that long. Holy
smokes. And we still talk to each other. That's
fantastic. Is that the social media thing is
like a grain of salt to me because there is so
much garbage out there that you have to kind
of sift through. And especially when it comes
to rumor and innuendo. That kind of flies out
there and people reposting stuff when they can't
even verify it yet. You know, like John Konzano
and Jerry Allen were dead a few weeks ago. Yeah.
But people believe it. I know. People did. I've
been making fun of it ever since. No, I mean,
and for somebody like a Jerry Allen who doesn't
get on the social media as well, when he starts
to find out from other people, like he woke up
and he told me that morning he woke up and there
were literally hundreds of texts on his phone.
From people. Which is crazy. It's crazy to think
about. Well, the thing I think about that is
that, well, if somebody passed away, why would
you be texting their phone? If you thought they
had passed away. If you got a response, then
you'd know it wasn't true. Are you dead? Question
mark. I didn't ask him what the texts were, but
maybe one day. I would imagine that there was
something like that. Hey, so let's dive into
the world of sports. Thanks for tuning in, friends.
And by the way, again, you can follow us on the
podcast or wherever you get your music, as Baby
J tells me all the time. Most people don't, like,
subscribe just for podcasts. But whatever your
platform is, you get your music on iHeart, Spotify,
Amazon, Apple, all that. There's also the little
podcast thing. Find us there, Danny and Justin.
Like and subscribe, and you will get a notification
when a new program. Program drops just like right
after the show today. This show will drop. So
if you miss anything, you got to break away for
a second. Do that work thing. Saul Galvin is
going to be coming up. You don't want to miss
his take on Oregon opening weekend of softball
down in Florida. And they got another big weekend
coming up at the Cardinal Classic new stadium
for Stanford. And then right after that, they
head down to Carlsbad or no Cathedral City, not
Carlsbad. I'm thinking golf for the Mary Nutter.
And stiff competition for the next couple of
weekends before the Ducks finally come home to
take on Samford and Stetson and such at the Jane.
All right, so let's get into it. So you remember
Cam McCormick? I do remember Cam McCormick, yes.
Tight end, Oregon, played forever, went to Miami,
finished out his collegiate career there. How
many years did he play? Do you remember? I think
it was eight. You are correct, sir. Blaze gives
you the point of approval. So that record's going
to be—I think this is a record. That record's
going to be broken. Solomon Tulio Pupu, and I'm
not making that up. That is the way I looked
it up, the Montana University, University of
Montana website. He's a linebacker. He's coming
back for the 2026 season. His ninth year of eligibility
to play NCAA football. He is 26 years old next
month. His second season at Montana, he started
his collegiate career. When did you start college,
Baby J? I started college in 2014. Okay. He started
his career at USC in 2018. Wow. That's still
earlier than I got to U of O, which was 2017.
So it was close. He was on the sideline for his
entire undergraduate campaign. after two surgery
-requiring injuries impacted his foot in 2018
and his knee in 2020. He had a season last year
at Montana, just his second full season played.
He saw the season for the first time as a redshirt
senior in 2022, appearing in all 14 games for
the Trojans, by the way, backtracking, recording
10 tackles, three for loss, and then had another
injury, and he will come back for his ninth year.
My question is this. He's probably graduated
a couple of times, right? Wouldn't you imagine?
Well, there was the great Carson Beck quote of,
yeah, I haven't been going to class for like
two years. But I'm playing football and getting
paid for it. 100%. At a college. Now, this guy
at the FCS level, likely not getting paid a bunch.
Maybe getting $25K or something like that. I
don't know. Starting linebacker at a program
that's perennially in the postseason. Because
Montana, Montana State, that's like a war up
there. And they are. Like this year, they were
out in the semifinals. Montana State beat them
in the semifinals in the FCS. So they are perennially
there. I think Justin Herbert almost went to
Montana, if I remember correctly. I think so.
If he didn't go to Oregon, I think it was either
Montana or Montana State. And they've come play
to Oregon a couple of times in the past. Bobby
Houck, the legendary coach there, just, quote,
retired, air quotes. Great for radio. And then,
like, a week later. took the defensive coordinator
job under Brent Bielma at Illinois. So they are
going to improve. That guy is a good coach. He
absolutely is. They are going to really improve
on the defensive side of the Illini in the Big
Ten. So what do you think of nine years of college
football? I go a little back and forth on it,
honestly. Because he was hurt. He was hurt. And
so it sucks that it was his first three seasons
of his collegiate career. Basically wiped out
his entire undergraduate career at USC. So part
of me thinks. that he should be able to play
his four seasons but then there's another part
of me that thinks okay like he legitimately is
26 years old and at what point does it become
this thing where it's really unfortunate you're
taking a spot away from somebody i mean like
you're taking a spot away from somebody i agree
he's not going to go to the nfl there is no team
that's going to take a 27 year old rookie but
it shouldn't necessarily be about the nfl as
well But here's my point is that, again, it's
about the spot that you're taking from 18, 19,
20 year old kid who might have aspirations going
to the NFL. And listen, that's up to the University
of Montana and and this young man and the coaching
staff to make all those decisions. I'm not going
to jump in and say it's wrong. I just think it's
like, where is enough? And, you know, I I was
that student that was older. So I do kind of
understand that for his perspective. I guarantee
you he just feels like, hey, I just missed my
opportunity when I was younger, and I'm the same
person, basically. Like, I'm not necessarily
more developed. You're 30 years old. Correct.
Okay. Blaze, pull your microphone over and turn
it on. I want to ask you a question. Producer,
intern, Blaze. Okay, you can pull the microphone
over, then turn it on. Yes, there you go. That'd
be good. So, how old are you, Blaze? I'm 21 now.
Can you imagine still being in school? Congratulations
on that, by the way. Yeah, thank you. Wait a
second. Did we miss a 21 for a while? Okay. Did
we miss a 21st birthday? No, we didn't miss any
birthdays here. Jeez, well, you made it sound
like it just was like last weekend and I forgot
about it or something. That wasn't the case.
All right. The Danny and Justin Radio Program
live from the Bigfoot Beverages studio. Thanks
for tuning in. In the Valley on Fox Sports, Eugene,
and out on the coast, Fox Sports, Newport. All
right, Blaze, you're 21 years old. Without going
to graduate school, would you still want to be
in school? You're 26. At 26, no. You know, I
would consider it maybe around 23. Is it a cutoff?
Yeah, it cuts off there. Because, you know, I'm
feeling like a little bit of sadness because
I'm about to graduate and I'm not going to see
all the people that I want to see in college.
Are you going to go into a master's program?
No, I don't think I want to do that. I'll probably
just go work, you know. But 23, I would say,
is a cutoff. Can you imagine? Could you imagine?
Now, I'm not saying he's sitting in class. I
literally did this, you guys. I literally was
the kid that was, you know, call me a kid. I
was a 27 -year -old college student doing my
undergraduate degree. Well, that's okay. But
I can see that when somebody steps away for a
second and then comes back. What's the difference?
He stepped away for a second and came back. Yeah,
but he's also – For the first three years of
his career. I'd be very interested to see if
he's attending classes or if he's already finished
everything. I doubt it. I doubt it. So Coach
Mark from Arizona says, graduating in four years
is like leaving a party at midnight. Chew on
that one for a second, Blaze. All right. Thanks
for helping us out there. So I was chided by
your counterpart, Dom, for apparently ignoring
the Olympics, which was not the case. I was just
basically doing something that. was embarrassing
for me, which was I didn't know the Olympics
had started. And I'm like a winter sports guy.
I know. So now. Here we go. To thumb my nose
at intern Dom. In honor of the Olympics, until
the Olympics are over, in Milan, in Cortina,
in Italy, every single day on the Danny and Justin
radio program, I will be giving an Olympic update.
So here it is. Jordan Stoltz claimed his first
Olympic gold in the men's 1 ,000 -meter speed
skating event, setting a record time of 1 minute
6 .28, achieving the largest winning margin since
1984. Madison Chalk, Evan Bates, the married
U .S. ice dancers, close to securing their first
Olympic individual gold, trailing the French
team by just 46. Hundreds of a point heading
into the decisive free dance event tonight. I
know Blaze is going to be glued to his television.
Lindsey Vonn underwent a third surgery following
a severe crash in the Winter Olympics downhill
event. At 41, I don't know if she's going to
recover, the 2026 Winter Olympics faced backlash.
Gold medals broke shortly after being awarded
due to a design flaw. Have you heard about this?
I do not. They were breaking on. On the stand,
on the medal stand, organizers are investigating
and offering replacements to the affected athletes.
The medal count thus far, Norway leads with seven
golds. This is just first through five is like
the gold medals and then total medals. Norway
has seven golds, total of 13. United States has
four. So does Italy. So does Switzerland. U .S.
11 total medals. Italy 13. Switzerland 7. Germany.
Not necessarily known as strong in the winter
sports. Better in the summer games. Germany has
three gold medals. They're great in the bobsledding
and like the luge. Would you ever do the luge?
Aren't they decent at speed skating? I would
do luge. That sounds fun. Are you kidding? It's
like laying on a skateboard going down at 150
miles an hour down a sheet of ice. Laying on
your back. Lay on your back. I don't know. It
sounds all right. All right. Something closer
to home and something closer to your heart. Fans
inside Matt Knight Arena are in for a treat Saturday
afternoon. Penn State, Oregon on the floor for
men's basketball as Oregon tries to save what
is just a disastrous season. But halftime is
going to be who, Justin? It's going to be Red
Panda. You're stoked about this. I'm stoked about
this. Blaze, you know who Red Panda is? You can
shake your head. All right. He knows who Red
Panda is. Yeah. It was funny. I was trying to
explain to our station manager, Woody, who Red
Panda was. And I literally didn't know her real
name because she's just only known as Red Panda.
And she does all these NBA games. She's done
some NFL stuff. She's got – Britain's Got Talent,
I believe, as well. America's Got Talent, Thursday
Night Football. She's been on Thursday Night
Football. Yeah. So she's a really big deal. She's
an acrobat. She has an eight -foot -tall unicycle.
Crazy. And then she balances things. So she's
pretty – And so she's going to Matthew Knight
Arena. I think it's awesome. She's going to do
multiple metal bowls on her feet and head. She's
been a fan favorite at sporting events around
the globe. She's coming back from a pretty serious
injury. And so this is one of the first performances
back for her. She's been performing professionally
for more than 30 years. She is widely regarded
as the best halftime act in basketball. All across
the NBA, she's been everywhere. Red Panda at
halftime, MKA, Saturday. Get your tickets for
Oregon men's basketball against Penn State. All
right, we're going to step aside. And when we
come back, our good friend Silk, Saul Galvin,
the voice of Oregon softball, is going to lay
out his perspective on the softball team. So
two and three coming out of Clearwater. Do people
start to need to be concerned about this Oregon
softball team? Are they not going to reach the
heights they met last year when they got to Oklahoma
City? We'll ask Saul's opinion or Saul's opinion
when we come back on the Danny and Justin radio
program. The Danny and Justin radio program for
a hump day. We're going to have Justin's word
of the week in the last segment. We still have
to get a sounder for that. You need to have big
voice do something like that. I need to do that,
and I'm going to find some good drops as well.
Okay. I've already thought of something. Word
of the week coming up. Justin is going to reach
deep into his vocabulary. Help learn us something.
I'm not scrambling this week. I thought of this
one on Sunday. Adam Boyd, good for you. Let's
head out over to the Oregon Mad Clinics hotline
and welcome in a returning guest, a good friend
of ours. And he kind of runs everything. He is
the king of KWVA. We call him Silk. It's Saul
Galvin, the voice of Oregon softball. Saul, how
are you, buddy? I'm good. It's good to be back
here, gents. Excited for another season of Oregon
softball. Here we go. We're going to kick it
off right out of the gates. Two and three weekend
in Clearwater, Florida. Not the start that, of
course, anybody, if you're an Oregon softball
fan, would want. But from your perspective and
the fan base, and I know I've been looking at
some of the tweets and stuff, and I always take
that with a grain of salt. But from your perspective
to the fans, is it all about just calming down
after a two and three start? I think so, you
know, and I think that my biggest takeaway from
this past weekend, right, and like you said,
you know, maybe not the weekend that they wanted
to have overall, but this team has a lot of fight.
Like every game that they played this weekend,
they were in it at some point. I think that's
super important at this early part of the season,
right, because you're going against tough competition.
You know, sometimes it was, you know, five games
in three days. Sometimes, you know, they only
had like 30 minutes in between Friday and Saturday's
doubleheaders. it's not a lot of time to reset
and, you know, kind of get back at it. But they
stayed competitive the entire weekend, and they
still came away with two wins, two pretty significant
wins against Missouri and Liberty. Liberty, obviously,
a top -25 team. And, again, even with the other
teams, too, like, these are all really good teams.
Four of the five teams they played this weekend
were in the NCAA tournament last year. And I
just think that, you know, the level of competition
that they faced against this past weekend is
really going to prepare them for, you know, not
just this weekend, but even just the rest of
the season as well, and kind of getting momentum
because... You don't get to play tough competition
like this in the early part of the season. Sometimes
it comes midway through the year, end of the
year, but I just think that it was a good opportunity
to really see what they were about, what they
need to fix, and then just what you need to improve
heading into this weekend at Stanford. And kind
of like the rest of the team, it was a bit up
and down for the pitching staff, including Lindsey
Grein, who started off against Missouri with
her first career no -hitter. That was awesome.
And then by the end of the weekend against Southeast
Louisiana, three earned runs and... two -thirds
of an inning. Elisa Koltzke also a bit up and
down as well. What did you see good from this
pitching staff? What did you see that needs to
be tuned up? Like, what was going wrong when
it was going wrong? You know, I just think it
was a little uncomfortable, right? And, again,
it goes back to saying the tough competition
is going to make that happen. I think that last
year, Lindsey in particular, you know, she was
super dominant, and she just went out there and
pitched a little freely. You know, and she did
the same thing, right? She started off with a
no -hitter against Missouri. I think that gave
her a lot of confidence. But then to go in and
pitch. you know, basically the whole game against
Tennessee, and she only held them to two runs.
Like, that is an impressive thing right there
to go against number Tennessee. Sure, it was
the result they wanted, but... Going back, the
number four ranked Bulls, which are definitely
going to be a team that, you know, Ducks are
probably going to see later on in the playoffs
at some point. So just knowing that they can
do that and they can stay competitive is super
important early on. But I just think with the
rest of the pitching staff, you know, it's deep
this year, right? Like you lose Stacey Chambers,
the lefty pitcher from last year, but they bring
in a freshman, Maddie Milhorn, who was phenomenal
in her relief appearance against Liberty. Like
she was touching 70 miles an hour. And as a freshman,
like that's unbelievable to know that she's pitching
70 miles an hour as a freshman. Elise, you know,
she was right. right there with Lindsey as well.
A couple struggles, but she really bounced back
pretty well. And Taylor Spencer, too, was someone
who Coach Lombardi talked about last year, didn't
really get into a rhythm, you know, didn't have
a spot in the rotation with Stacy, with Lindsey,
and Elise. She looked really good over the weekend.
She made a couple of relief appearances. She
also made a start as well. And I just thought
that she looked super comfortable out there,
and that's kind of the tailor that they were
looking for. So, you know, I just think that
the four arms that pitched this past weekend
looked really solid overall. There were a couple
moments where, you know, some pitches got away
from them. But, again, it's early in the season.
You're going to make mistakes. And I think now
they know, you know, what to expect when they
go against a competition like this. And I'm really
excited to see how they bounce back this weekend.
The golden voice of Salo Galvin, he is silk to
us on the Danny Justin radio program. You can
hear him on 88 .1 KWVA calling the game. Did
I say that right? Yep, you got it. Okay. Baby
J just kind of looked at me. I thought I heard
something else. What? Yeah, I said it right.
You said it right. You can listen to him this
weekend. Stanford Class, the Cardinal Classic.
I did not say anything. Down there. Brand new
Stanford Stadium, Stanford Softball Stadium.
So you'll get to see that complex for the first
time this weekend. And great competition once
again. Cal State Fullerton, Kentucky, Cal Poly,
and, of course, the host Stanford Cardinal before
the Mary Nutter Classic and another gauntlet
for Melissa Lombardi's team. And I want to stay
on pitching. just for a second, and you touched
on it. Maddie Millhorn comes in. She pitches
four and a third innings, strikes out eight,
walks two, a .67 batting average against her.
She only gave up one hit and one run in four
and a third. And for a pitching staff that is
going to grow and with two stalwarts right in
the middle, I mean, you start with Lindsey Grine
and Lisa Kolski. That's great. And then Taylor
backing that up. She's experienced. But then
you add in the freshman. Those in the circle
who might not be well -versed in softball, it
starts there. And it's a very, very deep pitching
staff. And Melissa Lombardi's got to be pleased
in some respects on how they came out of it.
Nobody's hurt. Yeah, no, I mean, she was. And,
again, especially with all the games that are
happening these first three weekends, it's super
important to have that kind of depth. You know,
Lindsey last year, she pitched more innings than
she pitched almost in her two years at Virginia
Tech, and that was a lot to ask out of her. But
now you kind of give her some help. Elise already
has, you know, a really good year under her belt.
Taylor as well, she's starting to find a rhythm.
And then Maddie, you know, a freshman, it was
kind of a lot to ask of her, but she went out
and she delivered. just having that, you know,
ability to go to the bullpen and give, you know,
three or four really solid arms out of there,
that's super important because, you know, Ducks
are going to probably be in some of these more
close games, and they're going to need pitchers
that they can rely on that can go in there and,
you know, put up the beginnings, give the scoreless
thing as well. You know, the next two weekends
are a good example, right? Like Kentucky, Stanford
as well, who they beat last year in the Eugene
Regional. And the next weekend, they have Auburn,
Texas, and South Carolina, which are three teams
that... all again have really high expectations
to make the ncaa tournament again this year so
just having that depth is really going to be
critical in this early part of the year and then
even when we get to the later part as well not
having to use just one or two pitchers like some
of the other more successful teams did last year
they have four arms that they can really go to
and something that's supposed to help out your
pitcher is your defense and that was something
that was a huge part of last year's team I'd
say it wasn't the best start for this year's
team. Five errors so far in the season, a 96
-66 total percentage. Fielding -wise, three infielders
made an error over the course of those five games.
I guess how much concern do you have over the
defense? Or is it just sort of, again, early
season, you're getting your timing going, and
we'll see what happens going forward. It's all
early season, right? And I think that, you know,
everyone's going to focus on the five areas.
But I think what a lot of people don't focus
on are the amazing plays that they made. Like,
Elon Butler was laying out for balls in the right
field. You know, Katie Flannery and Addison Amaral
were up the middle turning double plays. Katie
Flannery was diving for... you know ground balls
over at third base like this defense is still
awesome right i know the errors you know again
kind of kicking themselves a little bit but this
is still going to be a really good defense right
the most of the infield is returning from last
year a couple new additions to the outfield emma
cox still gunning out runners from behind home
plate like i again if they're going to make mistakes
you know this i think So many expectations have
been put on this team from last year, right?
But it's a different team. It's a different version,
obviously. And now they have to go out and kind
of make their own identity, which, again, is
a lot of pressure. But, you know, you can just
tell already that this team is not going to go
down easy. And I think they show that on defense
as well. There were a few opportunities in that
Tennessee game where, you know, if maybe the
defense had gotten away from them, they might
not have lost by two runs. But it kind of kept
them in. And same thing with the Clemson game
as well. You know, obviously a couple of errors.
But, you know, I just think that this team responds
really well like they did last year. Last year
they didn't lose two in a row, and while they
can't be the same now after this year, I still
think that it's a resilient group overall. That's
a pretty amazing stat right there, Saul. We're
talking Oregon softball with Saul Galvin, the
voice of Oregon softball, as they head down to
the Cardinal Classic this weekend to take on
another round of stiff competition in the early
part of the season before the Big Ten looms in...
April. So a lot of different lineups for Coach
Lombardi, a lot of the same players this first
weekend, but differences at the top of the order,
which I found interesting. I think now you help
me out here. I know you probably know this. I
thought there was maybe three or four different
leadoff hitters in the five games. So is this
one of those things where I think Coach Lombardi
thinks she knows who's going to be winning the
positions, but in terms of the order, she's still
kind of working things out? Yeah, you know, and
again, it's going to happen, right? I think it
was the same case as last year where, you know,
the first five games you're trying to figure
it out. Obviously, you lose Kylie Shaw and her,
you know, record -setting stolen base and on
-base percentage year. And, you know, now you
have to try to figure out who's going to take
that. But I thought that, you know, the lineup,
you know, the second half of the weekend was
really good with having Shaw in the leadoff spot.
Like, she was amazing. She had, you know, she
finished the weekend with six hits and also...
She also finished with one walk as well. So I
just think that having her in the leadoff spot,
especially after last year, she was also another
player that was kind of fighting the injury bug
a little bit, didn't get a chance to play a ton
maybe as she wanted to, especially with Kejri
Lushar on center field. So having her at the
top of the order is super helpful. And then kind
of that duo of the new faces with Amari Harper
and Elon Butler, they were playing kind of on
and off the two and three spot. But even so,
Harper had her first home run as an Oregon Duck,
and then Butler as well. she also had five walks
on the weekend. Like, that's pretty impressive.
And, you know, your first weekend, you're trying
to get the bat going. You're able to stay patient
and just, you know, get on base because that's
really what Oregon needs, right? They just need
base runners to give themselves opportunities.
So, you know, I just think that the top of the
order is really, you know, good, and they have
a lot of speed, a lot of potential to get on
base. And, obviously, with Riley McCoy in the
clean -out spot along with Emma Cox, the four,
five, and six, again, like, you just look up
and down this lineup. It's just a lot of potential,
really. And I think this weekend, you know. maybe
wasn't the greatest representation of it. You
know, they'll probably agree with that saying,
okay, we could have done a lot better. But, you
know, I think that people should still be excited
to see what this lineup can do this year. Yeah,
and Riley McCoy and Stephanie Maake aren't going
to go one for 15 and one for 12 every single
weekend as well. But somebody that did have a
monster set of games was Kaylin Jones, and she
batted 400 for the weekend at 871 OPS. She provides
something that I think is kind of unique for
this lineup. How important do you think she's
going to be for this team in particular, and
do you think she's just set up for a monster
year this year? I think so. Right. And she already
proved it this past weekend. She made the, you
know, the NBC all tournament team. She finished
for six or 15 with three RBIs as well. Like it
felt like, you know, she was a big contributor
this weekend. And I just think, especially after
last year as well, too, like, you know, all the
focus was really put on, on Riley McCoy and Stephanie
Maki for what they did, but Kayla Jones had a
really great year. And I think she's destined
for another year. What I like so much about her
is that. She does play a lot like Kylie Schar,
and I don't think people realize that as well.
She loves to slap the ball the other way. She
can also pull it as well. You know, she had her
first career home run against UCLA in Game 3
last year. So she's really a versatile player.
And then the defense is there as well, also with
the speed. I think that she's going to be kind
of... Her and Ayanna will be the main ones that
kind of take over the stolen base tactic that
they did last year. I think she finished with
10 -plus stolen bases in 2025. So just her ability
to do everything, not just hit the ball, but
also get the walk, get on base, move over, and
then also on defense as well. She's a very versatile
player that's going to be a real asset to the
team this year. Well, the Ducks, as they dive
into the Cardinal Classic, are going to want
to keep the bats going and accelerate it a little
bit more. Is that what you want to see out of
this team this weekend, Saul, is kind of find
a couple more games where the bats bust out?
I think so. You know, I think it'd just be good
for the confidence, you know, to get the bats
going. Because, again, right, the game against
Liberty is really where things started to, you
know, to pick up. You know, Coach said it. You
know, she wants to start fast. I think that Clemson
game was probably the best game in terms of getting
off to a fast start, like she kept saying last
year. It's all about, you know, putting their
foot in the gas pedal and never taking it off.
And it just felt like this weekend maybe the
foot kind of was taken off a little bit. But,
you know, there were still times where they were
right there and they were giving themselves opportunities.
So I think with this weekend, it's really just
about making sure that if they have. opportunities
on the base path that they're able to drive in
a few runs. It doesn't have to be a big inning.
Like, I think last year a big thing, too, about
this team was that, you know, they were putting
up, you know, sometimes 10, 20 runs throughout
the first, like, three or four innings. And that's
great, right? But against some of the tougher
competition, that's not always going to be the
reality. It's just about stacking up runs, get
a run or two an inning, and then that stacks
up over seven innings. And then next thing you
know, it's a 7 -4 game, and you're more in favor
than that. So, you know, it's going to change,
right? The tough competition definitely changes
things from last year, but I'm really excited
to see how this team handles it this weekend
and get some more tough competition at the Cardinal
Classic. So, Saul, one of the keynotes for a
Melissa Lombardi coach team is being very aggressive
on the base paths. She was only 104 with her
team this weekend. this past weekend in five
games. And would you expect – was that more situational?
Was there not as many opportunities to be able
to swipe a bag? Or was it more that, you know,
you just – you knew that the person behind the
dish was going to be able to fire it down and
wherever you were at and throw you out? Yeah,
I think it was – it might have been a little
bit of both. You know, again, there was some
tough competition this past weekend, also some
really good catchers, and they had a lot of –
you know, really good talent behind the plate,
similar to Emma Cox. You know, she was also really
good behind the dish this past weekend, picking
off runners, you know, trying to back pick attempts
as well. You know, the speed is there. I just
think that, you know, again, this weekend they
were trying out some things. They were getting
the timing down right. So it didn't work out
all the time. But even when they did it, it felt
like they were right there. You know, there was
just a couple of times when, you know, some things
got mistimed and maybe just didn't go their way,
some base running mistakes as well. But I do
think that the speed is going to be a factor
as well. But Coach Lombardi even said, too, that.
Speed is going to be a factor this year, but
she was more outlining the power that this team
developed in the offseason. Something that I
think was incredibly key to last year's team,
it wasn't a stat, it wasn't anything that you
could see in the numbers, it was how this team
responded to each other. It was the leadership,
it was the energy in the dugout, it was the fact
that they clearly all liked each other and really
believed in each other. You mentioned that they
didn't lose two games in a row last year, so
not a lot of opportunity to see how... They responded.
Obviously, they had such a great season, but
there was opportunity, I think, this weekend.
How did you see the body language? How did you
see in terms of just the energy? Like, was it
the things that you wanted to see despite having
some tough games? 100%, right? And even when
they were down, you know, they never looked like
it, right? Again, because it's an easy thing,
right? You're down a couple of runs, you know,
or sometimes an error, you know, maybe scores
in a few runs for the opponents. And you just
kind of get down on yourself. But, again, this
team was energetic from the first pitch all the
way until the last pitch of the seventh inning.
You know, they love each other. And I think that's
kind of the vibe that we got from media day last
week. And then even talking with Amari afterwards,
you know, like they were a little bit upset,
right, about that Clemson loss, especially because
they were up heading into the sixth and they
felt like they kind of let that one slip away.
But, again, it's a long season. And you're going
to have those moments where, you know, things
don't go your way, but it's all about how you
respond. I just think that this team has kind
of a similar vibe to last year and to where they're
not going to let the previous game affect them.
They're going to go out there. They're going
to put themselves in a situation to win. It's
just about going out there and finishing, which
is a hard thing to do in softball, especially
against tough competition. You can have that
great start, but it's about how you finish, and
that's really going to be the ultimate deciding
factor if you win the game or not. Back -to -back
games on Friday starting at 10 a .m. Cal State
Fullerton, then 12 .30 time start against Kentucky,
and then they back up another game on Valentine's
Day game against Kentucky, and then Cal Poly
and Stanford to finish out on Sunday. Saul, what
is the Saul Golvin trick to doing a 10 a .m.
game? You've got several of these. You've already
put one in your belt. Now you've got another
one, and I'm looking at the schedule. At least
have one, two, three more. here before you end
February. So what is the key? It is a lot of
coffee or go to bed super early the night before.
Depending on what time I finish, I try to get
to the ballpark a couple hours beforehand. So
if it's 10 a .m., try to get there around 8,
which means I'm usually up by 6 .30 or 7. So
I try to go to bed early. It's not always possible.
And if that doesn't happen, then probably a few
cups of coffee to get me woken up. Go -to snack
on the plane? Man, you know what? I've been loving
on United. They have these like chocolate quinoa
crisps. I get it every single time. I get that
and you get ginger ale. Cures me up. Okay, that
a boy. All right, Silk, we'll be listening to
you and we'll obviously be talking to you plenty
throughout the season and seeing out the Jane
at the end of the month. Take care of yourself
and thanks for hopping on, buddy. Yeah, I appreciate
you guys having me on. There he goes, the great
Silk Salugolvin. You can listen to him on KWVA
this weekend and all season long. Cal State Fullerton
in Kentucky on Valentine's pre -day. And then
Valentine's Day, Kentucky again. Then Sunday,
Cal Poly in Stanford before they come home. And
then they head out again. to Cathedral City,
California for the Mary Nutter. Their road warriors
are the Ducks' ladies softball team. When Justin
and I return, word of the day, word of the week,
not word of the day, word of the week. Wednesday,
word of the week. Wednesday, word of the week,
because Justin loves alliteration. I love alliteration.
Danny, Justin, Radio Pro. So if you miss any
of that interview a moment ago with Saul Galvin
from the University of Oregon Women's Softball,
you can go back to the podcast and listen to
it. Danny and Justin are the fastest 60 Minutes
in Sports. Hi there, I'm Doc. Right over there
is Baby J. Hello. In the pilot's chair is intern
Blaze, who has not offended me this week. His
counterpart, right up to the line. Dom was right
at that line. I'm not letting it go. Not. So
you know what? Out of it, out of that, came a
new segment for the show. Through the Olympics.
The Olympic Update. Which I think went really
well. I liked that. We just need the music to
go a little bit longer, and then it's going to
be perfect. So that's all production value there.
All right, so we've got baseball this weekend.
Opening weekend of Oregon, Oregon State baseball.
So Oregon State, if you want to hop on a plane
and head down to Arizona, then you can watch
them in where? Surprise. Surprise. Surprise,
Arizona. Michigan, they're going to have a lot
of good competition down there. Oregon State
baseball. Oregon baseball is going to be here
at home. Now, the weather is going to come into
play here. That's a really light way to put it.
It's going to come into play. So George Mason
comes in for a four -rack. It'll be one game
on Friday, early start, 3 p .m. So take the afternoon
off, head on out to PK. And then the double dip.
Weather permitting, on Saturday, 11 a .m., and
then whenever first game ends, they'll go like
a half hour between games, and then they'll do
the second game. And then Sunday, a single set
at noon. So, again, the forecast as I was looking
at it. Now, Friday, I think they'll get that
one in just fine. It's going to be a little chilly,
though. Temperature is going to tap out at 52.
Saturday, there is a 60 % chance of rain. And
the temps are only supposed to get up into the
mid -40s. So, you know, let's hope that that's
wrong. Like they say in Oregon, right? Wait five
minutes. Weather's going to change. Sounds like
you want to get a lot of strikeouts. Get it over
fast. Not a lot of in -play balls. Oregon and
George Mason meeting on the diamond for the first
time this weekend. What's the mascot for George
Mason? Quickly, anybody? No, don't look it up.
Don't look it up. Don't look it up. No, this
one's tough. Ah! It's not a president, is it?
It's not. Patriots, though. You were close. Okay,
I knew it was something like that. While U of
O is meeting GMU for the first time, Oregon will
be playing a member of the A -10 for the second
consecutive season. Who was the A -10 team last
year? Oh, I don't know. That's a Blaze question
for sure. Rhode Island. Ducks went three and
run. Three and one, not three and run. 3 -1 against
Rhode Island last season in Eugene. That was
later on in February, February 21st through the
23rd. Heading into the second season of the Big
Ten, Oregon's riding recent success that ranks
among the best in the West Coast. Since 2021,
Ducks have the fourth most wins at 198 among
teams in the West while boasting the fourth best
winning percentage at 662. Who do they trail?
Oregon State, UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, both
those categories. What's the fist pump for? You've
got to get your mic ready to go. This is like
getting an athletic position here. Get in the
ready position at all times in turnblades. Okay,
so the bottom line is if you can get out to PK
Park this weekend, please do. It's the first
look at the 2026 Oregon Ducks baseball team.
We will have the head coach, leader of the flock,
Mark Wasikowski, on this program tomorrow. So
we'll get his viewpoint on how the season's going
to unfold. A lot of different arms, a new pitching
coach. Got to replace some of that offense. So
we'll see. And the Ducks, you know, make it into
the postseason last year. And they keep finding
a way to kind of manufacture their way into the
postseason. I think Coach Guas will say, let's
make it stronger in the regular season so we
can get that highest seed possible. and get some
momentum going into the postseason instead of
kind of, I didn't say back in, but kind of limping
in to the postseason. Right, as they did a little
bit last year. Yeah, I mean, but they made it,
and they had every fighting chance to get through.
And just a couple of bounces here and there.
All right, you want to do word of the week? Let's
do it. Let's do a bed, and I'm going to introduce
this. This is going to be a new feature this
week. We started this a few weeks ago. Yeah.
I present to you the Archbishop of Alliteration,
the Prince of Pronouns, the Viceroy of Verbs,
the Wizard of Words, the King of Consonants.
It's Baby J with our Word of the Week. I feel
like I'm on Game of Thrones or something like
that. Did you like that? I liked that a lot.
All right, well, the Word of the Week this week,
and it was inspired by the New England Patriots.
I was watching the Super Bowl. The Word of the
Week this week is inept, meaning... Having or
showing no skill and or clumsy. And as I was
watching that game, I just was like, man, this
is some of the most inept offense I have seen
in a long time. It was very conservative. I just
knew that they weren't going to score enough
points. And so that's your word of the week,
inept. Your word of the week, inept. So now the
challenge out there, you've got homework, kiddies.
As when you go out tonight, tomorrow, this weekend,
sometime. You have to use that word in a sentence.
You have to use it correctly. All right, so that's
going to be a new feature on our program, the
Word of the Week. On Wednesdays. On Wednesdays.
Word of the Week Wednesdays. Hump Day. I like
the way we educate our audience as well. Entertain
and inform. And expanding our vocabulary is a
good thing. And listen, I don't like tooting
of the own horn. I have been told I have a good
vocabulary. So I'm going to try to spread that
knowledge. This whole thing, the whole genesis
of this was from what word? Dynamicism. Which
I thought was a fake word. Can you believe it,
Blaze? No, Blaze. I was not in the minority here.
I was literally not in the minority. There were
other people that were like, I don't think that's
a word either. Just shows how. That's all right.
Shows how we can always expand our horizons.
All right. So let's talk Oregon State a little
bit. Oregon State women's basketball looking
to rebound from a challenging road trip. They
go out Thursday to Santa Clara and then Saturday
against Pacific. Beavs are a game ahead of the
Broncos and Portland, tied with LMU at 9 -3 in
the conference. All three teams set to visit
Gil Coliseum in the season final week, so it's
going to come down to it. Oregon State men, 13
-13 against San Francisco, the Dons, at War Memorial
in San Francisco. That'll be tomorrow night.
Oregon State's 4 -9 all -time against San Francisco.
Wayne Tinkle's squad trying to get back to over
.500 in conference play. We already talked about
Oregon men taking on Penn State. That'll be Saturday.
Oregon women have a few more days off. We'll
talk about them tomorrow. Can I say something
about the Oregon men game against Penn State?
I don't want to say this is a must -win, but
I'm going to be a little bit worried about winning
another game if they don't win this one. Okay,
well, that's fair. You had called Indiana as
the game. I thought that was going to be the
one. For some reason, I thought that maybe it
was going to be the one. Tough road game, though.
Okay. And I will also lay it down here as well,
is I still want to see that pride. I saw it in
the game against Purdue. And then it's just the
Jekyll and Hyde stuff with Oregon basketball
is just perplexing with me. Now, putting the
injuries aside, they play so hard. And maybe
it was they expended all their energy against
the Boilermakers. But it just seemed like they
were flat. Even though, again, I think we talked
about it on Monday. They shoot 50%. Right. Or
we talked about it Tuesday. 50 % from the field.
And you end up losing, what is it, losing by
18 points. It's the turnovers, though. And I
think part of it, hey, Nate Biddle, first game
back against Purdue. He's so important. You can
see the difference when he's on the court. But
I also think he's coming off of an injury. And
so now you're dealing with that, right? And so,
unfortunately, what I was hoping to see for this
basketball team in the absence of Nate Biddle
didn't really happen, which was guys stepping
into bigger roles than they had had and flourishing
in those roles and figuring out how to be productive
players. And it hasn't led to winning basketball.
And, unfortunately, it feels like... It's still
kind of the same team, plus Nate Biddle, who's
really good, but it's still not enough to win
consistently. I don't know. And a team that needs
to turn it on down the stretch, and I think they've
got all the horses to do it, Oregon women's basketball.
They take on the Huskies Sunday. It'll be a 5
p .m. tip. So I think it's back -to -back weeks.
It's Sundays now of Oregon women's basketball.
They had against Ohio State, and they had the
week off now and just taking on the single game
against Washington this week. As we head down
the stretch, listen, the Big Ten tournament's
right around the corner. Going to be more important
for Oregon women's basketball, unfortunately,
this year than Oregon men's basketball. I mean,
you know, go shock the world, I guess, if you're
Oregon men's basketball. They'll play fast and
loose and hopefully get everybody healthy back
except for Jackson Shelsad. You have to go to
the survive and advance mentality. Just one game
at a time. We'll see what happens. And that's
going to be our schedule. So Waz tomorrow and
then on Friday we'll have Travis, Travis Demers,
the mayor of Rip City, talk Blazers and how they've
kind of gotten themselves into a groove now again.
Let's hope we're not jinxing them. Before we
get Travis on, he'll just take me out back and
say, please stop doing that before you get on
the air with me. There it goes. And then next
week we'll be off on Monday, and then I'll be
gone Tuesday, Wednesday. So it'll be Goose in
on Wednesday with you, and then I think Dom's
going to do the show with you for the first time.
Ooh, I've got to listen to that. I'll be in Orlando.
I'll be in sunny Orlando. I might call and say
hi. All right. If I need to. All right, let's
do Dad Joke. I got fired from the bank today.
A woman asked me to check her balance, so I pushed
her. Dad jokes! All right, so... There we go.
There we go. I just wanted the clutter to clear
before I did it. Do we want to start over? No,
we're not going to start. Whatever you want to
do. No, no, no. No, no, no. We're not going to
start over. What's the most detail -oriented
ocean? Detail -oriented ocean? What is the most
detail - The Pacific Ocean. Okay. Is that it?
Yes. Did I finally get one? Yes. All right. Okay.
Let's kill that music and play our outro music.
We can't. All right. I think that's the first
one I've ever gotten. The most detailed -oriented
ocean is the Pacific. Ah, yes. You feel pretty
proud of yourself. I feel good about that. It's
just all Justin all the time. You know what?
It's all coming out Milhouse. For Baby J. For
Intern Blaze. I'm Doc. They call me Danny. God
bless. Put a smile on your face. Someone else's.
They deserve it. So do you. Why's tomorrow on
the program? For the entire crew at the number
one sports station in the valley. Peace.