– Construction on Oregon softball’s new home park, Jane Sanders Stadium, is nearly complete and athletic director Rob Mullens expects the stadium to be ready for the team’s home-opener against Stanford on March 24.
“Everything that we’ve heard puts us right on schedule … it’s a very tight timeline,” Mullens said. “We’ve got 100 folks here working today, hustling … but we are right on schedule for March 24.”
– New Oregon football offensive coordinator Matt Lubick will make $600,000 guaranteed per year, according to Ryan Thorburn of the Register-Guard. The revised two-year contract was made public last week by UO after Lubick signed. Lubick earned $362,416 as Oregon’s wide receivers coach before being promoted to offensive coordinator in January.
– Oregon men’s basketball struggled offensively in last weekend’s road sweep at Cal and Stanford. The two losses were the Ducks’s second and third lowest scoring outputs on the road, respectively, in the Pac-12. Though the losses left much to be desired, the Ducks shouldn’t be overly concerned moving forward. Three of their last five Pac-12 games are at home, where the Ducks have won 22 in a row and have yet to lose this season.
– The Emerald caught up with recently-named Oregon baseball pitching coach Mitch Karraker, who took over for Dean Stiles on Jan. 12. Karraker, a former Oregon catcher, leads a formidable pitching staff going into the 2016 season.
– Oregon starting pitcher Matt Krook was one of 50 collegiate players named to the Golden Spikes Award watch list on Wednesday. Krook missed the entire 2015 season with an elbow injury and subsequent Tommy John surgery. The 6-foot-3 left-handed pitcher figures to be a major part of the Ducks’ rotation for the upcoming season.
– Women’s basketball graduate managers Taelor Karr and Meghan Winters have been important to head coach Kelly Graves’s staff this season, writes The Emerald’s Jonathan Hawthorne. Karr and Winters both played at Gonzaga, where Graves was head coach from 2000-2014. As the Ducks sit on the cusp of making the NCAA Tournament, Karr and Winters have provided the team with valuable insight and personal experience.
“They can help these kids through this: what to expect and what’s coming next,” Graves said of the Ducks’ chase for an NCAA Tournament berth. “It’s great to have people like that on the staff, no doubt.”
Follow Will Denner on Twitter @Will_Denner