17518 Posts In

Uncategorized

Rebuilding the Blazers

Tomorrow’s draft could mean a fresh start


And just like that, we start again.


The 2011–12 NBA season is officially over. LeBron James made sure of that on Thursday, coming through with a rare triple-double and controlling the flow of the game that clinched his first finals victory. There will be a parade in Miami and a trophy presentation and a few more precious days of reprieve to allow the moment to really sink in. For the rest of us, that’s all just a headline now—and it’s an old one. The 2012–13 season starts in Portland tomorrow.

Between the Horns: Scaling the wall

If I had to describe my friend Mat as I remember him from our jaunty high school days, I would bluntly say, “skinny.”

So it surprised me, when I ran into him during my trip back to the East Bay this year, that he looked like he’d been making a living as Jason Statham’s body double. In other words, he was ripped. In fact, the first word I blurted out when I saw my stalwart friend walking toward me was, “How?”

Opting in to nonsense

PSU alerts should be an opt-out system, not opt-in

What with sexual assaults, threats of violence from a disgruntled student at midterms, suspicious package scares and a partial campus lockdown during finals week, Portland State hasn’t felt very safe lately. And what little information the university releases about these events comes through the emergency alert system first and then is uploaded to the PSU website.

Taking it to a new level

Bilingual teacher program receives nearly $2 million in federal grant money

The Portland State Bilingual Teacher Pathway Program, a branch of the Graduate School of Education, received a $1.96 million grant from the federal government’s Department of Education. The grant—dubbed the Futures Project—focuses on science, technology, engineering and math and will bring big changes to the bilingual teacher program.

Follow your bliss

PSU professors and professionals offer practical advice for pursuing a career in the arts

Newsweek recently ran a gallery titled “The 13 most useless majors from philosophy to journalism.” Predictably, the arts fared badly. That’s OK, though, because Narrative Science is a company that has devised an artificial intelligence algorithm for computers to write news articles. (The lack of a byline suggests that the Newsweek piece was itself written by a computer.)

MVP will be missed

Connor Kavanaugh moves out of Viking football

Connor Kavanaugh was the 2011 Most Valuable Player in the 2011 Vikings football season and will not return this fall.

“Our offense is like a Ferrari,” team head coach Nigel Burton said in a statement. “It’s fast, it’s the best built and it’s designed to win races. We will give you the tools to run the Ferrari, but if you don’t know how to use those tools, you might wrap it around a tree. So, we need to see who can best use those tools before we hand over the keys.”

Replacing the rebounder

Chehales Tapscott plans his future after leading the Vikings in rebounding

Tapscott played his last game as a Viking, and he will be missed. The senior averaged nine rebounds a game and had a huge effect on the team this season. One of the more memorable moments from his career this year was a game winner against Seattle University: Tapscott hit multiple shots in the final minute, including one at the buzzer to give the Vikings the victory.

Off to Germany

Viking basketball grad Eryn Jones to play abroad

Women’s basketball graduate Eryn Jones realized she couldn’t imagine life without the sport during her senior season at Portland State. Now, just months after the Viking point guard hung up her Portland State jersey for the last time, Jones took up an offer to play basketball in Germany’s professional women’s circuit. Jones has not yet made her final decision between the two cities in Germany that made offers: Marburg or Chemnitz.

Hard work leads to success

Charles Odum leaves Portland State after leading the team in scoring

Thirty-eight points, but most importantly the win: That’s how Charles Odum walked off the court in a game against Sacramento State this season. Odum connected on five three-pointers and shot 11 for 16 from the field as he led Portland State to a 94-88 victory.

High hopes: Cory McCaffrey will be missed on the field. McCaffrey suffered an injury he hopes will not affect his future in football.

Setting Oregon standards

Cory McCaffrey’s college football career ends

Despite playing only five games in 2011, Cory McCaffrey was selected to the first team All-Big Sky Conference in a postseason vote by the league coaches. McCaffrey led the nation in rushing and scoring before his Achilles injury in mid-October. He is the most successful running back in Oregon history.

© 2020 PSU Vanguard