For the Ducks, today is a day to embrace the suck

My brother Roger is a U.S. Marine. He left the service a long time ago but a Marine is always a Marine, in attitude and discipline. He still likes things squared away. His shop is impeccably organized. His truck is impeccably clean, even after a fishing trip. Any time of the year, there are four cords of wood neatly stacked in the bins he made around the carport and the 5,000-square-foot steel fishing shed. In the workshop the rods and reels each have a place along the wall. The ceiling is 28 feet high and he poured the concrete himself. His motorcycle and his three boats are all put away after a trip, clean and ready for the next one.

He worked on guided missile systems at "Twenty-Nine Stumps" in the 1980s. His service ended after four years but the habits and discipline have followed him all his life. The training he received led to a good living, first in computer hardware, then in maintaining systems for a large health care provider. He's an organized thinker, a problem solver. He's been married to the same sweet, tolerant, good-humored woman for 39 years. She's from Klamath Falls, the daughter of a log truck driver. She puts up with him but there's a limit, and he's learned where the limit is.

The Marines have a saying. Many sayings actually, a few of them that are unprintable at a family website. The one I'm thinking of is "Embrace the suck." No matter how bad the chow is or how inadequate the equipment is or how adverse the weather, a Marine and his unit take pride in accepting how it is, completing the assignment and focusing on what needs to be done.

Today is that kind of a day for the Ducks. Weather today calls for a half inch of rain and gusting winds, temperatures dropping into the 40s. It won't be the kind of day in the recruiting picture. A few spirals are going to fly sideways. Standing on the sidelines won't be pleasant to the average observer.

Marines aren't average observers. Neither are the Ducks. Both have a well-trained discipline to ignore what's unpleasant and band together. Watch how the Ducks handle the conditions, embrace them.

Dan Lanning's great strengths as a coach are authenticity, messaging and discipline. He loves his players and teaches them. He prepares them for situations on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The Ducks go into a game with a good understanding of what's going to happen, the situation, the tactics, the environment, the crowd, the potential distractions. He turns them around, fosters a group mindset.

"Pressure is a privilege," he likes to tell them.

Today the Ducks are going to embrace the suck.

In the basketball locker room Dana Altman fosters the same pride, a similar devotion to a standard.