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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 1973)
Cast Oregon an underdog tonight Photo'by Pbil Watdstein GERALD WILLETT’S CAST By MERLIN MANN Of the Emerald The key play in the basketball game tonight may come either within the last two hours before game time, or during the handshake before the game’s tip-off. That is how critical the status of Gerald Willett is for Oregon when the Ducks tackle Oregon State tonight in Memorial Coliseum in Portland. Willett will either: (1) be disallowed a chance to play by either doctors or Pacific-8 officials before the game starts or, (2) rival center Neil Jurgenson of the Beavers will break his hand the rest of the way just before tip-off. Actually it isn’t known for sure if Willett’s right navicular bone (small bone at base of thumb) is broken. Consequently, Willett is going through full practices with an over-sized cast and foam-rubber combination, while the Oregon coaches are scurrying around trying to find some protective device strong enough to be approved by doctors, and soft enough to be approved by Pac-8 officials. This morning the doctors will look at the casts, three differents ones, and decide which will hold Willett’s thumb and wrist secure enough. Then any or all of the casts will be taken to Portland tonight where Frank McIntyre (supervisor of Pac-8 of ficials) will decide if the cast selected will create a hazard on the court. Three different casts will be considered: (1) a paper-thin plastic cast formed in the shape of Willett’s wrist and thumb, (2) a combination plastic and foam rubber, (3) a hard foam rubber cast that is actually already legal, but nearly as bulky as the present cast he’s been practicing with. All the fuss over Willett’s cast this week may, in essence, only be a diversion from the inevitable. The Ducks have not been the Ducks since plastering Washington State three weeks ago. After that successful weekend, which produced two Pac-8 victories, Oregon took a three-day vacation and has been embarrassed by its own nickname, ‘Kamikaze Kids’ ever since. After the early season performances that had visiting coaches blistering the Duck rough-and tumble style of play in the media, no one would have believed the Ducks could be out-hustled, and out Pac-8 standings Conference All Games W L PCT. W L PCT. UCLA 4 <• 1 000 14 0 ’000 So. Calif. 4 0 1.000 13 4 0.765 Oregon State 3 2 0.600 11 5 0.688 Oregon 2 3 0.400 10 6 0.625 Washington ’ 3 0.250 11 6 0.647 Stanford ’ 3 0.250 8 7 Q.533 California ' 3 0.250 8 8 0.500 Wash State ’ 3 0.250 5 11 0.312 V.V.V.V.V.V.V.V.V.'.V.V.'.'.VAV.V.V.V.V.V.'.V.V.V.V.V.V.V.V.V.V.V. But that is exactly what Oregon State did. For only the second time this season was Oregon so completely dominated by another team in the rebounding department. And the domination continued throughly in all phases of the game last Saturday in Corvallis. Coach Dick Harter is keeping his starting lineup under cover this week in preparing for the game, but it is fairly expectable that George Martin will fill Willett’s spot if the 6-8 center is vetoed. Martin is 6-4. It is also possible for Billy Ingram to break into the line-up at forward ahead of freshman Bruce Coldren who was shut-out by OSU’s Sam Whitehead Saturday. But unless the Ducks return to form as the ‘old’ Ducks right away, Harter is going to need a lot more than a strong and soft cast.v Flying Ducks host San Jose tonight By JAMES RUSSELL Of the Emerald Collecting three all-time individual event bests, Oregon’s gymnastics squad scored over 158 dual meet points against Colorado State on Tuesday, to set an all time team record, only to lose the meet by over four points. After roadswing victories over Chico State, Wheaton and Ball State with defeats to Indiana State and Colorado State teams, the “Flying Ducks” now meet San Jose on Friday night at 8:00 in Mac Court for their first home stand of the season. Defeated 162.50 to 158.25, the CSU meet was highlighted by Oregon freshman Steve Roskam, who broke his own all-time all around record, set earlier against Wheaton and Ball State, posting an in credible 51.35 overall score. Besting his previous 49.50 record, Roskam also tied for third in the floor exercise with teammate Don Lester at 8.95, and captured another tie for second place on the parallel bars with Colorado State specialist Lee Douglas at 9.0. Also posting all-time school' record performances were junior Kevin Cornelius who took second on the rings at 9.20, while seniors Greg Maxwell and Warren Weiseth tied for second on the high bar at 9.20. Other standouts included freshman Bob Rikli taking first place in the floor exercise competition with a 9.2; freshman Jim Lester capturing second place on the side horse at 8.%; Rikli again taking a third place spot on the long horse vault at 9.05; and freshman Tom Phillips augmenting Roskam’s performance with \ 48.95 for third place in the all around. Oregon Coach Bill Ballester stated, “This meet «'san exceptional night for both teams, tht > each did an excellent job in both their performances. Roskam really did an outstanding job in his all around competition, but then so did all the rest of the team too.” ' Purkey lost to matmen for season Mark Purkey will not be able to defend his Pacific-8 championship later this month it was learned Thursday by wrestling coach Ron Finley. Purkey was the first freshman ever to win the league title. Purkey, originally injured a year ago this spring, reinjured his right knee last weekend against California. Now an operation will be required in the near future. Finley learned this as he was trying to prepare for a dual match with Boise State at Mac Court Saturday night. Now Finley is faced with a monumental task of piecing a team together for this weekend’s match. The Oregon team is riddled with injuries and flu. Half of the regular starting lineup may not compete Saturday in Oregon’s next-to-last home match. Purkey, regular at 177 is out for good; Wes Hines (190) misses two practices this week with a hemorrhage in his leg and is a doubtful starter. Also doubtful as of Thursday night were Don Evans (167), torn cartilage in his ribs, Mike Oilar (126) knee injury, and Duane Stutzman (158), flu. Regardless of the injury and flu problems, Oregon should be able to get by a weak Boise State squad. More of a problem may be getting everyone back into the lineup before the team swings into the midwest for four matches next week. Women to play Vikings tonight Free admission to an intercollegiate basketball __ game is not totally a thing of the past. All the University women’s games are free and your next opportunity to see the women in action—for free—is tonight against Portland State University. The “B” or JV teams from the two school will play at 6:30 p.m. and the “A” or varsity game begins at 8 p.m. Both games will be in B-54 Gerlinger Hall. Women second in gymnastics meet The Oregon women’s gymnastics team has defeated both Oregon State and Portland State Universities in competition this season. The only team Oregon hadn’t defeated was Oregon College of Education—and it turned out to be the OCE team who won the state college gymnastics championship Wednesday night. OCE finished with .15.36 points, Oregon had 77.56. PSU tallied 71.56 and OSU was last with 60.28. R'f EL"* vTe° Pepper Mensing from OCE took over a liesLeave Oregon’s freshman Ann Olson has been in for cne last two meets. Mensing placed first in four events including all around competition. Another OCE gymnast was second in all-around. Olson earned one second place on the uneven parallel bars, and was third in three events: the beam, floor exercise and all-around. Saturday the Oregon team competes against Central Washington and Eastern Washington State Colleges in a three-way meet at Cheney. Complete results from Wednesday’s meet are: Vaulting: 1. Pepper Mensing, OCE, 7.36. 2. Sandy • Bold, OCE, 6.96. 3. Lynne Aiken, UO, 6.76. Bars: 1. Sandy Jackson, OCE, 8.33. 2. (tie) Ann Olson, UO, and Pepper Mensing, OCE, 7.76. Beam: 1. Pepper Mensing, OCE 7.70. 2. Sandy Jackson, OCE, 7.03. 3. Ann Olson, UO, 6.83. Floor Exercise: 1. Pepper Mensing, OCE, 8.03. 2. Sandy Jackson, OCE, 7.60.3. Ann Olson, UO, 7.16. All-Around: 1. Pepper Mensing, OCE, 30.58. 2. Sandy Jackson, OCE, 29.12. 3. Ann Olson, UO, 27.85. Little holds lead in Pac-8 scoring FG-FGA FT-FTA Reb. Ft*. Avg. Doug Little, Oregon 40 94 20 23 25 tOO 20 0 Louie Nelson. W»sh 11149 22 32 17 74 18 5 SAN DIEGO. Share driving and jq 14 19 32 JQ 17 , bout Feb. 4. Call evenings 345^ ™ jj-83 15-21 34 81 14.2 Larry Farmer, UCLA 30-48 4-5 18 44 140 Clint Chapman. USC 29-59 5-8 25 43 15 8 Keith Wilkes, UCLA 28 47 7-12 31 43 15 8 Paul Miller, OSU 28 50 W-17 23 70 14 0 Neal Jurgenson, OSU 29 48 11 12 35 49 13 8 David Frost, Stanford 25-52 5-10 20 55 13.8 Rich Kelley, Stanford 2149 13-17 43 55 13 3 Bill Walton, UCLA 24-50 5-11 44 53 13I3 Rickie Hawthorne, Cal. 18-47 14-19 31 50 12^5 Gus Williams, USC 22 49 4-9 17 50 124 Dan Anderson, USC 17-39 12-14 14 44 1L5 John Coughran, Cal- 17 44 11-14 23 45 31’3 John Lambert, USC 18-42 9-11 41 45 113 Edgar Jeffries, WSU 15-27 3-5 17 33 n’o Ron Jones, OSU 21-38 12-14 14 54 10.8 Carl Meier, Cal 19-34 3 9 28 41 10 3 Sam Whitehead, OSU 19-52 12-20 42 50 10 0