Oregon daily emerald., February 06, 1981, Page 11, Image 10

sports
Reborn Ducks take on Bears, Cards
By JOHN HEALY
Of the Emerald
Mike Clark and Ray Whiting
lead a seemingly rejuvenated
Oregon basketball team to the
Bay Area this weekend for a
game tonight against Stanford
and a Saturday night encounter
against California.
The last time they faced Cal
and Stanford, the Ducks had
just been dismantled 104-64 by
Arizona State and were 0-2 in
Pac-10 Conference play.
Oregon managed to split the
series in McArthur Court with
the Bay Area schools, downing
Cal 87-80 but losing to Stanford
82-76. The Ducks at that point
were in the midst of losing six of
seven games.
Obviously, things were not
going well for Jim Haney.
But then, with recently-re
turned Ray Whiting regaining
his old form and Clark cleaning
the boards, the Ducks proceed
ed to blow by Washington State
and USC and play UCLA to a
near-standoff.
With good games against two
of the conference’s top five
teams (USC and UCLA) and a
fairly routine win over one of the
conference’s cellar-dwellers,
Haney proclaimed after the
UCLA game that the Ducks are
ready to move into the Pac-10’s
first division.
"If you play that way every
game," says Haney of the close
loss to the Bruins, "you will win
sometimes against teams the
caliber of UCLA and Oregon
State, and lose sometimes. But
against teams like Cal or Stan
ford, you will win those."
The key to both games could
be the duo of Clark and Whiting.
Clark, the Ducks’ 6-9 center,
is currently leading the Pac-10
in rebounding (9.2 per game)
and ranks among the leaders in
scoring (16.1 per game).
"We counted on Mike to
provide us with leadership in his
senior year," says Haney. "But
he has provided much more
than that by making such an
effective transition from not only
forward to center, but from the
ball control game we played in
his first year to the fast break we
now run.”
Swim squad
hosts SOSC
Oregon’s men’s swimming
team, which finished first in last
weekend’s Dolphin Invitational,
will host Southern Oregon Sa
turday at 6 p.m. at Leighton
Pool.
The meet was scheduled to
be a co-ed affair, but the
women’s teams cancelled. The
Oregon women’s team will not
compete until their final dual at
Oregon State on Feb. 14.
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Clark credits much of his of
fensive success this year to the
Chicago Summer League, "an
all-offense, run and gun, 'what’s
defense?’ league,” he says.
Whiting, for one, can attest to
the importance of stamina. Out
of shape after staying away from
Oregon practices during his
self-imposed exile from the
Ducks’ first 12 games, Whiting
returned against Cal and had
problems trying to keep up with
the other nine players on the
court.
But once he regained his
stamina, Whiting has been a
force, averaging 12.3 points in
Oregon’s last three games and
providing Clark with timely help
on the boards.
Tonight and Saturday night,
the Bay Area will find out just
how timely that help has been.
Photo by Steve Dykes
The resurgence of Ray Whiting has paralleled that of the entire team.
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