Green, assistants building team
By Dave Charbonneau
OrtgcrI Da»y Em&akl
When Oregon fans got their first glimpse of the
1993-94 men's basketball team Monday night at
"Late Night With ferry Green", some of them may
have walked back outside McArthur Court and
mode sure they were in the right arena.
With sis new players, this was not the same team
that went 10-20 last season
It is indeed a different team It's becoming Jerry
Green's team.
As the second-year head coach of the Dut ks.
Green is a big step closer to turning the Oregon pro
gram into his own.
Last year, he was forced to try and make some
thing out of a team he inherited that went 6-21 the
previous season.
Somehow, ho milked 10 wins out of them Then,
although Green insists he only told one of the play
ers to leave, some of the players decided to hit the
road, opening up eight scholarships.
He used seven of them this year, signing throe
freshmen, three junior college transfers, and a sopho
more transfer He signed point guards, shooting
guards, forwards and a center The Duc ks have also
received a verbal commitment from another fi-11
center for next season.
The players could be the ones that start to turn
the program around, or they could bo a bunch of
stiffs, hut at least they'll be Green’* players Hut not
necessarily.
With (‘.men at the helm, the assistant coaches
have just as much power us ('.men does
"The assistants sometimes tell me what to (to
when recruitings plnyer," Omen said “If they want
me to < all a recruit. I'll do that If they want me to
write him every day. I'll (to that
When Green took the job at Oregon a year and a
hall ago. he wasted no time getting assistants that
would help him get the players he wanted
Bohby Braswell, who coot hint at I.nng Beach State
and was a high si hoot com h in l.os Angeles, was
Green's first choice as assistant
Braswell's contat ts along the West Coast were
appealing to (Irwin, especially his ( ontucts within
talent-rich l.os Angeles
“Bobby Braswell was an excellent man for us to
hire lx*cause he knows the West Coast, Green said.
"He knows Cos Angeles and there are u lot of good
players and people in that area who have a great
deal of respect for coach Braswell "
Braswell made Oregon's first recruiting coup
when he convinced a talented l.os Angeles area
point guard. Kenya Wilkins, to come play for the
Ducks, a team des|H»rately needing someone to run
the offense.
"Coach Braswell recruited Kenya Wilkins." (keen
said "I called him n few limes, hut he's here pri
marily because of the work coach Braswell did
Braswell said the recruiting of Wilkins was an
example of how much leeway the assistant coach
es are given in Green’s system
‘Coach Green gives us the
froodom to go out and find
players we think will help the
team.’
Bobby Braswell
Oregon assistant coach
"I enjoy it here because it's very different from
my previous job.” he scud. "Coach Green gives us
the freedom logo out and find players we think will
help the team. Then we all sit down and talk about
it.”
Green, a former assistant under Hoy Williams
at Kansas, said it's important to give the assistants
proper credit for the recruitment of players
“When I was an assistant, we got blamed for
everything that went wrong," Green said. "I always
felt like there was no way for me to get proper recog
nition for anything except for the things that went
wrong
Green now giv es his assistants credit when they
so deserve it hv viv wig in press releases which coach
played the biggest role in rev railing a player
|)v doing that." Green said, "it makes them more
enthusiast)* alxnit their job. and that can onlv help
this program
Although the importance of contacts plays a big
role in rei rioting players, so does recognizable
names Green's other two assistants last season were
Mark Turgeon. a former player at Kansas, and King
Rice, who played for North Carolina's 1991 Final
Four team.
Rice has since left the program, accepting a job
elsewhere, hut he's been replaced by Ronny Thomp
son, whose ties to basketball are undeniable. He's
the son of Georgetown basketball coach |ohn
Thompson
Oregon's assistants can rest for a while, but start
ing this summer, the rat-race will start again because
the Dm ks w ill have eight scholarships available for
the 1995-90 season, and the best players of the class
of'95 will sign in November of'94.
The Oregon Humsnities Center presents:
the Robert arid Beverty Lewis lectureship
in the Humanities
Mark Johnson
Professor anil Choir of Philosophy
Southern Illinois University
tn a f'uNn inturn.m
The Imaginative Basis of Thought
Thursday, November 4,1993
4:00 p.m. Gerlinger Alumni Lounge
HC. LlCIUHt 6 I <41 AM) OWN tO tMt PUBOC A WCIPTION W»l KXIOW II* I Aik
GMAT
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November 21
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The answer to the test question
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ODE
BLAZERS
Continued from Page 8
tor Chris Dudley.
The NBA challenged the
one-year escape clause in
Dudley's contract all the way
to U S. District Court before
finally surrendering.
The mention of trading vet
erans. plus Drexler's presea
son contract squabble, left
Williams wondering whether
management still appreciates
those who brought the team
so much success.
"I don't know whore the
other players stand, but I just
don't feel too attached at this
point," Williams said this
week. "I'll go out and play os
hard as I can and hopefully,
at a given point in the season,
things will turn around and I
(an feel that same family feed
ing I felt the first three years."
Adelman said Williams,
who has been the heart of the
Blazers' defense and is enter
ing his 13th NBA season,
remains the team's starting
power forward ns it heads
into its season opener Friday
against the Clippers in l.os
Angeles.
"We have to have Buck
Williams on this team." Adel
man said. "Hopefully we've
added some guys who are
going to take some pressure
off him over the course of a
long season, hut when it
comes down to it. he's one of
the guvs you have to have on
the floor."
The departure of Duck
worth and the arrival of Dud
lev, whose strengths are
defense and rehounding, has
the Blazers hoping to run
more this season.
"I think it's going to he
more exciting," said Cliff
Robinson, who won last
year's NBA Sixth Man award
for his play off the bench at
all three front-line positions.
''We'll he able to get up and
down the floor mom ana real
ly defend, and get back to the
type of things that we've done
in the past."
Moving the ball and play
ing defense are important ele
ments to any Portland
improvement this season.
"We have to play to our
strengths That's really cru
cial." Adelman said. "If we
come out and don't play to
our strengths, we're going to
struggle. We are not a good
shooting team, for instance,
so if we don't move people
and move the ball, we're
going to have a hard time get
ting good opportunities
"We can be a good shooting
team at times, but it's not
something that's going to be
there night after night for us.
The defensive end. the ball
movement and the player
movement, that has to be
there night after night."
Dudley's acknowledged
weakness is on offense. In
seven preseason games, he
shot 2H percent from the field
and 5H percent from the free
throw line.
Grant was obtained for his
shooting ability, but he also
struggled in the preseason. He
made just 42 percent of his
shots and 40 percent of his
free throws.
"Harvey is really trying to
find himself." Adelman said.
"Because of that, he hasn't
shot the ball very well, but I
think that will come."
Kersey, who came to camp
with an improved outside
shot, feels he came out on top
in an intense battle with
Grant and Robinson for the
starting small forward posi
tion.
“1 feel as though I haven't
lost it," Kersey said. "1 fully
expect to be out there and I’m
going to work hard to be in
that lineup.”
For the seventh straight
year, Drexler and Terry Porter
will be Portland’s starting
guards. Rod Strickland, who
spent much of the summer
working on his outside shot
and was perhaps the most
consistent Blazer in the exhi
bition season, will come off
the bench in a three-guard
rotation.
.mam.
ANDREVIW8. ^
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