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 I \|Kf( Ic.tclurs IVrm.uunt ( inut\ Int.il l[.lllimn Class begins November 21 Call 545-4420 KAPLAN The answer to the test question 720 East 13th, Eugene Oft results... advsrtiss In ths 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. ^ -