Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 30, 1997)
YOU CAN READ THE EMERALD FROM ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. o.d.e. on the world wide web: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~ode < /, ", , . NO MATTER HOW FAR YOU TRAVEL, YOU’RE ALWAYS CLOSE TO CAMPUS. Mon-Thurs 10-7 • Fri & Sat 10-9 Open Sunday 12-5 13th & Lawrence* 683-1300 Complete Selection of Skis • Boots • Clothing Cross Country Ski Rentals Berq> fkl /hop Mon-Sat 10-7 • Sun 12-5 13th & Lawrence* 683-1300 ONE-STAR! CONVERSE... KING OF THE ASPHALT SHAKE AND BAKE IN THE BEST! CANVAS ONE STAR BLACK OR WHITE Eugene Athletic Eugene Athletic Supply Co. 16 Oakway Center Eugene, Oregon 97401 800-452-5075 • 343-1288 Comer of Coburg & Oakway Roads Records: UCLA has stopped stumbling ■ Continued from Page 7 even scale. Before the season, Green said that with the excep tion of a couple of teams, like Stanford and Arizona, all the squads would probably be fight ing it out for the middle spots. UCLA head coach Steve Lavin saw the conference as being evenly competitive. "It’s a tough league top to bot tom,” he said. “It’s as competi tive as it has ever been. I don’t think anybody can get excited about what their record is right now.” But UCLA can be excited about its momentum in the con ference season. The Bruins beat Washington and Washington State, lost to Stanford, then won four straight games against California, Ari zona State, USC and even pulled off the upset over nationally ranked Arizona. It seemed as if the Bruins had found their foot ing and were sprinting toward the NCAA Tournament. The Ducks, after the win at Oregon State, proceeded to lose four straight, beat Arizona State and then lose to Arizona. Coming into tonight’s match up, Oregon sees its postseason hopes fading fast while the Bru ins are atop the Pac-10 standings and receiving votes in the AP poll. So what does an 11-5 record mean for each of these teams? For UCLA, it means winning eight of its last 10 games and dominating most of the confer ence opponents it will see again in the coming weeks. For Oregon, it means without a 9-0 preseason, the Ducks could feasibly be a sub-.500 overall team. It means that all five of their losses have been in their conference against teams they will play one more time. Oregon doesn’t have any more games against teams like Portland State and Nevada. Green knows that being six games above .500 isn’t always a great thing. “Oregon is 11-5 and we’re dis appointed,” he said. “I don’t re member the last time in the his tory and annals of Oregon basketball that has happened. We’re not pleased with where we are. We think we should be play ing better; we think we have the physical talent to be playing bet ter. “If we can get our mental game down a little better, I think we can get back to the way we were playing in the last half of the Pac 10 [schedule] last year.” It’s almost deja vu for the Ducks, who lost six in a row in the middle of last season, but then won six of their last nine to finish with a 9-9 conference record. Doing the math, it would take a 7-4 record in the rest of this season to even tie that record. The Ducks were snubbed by the Tournament committee last year with a 16-13 overall record. Going 7-4 would give them an 18-9 record and most likely a Tournament bid. UCLA may have stumbled for awhile, which may have some thing to do with losing head coach Jim Harrick and adjusting to Lavin’s system, but with veter ans like Charles O’Bannon, Cameron Dollar and J.R. Hender son, it would take a lot to make the Bruins fall out of the top three in the conference. The Ducks may have an expe rienced team on the floor but may need either a miracle or an awakening to stand out among the teams in the middle of the pack. After tonight’s game, one of these two teams will be 12-5 and the other will be 11-6. This may only be a mathematical one-game difference, but it could mean a lot more come the end of the sea son. Men’s B-ball: Oregon’s record ‘not indicative’ ■ Continued from Page 7 ley. Those four, along with Kris Johnson, lead a bal anced offensive attack with each averaging over 11 points per game. O’Bannon, in his senior year, is finally beginning to play up to the expectations that he was branded with after the Bruins won the 1995 national title. Leading the team in scoring (15.8) and rebounding (7.1), O’Bannon once again has pro scouts drooling. “Their first six [players] are probably as good as there is in the Pac-10,” Green said. “I don’t know if they have got the depth that maybe an Arizona may have, but they are making up for that by being in good condition and having good team play. It’s not going to be easy, but I don’t think we are going to be easy to beat either.” This is a point that UCLA head coach Steve Lavin agrees with. “I think Oregon is much better than its 2-5 record indicates,” he said. “They could easily be 5-2 and they could easily be 4-3. So 2-5 is not indicative of what kind of team they are. What it does indicate is the competitiveness of the league. A missed free throw here, a bad bounce there, and all of a sudden you’re on the other side of a win.” Which is where Oregon has found itself more of ten than it would like during the last three weeks. The Ducks’ offense has been struggling to slow down the pace with good ball movement in order to break down the defense and create better shots. And Green is starting to get impatient with his players’ inability to play within this concept. "As we go through practice and as we watch film,” he said, “instead of letting a player go through sever al mistakes, we’re going to get that player out of there and see if we can find somebody else who can do the job within the team aspect and the way we want it done.” While statements like that are usually meant to light a fire under the team, there are still players whose roles aren’t threatened. Jamal Lawrence is the team’s leading scorer at 16.1 points a game but has struggled to get his shot to drop early in the game. Kyle Milling is Oregon’s best rebounder at 7.9 boards per game and third leading scorer averaging 12.6, but the offense has struggled to get him the ball in the low post during these last six games. Kenya Wilkins, on the other hand, has broken out of his three-game slump and is averaging 15.1 points a game. “They are dangerous because they have experi ence,” Lavin said. “Lawrence is explosive from the perimeter and they have the two big plodders down low in [Rob] Ramaker and Milling who can knock you dizzy. “Wilkins is one of the best point guards. He re minds me of [UCLA starting point guard] Cameron Dollar; he just finds a way to beat you. He is a great, great competitor. He is like a gnat; feisty, always dig ging and scratching and clawing. He is not always pretty and graceful, but he just finds a way to beat you.” Finding ways to beat anybody is something that Wilkins and the rest of the team have struggled to do recently, and are now in desperate need to do tonight and the rest of the season. Oregon’s tournament hopes depend on it. ADVERTISEMENT V-VABSITY C-Club I •‘INTRAMURAL 31 Men's wrestung/v VS BYU mac Court 7:30 PM 1 Men's Basket ball/V VS. use Mac Court 7:05 PM Men's Wrestling/V vs Arizona State mac Court 2:00 PM Men's Hockey/C vs Walla Walla College Lane Countv ice arena 8:00 PM 2 WOMEN'S Basketball/v AT USC 1:00 PM MEN'S HOCKEY/C vs walla Walla college Lane County Ice Arena Noon LET YOUR NIKE STUDENT REP KNOW THE TIME AND LOCATION OF YOUR EVENTS FOR NEXT MONTH REACH HIM AT JARRAD.SMITH@NIKE.COM An Evening in A patchwork of humor and pathos—short pieces by Nobel laureate Samuel Beckett. January 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 31, and February 1 8:00 p.m. Benefit matinee White Bird Clinic Sunday, lanuary 26th 2:00 p.m. UNIVERSITY THEATRE 346-4191 or EMU TICKET OFFICE 346-4363
