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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 19, 1998)
Revival: Madden may look to go professional after season ■ Continued from Page 11 Madden’s next opportunity for growth comes Thursday night at McArthur Court, where Oregon hosts Arizona State in a rematch from Jan. 24 when the Sun Dev ils beat the Ducks, 67-51. It was an overall lackluster performance by the Ducks, who shot 36.7 percent from the door and hit just one of 17 three pointers. But possibly even more disturbing was the performance of Madden. The Oregon co-captain tallied four points and five rebounds in 35 minutes and hit only two of eight shots, including none from three-point range. “I wasn’t really fatigued phys ically, but I was fatigued mental ly," Madden says. “I had to get a lot of things straight in my life, like my school work and getting my priorities straight. My mind was on whether I’m going to graduate, which is the No. 1 pri ority for me. So I just came back to school for the week we played Oregon State and tried to jhand in] all the work that I needed to get handed in. Once I got that worry of school off my back, I was cool as far as performing how I was capable of perform ing.” For Madden, concentrating completely on basketball equates to leading the team in scoring each of the last two games and having the ball in his hands when the Ducks were down one point with three seconds left on the clock against Washington last Sunday. Madden had 19 points against the Huskies at that time and had hit all four of his three-point shots. The play diagramed by Kent in the huddle during a time out with those three seconds to play called for Madden to get the ball on the wing for another three-pointer, this one for the game. “I was just thinking, 'I’m going to hit this shot, and we’re going to win,’” Madden says. “I was real confident going into the NICK MEDLEY/Emerald During his senior season, Madden deft) has taken a lead-by-example approach with younger Oregon players, such as sophomore forward Donte Quinine (right). shot, and I felt really appreciative that coach Kent had enough faith in me to go to me in the last three seconds. We have a lot of great shooters in Terik [Brown] and A.D. [Smith], who was hot all night, but he said ‘Henry, this play’s for you.’ He gave me the confidence to knock down the shot and win the game, but when 1 stepped on the court I think I was a little overconfident and 1 hesitated and missed.” It was a tough break for a play er who had single handedly kept his team in the game, and his teammates recognize Madden's importance to Oregon’s success. "When Henry plays well, we usually do pretty good,” says sophomore forward Donte Qui nine. "He brings a lot, he’s a good shooter and a good rebounder. When he’s doing those things well we usually win.” Madden will need to be at the top of his game for Oregon to have success against Arizona State on Thursday, Kent says. "They are a tough, aggressive basketball team, and we’re going to need [Madden’s] tough, ag gressive mentality to really step up and lead this team against a team that is really going to push and shove and fight,” Kent says. “We’ve got to match that with our intensity." Of particular concern to the Ducks will be the Sun Devils’ top threat, swing man Jeremy Veal, who leads the Pacific-10 Confer ence in scoring with more than 20 points per game. "He brings everything to the table,” Madden says. “So we’ve just got to hope our defensive stoppers can slow him down. You can’t hope to stop Jeremy Veal; you can only hope to con tain him and make him take bad shots.” Speaking of shots, Madden is heavily considering taking one at playing professional basketball after this season, and his career at Oregon, ends. “I feel like I can play basket ball,” he says. “I’m capable of competing with some good ath letes and some of the greatest ath letes. I’m going to try and pursue a basketball career, and if it does n’t work out, I’ll get a job.” That realistic attitude is one of the key attributes Kent teaches his players, and after a brief his tory of disciplinary problems, Madden can be considered a prize pupil. Check out Rhythm dc Reviews in the Emerald every Friday for all the latest in local entertainment! Oregon, 11-11,6-7 Probable starters F Henry Madden 12.8 ppg F Flo Hartenstein 3.9 ppg G Terik Brown 12.1 ppg G Jamar Curry 8.8 ppg G MikeMcShane 5.0 ppg m NOTES: Oregon swept the Sun Devils last season, winning 76-51 on the road and 85-77 at home... Oregon split in Wash ington last weekend, losing to the Huskies 62-61 two days at- j ter downing the Cougars, 64-63 f ASU, 16-9.6-6 Probable starters F Bobby Lazor 17.3 ppg F Mike Batiste 16.0 ppg G Eddie House 11.5 ppg G Ahlon Lewis 9.2 apg G Jeremy Veal 20.5 ppg a NOTES: Arizona State leads the all time series against Oregon 26- ! 18, including an 87-51 win in the j desert earlier this season... ASU’s Jeremy Veal leads the Pa- f cific-10 Conference in scoring | with 20.5 points per game ... This 1 game should be of particular sig- I nificance to Veal, who needs just four points to become ASU’s ca reer scoring leader...Veal joins Arizona’s Damon Stoudamire and Sean Elliot, Oregon State's Gary | Payton and Oregon’s Ron Lee as the only players in Pac-1Q history I to total 1,800 points and 400 as sists an a career...Team mate Ahlon Lewis’ total of 9.2 assists per game is also first in the Pac 10... The Sun Devils lost a heart- j breaker to instate rival Arizona last Saturday, 83-82... Veal scored 24 in the loss, with Bobby Lazor adding 20 points and 10 re bounds ... It was Lazor’s 10th double-double of the season, one behind the league-leading totals of Washington’s Todd MacCul loch and Washington State’s Car- f los Daniel... Arizona State needs four wins in its last six games to get 20 wins, usually the cut-off point for serious NCAA Tourna ment consideration SPORTS MARKETING CENTER Thursday, February 19th 4 p.m. Gilbert Hall, Room 133 Proudly Presents WILUflm D. iCUllDT Senior Vice President Gatorade Worldwide ' Sports Marketing The Quaker Oats Company on{ of m 100 mosT “powfwui mfH" in mm Reception Immediately Following FREE Gatorade & Prizes Sponsored by William K. Blount Foundation