Men: Freddie Jones
among UO’s new recruits
■ Continued from Page 1
guard last season, when they
combined for 124 assists. Donte
Quinine, a 6-foot-6 junior, pro
vided the Ducks with a strong de
fensive presence last season and
averaged 2.4 points per game.
In the front court, Kent will be
able to tap the talents of new re
cruit Chris Christoffersen, a 7
foot-2 native of Denmark and a
recent high school graduate from
Ojai, Calif., who averaged 17.4
points and 14 rebounds per game
in his senior season. Christof
fersen is not the Ducks’ only for
eign recruit this season. At 6
foot-8, Canadian Skouson Harker
will transfer to Oregon from Mc
Nook Junior College in Nebraska,
where he averaged 14 points and
8 rebounds per contest.
“We’ll have more of a presence
in the middle, down low, defi
nitely giving us more scoring op
tions,” Carson said.
Oregon returns the 7-foot Car
son, who redshirted last season
after being sidelined with a sea
son-ending foot injury, and 6
foot-9 sophomore Flo Harten
stein, who showed consistent
improvement throughout last
season in collecting almost four
points and 4.2 rebounds per
game. A.D. Smith, a 6-foot-8 ju
nior, also returns, bringing with
him a soft-shooting touch. He
shot 44.8 percent from behind
the arc last season and con
tributed 10.4 points per game.
Whether or not the 1998-99
Ducks succeed depends a lot on
how quickly they learn and ac
cept their roles on the team.
“The sooner we come together,
the better we’ll be,” Brown said.
Newman will be helping find
ways to blend the team’s talent
from the sidelines. As the interim
coach at Arizona State, he led the
overachieving Sun Devils to an
18-14 record and an NIT appear
ance.
“He’s going to bring a lot of in
spiration,” Brown said. “He took
a team at the bottom [of the Pac
10] all the way up to the middle.”
“Don Newman is just amaz
ing,” Carson said. “We kind of
got lucky with him. He’s a great
guy and he has a great enthusi
asm for the game. He could be a
head coach at just about any
where, and to have him with our
staff is just gong to be exciting.”
To have a shot at breaking into
the Pac-lO’s upper tier, the Ducks
will need to make the most of
their new and returning talents.
Stanford returns four of their five
starters from last year’s final four
team, and Washington, Arizona
and UCLA, all of which ad
vanced to the sweet sixteen of
last year’s NCAA tournament,
look strong again.
“We expect nothing but the
best,” Brown said. "Even possi
bly the Pac-10 championship, so
if we fail a little bit we’ll still
achieve very high. The Pac-10
looks tough. It’s always been one
of the top conferences in the na
tion, and I think it’ll get more re
spect with four teams reaching
the Sweet Sixteen.”
The Ducks see their first action
on Nov. 12 in an exhibition
against Australia at McArthur
Court. They’ll face Coppin State
on Nov. 15 in the first regular
season match-up and begin the
Pac-10 season on Jan. 2 where
they finished last year, in Oak
land against California.
“Our goal is to win a Pac-10
championship,” Carson said. “I
don’t know if that will happen
this year or next year for us, but I
only see the program going up. I
definitely think we’ll have a bet
ter year this year than last year.”
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Don't forget to pick up your FREE copy.
Ems: Portland can muster just three hits
■ Continued from Page 5
early 5-0 lead.
Eugene never looked back.
Portland's only run came in the
bottom of the third, when Jason
Franklin was batted in by Juan
Pierre. For the game, Eugene
out-hit Portland by a margin of
11-3.
"It was a tale of two nights,"
Pierre said. "Last night we
came out and hit the ball;
tonight we didn't. We never got
any runners on and it showed
up on the scoreboard. We gave
up a lot of hits early and we
kind of laid our tents down
and we didn't battle back. They
hit the ball tonight, and I think
that was the biggest part."
Neither team scored in the
eighth or ninth innings. The
Emeralds picked up their final
two runs in the top of the sev
enth with RBIs by Bry Ewan
and Jerry Simmons.
Portland played Eugene well
in the third, fourth and fifth in
nings, holding them to no hits
in that time. But while Port
land’s defense was doing well,
its offense was not. Besides the
base hit that put the Rockies
only run, Franklin, in scoring
position, Portland did not have
any hits during the three in
nings.
The Emeralds’ other run
came early in the sixth, when
Portland's defense sputtered.
Brignac made it to second base
from an error on the first base
throw, and when Portland
pitcher Carlos Barboza was
called for a balk, Brignac ad
vanced to third. He scored on
Oropeza’s second RBI of the
evening.
Deuces wild for Ems’ Strickland
Eugene outfielder Greg
Strickland scored twice,
stole two and knocked
in a pair on Monday
By Tim Pyle
Freelance Reporter
PORTLAND — The Eugene
Emeralds were in need of a
spark heading into Monday
night's game at Portland against
the Rockies.
A five-game losing streak,
last-place standing and offense
that ranked worst in the North
west League in runs scored
showed the Ems desperately
needed a jump start.
Answering his team's cries
for help was leadoff man Greg
Strickland, who provided the
kind of aggressive offense ex
pected of his spot in the lineup
in the Ems’ 8-1 bashing of the
Rockies in front of 3,577 fans at
Civic Stadium on Monday.
Strickland, who plays left
field, set the table perfectly for
the rest of the Ems' lineup by
reaching base four out of five
times. He delivered three hits,
including a two-run double, re
ceived one walk, stole two
bases and scored two runs.
"Any time you have your
leadoff man on base, it always
helps," said Gregg Maluchnik,
who played first base and went
1-3 with a walk. "We have A1
Castro and Bry Ewan in the two
holes behind him and then Jer
ry Simmons, who's leading the
team in home runs, so once
somebody's on, we can score
runs. Every single time he gets
on base,
we are a
threat to
score."
Strick
land, who
was an
llth
round draft pick out of Cumber
land University in the 1997
draft, displayed the kind of atti
tude managers love in their
leadoff hitters.
"I’m just trying to steal bases
and trying to put the ball in play
as the leadoff hitter," said
Strickland, who raised his bat
ting average to .318 and boosted
his stolen bases and runs scored
totals to 11 and 23, respective
ly
Ems manager Jim Saul was
pleased with Strickland's play
in what he called his team’s
"best performance in three
weeks."
"He can make a few things
happen," Saul said. "I've given
him the green light on the
basepaths, and he uses con
trolled aggressiveness."
Strickland's speed and ag
gressiveness were perhaps best
exemplified in the ninth inning
after he led off with a single.
When the Rockies' Ryan Lamat
tina fired a wild pitch past
catcher Erik Johnson while
Ewan was at the plate, Strick
land took off from first. He did
n't stop until he slid safely into
third.
Although he failed to score
that inning, Strickland's hustle
impressed Rockies manager Jim
Eppard.
"I like him," Eppard said.
"He's a scrappy player, he can
do some things offensively, and
he's a terror on the bases. Every
time he gets on there it's like a
triple."
The humble Strickland, who
speaks in a soft tone, said he
hopes to be able to make similar
contributions to the Ems for the
remainder of the season.
"I'm just trying to stay confi
dent and consistent," Strickland
said.
If he can continue to put up
numbers like he did Monday
night, Strickland could run
himself straight to the top of the
Atlanta Braves' batting order.
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