OregotffrCmeralti
WEDNESDAY
November 18,1998
Best Bet
College Basketball
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Oregon Preview
Early wins only
a taste of things to come
Athleticism and enthusiasm
will be key to Oregon’s success
on the court this season
By Rob Moseley
Oregon Daily Emerald
The excitement is back at McArthur
Court.
In the 1970s, a Dick Harter-coached
men's basketball team nicknamed the
Kamikaze Kids brought an unheard-of
measure of hustle, enthusiasm and suc
cess to Mac Court. One of that group’s top
players, and the Ducks’ second-leading
scorer in his senior season of 1977, was a
former high school All-American named
Ernie Kent.
BASKETBALL
Now, 20 years later,
Kent is in his second
I season as head coach
of his alma mater, but
for the first time he has
a group of players who
can recall the level of
excitement from
Kent s playing days.
By bringing in junior-college transfers
like Alex Scales and freshmen like Gre
sham’s Freddie Jones, Kent has brought a
level of athleticism to Oregon that hasn’t
been seen in some time.
“It's going to help fan interest, I think
particularly with the students. They like
the excitement of the dunks and three
pointers and things like that,” said Kent,
who guided the Ducks to a 13-14 mark
last season. “And you're going to see that,
because we have some guys in Alex and
Freddie who can put on some spectacular
shows.”
“But at the same time it’s going to give
you the opportunity to run more, press
[on defense], have more depth and score
more. It should equate in more success on
the floor in terms of wins.”
Oregon began its regular season with a
77-62 defeat of Coppin State on Sunday
that allowed the Ducks to show off their
five new additions to the roster and pro
vided a measuring stick for the effective
ness of their first few weeks of practice.
"We’ve got to go back and look at tape
now, and find out how things went,”
Scales said. “Coppin State, that was a
good win for us, we’ve just got to take it
day by day now.”
Scales joined A.D. Smith in leading the
Ducks with 19 points against the Eagles,
Turn to BASKETBALL, Page 12
Nick Medley/Emerald
The Ducks need senior center Mike Carson to come through with improved inside play this season.
Men headed in
exciting direction
under Ernie Kent
In just his second season at the helm,
head coach Ernie Kent is already putting
his personal stamp on the Oregon men’s
basketball team.
After Kent’s arrival in the spring of
1997, the whimpers about the inadequa
cies of McArthur Court and the Ducks’
inability to lure top basketball recruits
vanished. Kent made sure everybody
understood he loved The Pit and every
thing about Oregon right off the tip. He
said he did not need drastic changes to
turn the Ducks into consistent winners.
Kent s promise seemed
valid after his first season
as he overachieved by all
accounts with a team
chock full of former head
coach Jerry Green's re
cruits. Oregon finished
13-14 overall and had a
legitimate chance at a
winning record and a Na
tional Invitation Tourna
ment bid until the final
buzzer of its season-end
Opbiion
Tun
Pyle
ing loss at California.
Now that Kent has had a chance to
bring in his first recruiting class, it is
paying immediate dividends. Even after
just two games — a victory over an Aus
tralian club team and Ihe regular-season
opening defeat of Coppin State on Sun
day — it is clear that these Ducks are dif
ferent from last season’s edition.
The most obvious difference is also
the most entertaining: athleticism. The
two most prominent members of Kent’s
squad, junior col lege transfer Alex
Scales and heralded freshman Freddie
Jones, have shown flashes of athletic
brilliance unprecedented at Oregon.
Against the Eagles, Scales took all of
one-and-a-half minutes to endear him
self to Duck fans. After grabbing a defen
sive rebound, the former San Jacinto
(Texas) Community College star took off.
As he zig-zagged through Coppin State’s
transition defense, dribbled behind his
Turn to PYLE, Page 12
Cardinal
poses no problem as Oregon skates to
victory
The Ducks
ice hockey
team easily
puts Stanford
away and is
now looking
toward its
upcoming
challenge:
UCLA
By Brett Williams
lor the Emerald
In the Ducks’ most crucial doublehead
er so far this season, the Oregon Club
Sports ice hockey team avenged last sea
son’s loss to Stanford with an impressive
Cardinal sweep over the weekend at Lane
County Ice.
Stanford could do little to stop the Ducks
over the weekend as it watched Oregon tal
ly a 4-0 lead early in the first game on Fri
day and a 6-0 lead in the second game on
Saturday.
“This weekend did a lot for our confi
dence," Oregon goalie Josh Hardin said.
“We knew our chances to make the [Pacif
ic-8 Conference] tournament would be
greatly reduced if we did not win these
games.”
Instead, the Ducks’ chances were en
hanced because they have only three con
ference games remaining and two games
against teams that they’ve already swept
this season.
Oregon s biggest
test before the Febru
ary’s Pac-8 Tourna
ment will likely come
on Jan. 8 and 9, when
Oregon plays at Los
Angeles against a
tough UCLA team.
“UCLA is definitely the team to beat this
year,” second-year Oregon head coach Ge
off Norman said, “But, we definitely feel
like we can accomplish our goal we set at
the beginning of the season, which is to
win the conference.”
Oregon looked very much like a champi
onship-caliber team against Stanford. After
having its 4-0 lead cut to just 4-3 on Friday,
the Ducks didn’t self-destruct and instead
added a goal in the second and third peri
ods to halt the Cardinal comeback.
Stanford wasn’t given the same chance
on Saturday, as Oregon mounted a 6-0 ear
ly lead and cruised to a 6-2 final. The two
game sweep of the Cardinal reaffirmed that
the Ducks are now a team to be reckoned
with as the Pac-8 Championships ap
proach.
Forward Ari Friedman got the Ducks
started on Friday with two goals that gave
Oregon momentum that seemed to carry
the team all weekend.
However, Friedman was just one key
player for the Ducks during the important
two-game stretch.
“We beat a very good team, and that has
made our team that much stronger. Since I
have been here, I have never seen our play
ers this happy after our first couple < f
games,” Hardin said.
“We knew our
chance to
make the
tournament
would he
greatly
reduced if we
did not win
these games. ”
Josh Hardin
Oregon goalkeeper