©regonVCmeralti
MONDAY
December 7,1998
Aloha Bowl Tickets
The ticket office will begin selling
tickets at 9 a.m. today for the Aloha
Bowl on Dec. 25. The $45 price also
includes the Washington-Air Force
games. Call 346-4461.
Oregon 93, BYU 62
Smith, Oregon men dismantle Cougars
The Ducks opened the game on
a 13-2 run and did not trail
BYU the rest of the wav
By Rob Moseley
Oregon Daily Emerald
In speaking about his young but talent
ed Oregon men’s basketball team, head
coach Ernie Kent likes to use phrases like
“teamism” and “total team effort.”
The 8,072 fans who saw the Ducks de
feat Brigham Young 93-62 at McArthur
Court on Saturday know why.
Oregon (3-1) had five players score in
double figures for the
second time this season,
and all 11 eligible play
ers scored at least two
points as the Ducks beat
the Cougars for the sec
ond time in two seasons.
“There’s going to be
games like tonight where
everybody s going to get an opportunity to
play and get their minutes,” Kent said.
As they did last week at Minnesota, the
Ducks took a double-digit lead into half
time, 42-28. Oregon opened the game
with a 13-2 run, then scored nine straight
after BYU (2-4) pulled to within 24-18, the
closest the Cougars got after the game’s
opening five minutes.
But unlike in the loss to the Gophers,
the Ducks on Saturday increased their
lead after halftime.
“We had Minnesota down the same at
halftime, and we weren’t able to put them
away,” said forward Donte Quinine, who
tallied 12 points and 10 rebounds, both
career highs. “So at halftime we said we
just want to focus on extending that lead.
That's something this team needs to be
able to do, to take a 15-point lead and take
it to 30 like we did tonight.”
Oregon used a 16-4 run to start the sec
ond half to put the game out of reach and
allow Kent to rest his starters, who averaged
just more than 22 minutes on Saturday.
A.D. Smith led all scorers with 18
points on seven of nine shooting and
added seven rebounds and four assists.
The Ducks were able to overcome an off
night from second-leading scorer Alex
Turn to BASKETBALL, Page 28A
Nick Medley/Kmeruld
A.D. Smith goes to the hoop looking for two of his game-high 18 points in the Ducks’ 93-62 victory over BYU
Saturday night. All seven of the shots Smith made were layups.
Forward A.D. Smith misses only
two of nine shots to score a
game-high 18 points
By Tim Pyle
Oregon Daily Cmerald
The Ducks’ most efficient player would
not have looked at all out of place if he had
played 30 years ago.
But with little fanfare and even less flash,
forward A.D. Smith continues to fill up box
Oregon men’s basket
ball team.
Smith hit seven of
nine shots and all lour
of his free-throw at
tempts for a game-high
18 points, grabbed sev
en rebounds, dished
four assists, blocked
two shots and made
one steal in 31 quietly
effective minutes as the
Ducks rolled to a 93-62
SMITH
victory over Brignam Young at McArtnur
Court on Saturday.
Witli Cougar center Bret Jepsen unavail
able while recovering from a concussion
suffered against Arizona last Saturday and
forward Silester Rivers in foul trouble,
Smith had his way in the paint.
“We felt like we had an advantage [in
side] going into the game,” said Smith, a 6
foot-8, 233-pound junior. “They played
tough, but in the end they didn’t really
have enough players on the inside."
Smith does not elicit oohs and aahs from
the crowd, nor does he commonly adorn
the highlight reels, but Smith’s production
is unparalleled; and peers and coaches re
alize the value of his play.
“He’s so smart,” Ducks’ head coach Ernie
Kent said. “What he lacks in athleticism he
makes up in just understanding, and he’s
just a very solid, steady player who you can
count on.”
BYU head coach Steve Cleveland also
praised Smith’s consistency.
“[He’s] a smart player who knows how to
play within himself and is aggressive, very
confident on the block,” Cleveland said.
“We were in a disadvantage matchup-wise
Turn to SMITH, Page 28A
Col lege football’s Bowl Championship Series in need of repair
Opinion
rjMP'-JliSfen
_mm
Joel
Hood
So, let me get this straight. Miami beat UCLA,
Syracuse beat Miami, North Carolina State
beat Syracuse, Baylor beat North Carolina
State, Oregon State beat Baylor — so who is it that’s
going to be in the national title game?
When the Bowl Championship Series rankings
were released Sunday afternoon it marked a turn
ing point for college football. The idea was to make
it so the national champion was not selected by
some arbitrary votes that allowed for East and West
coast biases.
This new BCS system involves science. This
new BCS system gets rid of all the guess work.
Is that where we're at?
The way I see it, there is more confusion and ar
gument this season than in any before. Tennessee
(12-0) wrapped up an undefeated season on Satur
day with a 24-14 victory against Mississippi State
in the Southeastern Conference championship
game. But the Volunteers had the 28th toughest
schedule in the country.
UCLA, which lost its final game of the season to
drop from national title consideration, played the
eighth toughest schedule, which included victories
against No. 20 Texas and No. 5 Arizona.
Florida State (11-1) was given the edge over the
Bruins (10-1) based solely on the strength of its
schedule. The problem with that is the strength of a
team’s schedule is determined by top-25 rankings,
which is determined by voters, which puts us right
back where we started from.
There are a million and one arguments to have a
playoff system for Division I-A college football. But
the best argument might be this one:
There are 22 bowl games this season. That is 44
Division I-A football teams that will receive bowl
bids at some kind at the end of the season. Because
there are only 112 Division I-A teams and those
teams that don't finish with at least six wins are
eliminated from bowl consideration, there are only
50 teams or so in every season that have the possi
bility of postseason play.
Exactly how prestigious are these bowl games
supposed to be? You would have to be Oregon
State not to at least accidentally get an invite once a
decade.
We need a more simple format, if not for the fans,
than for the integrity of the game. Among the losers
Saturday was Oregon, which did not play a game,
but lost out on a possible dream matchup with Ne
braska in the Holiday Bowl when UCLA lost its na
tional title shot.
The Ducks (8-3 overall, 5-3 Pacific-10 Confer
ence) deserved better than a Christmas Day game
with Colorado. Arizona (11-1, 7-1) deserved better
than a Holiday Bowl berth.
Wouldn't it be nice to have the three top teams in
every major conference compete fora real national
title? Throw in Notre Dame every other season as
an independent, and oh, what an NCAA Tourna
ment that would be.
I think college football and its fans deserve it.
It doesn’t much matter that college football has
agreed on a format to have its No. 1 and No. 2 teams
play each other at the end of the season. That’s not
really the point.
What makes college basketball’s postseason so
special is the element of surprise, that moment
when Drexel hits a three-pointer at the buzzer to
beat No. 2 North Carolina.
College football’s postseason doesn’t even come
close.
Joel Howl is the sports editor for the Emerald