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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 1999)
Smith Continued from Page 11 Churchill High School to the state title and being named Oregon’s 4A player of the year in 1995, Smith decided to make the short journey across town to McArthur Court. But his scholarship came with a catch. After playing his freshman year on scholarship, Smith had to sit out the next year and pay his own way for school because the Ducks had already committed all of their available scholarships. “It was a bit of a risk,” Smith says, “but it was something that I thought in the best-case scenario would pay off right for me. I was too confident in myself just to go someplace else that I didn’t think would have been the best for me.” Indeed, the risk has paid off. Following that redshirt season, Smith returned to active duty and became Oregon’s sixth man in Kent’s first season. While playing an average of 22 minutes per game, Smith contributed more than 10 points and four rebounds an outing. Those totals were both good for third on the team. That steady improvement has continued this season as Smith has scored in double digits in 11 of 13 games and grabbed more than 10 rebounds on three sepa rate occasions. Teammate Donte Quinine, who arrived at Oregon at the same time as Smith, says the biggest change in Smith’s style of play has been his newfound confidence in his jumpshot. “He used to like to post up a lot more, but now he has a lot more confidence in shooting the three pointer,” Quinine says. “He has become a lot more versatile since he has an inside-outside combina tion to his game.” When the Pac-10 season started, Smith found himself the focal point of opponents’ defensive ef forts. After scoring in double digits in all nine nonconference games, Smith was held to just eight and seven points in the Ducks’ confer ence-opening road trip to the Bay Area. In the overtime win at Cali fornia, however, Smith did secure a career-high 14 rebounds and threg assists. But his low-scoring outputs in those games did not come close to matching the disappointment he would feel following Oregon’s next game, the Pac-10 home open er against Southern California. Despite trailing the entire way, often by double digits, the Trojans stole the game with a late come back that was capped by Adam Spanich's desperation heave from half-court at the buzzer. But Spanich’s answered prayer would not have been possible without a rare mistake by Smith. Following Spanich’s three from the comer that pulled USC within two points as the final seconds ticked down, Smith took the ball out of bounds and passed deep down the court as Kent had direct ed. But Smith’s pass did not travel as far as was planned and Spanich intercepted to set the stage for his dramatics. “I’m not one to ever think a game is over, but I thought that game was over,” Smith says. “It was a tough one to deal with. ” Two days later against then-No. 7 UCLA, Smith bounced back with 16 points on five-of-seven shooting and five rebounds, but his efforts were diminished by the Bruins’ 65-63 victory. As Oregon (9-4 overall, 1-3 Pac 10) prepares to head north to battle Washington State and Washing ton and hoping to end its three game losing streak, Smith says be ing on the court is the best remedy for the bad dream Spanich creat ed. “At least now we have more games left and a long season ahead of us,” Smith says. “If that’s the last game of the year, it’s going to be tough.” Rest assured, Smith will think up a better ending than that one. 005391 We bring the storage unit to you. • You pack it, we pick it up and store it. • Business and personal storage units. • Heated storage available. 485-2115 LIVE MUSIC No cover charge EVER! 1/13 John Kneeland Contemporary Classics & Finger Picking Blues 1/14 Shadow & Double Dave Blues, Folk, & Classic Rock 1/15 John Barley a Acoustic Anarchy w 1/16 Roy Swanson Acoustic Rock 1/19 John Congdon Acoustic Rock 5 ./> s ALL SHOWS START AT 9:30 P.M. Open Mic Sundays with Pete Christie, 8:00 p.m. Open mic Mondays, 9:30 PM KEGSTOOO!!! Including Labatts. Foster's and a large selection of other imports ond micros Check out our beer of the night. Microbrews/Domestics on tap. Monday Night Pool Tourney • Sign Up 6:30, starts 7:00 Free Pexx Sunday noon- 5 sopmj & Tuesday Evewng |7 oo - iooopmi 2657 Willamette • 344-0816 Nick Medley/Emerald By combining an inside and outside scoring touch, Smith ranks second on the Ducks in scoring, with nearly 14 points a game. Sports Brief Holmgren says Moon won’t get third season SEATTLE — New Seahawks Coach Mike Holmgren just got here, but one local newspaper says Holmgren’s already decided quar terback Warren Moon won’t get a third season in Seattle. Moon will be released Feb. 12, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer re ported Tuesday. Moon’s agent said it was the first he and Moon had heard about it. Seahawks spokesman Dave Pear son said he was in the same boat. “Warren has not been informed that this is the case,” said agent Leigh Steinberg from his Los An geles-area office. “He’s ready, willing and able to help Seattle, and we’re expecting that’s what will happen.” Moon, 42, signed a two-year contract in August after the first holdout of his 15-year NFL career. The P-I reported that an early re lease would require him to repay half the $562,000 signing bonus that went with the deal. “It’s not a half— it’s a quarter, if that would happen,” Steinberg said. But he insisted it’s not. At 42, “there hasn’t been any real dropoff in Warren’s perfor mance level,” Steinberg said. He noted that “if one looks at the four quarterbacks in the finals, they’re all players who are older and more mature.” — The Associated Press WINTERTERM SCHOOL SPECIAL 20% OFF W/ YOUR (UofO) STUDENT I.D. CARD OREGON ART 1020 PEARL ST. EUCENE. OR 97401 683-2787 SUPPLY LIMITED TO STOCK ON HAND. 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