Between a Rock
and a hard place
John Rocker's discriminatory re
marks in a Sports Illustrated ar
ticle sparked a media frenzy —
and that’s great. PAGE 9
Scoreboard
Rocker ‘favorites*
“I swear to you if he said that to my
face I’d tear him up, and one of us
would be suspended right now.
When I joke, I don’t try to make
somebody feel bad. He knows, too.
We don't joke like that.”
— Randall Simon, on Atlanta relief
pitcher John Rockers’ calling him a
“ fat monkey” and then covering his
tracks by claiming it was just a friend
ly jab between teammates.
“Actually, it’s kind of fun seeing that
you can get into that many people’s
heads because of something you’ve
said. I certainly don’t believe any
thing they say. They’re screaming,
‘You suck.’ Well, if you watched my
performance over the last year, you
know why I’ve got too much confi
dence to believe stuff like that.”
—John Rocker, with 38 saves in 1999
“I’ve never wished harm on a base
ball player, but I’d really like to see
Rocker take a Mike Piazza liner be
tween the eyes. Not enough to kill
him, you understand. Just enough to
straighten out his vision and make
him a little less verbose. ”
—Thirteen (contributor to Web site
“ Lu nkhead! A tri bute to baseba 11 buf
foon.”)
Jordan back in the game
WASHINGTON (AP)—Michael Jordan
will join the Washington Wizards as
head of basketball operations and ,.
part-owner a year after he retired
from the NBA.
The announcement will be made at
an afternoon news conference, two
league sources, speaking on condi
tion of anonymity, told The Associat
ed Press.
Jordan was to attend the news con
ference and tonight’s home game
against the Dallas Mavericks.
One of the sources said final details
of the deal were being worked out
even as the former Chicago Bulls
great was on a plane to the nation’s
capital.
Reaching for the Summitt
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Few coach
es can come off their worst confer
ence defeat and say they are enjoying
their job. But few coaches are like
Tennessee’s Pat Summitt.
“You know I like this challenge,”
Summitt said Wednesday. “It is differ
ent.”
This won’t be another 39-0 dream
season like 1998 for the Lady Vols.
Losses to top-ranked Connecticut and
No. 3 Louisiana Tech assured that.
But even a 27-point loss to Southeast
ern Conference rival and seventh
ranked Georgia on Monday isn’t
proving dispiriting to Summitt.
For the mentor to six national cham
pions, this is a new opportunity to do
what she does best—teach, analyze,
rotate players and prepare for March.
Best Bet
[ NCAA Basketball
j Arizona vs. UCLA
7:30 p.m.,
FoxSports Net
mrnmmm
Thursday
January 20,2000
Volume 101, Issue 79
Erfierakl
UO hungry to battle at the Pit
■ After enduring a 10-game road trip,
Oregon returns home unranked to host
regional rival Washington
The Hustle
What: Women’s
basketball
Who: Oregon (11 -4)
vs. Washington (5
11)
Where: McArthur
Court
When: Tonight, 7
p.m.
By Scott Pesznecker
Oregon Daily Emerald
The ominous, way-larger
than-life poster of Jenny
Mowe with basketball
palmed in hand, glares cold
ly at onlookers from the
northwest corner of
McArthur Court.
Then, in big, bold words:
home-court advantage.
But now, back from a
school-record 10-game road
trip, the Ducks (11-4 overall,
2-1 Pacific-10 Conference)
play at home tonight at 7
p.m. And if the visiting
Washington Huskies (5-11,
1-3) don’t see Mowe’s sign
on the way in, Oregon wants
its opponents understand
ing home-court advantage
by the time they walk out.
Even without Lisa
Bowyer, the former Oregon
defensive standout who
would do anything to win,
and Jamie Redd, her coun
terpart on the Huskies who
never found a shot she
wouldn’t take, Mowe isn’t
concerned about the lack of
competition.
“Our fans just hate the
Huskies,” Mowe sq,id. “I
don’t know why, I have no
idea where this comes from,
this hatred. I mean we want
to go out and beat them but
our fans are like ‘Raurgh!’
What do they say? ‘Huck the
fuskies’? It’s going to be a lot
offun.”
Undoubtably, Oregon fans
are hoping that the Ducks
Turn to UO women, page 8A
Jeffrey Stockton Emerald
Point guard Shaquala Williams and teammates try to extend a 22-game win streak against North
west Pac-10 team* tonight.
Ducks taking Washington trip seriously
Jettrey Stockton Emerald
Senior forward A.D. Smith says that neither he nor his teammates are taking the next two games
g lightly.
■ The Huskies and Ducks are getting
prepared to renew one of the Northwest’s
most competitive collegiate rivalries
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
When viewing the confer
ence road schedule, the trip
to Washington is seemingly
the easiest road swing in the
competitive Pacific-10 Con
ference.
But if the Oregon men’s
basketball team (11-3 over
all, 2-1 Pac-10) starts to take
this weekend’s games for
granted, it might be taking
another kind of trip — a trip
down to the middle of the
Pac, that is.
Tonight’s matchup against
Washington (6-10, 1-3) at
7:05 p.m. at Seattle’s Key
Arena will pair two teams
coming off losses that would
both love nothing more than
to get back in the win column
against their Northwest
nemesis.
For Washington head
coach Bob Bender, taking on
Turn to UO men, page 8A