‘Shrivel* no shrinking violet
■ Freshman point guard
Kourtney Shreve may not
be big, but fans have
noticed her anyway
Like most freshmen, Shreve —
“Shrivel” to teammates — will
gain strength as her career pro
gresses. She’ll also gain important
experience necessary to succeed
in the intense world of big-time
college basketball.
“I knew you had to be commit
ted,” Shreve said. “But there’s so
much that you’re not ready for
and you don’t know about. But
you have to go through it to un
derstand it.”
Runge and Shreve agreed that
her game is improving, but there’s
still plenty of potential left to tap.
So much so that the Ducks
could likely find themselves with
a surplus of capable point guards.
No problem. Runge said she
can easily foresee Shreve running
the point and Williams playing
shooting guard.
“That’s a possibility,” Runge
said. “Put Shaq at the two-spot
and let her shoot a little more than
she gets to at the point. Actually,
sometimes she comes and asks
me if she can do that.”
So she’s no Cruella DeVii
Sunday’s Register Guard in
cluded a heartfelt letter-to-the-ed
itor about the Ducks’ head coach,
concocted by Eugene resident and
former Oregon tennis coach Tom
Greider.
He wrote about a “particular
Sunday evening, just 24 hours af
ter their tough game against Stan
ford” when he was watching the
Kidsports basketball team for
which both his daughter (Kelsey)
and Runge’s niece play.
“The game was winding down
when one of
Kelsey’s team
mates took an el
bow to the stom
ach. ... This poor
little girl couldn’t
get her breath
back and was hy
perventilating. ...
Jody goes all the
way over to the
other side of the
gym, gets down to
eye level with this
9-year-old and
helps her regain
her composure....
Jody takes the
time to comfort
her and shows the
grace and compas
sion that makes
her not just a won
derful coach,but a
great person...”
Characteristi
cally, Runge did
her hfist to nlav
Pac-10 Notes
By Mirjam Swanson
Oregon Daily Emerald
It seems to be the first question
anyone who’s been to an Oregon
women’s basketball game this
season asks: “Who’s No. 5?”
Which is usually followed by,
“That girl is crazy.”
And then, “That girl is good.”
She isn’t crazy, but freshman
Kourtney
Shreve is
good and get
ting better.
Apparent
ly good
enough to be
impressive
even in lim
ited minutes, playing behind star
sophomore Shaquala Williams
and consistent junior Karen Piers.
The 5-7 point guard has ap
peared in 11 of the Ducks’ 17
games and is averaging 5.7 min
utes. And although she’s only av
eraging one point per outing,
Shreve’s somewhat frenetic play
has been a spark for Oregon.
“She’s gonna be a great one,
without a doubt,” head coach
Jody Runge said.
“She has great quickness. She
can flat-out shoot it like
[Williams]; she has the confi
dence like Shaq. [Kourtney] just
needs to get stronger.”
Freshman point guard Kourtney Shreve is developing into a good player and a crowd favorite.
the whole thing off.
“I’ve seen plenty enough of that
in practice, I’m just glad I could
help,” she said. “[The letter] was
almost embarrassing. I guess my
Cruella DeVil reputation is going
right down the tubes, isn’t it?”
And that, said Greider, is exact
ly why he wrote.
“A lot of people see her on the
sidelines and portray her to be
some evil monster,” he said. “But
she’s not. She’s a very nice, articu
late young lady.
“I’ve seen it. I’ve seen her be in
troduced to girls and not just walk
away, but talk to them, ask them
about their basketball, actually
have a conversation. My reeling is
that if you can come away saying
you had an impact on just one kid,
then you’ve really done a lot. It’s
not about how many NCAA cham
pionships she wins, [it’s that] she’s
a terrific role model.”
Ml,A.
For the first time in nearly six
years, Kirstin McKnight wasn’t on
hand for an Oregon women’s bas
ketball game during the past
week’s homestand.
Instead the former walk-on and
current assistant was at a confer
ence in New York, representing
the University’s Warsaw School of
sports Marketing ana cnatting
with the likes of NBA commis
sioner David Stern and WNBA
commissioner Val Ackerman.
McKnight also fielded job offers
from both Major League Soccer
and the NHL.
“I want to coach,” McKnight
said. “But if the date comes that
coaching isn’t... then I can get into
the management side of sports. ”
Beside, she might not be able to
handle missing the Ducks’ games.
“It was so hard for me. I didn’t
even have a laptop to get scores, so I
called my dad who had on broad
cast.com andhe stuck the phone up,
and I was getting updates that way.”
Come one! Come an to the BIG SHOIN!
Attend the WINTER CAREER FftHt jobs a Internships
11 r.m. - 4 p.m. • EMU Ruuoom
Opens Wed., January 26
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
CAREER
Bring your resume. At the one-day fair, you can land your first
career job or find the right internship. More than 80 companies and
public agencies will be at the fair to find good candidates for their job and
internship openings. They want to talk to you. BE THERE!
Great
rizes offered! You can’t win if you don’t attend.
PRE-FAIR WORKSHOP
Interviews • 4:00-5:00 p.m.
Tuesday, January 25 • Ben Linder Room, EMU
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