Scoreboard
Ducks face Portland
The Oregon men’s tennis team (2-1
overall) plays its fourth straight, and
fourth out of nine straight road matches
today in Portland against the Pilots (2
2).
The last time the two teams met, the
Ducks beat Portland convincingly 8-4.
Oregon is comingoff a 5-2 loss to No.
36 Boise State, 6-1. Senior Joaquin
Hamdan posted the Ducks’ only win,
beating Marcus Bernston in three
sets.
But the Ducks were more successful
in their matches against Utah and
Idaho, beating the Utes 5-2, and Ida
ho 6-1.
Kansas City linebacker dies
MIAMI (AP) — Derrick Thomas, one of
the most feared defenders in the NFL
and a nine-time Pro Bowl player, died
Tuesday less than a month after being
paralyzed in a car crash on an icy road.
He was 33.
Thomas was beingTransferred from his
hospital bed to a wheelchair on his way
to therapy when he uttered something
to his mother and his eyes rolled back,
said Dr. Frank Eismont, a neurosurgeon
at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
“We were hoping that Derrick’s story
would have been a happier ending,” he
said. “This is very much unexpected.”
The Kansas City linebacker, who held
the NFL record of seven sacks in a game,
went into cardio respiratory arrest, he
said.
Doctors have not determined an exact
cause of death and might perform an
autopsy. One of Thomas’ doctors, Dr.
Barth Green, said a massive blood clot
probably killed Thomas.
“This is a total shock,” Green said. “Der
rick was an extraordinary person and
was breaking all the records while he
was here.”
A shaken Kansas uty coacn buntner
Cunningham recalled telephoning
Thomas at the Miami hospital from the
Pro Bowl on Sunday in Hawaii, after
seeing players and fans honoring
Thomas by wearing his number.
Thomas had not been selected for this
year’s game.
“Derrick said, ‘Coach, be strong.’ He
never told me how strong I needed to
be,” Cunningham said.
After a game, Thomas would always
walk across the field “with a smile on
his face,” the coach said. “Not because
[Kansas City] won, but because that’s
the way he was. And that’s the way I’ll
always remember him.”
“Derrick Thomas was a true hero,” said
Kenney, who urged lawmakers to sup
port a bill for spinal cord research in.
Missouri.
Thomas was driving a car during a
snowstorm on Jan. 23 as he and two
friends headed to the Kansas City air
port to fly to St. Louis for the NFC Cham
pionship game. He lost control of the
car, and it overturned at least three
times, police said.
Police said Thomas was speeding and
weaving in traffic, but prosecutor Don
Norris said there wasn’t enough evi
dence to file charges.
Thomas and passenger Michael Tellis,
49, were not wearing seat belts and
were thrown from the car. Tellis was
killed and Thomas' spine and neck were
broken. The third person in the car, who
was wearing his seat belt, sustained
only minor injuries.
Best Bet
NCAA Men’s
Hoops
North Carolina vs.
NC State '
4 p.m., ESPN '
February 9,2000
Volume 101, Issue 93
Effigrakl
ii He stays late
and comes early,
all the stuff he
needs to do
to win. yy
Jeremy Ensrud
assistant coach
Hard work and a desire to win has
propelled Tony Overstake to a
successful freshman campaign
By Matt O’Neill
Oregon Daily Emerald
t’s not always the athleticism that makes
an athlete successful. Sometimes, it is the
||!§ drive and the will to win that puts an ath
H lete over the top.
Tony Overstake falls into the second cate
gory
According to Oregon wrestling coaches,
what Overstake lacks in athleticism, he
makes up with hustle and desire.
“He’s had to work extremely hard for some
lack of natural physical attributes,” head
coach Chuck Kearney said. “He’s what you
call a classic overachiever.”
Whether Overstake is an overachiever or
not is debatable, but one thing that cannot be
debated is his recent success. The redshirt
freshman is 18-7 this season and 2-0 on the
team’s recent road swing.
However, Kearney is not completely sur
prised with how Overstake is performing at
this point in his career.
“It’s hard to make the jump from high
school to college; it’s hard to tell when that
transition is going to take place,” Kearney
said. “Tony’s doing things right now that
don’t surprise me. But if you asked me in De
cember if he would be where he is, then I
would have said [I’m surprised.]”
As a senior at Central Point
High, Overstake posted a 41-3
record and won the state title in
the 125-pound weight class.
Kearney saw that Overstake could
be a great collegiate grappler when
he saw him wrestle as part of a cul
tural exchange team as a sophomore.
“He was outworking eveiyone in the
room,” Kearney said. “It was obvious to
see him come back and win a match after
being four and five points down, not
quitting.”
While that will to win often gener
ates success, Overstake admitted it
can sometimes hurt his perform
ance.
“It causes me to make mis
takes sometimes,” he said.
Turn to Overstake, page 8A
Azle Malinao-Alvarez Emerald
Words can’t prevent Bruins’ sinking
After getting
tripped up
last
weekend,
UCLA’s NCAA
Tournament
expectations
are growing
increasingly
bleak
■
Pac-10 Notes
By Jeff Smith and
Scott Pesznecker
Oregon Daily Emerald
As the lone senior on the
UCLA men’s basketball
team, forward Sean Farn
ham tried to light a fire un
der his team following the
Bruins’ 73-58 loss to Ore
gon at McArthur Court Jan.
29.
Behind closed doors —
but with a herd of press
waiting outside the thin
walls — Farnham passion
ately spoke to his team in a
locker room tirade, scream
ing, “I’m not going down
like this! I’m not going to
the NIT!”
It was an admirable at
tempt to right the ship of
the sinking Bruins, but, as
last week’s UCLA results
indicated, it didn’t work.
Five days after the Ore
gon loss, the Bruins hardly
put up a fight in its 78-63
defeat to Stanford at Pauley
Pavilion. And then on Sat
urday, UCLA — with its
first three-game losing
streak since the 1991-92
season — was swept at
home for the first time
since the Bay Area schools
did it in 1990.
With seven seconds re
maining, the Bruins found
themselves trailing Califor
nia 73-70. Bruin guard Earl
Watson had the ball, but be
fore he could launch up a
three-point try, he tripped
and was called for travel
ing.
Game over, and yet an
other dagger to the Bruins’
hopes of reaching their
13th straight NCAA ap
pearance.
And where was Farnham
in all of this? Well, the sen
ior contributed a combined
nine minutes of action in
which the only stats he ac
quired were two rebounds
and two personal fouls. In
fact, in the past 16 games,
Turn to Pac-10, page 8A
FARNHAM