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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 10, 2000)
Strange continued from page 7 A season — and Strange had a career high. Perhaps it was a sign of things to come. Strange hasn’t been having the picture-perfect senior season. She doesn’t lead the Pacific-10 Confer ence in scoring, like teammate Shaquala Williams does. She isn’t a terror on the defensive end, ei ther, placing second in the confer ence in blocks like center Jenny Mowe does. And unlike teammate and friend Jamie Craighead, Strange doesn’t like to shoot the three-ball —ever. “Me and Jamie are, like, oppo site,” Strange said. “I won’t shoot behind the three-point line, she won’t shoot in front of it. ” Yet on several occasions, Strange has been the anchor of the Ducks’ offense, a tendency she hopes to continue tonight at 7 p.m. when Oregon takes on Stan ford at McArthur Court. In a season when the Ducks’ downfall is its lack of consistency, Strange always seems to stay afloat. Her oh-so-dependable jump shot has brought fans at McArthur Court to their feet many times. Even more importantly, her shot finds its way to its target over 50 percent of the time — way more often than any other of Ore gon’s perimeter shooters. “I set the stage for being consis tent,” Strange said. “Consistency is what the team needs, and I’m trying to do that, you know? “In high school, [shooting above 50 percent was] my goal, and that was my goal all four years here. And I don’t think I’ve done it until now. I don’t know'why that is, probably just confidence and stuff, and being willing to take the shot. ” She came to Oregon in 1996 and played behind starter Lisa Bowyer. Unlike Mowe, who joined the Ducks at the same time, Strange’s first season was relatively quiet. “When we first got here, we weren’t, like, as ‘high profile,’ you know? We weren’t expected to do that great, but now, like, everyone knows we can do it, so we’re ex pected to do great things. And we’ve just grown as a team, and grown as Oregon basketball, you know what I’m trying to say?” Strange’s next couple of years were not very high profile either. The guard’s old career high, 13 points against UNLV as a fresh man, lasted through her sopho more and junior seasons. On the court, Strange had her shooting touch intact. She also av eraged 20 minutes a game. But de spite the increase in time and some opportunities to start, Strange never was a major threat on the offensive end. Which is why, heading into this season, Virginia Tech decided to leave the senior open. And why the senior made the Hokies pay. “She is somebody who has the green light anytime if she’s open,” Runge said. “What’s been really positive this year is that she’s had the courage as a senior to score with somebody in her face — to have the courage to take the shot, even when it wasn’t necessarily open, when we need to score. ” “She’s one of the leaders on the team,” Mowe said. “She keeps everyone together. It’s Nicole, you know? She comes in and you’re just like, ‘Yaaahhh!’ She’s a really cool girl. She brightens up a room when she walks in.” In Strange’s four years as a Duck, Oregon has gone from a team that hoped to make the NCAA Tourna ment to a team that expects it, and she believed that next season’s team will be even better. But her focus isn’t on next sea son. It’s on right now. “I wish we were playing up to our potential and doing a little bet ter, but we’re all having fun still, and that’s the main point,” Strange said. “I don’t want my senior sea son to end up bad. Knowing we could be so good, hopefully we’ll end up really good.” Next season, Oregon will take the floor without the player in the familiar No. 14 jersey. Strange will be missed, especially by Mowe, Strange’s roommate as a freshman and great friend ever since. The two would have been seniors this season if Mowe hadn’t have had tendinitis in her knee, which caused Mowe to redshirt her sophomore year. “She always teases me about it,” Mowe said. “She says, ‘I should be graduating with you.’ We should be having our senior night together, but that’s not the way it went, so it’s kind of tough. ” Flores continued from page 7 A career assists total tonight at McArthur Court, when the first place Cardinal (14-5 overall, 7-2 Pacific-10 Conference) takes on Oregon (15-6,6-3) at 7 p.m.. Eight more dimes will give Flores 585, moving her into fifth-place all time in the Pac-10. Leading the conference in as sists with 5.89 per game this sea son, she could become the first player in history to lead the Pac 10 in assists for three straight years. But how things have changed during Flores’ stead on the Farm. These days the buzz-word around the Pac-10 is “parity,” something unthinkable during Stanford’s decade of dominance. It was always the Cardinal. And everyone else. Mighty Stanford. And the Pac 10. When Flores arrived, the Cardi nal owned the conference, win ning it all-out nine times between 1989 and 1998. Moreover, Stan ford reached six Final Fours in eight years — “Being a freshman, I thought the Final Four was just where you ended up at the end of the season,” Flores said. Not anymore. “All of the teams have gotten a lot more competitive in the Pac 10 over the last three years or so,” Flores said. “Of course you’d like to go through undefeated, but Iparity] does make it more inter esting.” Indeed, Oregon has gotten bet ter. UCLA has gotten better. Ore gon State, Arizona and Arizona State have gotten better. California is getting better. Pollsters, however, seem oblivi ous to the Pac-lO’s improvement, choosing instead to view Stan ford’s slide primarily as the result of VanDerveer’s taking a year of sabbatical to coach the gold medal winning Olympic team in 1996. But even the Cardinal — rela tively young and vulnerable last year — has gotten better this sea son. Sharpshooters Lauren St. Clair, a sophomore, and Jamie Carey, a freshman, join Flores in creating a potent outside-in approach, which took its toll on the Ducks during the astounding 42-point swing at Stanford on Jan. 15. And Flores is playing better than ever. In a sweep of the schools last weekend, she had five assists, four rebounds and a career-high 21 points against Southern California and nine as sists in the Cardinal’s throttling of the then-No. 15 Bruins. VanDerveer’s been appeased. “She’s playing exceptionally well,” VanDerveer said. “I think her development is in running the offense and keeping her head up and really making great deci sions.” Flores has always been a stun ning player. She’s so fast, so de ceptively strong and nearly un stoppable on the break, when she can let her pinpoint, length-of the-court passes fly. “She’s a tough matchup,” Ore gon point guard Shaquala Williams said. “She’ll put pres sure on you in transition. She’s probably one of the few people who can match me in speed and quickness.” And with experience, Flores has improved on the intangible aspects of playing the point. “Some people say leaders are bom,” Flores said. “But you can, in some ways, learn to be a leader. That’s the process that I’ve gone through.” Yet, if none of the Flores-led squads reaches the Final Four, her desire to be remembered as one of the Cardinal’s best is still fair. “Years from now when Tara will be talking about all the great point guards,” Flores said, “Maybe I can be included in that bunch.” Get 2 Sets of prints u of 0 Campus » 890 East 15th St. » 342-3456 12 Exposure - $4.99 36 Exposure - $8.99 From your 135-24 color film Qualify Him Service Offer not flood wrtn one hour film service or any other offers. Coupon expires 3/15/2000 Fleetwood Manufactured Home Center Looking for the perfect home at the right price close to U of 0? We have it for you! Your choice of 20 manufactured home lots. Complete turnkey packages starting as low as $117,000. 6 minute bike ride to U of O campus and 2 minute bike ride to Autzen Stadium. 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