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. Call
today about this fantastic
location.
lots located at Oakbreeze Estates (off Centennial Blvd.)
model homes located on Hwy 99N in Eugene
www.sunbursthomes.com
Fleetwood of Oregon
461-9546 • 888-542-8185
little Caesars
Saturday & Sunday
1711 Willamette
(next to Blockbuster)
343-3330
Jnil/iumN him YOUR place for newr, darrifiedr, menage board),
reader) pollr, ODE archiver and more...